DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Treasure %oom 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF EDITORIAL LIFE. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH T. BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. II. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS. 
 
 MDCCCLII. 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 
 / J.T.BUCKINGHAM, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 PRINTED BY THURSTON, TORRY, AND EMERSON. 
 

 
 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 THE BOSTON COURIER. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1824, the increased 
 and rapidly increasing business and population of 
 Boston seemed to require the establishment of a new 
 daily paper,* and to justify a hope that such a project 
 would not prove an abortion. Encouraged by assur- 
 ances of support from friends among the merchants 
 and manufacturers, a prospectus was issued, which met 
 with so much favor as led to the publication of the 
 first number of the Boston Courier, on the second day 
 of March. The paper was intended to be the especial 
 and avowed advocate of the " American System," — 
 in other words, the exponent of the views and pur- 
 poses of those who were struggling to obtain from 
 Congress the enactment of a ' protective tariff. In 
 
 * Prior to the year 1813, numerous efforts had been made to establish a 
 daily paper in Boston, all of which were unsuccessful, and involved the 
 projectors in pecuniary embarrassments. In that year, the Boston Daily 
 Advertiser appeared, published by Horatio Bigelow and William W. Clapp. 
 These gentlemen sold their interest in the paper M Nathan Hale, under whose 
 management it gained a permanent footing, and still maintains a prominent 
 position, surrounded by a host of cotemporary dailies. 
 
 308561 
 
4 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 politics, it was proposed to be entirely independent of 
 any attachment to either of the great parties of the 
 time. Early associations had attached me to the 
 Federalists, and my political sympathies, so far as 
 there had been occasion or opportunity for their in- 
 dulgence, had been exercised in favor of that party. 
 Though the party had then ceased to exist as a distinct 
 organization, yet regard for the men who had been 
 its oracles and leaders, and my entire confidence in 
 their political and moral integrity, had not been dimin- 
 ished or weakened by the disastrous position into 
 which they had fallen. The prominent feature in- 
 tended to be exhibited in the character of the Courier 
 was uncompromising adherence to what I believed to 
 be the great and overwhelming interest of the country, 
 namely, protection to infant manufactures of cotton 
 and woollen cloths, and to all agricultural, mechanical, 
 and manufacturing products, against foreign compe- 
 tition. In short, to uphold and advocate all measures 
 that could tend to develop the natural resources of the 
 country, and to encourage and support the operations 
 of American labor, ingenuity, and industry. To effect 
 this object was the constant and almost daily task of 
 the editor and his correspondents. In this respect, the 
 Courier stood almost alone. Not a paper in Massa- 
 chusetts, and not more than three or four in the United 
 States, then appeared as the champions of this policy.* 
 Many supposed that it would destroy all our foreign 
 commerce and navigation, and it was ridiculed as a 
 
 * All the exceptions I can now recollect were the Providence Journal, the 
 New-York Statesman, and a paper in Philadelphia, the name of which is for- 
 gotten. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 5 
 
 system of Japanese economy, that would eventually 
 shut us out from all social or commercial intercourse 
 with the rest of the world. The whole scheme of 
 protection by a tariff was treated by its opponents 
 with sarcastic reproaches and honored with the name 
 of the " terrapin^ system." The course I had marked 
 out for myself was the result of long-cherished views 
 of justice to our own people, and was approved and 
 encouraged by others, whose opinion and judgement 
 were entitled to the highest consideration. First 
 among these was the Hon. Daniel Webster, then a 
 representative in Congress from the city of Boston. 
 It was partly through his influence with two or three 
 wealthy individuals, that a portion of the funds required 
 to carry on the publication, in the early stages of its 
 existence, was obtained. Of the merchants and man- 
 ufacturers, who favored the enterprize in its infant 
 struggles, were Isaac C. Pray, Samuel Billings, Charles 
 Thacher, George Hallett, Joseph Baker, Joshua Clap, 
 and Jonas B. Brown, whose kindness and support, in 
 many circumstances of doubt and depression, were of 
 vital importance* to the cause. All these gentlemen 
 are dead ; but memory lingers with melancholy 
 pleasure upon their unceasing protection and sus- 
 taining countenance. 
 
 Of the early life of Mr. Pray I know but little. He 
 was a native of Maine, and, as early as the year 
 1800, was living in Berwick, where he was a dealer in 
 lumber, and kept a small store of groceries and West 
 India goods. He has often said that he had been 
 employed in sawing lumber, in saw-pits, at fifty cents 
 a night. About the year 1805, he formed a partner- 
 
 308561 
 
O TERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 ship with Robert Watcrston, an emigrant from Scot- 
 land ; and this partnership continued more than forty 
 years. In 1812, they removed to Boston, and were 
 largely concerned in the importation of foreign goods. 
 At the close of the war, in 1815, Mr. Pray entered 
 with great spirit into the manufacture of cotton ; and, 
 a few years later, he lost an immense sum in the 
 destruction of a cotton factory at Saco. But not dis- 
 heartened by the disasters of war or the destruction of 
 property by fire and flood, he pursued, almost to the 
 end of his life, his favorite object, which was to estab- 
 lish the " American System " on a basis that should 
 bid defiance to all foreign competition. His advan- 
 tages of education had been very limited, but his 
 natural abilities were of a very superior order. He 
 had studied the nature and the results of the Protective 
 Policy, and could demolish, in a brief conversation, 
 the strongest argument of any opponent of his doc- 
 trines. Yet his manner was by no means dictatorial, 
 overbearing, or offensive ; but, on the contrary, was 
 remarkably mild and courteous. He did not often 
 write, but he furnished facts and calculations that 
 formed the basis of many articles that appeared in the 
 Courier in defence of the system of protection. Al- 
 though he had read much on the science of political 
 economy, he built his theory on facts that came within 
 his own observation, and inferences which he drew 
 therefrom, rather than on the arguments of others. 
 He was a man of a temper not easily excitable, but 
 one that would not suffer imposition or dishonesty to 
 go unrebuked. As a man of business, he was correct 
 and upright ; as a friend, he was liberal and kind- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 7 
 
 hearted ; as a citizen, he was always ready to aid in 
 any project that required the support of the patriotic 
 and public-spirited. He died in January, 1847. 
 
 Messrs. Billings, Hallett, Baker, and Thacher, 
 were merchants in good repute, and by their lives and 
 conduct maintained the dignity and honor of the mer- 
 cantile character. Mr. Billings was a member of the 
 first board of aldermen after Boston was incorporated 
 as a city. Mr. Hallett was a native of Barnstable, and 
 came to Boston, when quite a lad, as an apprentice 
 with Allen & Tucker, wholesale grocers. He accu- 
 mulated a handsome property, and had a numerous 
 family of children, to whom he left the legacy of an 
 unsullied name. Mr. Baker originated in the county 
 of Essex, to which he returned after many years of 
 successful trade in Boston. Mr. Thacher was a son 
 of the Rev. Peter Thacher, minister of the church in 
 Brattle-street. A warm-hearted friend and agreeable 
 companion, he was, perhaps, too liberal for his own 
 benefit. Neither of the four gentlemen mentioned in 
 this paragraph, except Mr. Billings, was, at the com- 
 mencement of the publication of the Courier, interested 
 in manufactures ; but they were men who were willing 
 that the system should be fairly tried, and were ready 
 to aid with their purses the progress of the experi- 
 ment. It is believed that all of them became in some 
 degree, afterward, involved in the business of manu- 
 facturing. 
 
 Joshua Clap was a native of Westfield, in the coun- 
 ty of Hampden. He was unknown to me till he came 
 to subscribe for the Courier, and to offer his assistance 
 in promoting the publication. He was then about 
 
8 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 erecting a large woollen factory in Leicester, which 
 he soon after completed. A village soon grew up 
 around the factory, which, in memory of its founder, 
 has been called Clapville. The speculation turned out 
 to be an unfortunate one. Mr. Clay's famous " com- 
 promise " of 1832, admitted the importation of woollen 
 cloths, which were introduced from the glutted ware- 
 houses of Great-Britain, and sold at a price with which 
 no American manufacturer could think of competition. 
 After suffering the loss of property to a large amount 
 by this ruinous " compromise," a finishing blow was 
 given to Mr. Clap's prosperity by the burning of his 
 factory. He died in 1841. 
 
 Jonas B. Brown came to Boston at the age of 
 sixteen, from some town in the interior of New- 
 Hampshire, and was domesticated in the family and 
 counting-room of William Tileston. At the expiration 
 of his minority, he became a partner in business with 
 Mr. Tileston, and from that moment he was a thorough- 
 going advocate for the protection of domestic indus- 
 try in all its branches. He was not the advocate of 
 protection merely ; he was pre-eminently the working- 
 man of the whole concern. His understanding was 
 clear and comprehensive. He wrote much, and wrote 
 well, and he spared neither labor nor expense to effect 
 his object. Journey after journey he made to Wash- 
 ington, and spent days and nights, — nay, weeks and 
 months, — in attendance on Congress, to explain his 
 views, and to urge, upon the members the benefits that 
 would result to the whole nation by the adoption of 
 measures that would encourage and sustain industrial 
 efforts to increase the products of manufacturing, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 9 
 
 agricultural, and mechanical labor. It is not giving too 
 much credit to his untiring perseverance and intelligent 
 representations, to say, that he was the chief agent in 
 procuring the enactment of the tariff of 1823. Mr. 
 Brown began his career with no property, and with no 
 means but such as nature and a country school had 
 furnished him with ; but he was the vital spark which 
 kept alive the whole body that was dying for lack of 
 protection. He erected a large woollen factory at 
 Millbury, in the county of Worcester, and produced 
 therefrom fabrics of a superior kind, that were pro- 
 nounced fit to enter into competition with most of the 
 British and German cloths. But the " compromise " 
 was fatal to his prospects. Excessive importations pro- 
 duced the insolvency and bankruptcy of nearly all the 
 manufacturers of New-England, and Mr. Brown was not 
 exempted from the common lot. He fought manfully 
 to sustain the doctrines of protection, to preserve his 
 own property from the sacrifice that was impending, 
 and to assist his fellow-sufferers. But without success. 
 Worn out with incessant labor, physical and mental, 
 he died before he had attained the age of forty years. 
 A subscription, after his death, among those who had 
 been his friends and co-laborers, placed his widow 
 and her two children in a comfortable situation, — a 
 very proper tribute to the memory of him whose 
 talents had been exerted for their benefit, — a man, 
 whose heart was liberal almost to a fault, whose soul 
 was the home of uprightness and honor. 
 
 Such were the men to whom I was chiefly indebted 
 for encouragement in an undertaking of very doubtful 
 success. Others there were whose good wishes were 
 
10 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 not withheld ; but the time to write their eulogy has 
 not yet arrived. 
 
 The year 1824 will be distinguished in our national 
 history as a period of great political excitement. In 
 the early part of the year, a caucus of members of 
 Congress nominated William H. Crawford as the 
 democratic candidate, for the office of President. The 
 Legislature of Pennsylvania nominated John C. Cal- 
 houn. Mr. Calhoun afterwards withdrew from the 
 contest in favor of General Jackson, who had been 
 nominated in Tennessee, and in some of the Southern 
 States. Henry Clay was the candidate of Kentucky, 
 and received the nomination of public conventions 
 in other sections of the country. A powerful effort in 
 favor of John Quincy Adams operated in many parts, 
 and he was supported, generally, without regard to old 
 party associations. Many of the Federalists opposed 
 the election of Mr. Adams. They had not forgotten, 
 and would not forgive, his desertion from the party 
 and his support of Mr. Jefferson's embargo in 1607. 
 Sympathizing with this class, and believing in the 
 uprightness of their policy, it was natural that the 
 Courier should unite in opposition to Mr. Adams. So 
 far as it became actively involved in the electioneering 
 controversy, it assumed a position of hostility to his 
 election, — occasionally with a degree of acrimony, 
 that was deeply regretted in after years. It took no 
 determined stand against either of the other candi- 
 dates ; but a preference was avowed for Mr. Clay, as the 
 advocate and champion of protection to home industry. 
 Just before the choice of electors in November, a con- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 11 
 
 vention of the friends of that gentleman was held in 
 Boston, attended by nearly all the principal manufac- 
 turers of New-England. My allotment in the proceed- 
 ings was the presentation of a set of resolutions, (which 
 were adopted,) declaring that the elevation of Mr. 
 Clay to the Presidency was desirable, and setting forth 
 in brief detail the advantages that the whole country 
 would derive from such an event. But the voice of 
 Massachusetts was in favor of Mr. Adams, and his 
 election was vehemently advocated in most of the 
 newspapers. The opposition to Mr. Adams, manifested 
 in the Courier, provoked the displeasure of his friends, 
 among which the conductors of the Salem Register 
 and the Boston Patriot were the most prominent. The 
 wrath of the Patriot was poured upon the Courier 
 without stint and without mercy, — frequently in 
 personal invectives, which were returned with ample 
 interest. Many of these outpourings from the Patriot 
 were written by Dr. Waterhouse, of Cambridge ; and 
 those in the Register by Joseph E. Sprague, of Salem. 
 With both of these writers my intercourse, until then, — 
 as well as that with the respective editors, John B. 
 Davis and Warwick W. Palfray, — had been of a 
 courteous and friendly nature. It is not my purpose 
 to exhibit any specimens of these criminations and 
 recriminations. Let them remain undisturbed in the 
 columns where they had their birth. The unpleasant 
 feelings which they produced, subsided after the elec- 
 tion was over, and friendly intercourse was renewed. 
 All these opponents have gone, — and I shall soon 
 follow them, — to the land where love and hatred are 
 alike forgotten. 
 
12 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 In the Courier of October 14, 1824, the name of 
 Edward Everett was first brought before the public 
 as a candidate for representative in Congress. John 
 Keyes, a distinguished lawyer, had been nominated 
 for that place by a democratic caucus in the county of 
 Middlesex, but the nomination was received with some 
 unexpected coolness. Some of the electors, — the 
 younger portion, especially, declared their preference 
 for some one, who had not been identified with that 
 party, nor pledged to sustain its favorite policy. A 
 communication, proposing another caucus to consider 
 the expediency of a new nomination, was sent to me 
 for publication in the Courier. The thought immedi- 
 ately occurred to me that Mr. Everett, (then ihe Greek 
 Professor in Harvard college, (would be a suitable 
 person to" represent the county, and I recommended 
 his nomination on the ground that " his election would 
 tend very much to the elevation of the character of the 
 Massachusetts delegation in the National Legislature, 
 and give a proud and honorable distinction to his 
 immediate constituents. ..... He stands before his 
 
 fellow-citizens [it was added] as a candidate un- 
 pledged, unshackled, of uncommon natural power, 
 improved by education, travel, and study ; his moral 
 and political character unimpeachable, his mind too 
 enlightened and capacious to be wrought upon to any 
 purposes of political iniquity by intrigue and corrup- 
 tion, and too elevated and magnanimous to participate 
 in the counsels of low ambition, or to aim at personal 
 exaltation at the expense of public good." If the 
 nomination of Mr. Everett had occurred to any one 
 previous to this suggestion in the Courier, it was 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 13 
 
 unknown to me. The proposed convention met at 
 Lexington, the next week ; he was unanimously nomi- 
 nated ; and was elected by a large majority of the 
 voters of Middlesex. 
 
 In the spring of 1827, Boston politics were in a sad 
 state of incoherence, and as the time for choosing 
 senators and representatives approached, there was, as 
 an eminent statesman once said, "a plausible ap- 
 pearance of a probability," that the city might be 
 unrepresented for that political year. The curious 
 arrangement of parties I attempted to describe in the 
 following article : — 
 
 Our commonwealth and city politics are in a state of most 
 admirable confusion. Every tenth man is the leader of a 
 party ; — the blind leading the blind. Republicans and Feder- 
 alists, Jacksonmen, Adamsmen, Lincolnmen, administration- 
 men, freebridgemen, antifreebridgemen, antitariffmen, and 
 woollen crusaders, are all thrown together into the political 
 pot. The fire burns and the cauldron bubbles ; and many 
 are the weird sisters that are practising their incantations 
 over the ingredients. Whether any thing will rise from this 
 solemn sorcery, except scum, we profess not to foresee. Per- 
 haps the managers expect that this process will result in the 
 production of some new substance, in which the various 
 qualities of all the ingredients shall be inseparably and 
 mysteriously compounded, beyond all possibility of decom- 
 position. 
 
 We are somewhat impatient to see these affairs settled. 
 Not that we look for any personal advantage from the con- 
 summation, whatever the event may be. But there is a 
 satisfaction in knowing when one may put to sea, — who are 
 likely to be his associates, — whether he is to sail with the 
 fleet under convoy of the admiral, or whether he must push 
 off his frail bark alone, and, — steer whatever course he may, 
 
14 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 — still be in danger of scattering his vessel against that of 
 some friend whom he would not willingly jostle. It is im- 
 possible to be for ever in port; and, in this uncertain state of 
 the political elements, we dare not venture out with our little 
 gun-boat, lest we come in contact with some of the seventy- 
 fours, now fitting for an expedition. 
 
 To be less figurative : — We understand that the master- 
 spirits were at work last week, and that an arrangement was 
 to be made, by which all political differences were to be recon- 
 ciled, — all were to be brought into one great family, — the 
 names Republican and Federalist to be expunged from the 
 vocabulary, — all our garments to be purified of the odors of 
 the embargo, the terrapin system, and the Hartford Convention. 
 It is our fault, perhaps, that we are too impatient, and un- 
 willing that delay should keep pace between a good purpose 
 and its effect. 
 
 The old republican party is divided, and all are acquainted 
 with the inspired maxim, A kingdom divided against itself 
 cometh to nought. The old "federal party is declared to be 
 defunct, and its odor remaineth only as an offence to a few 
 individuals, who have survived its dissolution. If it be indeed 
 so, we derive some consolation from the hope that, phcenix- 
 like, a new party may arise from its ashes, possessing 
 the wisdom, the magnanimity, the prudence, the disinter- 
 estedness, the patriotism, which rendered the original an 
 object of admiration and respect while in its vigor of man- 
 hood ; but without any of that weakness, meanness, or 
 infidelity to friends and benefactors, that disgraced its 
 decline. The dotage of the Sage and the imbecility of the 
 Giant may excite compassion ; the affected humility of an 
 aristocrat in fetters, like the morality of a superannuated 
 libertine, produces only disgust. 
 
 It was in the summer of 1827, that the railroad 
 mania began to manifest itself in Massachusetts. Some 
 symptoms had, indeed, been discovered a year or two 
 sooner, but the fever had not prevailed to any great 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 15 
 
 extent. The following article, published in June, 
 1827, expressed not merely the notions 1 then enter- 
 tained, but the general opinion of the people. The 
 idea of a railroad from Boston to Albany, or even to 
 Springfield, was met with ridicule in the Legislature, 
 as a project too absurd to be discussed with gravity : — 
 
 Alcibiades, or some other great man of antiquity, it is 
 said, cut off his dog's tail, that quid nuncs (we suppose such 
 animals existed in ancient as well as in modern times) 
 might not become extinct for want of excitement. Some such 
 motive, we doubt not, moved one or two of our natural and ex- 
 perimental philosophers to get up the project of a railroad from 
 Boston to Albany ; — a project, which every one knows, — who 
 knows the simplest rules in arithmetic, — to be impracticable 
 but at an expense little less than the market value of the 
 whole territory of Massachusetts ; and which, if practicable, 
 every person of common sense knows would be as useless as 
 a railroad from Boston to the Moon. Indeed, a road of some 
 kind from here to the heart of that beautiful satellite of our 
 dusky planet would be of some practical utility, — especially, 
 if a few of our notional, public-spirited men, our railway 
 fanatics, could be persuaded to pay a visit to their proper 
 country. There would be no fear of their ever returning to 
 such a dull spot as this peninsula of Boston, where you cannot 
 walk five rods without annoyance from some new edifice that 
 is in progress to completion, — finding yourself intrenched in 
 a fortress of cotton bales, more impenetrable than that which 
 our next President, that is (not) to be, erected for the defence 
 of New-Orleans, — or being obliged to wait half an hour 
 before you can cross a street, for a caravan of loaded trucks 
 to pass by. 
 
 This railroad from Boston to Albany is, after all, a very 
 pleasant thing, — to talk about. It has converted two or three 
 very indifferent men into orators and toast-makers of great 
 parts and patriotism. It has so frightened the New-Yorkers 
 that they have already suffered the grass to grow from the bed 
 of their grand canawl, and their North river steam-boats will 
 
16 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 soon be sacrificed under the hammer of the auctioneer. One 
 of the great movers in our railway concern has hinted to us, 
 (under a pledge of profound secrecy, however,) that the main 
 object of the invisible managers is to alarm our neighbors of 
 New- York with a threatened loss of trade to the West, in 
 order (cunning dogs !) that they, i. e. the railway managers, 
 may be able to buy the said North river steam-boats at a 
 bargain. This project has also tested the liberality of our 
 state legislature, who, with unexampled public spirit, not to 
 call it by the more alarming name of prodigality, — after the 
 ever-to-be-remembered trip to the Quincy railroad the never- 
 to-be-forgotten interclusion of the Ousatonic between the piers 
 of Neponset bridge,* — appropriated, from the public treasury, 
 ten thousand dollars for the purpose of promoting internal im- 
 provements. 
 
 We have almost forgotten why we began this article ; but, 
 if we recollect right, it was to introduce the following toast, 
 given lately at a public entertainment, by an advocate for the 
 railroad from Boston to Albany : — 
 
 " Internal Improvements. May the time speedily arrive when 
 the canal boats shall come from Rochester to Boston on a railroad 
 over Hoosac Mountain." [Nine cheers. Song, Back-side Albany.] 
 
 Within a year after writing this piece of sarcasm, 
 the editor of the Courier was one of some ten or 
 twelve persons who petitioned the Legislature in favor 
 of a railroad from Boston to Ogdensburg, and who, 
 themselves, paid the expense of an engineer to go 
 over the proposed route, and report upon the practica- 
 bility of making it. On no other subject, probably, 
 has private or public opinion undergone so thorough a 
 
 * A number of the members of the Legislature of 1826, made a " reconnois- 
 ance " to the Quincy railroad in a small steam-boat, called the Ousatonic. On 
 their return, the boat stuck between the piers of Neponset bridge ; — an event 
 which caused some merriment at the expense of a member of the Boston 
 delegation, who was the chief manager on the occasion. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 17 
 
 change in twenty years, as in regard to the utility of 
 railroads. 
 
 The applicants for a protective tariff proposed to 
 make a strong effort in favor of the measure at the 
 session of Congress which was to begin in December, 
 1827. By their persuasion I was induced to spend 
 the winter in Washington, in order to keep our friends 
 at home informed of whatever might be done or con- 
 templated for the accomplishment of their purpose.* 
 The letters I wrote during the winter occupy a large 
 portion of the paper. The first of the two articles 
 that follow was intended chiefly as an exposition and 
 justification of the views I entertained in reference 
 to general politics ; the second has reference more 
 particularly to the policy of the advocates for the 
 tariff: — 
 
 " Our first homage and duty are due to truth and justice ; and it is our firm 
 belief, that if they had been carefully observed by the editors friendly to the 
 administration, the cause of Mr. Adams would be now stronger than it is, 
 being intrinsically the best." — National Gazette, Dec. 11. 
 
 To this declaration we heartily subscribe. It corresponds 
 so faithfully to the course we have endeavored to pursue, as 
 editors, and to the path we have marked out for futurity, that 
 we have selected it as a test for some thoughts that may be 
 woven into a very grave dilucidatory discourse. _ 
 
 " Our first homage and duty are due to truth and justice.'' 
 Acting under a deep sense of the responsibility imposed on 
 us by an assent to this doctrine, we have, for some years, 
 uniformly excluded from the columns of this paper the base 
 and malignant attacks on the characters of the most promi- 
 
 * While I was in Washington, my eldest son, Joseph H. Buckingham, had 
 the sole superintendence of the elitorial department of the Courier. 
 VOL. II. 2 
 
18 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 nent men in our country, which the columns of thorough- going 
 partizan prints have constantly presented to the public gaze. 
 Some of these productions have never been noticed, even by 
 remote or indirect allusion. To particularize now would be 
 an abandonment of the ground on which we stand. When 
 the disgusting anecdotes, purporting to be scraps of private 
 history, conveyed to the public eye through channels as filthy 
 as the fount whence they originally issued, shall have been 
 substantiated to the satisfaction of disinterested and unpreju- 
 diced minds, it will be soon enough for us to place them on 
 record. Truth and justice may then require the enrolment as 
 an act of homage, but it will not be performed without a pain- 
 ful struggle. On the other hand, the same sense of responsi- 
 bility has kept us from mingling with the innumerable herd 
 of fawners and flatterers, who are eternally exaggerating the 
 merits of their respective leaders, — who seem to think that all 
 human, if not all god-like excellences, are combined in the 
 character and attributes of the man whom it is their pleasure 
 or their interest to honor. There is as little reason in the ex- 
 travagant panegyrics offered to the administration in some of 
 their favorite and favored journals, as there is in the wild and 
 profligate expenditure of praise to him, who is said by his 
 worshipers to have "filled the measure of his country's 
 glory." This flattering bombast degrades rather than exalts 
 its subject. We know of no man living who can justly claim 
 to stand on a pinnacle so high above all others, — in reference 
 to either moral or intellectual qualities, in reference either to 
 past public services or the promise of future achievements, — 
 as that on which a few of our political champions and heroes 
 are placed by their respective partizans. In this republican 
 country, republican at least in the form of its government and 
 in the nature and arrangement of most of its civil, political, 
 literary, and religious institutions, — where the road to po- 
 litical distinction is open to every one who has intelligence 
 enough to perceive it, ambition enough to induce him to enter, 
 and courage enough to enable him to walk therein, — it is 
 not possible that any two, or two hundred men, should pos- 
 sess exclusively the qualities that constitute a patriot, a hero, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 19 
 
 or a statesman. We have no belief in the existence of demi- 
 gods in our day and generation. While the " pregnant hinges 
 of our knee " are ever ready to bend at the shrine of genius, 
 intellect and patriotism, our tongue would cleave to the roof 
 of our mouth, should we essay to unite in the current hyper- 
 bolical hallelujahs that are chaunted before a political image, 
 or in the sickening sibillations which greet the approach of 
 his rival. 
 
 Let the besotted town 
 Bestow, ns Fashion prompts, the laurel crown ; 
 Tut let not him, who makes a fair pretence 
 To that best boon of Heaven, to Common Sense, 
 Resign his judgement to the rout, and pay 
 Knee-worship to the idol of the day. 
 
 That the " cause of Mr. Adams " is intrinsically better than 
 that of his great political competitor, we never for a moment 
 doubted, nor do we, at the time of writing these remarks, see 
 any just cause for a change in our opinion. As to all the 
 peculiar qualifications, "too numerous to be particularized" 
 in this article, which fit a man to preside over and control 
 the operations of our government, Mr. Adams stands at an 
 immeasurable distance before the gentleman who has been 
 selected to succeed him by the party in opposition. It is 
 presumed that the warmest and most devoted friends of Gen. 
 Jackson will not deny that, in respect to education, experience 
 in political affairs, power of reasoning, and a variety of other 
 accomplishments, necessary, or at least desirable, in the char- 
 acter of a great statesman, he is much inferior to Mr. Adams. 
 The great question now at issue between the parties, if we 
 understand any thing of its nature, is not a question respect- 
 ing individual qualifications in the President, but simply a 
 question of prerogative, — of rank or precedence, — between 
 the north and the south ; or, perhaps, to speak with more 
 literal accuracy, between the slave-holding and the non-slave- 
 holding states. It is doubtless the wish of the leading poli- 
 ticians of the south to supply the nation with rulers from their 
 own section of the Union. The opposition to the President, 
 we fear, originated in a local feeling, — a pride which suffered 
 
20 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 defeat and mortification by the election of a northern man ; 
 for we have too high an opinion of the mental and acquired 
 powers of the prominent individuals of the opposition to 
 believe that they suppose the cause of Gen. Jackson ''intrin- 
 sically the best." They probably admit, and thus far we 
 certainly should agree with them, that it is of no great 
 importance who lives in the marble mansion at Washington, 
 provided he is a man "capable and honest," — national and 
 liberal in his views, — willing and resolved to maintain the 
 interests of " his country, his whole country, and nothing but 
 his country." Neither can they imagine that Gen. Jackson 
 is superior in any respect to many other gentlemen who might 
 be named, south of the Potomac. But, from a single fortunate 
 incident in his life, he has acquired a popularity that has 
 hitherto fallen to the lot of very few individuals. He is 
 probably the only individual in the United States, around 
 whom the hopes and expectations of an opposition to the 
 present administration could be concentrated with a possible 
 chance of success. 
 
 The opposition to Mr. Adams, we have intimated, is not so 
 much of a personal character as it is sectional. An erroneous 
 impression prevails in the southern states, that New-England 
 is growing rich and powerful, at the expense of her southern 
 neighbors, — that Yankees are monopolizing the trade and 
 wealth of the nation, — and from this mistaken view of our 
 feelings and policy has grown a most inveterate and bitter 
 prejudice against the people of the north, as unworthy as it is 
 unfounded, — a prejudice which can be easily eradicated by 
 more frequent and general intercourse. There is nothing that 
 we can perceive in the policy or practice of New-England that 
 might not be adopted in the southern states with the fairest 
 prospects of a successful issue. New-England annually sends 
 forth her industrious and enterprising traders to Charleston, 
 Savannah, New-Orleans, and the smaller southern seaports, 
 to buy and to sell, and to remit the proceeds of mercantile 
 traffic to their partners or their principals at home ; and what 
 prevents South-Carolina from pursuing a similar course, and 
 sending an equal number of her young men to New- York, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 21 
 
 Providence, Boston, Portland and Salem? The people of the 
 northern states have taken advantage of their physical re- 
 sources ; they have employed the water-power of the country 
 to move the machinery of manufactures, and they are exploring 
 the interior of their mountains for mineral treasures to supply 
 the wants which have hitherto been served by importations. 
 Those of the south may not have the water-power which 
 propels our manufacturing machinery, but the power of 
 steam is confined to no section, and they have the advantage 
 of being able to produce the raw material on their lands, 
 and they have the still greater advantage of slave-labor, which 
 is abundantly adequate to the performance of much of the 
 mechanical operations in manufactories. The reproachful 
 sneers that have found their way into the newspapers, in 
 which New- England merchants and manufacturers are nick- 
 named Peers of the Tower Loom and Lords of the Spinning Jenny, 
 are entirely unworthy of that dignity of character and eleva- 
 tion of mind which have been striking characteristics of the 
 people of South-Carolina. There are no means or resources of 
 wealth and power enjoyed by the people of New-England that 
 are not equally under the control of those at the south. If, 
 possessing these means and resources, they do not choose to 
 avail themselves of them, surely it should be no reproach to 
 the inhabitants of another section of the Union that they have 
 adopted a different course. We have thought much and 
 deeply on this subject, and have been active in obtaining from 
 the best sources of information such facts as have led us to 
 believe that the policy now pursued in the northern states, — 
 the promotion of internal improvements, the exploring and 
 development of our natural resources, and the protection of 
 domestic manufactures, is the only true policy of this nation, 
 — the only policy which can keep alive its commerce with 
 other nations, — the only policy that can diffuse wealth, ac- 
 tivity, prosperity, and consequent enjoyment and happiness 
 throughout every portion of the country, —the only policy that 
 can give us, in peace and in war, that sort of independence 
 which seems to be universally desirable. It gives us pleasure 
 to perceive that there are indications of the growing popu- 
 
22 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 larity of this policy in the southern states. A late Charleston 
 paper contains a memorial to the legislature of South-Carolina 
 in favor of the survey of a route for a canal from Charleston 
 to the interior of the state ; and a petition has been presented 
 to the legislature of Georgia, for the incorporation of a manu- 
 facturing company. We trust that these experiments will be 
 successful, and have a tendency to destroy at least some 
 portion of the prejudice now existing against the American 
 System. 
 
 With these views, and solemnly devoted to the promotion of 
 such measures as they indicate to be the best and indeed the 
 only measures to secure private happiness and public pros- 
 perity, we have abundant reason to be satisfied with the 
 position we have taken as servants of the public in the capacity 
 of editors. It gives us no alarm to see the strongest partizan 
 journals on either side disclaiming our fellowship. When we 
 are quoted by one as an "administration" and by another as 
 an "opposition" print, we feel that these same journals pay 
 rather an involuntary homage to our independence and im- 
 partiality, earned by the performance of our duty to truth and 
 justice. 
 
 The place we have chosen to occupy between, or rather 
 above, the lines which mark the ground of most of our cotem- 
 poraries, is not, however, a field where the most profitable 
 harvest, in a pecuniary sense, is to be gathered. Being 
 counted neither with the administration nor the opposition, we 
 are considered as a sort of Ishmaelite, with our hand against 
 every man, — for almost every man is identified with one or 
 the other of these great parties, — and, as a matter of course, 
 with every man's hand against us. We solicit no favors from 
 men in office, and we get none. We ask no office, nor expect 
 any. Consequently, whichever party in the present contest 
 shall be triumphant, we neither make nor lose, individually, 
 by the result ; and as to the general interest, no party can long 
 sustain itself in power that does not pursue the policy we have 
 endeavored to illustrate as the best. Such is or will be the 
 voice of the American people ; and the voice of the people is, 
 as it should be, omnipotent, exalting and abasing whomsoever 
 it will. 
 
THE BOSTON COUKIER. 23 
 
 We have learned to despise the sneers of those who have 
 been foiled in their attempts to win us for Jackson, and to 
 disregard the averted look of those who suspect that we are 
 not full-blooded, heart-and-hand men for Adams. Sneering 
 and cutting are not the most persuasive arguments to gain 
 adherents to any cause. To all those who use them towards 
 us in the present state of our politics, we are willing to stand 
 in the position and in the character of the Jackdaw on the 
 steeple ; who 
 
 Fond of that speculative height, 
 
 Thither pursues his airy flight, 
 And there securely sees 
 
 The hustle and the raree-show 
 
 That occupy mankind below, 
 Secure and at his ease. 
 
 You think, no doubt, he sits and muses 
 On future hroken hones and bruises, 
 
 If he should chance to fall. 
 No ; not a single thought like that 
 Employs his philosophic pate, 
 
 Or troubles it at all. 
 
 He sees that this great round-about, 
 The world, with all its motley rout, 
 
 Church, army, physic, law, 
 Its customs and its businesses, 
 Is no concern at all of his, 
 
 And says — what says he? — CAW! 
 
 Thrice happy bird ! I too have seen 
 Much of the vanities of men ; 
 
 A»d, sick of having seen 'em, 
 Would cheerfully these limbs resign 
 For such a pair of wings as thine, 
 
 And such a head between 'em. 
 Washington, Dec. 16, 1327. 
 
 In compliance with the warm and honest dictates of the 
 heart, as well as with the customary forms of society, we 
 tender to our subscribers, our friends and fellow-citizens, the 
 
24 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 usual compliments of the season, and our unaffected wishes 
 for a continuance of their health, happiness, and prosperity. 
 
 It has become the fashion of the times to use the annual 
 return of this day as an occasion for anticipation and reflec- 
 tion. It may be compared to an eminence on the great path- 
 way of life, whence one may look backward upon the ground 
 he has traveled over, and forward to the termination of his 
 journey, — where he may reflect on the difficulties he has met, 
 the tribulations he has suffered, the impediments he has 
 surmounted, and, from what he has learned in the school of 
 experience, gather wisdom to guide and resolution to en- 
 courage him in his attempts to tread the uncertainties of the 
 landscape before him. 
 
 "With no desire to inflict upon our readers an undeserved 
 penance, or to surfeit their spirits, on a day so joyous, with 
 the overflowings of a sickly sentimentality, we yet solicit their 
 indulgence for a few moments, while we advert to one or two 
 topics, in regard to which we have taken a bolder stand than 
 most of our cotemporaries, and assumed a position on which 
 few, if any of them, have deemed it profitable or politic to 
 enter. These topics form the prominent features in the char- 
 acter of this paper ; they are points on which we place some 
 claims to public favor ; although we are well aware, that, with 
 some, they are regarded with indifference, and with others, as 
 causes of decided disapprobation. 
 
 In the first place, the Courier, if we are capable of judging 
 of the nature and effect of what we write and what we select 
 for publication, is entitled to the character of a neutral, 
 independent paper, in reference to the two great belligerent 
 political parties which now divide the nation»between them, and 
 under the banners of one or the other of which nearly every 
 man in the nation is enlisted. Such a character few other 
 papers have sustained, — such a character, probably, few other 
 editors would deem it an honor to acquire. We boast no 
 exemption from the common temperament of the age ; we have 
 slrong feelings of political partiality, and dislike ; but we 
 have learned to subdue them. Our neutrality in the present 
 contest, — we hesitate not to avow it, — is the effect of dislike 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 25 
 
 to certain prominent men in both parties ; and our independ- 
 ence (by which we mean an entire freedom from all the obli- 
 gations and restraints imposed by the organizations of parties 
 on their respective members) grows out of the circumstance 
 that we have never sought nor received that kind of support 
 that comes from men in power and office. "We have never 
 eaten of the bread that is distributed by the grand almoner of 
 state bounty, nor drank of the cup that is filled from the fount 
 flowing out of the public treasury. Consequently, to the dis- 
 interested disposers and the impartial distributors of official 
 patronage we "owe no subscription." Having received nothing 
 from the present administration that can place it in the attitude 
 of a creditor, nor asking any thing of that which may succeed 
 it which can degrade us to the humiliating position of a debtor, 
 there is no cause for shutting our eyes to the absurdities and 
 follies of either party ; there is no reason why we should 
 " soothe the dull cold ear" of the dead in power, with the 
 language of flattery, nor stir up the already too hot blood of 
 those who seek it, with the tones of obsequiousness. In short, 
 we are independent, because we have no patrons. For all that 
 we get, we give an equivalent, which places us on a level with 
 the richest and most powerful contributor to our limited 
 income, and no one has a right to reproach us with an abuse of 
 his patronage. Patron ! the word, with all its derivatives and 
 compounds, is a disgrace to the vocabulary of a democratic 
 people. Wherever you see that inflated lordly thing called 
 Patron, you may see also that abject piece of vileness, a slave, 
 at his feet. 
 
 But enough of politics, and the relations in which we stand 
 with the politician. There is another subject, in regard to 
 which we differ from most of our cotemporaries ; and on this 
 point it is infinitely more important to us that we should be 
 fairly understood ; for, in the opinion which the people of this 
 city may form of our views and motives, and with the spirit 
 in which they meet those views and motives, we are conscious 
 that our interest is deeply and seriously involved. Not that 
 we apprehend the loss of all our subscribers, if we should 
 chance to express an opinion that might not correspond in all 
 
26 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 its bearings with the opinion of every reader ; nor that we 
 should be alarmed if half a score should withdraw their names 
 and intercourse, in consequence of our entertaining a senti- 
 ment differing from theirs on a subject whereon wiser and 
 better men have differed before us ; such expressions of temper 
 can be met, as they have been, with a feeling nearly allied 
 to indifference, and their effects on our income can be re- 
 paired, as they have been, by the acquisition of other names 
 to the subscription list of equal responsibility. That which 
 displeases one, may be highly gratifying to another. That all 
 men cannot think alike, is a truism almost too stale to be 
 repeated ; but whilst hardly any two of the readers of a news- 
 paper hold the same opinions in regard to what they read, the 
 editor is placed in a rather uncomfortable situation, if he is 
 compelled to agree with them all. It would seem to be a little 
 unreasonable to demand that the operations of his mind should 
 correspond exactly with the operations of a thousand other 
 minds, cast in a thousand different moulds, and with no uni- 
 form character, except that they are uniformly diverse and 
 variable. 
 
 The American Manufacturing System is the subject to 
 which we would now draw the attention of the reader. Of 
 this system we profess to be the advocates, and we are not 
 ashamed of the avowal. We strongly wish that the motives 
 to the course we have pursued and probably shall continue to 
 pursue, should be clearly understood ; and it is to that end, 
 chiefly, that we have craved indulgence to what many may 
 think an impertinent display of egotism, and a tiresome detail 
 of individual opinions, mistaken notions, and unwarrantable 
 deductions. 
 
 To disinterestedness, in the literal sense of the word, we make 
 no pretences. The senior editor of the Courier has lived in 
 Boston near thirty years, — a term of time which commenced 
 before the expiration of minority, and long enough to assimi- 
 late and identify his interest in all that concerns the prosperity 
 of the town with the interest of his fellow-citizens. If the 
 general good can be of moment to an individual citizen, it is 
 of moment to him ; inasmuch, as, from the nature of the busi- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 27 
 
 ness he pursues and in which his whole property is involved, 
 must he rely for the support, education, and happiness of a 
 numerous family. We, therefore, can have no motive for 
 advocating projects that have not the universal prosperity of 
 the city for their ultimate object. Our very existence depends 
 on the activity and success of mercantile operations ; and to 
 endeavor to impede the progress of these operations would be, 
 on our part, an act of suicide for which no conceivable motive 
 could exist. In another, and, perhaps, a more common ac- 
 ceptation of the term, we are, absolutely and unequivocally, 
 disinterested in the question now at issue between the Manu- 
 facturer and the Merchant. We do not, never did, and prob- 
 ably never shall, own or hold, a share or any fraction of a 
 share in any manufacture whatever. If it be asked, then, why 
 are we so zealous for the protection of this system of domestic 
 manufactures, this is our plain answer, — The trade of Boston 
 could not go on for a month, a week, nor a day, if the manufactories 
 of New-England should be suspended in their operations. 
 
 Boston is a commercial city. The general character of 
 her population is mercantile. Her numerous and increasing 
 inhabitants, her traders, her mechanics, her laborers, her 
 capitalists, her manufacturers, even, are sustained, directly or 
 more remotely, by means of her navigation and commerce. 
 But how is her navigation to be maintained and carried on 
 without the reciprocal aid of the mechanic and the manufac- 
 turer ? Whatever has a tendency to check the foreign or the 
 coasting trade of this city, produces, in proportion to its extent 
 and power, a corresponding check upon the enterprize and 
 industry, and, of course, a deduction from the income of her 
 inhabitants, and should be discouraged by every citizen. On 
 the other hand, whatever has a contrary tendency should be 
 encouraged and met with favor. He who can give employ- 
 ment to a single individual that is not now employed, — 
 whether that individual be the intrepid mariner, who can 
 navigate the proudest fleet of merchantmen that ever traversed 
 the ocean, or the humble laborer, whose capacity only enables 
 him to earn his daily pittance by pushing a wheelbarrow, — 
 does something to augment the prosperity of the place. 
 
28 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 The question, then, for Bostonians to consider is, What can 
 be done to extend our commerce? What will give the most 
 profitable and permanent employment to capital? What will 
 give employment to the greatest number of persons ? This 
 question we have considered, — we have sought information 
 from various sources, from the merchant and the manufacturer, 
 we have investigated and deliberated, with the purest motives, 
 and with all the powers of our feeble understanding, — and we 
 are led irresistibly to the conclusion, that the success and the 
 permanent establishment of the manufactures of New-England 
 will make Boston, in a very few years, all that its most public- 
 spirited friends can wish it to be, — the seat of arts, industry 
 and wealth, — the emporium of the coasting trade, — the grand 
 depot of goods manufactured for exportation to South- American 
 and Mexican markets, and of all the products of those countries 
 in return, — and the centre of more foreign trade than it has 
 ever yet enjoyed, even in the proudest period of her com- 
 mercial history. 
 
 If it be asked, On what ground do these predictions rest ? 
 let it be replied, on the experience of the last ten years. Not 
 on exploded theories in political economy ; not on the specula- 
 tions of men who made their fortunes thirty years ago, at a 
 time when fortunes were to be sought in other avenues and 
 found in pursuits, which, at the present day, mock the most 
 persevering industry and disappoint the search of the most 
 sagacious and prudent ; but on the plain, simple, undeniable 
 fact, that the progress of our manufacturing system, thus far, 
 has increased the commercial prosperity of our city. It is a 
 fact, often asserted and never yet refuted or denied, that the 
 raw material used in the manufactures of New-England, em- 
 ploys a greater amount of tonnage, — triple the amount, if we 
 are not incorrectly informed, — than ever was or could be 
 employed in importing the necessary supplies of manufactured 
 goods. 
 
 What was the condition of Boston ten years ago, or at the 
 close of the last war with Great Britain? There was then an 
 impetuous clamor, as there has been since, about the stagna- 
 tion of business and the decay of navigation, trade and 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 29 
 
 commerce. Our young men, as soon as they came of age, 
 emigrated to the western states. Their history need not be 
 traced, for the picture would not be very attractive. The 
 partial success of the few manufactories then in operation, 
 induced other capitalists to build up others. The consequence 
 of this is, a new impetus has been imparted to trade j the 
 coasting trade of Boston has nearly doubled since that time j 
 stores and houses, almost beyond number, have been erected; 
 rents have not depreciated, but, in the aggregate, have ad- 
 vanced very considerably ; and the population increased, in 
 five years, from 1820 to 182o, more than thirteen thousand. 
 The tide of emigration from Massachusetts was checked ; 
 profitable employment has been furnished for thousands who 
 were sickening with inactivity ; and men of enterprize and 
 intelligence have permanently settled in the city and the state, 
 who would otherwise have been raising corn in Illinois, for 
 which they could find no market, or, perhaps, distilling it into 
 whiskey, to furnish subjects for prisons, alms-houses and 
 penitentiaries. 
 
 The simple facts above staled, — the increase of population 
 in Boston, and the increase of the coasting trade, — are, in our 
 humble opinion, worth all the speculations of Adam Smith, 
 Godwin, Malthus, Say, Ricardo, the Evening Post, or even 
 the authors of the Boston Report. Political economists may 
 theorize till the day of doom, and speculators who find trade 
 running in new channels may complain of the change and 
 wonder at its effects, till the day after ; but it is vain to attempt 
 to check New-England enterprize or subdue New-England 
 power. A portion of the men engaged in trade may endeavor 
 to stop the progress of this enterprize and to give it a different 
 direction ; but they cannot succeed. Experience is the best 
 theory, and facts are the best arguments ; and they will be 
 understood and produce an effect, when reasoning from ab- 
 struse principles will be unavailing. 
 
 "We make no apology for the length of this article. The 
 importance of the subject, and our desire that all should under- 
 stand the principles on which we act, seemed to demand of us 
 this exposition. Claiming the credit of acting from pure 
 
30 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 motives and from the honest convictions of the understanding, 
 we impute not to those who differ from us, and advocate a 
 contrary doctrine, the influence of any other principles than 
 those which are honest, pure, and patriotic. They are men of 
 honor and intelligence, and their opinions are entitled to 
 respect. To their intentions we cheerfully award all that we 
 ask for our own. Time, the great teacher, will expose the 
 mistakes of either, perhaps of both ; but he cannot deprive 
 Integrity of its boldness, nor browbeat the face of Truth. 
 
 The letters I wrote from Washington, about fifty in 
 number, are composed chiefly of sketches of debates 
 in the House of Representatives, interspersed with 
 speculations on the topics of discussion. The parties 
 were nearly equally balanced ; and they were divided 
 by a line distinctly drawn, on one side of which were 
 the friends and on the other the opponents of the ad- 
 ministration ; or in other words, the parties might be 
 distinguished as Adams-men and Jackson-men ; and it 
 was not easy to find an individual that was not in 
 favor of the re-election of Mr. Adams, or the election 
 of General Jackson. Many speeches were made that 
 were exceedingly personal, an apology for which was 
 found (or pretended to be found) in the prodigality, as 
 it was called, of Mr. Adams's administration. The 
 famous " retrenchment resolutions " of Mr. Chilton, of 
 Kentucky, formed the nucleus, about which were rolled 
 innumerable strata of abuse, reproach, sarcasm, and 
 vituperation. Incidents that happened when Mr. 
 Adams was in Russia as minister-plenipotentiary, 
 were presented in false colors and distorted features, 
 and his domestic economy was descanted upon with a 
 degree of cruelty that was truly revolting. Much of 
 the prejudice I had entertained against Mr. Adams was 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 31 
 
 removed by what I heard and saw during these discus- 
 sions. It was not many years after that my views in 
 regard to his policy, and the motives by which he was 
 governed, underwent a total change ; and sentiments 
 of distrust and coldness gave place to those of confi- 
 dence and admiration. 
 
 I returned from Washington about the end of March, 
 and resumed my daily task with the implements of 
 editorial labor. The Courier had increased in popu- 
 larity and augmented its number of subscribers, not- 
 withstanding the exertions to put it down made by two 
 or three gentlemen, who thought its advocacy of the 
 tariff was an impertinent interference with the privi- 
 leges of the commercial community. It is a fact, not 
 generally known, that one gentleman, a violent enemy 
 of the " American System," made personal applica- 
 tion to many merchants to induce them to stop their 
 subscription to the Courier. To what precise number 
 he applied I was never informed. He succeeded with 
 five or six, all of whom, in less than three years, 
 became interested in the manufacture of wool or 
 cotton, and, of course, abjured the doctrines of free 
 trade. A similar change has come over the dreams 
 of many who once thought protection to American 
 labor no better than robbery of the merchant and 
 importer. 
 
 A wonderful change has been wrought in the minds 
 of our people in twenty years respecting agricultural 
 pursuits. In 1829 remarks such as those which follow 
 were deemed rather wild and inappropriate : — 
 
 " A few days ago we heard a thrifty and hearty- 
 looking farmer inquiring in a store in State-street, if 
 
32 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 the gentleman knew of a place in a store where he 
 could put one of his sons. At the risk of being 
 thought impertinent, we asked the farmer if he knew 
 of any place in the country where a boy was wanted 
 to turn up the sod. He said he did not then; he him- 
 self had wanted a hand a while ago, but he had hired 
 this man, — pointing to his companion, a hale, hearty 
 man of thirty-five. This led to some further conver- 
 sation, in which we learned that the farmer thought it 
 best to send his sons into the city to learn to trade, 
 particularly if they were not of strong constitutions, 
 and supply their places by hiring men to work on his 
 farm. 
 
 " In this opinion the honest farmer is by no means 
 singular, but we apprehend that the advocates of 
 his doctrine lie under a sad mistake. The love of 
 speculation and the hopes of accumulating an inde- 
 pendent fortune, or at least a competency, without 
 active personal labor, are the curse of New-England. 
 To country boys of fifteen or sixteen, the difficulties 
 of trade, and the dangerous uncertainties of shop- 
 keeping, are inconceivable. They see nothing but ease 
 and happiness in the employment of the well-dressed 
 clerks of the counting-house, and forthwith they must 
 leave the farm, where money is turned up in every 
 furrow, and health sparkles on every blade of grass, to 
 throw away half a dozen years of the spring-time of 
 life behind a counter. Their minority is closed, and 
 they must enter upon the world with little or no im- 
 provement in their moral, intellectual, or physical 
 habits ; with no capital but their integrity and good 
 name, (if luckily they have been able to pass through 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 33 
 
 such a dangerous apprenticeship without the loss of 
 these qualities,) wherewith to commence business, and 
 with the knowledge of no profession but one that is 
 full of competitors, and which offers them no prospect 
 of independence. The city is crowded with shop- 
 keepers, and there is no branch of what may be called 
 trade, that is not overdone. If a young man obtains 
 credit for a small stock of dry goods, or hardware, or 
 groceries, ten chances to one he is unable to meet the 
 first payment ; and, if he should be so fortunate as to 
 have turned his stock and made a small profit by the 
 revolution, the second or third period of payment finds 
 him unprepared, and he must either clear out, (as the 
 phrase is,) and seek a living at New-York or some 
 remoter place, or he must write • agent ' under his 
 name on his sign, and struggle with his debts and his 
 bad luck a little longer. The result of this latter 
 arrangement need not be told. Every body knows 
 how few of those who fail ever recover from the 
 shock which broken credit produces, and how hard it 
 is for an ' agent ' of this description ever to recover 
 the character of principal. 
 
 " How happy would it be for hundreds and thou- 
 sands of our young men, if they would be persuaded 
 that a few acres of ground are a better capital than as 
 many thousands of dollars procured by writing their 
 names at the bottom of a negotiable note ; and what 
 years of misery might be saved, if men would believe 
 that a dollar actually earned by honorable and health- 
 ful labor as farmers and mechanics is worth a hundred 
 in prospect to be gained in trade and speculation." 
 
 VOL. II. 3 
 
34 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 The election of Mr. Adams to the Presidency sealed 
 the fate of the federal party in Massachusetts. It had, 
 in fact, been all but dead, for it was entirely power- 
 less, for a number of years. His inauguration on the 
 fourth of March, 1825, was celebrated by a festival, 
 at which members of the two old parties united 
 indiscriminately. In a speech made at the table by 
 Mr. George Blake, a leading Republican, this union 
 was spoken of as an "amalgamation" that was likely 
 to produce the happiest consequences ; and a response 
 to the speech was made by Judge Whitman, a leading 
 Federalist, in which he spoke of the "amalgamation" 
 as an event that he had long prayed for, and he now 
 thanked Heaven that his prayers were answered. The 
 active supporters of Mr. Adams now took the name, — 
 seemingly by common and unprompted consent, — of 
 "National Republicans;" but there were still a goodly 
 number of the old Federalists who clung to that name, 
 and for two or three years voted for a Federalist for 
 governor, in preference to the incumbent, Levi Lincoln, 
 entirely on party grounds, — Mr. Lincoln, having been 
 nominated and originally elected by an " amalga- 
 mation." These men made the Courier the organ 
 of their communication, and advocated in its columns 
 at different times, the election of Harrison G. Otis, 
 Samuel Hubbard, and Samuel Lathrop. There is no 
 reason for any attempt to conceal the fact, that the 
 views of these " faithful, unseduced, unterrified " 
 adherents to a party, originally as pure and patriotic 
 as any that was ever formed in the political universe, 
 met with a response in my heart. Nor would I, if 
 I could, obliterate a sentence I have ever written in 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 35 
 
 justification cf the much-abused and ungenerously- 
 calumniated Hartford Convention. Frequent avowals 
 of regard for this body, and for the glorious old 
 statesmen who fought for the precepts of the federal 
 school, produced controversies, often of a personal 
 nature, with cotemporary editors; — the results of 
 which were, doubtless, equally satisfactory to both 
 parties ; for, to such a war, where the strongest 
 weapons are paper bullets, there is no end, till both 
 parties become tired of the contest. The supply of 
 hard words and reproachful epithets in the political 
 magazine is inexhaustible. 
 
 The remarks which follow were intended to have 
 a particular application to an article in the Christian 
 Register, and to a sermon, delivered before the Ancient 
 and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, by the 
 Rev. Bernard Whitman. After drawing a glowing 
 picture of the " licentiousness of the press," the 
 reverend preacher made a tremendously solemn appeal 
 to that veteran corps : — " Gentlemen, will you not 
 provide some remedy against this threatening dan- 
 ger?" 
 
 LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 u This is a standing theme for all writers, editors, 
 lawyers, and preachers. If a lawyer wishes to make 
 an impression on the minds of a jury in favor of the 
 strict morality and integrity of his client, whether the 
 trial be for a libel, or a larceny, or an assault, he 
 must have a dab at the press, and talk of the scurrility 
 of the newspapers. If a preacher finds his audience 
 going to sleep under the operation of his somnific 
 
36 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 theology, or the warm-water insipidity of his ethics ; 
 he lays hold of the press and endeavors to awaken 
 his hearers by talking of the destruction of their civil 
 liberty and the utter perdition to their immortal souls, 
 which a licentious press is bringing upon them. This, 
 perhaps, is all right enough, it being merely in the 
 way of their profession to admonish, censure, and 
 abuse whoever and whatever is a stumbling-block in 
 their way ; and it is, moreover, exceedingly fortunate 
 for these gentlemen that the Bar and the Pulpit are so 
 hedged about with law and divinity, that almost any 
 thing may be fulminated therefrom with impunity. 
 But that editors should undertake to make amends for 
 the barrenness of other topics by writing homilies 
 upon the licentiousness of the press, and admonishing 
 their professional cotemporaries in the style of the 
 dogmatist and the pharisee, is not, in our opinion, a 
 very praiseworthy practice. Some of the editorial 
 sermons of this sort, which we have recently seen, 
 remind us of the proverb of the bird that bewrays its 
 own nest. 
 
 " We do not claim for the newspaper press a 
 character unsusceptible of improvement. As we are 
 not disciples of the doctrine of human perfectibility, 
 we have no expectation that the press, so long as it 
 is guided and controlled by human beings, subject to 
 all the passions, prejudices, and frailties of humanity, 
 will exhibit any thing of super-human purity, or be 
 exempt from the imperfections that mingle with all 
 mortal pursuits, professions, and sciences. That, 
 which we disapprove, and which we would call upon 
 others to reprobate and avoid, is the practice of those 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 37 
 
 who would pass for saints, teachers, and apostles, to 
 inveigh against the press as one of the most corrupt, 
 wicked, and abominable of all institutions, and to pour 
 out their anathemas in such general and indiscriminate 
 language, that the special objects of their displeasure 
 cannot be identified, except by inference, after we are 
 informed (if the information can be obtained) to what 
 party in politics, or what sect in religion, the aforesaid 
 saints, ascetics, or vestals belong. If the representa- 
 tions of these reformers of the press can be credited, 
 no evil that has ever fallen on our own forsaken race 
 can be compared to a printing-press ; and the arch- 
 enemy of man triumphs in the consciousness that his 
 own diabolical imagination can contrive no better 
 means of bringing the whole living universe into 
 perdition, to share his tortures and his eternity of 
 punishment, than the circulation of newspapers. 
 
 " As we have admitted that the newspaper press is 
 susceptible of improvement, we have no objection to 
 admit, also, that it does not maintain so elevated a 
 character in the estimation of the wise and virtuous as 
 it once did. For this declension, probably various 
 reasons might be assigned. One is all that we have 
 room for now, and we give it in a quotation from a 
 poem, written by a journeyman printer of London, 
 and leave the 4 galled jades ' to chew upon it, if they 
 can, without ' wincing ' : — 
 
 In our days, what hordes of blockheads claim 
 
 The proud distinction of the Printer's name ! 
 Around his Press, like hungry beasts of prey, 
 They swarm, whom every trade hath cast away." 
 June 20, 1829. 
 
38 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Some of the most virulent controversies in which 
 the Courier was engaged were those occasioned by 
 attacks on Mr. Webster. His opposition to the war 
 of 1812, while he was a representative in Congress 
 from New-Hampshire, subjected him to the permanent 
 hostility of the democratic party and all their news- 
 papers. Among these the New-Hampshire Patriot, the 
 United States Telegraph, and the New- York National 
 Advocate were conspicuous for their unrelenting bitter- 
 ness. From the moment that he took his seat in the 
 House as a representative from Massachusetts, the 
 democratic press, generally, began what seemed to be 
 a systematic attack upon his principles and character, 
 and scarcely a remark fell from him that was not 
 caught up and interpreted to his prejudice, and 
 animadverted on as a " signal of distress from ex- 
 piring Federalism." The United States Telegraph 
 became notorious for the severity of its opposition, 
 and as my humble ability was employed in the 
 Courier to defend him, the Courier and its editor, of 
 course, came in for a share of vituperation. I cannot 
 say that I always observed the Christian precept, 
 which recommends the turning of the second cheek to 
 the smiter of the first; and the sparring with the 
 Telegraph was concluded by saying : — "It is not 
 without disgust, but entirely without indignation, that 
 we read the harmless and ungentle manly attacks upon 
 our representative, in the United States Telegraph. 
 Mr. Webster would esteem the distinction not worth 
 enjoying that could be obscured by allusions to the 
 'swarthy orator of the north ;' or any similar reproach- 
 ful epithet. The magnificent Potomac is ordained by 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 39 
 
 nature to receive the filthy waters of a sluggish little 
 stream called the Tiber ; but who, that looks at the 
 calm undulations of its broad bosom, thinks of the 
 insignificant contribution?" M. M. Noah, editor of 
 the National Advocate and afterward of the New-York 
 Enquirer, was constantly attacking Mr. Webster, on 
 account of his relation to the defunct federal party, 
 and accused him of having been a member of the Hart- 
 ford Convention. Possibly the accusation might have 
 originated inadvertently ; but it was persisted in long 
 after it had been demonstrated that he had no con- 
 nection with that body. But Mr. Noah evaded any 
 acknowledgement of error. He shifted his ground 
 and declared, if Mr. Webster was not actually a 
 member of the Convention, he was as bad or worse, 
 because he had never opposed it, and was in habits of 
 friendly intercourse with those who were members 
 or instigators of it. The controversy with the En- 
 quirer was carried on for months, and ceased only 
 when replication and rejoinder were admitted to be 
 asymptotical lines, which though continually approach- 
 ing and infinitely extended, could never meet. 
 
 ANTIMASONRY. 
 
 The remorseless war against Freemasonry, which 
 began in the state of New-York about the year 1827, 
 (now almost forgotten,) assumed a political aspect, 
 and, in 1831, several leading politicians espoused the 
 cause of Antimasonry. One of the most prominent 
 of these was Richard Rush of Pennsylvania, who 
 wrote a letter to an Antimasonic committee, in which 
 he made a most outrageous assault upon the press. 
 
40 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 This letter was published in the Courier, accompanied 
 with remarks, of which the following are a part. 
 
 u Much of the importance which we attach to the 
 letter, and, in fact, almost its whole importance, is 
 derived from its authorship, and but very little from 
 the subject-matter of the letter itself. As to Freema- 
 sonry, the author, like every other man, has a right to 
 his views of its purposes and effects as an institution. 
 .... Our views of Freemasonry, as an institution, 
 probably differ from those of many of its honest friends 
 as well as those of its honest enemies, — for, that 
 many of its opposers are sincere in their hostility, we 
 have no doubt ; and that many of its friends are equal 
 in uprightness, intelligence, and patriotism, to any 
 men in the country, we know. In former times, the 
 institutions of Masonry, it is generally admitted, have 
 been serviceable to the members, and to the best 
 interests of society. At the present time, we do not 
 know that they produce any essential benefit that is 
 not as easily effected by other institutions of a general 
 nature. That they have produced any results injurious 
 to the integrity and safety of our moral, religious, 
 civil, or political rights, in any other manner, or in 
 any greater degree, than many other institutions may 
 be perverted by ambitious and cunning demagogues, 
 we have seen no evidence, and consequently are not 
 prepared to admit. On this subject we have had 
 but one opinion since we knew enough of it to form 
 an opinion. Freemasonry may be useless, but it is 
 harmless. It may not be worth a struggle to keep it 
 alive, but it is less dangerous than many other asso- 
 ciations which are popular, and against which, if a 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 41 
 
 man were to raise his voice, he would be set down as 
 an enemy to his country and all her best institutions 
 
 " But there is one part of Mr. Rush's letter which 
 deserves the severest reprehension. It is his unmanly 
 and unjustifiable attack on the press, — an assault 
 which partakes more of the ferocity of a tiger and 
 the malignity of a demon, than of the candor of a 
 gentleman or the wisdom of a statesman. It has 
 neither dignity nor truth to entitle it to respect. Every 
 reader will perceive that many of his assertions are false. 
 We do not say Mr. Rush knew that they were false ; 
 but, unless he sees, daily, many more of the news- 
 papers than we imagine he does, he could not know 
 them to be true. The charges, we know, have often 
 been made before, but the repetition of a lie, even 
 from the pen of so respectable a man as Mr. Rush, 
 does not impart to it the attribute of truth. His 
 charges against the press, of corruption and fear, of 
 a disposition to concealment, in reference to the 
 progress and result of the trials in New-York, are 
 utterly groundless ; and his enlisting as a volunteer to 
 endorse the slander, indiscriminately hurled at the 
 conductors of the press, should meet the prompt 
 and decided reprobation of an insulted and indignant 
 community." 
 
 The Courier proceeded to inquire into the motive 
 which could influence Mr. Rush to write such a letter, 
 when a very simple reply to his correspondents, of a 
 few lines, (his letter filled more than four columns 
 in small type,) would have been sufficient to give 
 them all the information they desired, — at least, all 
 they asked for : — 
 
42 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 " He might have told them all he knew of Free- 
 masonry, and all that he feared of its effects, without 
 arming himself with ratsbane, pistol, rope, and dagger, 
 to commence a war of extermination upon a whole 
 class of men, (the editors,) who, as a professional 
 body, are as free, as liberal, as independent, as those 
 of any other profession, and, we hope we may add, 
 without incurring the guilt of uttering a libel, no more 
 obnoxious to charges of profligacy and corruption, 
 than some gentlemen, who appear to be aiming at 
 political promotion, at the expense of their friends. 
 We have no wish to do an act of injustice to Mr. 
 Rush. If he should receive no more than his fair 
 deserts, our indignation might be appeased, and, 
 perhaps, converted into compassion. He has been 
 prompted to this act by political ambition. He expects, 
 and not without reason, to be set up as a candidate for 
 the Presidency, in opposition to his friend, Henry 
 Clay ; or, failing in that, to be used as a candidate for 
 the Vice-Presidency, with some other aspiring dema- 
 gogue. . . . This, we undertake to say, — and we are 
 well advised of the extent of what we are saying, — 
 is the true secret of Mr. Rush's sudden conversion 
 to Antimasonry ; — or rather, if we admit his own 
 declarations, — his reluctant exposition of facts and 
 opinions, long known and cherished, but which all 
 the obligations of honor, religion, and patriotism were 
 too weak to draw from him till now. What a glorious 
 illustration of the permanency and sincerity of political 
 friendships." 
 
 A few days after the publication of these remarks, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 43 
 
 an old and friendly acquaintance of the editor, who 
 lived in Lynn, called and paid up his subscription to 
 the paper, and ordered it to be discontinued. The 
 gentleman voluntarily * assigned, as his reason for 
 stopping the paper, the remarks on Mr. Rush's letter, 
 and added, " All your subscribers in Lynn have come 
 to a determination to follow my example." This 
 occurrence, and the admonition that was coupled with 
 it, were treated rather contemptuously, and I heard no 
 more from my Lynn friend. His example was not 
 followed by' his fellow-townsmen. The list of sub- 
 scribers remained entire for several years. 
 
 THE NATIONAL FAST. 
 
 In the summer of 1832 the Cholera made its ap- 
 pearance in several places in our country, and the 
 expectation of its spreading caused general alarm. 
 Some of the religious sects petitioned the President 
 that he would appoint a day for general humiliation 
 and prayer. On the first of July, Mr. Clay offered 
 in the Senate a resolution, that a joint committee of 
 the two houses of Congress should " wait on the Presi- 
 dent, and request that he recommend a day to be 
 designated by him, of public humiliation, prayer, and 
 fasting, to be observed by the people of the United 
 States with religious solemnity, and with fervent sup- 
 plications to Almighty God, that he will be graciously 
 pleased to continue his blessings upon our country, 
 and that he will avert from it the Asiatic scourge 
 which has reached our borders : or if, in the dispensa- 
 
 * It was a rule with me, — from which I never departed, — nevt-T to a-sk a 
 subscriber for the reason of his stopping the paper. 
 
44 
 
 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 tions of his Providence, we are not to be exempted 
 from the calamity, that, through his bountiful mercy, 
 its severity may be mitigated and its duration short- 
 ened." After some debate this resolution was adopted. 
 The debate was published in the Courier, with the 
 following remarks annexed : — 
 
 We have given above the whole debate on this resolution 
 as reported in the Intelligencer, and we are constrained to 
 confess that the reasons offered by the gentlemen who advo 
 cated its passage do not strike us as very forcible, but, on th 
 other hand, as injudicious and unsound, and involving doc- 
 trines entirely at variance with philosophy and all that is 
 known of the physical laws of the universe. The whole 
 argument, — so far as there is any argument displayed in the 
 debate, — seems to be founded on the belief that prayer and 
 fasting can suspend the operations of the laws of nature ; or, 
 in other words, that the Supreme Ruler of the universe may 
 be induced, by supplication, to change the immutable laws, 
 which he has ordained for the government of the physical 
 elements, and by which the harmony of the universe is pre- 
 served. Now, we presume that neither Mr. Clay nor Mr. 
 Frelinghuysen would admit that the prayers of the people, 
 whatever efficacy they might have in a moral point of view, 
 could be of any avail in averting the progress or changing 
 the operation of a physical law. To suppose such an event, 
 would be to suppose an absurdity which no philosopher, — no 
 religious or moral philosopher, — could for a moment enter- 
 tain. 
 
 The Cholera is, literally, a pestilence that walketh in dark- 
 ness. Its progress, Mr. Clay says, is marked by apparent 
 caprice. Yet neither Mr. Clay nor any other man of common 
 sense will pretend, in sober argument, that its progress is not 
 guided and regulated by physical causes; — by laws, which 
 are as immutable as any other decrees of the Deity. Those 
 laws have not yet been discovered ; but that they exist can be 
 no more a matter of doubt than the laws of gravitation or of 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 45 
 
 motion. The means of security against their operation must 
 be altogether of a physical character, and their effects can no 
 more be averted by moral means, than the laws of gravitation 
 can be suspended by argument or supplication. If a cannon- 
 ball were raised fifty feet high in the air, and all obstacles to 
 motion be removed, it is not to be supposed that the prayers 
 of all the saints in the universe would prevent its falling, or 
 breaking the head of Saint Peter, if the head of that apostle 
 should happen to be in a direct line between the earth and the 
 point from whence it should be dropped. 
 
 With all proper deference to the understanding and talent 
 of Mr. Frelinghuysen, we think there is no analogy between 
 the approach of the Cholera and the War of 1814. The 
 Cholera is physical in its nature, progress, and operations ; 
 War is a moral pestilence, and its evils are to be averted 
 solely by moral preventives. We have not time nor space at 
 this moment to enter upon an elaborate argument in theology 
 or metaphysics ; but we presume that Mr. Frelinghuysen will 
 acknowledge that the efficacy of prayer consists in its opera- 
 tion on those who pray, and not in a suspension of the laws, 
 or a change in the purposes of the Deity. The progress of 
 the moral pestilence is subject to laws and influences very 
 different from those which regulate the elements of nature. 
 Mr. Frelinghuysen has drawn a very vivid and eloquent 
 picture of the "agent and minister of God, over which human 
 power has no influence ; " but we come to a conclusion directly 
 opposite to his in regard to what ought to be done in conse- 
 quence of its approach, and in regard to the propriety of 
 meeting it with humiliation and prayer. The argument, we 
 repeat, as far as we understand it, is based on the supposition 
 that the laws of the universe will be suspended and the order 
 of nature reversed by our asking. Instead of calling such a 
 proceeding an act of humiliation, it appears to us it should 
 more properly be named an exhibition of pride, arrogance, 
 impiety, and presumption. 
 
 All this dread order break— for whom ? for thee, 
 Vile worm? O madness, pride, impiety! 
 
46 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 What the President may do in consequence of the passage 
 of the resolution, remains to be seen. It can hardly be ex- 
 pected, however, that he will comply with its requisition, 
 after having declined to comply with a similar request from 
 the clergy of New- York ; though if he should send a message 
 to the Senate in relation to the subject, we hope it will be 
 more consistent in its argument than his reply to the reverend 
 clergy. Both the President and Governor Throop acknowledge 
 their full belief in the efficacy of prayer to avert the evils of 
 the Cholera ; at least, that is the obvious meaning of their 
 language ; yet both decline to recommend a day of humiliation 
 and prayer. If they actually believe what they say they do, 
 does not a most fearful responsibility rest upon them for 
 refusing to recommend, — nay, even to order, — a general use 
 of these efficacious means ? In how much absurdity do men 
 get involved by their attempts to justify their conduct by the 
 application of unnatural and unphilosophical principles ! 
 
 There is an objection to the institution of a day of general 
 humiliation and fasting, which does not seem to have entered 
 into the views of any of those who propose the measure. 
 Whatever may be the motives of those who urge it, and 
 however good their intentions, such a day would be, as it has 
 been heretofore, perverted to uses altogether at variance with, 
 and would produce consequences directly the reverse of, those 
 intended. A general suspension of business, especially in 
 cities and large towns, is accompanied by scenes of amuse- 
 ment and dissipation. If any doubt that such would be the 
 effect of a fast-day, let them look back to the fast-days ordered 
 by the governors of New-England, for the last twenty years, 
 and see if the practice has not become an evil that calls for a 
 remedy. A fast-day has become a farce, and is so considered 
 by a large portion of the people. It has been, for many years, 
 an apology for irregularities, immoralities, and vices, which 
 would not, otherwise, have occurred. Where they have been 
 the means of redeeming a single soul from the power of sin, 
 
 they have put in jeopardy ten others We wish to 
 
 interfere with no man's religious faith, nor to offend the 
 pious feelings of the humblest individual. If any man is 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 47 
 
 piously and reverentially disposed, — and all ought to be, — 
 let him fulfill his personal obligations to his Maker in his 
 own family and in his own chamber. The ear of Providence 
 is assailable from the retirement and solitude of the closet, as 
 well as from the crowded synagogue and the corners of the 
 streets ; and the hallowed altar may at all times resound with 
 the voice of prayer or praise, without the recommendation 
 of magistrates or rulers. The only way in which moral or 
 religious exercises can have any effect in preventing physical 
 pestilence must be in their influence upon the understanding, 
 — persuading men to the practice of temperance and cleanli- 
 ness, and to avoid all scenes of excitement and dissipation. 
 Let those who dread the approach of the Cholera refrain from 
 excess in eating and drinking ; from unnecessary exposure in 
 thronged assemblies, or in unwholesome air ; and from all 
 excitements which may irritate or disorder the physical organ- 
 ization. Be temperate, be clean, be calm, be patient, be firm 
 and resigned, and leave the event to Heaven : — 
 
 Hush guilty murmurs, banish dark mistrust ; 
 
 Think there's a Power above, nor doubt that Power is just. 
 
 This article, as was not unexpected, was read with 
 decided marks of disapprobation, by many, whose 
 opinions and prejudices were entitled to respect, and 
 produced some friendly remonstrances. It produced 
 the following letter from the Rev. Lyman Beecher, 
 and led to several personal interviews between me 
 and that gentleman, — which, like all other dis- 
 cussions upon theological (metaphysical ?) questions, 
 left each more firmly fixed in the correctness of his 
 own opinions : — 
 
 To the Editor of the Courier : 
 
 My views are to some extent in accordance with yours, as 
 to the inexpediency of looking to the National Government, in 
 times of public calamity, to call us to the religious duties of 
 
43 
 
 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 fasting and prayer, — not because I suppose it to be a violation 
 of the constitution or attended with any danger to our liberties, 
 but because the principles of political ambition and local in- 
 terest have such influence in the formation of the government, 
 as may often bring into power men whose opinions and ex- 
 ample might be little calculated to give weight to these 
 exhortations to reformation, fasting, and prayer, and whose 
 attempts in this way might reiterate the exclamation, Is Saul 
 also among the prophets ? 
 
 The scenes enacted lately within and about the Capitol, 
 while they furnish abundant motive to the nation to array 
 itself in sackcloth and sit in the dust, are but poorly calcu- 
 lated to give efficacy to governmental recommendation, as is 
 also the manner in which petitions to the government to 
 abstain from the violation of the Sabbath by law have been 
 treated. While I regard the canting about church and state 
 as the outpouring of a malignant hypocrisy, I agree entirely 
 that matters pertaining to the pure and peaceable and spiritual 
 religion of Jesus Christ, should be far removed from the 
 conflicts and polluting influences of earthly governments, — 
 and should be conducted by the various denominations, in 
 times of public calamity, unitedly if it may be, — separately 
 if it must. Nor can I perceive why such associations for 
 fasting should be deprecated as tending to create alarm, when 
 the danger stands out to observation in all the bulletins of 
 desolation from Europe, from Canada, and, at length, from 
 New-York ; with the appropriation of thousands to meet the 
 exigency in our city, — the prescriptions of physicians and 
 the directions of the board of health published, — and the 
 welcome domiciliary visits of the health police, — all calcu- 
 lated to give notoriety to the reality, imminence and magnitude 
 of the danger, — and leaving to the people, not the excitement 
 and alarms of public convocations for fasting and prayer, but 
 the soothing, sustaining hope that, according to promises and 
 example upon inspired record, God will turn from those pur- 
 poses of desolation which our incorrigibleness alone made 
 necessary. 
 
 But the topic which I regard with the most regret, is the 
 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 49 
 
 philosophical reason alleged against public fasting and prayer, 
 viz : That the laws of nature are immutable, and that, there- 
 fore, prayer and fasting will no more avail to avert the cholera 
 than to suspend the attraction of gravity. 
 
 Now, this philosophy is just as conclusive against private 
 as public prayer, and entirely conclusive against both, so far 
 as the good or evil which betides us depends on the operation 
 of immutable laws. 
 
 Of course, it is a Turkish and not a Christian philosophy, 
 and a Turkish way of abolishing fear, and maintaining tran- 
 quility in danger, by persuading men that their fate is so 
 immutably fixed, that there is no hope of change even from 
 God, — that he has constructed the ponderous machine, ad- 
 justed its wheels, hung on the weights, swung the pendulum, 
 and turned his back upon it, and his ear from the cries of the 
 hapless millions who may happen to fall in the course of 
 its bloody track. To my mind this is a terrible philosophy, 
 — and this a horrible world to live in, — where prayer and 
 hope in God's mercy, the last resource of the impotent and the 
 guilty, is cut off by the shears of an inexorable fate. It is a 
 philosophy, also, which virtually subverts the moral govern- 
 ment of God over nations, and the interposition of a particular 
 providence for its administration. 
 
 Now the reality of the divine moral government over nations 
 is inscribed on every historic page in the Bible, and its neces- 
 sity to restrain men has been fearfully attested by the animal- 
 ism, and anarchy, and ferocity, which rolled the wave of 
 desolation over the nation which denied his being, and blotted 
 out his Sabbath, and burnt his laws, and proclaimed the eternal 
 oblivion of the grave. That, heretofore, God has employed 
 physical causes as motives in the administration of his govern- 
 ment, is as certain as the historical records of holy writ. Cold 
 and heat, day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and 
 harvest, peace and war, sickness and health, have been 
 employed by Heaven as motives, and do operate to diversify, 
 indefinitely and continually, the moral influence under which 
 all the millions of mankind act and form their characters. 
 
 VOL. ii. 4 
 
50 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Now, is all this endless variety of moral influence, with which 
 physical laws are clothed, wholly unmodified by the wise and 
 merciful interposition of a particular providence ? Is all this 
 extent and variety of motive which brings home to the bosom 
 of every free agent on earth three fourths of those influences 
 which decide his action and character, all hung on one great 
 wheel, whose constant turning brings them round so as rightly 
 to divide, and wisely to apply to each subject, his portion of 
 moral influence in due season ? This may be possible to God, 
 but to men it does not appear a very probable theory of the 
 manner in which God actually administers his special govern- 
 ment, and can scarcely fail to disarm the providence of God of 
 its entire power as a moral administration. But suppose the 
 ever wakeful supervision of Heaven, instead of this great 
 wheel, watching with tireless benevolence over the concerns of 
 every individual and nation, — in whom all live and have 
 their being, — on whom all wait to receive their meat in due 
 season, — from whose warm heart and open hand, by the 
 ministry of his agents, cometh down every good and perfect 
 gift, — who made the laws of nature to produce their results 
 by the modifying influence of his power and wisdom in moral 
 government, and not to make a splendid display of mere 
 mechanical ingenuity, but, like his law in the hand of a 
 Mediator, to be employed for purposes of judgement and 
 mercy in the government and redemption of the world. Then 
 why should not the application of these laws vary as the char- 
 acter and conduct of the subjects under their administration 
 vary ? The whole apparent difficulty is created by supposing 
 that God made the laws of nature for a splendid, high, and 
 dreadful immutability, — utterly inconsistent with the varia- 
 tions and uses demanded by a moral government. But if a 
 moral government was the original design, — and the founda- 
 tions of the earth were laid, and the heavens spread abroad, 
 and the atmosphere poured out, and all material agents formed, 
 as subordinate to this great design, — why, then, the various 
 and modified uses of these laws, by Heaven, for punishment 
 or protection, graduated by the conduct and character of 
 subjects, no more implies a change of these laws, than the 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 51 
 
 farmer's various applications of the implements of husbandry- 
 imply a change in his tools. 
 
 To change the laws of nature, their attributes must be 
 changed, or applied to uses for which they were not made. 
 To employ fire for purposes of frost, poison for nutrition, 
 water for respiration, and the solid earth for navigation, and 
 the ocean for purposes of agriculture, would be to change the 
 laws of nature ; but to use these elements as the wisdom of 
 God may indicate, in the manner most efficacious for the moral 
 government of nations, implies no change of plan or law, 
 without first begging the question that they were made only 
 for the purposes of a stately immutability, and that God 
 preferred to administer his moral government by a comprehen- 
 sive mechanism to the modifying influences of his continual 
 supervision. 
 
 I now beg leave to say, that this supposed immutability of 
 nature's laws, so as never to be suspended or accommodated 
 to purposes of moral government, is, in my apprehension, a 
 mere assumption, wholly unsupported by evidence. If it can 
 be shown that their immutability will bring out the best result, 
 then, doubtless, they are immutable. But is it quite logical 
 to take this for granted ? And where is the evidence of the 
 fact ? How does it appear that the most perfect system may 
 not be one, and is not one, in which the uniformity of the 
 great laws of nature shall be sufficient for all the general 
 purposes of science and experience, — and yet be liable to 
 such suspension or variation as shall afford evidence of a 
 divine interposition, and a means of authenticating the com- 
 munications of the divine will, and demonstrating the con- 
 tinuance of God at the helm, both of his natural and moral 
 governments? Are not miracles the great seal of Heaven 
 which none can counterfeit, to authenticate divine commu- 
 nications, — and, if need be, to display the presence and 
 agency of God among his unbelieving and mutinous subjects, 
 — just as important in their place and for their particular 
 purpose as the benign stability of nature's laws in other 
 cases ? If there were not a general uniformity, miracles and 
 signal judgements would have no significancy, and if they 
 
52 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 were strictly immutable they would have no place, while 
 general uniformity and occasional innovation meet precisely 
 all the great exigences of the providential government of God 
 for the ultimate renovation of the earth. Hume has asserted 
 that any innovation upon the laws of nature is contrary to all 
 experience ; but he had not lived in all time and every where, 
 and how did he ascertain what had been the past universal 
 experience of the whole world ? He could learn it only from 
 history, while there is not in any nation a page of history, 
 fabulous or inspired, which does not attest the existence of 
 some supernatural interposition. If he meant only contrary 
 to his own experience, that would no more prove universal 
 immutability of nature's laws, than the experience of the 
 torrid zone would disprove the existence of ice in the frigid. 
 
 I have only to add, that the philosophy of the immutability 
 of the physical laws of the universe, as unaffected by human 
 guilt, or penitence and prayer, and the various exigences of 
 the divine moral government, seems to me entirely unscrip- 
 tural. I do not mean that all who have adopted it are infidels ; 
 for it is a specious philosophy, all of whose relations and 
 bearings are not immediately perceived. But I do mean that 
 it is, in my view, wholly and irreconcilably adverse to the 
 entire testimony of the Bible, so that no man can be a full and 
 consistent believer in the inspiration of the Bible, and at the 
 same time a disciple of this philosophy. 
 
 According to the Bible, the government of God over nations 
 is a moral government, universal and entire ; and his dominion 
 over the material world, in the administration of a particular 
 providence, accommodated to the purposes of moral govern- 
 ment, and diversified according to the exigences created by 
 the character and deed of his subjects, for punishment to the 
 incorrigible, for purposes of forbearance and forgiveness, to 
 those who cast off their sins, and turn to God with weeping 
 and supplication, is announced and repeated with equal clear- 
 ness and frequency on the sacred page. All the great laws of 
 nature are the ministers of his court, — the body-guard of his 
 throne, to check rebellion, and keep back mutinous subjects 
 from presumptuous wickedness, as well as to encamp round 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 53 
 
 about those that fear him, and bear messages of mercy to him 
 that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at his word. 
 He sends rain or drought, mildew and murrain, and pestilence 
 and famine. Let it not be said that all this is poetry, or 
 allegory, or Jewish philosophy. It is poetry inspired of 
 Heaven and philosophy taught of God, which holy men of 
 old spake and recorded as the Holy Ghost gave them utterance. 
 It is true, that, for purposes of special effect in the preserva- 
 tion of his religion and worship against the encroachments of 
 idolatry, the principle of temporal judgements and mercies, 
 according to character and deeds, was rendered more em- 
 phatical. But the same general principle is still recognized as 
 extending to all nations. The 18th of Jeremiah might suffice 
 to prove this. But whoever reads the prophecies, and profane 
 history, will find in the one predicted visitations upon nations, 
 according to character and deeds, and in the other the record 
 of their literal fulfilment. And whoever will sit down at the 
 feet of Christ, may hear from his lips that God clothes the 
 grass, feeds the ravens, arrays in beauty the lily, numbers the 
 hairs of our heads, and notes the fall of the sparrow. 
 
 I should not have troubled you with this communication, if 
 I had not regarded the philosophy which I oppose as subversive 
 not only of the Bible, but of that providential government of 
 God which gives force to admonition, and hope to reformation 
 and humiliation and prayer. Upon the necessity and power 
 of a retributive providence to purposes of national morality, I 
 need not amplify. They appall the hardened sceptic ; they 
 cool the delirious fever of worldliness, and tame the madness 
 of passion, and put out for a time the fire of ambition ; they 
 rouse the thoughtless to consideration, and send their terrific 
 notes of loud admonition into high places of voluptuous guilt, 
 as well as the low places of vulgar vice, while in thick showers, 
 and with deadly aim, his arrows fall upon the retreats of crime ; 
 and they carry out, into all ranks and orders of society, a deep 
 and all-pervading sense of absolute dependence upon God. 
 "When mists, which no man can dissipate, gather about the 
 sun, or his rays fall cold and powerless on the earth, —when 
 the wind, with steady breath, for months, blows contaminated 
 
54 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 atmosphere across the Atlantic, — evnen he destroying angel 
 has passed the highway of nations ahv.. .he barriers of the 
 north, and has received his commission and commenced his 
 work in the great city of our land, — who does not feel that 
 it is time to proclaim a fast, — to convoke the nation, — to 
 acknowledge the hand of God, — to put away all evil-doing, — 
 and supplicate mercy of the God who spared Nineveh, and 
 would have spared even Sodom, if there had been only ten 
 righteous persons to pray for it ? — especially when the visita- 
 tion finds us so eminently fitted for destruction, — our Sabbath 
 falling before cupidity, — the government of God before infidel- 
 ity, — and national morality before temptation, — while from 
 abroad, and at home, masses of ignorance, and filth, and crime 
 are rising up in our cities, to mock Heaven, and serve as the 
 conductors of his burning indignation. Clericus. 
 
 EDWIN BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 For two years from the 20th of June, 1831, 
 the Courier was published in the name of Joseph T. 
 & Edwin Buckingham, as joint editors. Such an 
 association had in fact existed for nearly three years ; 
 but the son being a minor, the public recognition of it 
 was delayed till he should arrive at the age of twenty- 
 one. He wrote much for the paper, and, by his labors, 
 added much to its popularity and circulation. It may 
 look like the indulgence of paternal pride to exhibit 
 specimens of his writing, or to speak of their literary 
 merit ; but when the works of other co-operators are 
 introduced, neither justice nor propriety seems to 
 demand that he should be excluded from the rank of 
 assistants. From the mass of his juvenile productions, 
 the following articles are selected : — 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 55 
 
 COMFORTS OF THE SEASON. 
 The night, to the great mass of mankind, is the season of 
 relaxation, recreation and enjoyment. How delightful, after 
 the business of the day, to ride a few miles in the country, 
 and breathe the atmosphere pregnant with health and fresh 
 ness, and fragrant with the " sweet and wholesome odor of 
 the new mown hay ; " — to promenade the mall and common, 
 or to linger on the free bridge to catch the invigorating salt 
 sea gale j — or even to recline on one's own parlor sofa, and 
 dream of rest or indulge imagination with an antepast of the 
 joys of independence ! How happy he, who 
 
 When Evening kind, with blushes cools the air, 
 The steer resigns his yoke, the hind his care, 
 The clouds aloft with golden edgings glow, 
 And falling dews refresh the flowers below, — 
 
 can lay aside his labor, smooth his care-wrinkled brow, restore 
 the waste of physical and intellectual power, and prepare to 
 meet the duties and the employments of another day, with 
 renewed relish and invigorated faculties. Ah! happy indeed! 
 whispers a responsive sigh, rising from the prostrated soul of 
 a diurnal editor. 0, how happy ! echoes from every compositor 
 in the printing-office, while pressmen, boys, and carriers join 
 the universal chorus. 
 
 Our comforts, — we speak individually, but we trust that we 
 touch a chord, which vibrates in sympathy in other bosoms, — 
 our comforts, thanks to the Postmaster-General, and those who 
 have made such sad innovations upon the mail arrangements, 
 are of quite a different character. Our comforts during the 
 dog-days, with the mercury ranging from 80° to 100°, have 
 consisted, from three to five, P. M. in endeavors to postpone an 
 entire dissolution of our materiality, or to preserve the jelly 
 to which flesh, blood, and bones have been reduced, from total 
 evaporation. At five we begin to look anxiously for the mails ; 
 and this delightful state of expectation, suspense, and disap- 
 pointment, continues till six, seven, and sometimes till eight 
 o'clock. From this time forward to an indefinite period, we 
 sweat by lamp-light, with pen, scissors, and paste ; sometimes 
 
56 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 relieved by a kind neighbor, who comes to inquire if there is 
 any news, and good-naturedly to prolong our pleasant employ- 
 ment to as late an hour in the night as possible As to the 
 operatives in the printing-office, they (happy fellows !) im- 
 mersed in a compound of light, and smoke, and heat, issuing 
 from forty or fifty lamps, — windows shut, to keep the wind 
 (if there should happen to be a breeze in motion) from extin- 
 guishing the blaze, — amuse themselves with putting in type 
 what we may have manufactured by the help of the triple 
 machinery above mentioned. In addition to this, which is a 
 positive recreation to them, they have a comparative pleasure in 
 translating the mysterious hieroglyphics of an advertisement, 
 or deciphering the pot-hook characters of a communication, 
 brought in at nine o'clock, the author of which is very anxious 
 that it should appear next day to further some project in which 
 he may have an interest, but which is of no concern to us or 
 the public in general. But the superlative comfort is enjoyed 
 the next morning, when some whole-souled customer has dis- 
 covered an error in his advertisement, and comes to salute 
 the whole force of the establishment, editor, compositors, 
 pressmen, and devil, with a few gratuitous damns, for a figure 
 changed, a letter turned upside down, or possibly for an 
 advertisement omitted, which, on examination, happens to 
 be inserted exactly according to his direction. 
 
 We have enjoyments, too, coming from another quarter. 
 The mass of matter to be prepared after the arrival of the 
 mails, and the advertisements left about the same time, have 
 necessarily detained the press beyond the departure of the 
 mails, and consequently the papers of the next morning lie 
 in the post office twenty-four hours, and this produces com- 
 plaints from subscribers, who think they are neglected. Some 
 of them get vexed by a repetition of what they are pleased to 
 consider as carelessness on our part, and send us letters 
 threatening a withdrawal of their patronage, and perhaps 
 insinuating, in a very gentle and respectful manner, that if 
 we know our duty, we have no desire to perform it. 
 
 The consummation of our comforts, not the hundredth part 
 of which have we yet told, is when the collector returns at 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 57 
 
 twelve o'clock, M. with a meagre and beggarly account of 
 moneys collected, — a profusion of excuses from our best 
 subscribers, whose bills we thought would be paid at sight, — 
 and a handful of bills, good for nothing but to be laid up 
 as memorials of the scrupulousness with which some people 
 observe the maxim, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." 
 If it should happen that we have not a note to pay for rent, 
 ink, types, or paper, before the banks close, we lose, for that 
 day, the rare comfort of running, under a scorching sun, to all 
 our friends, to borrow the wherewithall to pay said note, and 
 the still rarer satisfaction of finding that most of our friends 
 are in the same predicament. 
 
 Such, gentle reader, are some of the editorial comforts of 
 the season. The colors are faint and the sketch imperfect ; 
 and if you would know the whole, you must become an editor 
 yourself. If you are an advocate for the American System, 
 you will " speak comfort to our weary hearts" by subscribing 
 for the Courier and persuading your neighbor to go and do 
 likewise ; and by believing that when we give you a paper 
 not quite so interesting as you expect, the fault is not in our 
 intention, but in circumstances beyond our control. If you 
 are an Anti-American-System-man, you will, of course, place 
 our list of comforts to the credit of the " accursed tariff," and 
 
 bid us " go to the ," where we are sure that, but for that, 
 
 both you and ourselves would have gone by this time. 
 September 5, 1828. 
 
 MARCH OF MIND. 
 
 As every man is well satisfied with himself, his own age, 
 — era we mean, — may seem also the best ; for it has the 
 necessary connection with that respectable being, himself. The 
 circles of selfishness are concentric, but they are less distinct 
 as they are more distant from the great centre. If you cast a 
 stone into the placid waters, you may see the figure illustrated. 
 The circles nearest the stone will be high and swelling, — 
 while their force and fury will decrease as they recede. So 
 it is with the great principle that attaches a man so strongly 
 to every thing that appertains to himself. His own dog, 
 
58 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 though but a poor one, is, in the proprietor's estimation, a 
 more respectable brute than the greyhound of his neighbor. 
 His geese are more beautiful than another's swans ; and as to 
 his children, there can be no comparison between them and 
 the offspring of less favored parents. Even thus may it be 
 with his own era. He lives in an age when old prejudices 
 are forgotten, and all things have become new and good. 
 
 We look back on the dark ages with horror, for there were 
 then few newspapers or novels, and no blue-stockings at all. 
 Women were then the themes and not the minstrels We 
 reprobate the times when each man took the administration of 
 justice into his own hand, and cared little for jury or judge. 
 We think, perhaps, that these were but dull times, when there 
 were no political parties in a state to hold the balance of 
 power, and to abuse each other, as became true patriots. 
 There were no banks then, and, of course, no pleasant notes 
 became due at frequent intervals to give an impulse to 
 stagnant life, and to accelerate the tardy flight of time 
 between the making thereof and the maturity. There were 
 in those days, heroes, and the name has descended to us, 
 though the race is as much extinct as that of the mammoth. 
 We have, however, one, whom his worshipers call hero, as 
 the worshipers in some Hindoo temples call their hideous 
 long-eared idol a god. 
 
 Finally, we live in an age in which it is very pleasant 
 and profitable to live, — great discoveries are making in the 
 physical and moral world ; — of course, we are growing wiser 
 and better, and all of us are disposed to commend the present 
 above the past, — to follow joyfully in the March of Mind. 
 
 THE SEASON. 
 
 The worst description of weather is your muggy It 
 
 is not pleasant, in such times as the present, to be, like 
 Hamlet, " too much i' the sun," when the blood, under the 
 coolest circumstances, is like liquid fire, and the face like a 
 burning coal. If such are the heats of the temperate zone, 
 how can men live between the tropics ? Were this weather to 
 last, how temperate we should become ! for the fire of the 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 59 
 
 atmosphere would be enough for a toper without the burning 
 of alcohol. A day of such weather is a homily twenty- 
 four hours long in favor of temperance, and it preaches 
 effectually. 
 
 The principle, however, that falls like a paralysis on the 
 human body, and disposes the mind to somnolent images and 
 the eyes to a siesta, gives greater activity to all the agents of 
 annoyance. The serpent is more swift and venomous, the 
 dog more rabid and poisonous, and the insects have more 
 sting and buzz. We are not only roasted, but we are devoured 
 before we are well done. A mosquito is a small insect, but a 
 great evil, — and a bed-bug is a little thing, but a giant in 
 mischief. The insect is beyond the reach of process, unless 
 you catch him in the act ; but the bug may be always taken 
 and dealt with according to equity and law, or rather according 
 to justice, for equity is slow and law uncertain. 
 
 Who can follow a train of thought while his mind is oozing 
 out from every pore in his body ? It is a time when any man 
 may "see what fat he's got," to borrow a phrase from the 
 ballad of Bill Jones, — and, to take another form of speech 
 from the kitchen, he will find but little scraps left. The very 
 extremity of misery has put us in a merry mood ; but it is 
 barbarous to make honest men laugh in such weather. 
 
 REMEDY FOR BAD RULERS. 
 
 John Randolph predicted that the presidential purple would 
 not fall again upon the shoulders of a gentleman. Perhaps it 
 will not, if the last precedent is to establish the principle. Yet 
 the people generally act right, where they act at all. The 
 mischief is, that when much is at stake, in the way of 
 principle, they stay at home and mind what they call their 
 own business, without reflecting that the public interest is not 
 only their own business but their private interest. It is every 
 man's duty to have an opinion, to express it and to act after 
 it. We should have better public officers, were there a fine as 
 heavy as that for military delinquencies upon all absentees 
 from the polls. In a district of five thousand voters, one 
 thousand stay at home, and each individual says, What can 
 
60 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 I do at the election ? it is but one vote, and that will not 
 change the result. Now these very patriots, that love their 
 own barns better than their neighbors' houses, (as Hotspur 
 says,) hold in their hands the balance of power, (that mysterious 
 agency,) and can put good men into office, unless they prefer 
 the bad. Yet they leave a franchise, that they would bleed 
 for were it invaded, to be exercised by violent partizans, and 
 restless, dissatisfied spirits, who have every thing to gain 
 from confusion and nothing from quiet. It is doubtful, if 
 they " manage these things better in France," but we ought 
 to transact them better here. 
 
 To conclude, — and with a truism, —there is little hope of 
 our being well governed till we depute better men to do us 
 that service. 1831. 
 
 SIGNS AND WONDERS. 
 
 Almost the only subject of conversation, and the most 
 common one for paragraphs, for the last two days, has been 
 the wonderful appearances in the heavens. Those who claim 
 the right to pester society with their garrulous nothings, have 
 been 
 
 Prophesying, with accents terrible, 
 
 Of dire combustion and confused events, 
 
 New hatched to the woful times ; 
 
 and many others who have suffered their fears to sway their 
 reason, begin to look pale at the novel movements of the 
 celestial machinery. One editor tells us, that the sun in 
 Virginia has been of a silver whiteness, shorn of his rays of 
 dazzling brightness, so that the eye could bear to gaze upon 
 his glory ; that spots were upon his side ; and that anon the 
 light became of a greenish hue, until obscured by clouds. 
 Another paper in the same state says, the sun has become of a 
 pale blue, and that he looks more like our satellite, the moon, 
 than like his own supernal glory. Another editor observed 
 the change, and adds that, on the previous night, " The falls 
 of the river roared more loudly than usual, and had a sound 
 as if the banks of the basin had broken down, and the waters 
 were rushing through in a thundering cataract." A New-York 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 61 
 
 editor compares the color to that of a Brazilian emerald, and 
 says, the great orb " seemed to have left the skies, and to 
 hang in our own atmosphere, suspended like a balloon at no 
 very great distance from the earth." Others have observed 
 that the moon partakes of these lack-lustre colors, — as it is 
 but fair that she should, as she borrows her light. Others 
 have seen the planet Venus, hung on the horns of the moon 
 like a silver tassel, while the moon herself, through a telescope, 
 " exhibited all the asperities of mountains of ice." Upon these 
 marvelous appearances one editor remarks, that u It was a 
 spectacle, such as we have never seen before ; " another 
 thinks it " a novelty of rare occurrence ; " and a third is 
 curious to know the " cause of this unusual departure from 
 the ordinary course of nature." 
 
 "We might add to the above some account of the singular 
 appearance, on Sunday evening, of a waving dark line upon 
 the clear sky, running from the zenith towards the south-west. 
 And yet it was not like the mark of a pencil on the heavens, 
 but more resembled a fissure in the magnificent ceiling, 
 requiring little fancy to enlarge it, and expose the myriads 
 of cherubim filling the heavens with the melody of their 
 instruments. 
 
 One cannot but smile at the superstitious folly of the day, 
 as he hears the unprofitable gossiping of the wonderers at 
 these celestial phenomena. Although, perhaps, no man may 
 know the hour of the final visitation, yet there is no particular 
 reason for supposing that w r e, of this generation, shall see the 
 opening of the seventh seal, and hear the sound of the seventh 
 trumpet. We are not worthy of these things. Man is yet too 
 far from the perfection to which reason and philosophy assure 
 us he may attain, to hope for the millennial blessings. 
 
 On the other hand, little as science has taught us, (and but 
 the door of her temple is opened,) we believe she has given 
 man a key to greater mysteries than these atmospheric 
 wonders. She has taught us that they are a part of the 
 thousand phenomena of the natural world, which in ancient 
 times excited the apprehension of the ignorant j and it is time 
 we had learned from her instructions how presumptuous it is 
 
62 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 to look for the interposition of higher powers in our destinies ; 
 for nothing can be more certain, than that man must work out 
 for himself the path to his own inheritance. We do not act 
 like intelligent beings when gazing in stupid wonder at that 
 which is to-day incomprehensible, and which will be to- 
 morrow as simple as the lesson of a child. The world was 
 created in magnificence, for the admiration of its inhabitants, 
 but not to excite their fears ; and its beauties were bestowed 
 for a far nobler purpose, — to incite better feelings in the 
 heart, wiser workings in the mind, and infinitely holier aspira- 
 tions. If we become accustomed to the planets in their courses, 
 and forget the purposes of their and our creation, some change 
 in natural appearances is necessary to remind us that 
 
 Not the smallest orb which we behold, 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the one-eyed cherubims ; 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls ; 
 But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. 
 August 23, 1831. 
 
 NEWSPAPERIALS. 
 Since the sun has changed his pea-green traveling habit 
 for his ordinary garments, and the moon has turned a corner 
 with the month, the newspapers have become as dry as the 
 atmosphere is damp. They are absolutely a drug, a very 
 nauseous compound of stolidities, originally prepared by 
 Messrs. Calhoun, Eush, Ingham, Berrien, and company, but 
 now retailed in small quantities in every corner of the country ; 
 and where it not for the necessity of knowing what unfortunate 
 people marry and die from day to day, they would not be worth 
 opening." When the sky falls," says the proverb, "we shall 
 catch larks ; " were it paragraphs, what a harvest we should 
 have had within a few days ! But all common sources seem 
 to be exhausted. A suicide is a rare occurrence j we have 
 heard of none w 7 orth recording, since a hopeful youth lately 
 shot himself after regaling upon the " Sorrows of Werter," 
 which edifying book was found in his possession. There is 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 63 
 
 no such thing as a coup de soleil, — for his majesty of day does 
 not strike as hard as in times past, or men have grown too 
 wise to trust their bare heads in his presence. Cold water 
 does nothing towards helping the printer, — for every graduate 
 of the infant schools has learned to " hold the pump-handle 
 three minutes, before drinking/"' according to the instruction 
 of certain meddlesome, mischievous, paragraph-destroying 
 newspapers. Even the foreign channels are scoured by the 
 Peace Societies, who offer munificent rewards for discovering 
 the best means of stopping our business in battles. In short, 
 we are driven to great straits and despondency, and are willing 
 to go into " retiracy," whenever any body else shall feel dis- 
 posed to give us a fit-out of nine thousand dollars for so doing. 
 August 27, 1831. 
 
 CONSECRATION OF MOUNT AUBURN. 
 
 An unclouded sun and an atmosphere purified by 
 
 the showers of the preceding night, combined to make the day 
 one of the most delightful we ever experienced at this season of 
 the year. It is unnecessary for us to say that the address by 
 Judge Story was pertinent to the occasion, for if the name 
 of the orator were not sufficient, the perfect silence of the 
 multitude, enabling him to be heard with distinctness at the 
 most distant part of the beautiful amphitheatre in which the 
 services were performed, will be sufficient testimony as to its 
 worth and beauty. Neither is it in our power to furnish any 
 adequate description of the effect produced by the music of the 
 thousand voices which joined in the hymn, as it swelled in 
 chastened melody from the bottom of the glen, and, like the 
 spirit of devotion, found an echo in every heart and pervaded 
 the whole scene. 
 
 The natural features of Mount Auburn are incomparable for 
 the purpose to which it is now sacred. There is not in all the 
 untrodden valleys of the west, a more secluded, more natural 
 or more appropriate spot for the religious exercises of the 
 living: we may be allowed to add our doubts whether the 
 most opulent neighborhood of Europe furnishes a spot so 
 singularly appropriate for a "Garden of Graves." 
 
64 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 In the course of a few years, when the hand of taste shall 
 
 have passed over the luxuriance of nature, we may challenge 
 
 the rivalry of the world to produce another such residence for 
 
 the spirit of beauty. Mount Auburn has been but little known 
 
 to the citizens of Boston ; but it has now become holy ground, 
 
 and 
 
 Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain, 
 
 a village of the quick and the silent, where nature throws an air 
 of cheerfulness over the labors of death, — will soon be a place 
 of more general resort, both for ourselves and for strangers, 
 than any other spot in the vicinity. Where else shall we go 
 with the musings of Sadness, or for the indulgence of Grief; 
 where to cool the burning brow of Ambition, or relieve the 
 swelling heart of Disappointment ? We can find no better 
 spot for the rambles of curiosity, health, or pleasure ; none 
 sweeter for the whispers of affection among the living \ none 
 lovelier for the last rest of our kindred. 
 
 September 26, 1831. 
 
 The writer of these trifles received no other 
 advantages of education than such as were afforded 
 by the public schools of Boston. In these he was a 
 pupil from the age of seven years till he was nearly 
 fourteen. In the spring of 1824, he left the English 
 High School, and entered the office of the New- 
 England Galaxy as an apprentice, where he soon 
 became useful as a compositor, and was entrusted 
 with the general arrangement of the columns. In 
 this capacity he remained till the autumn of 1828. 
 He then became an assistant in the editorial and 
 business departments of the Courier. The next two 
 winters he passed in Washington, attending on the 
 proceedings of Congress, writing letters for the Courier 
 and one or two other papers, and occasionally reporting 
 for a paper in Washington. Most of the letters under 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 65 
 
 the head of "Editor's Correspondence," from Septem- 
 ber, 1828, to May, 1832, were written by him.* In 
 August, 1830, he attended the term of the Supreme 
 Court, held at Salem for the trial of the murderers of 
 Capt. Joseph White, — riding home every night in an 
 open carriage ; and here, undoubtedly, he imbibed the 
 seeds of a disease, which eventually terminated his 
 life. In the following month of September, he began 
 a tour to the Western and Southern states, and wrote, 
 during his journey, a series of letters which appeared in 
 the Courier between that date and the next February. 
 Soon after his return, in April, 1831, he made 
 preparation for publishing a Magazine, — a project 
 which had long been a favorite subject of his am- 
 bition, — and engaged the assistance of several popular 
 writers. To the publication of this Magazine and the 
 Courier he gave unremitted attention, and pursued it 
 with unwearied industry, till some time in the following 
 winter. But the disease which he contracted in passing 
 by night over the marshes Between Salem and Boston, 
 in 1830, began to manifest its power over his physical 
 system, by symptoms that could not be misunderstood. 
 He passed three or four months in Washington, but 
 the tyrant Consumption would not be baffled of his 
 victim. Medical skill was exercised only to prove its 
 inefficiency. After all was done that friends and 
 physicians could devise, he was advised to make a 
 voyage to Smyrna. He left Boston on the second of 
 
 * The letters purporting to be from Washington, signed " Moth " and 
 " Cobweb," which occasionally appeared in the Courier, I wrote in my 
 office, — where, influenced by the inspiring clatter of a printing-press, I 
 usually wrote with more facility than in any other place. 
 VOL. II. 5 
 
66 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 October, 1832, in a small brig, commanded by a 
 friend of the family. The voyage was long and 
 boisterous, and he reached the place of his destination, 
 in a condition that convinced him that he had left 
 home only to die among strangers. He left Smyrna 
 in a brig bound for Boston, and died on board, five 
 days before the vessel arrived. The annexed extract 
 from the New-England Magazine for July, 1833, tells 
 the rest of the agonizing tale, and the letters and 
 extract which follow represent (I would fain believe) 
 the true character of the loved and lost, as I am sure 
 they do the sympathies of sincere and priceless friend- 
 ship : — 
 
 RETROSPECTION. 
 
 Chance and change are busy ever ; 
 Man decays 
 
 " Two years have now passed away from the cal- 
 endar of Time since the first number of the New- 
 England Magazine was presented to the public, — a 
 candidate for their approbation, — and with them one 
 of its editors has also passed away from the face of 
 the earth. The intelligence of this event was received 
 while the last sheet of the last number was passing 
 through the press. The period and the occasion seem 
 to demand a brief explanation. 
 
 "The New-England Magazine was the offspring and 
 the property of Edwin Buckingham. In projecting 
 the work, the idea of making money was no part of 
 the consideration. The elder of the editors had pre- 
 viously had sufficient experience in the publication of 
 literary periodicals to enable him to feel how uncertain 
 and delusive are all calculations of that sort. The 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 67 
 
 other was just passing that point in age where the law 
 sets up a distinction between the man and the minor, — 
 ardent, ambitious, active, and panting for a pecuniary 
 independence that should correspond in some measure 
 to the fearless moral and intellectual independence, 
 which had, from the days of childhood, been an 
 imposing and distinctive trait in his character. He 
 had already, for several years, been co-editor of a 
 daily newspaper, — an employment that is usually 
 supposed to demand labor enough, of both mental 
 and physical powers, to relax the assiduity of an 
 ordinarily industrious individual ; but for him some- 
 thing more was needed, — and he sought this, — as 
 a field for improvement in the pleasanter departments 
 of literature, for the cultivation of a better taste, and 
 for the development of faculties, that have no kindred 
 with the noise and bustle of trade and the turbulence 
 of politics. Such was the origin of this Magazine. 
 No promises were made, to win the favor of the 
 public, except that it should be continued for one year, 
 in order that none, who contracted to receive it for 
 that period, should be disappointed. It has not failed 
 to make its appearance on me first day of every 
 month for two years ; consequently no pledge was 
 given that has not been amply redeemed. 
 
 " But he, by whom and for whom the Magazine has 
 existed, is no more. Brief as its term has been, it 
 has yet outlived its parent. In consequence of his 
 declining health, for more than a year the respon- 
 sibility of conducting it has rested solely on the senior 
 editor. It has met with all the favor that was expected, 
 — it has escaped the perils of earliest infancy, and is 
 
68 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 able to go alone. The surviving editor feels that 
 natural affection, as well as duty to its generous 
 friends, will not permit him to desert it now. It will, 
 therefore, be continued by him. 
 
 " To gratify the curiosity of some of the friends of 
 the Magazine, it may be proper to mention, that the 
 political essay under the title of ' United States,' in 
 No. 1, — the original papers, entitled 'Letter on 
 Orthography,' in No. 2, — 'The First Day of April,' 
 in No. 10, — and l A New Chaper in Natural History,' 
 in No. 12, together with most of the Literary Notices 
 in the first eight numbers, were written by the 
 deceased editor. In the same numbers, also, the 
 matter arranged under Politics and Statistics, Univer- 
 sities and Colleges, Deaths, and Miscellanies was 
 arranged and epitomized by him. 
 
 " But a brief record and a passing remark remain to 
 be added. Edwin Buckingham was born in Boston, 
 June 26, 1810, and died on board the brig Mermaid, 
 May 18, 1833. His funeral rites were performed by 
 an American sailor, in the presence of an unlearned 
 but kind-hearted crew of foreigners ; and his remains 
 were committed to the bosom of the Atlantic ocean, 
 which must be his grave and his monument, till time 
 shall be no longer. Of the character of a son it does 
 not become a father to speak ; but he would wrong a 
 parent's feeling, — nay, he would be less than man, — 
 if he did not acknowledge, with deep respect, the 
 sympathy of cotemporaries, old and young. 
 
 Could Honor's voice provoke the silent dust, 
 
 could the regrets of friends and the kind sensibilities 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 69 
 
 of less familiar acquaintance tempt the deep to surren- 
 der up its treasures, — 
 
 Though Love itself had ceased to Heaven to pray, 
 
 And Grief had wept its fill, and Hope turned sick away, — 
 
 then might the dead revive, and the living cease to lay 
 it to his heart. 
 
 " But why should this be ? The prison-wall of mor- 
 tality is dissolved ; he has tasted the wormwood and 
 the gall ; the bitterness of death is passed, and ' ages 
 of happiness are bursting on the soul.' Why should 
 bereaved survivers wish to fix again upon earth that 
 eye, which has already ( caught the vision of God ? ' 
 Who would turn back the footsteps of him, whose 
 ' march of eternity is begun ? ' " J. T. B. 
 
 E. B. 
 
 Spare him one little week, Almighty Power ! 
 Yield to his Father's house his dying hour ; 
 Once more, once more let them, who held him dear, 
 But see his face, his faltering voice but hear ; 
 We know, alas ! that he is marked for death, 
 But let his Mother watch his parting breath ; 
 let him die at. home ! 
 
 It could not be : 
 At midnight, on a dark and stormy sea, 
 Far from his kindred and his native land, 
 His pangs unsoothed by tender "Woman's hand, 
 The patient victim in his cabin lay, 
 And meekly breathed his blameless life away. * 
 
 "Wrapped in the raiment that it long must wear, 
 His body to the deck they slowly bear : » 
 
70 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 How eloquent, how awful in its power, 
 The silent lecture of Death's sabbath hour ! 
 One voice that silence breaks — the prayer is said, 
 And the last rite man pays to man is paid : 
 The plashing waters mark his resting-place, 
 And fold him round in one long, cold embrace ; 
 Bright bubbles for a moment sparkle o'er, 
 Then break, to be, like him, beheld no more ; 
 Down, countless fathoms down, he sinks to sleep, 
 With all the nameless shapes that haunt the deep. 
 
 Rest, Loved One, rest, —beneath the billow's swell, 
 Where tongue ne'er spoke, where sunlight never fell ; 
 Eest, — till the God who gave thee to the deep, 
 Rouse thee, triumphant, from the long, long sleep. 
 And You, whose hearts are bleeding, who deplore 
 That ye must see the Wanderer's face no more, 
 Weep, — he was worthy of the purest grief ; 
 Weep, — in such sorrow ye shall find relief; 
 While o'er his doom the bitter tear ye shed, 
 Memory shall trace the virtues of the dead ; 
 These cannot die — for you, for him they bloom, 
 And scatter fragrance round his ocean-tomb. 
 
 Charles Sprague. 
 
 Brinley Place, Roxbury, May 26, 1833. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 It was with the deepest sorrow and grief, that I learned, last 
 evening, of the irreparable loss you and your afflicted family 
 had sustained, in the death of your estimable and excellent 
 son. I wish it were in my power to pour in the balm of 
 consolation, on an occasion so heart-rending and melancholy. 
 But who can give comfort in an hour so afflictive ? who can 
 cheer up a fond parent's heart, when his darling child has been 
 for ever removed from his sight ? 
 
 But still you have the satisfaction of reflecting en his 
 virtues, his amiable disposition, — the high reputation he 
 maintained for talent, intelligence, and all those endearing 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. i 1 
 
 qualities, which made him the beloved of your hearts, and the 
 respected of his numerous friends. 
 
 I was strongly, ardently attached to him, and had looked 
 forward with pleasure to his return, in health and prosperity, 
 to run his promising career, in usefulness and honor j but 
 " Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards,'' and we 
 repose on the belief that we shall all meet in climes beyond 
 the skies, where there will be no more mourning or cause of 
 sorrow. To all your family I offer and commingle the sympa- 
 thies of a sincere friend to your ever to be lamented Edwin. 
 
 With assurances of esteem and the most friendly salutations, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 H. A. S. Dearborn.' 
 J. T. Buckingham, Esq. 
 
 Charlestovm, Mass. May 27, 1833. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Allow me to express to you<my sincere and cordial sympathy 
 in the sorrow you feel at the loss of your son, — a sympathy 
 in which my wife unites with me. He had deeply interested 
 both of us, particularly as we witnessed the state of his 
 health at Washington. I ever considered him a young man 
 of uncommon powers, of estimable dispositions, and highly 
 exemplary character, — one, in short, calculated to be a 
 comfort and pride to his parents and friends, and a model for 
 other young men. His premature decline and death are truly 
 painful, and furnish a very touching instance of the vanity of 
 human hopes. It must be a great consolation to you that you 
 gave him so many proofs of your affection, while he lived, 
 and spared nothing that could promote his restoration. Let 
 us hope that, though he has finished his last journey, — and 
 with it the great journey of life, where he could not have 
 the solace of your presence and parental assiduities, — he is 
 gone to that happy region, from which even you cannot wish 
 him to return. 
 
 I remain, dear Sir, with sincere friendship, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 E. Everett. 
 J. T. Buckingham, Esq. 
 
72 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Extract from a description of Mount Auburn, by the 
 Hon. Joseph R. Chandler, published in the United 
 States Gazette : — 
 
 My companion drew my attention to a monument 
 
 far beyond us. We approached it. It was a monument, — but 
 not a grave ; — he whose death was there commemorated, was 
 not gathered beneath the marble that rose to his name. The 
 surging wave of the Atlantic beat far above him, and ocean's 
 winds had sung his requiem. I knew him well, and the tear 
 that I dashed aside was less given to the memory of extensive 
 worth, than to a reminiscence of some casual movement or 
 observation, something which denoted him truly. Never was 
 promise fuller, never Were hopes more justly entertained, never 
 was parental affection more fully repaid, and never parent's 
 heart more deeply smitten. It was but as yesterday that I saw 
 him with boyhood's freshness and manhood's judgement, beck- 
 oned up by his seniors to counsel with them. I saw then, and 
 approved, a parent's pride, and envied the parent's feelings ; 
 and I thought of the honors to be gathered by him in after 
 years, when I should have departed on my course, and he 
 should have recorded with partial friendship, what good of me 
 he might have wished, if not have found ; and now I stood 
 weeping, that he had passed away with all my visions of his 
 usefulness and glory unrealized, but oh! not undeserved, — 
 and my heart went forth to hold its concert of grief with him 
 who had treasured up his earthly hopes in that dead one's 
 coming greatness, and had seen his garnered joys scattered 
 and wasted by death. I never spoke to him of that sympathy, 
 and never uttered the name of the dead in his presence. We 
 clasped hands when we met, as if in token of joy at reunion ; 
 but we looked around, and he whose smile was wont to gladden 
 our meeting, was not there. We pressed each other's hand in 
 silence, and turned to hide a tear that started at the magic 
 touch of memory. Hallowed be the rest of the dead ; and the 
 bright track which his virtues illumined, may it invite others 
 to a course as correct, if not as brilliant. I loved him well, 
 
THE BOSTON- COURIER. 73 
 
 and appreciated his powers of mind, though I might not share 
 
 them, — 
 
 For greater gifts were his, a happier doom, 
 A brighter genius, and a purer heart, 
 A fate more envied, and an earlier tomb. 
 
 In consequence of the sickness and death, to which 
 reference has just been made, the responsibility 
 of conducting the New-England Magazine devolved 
 upon me, and this labor I performed till November, 
 1834, the publication of the fortieth number. Of all 
 the literary enterprizes I had undertaken, this was the 
 most trying. The preparation of the matter embraced 
 under the head of Monthly Record, (to which I had 
 previously given but little attention,) occupied much 
 time, and, not unfrequently, time that should have 
 been devoted to rest from the unceasing labor of 
 conducting a daily newspaper. To fill up twenty 
 pages, monthly, , with an abstract of the proceedings 
 of Congress, and the political affairs and statistics 
 of the United States and the individual states, — 
 miscellaneous items of intelligence abridged and 
 condensed, — literary and obituary notices, &c. &c. 
 was a task which, often, imperfectly as it was exe- 
 cuted, trespassed upon hours that belonged to repose, 
 and was performed at the expense of comfort and 
 health. Some aid in preparing notices of books was 
 obtained from one or two friends, but this aid was 
 not constant nor to be relied upon with certainty ; and, 
 consequently, it was indispensable that I should be 
 prepared against the contingency of disappointment. 
 To read all that was sent by anonymous writers, (to 
 say nothing of the productions of some that were 
 presented by the writers in person,) was not the least 
 
74 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 irksome duty that my position demanded. It was 
 unpleasant and profitless to me, as the result was vex- 
 atious and unsatisfactory to them. A dollar a page 
 was offered for such original communications as might 
 be accepted and published ; and this, insignificant as 
 the sum may seem to those whose talents and popu- 
 larity are in demand at a much higher price, brought 
 communications from almost every state in the Union. 
 Many were rejected, and the disappointments of the 
 writers caused many bitter complaints and angry de- 
 nunciations. The decision of a critic, who rejects an 
 article, on which the writer has set the seal of his own 
 approbation, is always ungraciously received. Most of 
 the writers, whose communications were published, 
 accepted the stipulated compensation ; but it was de- 
 clined by a few, who, from personal friendship, were 
 desirous that the Magazine should gain a permanent 
 establishment, and were willing to promote its success 
 by gratuitous contributions. My own labor was not 
 bestowed exclusively on the Monthly Record. Many 
 of the original papers owe their paternity to me ; but 
 it would not feed my personal vanity to place my 
 mark upon them, and they are left to share the common 
 lot of unacknowledged productions. Worn out with the 
 double duty of conducting a monthly magazine and a 
 daily newspaper, a proposal to purchase the Magazine, 
 from Dr. Samuel G. Howe and John O. Sargent, Esq. 
 was acceded to, and it was transferred to those gentle- 
 men in November, 1834. 
 
 In announcing that my connection with the Maga- 
 zine, as editor and proprietor, was dissolved, it was 
 impossible to conceal a sad and sorrowful emotion ; — 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 75 
 
 an intercourse of several years' growth was about 
 to terminate, — an intercourse connected with pleasant 
 as well as painful reminiscences on my part, and, as 
 I hoped, unattended by the indulgence of disagree- 
 able remembrances on the part of others. I gladly 
 embraced a belief that the labor bestowed on the 
 Magazine had produced something to redeem the 
 laborer from utter forgetfulness. The pain of leave- 
 taking would have been trebly sharpened without 
 the confiding persuasion of a still-enduring communion 
 through the channel of memory. What else is all- 
 dreaded annihilation, but the termless suspension of 
 that commerce, which exchanges thought for thought, 
 and draws soul to soul by the recorded memorials 
 of courteous and affectionate sympathy ? 
 
 For the favor with which the Magazine was origin- 
 ally received by the public, and the respectful and 
 nattering notices it received from cotemporaries of the 
 press, it would have been churlish to withhold an 
 acknowledgement of gratefulness and thanks. It met 
 with as much approbation as should satisfy an ordinary 
 desire of popularity. When every avenue to public 
 favor is crowded with eager and aspiring rivals, he 
 who w r ould avoid the imputation of overweening vanity 
 or disgusting conceit, must be content with that share 
 of the spoils which the impartial tribunal of popular 
 opinion is pleased to assign to his efforts. My farewell 
 to the subscribers, " for one, for all, and ever," closed 
 with language like the following : — 
 
 " If, in the execution of the power belonging to an 
 editor, contributions of merit have been rejected, or 
 improper decisions on the literary productions of the 
 
76 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 times have been promulgated, the procedure was the 
 effect of erroneous judgement, and not of wayward 
 design or malignancy of purpose. If, in attempting' to 
 expose the quackeries of authorship, to ridicule the 
 pretensions of the coxcomb, to put down the arrogance 
 of conceited dullness, and to correct the absurdities of 
 a tasteless affectation, the dignity of the critic has been 
 sacrificed to the gratification of spleen or caprice, a 
 suitable punishment must unavoidably follow the trans- 
 gression, and we shall be the last to complain of the 
 operation of retributive justice. To look for unquali- 
 fied approbation, would be idle. Consciousness of 
 imperfection in our most successful efforts reconciles 
 us to admonition ; we would not resent even unde- 
 served rebuke from the voice of friendship and good- 
 nature. The frowns of malice and the sneers of envy 
 have done us no injury ; and, as they have not been 
 sufficient to provoke, a retaliation, they shall not de- 
 prive us of our privilege of quitting the stage with a 
 serene temper and undisturbed indifference. 
 
 " The faults of this work, thus far, are attributable 
 to the subscriber. Its merits, if there be any, must be 
 shared with others. We would, if we were authorized, 
 enumerate a list of contributors, whose names would 
 add lustre to any periodical publication.* The applause 
 
 * There may be no impropriety now in revealing the names of the writers 
 referred to. The Rev. N. L. Frothingham wrote the article in the first number, 
 " On the Consideration due to the Mechanic Arts ; " — " The Progress of Ex- 
 aggeration," " Curiosity baffled," and the biographical notice of President 
 Kirkland were written by the Hon. Edward Everett: " — "Statesmen, their 
 rareness and importance, Daniel Webster," by Judge Story 5 — "The late 
 Joseph Natterstrom," by William Austin of Charlestown 5 — Letters " On the 
 Pine Arts," " Literary Portraits," and many other articles, by George S. Ilil- 
 lard ; — "The Limping Philosopher," by Richard Ilildreth ; — "The School- 
 master," by Professor Longfellow ; — " Our Birds," by Samuel Kettell ; — 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 77 
 
 it obtained on its first appearance, and the support 
 and protection it received through the earliest period 
 of its existence, were won by the labors of a young 
 man, to whom, as he is removed from the reach of 
 praise or reproach, an allusion may be pardoned. 
 1 The sea his body, heaven Ms spirit holds? * But 
 the object of this valedictory address would be but half 
 accomplished, and injustice would be done to the 
 memory of the loved and lost, were this acknowledge- 
 ment omitted. While penning these lines, we feel the 
 awful but invisible presence of the departed, mysteri- 
 ously and affectionately calling for this recognition of 
 his claim, — this last appeal to the remembrance of 
 friends he^ respected and loved. In his name as well 
 as our own, — for him, whose youthful pulse beat 
 strong at every thought of his country's fame, whose 
 manly heart swelled high at the anticipated prosperity 
 of his loved New-England, whose mental faculties 
 expanded and brightened with the hope of adding to 
 the reputation and sharing in the glory of his native 
 city, — his surviving partner and representative bids 
 farewell to the readers and to the pages of the New- 
 England Magazine." 
 
 " Hebrew Poetry," the " Morality of Macbeth," " Folly Dancing on the Bible," 
 and other articles, by the Rev. Leonard Withington ; — "Letters from Ohio," 
 by Timothy Walker, of Cincinnati ; — contributions, too numerous to be par- 
 ticularized, by Gen. II. A. S. Dearborn, Oliver W. Holmes, William J. Snel- 
 ling, John A. Bolles, Rev. William Croswell, Miss H. F. Gould, Dr. Samuel G. 
 Howe, John 0. Sargent, Epes Sargent, Park Benjamin, Silas P. Holbrook ; 
 Joseph R. Chandler and Mathew Carey of Philadelphia ; Dr. B. Waterhouse 
 and Sidney Willard of Cambridge; — Rev. A. P. Peabody, then a resident 
 graduate of Harvard College ; — beside many, whose names I am not able to 
 recall, but whose contributions may have been equally valuable and popular. 
 
 * Part of the inscription on a cenotaph at Mount Auburn, erected to the 
 memory of Edwin Buckingham, by members of the Massachusetts Charitable 
 Mechanic Association, of which he was a member. 
 
78 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 SILAS PINCKNEY HOLBROOK, 
 
 Who has been before mentioned as a correspondent 
 of the New-England Galaxy, contributed liberally to 
 the columns of the Courier. He was born at Wrent- 
 ham in the county of Norfolk, June 1, 1'797. He was 
 prepared for college at Day's academy in that town, 
 except for a few months, in which he pursued his 
 preparatory studies under the direction of the Rev. 
 Mr. Williams at South- Wrentham. He was graduated 
 at Brown University in 1815, and studied law in Boston 
 with the late Hon. William Sullivan, and in Philadelphia 
 with Mr. Meredith. In 1822, he commenced the prac- 
 tice of the law in Boston, (having previously visited 
 South-Carolina and the Western states,) but soon after 
 removed to Medfield, in the neighborhood of his native 
 town. His time was divided, in great part, between 
 Medfield and Boston, although he occasionally visited 
 his relatives in South-Carolina, and made a voyage to 
 Europe, where he passed a few months in visiting 
 England, France, and Italy. He left Boston about 
 the middle of March, 1835, for Charleston, S. C. 
 During a long and tedious passage in one of the 
 packets, he caught a severe cold, which caused an 
 irritation of the lungs. He recovered, however, in a 
 great measure, and was about to return to Boston, 
 when he was exposed to a violent shower, which 
 renewed his complaint, and carried him off in a few 
 days. He died on the 27th of May, 1835. Mr. Hoi- 
 brook was one of the most popular correspondents 
 that contributed to the Courier. His various articles, 
 if collected, would fill several volumes. From his 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 79 
 
 numerous contributions, scattered through the files from 
 the beginning of 1828 till just before his death, the 
 following are selected : — * 
 
 " WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS MAN ! " 
 Our hopes are a cheat, and our jt>ys are a dream ; 
 "We are dew on the flowers, we are flies on the stream ; 
 And downward we float, without caution or fear, 
 For the current is smooth, though the cataract is near. 
 
 And sooner with evil than good we comply, 
 For we love for a season, but hate till we die ; 
 "We forgive in our foes any injury past, 
 But those that we injure we pardon the last. 
 
 What is Friendship ? — a wish to make use of our friends ; 
 Ambition ? — bad means to accomplish our ends : 
 "What is Love ? — he will find in his bosom who delves, 
 'T is that ardent affection we feel for ourselves. 
 
 Our Love is all selfish j our Honor is Pride j 
 For many a wretch like a hero has died : 
 Our "Wit is but Malice, and who tries to smother 
 The laugh it excites at the cost of another ? 
 
 Our Reason ; what is it ? — I am blushing for mine, 
 It has led me in many a devious line ; 
 Or, if Reason and Passion blow contrary ways, 
 Pray, which is the impulse the vessel obeys ? 
 
 * Mr. Holbrook was the writer of a series of letters entitled " Letters from 
 a Boston Merchant," — another series, entitled "Recollections of Japan," — 
 another, " Recollections of China," — and a fourth, " Recollections of Turkey," 
 — all of which were published in the Courier. Th.e facts, which formed the 
 basis of these " recollections " were, of course, obtained from books, he having 
 never visited the countries described, except some of those noticed in the 
 " Letters from a Boston Merchant." A year or two before hi3 death, he made 
 a selection from these articles, which he published in a duodecimo volume, 
 under the title of " Sketches by a Traveler." 
 
80 
 
 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Yet high are the hopes of a being so frail, 
 When his eye becomes dim and his cheek waxes p; 
 That his spirit will rise, when the struggle is o'er, 
 Where Love is eternal, and Sin is no more. 
 
 LAMENTATION. 
 
 Lament, my sad friend, for the days that are over, 
 And dread in the future, more ills than the past, — 
 
 For, (as I was once told by a doctor in Dover,) 
 The toughest of grinders to ache are the last. 
 
 had we but lived in the fabulous ages, 
 When men were robust, and contented and true, 
 
 When youth was instructed in virtue by sages, 
 And criminal judges had nothing to do ! — 
 
 Or in those later times that we see in romances, 
 When honor pertained to the brave and the strong, 
 
 When lords for the right periled breaking of lances, 
 Which ladies would smile on, though broke for the 
 wrong ! — 
 
 for that era of Beauty and Banners, 
 
 When minstrels, like us, would win favor and fame ! 
 When, if morals were easy, the better the manners, 
 
 Than in folks, that it might be a libel to name. 
 
 Let us buy a new beaver to wear in the gallery ; 
 
 Let us jest, for 'tis wiser to laugh than to cry ; 
 Get an office, and spend every cent of the salary, 
 
 And be happy to-day, for to-morrow we die. 
 
 "PURPTJREOS SPARGAM FLORES. " 
 
 Wreaths for the Brave ! — for their country that die ! 
 Love shall bend over the spot where they lie ! 
 Honor shall guard the repose of their grave, 
 And Liberty hallow it : — Wreaths for the Brave ! 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 81 
 
 Wreaths for the Wise ! — for them Science shall weep, 
 And Art shall embellish the tomb where they sleep; 
 They lived for the future, their fame never dies, — 
 'Tis uttered in blessings : — Wreaths for the Wise ! 
 
 Wreaths for the Just ! — while the names we revere 
 Of the Faithful and Just that too early are here, 
 Let us copy their life as we honor their dust ; 
 Justice demands from us Wreaths for the Just. 
 
 Wreaths for the True ! — though the garlands we spread 
 May soothe not the rest of the good that are dead ; 
 Yet the names are so dear, and the graves are so few, 
 It gives joy to the living : — Wreaths, wreaths for the True ! 
 
 " TO-MORROW, AND TO-MORROW, AND TO-MORROW." 
 
 ' I intend to be better and wiser To-morrow ; 
 Of the Future one day I may venture to borrow, 
 As the Future will furnish the fund to repay 
 The twenty-four hours, — besides, what is a day ? " 
 
 'T is a life j — if you look at the course of the last, 
 You will see the image of all that is past ; 
 You will see, Mr. Scroggins, the difference, too, 
 Between what you have done and intended to do. 
 
 If your duty To-day you perceive and neglect, 
 
 How great a reform may To-morrow expect ? 
 
 Look back on the past, and pronounce, Scroggins, whether 
 
 A duty delayed is not shirked altogether. 
 
 Hell is paved, saith the Tuscan, with righteous intents ; 
 And if safe 'tis to prophesy future events, 
 We may say that such folks as I, Scroggins, and you, 
 Will give Beelzebub's pavers a great deal to do. 
 
 Whate'er you intend to perform or to pay, 
 
 I counsel you, Scroggins, to do it to-day ; 
 
 Nor drag out a life of dependence and sorrow, — 
 
 The slave of To-day and the dupe of To-morrow. ' 
 
 VOL. II. 6 
 
82 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 STRING BEANS. 
 Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit. 
 
 Days of my youth ! I have left ye behind : 
 'Tis thirty long years since I quitted rny teens, 
 
 Yet Memory nothing recalls to my mind 
 So pleasant as this, — the first mess of String Beans. 
 
 Fortune! what tricks have you played upon me ! 
 What a desert of sorrow and pain intervenes, 
 
 Since I rode the old charger, that little could see, 
 To plough in the corn and the patch of String Beans ! 
 
 Roger! Catherine! where are ye now? 
 
 There's a stone in the church-yard, — I dread what it means ; 
 
 And where is old Dobbin, and where is the cow ? 
 And where (0 my soul !) is the patch of String Beans ? 
 
 1 have rambled through life, with its pleasures and cares, 
 And viewed both its joyous and desolate scenes ; 
 
 Yet I look back, aghast, that so little appears 
 That has given more joy than the patch of String Beans. 
 
 THE MOWER. 
 
 I 'm a father of ploughmen, a son of the soil, 
 
 And my life never tires, for my pleasure is toil j 
 
 There are worse stains to bear than the sweat on the brow, 
 
 And worse things to follow, my friend, than the plough. 
 
 What is Sorrow ? I think such a matter there is, 
 But to me it showed never its ill-looking phiz. 
 What is Want? To be idle, to steal, and to lie. 
 And Sickness ? The doctor can tell you, — not I. 
 
 I suppose 1 must come to the scratch, though, at last, 
 For Time has a scythe that would cut down a mast ; 
 Though now on the borders of threescore-and-ten, 
 Your -corn rs I cut, and can do it again. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 83 
 
 If the best of you willing to try with me feels, 
 Let him strip to the cotton, and look to his heels, — 
 Through the clover and timothy look at my swarth, 
 Like the wake of a frigate, — stand out of my path ! 
 
 FASHION. 
 
 Man, according to an old truism, is an imitating animal ; 
 and the transatlantic biped is very apt to form his actions 
 upon models that exist over the water. There are fashions in 
 all things ; in opinions as well as in dress. Generally, the 
 peculiar customs of a country are founded on some sufficient 
 local reason ; but too often the fashion of one land is introduced 
 into another in which the reason cannot exist. In dress the 
 fashion is pretty well established to be the same throughout 
 Europe and America. There are some little differences, 
 in shape and size, but the garments are the same. The 
 Dutchman's trowsers may swell to a broader size than the 
 Englishman's, and the Quaker's brim occupies more space 
 than the dandy's. The difference is mainly in quantity. 
 
 There are some imported modes of action, however, which 
 editors, as the general censors, and readers as the public, 
 should be held to oppose. In London, the fashionable class 
 are a large and important body, — the fourth estate, at least, 
 in the realm. In that great Babel of abominations, which 
 extends a day's walk along the Thames, it has become a 
 custom of fashion to keep different hours from those which 
 are kept by labor. Fashion rises every day, a little before 
 noon, and midnight is the time, therefore, when it is most 
 awake. At this solemn church-yard hour, the streets are as 
 light as gas can make them, and there is a constant rattle of 
 coaches and throngs of people. A ball, then, would commence 
 in London, at ten at night, if not much later ; and this is no 
 hardship to any who attend it, all of whom get their daily 
 rest after the rising of the sun. This, to use repetition, is 
 in London no hardship ; for it is a common custom. But in 
 Boston it is a hardship, a shame, and a sin. Few people here 
 can live without daily labor of head or hand, and it is most 
 
84 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 preposterous to dress for a ball after nine o'clock in a winter's 
 night. It is just the time when the sufferer should have his 
 book to read an hour before going to bed ; and it is just the 
 season when, if disturbed, he will be most apt to be cynical. 
 Yet he may have an invitation to a route, which is, as he is 
 placed, as imperative as a precept of the chief justice, and he 
 is obliged to hold himself in strait coat and silk stockings, 
 when he longs for slippers and night-gown, or he is bound to 
 be civil when he has a greater tendency to be sleepy. The 
 matron, too, — perhaps the very one who gives this shock to 
 the social system, — has her own daily cares; and probably, 
 on the morning after, has to overlook her help in preparing 
 breakfast at the usual hour of eight ; — an hour when the 
 titled dames of London, whom she aspires to imitate, have 
 hardly retired to their pillows, and whose sleep is not broken 
 till the meridian. 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 There are few employments more dignified than whacking 
 bushes. Cincinnatus is the greatest name in Roman history, 
 only because he was, after his victories, a farmer in a small 
 way, — subsisting chiefly on turnips of his own raising. The 
 old Roman of the present day, also, seems to gain some favor 
 with a part of the public from his agricultural pursuits at the 
 Hermitage. May he have a speedy and a happy return to 
 them ! 
 
 The farmer is a lucky man j he is subject to few cares, 
 diseases, or changes. He holds in fee a certain part of this 
 planet, in the shape of a wedge, or inverted pyramid, running 
 from the surface down to the centre, together with the 
 atmosphere above it ; and if any man should build a tower 
 overhanging his line by a single brick, though a thousand feet 
 in the air, it may be abated as a nuisance. It is a great thing 
 to have a legal and equitable title to a portion of the earth, 
 to cultivate it, and to owe a support to the application of 
 strength, rather than the misapplication of wit. The farmer 
 is independent of all but Providence, — he calls no man 
 master. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 85 
 
 He would not flatter Neptune for his pitchfork. 
 
 He is not only a friend of humanity, but he is kindly disposed 
 towards brutes. An ox is to him in the light of a friend, 
 a cow is a benefactor, and a calf is almost a child. He is 
 clothed by the sheep, and the cosset lamb is a foster-brother of 
 his children, who have a heavy day when their mute friend is 
 sold to the butcher. The farmer has little to buy and much 
 to sell, his means are large and his waste little. He is an 
 especial favorite of Ceres and Pomona, but he cares little for 
 Bacchus, Phoebus and other idlers. 
 
 He puts his hand, and a huge one it is, to the plough, and 
 if he look back, it is in a furrow like the wake of a boat. In 
 May he puts a potato or two in the earth, and in October he 
 digs into the same place and finds a peck of them. In spring 
 he covers with earth three or four kernels of maize, and in 
 autumn he finds ears enough on the spot to furnish the 
 materials for many loaves. He hides in the soil a seed, no 
 bigger than a large bed-bug, and in a few weeks a vine 
 appears with several pumpkins attached to it, of the capacity 
 of four gallons. If the merchant secures to himself a gain of 
 ten dollars in the hundred, happy man is his dole ; if the 
 farmer get not an increase of some hundreds per centum, it is 
 a bad season, and an unfrequent occurrence. 
 
 " O fortunatos nimium," &c. as Virgil has it, or "He 
 would be too happy a dog if he only knew how to estimate 
 his good fortune." But this man, favored of fortune, this 
 cultivator, w r hose reward is a direct consequence of his labor, 
 this Christian, who never trusted Providence in vain, this 
 farmer, who has a deed recorded of a portion of the earth, — a 
 part of the solar system, — a particle of the universe, from 
 which no ejector but death can oust him, and even Small-back 
 cannot injure the title of the heirs, — this ungrateful farmer 
 himself is apt to forget his blessings, and to complain of 
 hardship and 'the times. The times ! what are the times to 
 him, unless the seasons mentioned by the preacher, "A time 
 to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted? " 
 
 He should have no money to borrow and no notes to pay. 
 Now and then a bee may sting him, but he avoids Jack Cade's 
 
86 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 peril from the bee's wax. " Some say," says this popular 
 reformer, " That it is the bee that stings ; but I say it is the 
 bee's wax, for I did but seal a bit of paper, and I have not 
 been mine own man ever since." 
 
 If the farmer has not much thought, the exemption frees 
 him from much care. His countenance is never " sicklied 
 over by the pale cast of thought," but it is round, streaked 
 and ruddy as the sunny side of a pearmain. His hand is 
 hard, but his heart is soft. He his simplicity of character, 
 and that preserves all his virtues, — pickles all his good 
 qualities. 
 
 Eobinson Crusoe excites not our envy ; we sigh not for a 
 " lodge in some vast wilderness ; " our aspirations are for a 
 house with a gable-end, a well with a sweep, and a moss- 
 grown bucket, a dobbin, a dog that answers to the name of 
 Towser, a garden, a farm, a farmer's employment, and a 
 farmer's appetite. 
 May 29, 1834. 
 
 HAY-MAKING. 
 
 Good hay-weather is a joyful season for the farmer, for it 
 calls up all those energies that are apt to slumber over a 
 winter's fire, while the earth is covered with snow. The days 
 are the longest in the year, but they are too short for his 
 labors. If he had the power of Joshua, he would, in a good 
 hay-day, command the sun to stand still. Is there a sight 
 in creation morally and physically so beautiful as a wide 
 meadow, spotted with white shirts, (a mower in all of them,) 
 as the ocean is gemmed with sails, — or an expanse of hay- 
 cocks like scattered Hindoo dwellings ? each are raked and 
 thatched, so that the rain cannot enter. 
 
 There is no prettier implement than a scythe, and there is 
 no better employment than to swing it. It is creditable even 
 to " rake after." There is a moral sublimity in cutting down 
 tall grass, — it partakes of the task of Azrael, — it is a good 
 beginning for a soldier, a general, a hero, — but it would be a 
 better end. 
 
 History is silent as to the implements of Cincinnatus, 
 except his plough, which no doubt turned a respectable 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 87 
 
 furrow; but there is no doubt that the "Old Roman" had a 
 scythe like Time's, that would cut a glorious swarth, and a 
 rake that would turn up a winrow like a range of hills. His 
 pitchfork must have been a model. But the Romans had no 
 newspapers, and therefore few of their advertisements or 
 other familiar matters have reached us. 
 
 The shepherds of Chaldea never watched the skies as our 
 farmers scrutinize them in hay-time. Hay-day is to them 
 pay-day. This is the only time in the year when they have to 
 do the work of thirty days in three. It is the nearest approach 
 their good genius permits them, to the three days of grace, 
 (so hard in fact, though so smooth in sound,) of their city 
 brethren. Do all these city relatives understand the worth of 
 a dollar? Do they know how much labor and trust in Provi- 
 dence go to the raising a bushel of corn ? Do they understand 
 that a farmer gives for a cord of wood, "standing," a matter 
 of two dollars ; that he cuts it, carries it to the city, twenty 
 miles, with "four cattle," supports them and himself two 
 days upon the road, and sells his merchandize, with his labor 
 and that of his cattle, for eight dollars ? 
 
 Are they informed that a son of the soil surrenders himself, 
 soul and body, with all " the thews and sinews of a man," to 
 cut down an acre of grass, toss it about with a fork, gather it 
 with a rake, and load it with a pitchfork, — and all this from 
 the rising to the setting of the sun, — for the consideration of 
 six shillings, — one dollar? Why, the very fatted calf, that 
 seldom bleeds for hospitality on the prodigal's return, brings 
 in the market but about eight dollars, exclusive of his head, 
 which is his best part, like a philosopher's, — and yet house- 
 holders in the city, who never drove the cows to pasture, or 
 milked them at home, — who never churned an hour in their 
 ill-spent lives, will higgle in the market for a cent in a pound 
 of butter, or a quarter of veal ! 
 
 "We have had the two kinds of fortune, and something too 
 much of one. We have stuck type and made hay, — breathed 
 the smoky air of an office, and inhaled the clear, exhilarating 
 gas of the meadows. We have heard the town-crier and the 
 bobalink, — and in spite of the bell, we prefer the bird. 
 
88 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 If any wight less fettered can get away, let him flee from 
 the city to the country. If he carry away the dyspepsia, he 
 will not bring it back if he visit the hay-makers. If he lack 
 appetite, let him carry at noon (the fashionable hour of dining) 
 the dinner to the mowers. He will find half a dozen of them 
 expectant and recumbent under a maple tree. They will 
 welcome his approach with a sincere but compound fervor. 
 They will honor him while they investigate the contents of his 
 basket, — and a huge one it is. If we should be called upon 
 to do this to-morrow, it would be a welcome summons, and, 
 according to Byron, 
 
 We should but do, as we have done. 
 
 dura messorum ilia ! for the appetite of the mowers ! — 
 that immense pan of baked beans vanishes before it, — and 
 the bones of the quarter of lamb are so polished that old 
 Towser declines them. There is nothing left, though much 
 was provided. A hay-maker is thrifty, and wastes nothing, 
 for he considers it not waste to apply things bountifully to 
 their uses, and provisions were made to be consumed, as much 
 as he was born to consume them. 
 July 25, 1834. 
 
 COUNTRY MATTERS. 
 
 Some editors copy our georgics with commendation, — others 
 visit them with censure. But we were born in the bush, and 
 have, therefore, neither fear nor reverence for owls. One (not 
 an owl, but an editor) suggests that we underrate the mental 
 capacities of the furrow-turners, because we praise their bodily 
 prowess, and refers us to their feats of legislation as a proof of 
 their sagacity. But it is a ticklish business to make laws ; it 
 is a trade or science, the complex of all trades and sciences. 
 A legislator cannot have too much knowledge. He must 
 know the past and the present, in foreign countries. A 
 farmer never looks so well as when he has a hand upon the 
 plough j with his huge paw upon the statutes what can he do? 
 It is as proper for a blacksmith to attempt to repair watches, 
 as a farmer, in general, to legislate. Our laws are the monu- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 89 
 
 merits of sages ; the yearly petty alterations, revisions, repeals, 
 and restorations, are the works of bunglers. 
 
 Yet the farmer is a pretty good man j he is not exposed to 
 the devil's cross-fires, or temptations, like other men. If he 
 have not as much thought as Bacon, he has more quiet ; 
 if he have not superior knowledge and refinement, he is 
 " without the ills that should attend it." But he can hate like 
 other men ; he can carry a grudge under his jacket like a 
 viper, though it stings him more than his neighbor. He 
 can array himself on a party, and carry on an obscure but 
 harassing war of opinion. He can circulate a calumny, 
 knowing it to be such, though he would not pass a counterfeit 
 bill. He can judge others by a standard straighter than that 
 by which he measures his own actions. These, however, are 
 traits not of the class, but the genus. They belong to the 
 animal man, whether he dig holes in the soil, or scratch 
 
 crooked lines with a goose quill upon white paper 
 
 June 28, 1834. 
 
 The publication of this article created an excitement, 
 that might truly provoke a laugh at the ridiculous 
 sensitiveness of those small politicians, who are ever 
 ready to make a fuss, whenever they can find ma- 
 terial. At the time of its publication, the Courier was 
 devoted politically to the nomination of Daniel Web- 
 ster as a candidate for the Presidency. The editor 
 was absent from his post for a day, and Mr. Holbrook 
 supplied his place. The article was published (as was 
 very proper) without any indications of its coming 
 'from any other pen than that of the editor. A demo- 
 cratic editor in the interior happened to cast his eye 
 (always searching for a paragraph) on the words 
 " huge paw," and forthwith came out with an article 
 charging upon the Courier an attempt to insult the 
 yeomanry, by comparing the hand of a farmer to the 
 
90 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 paw of a bear. All the papers opposed to Mr. Web- 
 ster took the hint, and the editor was belabored with 
 all the weapons that democratic indignation could find 
 or forge, for this unpardonable sin against the farmers. 
 Instigated by those who knew better, two or three per- 
 sons (very foolishly, though, no doubt, very honestly,) 
 discontinued their subscriptions. One gentleman wrote 
 a very touching appeal to induce me to apologize for 
 the unlucky phrase ; but as I thought it a very harm- 
 less one, I chose to defend rather than disclaim it. As 
 the election of state officers took place in November 
 following, the democratic papers made pretty constant 
 use of the " huge paw," to defeat the choice of the 
 whig candidates. It was used in the Courier to en- 
 courage the whigs, and, on the morning of the election, 
 the names of the whig candidates were placed under a 
 device, representing a large hand ; on the thumb and 
 fingers of which were inscribed Commerce, Mechanic 
 Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, Internal Improve- 
 ments, and in the palm, Protective Policy.* Mr. 
 Holbrook furnished the following accompaniment. 
 
 A NEW SONG, TO AN OLD TTTNE. 
 An old Roman there was, Cincinnatus by name, 
 "Whose furrows were such as a farmer became, 
 "Who, when made a Dictator, regretted his cow, 
 And longed to re-place his Huge Paws on the plough. 
 
 His country to save, took a fortnight or more, 
 "When he office resigned, as a burden and bore j 
 But that which detained him a fortnight away 
 Our own Furrow Turners may do in a day. 
 
 * The whig candidates, Davis and Armstrong, were re-elected by a large 
 majority. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 91 
 
 Come out from the homestead and rescue the law ; 
 Show the men who outrage it, the size of your Paw : 
 Take a vote in that nipper, the green sod that digs, 
 For Davis and Armstrong, the Laws, and the Whigs. 
 
 Your fathers were Whigs — alas ! many repose 
 
 On the field where they died with their face to their foes — 
 
 'Tis a glorious name — a more glorious thing, 
 
 To rescue the laws from a knave or a king. 
 
 Leave the plough in the furrow, the cow in the corn, 
 The cat in the pantry, the milk-maid forlorn, 
 The grist at the mill, or the meal on the ground, 
 The pigs in the clover, the ox in the pound. 
 
 I honor an ox, I 'm a friend to a cow — 
 But don't stir a pig for the field-driver now; 
 Let him chew in the pound, like a patriot ox, 
 While you lay at the polls your Huge Paw on the Box. 
 November 10, 1834. 
 
 In connection with this sketch of a " Tempest in a 
 tea-pot" the following letter, sent while this volume 
 was in preparation for the press, may properly be 
 inserted : — 
 
 Boston, November 14, 1851. 
 Joseph T. Bcckincham, 
 
 My dear Sir, — I remarked to you, that Mr. Hol- 
 
 brook came to my office to consult a volume of Burke, when 
 
 he was engaged in the preparation of the article containing 
 
 the notable expression " Huge paw of the farmer," &c. The 
 
 passage may be found in his " Reflections on the Revolution 
 
 in France," and is as follows : — " The Chancellor of France 
 
 at the opening of the states, said in a tone of oratorical 
 
 flourish, that all occupations were honorable. If he meant, 
 
 only, that no honest employment was disgraceful, he would 
 
 not have gone beyond the truth. But in asserting, that any 
 
92 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 thing is honorable, we imply some distinction in its favor. 
 The occupation of a hair-dresser, or of a working tallow- 
 chandler, cannot be a matter of honor to any person, — to say 
 nothing of a number of other more servile employments. 
 Such descriptions of men ought not to suffer oppression from 
 the state ; but the state suffers oppression, if such as they, 
 either individually or collectively, are permitted to rule. In this 
 you think you are combating prejudice, but you are at war with 
 nature." Burke then adds a note, the first portion of which 
 I extract. " Ecclesiasticus, chap. 38, verses 24, 25 : ' The wis- 
 dom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure ; and 
 he that hath little business shall become wise.' ' How can he 
 get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the 
 goad ; that driveth oxen ; and is occupied in their labors ; 
 and whose talk is of bullocks V " 
 
 You see how eminently suggestive these passages were, of 
 the phrase " Huge paw" of the farmer. So much comment 
 was made on it, that the circumstance I have narrated was 
 fixed in my mind, and I have often thought your praise, when 
 I have contemplated your silence under the attacks made 
 upon you for the use of that unlucky phrase by our deceased 
 friend. 
 
 Very truly, your obedient, 
 
 Francis Brinley. 
 
 GENERAL SNOW 
 
 Has arrived at last, and in pretty good case. He has 
 been preceded by Major Frost and Colonel Below Zero. The 
 General is rather coarse in some of his pastimes, though in 
 the main a pretty good fellow. He pinches the ears, as 
 Napoleon used to do, and he sometimes takes a man uncivilly 
 by the nose. Whenever he comes he makes all cheerful, 
 unless he stays too long, and his approach is hailed with the 
 ringing of bells. 
 
 Old people, however, who remember him seventy years 
 ago, say he begins to fail, — that he has shrunk in point of 
 size, and does not sojourn with us so long as formerly. It is 
 very much to his credit that the children like him, — they 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 93 
 
 surround him on his first appearance and welcome him with 
 shouts. 
 
 He will probably remain for a couple of months, at which 
 time his old white cloak will need patching — and his coat 
 will be a good deal out at the elbows. 
 
 If our distant readers do not like allegories, or do not 
 understand them, — a plain sentence may better inform them 
 that we have had a snow-storm which has covered the earth a 
 foot or more in depth, and which has so drifted that it has 
 made more batiks than monopolies, or monsters. The deposites 
 have been promptly removed from the sidewalks. 
 
 Our country friends who read " Geoponics," and do them, 
 will have a day's labor, or pastime in breaking out. A cheerful 
 sight it is to see a line of twenty-four yoke of cattle drawing a 
 sled covered with boys, as a ship's bottom with barnacles, so 
 thick that there is not room for another, while twenty red-faced 
 pioneers, with shovels, trace a line through the drifts, or re- 
 move their neighbors' landmarks and fences, when the snow 
 is too deep in the road. It is seldom that a Yankee farmer 
 wastes time in joking, but this is an occasion on which he 
 sometimes gives way to that unprofitable pastime. The snow 
 that contracts other things, expands his cheerfulness, and by 
 the time the whitened procession arrives at the mill, the 
 blacksmith's shop, or the meeting-house, there are flying 
 a great many jests and snow-balls, — or jokes practical and 
 theoretical. 
 
 Honest souls ! may it be long before ye have to make a road 
 to the grave, and when ye do, may it not be by the way of the 
 grog-shop. A farmer in a deep snow is a patriarch, — his 
 family is like that of Noah shut up in the ark, and the animals 
 are in the barn. He goes to bed while it is snowing, and 
 opens his door in the morning upon a snow-drift, eight feet 
 high, or about a foot taller than himself. He seizes his 
 wooden shovel of his own manufacture, three feet square, 
 and cuts a trench to the wood-pile, and in five minutes he has 
 a rousing fire, and the tea-kettle hanging over it for breakfast. 
 He then digs out to his barn, where he finds the old rooster on 
 the great beam crowing, though half covered with snow. The 
 
94 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 cattle give him a friendly look, and he returns the salutation. 
 He sets before them, in Bottom's phrase, " a bottle of hay," 
 (" good, sweet hay hath no fellow,") and in five minutes, 
 horses, oxen, cows and yearlings are chewing and grinding, as 
 if for a wager, — 
 
 O forlunatos nimium sua si bona norint. 
 How happy would the farmer be, 
 If all his blessings he could see. 
 January 1, 1835. 
 
 This was the last article written by Mr. Holbrook 
 for the Courier. But I cannot withhold a few more 
 extracts from the productions of his muse, when in 
 her happiest and most cheerful humor, — though they 
 stand not in the chronological order of their publication. 
 The first of the pieces which follow was written for 
 the carriers of the Courier and Galaxy, as a New- Year's 
 Address, in 1825. It will be understood that the words 
 printed in small capitals are the names of papers then 
 published in Boston, and those in Italics are the names 
 of the editors. Like all Mr. Holbrook's composition, 
 it was struck off with great rapidity, yet it is by no 
 means deficient in ease, and some of the stanzas 
 exhibit a gracefulness of expression, for which many 
 labor but which few acquire. 
 
 THE FEAST OF THE PAPERS. 
 
 Songs of Printers, in annual roundelays, 
 
 Formed in fancy and uttered in rhyme, 
 Are sung, not to please young nymphs upon holidays, 
 
 But to win for the Carrier dollar and dime. 
 Buckingham offers to open his coffers, 
 
 And a " ragged ten " proffers ; (Parnassian fee !) 
 Wherewith invited, this song I indited, 
 
 Which, amused and delighted, the reader will see. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 95 
 
 Now gentle reader, and gentler subscriber, 
 
 " I had a dream, which was not all a dream," — 
 And the Muse, she shall sing, for your smiles can bribe her, 
 
 The figures that sported in Fantasy's beam. 
 Once trees could converse, as the poets rehearse, 
 
 And a bridge patter verse, as in Burns may be found ; 
 But I, in a trance, beheld Newspapers dance, 
 
 And, with bodies, advance to the violin's sound. 
 
 Methought I was lounging in Hamilton's reading-room, — 
 
 (A " foregone conclusion ! " I am every day ;) 
 An apartment I like above all, — but his feeding-room, — 
 
 When the Courier I heard to the Galaxy say, — 
 '* Fair Sister, to-night, a few friends I invite 
 
 To come to a slight entertainment and ball j " 
 And, with jovial intent, on festivity bent, 
 
 The Messenger went and invited them all. 
 
 At the bar the Euterpeiad rosined his born, 
 
 And the preludes he touched would have charmed Ostinelli ; 
 And his trumpet the Herald refused to blow, 
 
 Till a dram he decanted, and bolted a jelly. 
 The Recorder, in black, came up in a hack, 
 
 Yet out did he pack, when the fiddles begun ; 
 Their music profane inflicted such pain, 
 
 That he came not again to the reprobate fun. 
 
 The Farmer a harvest of comfort was reaping ; 
 
 The Evening expressed his delight by a Clapp ; 
 And the Boston Commercial, though seldom caught sleeping, 
 
 Enjoyed, however, an excellent Knapp. 
 The respectable Daily, so hearty and Hale, he 
 
 The hall entered gaily, the glee to partake ; 
 The Repertory, jolly, cried " Hang Melancholy! 
 
 To laugh is no folly ; wake, Watchman, awake ! " 
 
 The Statesman next entered, as merry as any, 
 
 His conduct was True, and his costume was Greene ; 
 
 On his arm was a beautiful shadow, called "Fanni," 
 In his pocket a bright little " Tea-Pot " was seen. 
 
9b PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 With heathenish name the Palladium came, — 
 
 Old enough to be tame, wild enough to be Young, — 
 
 And, with smiles at command, and heart in his hand, 
 Took a frolicsome stand, the friskers among. 
 
 And now, like a Christian the Register came 
 
 With the Telegraph, fated to die in its prime ; 
 And a Medical personage, well known to fame, 
 
 With a cognomination, too long for a rhyme. 
 The Centinel came in, and sported a grin, 
 
 Like Death's at Sin, — when the supper he saw, 
 And the tables he eyed, as her Mirror a bride, 
 
 Or a dollar denied a Limb of the Law. 
 
 The Weekly Report now came in, with the Chronicle, — 
 
 Both friends and supporters of " Glorious John ; " 
 The Courier's salute was a little ironical, 
 
 But decorum prevailed, and the dancing begun. 
 Graceful and gay, they footed away, 
 
 For care was at bay, and politics barred j 
 And lighter and faster moved madam and master, 
 
 While not a disaster the merriment marred. 
 
 The dancing a supper magnificent followed, 
 
 With science prepared and arranged with taste ; 
 Some good things were uttered, and many were swallowed, 
 
 And Time went, as usual when happy, in haste. 
 All which I beheld while Somnus prevailed, 
 
 And, by Phoebus impelled, in rhyme I relate ; 
 And the dream, no doubt, from the shades came out, 
 
 Like iEneas so stout, at the Ivory Gate. 
 
 barrister's fare. 
 
 Dismal and sad are a Barrister's reveries, 
 
 Without hilarity passes his life j 
 Little he sees of mankind, but their deviltries ; 
 
 All uncharity, discord and strife. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 97 
 
 With clamor prodigious, and falsities hideous, 
 We serve the litigious, the needful to share ; 
 
 Yet, in sorrowful attitude, find ingratitude, 
 Not beatitude, Barrister's fare. 
 
 For clients reluctantly draw on the pocket, 
 
 And I ne'er saw the fee that was tendered in smiles, 
 Nor plenty of cases in Honesty's docket, 
 
 Nor the wretch, without money, who justice defiles. 
 Then creditors slay us — (timeo Danaos) — 
 
 With, " When will you pay us ?" and tick becomes rare, 
 When, to wear an old hat, or a ragged cravat, or 
 
 A beard like a grater, is Barrister's fare. 
 
 Perhaps some sweet daughter of Beauty and Fashion 
 
 Has made in his heart and his quiet a gash j — 
 He well knows, alas ! that the fate of his passion 
 
 Depends but too much on the state of his cash ; — 
 While his scornful enslaver shall bless with her favor 
 
 Some fortunate shaver, his plunder to share, 
 In sorrow to pine, such charms to resign, — 
 
 This, this, Tom, is mine, and Barristers fare. 
 
 PARODY. 
 
 think not my purse will be always as light 
 And as dry of the dibs as it doubtless is now, 
 
 For, though long is the face I exhibit to-night, 
 Yet joy may, to-morrow, enliven my brow. 
 
 1 a ticket extracted from Gilbert & Sons, 
 
 And perhaps, by a prize, may accomplish a dash j 
 For the man that is sorest beset by the duns, 
 Is often the earliest to finger the cash. 
 
 And they, too, who dream of a lottery ticket, 
 Will often rejoice o'er the dream they believe ; 
 
 For a treasure is floating, and I, if I nick it, 
 Shall beauty, and riches, and honor achieve. 
 
 VOL. II. 7 
 
98 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Success to the wheels ! while a remnant of truth 
 Is in dream, or in vision, this hope shall be mine, — 
 
 That the sunshine of gold may illumine my youth, 
 And the moonlight of silver console my decline. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BANK. 
 
 Having undertaken to give an account of the con- 
 troversies that took place between the Courier and its 
 cotemporaries, the course I followed in reference to 
 the United States Bank, — which brought upon me 
 some of the hardest blows I have had to encounter, as 
 an editor, — cannot be passed over without a brief 
 notice. With banking operations, and their effects 
 upon the currency of the country, I was never familiar, 
 and the discussion of questions involving the subject of 
 political economy, I generally avoided, lest my own 
 ignorance should be thereby illustrated, and become as 
 apparent as the crude notions and immature decisions 
 of some others. 
 
 The embarrassments which overtook the commercial 
 and manufacturing interests of the country, caused, 
 as has been often asserted, and perhaps generally 
 believed, by the war between the two Presidents, — 
 Andrew Jackson of the United States and Nicholas 
 Biddle of the United States Bank, — are not yet quite 
 forgotten. In the beginning of the year 1836, most of 
 the banks throughout the Union suspended specie 
 payments. 
 
 In the autumn of that year Mr. Biddle wrote a letter 
 to Mr. J. Q. Adams, concerning financial affairs, in 
 which he said — "I go for the country, whoever rules 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 99 
 
 it; — I go for the country, best loved when worst 
 governed." Congress had refused to re-charter the 
 United States Bank, as a national institution, and Mr. 
 Biddle had obtained a charter from the legislature of 
 Pennsylvania. The usual routine of the business of 
 the bank was pursued, and he established, in Boston, 
 an agency, to take the place of the branch of the 
 original bank. The purpose was to loan the funds 
 of the bank then existing under the Pennsylvania 
 charter. The loans made at the office of the agency 
 in Boston for the accommodation of the merchants, 
 were generally based on bills of exchange, and, an 
 operation which bankers and brokers understand, com- 
 pelled the payment of usurious (or extra) interest. 
 The Courier, like most of the newspapers opposed to 
 the administration of General Jackson, had strenuously 
 advocated the re-chartering of the United States Bank, 
 by Congress ; but the operations of Mr. Biddle, under 
 the authority of his Pennsylvania charter, were viewed 
 with great distrust. The sentence just quoted from 
 his letter to Mr. Adams was a favorite text, which 
 opened the way for several columns of comments, 
 comparing his declarations with his conduct. Re- 
 viewing his dispute with the national administration, 
 and his subsequent operations in finance, I came to the 
 conclusion that his love for his country was graduated 
 according to the willingness of his countrymen to 
 endure his despotism, and that it was manifested 
 chiefly by his using the power he possessed to exact 
 exorbitant premiums on bills of exchange between the 
 principal commercial cities. It was sometimes said, 
 in extenuation of his exorbitant demands of those who 
 
100 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 had the control of the money-market, that merchants 
 could afford to pay those and even higher rates of 
 interest, rather than lose their credit. To this it was 
 replied, — "Is it right, is it moral or humane, is it law- 
 ful, to dictate to a drowning man the terms on which 
 you will save his life ? As he gasps for the last time, 
 would you tell him you love him best when most in 
 danger, and encourage him to keep in the water till 
 you can strip him of every thing that is available to 
 yourself? " 
 
 The position I had taken in this matter excited the 
 anger of some, and secured the approbation of others. 
 A storm of indignation was let off against the Courier; 
 and, as the avowed friends of Mr. Biddle endeavored 
 to identify him and his bank with the whig party, I 
 had to suffer a sentence of excommunication from 
 more than one of the whig presses. 
 
 In March, 1839, Mr. Biddle wrote a letter to the 
 directors of his bank, resigning the office of president, 
 which he had held for more than twenty years. " I 
 have waited anxiously (he said) for the most appro- 
 priate moment at which I could be best spared, but 
 hitherto, when I have sought the retirement I so much 
 needed, some difficulty, in which my service was 
 deemed useful, always interposed to detain me. None 
 such now exists. All the political dissensions con- 
 nected with the bank for the last ten years have 
 ceased, and the bank has returned to its accustomed 
 channels of business in peace. I can, therefore, with- 
 draw at length without inconvenience ; and I do it the 
 more readily, because I leave the affairs of the insti- 
 tution in a state of great prosperity, and in the hands 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. J01 
 
 of able directors and officers." In the month of Oc- 
 tober, about six months after this letter was written, 
 the Bank failed. The intelligence of this event was 
 received with feelings of a very opposite character ; — 
 by some, with rejoicing, that " Babylon the Great had 
 fallen," and by others with sorrow and lamentation. 
 Inquiries like the following were made in the Courier : — 
 What has become of Mr. Biddle ? Where has he hidden 
 himself to escape the indignation of an injured and 
 insulted people ? Where are the able directors and 
 officers, who had been able, in six months, to destroy 
 an institution, whose " affairs were in a state of great 
 prosperity ; all the political dissensions connected with 
 it having ceased ? " These, and other similar remarks, 
 were met with anger or affected contempt, in some of 
 the public journals, and the author of them was re- 
 buked for his contumacy, with as much severity and 
 sarcasm, as the spirit of party, in its liberal and merci- 
 ful temper, could find it convenient to bestow. The 
 bank continued its operations, on a small scale for a 
 year or two longer ; but it gradually sank deeper in 
 the pit of insolvency, until the public sympathy (what 
 there was of it) changed to indifference or indignation. 
 The next two paragraphs are among the last I wrote 
 on the subject. If any one should think them imbued 
 with too much of the triumphant style, let him con- 
 sider that my purpose is to show what sin I have 
 perpetrated, — not to defend or extenuate it : — 
 
 If we were to credit all that we see in some of the 
 Philadelphia and New-York papers respecting the United 
 States Bank, we should believe it to be an institution of 
 unspeakable value to the whole country, and one, which, for 
 
102 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 some inconceivable reason, has been the object of the bitterest 
 and most malignant persecution that ever disgraced any age or 
 country. According to the statements which have appeared, 
 there have been combinations of other banks and brokers, got 
 up for no other purpose than to destroy the United States 
 Bank, as soon as it should comply with the laws of the state, 
 which gave it existence, by fulfilling its promises, and that it 
 has paid out millions after millions of specie to satisfy the 
 wanton demands of these diabolical shavers and cut-throats. 
 How much sympathy such representations may secure for a 
 rotten and swindling institution in the immediate vicinity of 
 its location, we pretend not to say ; but we shall not be 
 thought guilty of unpardonable presumption, if we state, 
 as our belief, that, at this distance, these said objurgatory 
 lamentations will produce but little effect. Admitting it to be 
 true, which we do not believe, that the Bank has become the 
 victim of "unholy combinations," it is no more than a just 
 retribution for its unnumbered acts of arrogance, oppression 
 and rascality, which, in the days of its power, it practised 
 on all other banks, and especially on those of Massachusetts. 
 February 18, 1841. 
 
 Some eight or ten years ago, we thought the United States 
 Bank a most valuable institution. Our efforts as an editor, 
 — feeble though they were, — were faithfully and honestly 
 directed to procure for it a re-charter. When, a few years 
 later, its charter was denied, we thought the Bank was in 
 duty bound to wind up its concerns. We said so, and for that 
 declaration lost caste in the whig party, although almost every 
 whig member of Congress said the same. In the conduct of 
 Mr. liiddle, we thought we perceived only a disposition to 
 avenge himself for the loss of the charter by creating trouble, 
 embarrassment, distress and ruin among the people. For this 
 course of magnanimous conduct, we pronounced censure, and 
 for that honest and frank expression of opinion, we were 
 excommunicated, tied to the stake, and threatened with 
 martyrdom by those who claimed to be the organs of the whig 
 party. The Globe quoted our opinions, and then, our good 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 103 
 
 whig managers decreed that we should be called locofoco, the 
 highest punishment ever inflicted on incorrigible offenders. 
 So we struggled on for a few years more, — fighting for Clay, 
 Webster, and Harrison, — defending Webster especially, when 
 he was assailed in the Globe, and sneered at in the Atlas as 
 one of the " Whig Aristocracy ; " and to cap the climax of our 
 locofoco audacity, absolutely advocated his claim to a place in 
 the cabinet, although the organ of the Whig Democracy (!) had 
 declared that such a thing must not be. But all this avails 
 nothing. Mr. Biddle has turned out to be no better than we . 
 predicted five years ago, and his Bank, which was expected by 
 his advocates and worshipers, — his hired and paid champions, 
 — to redeem the nation from all embarrassments, has failed, 
 and is now as powerless, and as useless for any good purpose 
 as the famous mint which issued Bungtown Coppers during 
 the days of the Revolution. But ah ! where are now his 
 idolators ? Where those omnipotent controllers of the press 
 and of public opinion, that shouted Locofoco, Locofoco! when 
 one unlucky wight dared to throw out a doubt that Mr. 
 Biddle was the sublime incarnation of all the Patriotism, all 
 the Virtue, and all the Intelligence, which Heaven had 
 vouchsafed, in mercy to the human race, to embody in an 
 individual ? Ah, where ! The flattering Press is silent ; even 
 the favored recipient of fifty-two thousand dollars, (the price 
 of apostasy from Jacksonism,) has hardly an encouraging 
 smile wherewith to greet the man who "goes for his country, 
 best loved when worst governed." Poor Mr. Biddle ! not a 
 comforter left, to give him a potsherd to scrape himself 
 withal ! Alas ! how is the mighty fallen ! 
 
 Deserted at his utmost need, 
 By those his former bounty fed. 
 May 14, 1841. 
 
 The year 1836 was a period of unparalleled 
 embarrassment to all men of business, and many 
 are in possession of melancholy memorials of the 
 
104 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 complicated perplexities with which they had then 
 to struggle. The income of a newspaper, though 
 nominally large and apparently equal to all reasonable 
 expenditure, as it appears on the leger, and in the 
 imagination of the proprietor, is yet but a feeble and 
 delusive reliance in times when business is in a state 
 of dullness and depression. The amount of debts 
 from the subscribers to a daily paper, may be large, 
 but it is made up of small sums, and scattered over 
 an immense territory. From 1830 to 1848, I doubt 
 whether there was a day when the aggregate of debts 
 due to the Courier, for subscriptions and advertise- 
 ments, was less than ten thousand dollars, (sometimes 
 it far exceeded that amount,) in sums ranging from 
 fifty cents to fifty dollars. The customers of a news- 
 paper think but little of this. It seldom occurs to 
 them that the printer is borrowing money, (perhaps 
 at an extravagant interest,) to enable him to carry 
 on the publication, while they are neglecting his 
 demands and paying nothing for the indulgence. Such 
 was my unfortunate position. To obtain relief from 
 distressing embarrassment, I sold one third of the 
 Courier.* But the relief thus obtained was temporary. 
 In the spring of 1837, it became impossible to meet 
 all the debts which had been incurred, and my whole 
 interest in the paper, with all my other personal 
 estate, was placed in the hands of a trustee, to 
 be appropriated to the benefit of creditors. These 
 creditors, with but two or three trifling exceptions, 
 
 * The purchaser was Mr. Eben B. Foster, who is still the publisher and one 
 of the proprietors of the paper. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 105 
 
 were personal friends,* who had endorsed my notes in 
 the banks. The sale of another portion, — one sixth, 
 — of the Courier, left me in possession of one half, 
 and a mortgage on this half, with a mortgage on the 
 estate where I lived, supplied the means of settlement ; 
 and thus, after years of negotiation and perplexity, a 
 sacrifice of feeling, and an entire subjection of pride 
 to necessity, the business was closed, without a law- 
 suit.i By the conditions of the mortgage, I continued 
 to be the editor of the Courier, with a salary, barely 
 sufficient for the decent support of a family. 
 
 THE MOB AT ALTON. 
 
 In the beginning of November, 1837, an incident 
 took place at Alton, in the state of Illinois, which, for 
 fiendish atrocity, has had no parallel in the histoiy of 
 mobs that have occurred in our country. The Rev. 
 Elijah Lovejoy, for the purpose of publishing an 
 anti-slavery paper in that town, had procured a press 
 and placed it in the warehouse of a merchant. A 
 company of about two hundred men assembled, 
 attacked the building, which was defended by the 
 friends of Mr. Lovejoy, and in the progress of the 
 
 * The friends here referred to, I presume, have no desire to see their names 
 placed before the public in this memoir. Nevertheless, my own feelings claim 
 the indulgence of recording the names of William Sturgis, Stephen Fairbanks, 
 James K. Mills, Joseph Mackay, William Beals, William Tuckerman, Edward 
 II. llobbins, James Read, Isaac M'Lellan, Benjamin Poor, Henry G. Rice, and 
 the firms of Lawrence & Stone, and Whitwell, Bond & Seaver, as those who 
 voluntarily made important sacrifices in my favor, and whose alacrity in 
 performing a kind and benevolent deed, is not forgotten. 
 
 f The settlement was effected by the good offices of my friends, George S. 
 Hillard, Esq. E. B. Foster, and S. E. Robbins, — friends indeed, because they 
 were friends in necessity. 
 
106 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 affray, Mr. Lovejoy was shot clown, and died in a few 
 minutes. One other person was killed and several 
 were severely wounded. The warehouse, with its 
 contents, was burned to the ground. These un- 
 warrantable proceedings were a subject of universal 
 comment in the newspapers, and caused in many 
 places agitation of a serious nature. In Boston, the 
 Anti-Slavery Society passed a series of resolutions, 
 expressing in suitable terms, the indignation and 
 horror, which the event naturally excited. A few of 
 the newspapers treated the matter with indifference, 
 and a few others with a degree of levity quite 
 unbecoming the character of moral or patriotic edit- 
 ors. The following were my first reflections on the 
 event : — 
 
 "' Died Abner as a fool dieth."* Th;s exclamation 
 was not more appropriate in its original application, 
 that it is in reference to the premature death of Mr. 
 Lovejoy. We do not offer this remark as an apology 
 for the flagrant violation of law and the audacious 
 outrage upon the rights of property and the sacredness 
 of human life, which eventuated in the death of two 
 men and the serious if not fatal injury of several others. 
 But neither do we feel any reverence for that ambition 
 for martyrdom which prompts men to rush upon certain 
 
 destruction While we condemn the mob and 
 
 deplore its consequences, we cannot but feel that there 
 was no call, either from religion or humanity, for the 
 exercise of that reckless resolution, — virtuous fortitude, 
 perhaps, some may call it, — which was the immediate 
 provocation. ... It is no fault of man that he cannot 
 stay the waves of the ocean, or control the more 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 107 
 
 dreadful violence of the surges of human passion ; 
 but he is responsible for his fate, if he throws himself 
 upon either, knowing his utter incapacity to defend 
 himself against their force." 
 
 I cannot place such remarks where they may pos- 
 sibly be read by those who have never before seen 
 them, and who may be surprized that the whole tenor 
 of my writings, for many years, has been of a different 
 character, without saying that their surprize is not 
 equal to the shame, repentance, and remorse that I 
 feel for having written and published them. Though 
 always governed by a sentiment opposed to slavery, 
 that sentiment was rather the result of natural feeling 
 than of any course of reasoning in my own mind, or 
 arguments presented by others. I had not, then, been 
 so thoroughly indoctrinated with the anti-slavery prin- 
 ciple as I was soon after, by conversations with one 
 whose enlarged and liberal and statesmanlike views 
 were irresistibly convincing. The sentiments imbibed 
 during those conversations made too deep an impres- 
 sion on my mind to be obliterated even by the change 
 which has come over the preceptor. 
 
 This subject was pursued in the next paper : — 
 " The murders at Alton will be a topic of news- 
 paper discussion for months to come, and a reproach 
 to the people who live in a land of liberty and law, 
 for all succeeding ages to the end of time. The time 
 was, — but it seems to have gone by, — when a man 
 had a right to set up a press and print a newspaper, and 
 when that right was secured to him by laws, which 
 were amply sufficient for that purpose. Time was, 
 when a man might select his place of residence, and 
 
10S PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 exercise there a profession expressly guarded against 
 violence by the constitutions of the United States, and 
 of all the individual states in the Union. Now, he 
 runs the hazard of being murdered, if he should dare 
 to exercise a privilege thus guaranteed by the highest 
 civil authority, — if he should advance a sentiment, or 
 advocate a doctrine that should not suit every ruffian 
 or blackguard, who can throw a brickbat or pull a 
 trigger. 
 
 " The great question, whether slavery shall be much 
 longer tolerated in the United States, we apprehend, will 
 soon become one that will swallow up nearly every 
 other one of a political character. It will not be left 
 solely to the discussion of newspaper editors, who may 
 take different sides, as their interest, their education, or 
 even their moral and religious principles may dictate. 
 It must engage the attention of the giant intellects of 
 the country. The statesmen and the philosophers, who 
 have the honor and prosperity of the country at heart, 
 must not suffer it, longer, to be thrust into the shade 
 by the less important topics connected with ordinary 
 business ; nor should those who are able to enlighten 
 the public mind, improve its morals, and refine its 
 taste, permit the question to be disposed of by squibs 
 and lampoons, and caricatures in newspaper para- 
 graphs or abolition almanacs. The theme is too 
 serious, and invokes consequences too vast, to be 
 treated otherwise than seriously, and by the purest and 
 most patriotic minds that can be enlisted in the dis- 
 cussion. " 
 
 While the agitation caused, by these wicked pro- 
 ceedings at Alton, was at its height in Boston, a num- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 109 
 
 ber of respectable citizens presented a petition to the 
 Mayor and Aldermen for the use of Faneuil Hall, 
 wherein to hold a public meeting, " to notice in a suita- 
 ble manner the recent murder in the city of Alton, of a 
 native of New-England and citizen of the free state of 
 Illinois, who fell in defence of the freedom of the press." 
 The ever-honored name of the Rev. William Ellery 
 Channing stood at the head of the petition. The 
 prayer of the petition was refused by the Mayor and 
 Aldermen, for reasons, which were formally set forth 
 in a sort of manifesto; — one of which was', that the 
 meeting might be the cause of exciting a mob. The 
 alleged " reasons " were weak and inconclusive. In 
 the Courier they were pronounced contemptible. It 
 was thought that the Board might have saved itself the 
 labor of compiling so long and tedious a document, 
 and might have escaped the ridicule which it justly 
 incurred for using such insufficient and flimsy argu- 
 ments. It would have been as well, and probably 
 more satisfactory to the petitioners, if the Board had 
 rejected the prayer of the petition without assigning 
 any justification. When a body of wise men possess 
 all knowledge, it is not to be supposed that that knowl- 
 edge will " lead " otherwise than to " calm wisdom." 
 Several correspondents also reviewed the extraordinary 
 conduct of the municipal authorities. Dr. Channing 
 published an appeal " to the citizens of Boston," in 
 which, with that Christian moderation and calmness 
 for which he was distinguished, he exposed the in- 
 justice of the city government in denying the use of 
 the Hall, and the sophistry of their justification. In 
 one paragraph of his address, he said, — "I earnestly 
 
110 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 hope that my fellow-citizens will demand the public 
 meeting which has been refused, with a voice which 
 cannot be denied ; but unless so called, I do not desire 
 that it should be held. If not demanded by acclama- 
 tion, it would very possibly become a riot. A govern- 
 ment, which announces its expectation of a mob, does 
 virtually, though unintentionally, summon a mob, and 
 would then cast all the blame of it on the ' rash men ' 
 ivho might become its victims.'''' * 
 
 THE FIFTEEN-GALLON LAW. 
 
 In the spring of 1838, the Legislature of Massachu- 
 setts passed the law known throughout the state as the 
 Fifteen-gallon Law, — prohibiting the sale of brandy, 
 rum, gin, and whiskey, in quantities less than fifteen 
 gallons, all to be taken by the purchaser at one time. 
 It contained a provision that it should take effect on 
 the first of April, 1839. The interim was a period of 
 great excitement. The retailers of spiritous liquors 
 used all possible exertions to procure a repeal of the 
 law at the next session of the Legislature. A warm 
 and angry controversy was carried on in the Courier 
 between those persons, who contended that the law 
 was unjust and unconstitutional, and the advocates of 
 temperance societies. f The paper was open to the 
 
 * The articles relating to this subject, which appeared in the Courier, may be 
 found in the file of that paper from November 20 to the end of the year. 
 Some of them signed " Ames," and others signed " Paulus," are written with 
 great power. " Sergius " was the only correspondent that justified in any 
 measure the proslavery side of the question. 
 
 A public meeting, as petitioned for, was held in Faneuil Hall, on the eighth 
 of December. Eloquent speeches were made by Dr. Channing, G. S. Hillard, 
 James T. Austin, George Bond, and Wendell Phillips. 
 
 t The editor was a member of the House of Representatives, but was not in 
 his place when the measure was discussed and passed, — being confined at 
 home by a severe attack of typhus fever. 
 

 THE BOSTON COURIER. Ill 
 
 communications of both parties. At the beginning of 
 the session in 1839, a petition, signed by Harrison 
 Gray Otis, and some thousands others, was presented, 
 praying for the repeal of the law. The petition was 
 referred to a joint committee of the two houses, of 
 which committee I was a member, and took a decided 
 stand in favor of the repeal. The committee reported 
 a bill, which repealed a part of the Fifteen-gallon Law 
 and made some other provisions, which, however, 
 were no more agreeable to the opponents of the law 
 than those of the law itself. This bill was popularly 
 called, " The bill of mutual concessions," or the 
 "Compromise Law." It was defeated in the House 
 of Representatives by a majority of sixty-five. From 
 my peculiar position as a member of the committee, 
 I thought it not consistent with propriety to introduce 
 the exciting topic into editorial discussion. But a day 
 or two after the bill mentioned above was rejected, the 
 matter was presented to the readers of the Courier 
 with copious comments. The article begins with 
 certain quotations from the Bill of Rights, containing 
 the doctrine which I supposed justified the conclusions 
 to which I had arrived, and thus proceeds : — 
 
 " We deny the power of the Legislature to pass this 
 bill, or any other bill interfering so directly with the 
 exercise and enjoyment of a personal and individual 
 right, — whether the interference apply to the purchase 
 of ardent spirits, or to any other article, which it may 
 suit the convenience, comfort, or pleasure of man to 
 eat, to drink, or to wear. We deny its constitutional 
 power to prescribe how much or hoio little of any such 
 article a man shall purchase. The right of every 
 
112 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 individual in society to accommodate the amount of 
 his purchases to his means or his wishes, was never 
 before meddled with, so far as our knowledge has 
 extended ; and the Legislature, which assumes the 
 power of interference in this matter, usurps a power 
 which the people have never conferred upon it. We 
 do not believe the principle has ever been adopted by 
 the most despotic government in Europe. 
 
 " We are opposed to this ' Liquor Bill,' because it 
 licenses the practice of what it virtually declares to be 
 an offence. If the mere drinking of ardent spirits be 
 a crime, which it is proper to suppress by law, what 
 sort of morality must govern the action of those legis- 
 lators who license it, and not only provide for the 
 practice of a crime under the sanction of a license, 
 but raise a revenue from the license ? In what respect 
 does this differ from the system of selling indulgences, 
 once popular and universal, and still practised to some 
 extent in Catholic countries ? If it be proper to license 
 the sale of spiritous liquors, and to raise a revenue 
 from the sale of an article, the use of which is immoral, 
 destructive to health, and productive of vice, pauper- 
 ism, and crime, — there are other vices and immorali- 
 ties, which are equally entitled to legal indulgence. 
 Why should not our legislative guardians of private 
 morals pursue the system on which they have begun 
 to act, and license brothels ? Such things are done 
 in some countries, and for reasons not altogether 
 unlike some that have been offered in justification of 
 the licensing of the sale of spiritous liquors 
 
 " We are opposed to the monopoly which this bill 
 authorizes, and, in this respect, it is more objectionable 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 113 
 
 than the law of 1838, which it professes to modify 
 and make i more palatable.' Where does the Legis- 
 lature get its power to grant exclusive privileges ? 
 The exercise of such a power is expressly forbidden 
 in the Constitution. Yet the legislators, sworn to 
 support the Constitution, give to A. a license to monop- 
 olize the entire sale of a certain article, in certain 
 specified quantities, which will accommodate a certain 
 portion of the people who wish to purchase, — but 
 they say to B. if he presumes to sell the same article, 
 in quantities to accommodate the wants or the means 
 of another portion of the people, he shall be subject 
 to severe penalties and punishments. The very mock- 
 ery of justice, — a gross perversion of legislative 
 prerogative. 
 
 " We opposed the bill, because it punishes, as a 
 crime, an act harmless in itself, but, in consequence of 
 that act, crime should be committed. This is neither 
 more nor less than punishing innocence instead of 
 guilt, — a principle that has never, we believe, till 
 now, been adopted in the legislation or jurisprudence 
 of any age or nation. It is offering a premium, in this 
 case, for drunkenness, and holding out indemnity to 
 intemperance. Those who support this bill must, if 
 they would be consistent in their adherence to prin- 
 ciple, prohibit the use of fire, lest an incendiary should 
 burn up a city ; — they should prohibit the sale of all 
 sorts "of drugs and medicines, for they are all poisons, 
 (as was stated on oath, by a physician, before the 
 committee,) and if used in sufficient quantities, will 
 produce sickness, delirium, and death ; — they should 
 prohibit the sale of every kind of useful or necessary 
 
 vol. 11. 8 
 
114 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 implement, because there is not one of them which 
 may not, in the hands of the wicked and the vicious, 
 be used to the inj,ury of others. 
 
 "It is manifest that the bill was not the product of 
 free, unshackled opinion ; and this assertion needs no 
 other proof than the declaration so often repeated by 
 the chairman of the committee, that it was the result 
 of a compromise, — a bill of mutual concessions. We 
 opposed the bill for this very reason. Had all the 
 members of the committee acted solely under the 
 influence of the doctrine involved in the quotations at 
 the head of this article, — a doctrine which pervades 
 the whole Constitution, and is in perfect harmony with 
 all the provisions of that instrument, — what need 
 would there have been of mutual concessions ? What 
 apology for a compromise 7 Concede one right to 
 obtain possession of another ? Make a compromise 
 with usurped authority ? Has not every free man, 
 (and there ought to be no other than free men in 
 Massachusetts,) the right ' to acquire, possess, and 
 enjoy property,' without conceding any part of his 
 right to the gratification of the caprices, the whims, 
 the prejudices, — ay, the honest prejudices, — of an- 
 other ? And has the Legislature the power to say, 
 that a man shall not enjoy whatever he can purchase 
 with a dollar, merely because he can purchase but 
 little ? Or has the Legislature any constitutional 
 power to prescribe a minimum in respect to the sale of 
 any article, so as to prevent the use of it by the 
 poorest man in the state ? Or can it say, that a 
 man (rich or poor) shall not have a copperas-worth, 
 

 THE BOSTON COURIER. 115 
 
 unless he shall purchase as much as he can get for 
 five dollars ? 
 
 "We deny — peremptorily deny — the power of 
 
 the Legislature to do any such thing We feel 
 
 the responsibility of the oath we have repeatedly taken 
 to support the Constitution, when we say, that, ■ as 
 we understand it,' the Constitution confers upon the 
 Legislature no such power." 
 
 March 25, 1839. 
 
 " The Fifteen- gallon Law goes into operation to- 
 day. Several projects of modification have been and 
 still are before the Legislature, but whether any of 
 them will ever pass, is more than we would undertake 
 to predict. We are not among the number of those 
 who have declared that this law cannot he enforced. 
 Such a declaration seems to indicate a distrust of the 
 energy of the government and the integrity of the 
 people, which we will not for a moment indulge. We 
 do not believe that the law will be very rigidly en- 
 forced, and we are of opinion that it will be daily and 
 openly disregarded. It is not consonant to the views 
 and feelings of a majority of the people, — or, if it 
 be, it is not denied that a large and respectable minor- 
 ity are arrayed against it. It is offensively aristocratic 
 in one of its principal features, — prohibiting the sale 
 of certain liquors, which are used by one, and that not 
 the wealthiest class of the community, and permitting 
 the unrestrained sale and use of certain other liquors, 
 which are chiefly used by the richer and more extrava- 
 gant. It prohibits the sale of brandy, when called by 
 that name ; but permits it, when called wine. It is a 
 
116 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 sumptuary law, of the most odious character. If its 
 severe enforcement should not be attempted, it may 
 remain on the statute-book a dead letter, like the law 
 enforcing a penalty for observing Christmas, or for a 
 woman to be seen in the public street in a silk dress ; 
 but if its ultra friends should undertake to prosecute 
 all violations of it, we apprehend that there will be a 
 fearful looking for of agitation and disturbance of the 
 elements of society, such as will not be allayed without 
 the production of social, political and moral evils, that 
 have had no parallel among us. We look for legal and 
 constitutional opposition to the law, from the friends of 
 public order and private right ; and from such persons 
 no other than legal and constitutional opposition is to 
 be expected." * 
 
 April 1, 1839. 
 
 The position thus taken in relation to the Fifteen- 
 gallon Law, was not cordially approved by all the 
 subscribers. The paper was denounced as an advo- 
 cate of, or at least an apologist for, intemperance, 
 at two or three meetings of temperance societies. 
 Occasionally a subscriber ordered his paper to be 
 discontinued. During the year 1839, constant and 
 vigorous efforts were made in almost every part of the 
 
 * I am fully aware that the sentiments put forth in these extracts, and in 
 numerous others which might be quoted from the Courier, in reference to the 
 power of the Legislature to grant licenses, and to prohibit the free sale of 
 spiritous liquors, will not find much favor at the present day. They were 
 opposed as ridiculous and wicked when they were originally uttered. But 
 neither ridicule nor censure changed my opinion. The observation and expe- 
 rience of fourteen years have not changed it. It is not, however, the object 
 of these extracts to frame, or introduce, an argument, but to give a specimen 
 of the argument, as it was published. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 117 
 
 commonwealth, by both the friends and opponents of 
 the law, — the latter, to secure a majority in the next 
 Legislature that would repeal it, — the former, to 
 secure a majority that would sustain it and even make 
 it more effectual in checking the sale of intoxicating 
 liquors. The Courier was open to both parties, and 
 both parties availed themselves of the privilege that 
 was granted. A friendly correspondence between me 
 and the Hon. Samuel Hoar of Concord, illustrated the 
 fact, that a controversy might be carried on without 
 anger or vituperation, — however much some might 
 be disposed to manifest a different temper. The 
 Legislature of 1840 repealed the law. 
 
 INDEPENDENCE OF THE PRESS. 
 
 Nothing has ever excited my indignation more than 
 attacks made upon the Press by writers and speakers, 
 who wanted a subject on which to pour out the filthy 
 dregs of ill-nature, — nothing has more quickly pro- 
 voked me to the utterance of the strongest language I 
 could command. Scribblers, whose communications 
 have been rejected, may be expected to take their 
 revenge in scolding, or by insulting the offending 
 editor with anonymous letters. Some men of high 
 standing have been known to descend from their 
 elevated positions in the pulpit or at the bar to abuse a 
 poor printer, who had the audacity to refuse a com- 
 pliance with their wishes, and may possibly have 
 thrown an effusion of their spleen or stupidity into the 
 fire. I remember that, at the trial of a supposed 
 murderer, in the state of Rhode-Island, some fifteen, 
 or perhaps twenty, years ago, one of the most cele- 
 
118 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 brated lawyers in New-England pronounced an un- 
 manly and undignified sentence of condemnation 
 upon the press, accusing the newspaper printers, 
 indiscriminately, with wilful falsehood and misrepre- 
 sentation in regard to his client, and cautioning the 
 jury against believing any thing they might see in the 
 newspapers, — for "a newspaper was the last place 
 in which an honest man should look for truth," — or 
 words to that effect. On one occasion, having refused to 
 insert a certain communication, a professedly religious 
 editor in Boston was pleased to take up the cause of 
 the aggrieved writer, and, after accusing me of ser- 
 vility and want of independence, (as if the independ- 
 ence of an editor consisted altogether in submission 
 to the wishes of correspondents,) very charitably 
 undertook to represent all those who supported the 
 paper as reprobates and sinners, and outcasts from all 
 moral and civil associations. While fretting under 
 this charge of want of independence, my choler gained 
 vent and was emitted in this wise : — 
 
 " It is said that the Press of our country is free, — 
 nay, we boast of its freedom. Why ? — because 
 any one may establish a press of his own? — or 
 because printers and publishers are responsible only 
 to the undefinable law of libel ? Is it because the 
 proprietor may use his press as his passions or his 
 fancies invite him ? Is it because he possesses the 
 sovereign power of making it the channel of truth and 
 virtuous communication, or the foul and pestilent 
 sewer of falsehood and moral contamination ? Is it 
 because he may wield it as an instrument of good or 
 an engine of evil ? Is it because its rapidly multi- 
 

 THE BOSTON COURIER. 119 
 
 plying power affords a ready means of gratifying 
 the benevolence of the heart, or satiating the malev- 
 olence of the passions ? — Mow fallacious are such 
 opinions ! The Press free, and the Editor and Pub- 
 lisher dependent for their subsistence upon the shifting 
 and weathercock opinions of some one or two thousand 
 subscribers, who pay the paltry pittance of their sub- 
 scription, as an ungrateful convalescent pays the 
 fees of his physician, with most graceless reluctance ; 
 — who deem the paper, which they honor with their 
 patronage, as a part of their personal property, over 
 which they possess the same power of control as of 
 their wardrobe ; — in which they have a right to de- 
 mand the insertion of their opinions, upon all subjects, 
 whether political, poetical, mechanical, or rigmaroli- 
 cal, — whilst the poor half paid and sometimes wholly 
 starved Editor or Printer must pay for his refusal to 
 insert by the forfeiture of his correspondent's sub- 
 scription. 
 
 " An occurrence of some interest calls forth editorial 
 commentary. The article contains opinions too indi- 
 gestible for pampered appetites, and the wounded 
 sensibilities of some fifty or a hundred subscribers 
 are quieted by a fractious order to ' stop the paper.' 
 And yet the Press is free ? — so it is ; — very free ; 
 as free as mechanical industry and uncontrolled power 
 of printing and publishing can make it ; but, alas for 
 the proprietor ! his freedom may well be questioned ; 
 he truly may be pardoned, if he should sometimes 
 lose his identity in the vexatious struggles between 
 his duty and his interest. Still the Press is free! — 
 Blessed freedom ! blessed independence ! — where 
 
120 
 
 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 the dungeons of the Inquisition live only in story, 
 and the frowns of Censors are as little cared for as 
 the age of a sparrow. O how free is the American 
 Press! how boldly it pours forth its volumes of wrath 
 against rulers and aspirants ! how fearlessly it can- 
 vases the demerits of the living and the merits of the 
 dead ! How smooth and uninterrupted is its course, 
 whilst whole columns of lying paragraphs float quietly 
 along, impelled by the propitious gales of partizan 
 applause ! How sure and how secure seem the secular 
 interests of the proprietor, whilst his diurnal folio 
 circulates in the broad field of party patronage ! What 
 boots it whether honest Paul pays for the paper, or 
 damns the impertinence of the collector? It is suffi- 
 cient that there is an end to be obtained, and the 
 paper must be pushed into circulation at any hazard, 
 or by any sacrifice, until the printer is compelled to 
 " look to his bond," and be grateful for a barren 
 indemnity, where he had been taught by the managers 
 of the farce to expect a profitable harvest. The fact 
 is, too many of our presses are the exclusive property 
 of sects and parties, and their editors but the twilight 
 shadows of bodies without souls. They assume the 
 responsibility of opinions which belong to them only 
 by adoption; and feel, — whilst writhing under a 
 conviction that all is not so honest as it should be, — 
 that there is no alternative but to hoodwink their 
 consciences or to starve. Hence the multiplicity of 
 presses ; hence the clamorous appeals to the public 
 for support and patronage ; hence the crouching and 
 cringing to the aristocratical sensibility of one class, 
 and the unceasing and active irritation applied to the 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 121 
 
 Jacobinical prejudices of another ; hence all the wild 
 effusions of illiberality and dogmatism, — all the mad- 
 ness and licentiousness of atheism. There seems to 
 be no room for neutrality, no time for pause in the 
 warfare of the passions ; no rest for the high-strung 
 cords of embittered feelings ; — war, war to the utter- 
 ance. Such is the blessed freedom of the Press. 
 And why is this ? Is it necessary that an editor should 
 exhaust his intellect in a constant endeavor to furnish 
 the poison of pestilent excitement, — or, by unceasing 
 study, how best to minister to the craving appetite 
 of slander and defamation ? Is the taste of the public 
 so entirely vitiated, that nothing but caustic applica- 
 tions, bitter satire, unchristian reproach, — garbled 
 and mutilated extracts, patched and pieced until the 
 nakedness of truth is hid beneath the many-colored 
 mantle of falsehood, — will satisfy its cormorant appe- 
 tite ? Is it possible ? — but we desist, satisfied that there 
 is yet a redeeming principle in ©ur people, — a counter- 
 acting power, — abundantly sufficient to set at nought 
 the rabid venom of the party Press, and restore its 
 columns to the cause of truth, and save its conductors 
 from the curse of purchased dependence." 
 
 MR. WEBSTER. 
 
 It has been mentioned, that the Courier had been 
 the uniform supporter of Mr. Webster, in his efforts to 
 secure protection to domestic industry by means of a 
 tariff. Such was my devotion to this cause, and my 
 admiration of Mr. Webster's laborious efforts to sustain 
 it, that a paragraph which opposed the policy, or spoke 
 disparagingly of those efforts, seldom appeared in the 
 
122 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 papers which adopted the opposite doctrine, without 
 notice and animadversion. In 1835, his name was 
 mentioned in connection with the office of President, 
 and the opportunity, thus presented, of expressing my 
 attachment, was industriously improved to sustain the 
 nomination. Mr. Webster received the electoral vote 
 of Massachusetts, but not that of any other state. In 
 1838, it was again supposed that he would receive the 
 support of the whig party, generally, at the next elec- 
 tion ; but the convention which assembled at Harris- 
 burg nominated William H. Harrison. Before the 
 nomination was agreed upon, my best efforts to secure 
 it for Mr. Webster had been made in the Courier. I 
 take pleasure in reviewing the exertions I then made 
 to advance the interest of one to whom the nation 
 was so much indebted. Here is one of the articles 
 written for that purpose : — 
 
 " Daniel Webster. This name is not a stranger 
 to the readers of the. Courier, nor are they unac- 
 quainted with the estimation, in which we hold his 
 talents and character as a public man. Equally well 
 known to them are our opinions of his claims to the 
 first and highest office in the gift of the people, and 
 the unchanging fidelity and perseverance with which, 
 on all proper occasions, we have urged those claims 
 upon the consideration of his fellow-citizens. We 
 have never, for a moment, faltered in our adherence 
 to the principles, which, years ago, induced us to 
 volunteer our humble efforts to support him as a can- 
 didate for the Presidency, though our constancy has 
 often been the object of reproach and vituperation 
 among political cotemporaries, with whom availa- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 123 
 
 bility in a candidate has been the only recommen- 
 dation to their support. Our readers cannot have 
 forgotten our unwavering attachment to the candidate 
 of our choice, — The Choice of Massachusetts, — 
 manifested during the last electioneering campaign, 
 through evil report as well as good report, and they 
 have no reason now to doubt that we shall adhere to 
 that candidate with unshaken affection, until he shall, 
 himself, have taken some new position on the political 
 stage, or until a national convention shall have pro- 
 posed a candidate, who can unite the suffrages of the 
 entire opposition to the present administration." 
 
 Sept. 20, 1838. 
 
 In 1841, in consequence of John Tyler, the acting 
 President, having vetoed certain acts passed by Con- 
 gress, all the cabinet officers, except the Secretary 
 of State, — Daniel Webster, — resigned their offices. 
 Many of the prominent whig journals were vehement 
 in their censures of Mr. Webster for continuing in 
 the state department. The Courier remained firm in 
 its attachment to him, and thereby incurred the dis- 
 pleasure of those journals, and the opposition of some 
 of the influential politicians who were not connected 
 with the press. In September, 1842, Mr. Webster had 
 signified an intention to visit Boston, and to meet his 
 friends and fellow-citizens. On the 29th the meeting 
 was thus announced in the Courier : — 
 
 "As the day approaches, on which Mr. Webster 
 intends to meet his friends in Fanueil Hall, curiosity 
 seems to increase. The people feel an intense desire 
 to hear what he may have to say on public affairs, 
 
124 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 and every one is busy in imagining the course of his 
 argument, and the consequences it may produce. It 
 is predicted with great confidence, by some, that he 
 will announce a resignation of his office in the depart- 
 ment of state, — expose the baseness and duplicity of 
 the President, — and declare his adhesion to the ultra 
 whig doctrines, which declaration will, of course, 
 involve an obligation to support Mr. Clay as a candi- 
 date for the Presidency.* We have no basis for any 
 conjecture in regard to what he may say on either of 
 these points, or even whether he will allude to them 
 in any shape whatever. The uncertainty in respect 
 to Mr. Webster's position has created overwhelming 
 agony in some quarters, and unless he should satisfac- 
 torily define it, great and fatal may be the result of 
 his taciturnity. If we might be permitted to do as 
 thousands of others do, — guess at his intentions, 
 without the least particle of information, on which to 
 found a conjecture, — we should guess that he will 
 talk more about measures than men, — that he will 
 dwell more upon what he considers the true policy 
 for the country to pursue, than upon the claims of 
 individuals, who aspire to the administration of the 
 
 government To-morrow at 11 o'clock, the old 
 
 Cradle of Liberty will be filled with attentive listeners, 
 some of whom have come from Philadelphia and New- 
 York, for the sole purpose of hearing the Expounder 
 and Defender of the Constitution. 
 
 "The feeling we have alluded to is not surprizing. 
 Mr. Webster occupies, at this moment, a more com- 
 
 * A large convention had just then been held in Fanueil Hall, which nomi- 
 nated Mr. Clay as a candidate for the Presidency, — by acclamation. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 125 
 
 manding and interesting position than any other indi- 
 vidual in the country, — a position which, thus far, 
 needs no definition. He stands higher in the estima- 
 tion of the people than he has ever stood at any period 
 of his life. The political cliques, which are continu- 
 ally barking or yelping to draw or to drive him from 
 office, are not the people. The men, who are anxious 
 for the return of national and individual prosperity, 
 and who pray without ceasing for the peace and quiet 
 of the whole country, are his friends ; they are satis- 
 fied with his position, and they wish him to remain in 
 it, if he can do so, consistently with his own interest 
 and character; and, should he retire now, when, ac- 
 cording to the declaration of some of the leading 
 politicians, the country is beset with all manner of 
 evils, and threatened with still greater curses from a 
 weak and wicked chief magistrate, if they should 
 meet the event with resignation, they will not cease to 
 regret it. Thousands now look to Mr. Webster as 
 the greatest benefactor of the nation, — as one, who, 
 by his matchless skill in negotiation,* has preserved 
 the country from war, — the greatest evil that could 
 befall it except peace with dishonor, and tame sub- 
 mission to the demands of an arrogant rival. 
 
 " It requires no aid from witchcraft to perceive the 
 reason of all this hue and cry that is made to induce 
 Mr. Webster to resign, and of all the threatened frowns 
 he will have to encounter, if he should continue in his 
 present office. His aid is needed, and his power is 
 feared, by the leaders of a party who love their party 
 
 * This was soon after the settlement of the Northeastern Boundary, by 
 negotiation with Lord Ashburton. 
 
126 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 better than they do their country, and who would 
 rather sacrifice the country than have its honor or 
 prosperity maintained by any other men or means 
 than such as they dictate. Should he resign his office, 
 and come out in the character of a determined opponent 
 to the President, he must, of course, declare himself 
 an advocate for his great political rival. This would 
 give a degree of confidence to the party of Mr. Clay, 
 which it wants, and which, without the aid of Mr. 
 Webster, it can never have. On the other hand, 
 should he, in spite of remonstrance, entreaty, and 
 reproach, continue in the state department, — or should 
 he even resign and go into retirement, — without 
 declaring in favor of Mr. Clay, it is evident that 
 enough would withdraw with him to render the success 
 of the present schemes somewhat problematical. And 
 this we take to be the whole secret of the clamor which 
 is got up to drive him from the cabinet, under the 
 shallow pretence that he can no longer remain there 
 with honor." 
 
 The appointed time at length arrived. The hall 
 was immensely crowded. The mayor of the city, 
 Hon. Jonathan Chapman, was requested to preside. 
 When Mr. Webster and a few of his select friends 
 appeared, he was introduced to Mr. Chapman, who, 
 after the usual ceremony of reception, addressed Mr. 
 Webster for about twenty minutes, greeting him as a 
 personal friend and fellow-citizen, and referring to 
 some of the principal acts of his public life, which 
 had laid upon the people most grateful obligations. 
 A full report of Mr. Webster's speech was published 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 127 
 
 in the Courier, October 1, on which occasion it was 
 said, — " We believe the speech of Mr. Webster will 
 be approved by all who are not absolutely pledged 
 to go with a certain party, right or wrong. We shall 
 be disappointed if it do not produce a prodigious effect 
 throughout the country. We said, a few days ago, 
 that he never stood higher in popular estimation than 
 at that time. His position is now a still more elevated 
 one. The confidence in his patriotism is confirmed, 
 and the country will be grateful for his firmness in 
 remaining at the post where she needed his services, 
 though assailed by vituperation and hypocrisy, in all 
 the forms which the ingenuity of office-seeking avarice 
 
 could invent It was confidently asserted, for 
 
 several days previous, that Mr. Webster would take 
 this occasion to cut loose from Mr. Tyler's adminis- 
 tration ; and some went so far as to say that he had 
 already resigned, and would avail himself of the 
 occasion to announce a fact which then existed. The 
 authors of these declarations and predictions must have 
 been a little disappointed. Those who, from a sense 
 of honor peculiar to themselves, have kindly informed 
 him that he cannot remain in the cabinet without 
 disgracing himself, must be especially gratified with 
 the manner in which he accepts their advice and 
 
 admonition But, whatever may be said or 
 
 thought of the speech in some other respects, no one 
 can deny that it is frank, bold, manly, and entirely 
 free from all that looks like affectation. It was evi- 
 dently an unstudied, extemporaneous effort. There 
 was no attempt to stifle opinion or to conceal feeling, 
 — no attempt to palter with the audience in a double 
 
128 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 sense, by the use of words of uncertain meaning. 
 There was no sly insinuation, no dark innuendo, but 
 a straight- forward, independent exposition of truth, a 
 copious outpouring of reproof, animadversion, admo- 
 nition, and entreaty." 
 
 It may be mentioned, as a curious fact, that while 
 the most intelligent merchants, manufacturers and 
 mechanics, those who daily frequented the resorts of 
 men of business, were uniform and decided in expres- 
 sions of approbation of the sentiments delivered by Mr. 
 Webster in this speech, the whig papers in Massachu- 
 setts, with hardly an exception, were as uniform 
 in condemning the whole performance, and many 
 of them continued to fulminate denunciations of 
 his willingness to remain in the cabinet, after the 
 resignation of his colleagues, in September, 1841. 
 Notwithstanding all these manifestations of censure, 
 chagrin and mortification, he continued in the office 
 till some time in May, 1843. 
 
 The National Convention of Whigs, which assem- 
 bled in 1844 to nominate a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency, proposed Mr. Clay for that office, as the most 
 u available candidate." Thus Mr. Webster was sacri- 
 ficed on the altar of availability. With true magna- 
 nimity he took the field, and used his whole power in 
 promoting the election of Mr. Clay. But Mr. Clay 
 was defeated, and Mr. Polk was chosen to the office 
 of chief magistrate of the Union. The noble stand 
 taken by Mr. Webster, — submitting without complaint 
 to the voice of the convention, and, forgetting his own 
 claims, enforcing with all the strength of his almost 
 omnipotent eloquence the claim of a rival, — seemed 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 129 
 
 to render him more popular ; and the general voice 
 of the people, — especially the people in the non- 
 slaveholding states, — was equivalent to a pledge that 
 he should, certainly, be the choice of the Whigs, when 
 the period for another presidential election should 
 occur. In the mean time, several circumstances 
 tended to strengthen his popularity. He opposed the 
 annexation of Texas, deprecated the consequences 
 which he foresaw would flow from it, and took no part 
 in the measures that produced the Mexican war. The 
 war, however, became popular, the brilliancy of mili- 
 tary exploits dazzled the eyes of a large portion of the 
 people, and, to complete the climax of folly, the name 
 of General Taylor, the hero of the war, was brought 
 forward, first in the camp, and soon afterwards at 
 convivial festivals in the southern and western states, 
 as the man, and the only man, who could be "availa- 
 ble " in the next political campaign. The nomination 
 was viewed, at first, rather as a matter of sport than 
 of serious consideration, but as the time for a new 
 election drew near, it assumed a more imposing aspect. 
 It received no support in the Courier, and but little in 
 any influential journal in New England. The name 
 of General Scott was sometimes coupled with the 
 office of President ; and Judge M'Lean was proposed 
 in the papers of the Liberty and Anti-Slavery parties. 
 Still the strong current of public sentiment ran in 
 favor of Mr. Webster. The Courier never faltered in 
 its fidelity to him ; and though a correspondent might 
 occasionally be permitted to discuss, in its columns, 
 the claims and qualifications of some other candidate, 
 such an indulgence was invariably accompanied by an 
 
 VOL. II. 9 
 
130 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 editorial protest against its argument. From many- 
 columns which I wrote upon this subject, in 1847 and 
 1848, the few extracts which follow are selected, as 
 embodying the sentiments I honestly entertained, and 
 which I have seen no reason to renounce. The first 
 of these extracts was the cause of some severe 
 strictures from a democratic paper ; but I do not 
 recollect that any whig journal took any exceptions to 
 its tone or language. It certainly does contain some 
 hard words ; but I always thought that frankness in 
 the expression of one's honestly-entertained belief, 
 demanded that things should be called by their proper 
 names. If, however, the preservation of it in this 
 volume be thought a folly, or a crime, so let it be. I 
 am not kneeling at the confessional, nor praying for 
 absolution. I submit to all the punishment which the 
 sin deserves : — 
 
 HERO WORSHIP. 
 
 " The progress of hero worship is truly alarming. 
 The war in which we are engaged has already diffused 
 a military taste among the people, which tends to 
 nothing but a corruption of morals, and the utter ex- 
 tinction of every truly patriotic sentiment ; for the 
 spirit that exults in the success of an aggressive war 
 has no affinity with the spirit of patriotism. The latter 
 seeks to make men happy by teaching them habits of 
 industry, the arts of peace, and the refinements of 
 literature, philosophy, and morals ; the former brutal- 
 izes a nation, and ' bids defiance to the unarmed phi- 
 losopher and politician, who bring into the field truth 
 without a spear, and argument unbacked by artillery.' 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 131 
 
 n All wars beget Heroes, as naturally (and almost as 
 suddenly) as lightning produces thunder, and the more 
 skill and science in the work of butchery, the greater 
 the hero, and the sooner he arrives at the zenith of 
 glory. Thus, General Zachary Taylor, who, twelve 
 months ago, was not half as celebrated as l General 
 Tom Thumb,' has become the idol of a host of wor- 
 shipers, whose name is Legion. The public mind 
 is essentially (we hope not thoroughly) debauched with 
 the doctrines of hero worship. The press lends its 
 aid in the dissemination of these pernicious doctrines, 
 and the establishment of a system of the most abomi- 
 nable despotism that can be inflicted on a nation. 
 Some of the most influential journals have the name of 
 this Hero in double pica capitals at the head of their 
 editorial columns, as a candidate for the Presidency ; 
 as if success in murdering men, women, and children 
 by hundreds and thousands, were all that is desired to 
 give him a claim to the suffrages of a people who 
 boast of their magnanimity and love of justice. Edit- 
 ors, whose moral sensibilities are in convulsions if 
 they see an advertisement showing where wine is for 
 sale, snatch up with eagerness every paragraph that 
 glorifies the conduct or character of this military 
 chieftain, and present it as a luscious morsel to their 
 readers. Political principles and opinions, in regard 
 to subjects hitherto thought to be of the utmost im- 
 portance to the prosperity of the country, are no 
 longer thought of, and Whigs and Democrats seem to 
 have buried all their ancient animosities, and to vie 
 with each other in a new contest, to decide whether 
 the Hero is actually a Whig or a Democrat. One 
 
132 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 journal, (we do not recollect what one, but we have 
 seen it within a week,) disclaims all solicitude in re- 
 lation to his political partizanship, and is satisfied, — 
 perfectly satisfied, — with the conviction that General 
 Zachary Taylor is a great and good man ! The 
 facts on which this conviction is founded were not 
 stated, nor do we recollect that the editor alluded to 
 any particular acts that constitute the character of 
 1 a great and good man.' But with the true hero 
 worshiper that is of no importance. If the altar is 
 well furnished with human flesh for the sacrifice, and 
 thousands of hearts have been pierced to supply a 
 generous libation of human blood, the adoring throng 
 require no other stimulant to their devotion. 
 
 " To say 'nothing of the elements of greatness, a 
 quality which as appropriately belongs to a devil as to 
 a saint, and a term which may be used to signify the 
 darkest of crimes as well as the brightest of virtues, 
 — we have yet to learn wherein consists the goodness 
 of General Taylor ; and we sincerely hope that some 
 of his worshipers will, ere long, have the goodness 
 to portray those features in his character, and recite 
 some of those acts of his which give him a claim to 
 idolatry. We are the more anxious on this point, 
 because we should be glad, for once in our life, to be 
 one of a political majority, and at the same time be 
 sure that we are right. Only satisfy us that General 
 Taylor is truly deserving of the approbation of the 
 wise, the humane, and the patriotic, and we will 
 heartily unite in every thing adapted to do honor to 
 his virtues, although we will give no pledge to become 
 a worshiper in the temple of his fame, or 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 133 
 
 To crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, 
 Where thrift may follow fawning. 
 
 " We are aware that it is said by the worshipers, that 
 General Taylor does no more than fulfil his duty to 
 his country by prosecuting the war with all the power 
 of his arm and his intellect. He has been bred a 
 soldier, in the service of his country, and he must not 
 disobey the orders of the President. There is no 
 other alternative ; he must obey or resign. Miserable 
 apology, — contemptible subterfuge. Let him resign 
 his commission. He has, himself, pronounced the war 
 unnecessary, unjust, and cruel. He used language 
 similar to this, if we remember rightly, in his letter 
 to Henry Clay, announcing the loss of Mr. Clay's son. 
 He then pronounced his own condemnation. If he 
 admits that the war is unnecessary, unjust, and cruel, 
 he cannot escape from the consequences of the ad- 
 mission, namely, that he who voluntarily carries it 
 on successfully, is guilty of gratuitous injustice and 
 cruelty. When an officer is placed in a position 
 where he cannot, without disobedience to his superior, 
 refrain from the commission of acts which his con- 
 science tells him are offences against God and 
 humanity, there is one plain, straight-forward path for 
 him to pursue. If his orders are to ravage a neigh- 
 boring state, to rob and murder its inhabitants, and 
 burn its cities, — acts which he feels to be inconsistent 
 with justice and humanity, — wherein is he a whit 
 better than the hired bravoes and assassins which we 
 read of in Italian history, if he persists in the obedi- 
 ence to his orders rather than to the law which God 
 has written on his heart? The characters are analo- 
 
134 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 gous, if not identical. Both rob and murder for hire, 
 and, like Falstaff, think it no sin to labor in their 
 vocation. There te, however, one remarkable differ- 
 ence; — the Bravo, for a guinea or two, disposes of 
 an individual designated by his employer, — the Hero 
 does his work indiscriminately, by wholesale, and 
 for an annual salary of some thousands of dollars. 
 Which will have the heaviest account to be settled 
 hereafter, is known only to that Judge who is sub- 
 ject to none of the imperfections attendant upon 
 mortality. 
 
 " In these remarks we have used the word Hero, 
 with its derivatives, according to its present popular 
 acceptation. We are aware that another and far 
 different idea is connected with the word. Had 
 General Taylor felt any partiality for the character 
 of a hero in that other and nobler sense, he would 
 have thrown his commission in the face of the Presi- 
 dent, the moment he received an order to pass over 
 the boundary of the United States with an invading 
 army. Had he done so, in all probability there would 
 have been no war, — the difficulties with Mexico 
 would have been amicably adjusted, — thousands of 
 innocent lives would have been saved, — millions of 
 dollars might have remained in the public treasury, 
 or in the hands of individuals, to be used in con- 
 structing canals and railroads, or employed in pro- 
 moting the arts and sciences which improve and 
 embellish society, — and our heroic representatives 
 in Congress would have lost the opportunity of dis- 
 honoring themselves by voting supplies to carry on a 
 war which they have acknowledged to be unrighteous, 
 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 135 
 
 cruel, and unnecessary. He would then have proved 
 himself a true and legitimate Hero, and the wise and 
 virtuous of all nations and ages would have combined 
 to do him reverence, — ay, and when the portals of 
 immortality should be opened to receive his disem- 
 bodied spirit, may we not believe that all heaven 
 would echo with the shout, The Hero Comes ! " 
 
 May 6, 1847. 
 
 " c Will Mr. Webster receive any votes from those 
 who have not acted ivith the Whig Party ) ' This is 
 submitting the question of Mr. Webster's popularity 
 to the test of analysis, and not leaving it to be decided 
 by vague and unsupported declamation. We are 
 satisfied that investigation will show that Mr. Webster, 
 more than any other man of his party, commands the 
 confidence of those who do not act with it. His public 
 life has been long, and the principles he has advocated 
 and the policy he has pursued are all before the public, 
 and well and generally known. They are distinguished 
 by moderation, consistency, and firmness. Although 
 a Whig, he is not a man to be claimed wholly by his 
 party ; he has more frequently contended for the 
 preservation of the Union, and upholding the Consti- 
 tution, than for mere party principles; he is, and is 
 acknowledged to be, a man full of American feelings, 
 broad and catholic as the Constitution of the country, 
 and limited only by the boundaries which the true 
 original spirit of the Constitution prescribes. Such a 
 man, it is believed, the people, who love the Union and 
 the Constitution more than they love party, want ; and 
 they would be most happy to show their admiration for 
 
136 PERSONAL B1EMOIRS. 
 
 him, and their confidence in him by their votes, if they 
 had an opportunity of doing so. Of this we cannot 
 permit ourself to doubt ; and nothing but timidity on the 
 part of those who are desirous of seeing Mr. Webster 
 president, has suffered his name to be kept back, and 
 prevented it from being made more prominent than 
 any other name on the list of the whig candidates 
 for that office. Who can fail to see that the times, 
 the embarrassed state of our own country, as well as 
 the aspect of European affairs, demand just such a 
 man as Daniel Webster at the helm of state ? — a man 
 known and respected abroad as well as at home. 
 
 " If the cause of that timidity, which fears to present 
 the name of Mr. Webster as a candidate for the 
 presidency, be investigated, it will be found to be 
 a sentiment, distrustful, to the last degree, of the 
 people. It proceeds upon the assumption that they 
 are incapable of appreciating the value of the most 
 important services rendered to the country ; that 
 they are jealous of pre-eminent ability and devoted 
 patriotism, unless that ability and patriotism are dis- 
 played on the field of battle, amid the smoke of 
 cannon and the clash of contending armies. We 
 submit whether, in our past experience, sufficient 
 evidence has been furnished to authorize this con- 
 clusion. If this be true, then, indeed, it may well be 
 doubted, as they to whom we refer do doubt, whether 
 the people are capable of self-government, — whether 
 republican liberty can be maintained. But is such a 
 doubt to be entertained now? Are we to take counsel 
 from a feeling that despairs of the Republic, when 
 thrones are tottering, and the eyes of the people of 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 137 
 
 Europe are turned admiringly and hopefully upon us 
 as the only guardians of true liberty, — as having set 
 the only safe example for them to follow? Shall 
 enlightened patriots and republicans now desert their 
 posts and quit their ranks, without an effort, to 
 accomplish that which they know to be right, — to 
 put the government of the country in wise and safe 
 hands ? We say, No, no. 
 
 " We hope and believe that Massachusetts at least 
 will not despair, nor adopt the counsels of Fear. 
 Massachusetts ! that has always been faithful to 
 liberty, — may she not hope that her voice will be 
 heard and respected when Whigs are consulting upon 
 the general welfare ? Has Massachusetts been second 
 to any of her sister states in upholding and advancing 
 whig principles ? She now presents one of her sons 
 to become the leader, — to bear the banner of the 
 whig party, — a veteran in the ranks of the party; 
 one who can show as many scars received in the 
 conflicts of that party as the stoutest and the bravest, — 
 one who can exhibit as many splendid trophies won 
 in those conflicts, as any other. She asks that the 
 man of her choice be taken, or, if he be rejected, that 
 he be rejected upon some better plea and for some 
 sounder reason, than that he is too strong, too much 
 distinguished, too pre-eminent, to be approved by the 
 popular voice. We are willing to trust the people. 
 Our candidate is willing to trust the people. We and 
 he are anxious to take their decision, and not the 
 decision of those who assume to speak for them. 
 
 " Massachusetts presents the name of Daniel 
 Webster, because she has tried him long. She has 
 
138 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 tried him in the councils of her own commonwealth 
 and in the councils of the nation. The nation has 
 tried him, and, in every public station, in every 
 department, he has come up to the highest point of 
 excellence, reached by any. who preceded him in 
 the same station or department. The approbation of 
 Massachusetts comes up for Daniel Webster, as was 
 well said by the present speaker of the House of 
 Representatives,* on a public occasion in Philadelphia, 
 1 from every hill-side, from every river-side, from 
 every sea-side, and from every fire-side, in the old 
 Bay State of the Revolution.' Nor is she likely to 
 forget his services, now, when he has come back to 
 her, bowed to the very earth with domestic affliction,! 
 but yet with spirit enough and strength enough to 
 contend, as no other man can contend, for those 
 principles of liberty that are dear to the heart of the 
 state which has honored and trusted him. 
 
 " We have no authority to speak for others, but 
 we believe that the delegates who shall represent 
 Massachusetts in the Whig Convention that is to 
 assemble in the Hall of Independence on the seventh 
 day of June next, will urge, to the very last moment, 
 the nomination of Daniel Webster to the office of 
 President of the United States ; and we trust they will 
 not be left to contend alone for his nomination." 
 
 April 3, 1848 
 
 * lion. Robert C. Winthrop. 
 
 t Mr. Webster was then in Massachusetts, called from his place in the 
 Senate, to attend the funeral of his youngest son, and the death-bed of his only 
 daughter. 
 

 THE BOSTON COURIER. 139 
 
 AVAILABILITY. 
 
 " As an inhabitant of Massachusetts we feel humbled 
 and mortified, when we hear, — as we do daily, and 
 in the most public places, — men of character and 
 influence declare that Daniel Webster is their first 
 choice for President, and if he should fail to receive the 
 nomination of the Whig Convention, on the first ballot, 
 then their choice is Zachary Taylor. In our opinion, 
 it is pretty safe to conclude that those who make 
 this declaration are not friends to Mr. Webster's 
 nomination. Indeed, we begin to fear that there is 
 some truth in the charge of insincerity among a 
 certain portion of the Whigs, to which we alluded 
 some days ago. If those, who hold and advocate 
 this doctrine of availability, do really wish to see Mr. 
 Webster nominated by the Whig Convention, it would 
 seem that, as a matter of policy, they would say 
 nothing of a second choice. To say that they should 
 rejoice to place Mr. Webster in the Presidency, but 
 that they know that he cannot be elected, is equivalent 
 to saying to their opponents, Give us whom you please; 
 we should be pleased, if you would give us Webster ; 
 but give us Taylor, or whom you please, and we accept 
 the nomination. Now the friends of Gen. Taylor, or 
 any other southern candidate, will never become so 
 stultified, as to allow even a complimentary vote of 
 the Convention to be given to Mr. Webster, while the 
 pliant Whigs of the free states pronounce beforehand 
 their readiness to give up their own preference to the 
 nomination of the slaveholding power. Why should 
 they ? They have only to persevere in their adherence 
 
140 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 to a slaveholder, or a southern man, knowing, or 
 believing, as they have reason to believe, that the 
 friends of Mr. Webster will give way, and meanly 
 submit to be imposed upon with an available candi- 
 date. 
 
 " There is but one straight-forward course for the 
 Massachusetts delegates to pursue, — and that is, to 
 let it be distinctly known that they have no second 
 choice of a candidate; — that Webster is their first 
 and second an'd last and only choice. It may be said 
 that Gen. Taylor can be nominated by a majority, 
 without the aid of Massachusetts. If so, so let it be. 
 But it is said, If Massachusetts should refuse to accept 
 the nomination of the Convention, she will stand alone. 
 Well, she had better stand alone, than aid in elevating 
 to the Presidency a man who has no qualification for 
 the office, or any man who is inferior to the best. 
 Thank Heaven, she is able to stand alone. She would 
 gain nothing by drawing the triumphal car of the 
 available candidate. A few of her degenerate sons 
 might, perhaps, be permitted to feed on the crumbs, 
 which fall from his table during the inauguration 
 dinner ; but Massachusetts, as a state, stands in no 
 need of such patronage. She is better without it. 
 
 " We do not yet despair, and hope that the voice of 
 the delegation of the free men from the free states 
 may not be without influence. But the southern men, 
 (who, by the way, never acknowledge any second 
 choice, nor even talk of an available candidate,) have 
 an overcoming faith in doughfaces, and their faith 
 generally saves them from defeat." 
 
 May 27, 1848. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 141 
 
 Here ended my efforts to support the election of 
 Mr. Webster. The Convention nominated General 
 Taylor, and all discussion relating to the justice 
 or propriety of the nomination would have been 
 superfluous and unavailing. Mr. Webster was again 
 sacrificed to the senseless notion of " availability." 
 With a magnanimous spirit, like that which he had 
 manifested on former similar occasions, he acquiesced 
 in the decision of the Convention, and suffered immo- 
 lation at the shrine of an ungrateful party. I would 
 have traveled from Dan to Beersheba to make him 
 President. My doubts of the fitness of General 
 Taylor for that high office were too firmly fixed to 
 be changed by the decision of a political caucus. 
 Conscientiously, I could not bow to "the rising sun" 
 of the political firmament ; and soon after retired from 
 the position I had held as an editor for almost forty 
 years. 
 
 The articles, which immediately follow, have been 
 taken, almost promiscuously, from the files of ten 
 successive years, — bearing no relation to political 
 affairs or to topics of popular agitation, — and there- 
 fore calling for no explanatory remarks : — 
 
 MAGNIFICENT PHENOMENON. 
 
 " Of all the celestial phenomena, which from time 
 to time attract the attention of us, dwellers on the 
 earth, and fill the mind with ' thoughts beyond the 
 reaches of the soul,' we have never witnessed one 
 which could compare with the brilliant display of 
 
142 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 the ' spacious firmament ' on Tuesday evening. The 
 aurora borealis, described as seen from the arctic 
 seas, only equals the gorgeous magnificence of this 
 spectacle, — a spectacle which can never be obliter- 
 ated from our imagination, but which we have not 
 power to describe. 
 
 " Soon after six o'clock in the evening, there was 
 a brilliant light in the north, tinging the edges of the 
 clouds with a pale flame color. Soon after, the north- 
 ern part of the heavens was hung with clouds, which 
 assumed a darker and more fiery hue, and the whole 
 northern hemisphere exhibited an appearance, not 
 unlike that of a distant fire in a dark night. In the 
 course of the evening, as there was an alternation of 
 a cloudy and a clear sky, the lights were of different 
 colors and different degrees of brightness. In the 
 north-east the appearance was as if the full moon were 
 just rising. During the greater part of the time, from 
 seven o'clock till twelve, the light was equal to that 
 of the full moon when obstructed by very thin clouds. 
 About eleven o'clock the zenith appeared to be the 
 centre of a dome, literally ' fretted with golden fire.' 
 The rays from the whole northern hemisphere flashed 
 up to the central point, and then assumed the color of 
 bright scarlet, deepening to the hue of blood. This 
 central point, or focus, was not stationary ; it moved 
 occasionally towards the west, but oftener in an east- 
 erly direction. At one time we noticed it approaching 
 the Pleiades, with a waving or undulating motion. It 
 passed between that constellation and the eye, and 
 though, at that time, the color of the rays was of the 
 deepest red, and the rays seemed thickening to a 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 143 
 
 cloud, the brilliancy of the stars was not in the least 
 abated. We can compare the spectacle at this time 
 to nothing but an immense umbrella, suspended from 
 the heavens, the edges of which embraced more than 
 half of the visible horizon ; in the south-east, its lower 
 edge covered the belt of Orion, and farther to the 
 left, the planet Jupiter shone in all his magnificence 
 and glory, as through a transparency of gold and 
 scarlet. The whole scene was indescribably beautiful 
 and solemn. It was a spectacle, of which painting 
 and poetry united, can give no adequate idea, and 
 which philosophy will fail to account for, to the satis- 
 faction of the student of nature, or the disciple of 
 revelation. The cause can be known only to Him, at 
 whose bidding 
 
 Darkness fled — Light shone, 
 And the ethereal quintescence of heaven 
 Flew upward, spirited with various forms, 
 That rolled, orbicular, and turned to stars." 
 November 19, 1835. 
 
 A DOG-DAY SERMON. 
 
 " ; The love of money is the root of all evil.'' Well, 
 suppose it is, it follows not that it may not be the root 
 of a vast deal of good. In truth, very little good can 
 be accomplished without money, and he that loves 
 it not, is indifferent to all the good which money 
 produces. 
 
 " Our logic is as conclusive as St. Paul's. Indeed, 
 if Paul intended to prove his proposition by any 
 logical demonstration, he made but a poor business of 
 it. And, what is more, he furnished an apophthegm, 
 by the application of which, certain persons of a 
 
144 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 certain turn of mind, on certain occasions, justify 
 themselves for shutting their ears against the claims 
 of benevolence, of honor, and even of common sense. 
 These persons would also bar the doors of their hearts 
 to all such appeals, if they had any hearts. But, as 
 the Creator, for some wise purpose or other, sent them 
 into the world with a deficient organization, it would 
 be uncourteous, unmanly, perhaps impious, to speak 
 of heartlessness in any terms of reproach. 
 
 " Old Pinchfist, — who has spent threescore years of 
 his threescore-and-ten, in the accumulation of wealth, 
 till the mass has become so large that he reckons its 
 dimensions as geographers do the surface of the globe, 
 by degrees of latitude and longitude, demonstrates his 
 solicitude for the souls of others, — having none of his 
 own, — by cautioning them to beware of the love of 
 money. He sees his neighbors poor, and striving — 
 not to become rich, but — to obtain a decent compe- 
 tence, perhaps only a bare subsistence. If they com- 
 plain of ill-luck, or of losses, or of the want of that 
 which money, and money alone will procure, he tells 
 them how much happier they are than rich men. 
 Riches bring cares. Poverty is happier than great 
 riches, because it has nothing of which to be careful. 
 Poverty can sleep quietly, because it is not afraid of 
 burglars and incendiaries. Poverty is in no fear of 
 sickness, because it has no means of gratifying a glut- 
 tonous appetite. So reasons Pinchfist, and clenches 
 his argument with the authority of the holy apostle, St. 
 Paul, — 'The love of money is the root of all evil.' 
 
 " Young Muckworm has just emerged from the 
 gutter, where he has gathered the elements of wealth 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 145 
 
 that may hereafter be enough to revolutionize the 
 nation. He sees one of his old school-mates struggling 
 to escape from the embarrassments which poverty has 
 thrown around him ; and while he laughs in his sleeve 
 at the folly of attempting to rise by open means and 
 clean hands, he offers the consolations of our text : — 
 'Beware, young friend, (he will say,) how you in- 
 dulge your greediness for gain. Live in peaceful 
 poverty, — feed on a crust a day, — let your children 
 go barefooted ; it will harden the skin, and prevent 
 colds and rheumatisms, — let your wife wash and 
 iron ; it is good exercise, and you will have to pay no 
 doctor's bill. A ten-footer is better for content than a 
 granite palace. The love of money is the root of all 
 evil.' 
 
 " O Paul, Paul, Paul ! what has thou not to answer 
 for ! To what sophistry, to what chicanery, to what 
 hypocrisy, hast thou given currency ! To how many 
 misers, curmudgeons, and churls hast thou furnished 
 a cloak for hard-heartedness and sin ! How many 
 mean and sordid subjects has thy indiscreet and mis- 
 interpreted dogma created for the kingdom of Satan ! 
 
 " The good which the world enjoys as a consequence 
 of the love of money, is at least equal to the evil which 
 that passion has produced. The evil is chiefly confined 
 to the miser, and to him who is destitute of moral prin- 
 ciple. The good is enjoyed by all who come within 
 the circle of that influence, which is generated by 
 benevolence, public spirit, and an honest love of fame. 
 Look at some of the merchants of our city, who have 
 given their thousands of dollars, by fives, and by tens, 
 and by fifties, to erect hospitals for the sick and the 
 
 VOL. II. 10 
 
146 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 insane, asylums for the orphan and the blind, schools 
 for the young, and churches for the poor, — and say 
 if that love of money, which alone begot this accumu- 
 lated wealth, has been a root of evil. 
 
 " And now for the application. Whenever you hear 
 a man preaching against the love of money, and trying 
 to convince his hearers that the poor are happier than 
 the rich, depend upon it that fellow is a miser, who 
 thinks there is no music equal to the jingling of a 
 dollar, and who would not hesitate to pick your pocket, 
 if he could do so, without the hazard of detection. 
 ' Let this suffice.' " 
 
 MOUNT AUBURN. 
 
 "Yesterday was an anniversary; — one of those 
 days that to us, and, we trust, to many others, stand 
 out distinctly from the regular procession of ever- 
 moving days and nights, and may aptly be compared 
 to milestones on the highway from the cradle to the 
 grave ; reminding us how 
 
 On our quick'st decrees 
 The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time 
 Steals, ere we can effect them ; 
 
 and marking, with fearful and unerring accuracy, our 
 diminished and rapidly shortening distance from the 
 end of the journey. 
 
 "It was on the twenty-fourth of September, 1831, 
 that Mount Auburn was solemnly dedicated as a place 
 of burial for the Dead, — no longer to be subservient 
 to the uses of the Living, like a spot of ordinary earth ; 
 but to be held for ever sacred as a holy resting-place 
 for the Dead. That day was one of the loveliest of 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 147 
 
 those bright and beautiful days, which give to a New- 
 England autumn an unearthly character, — when man 
 feels that it is a blessing to live, and he, who ever 
 feels at all, cannot resist the consciousness that life is 
 a gift, for which he can never be sufficiently grateful 
 to the Giver. The atmosphere was all purity and 
 fragrance ; the sky an unclouded sea of azure, through 
 which the glorious sun sailed on his eternal voyage in 
 golden majesty ; over the earth was spread a carpet, 
 whose groundwork was of the richest green, variegated 
 with fields ripe for the harvest, with pastures covered 
 with flocks, and with the furrows of the husbandman, 
 — those paths which drop fatness from the goings- 
 forth of the Creator. The trees, not yet divested of 
 their foliage, were beginning to exhibit those rich and 
 varied colors, that indicate the decline of the year; 
 the leaves of the maples began to throw out their tints 
 of yellow and crimson; the oaks their sober brown, 
 the ash its mellow and luxuriant purple ; while the 
 pines and the hemlocks seemed to stand strong upon 
 their mountain, boasting of their everlasting green. 
 Who was there, among the thousands that assembled 
 that morning around ' Consecration Dell,' who did 
 not feel that life was a blessing, rendered more 
 precious by the belief that its end on earth might 
 be peace, and its continuance in heaven unmingled 
 enjoyment ? Even that youth, who, 
 
 When he looked along the laughing earth, 
 Up the blue heavens and through the middle air, 
 Joyfully ringing with the skylark's song, 
 Wept at the thought, how sad for one so young 
 To bid farewell to so much happiness, — 
 
148 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 even he, amidst his tears, exclaimed with fervent 
 voice, — I never lived so long in one day. 
 
 " It was on such a day, seven years ago, that 
 Mount Auburn was consecrated as a place of burial 
 for the Dead. At the entrance of the ground, (then 
 a common set of bars, — now an imposing gateway 
 of Egyptian architecture,) a procession was formed, 
 consisting of the members of the corporation, and the 
 chaplains and the orator selected for the occasion, 
 preceded by a band of music, and was conducted by 
 two young men as marshals, to a spot prepared for 
 the performance of the interesting services. From that 
 time this spot has borne the name of " Consecration 
 Dell." A stage for the chaplains and orator was 
 erected over a small section of a circular pond, which 
 is almost surrounded by high and precipitous emi- 
 nences, whose tops and sides near the pond are 
 crowned with a natural growth of forest trees. The 
 immediate margin of the pond was covered with 
 seats and filled with living forms of health and 
 strength and beauty, assembled to witness the solemn 
 service. Prayers then went upward, we trust, on 
 wings of faith, to the mercy-seat ; an address was 
 pronounced by an accomplished scholar, full of piety, 
 devotion and pathos ; solemn music burst from the 
 band, and a thousand voices joined in singing a hymn. 
 The air was filled with melody. 
 
 "Mount Auburn was then almost a wilderness. The 
 avenues and walks, which now furrow its diversified 
 surface, and lead through its vales and over and 
 around its hillocks and eminences, were then barely 
 chalked out, and exhibited but an imperfect sketch of 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 149 
 
 the labyrinth that now appears so perplexing to a 
 stranger. What a change has a period of seven years 
 produced ! The native wildness of the place is softened 
 and subdued, but not destroyed, by the hand of labor 
 and of art. The native oak now waves its foliage over 
 an exotic shrubbery ; the anemone, the violet, and the 
 aster, long the lonely and unobtrusive spontaneous 
 product of the soil, now gracefully mingle with the 
 daisy, the narcissus, and the lily ; the wild rose and 
 the sweet-brier unveil their blushing beauties, and 
 exhale their incomparable fragrance in the presence of 
 the more gaudy varieties of foreign origin. Most of 
 the trees and shrubs, that are indigenous to our New- 
 England forests, are to be found within the limits of 
 Mount Auburn, and the nurseries of exotic plants have 
 made bountiful contributions to add to the native em- 
 bellishment. The visiter now sees, in all directions, 
 the marble urn, the sarcophagus or cenotaph, and the 
 granite obelisk, marking the spots where repose the 
 relics of departed relatives, or where the living have 
 provided resting-places from the cares of mortality. 
 Seven years ago, Mount Auburn was the habitation 
 only of the field-mouse and the squirrel, or of wild 
 animals and reptiles, more unfit for the companionship 
 of man ; it is now a city of the dead, populous with 
 all degrees and qualities of our race, rich with the 
 treasures of memory, of love, of friendship, and 
 affection. In its ample bosom are embraced the 
 reverend pastor and evangelist, the venerable states- 
 man and magistrate, the accomplished jurist and 
 scholar, the opulent merchant, the ambitious soldier, 
 the philosopher and the philanthropist, they who have 
 
150 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 lived in ease and affluence, and they who have earned 
 their bread by the sweat of the brow ; there, also, 
 rest the patriarch, who has seen his children of the 
 third and fourth generation, and the infant which only 
 opened its eyes to the light to close them for ever ; 
 and there, too, is manhood, taken in the exercise 
 of its sober dignity and wisdom, the mother in the 
 midst of her solicitude, the daughter in all her loveli- 
 ness, the son in the beauty of youth or in the vigor 
 and manliness of riper years. There 
 
 All softly lie and sweetly sleep 
 
 Low in the ground ; 
 The storm that wrecks the wintry sky, 
 No more disturbs their deep repose, 
 Than summer evening's latest sigh, 
 
 That shuts the rose. 
 
 " Reader ! if you would have the sympathies of your 
 nature awakened, your earthly affections purified, your 
 anxieties chastened and subdued, your hopes animated, 
 your faith strengthened, — goto Mount Auburn. Go 
 not for the gratification of idle curiosity, to comment 
 with the eye of a critic upon the forms of the monu- 
 ments, or the taste of those who placed them there ; 
 and above all, go not there, as the manner of some is, 
 with cold indifference, to scoff at the mourner, and, 
 with heartless irreverence, to shock the sensibility of 
 the bereaved with your antic and unseemly behavior, 
 and • the loud laugh that speaks the vacant mind.' 
 But go to read and to learn the lesson which you must, 
 yourself, at some future day, transmit to those who 
 come after you. Enter the gate with the solemnity 
 its motto imposes, — The dust shall return to the earth 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 151 
 
 as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave 
 it. Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the ground is 
 holy. There is no feeling of our nature so vague, 
 so complicated, so mysterious, as that with which a 
 reflecting being looks upon the remains of his fellow- 
 mortals, and the emblems and memorials of man's 
 mortality. « The dignity with which Death invests 
 even the meanest of his victims, inspires us with an 
 awe which no living thing can create. The monarch 
 on his throne is less awful than the beggar in his 
 shroud. The marble features, the powerless hand, 
 the stiffened limbs, the tongue chained in silence, the 
 eyelids sealed up in darkness. O who can contem- 
 plate these with feelings that can be defined ? And 
 then the spirit which animated the clay, — where is it 
 now ? Is it wrapt in bliss, or dissolved in wo ? Does 
 it witness our grief, and share our sorrows ? Or is 
 the mysterious tie, that linked it with mortality, for 
 ever broken ? And the remembrance of earthly 
 scenes, are they to the enfranchised spirit as the 
 morning dream, or the dew upon the early flower ? ' 
 Such reflections must naturally arise in every breast ; 
 and if you would feel their influence, and profit by 
 their operation, go to Mount Auburn. 
 
 " But we must pause. There is not here a foot of 
 earth, nor a monument however humble, that is not 
 worthy of a descriptive record. In this hasty notice, 
 we have omitted some of the most elegant and at- 
 tractive. 
 
 " Reader ! Forgive the intrusiveness of private 
 affection, that lingers for a moment longer around one 
 
152 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 spot, on which is a small white marble cenotaph, — 
 denoting that the remains of him, whose name it 
 bears, are not there : ' The sea his body, Heaven his 
 spirit, holds.'' So says the inscription, and to that 
 sentiment, daily and nightly responds the parent's 
 heart, — 
 
 On beds of green sea-flower his limbs have been laid ; 
 Around his white bones the red coral shall grow j 
 Of his fair auburn locks threads of amber be made, 
 And every part suit to its mansion below. 
 Days, months, years, and ages, shall circle away, 
 And still the vast waters above him shall roll ; 
 Earth loses his pattern for ever and aye, — 
 
 Peace to his soul. 
 
 " But, Reader ! it is not to make a parade of per- 
 sonal sorrow that your attention is demanded. It is 
 that you may bear witness to the kindness of a class 
 of men, than which a worthier exists not on the earth. 
 4 Boston Mechanics erected this Cenotaph here.' 
 Boston Mechanics. Around that simple expression is 
 entwined the idea of all that is upright in motive, 
 honorable in action, generous in feeling, faithful in 
 friendship, pure as immortal truth in the genuine 
 sympathies of nature. Long may it be, before the 
 votive marble shall record the end of your virtuous 
 labors. And when the hour of departure shall arrive, 
 may he, whose name ye have made sacred in mem- 
 ory, be the first to welcome your entrance among the 
 spirits of the just made perfect." 
 
 Sept 25, 1838. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 153 
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 
 
 "Header! We meet no more till the year 1838, — 
 another of those brief periods, by which the march of 
 Time is measured, — shall be numbered with the 
 thousands, which have gone before it. To-morrow, if 
 it should come to «s, will open upon us a New Year, 
 impose upon us new duties and responsibilities, unfold 
 new sources of pleasure, expose us to untried afflic- 
 tions and calamities, and bless us with new opportuni- 
 ties and means of usefulness and improvement. With 
 such views and prospects, who would pluck a feather 
 from the wing of Time, or protract the approach of 
 that crisis, when Faith shall be lost in sight, and 
 Hope absorbed in possession ? 
 
 Heaven waxeth old, and all the spheres above 
 Shall one day faint, and their swift motion stay ; 
 
 And Time itself, in time shall cease to move j 
 Only the soul survives and lives for aye. 
 
 Our bodies, every footstep that they make, 
 March towards death, until at last they die ; 
 
 Whether we work or play, or sleep or wake, 
 
 Our life doth pass, and with. Time's wings doth fly. 
 
 But to the Soul, Time doth perfection give, 
 And adds fresh lustre to her beauty still ; 
 
 And makes her in eternal youth to live, 
 
 Like Her, which nectar to the gods doth fill. 
 
 The more she lives, the more she feeds on truth ; 
 
 The more she feeds, her strength doth more increase ; 
 And what is strength, but an effect of youth, 
 
 "Which, if Time nurse, how r can it ever cease ? '' 
 December 31, 1838. 
 
154 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 " 'The rolling year' has once more brought round 
 this time-honored festival, — a festival hallowed to the 
 natives of New-England, by reminiscences, which 
 impart new impulse to gratitude, and associations, 
 which strengthen the bonds of affection. To the old, 
 who can look back through the vista of threescore 
 years, numberless are the scenes that pass before 
 them, as visions of pleasure ; and how reviving is it 
 to those, in whose veins the current of life has begun 
 to slacken in its motion, to live over again, even for a 
 few moments, the innocent frolics of past-days ! And 
 while these enjoy the present by mingling with the 
 past, the young live 4 the future in the instant,' and 
 thus all ages find the ingredients of the exhilarating 
 cup, so compounded that all may taste and bless the 
 Benefactor. 
 
 " On similar occasions, heretofore, we have ex- 
 horted, somewhat in detail, all classes of our readers, 
 to observe this festival with thankful hearts, and have 
 enumerated many causes, which called for the exercise 
 of lively gratitude. Those causes, at this time, are no 
 less in number, nor less entitled to consideration ; but 
 we dislike the continued repetition of old sermons*, — 
 unless they are better than we can write, — and we, 
 therefore, on the present occasion, shall admonish 
 our hearers (readers we should have said) of their 
 obligations to a proper observance of the day, — 
 considering them as divided into three classes only, 
 — that is to say, the Rich, the Poor, and those who 
 stand between these two divisions of society, belonging 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 155 
 
 to neither, and yet mingling with both, and holding 
 them together as one body politic, like the cement or 
 the solder which the mechanic uses to make different 
 materials cohere and form one indivisible mass. 
 
 " I. Go to, now, ye Rich men, rejoice and be 
 thankful in the abundance of your possessions. Ye 
 have sought out the way to wealth, and God hath 
 given you a prosperous issue. He hath sent home 
 your ships laden with the riches of distant climes ; 
 they have been wafted over bottomless gulfs by his 
 auspicious gales ; his hand hath kept them on the 
 surface of ruffled oceans ; and his lamp, in the 
 northern sky, hath guided them across pathless wastes 
 of waters to their destination. His rains have watered 
 your ground, and your thirsty furrows have drunk in 
 fatness from his clouds and his dews. His creative 
 energies have covered your fields with food for man 
 and beast, and your pastures with beasts of burden 
 and animals for your service. Your garments are 
 not moth-eaten, nor your gold and silver cankered. 
 Thieves have not robbed you of your treasure, nor 
 the fire consumed your substance. Your cents have 
 swelled to dollars, and your dollars have brightened 
 to eagles. Down, down on your knees and worship, — 
 not *your dollars and eagles, your ships and store- 
 houses, your fields and flocks, — but Him, who gave 
 them, and permits you to enjoy them ; Him, who hath 
 appointed you his treasurers and almoners, and will 
 call upon you to give a strict account of your steward- 
 ship ; who will allow you large commissions for that 
 which you employ in his service ; and will exact 
 compound interest for all you mis-spend in wantonness 
 
156 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 and riotous living. Be thankful, moreover, that ye 
 live in a land where Honor waits on Wealth, and 
 oft-times goes, ' a pilgrim gray,' to worship at its 
 shrine. Here no despotic prince justifies an assess- 
 ment on your purse, because it contains what he wants, 
 nor lays claim to your teeth, while he gives you the 
 privilege of redeeming them at the price of thousands 
 of each. Whatever has been given you, — all that 
 you have, — is yours, and with it you may purchase 
 distinction, service, honor, praise, gratitude, happiness. 
 Rejoice, then, O rich man, in thy wealth, and let it 
 cheer thy heart and delight thine eyes ; but know 
 thou, that unless thou render to the Giver praise and 
 thanksgiving, God will bring thee unto judgement. 
 
 .... Wealthy men, that have estates to lose, 
 "Whose conscious thoughts are full of inward guilt, 
 May shake with horror, 
 To have their actions sifted, or to appear 
 Before their Judge. 
 But 
 
 That man is blest, who stands in awe 
 Of God, and loves his sacred law ; 
 His seed on earth shall be renowned; 
 His house, the seat of wealth, shall be 
 An inexhausted treasury, 
 And with successive honors crowned. 
 
 " II. Ye, Poor, — (or rather ye, who call yourselves 
 poor, — for in this goodly land we have no such poor, 
 as starve in other countries,) — thank God, and take 
 courage. If he has not given you riches beyond your 
 capacity to calculate, he has given you skilful hands, 
 intelligent heads, innocent hearts, moderate desires, 
 economical habits, health, strength, resolution, perse- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 157 
 
 verance, — and are not these the never-failing auxilia- 
 ries to competence, to affluence, to wealth ? Have 
 you not the privilege of exercising all these faculties, 
 and of enjoying all that their exercise produces, with- 
 out the annoyances, which assail the bosom of him, 
 who cannot invest his income so fast as it increases ? 
 Bless God, with all your hearts, that your sleep is not 
 disturbed by dreams of desolating tempests, — that you 
 may lie down to your rest, without dread of the mid- 
 night-robber, — that you are not the prey of sharpers, 
 — that the fall of stocks produces no loss of appetite 
 at breakfast, — that the rates of exchange affect not the 
 flavor of your dinner, and that neither sub-treasurers, 
 nor fiscal agents can run away with the money you 
 have earned to purchase a supper. If you are too 
 weak to labor, and if sickness has thrown you into a 
 state of dependence upon the bounty of others for 
 support, still you may thank God, that he has put it 
 into the hearts of men to provide relief for the poor 
 and him who hath no home. Be grateful to Him who 
 hath moved the rich to supply your necessities, to feed 
 you, as thousands of them will, this day, with com- 
 forts and even luxuries, and while, with ordinary words 
 of courtesy, you thank your fellow-mortals, let the 
 incense of a grateful heart rise up for a memorial 
 before that throne, around which all must hereafter be 
 gathered, when the rich and the poor, the small and 
 the great, shall be called to give an account of their 
 deeds. 
 
 " III. If the rich and the poor have cause for thanks- 
 giving and praise, how much greater obligation is 
 imposed on you, — ye on whom God hath bestowed 
 
158 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 the blessing so ardently desired by the son of Jakeh — 
 4 Give me neither poverty nor riches ; ' — Give me not 
 riches, ' lest I be full and deny thee ; • — Give me not 
 poverty, * lest I steal and take the name of the Lord 
 in vain.' If you have what content and decency 
 require, and covet not superfluous pomp and wealth, 
 let your thankfulness be manifested by the temperate 
 use of the ' creature comforts,' and the cheerfulness 
 which takes the ' buffets and rewards of fortune with 
 equal thanks,' and that independence, which never 
 fawns upon wealth, nor truckles to power. Thank 
 God, heartily, that you are not a slave to the demon of 
 the mine, nor a worshiper of the idol of ambition. 
 Above all, thank Him that he has not abandoned you 
 to the trade of the politician, nor, in his wrath given 
 you up to that most despicable of all desires, the hank- 
 ering for an office. Bless him that you are not the 
 progeny of the horse-leech, whose daughters never 
 cease to cry, ' Give, Give,' nor of the generation of 
 those, (O how lofty are their eyes !) that never say, 
 
 4 It is enough ! ' 
 
 Thrice happy he, 
 To whom the wise indulgency of Heaven, 
 With sparing hand, but just enough has given. 
 
 "And now, Met us hear the conclusion of the whole 
 matter;' and it is this: — There is no sensible man 
 who, on looking back to the incidents of the past year, 
 the prosperous condition of the industrious classes of 
 our citizens, and the reasonable prospects of a con- 
 tinuance of that prosperity, will deny that we are, as 
 a people, highly blessed, and ought to be happy. The 
 questions connected with our domestic politics, about 
 which there is so much complaining and scolding, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 159 
 
 which are used by one party or another, as the mere 
 weapons with which to carry on a mutual political 
 warfare, are, in truth, when compared with the general 
 progress of improvement and increase of wealth and 
 its advantages, very insignificant matters. The num- 
 ber of people who are directly affected in their prop- 
 erty and occupations by the running away of public 
 defaulters, the frauds of the directors of moneyed 
 institutions, and the unsettled state of the rates of 
 exchange, is, after all, but a very little fraction of our 
 twenty millions. Compared with the millions, who 
 pursue ' the even tenor of their way,' willing to work 
 and contented with the reasonable profits arising from 
 the products of their industry, the brokers who live by 
 selling worthless stocks, and the speculators who get 
 cheated in the purchase, form but a contemptible part 
 of the whole. Those who have traded in the valuable 
 commodity, called Politics, with small capitals, and 
 have not yet been able to procure an office, are perhaps 
 the only class of our citizens, who are really entitled 
 to compassion, and whose right to grumble will not be 
 disputed. We would not undertake to say that a 
 disappointed office-seeker has any cause of thank- 
 fulness, for he does not find even commiseration. 
 There is no one to mourn for him, and of course he 
 receives no pity to be grateful for. But such should 
 form no exception to the general invitation to thanks- 
 giving. Let men all unite this day in cheerful thank- 
 fulness, in pious gratitude, to the Giver of all Good; — 
 
 For should our thanks awake the rising sun, 
 And lengthen as his latest shadows run, 
 That, though the longest day, would soon, too soon, be done." 
 Nov. 25, 1841. 
 
160 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 THE NEW YEAR. 
 
 " Readers ! we salute you with the best wishes of 
 our heart for your happiness, health and prosperity. 
 Grace and remembrance to you all, and welcome 
 to the pleasures and privileges, the satisfactions and 
 immunities of the new-born year. May Happiness 
 court you in her best array ! Wisdom, the incorrupti- 
 ble Spirit of the Lover of souls, be the companion of 
 your way ! Peace and Prosperity attend upon your 
 enterprizes ! 
 
 And all the ruins of distressful times 
 Repaired with double riches of Content. 
 
 " The face of the New Year wears an auspicious 
 smile. It promises a reward to industry, success to 
 enterprize, melioration to misfortune, security to 
 wealth, relief to poverty, peace and the ' assurance 
 of quietness' to all. Our country, we believe, has 
 seldom been in a more prosperous condition. With 
 foreign nations it has no quarrel, nor any cause of 
 dispute that may not be adjusted by fair and liberal- 
 minded negotiation. The differences among ourselves, 
 though noisy, and sometimes pushed on to uncomfort- 
 able extremities, excite the wonder of foreigners. 
 Europeans who visit us, and who come from scenes 
 where poverty and destitution prevail, are astonished 
 at the contention and clamor, which are continually 
 kept alive, in regard to elections ; and the causes, 
 when they can be made to understand them, appear 
 insignificant, when compared with the provocations to 
 complaint, riot and insurrection, which are of almost 
 
* THE BOSTON COURIER. 161 
 
 daily occurrence in the old world. Happy, indeed, 
 are we, as a people, beyond all other nations, but how 
 unspeakably more blessed, could we shake off the 
 shackles of the Spirit of Party, — a tyrannical sove- 
 reign, ruling with a rod of iron its trilling subjects, 
 and pursuing the reluctant with the venom of the 
 serpent and the ferocity of the tiger. 
 
 If the New Year affords promise of peace and 
 prosperity to the nation, it looks with an eye not less 
 propitious on the condition and pursuits of the various 
 members of the body politic. Our cities and sea- 
 ports are full of life and activity. The exchange of 
 merchandize between distant portions of our country, 
 and between those portions and realms beyond the 
 seas, is carried on with a rapidity, unexampled in the 
 history of all former ages. The atmosphere of our 
 manufacturing villages is turbulent with the buzzing 
 of machinery ; and the grounds of the husbandman 
 bring forth plentifully. In our own beloved city, the 
 architect, the carpenter, and the mason, are rearing 
 almost innumerable edifices, — some on spots hereto- 
 fore vacant, and others in place of the decayed and 
 incommodious, — for the residences of the industrious 
 and the wealthy, or stores and warehouses for the 
 reception of the products of both hemispheres, while 
 our streets are rendered almost impassable by the 
 constant procession of wagons, trucks, and other 
 vehicles transporting those products from one pur- 
 chaser or vender to another. Surely such indications 
 of prosperous activity may justify the belief that this 
 New Year is a happy one, and the wish that it may 
 continue as it is to its close. 
 
 VOL. II. 11 
 
162 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 To friends and readers of every description, we 
 repeat the salutations of the season. May the Young 
 rejoice in their youth, and the glorious prospect that 
 opens before them an opportunity of improvement in 
 all that can render life a mutual and a personal bless- 
 ing. May the Old rejoice in the consciousness of duty 
 performed, responsibility discharged, the ends of life 
 accomplished, — not forgetting that "The hours have 
 wings, and we are grown too old to overtake them." 
 May the Statesman rejoice in the conscientious per- 
 formance of the obligations imposed by patriotism 
 and public spirit, — the Judge in the impartial distri- 
 bution of law and justice, — the Lawyer in faithfulness 
 to his clients, and his Clients in well disposed ability 
 to reward his fidelity, — the Doctor in the returning 
 health of his patients, and They in the grateful remem- 
 brance of his services, — the Clergyman in the privilege 
 (and a holy privilege it is) of preparing souls for the 
 enjoyment of a future life by living virtuously here, 
 and of leading the way to a brighter and a purer 
 world. May the Farmer rejoice in the bountiful prod- 
 uct of his fields, and the overflowing richness of his 
 barns, — the Merchant in the accumulation of the 
 profits of an honorable traffic, — the Mechanic in 
 the liberal compensation of honest industry, — the 
 Sailor in a happy deliverance from all his perils, and 
 a return to wife, children, and friends, laden with 
 rewards for the hardships and the hazard of his pro- 
 fession. In brief, may all the Good rejoice in the 
 possession of a conscience void of offence towards 
 God and towards all men, — may the Wicked rejoice 
 that they have a day for repentance and reformation, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. - 163 
 
 — and may All of us rejoice in the exercise of that 
 " charity which never faileth : " — 
 
 All glory else besides ends with our breath, 
 And men's respects scarce bring us to our grave ; 
 But this of doing good must outlive Death, 
 And have a right out of the right it gave. 
 Though the act but few, the example profiteth 
 Thousands, that shall thereby a blessing have. 
 The world's respect grows not but on deserts ; 
 Power may have knees, but Justice hath our hearts. 
 
 January 1, 1844. 
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 
 
 Reader ! The old familiar Charioteer, whose wing 
 never tires, and who seeks no rest for the sole of his 
 foot till he plants it on the shore of eternity, has, 
 again, brought us near to one of those points, which 
 measure the distances in the pathway of life. He 
 will not lay down his scythe and hour-glass, nor will 
 he pause a single moment for us to survey the ground 
 over which he has carried us. Let us, therefore, 
 while the moment is before our eyes, and before 
 we are hurried beyond it, open the book of Memory, 
 and see what records stand upon its pages, to ad- 
 monish, to console, or to encourage us in our future 
 career. 
 
 In the first place, let us examine our own personal 
 accounts, and see how we stand with ourselves. Have 
 we made any progress in the Science of Life ? Have 
 we derived any improvement from the scenes through 
 which we have passed ? or have we remained dull 
 and thoughtless, or sunk back into still deeper abysses 
 of ignorance and stupidity, while all around us has 
 
164 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 been glowing with the effulgence of Heaven and 
 radiant with the beams of knowledge and truth ? 
 Have we purified our souls from the dross of selfish- 
 ness, have we stifled in our bosoms the instigations 
 of envy, and repressed the querulous aspirations of 
 avarice ? Or have we submitted to the government of 
 unworthy and vindictive passions, and suffered our- 
 selves to be the victims of dishonorable and degrading 
 appetites and propensities, while others have fought 
 manfully with the powers of darkness and obtained a 
 glorious victory ? 
 
 In the next place, what have we done as members 
 of the social compact, to promote intelligence, virtue, 
 and the refinements which improve and brighten the 
 intercourse of neighbors and friends ? Have we 
 stretched out our hands to feed the hungry, to console 
 the afflicted, to raise the down-trodden, to enlighten 
 the ignorant, to support the falling, and to stop the 
 progress of the reckless and unthinking in the down- 
 ward path to perdition ? What have we done to relieve 
 the oppressed and to break the chains of the slave ? 
 How have we manifested the sense of our obligations 
 imposed by the great command, — Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbor as thyself? Have we been obedient to the 
 " golden rule " — " Whatsoever ye would that men 
 should do to you, do ye even so to them 1 " 
 
 And lastly, what have we done for our country, 
 its prosperity and its peace ? As citizens of the 
 republic, have we been jealous of its honor, active 
 in preserving its name from reproach, prompt and 
 persevering in our attempts to preserve the health and 
 soundness of the body politic, to secure a just and 
 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 165 
 
 virtuous administration, to keep all our public political 
 institutions free from the corrupting influence of 
 demagogues, and our public offices of profit and honor 
 from becoming the prey of the idle, the worthless, and 
 the vicious? Hast thou, reader, — or hast thou not, — 
 made a compromise with thy conscience for the sake 
 of popularity, and advocated measures which thou 
 knewest to be wrong, through fear of the censures, or 
 sneers, or reproach, of a senseless rabble, led on by 
 factious ringleaders and selfish profligates ? Hast thou 
 conscientiously performed thy duty at the polls, and 
 disregarding the dictation of party and discarding the 
 influence of political associations, voted for such men 
 as thou didst truly believe better qualified than their 
 opponents for the offices which they were respectively 
 proposed to fill ? Hast thou, while with tongue-valiant 
 eloquence thou hast arraigned thy rulers as violaters 
 of the constitution, and legally and morally obnoxious 
 to impeachment and removal from office, still, with 
 inconceivable inconsistency, when the patriotic parox- 
 ysm was passed, declared that their wicked measures 
 must be supported, and called upon thy fellow-citizens 
 to aid in carrying on and perpetuating a policy which 
 thou hast thyself denounced as immoral, unjust and 
 atrocious? Hast thou, — but let us close the book, 
 and spare further question. If thou or we can retrace 
 the records and read them with a smile, checked by 
 no " compunctious visitings of conscience," we may 
 fearlessly bid Old Time renew his speed and hasten 
 the rewards of a well-spent life. 
 
 All things are changing, and man is ever antici- 
 pating pleasure from change. Business men, studying 
 
166 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 their own gratification or convenience, generally avail 
 themselves of this season to adopt such changes in 
 regard to newspapers as may seem best adapted to 
 their tastes, inclinations, prejudices, or partialities. 
 Reader ! we may perhaps have traveled with you 
 for years ; perhaps only a few months. The inter- 
 course has been pleasant to us; — we hope it has not 
 been otherwise to you. Shall we pursue our journey 
 together another year ? or shall this day close our 
 communion and bring our fellowship to an end? If 
 this be our last interchange of thought and sentiment, 
 let us part in peace, and with sincere reciprocations of 
 good-will. _ We thank you for all favors, for which, if 
 you have not received an equivalent, the charge must 
 be made against our ability and not our purpose. If, 
 on the other hand, reader, overlooking all our short- 
 comings, you continue in our company, we will do all 
 that in us lies to make the journey agreeable. Our 
 salutations to-morrow, like the farewell of to-day, may 
 be of a more serious character than the occasion 
 demands, but let something be pardoned to circum- 
 stances and the spirit of despondence.* We will here- 
 after endeavor to be more cheerful, to put on a more 
 business-like aspect, and to let unavailing remem- 
 brances of the Past lose themselves in aspirations, and 
 labors, and hopes for the Future. 
 
 * An allusion to the recent death of one, with whom I had lived more than 
 forty years in the dearest relation of which this mortal state is susceptible, — 
 a wife and mother, whose life and soul, whose labors and desires were conse- 
 crated, with intense solicitude, to the moral and social welfare of her family, 
 and around whom the affectionate pride of husband and children clustered with 
 passionate devotion. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 167 
 
 what were life, 
 Even in the warm and summer-light of joy, 
 Without those Hopes, that, like refreshing gales 
 At evening from the sea, come o'er the soul, 
 Breathed from the Ocean of Eternity? 
 — And ! without them, who could bear the storms, 
 That fall in roaring blackness o'er the waves 
 Of agitated life ? These Hopes arise 
 All round our sinking souls, like those fair birds 
 O'er whose soft plumes the tempest hath no power, 
 Waving their snow-white wings amid the darkness, 
 And wiling us, with gentle motion, on 
 To some calm island ; on whose silvery strand 
 Dropping at once, they fold their silent pinions, — 
 And, as we touch the shores of Paradise, 
 In love and beauty walk around our feet ! 
 
 December 31, 1846. 
 
 OBITUARY NOTICES. 
 
 Miss Elizabeth Bond, daughter of George Bond, 
 
 Esq. of Boston We cannot refrain from 
 
 an expression of personal sympathy with those to 
 whom all the ordinary efforts of consolation must be 
 unavailing if not valueless. How poor, how feeble, 
 how inefficient are the usual appliances of even the 
 dearest friends, in healing the lacerated and broken 
 heart, or reuniting those delicate fibres of the affections 
 which have been separated by the ruthless hand of 
 the Destroyer of human hopes ! There are parents, 
 who know that Time, the great alleviator of sorrow, 
 is too slow in his operations to cure the wound. Other 
 children may be spared to soothe with filial kindness, — 
 to please with the blandishments of youth and beauty, 
 
168 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 — to encourage with promises of usefulness, — to 
 gratify with attainments in every accomplishment that 
 embellishes life, — but, alas! the parent can never 
 forget the bud, torn from the stem, when just opening 
 to drink in the beams of the morning sun. For be- 
 reavements of this sort the world affords no consola- 
 tion ; and they who tell us to take comfort in that 
 which is left, mistake the nature of parental affection, 
 and have never felt the agonies, for which they are so 
 prompt to recommend an antidote. The only relief is 
 the strong persuasion that the Creator of our affections 
 will permit, in another state of existence, a reunion of 
 those beings which he had here mysteriously bound 
 together ; and to parents, upheld and sustained by this 
 faith, the River of Death is but a narrow stream, 
 deprived of its depth and dullness by the soft invita- 
 tion, — come up hither ! — from the child that has 
 triumphantly landed on the other side. 
 
 November, 1833. 
 
 Dr. John Randall, whose decease it was our 
 melancholy duty to record, a few days ago, was a 
 man, to whom the world was more indebted than to 
 many an individual, whose name is blazoned on the 
 roll of fame, and whose marble image may stand in a 
 conspicuous niche in the gallery of the wealthy, the 
 ambitious, and the proud. The mention of his name 
 will not recall the history of deeds of martial heroism, 
 nor make the hearer shudder at the recollection of 
 vices which have cursed mankind ; but it will elicit 
 from many an humble and feeling soul, a blessing and 
 a prayer : — a blessing for his deeds of kindness, and 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 169 
 
 a prayer for the repose of his spirit in the bosom of 
 its Father. 
 
 Dr. Randall was a native of Stow, in the county 
 of Middlesex. He was a graduate of Harvard College, 
 of the class of 1802, — a class which has been cele- 
 brated for the eminent talent of many of its members, 
 and among whom Dr. Randall was by no means 
 undistinguished. Ex-Governor Lincoln, the Rev. Dr. 
 Nichols of Portland, James T. Austin, the ex-attorney- 
 general of this commonwealth, Alexander Town- 
 send, and Leverett Saltonstall of Salem, were of this 
 class. Dr. Randall pursued his medical studies under 
 the celebrated Doctor John Jeffries, of this city, and 
 commenced the practice of his profession about the 
 year 1805. His urbanity of manners, his punctuality 
 in attendance upon patients, and his proverbial tender- 
 ness in the chambers of sickness, rendered him an 
 uncommon favorite, and secured an extensive practice. 
 No physician ever labored with more fidelity for the 
 relief of those committed to his care, and we trust 
 we shall not be accused of injustice to other members 
 of his profession, if we should say, that no one was 
 more disinterested in his visits, for they were often 
 made to those whose poverty precluded the expectation 
 of reward. As a friend and social companion he was 
 agreeable and attractive, and had the faculty of de- 
 lighting those with whom he conversed with his varied 
 acquirements in universal science, and the freedom 
 with which he communicated his thoughts. He was 
 a man of high moral principle, and understood and 
 practised the requirements of social life with a degree 
 of exactness, which showed that he felt the responsi- 
 
170 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 bilities of a man and a Christian. But we feel that 
 we are unable to write bis eulogy. That privilege 
 belongs to some one of those, who enjoyed his youth- 
 ful friendship at Harvard, or of one of his professional 
 cotemporaries, whose respect and confidence he early 
 acquired, and retained to the last. We have lost a 
 friend, — society an ornament and benefactor, — his 
 family a husband and a parent ; but to them he has 
 left an imperishable legacy, in the remembrance of 
 his virtues. 
 
 December, 1843. 
 
 Mrs. Powell. It is not altogether unprofitable 
 or unpleasing to look over the records of the " re- 
 lentless Past" and to watch, in Memory's mirror, the 
 apparitions of pleasures, which " come like shadows, 
 so depart." The sorrow, which the heart pours out 
 upon the shroud and the coffin, is alleviated by the 
 recollection of the virtues of the dead, which they 
 conceal ; while Affection dwells with melancholy satis- 
 faction upon visions of former delights, and Respect 
 lingers around the last sad remaining evidences of 
 what was once the object of its admiration. If it be 
 true fhat " Honor and shame from no condition rise," 
 and that all honor lies in the proper acting of the part 
 allotted to us in the dispensation of that Providence, 
 which acts by general laws, it is superfluous to offer 
 an apology for recording the lives of those, who, by 
 the exercise of private virtues or the display of talents 
 before the public, have adorned their profession, or 
 contributed to the real improvement or harmless re- 
 creation of society. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 171 
 
 These, and a long train of similar thoughts oc- 
 curred on noticing the death of Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Powell, — a lady whose talents exhibited in a public 
 character, and whose exemplary domestic virtues se- 
 cured to her, during a long life, the affectionate respect 
 of a large portion of the people of this city. The 
 profession to which Mrs. Powell belonged is not one 
 which now occupies an elevated position in public 
 estimation. What causes may have operated to render 
 the profession of an actor less worthy of esteem than 
 it was thirty years ago, it is not our present purpose 
 to inquire, or to explain. But in the palmiest days of 
 Boston theatricals, when familiar social intercourse 
 with those, who by their talents could furnish living 
 illustrations of the poetical creations of Shakspeare 
 and Otway, of Goldsmith and Sheridan, of Colman 
 and Mrs. Inchbald, an acquaintance with Mrs. Powell 
 was an honor, which all might seek for without re- 
 proach, and which all, who obtained, considered a 
 fortunate accident. 
 
 It was at the commencement of the year 1794, at 
 the opening of the Federal-street Theatre, by Charles 
 Stuart Powell, that Elizabeth Harrison, then about 
 twenty years old, was first seen by the public of 
 Boston. Her youth and beauty, her varied and ex- 
 tensive talent, the uniform propriety of her deportment, 
 and above all the irreproachable purity of her moral 
 character, rendered her a universal favorite. In the 
 course of that year, she became the wife of Snelling 
 Powell, the brother of the gentleman mentioned above, 
 and who, himself, was afterwards, and for many 
 years, the manager of the same theatre. With the 
 
172 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 exception of a single season, that of 1800-1801, — we 
 believe Mrs. Powell was a member of the corps 
 theatrical in Boston, until she took final leave of the 
 stage about fifteen years ago. To those who have 
 been her cotemporaries on the stage of life, and 
 witnessed her various representations on that stage, to 
 which human life for its shadowy shortness has been 
 often beautifully compared, we need not say that 
 Mrs. Powell was always in the leading character of 
 the drama, whether it were tragedy or comedy. 
 There are yet living, many who delight to dwell ort 
 her simple but beautiful personation of Juliet, her 
 elegant and fashionable Lady Townly, the terrible 
 and indignant outpouring of sorrow in Constance, the 
 devoted love and heroic resentment of Elvira, the 
 awfully sublime resolution, and subsequent more awful 
 remorse of Lady Macbeth, the calm dignity of Portia, 
 the fascinating sprightliness and wit of Letitia Hardy 
 and Lady Teazle; and time and space would fail us 
 were we to attempt a review of all her dramatic 
 characters. Not many of the present play-going 
 people have been witnesses of these performances, and 
 they could hardly be made to feel the force of our 
 reminiscences. Still a few remain, to whom these 
 hints will be sufficient to call up from the " vasty 
 deep" of Memory's chest, potent remembrances that 
 " such things were, and were most dear." 
 
 But it was not upon the stage alone that Mrs. Powell 
 exhibited her claims to honorable remembrance. As 
 a wife, a mother, and a friend, she had a more en- 
 during character, and in this she manifested all the 
 virtues which make the domestic hearth an earthly 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 173 
 
 heaven. She was the mother of a large family, of 
 whom she might truly be said to have been the 
 guardian angel. Through many trials and vicissi- 
 tudes, incident to her professional life, she maintained 
 for herself and them a dignified and respectable posi- 
 tion in society. In the early part of their life, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Powell often had experience of the embarrass- 
 ments arising from narrow means and a limited in- 
 come ; but during that period, as well as in later 
 years, when, at the head of a flourishing and popular 
 theatrical establishment, fortune placed them in af- 
 fluent circumstances, she never faltered in the path 
 of duty. Neither in adversity nor prosperity, did she 
 ever forget that she was a wife and a mother, nor did 
 she ever fail to fulfil to the utmost of her power the 
 deep responsibilities attached to that sacred charac- 
 ter. 
 
 Such is an incomplete outline of the character of 
 Mrs. Powell, as we knew her, in part from personal 
 acquaintance and better from the testimony of more 
 familiar friends. 
 
 December, 184a 
 
 Sad and painful is the service we perform in an- 
 nouncing the death of Mrs. Louisa Ann Bigelow, 
 wife of the Hon. John P. Bigelow, of this city, — 
 an event which took place in London, on the 23d of 
 October. It will be recollected that Mrs. Bigelow, 
 with her son, — "the only child of his mother," — 
 took passage in the Anglo-Saxon, which sailed from 
 this port in May last, for Liverpool. The vessel was 
 wrecked on Duck Island, near Nova Scotia, and Mrs. 
 
174 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Bigelow, with other passengers, was several days 
 exposed to the cold and foggy atmosphere, without 
 other shelter than such as could be temporarily erected 
 on an uninhabited shore. She returned to Boston, and 
 being anxious to revisit the scenes and the friends of 
 her childhood, and to recruit, if possible, her declining 
 health, she again took passage in the steamer Cambria, 
 which sailed hence for Liverpool on the first of July. 
 After visiting Scotland and France, she returned to 
 London in September, suffering evidently under a 
 disease that defied the skill of the best medical ad- 
 visers of that metropolis. Still hope was entertained 
 that some alleviating interval might occur, during 
 which she might be able to re-embark for home. But 
 steamer after steamer came and brought no encour- 
 agement, and hope was often defeated. The Wash- 
 ington, which arrived at New- York on Tuesday, was 
 the bearer of a letter from her son, announcing the 
 fatal termination of the lingering disease. Mrs. Bige- 
 low was about forty-seven years old. She was the 
 daughter of Mr. D. L. Brown, — a gentleman who 
 for many years was well and favorably known as a 
 teacher of drawing, in Boston, — and was born in Liver- 
 pool. She had received the advantages of a thorough 
 education, and was eminently qualified to interest and 
 adorn the best moral, intellectual and refined society. 
 In such society she had formed associations that will 
 never be forgotten but with the oblivion of memory 
 itself. None conversed with her without admiring, — 
 none, who knew her, can receive the tidings of her 
 death, without a sigh of regret for their own loss and 
 a pang of sympathy for the husband and the son, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 175 
 
 whose bereavement Time cannot repair. On occa- 
 sions like this, all expressions of sympathy are un- 
 availing. They may reach the ear, but the bereft 
 heart refuses the offering, and leaves to others the 
 commiseration that is tendered with sincerity and 
 kindness. The only relief is to be found in that faith 
 which looks forward to a re-union. May that faith be 
 liberally administered to the sufferers, by Him who 
 was its author and finisher, and who has assured us 
 that where He is, there also shall his followers be. 
 
 November 12, 1849. 
 
 " In the midst of life we are in death.'''' A melan- 
 choly and startling illustration of this sacred truth, — 
 which is in every-day use, but which is heard only to 
 be forgotten with the closing of the lips that utter it, — 
 occurred on Wednesday last, in the death of Abel 
 Phelps, — a man whose appearance exhibited almost 
 unerring indications of long life. Of robust frame 
 and manly proportions, his movements were sprightly 
 and vigorous, and a limner might have selected him 
 as a model for a picture of health. But what strength 
 of nerve and what activity of muscle can stand before 
 the assault of Fever, that potent minister of the King 
 of Terrors? Mr. Phelps was sick but ten days, and 
 but fourteen revolutions of our little globe saw him in 
 State-street, busy with business men, and a silent 
 tenant of a grave at Mount Auburn. As a merchant, 
 Mr. Phelps was a man of strict integrity, — as a citizen, 
 no blot rests upon his name. He came to Boston about 
 thirty years ago, with no capital but good habits, good 
 principles, and firm resolutions. By the untiring exer- 
 
176 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 cise of these qualities, he accumulated a property that, 
 in a few years, would have made him independent. 
 He entered with liberal and honorable feeling into 
 many of the public enterprizes of the day, and was 
 especially active in promoting the construction of the 
 railroads which diverge from our city to the interior 
 of New-England. He had recently purchased a farm 
 in Watertown, on which he had erected a habitation 
 combining comfort, convenience and pleasure, where 
 it was his purpose to spend the remainder of life in 
 in dispensing happiness to his family and hospitality 
 to his friends. And there, alas ! he did pass the poor 
 and short remainder of his life. Only a month, — one 
 little month of enjoyment, — and all is over. We 
 would not invade the sacredness of the domestic circle 
 that is left to lament the removal of an affectionate 
 husband and father, by an offering of sympathy that 
 can have no power to allay the agonies of grief; but, 
 as one who had enjoyed the friendship of the man 
 while living, we may be permitted to pay this tribute 
 of respect to his character, — a character which was 
 made up of integrity and kindness, — of private worth 
 and public spirit, — of faithfulness as a friend, and of 
 honor as a man. Peace to his ashes ! The consola- 
 tions of Heaven to his widow and orphans ! 
 
 September, 1848. 
 
 If it be a blessing to live long, and to see the 
 work of one's own hands established, Harrison Gray 
 Otis has been happy beyond the common lot of his 
 cotemporaries. He filled a large field in the public 
 vision for more than half a century. In early life, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 177 
 
 conspicuous for rare intellectual accomplishments, 
 admired for blandness and urbanity of manners, and 
 sprung from a race of statesmen and patriots, the 
 people of his native state gave him their confidence 
 without measure, and clothed him with distinguished 
 honors, at an age when neither physical nor mental 
 faculties are supposed to have reached to maturity. 
 As an extemporaneous speaker he was seldom equaled, 
 — probably not surpassed by any one of his genera- 
 tion. His language was pure and refined ; his sen- 
 tences correctly and harmoniously constructed ; his 
 action attractive and graceful. His mind was well 
 stored with the glittering wealth of classical literature, 
 with which he enriched his speeches, even on topics 
 comparatively unimportant, while on subjects of greater 
 weight, and where serious and important interests 
 were involved, the golden gems of antiquity were 
 used to lighten the pressure of an argument that could 
 not be overthrown by an adversary, or to succor those 
 who were sinking under a pathos that feeling could 
 not resist. 
 
 As a lawyer and an advocate at the bar, Mr. Otis 
 made but a step in order to reach an enviable emi- 
 nence in his profession. That path which is so rugged 
 and thorny as to discourage many at its entrance, and 
 through which the great majority labor with painful 
 solicitude, he leaped over at a single effort. His aid 
 as a counselor was sought at an age when most young 
 lawyers are happy to find employment in the humbler 
 character of juniors. 
 
 Mr. Otis had so distinguished himself in the courts 
 and in popular assemblies, that he was elected a rep- 
 
 VOL. II. 12 
 
178 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 resentative to Congress, as soon, we believe, as he 
 was constitutionally qualified by age. His career as 
 a member of the House of Representatives was hon- 
 orable to himself and to the commonwealth. He after- 
 wards filled the offices of Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, and President of the Senate of 
 Massachusetts. For several years he was judge of the 
 Boston Court of Common Pleas. He was a member 
 of the Massachusetts Senate in 1814, and was one of 
 that select band of statesmen and patriots that met at 
 Hartford in December of that year, to deliberate on 
 the condition of public affairs ; a convention that po- 
 litical malignity, — aided by the willfulness of party 
 spirit and that ignorance which delights to wander in 
 mist and darkness, — has rendered immortal. 
 
 Mr. Otis was a candidate for the office of governor 
 of the commonwealth, after the resignation of Gov- 
 ernor Brooks, but a change in the popular feeling, and 
 the dismemberment of the federal party, of which 
 he had always been a conspicuous leader, gave the 
 election to his political opponent. In the year 1829, 
 and for several successive years, he was elected 
 mayor of the city of Boston. On retiring from the 
 mayoralty, he withdrew from all public employment, 
 and resided in his elegant mansion on Beacon-street, 
 enjoying the respect of his fellow-citizens, the com- 
 forts of affluence, and, we doubt not, the consola- 
 tions that must always accompany the consciousness 
 of having performed the requirements of patriotism 
 and the obligations of humanity, with faithfulness and 
 truth. 
 
 Mr. Otis had been for many years afflicted with 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 179 
 
 gout, which occasionally confined him to his house, 
 and rendered locomotion uncomfortable and almost 
 impracticable. Yet he frequently visited the towns 
 and villages around Boston, in his carriage, and was 
 by no means a stranger on the Exchange in State- 
 street, where he always received the pressure of 
 friendly hands, and returned the greeting with un- 
 affected cheerfulness. Though his head was covered 
 with the frost of age, his eye still sparkled and his 
 cheek still glowed with the freshness of youth. But 
 " Death will have his day." The " counselor and the 
 eloquent orator" is taken from us. Millions, who were 
 born after him, have gone before him. Let not the 
 tear which flows for his death dim the lustre of our 
 gratitude for the brilliant example of his life. 
 
 October, 1848. 
 
 The recent death of Henry Robinson is an event 
 which cannot be passed over without some token of 
 regret by one, at least, of those to whom he was 
 known as an estimable citizen, and a faithful friend. 
 He was a native of Coventry in England, and came to 
 this country, we believe, more than forty years ago. 
 His first employment on his arrival was in the office 
 of Messrs. Wait &, Co. New-York, exchange brokers, 
 then extensively known and enjoying the confidence 
 of the business community. Such was Mr. Robinson's 
 industry and fidelity in the interest of his employers, 
 that they soon made him a partner in their concern, 
 and established a branch of their business, with Mr. 
 Robinson at the head of it, in Philadelphia ; continuing 
 in the same connection, he removed to Baltimore, 
 
180 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 where he remained several years, and laid the found- 
 ation of a business which resulted in securing him an 
 ample fortune. Observing the success which had 
 followed the project of lighting the city of Baltimore 
 with gas, he came to Boston about twenty years ago, 
 and invested his whole property, — the savings of 
 years of industry and economy, — in the gas works, 
 which now illumine the streets, and many of the stores 
 and private mansions of our city. Many will recollect 
 the obstacles that lay in his path, and with what inde- 
 fatigable perseverance he fought till he gained the 
 victory. Such was his confidence in the final success 
 of the plan, that he hesitated not to invest in it his 
 last dollar, reducing himself and family to the hazard 
 of a life of poverty and want. Those from whom he 
 expected, and from whom he had a right to expect, 
 aid and encouragement, received his representations 
 with coldness, or repulsed his application with un- 
 feeling and cowardly selfishness. But his resolution 
 was unappalled, and at length the resources of his 
 own mind provided the means of relief and of ultimate 
 success, — a success from which the good people of 
 this city have derived a public and permanent benefit. 
 Indeed, (ew of our citizens have better claims to the 
 name of public benefactor. 
 
 Mr. Robinson was a man of warm and generous 
 feeling, — punctual to all his engagements, — acting 
 frequently from quick and powerful impulses, but his 
 impulses were generally of a kind, liberal, and social 
 character. The money which he earned by enterprize 
 and hard labor, he shared freely with all who had 
 claims on his bounty ; and the open-heartedness with 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 181 
 
 which he listened to the representations of embarrassed 
 friends or speculating neighbors, not unfrequently sub- 
 jected him to losses, from which the calculations of 
 the more cunning and avaricious are generally secure. 
 Public-spirited as a citizen, scrupulously honorable as 
 a man of business, affectionately liberal as a friend, 
 one who knew him, had enjoyed his friendship, and 
 had received undoubted demonstration of his many 
 virtues, inscribes this voluntary tribute of truth and 
 respect to his memory. 
 
 November, 1848. 
 
 The heavens were clouded, — and I heard the tone 
 
 Of a slow-moving bell : — the white-haired man was gone. 
 
 The year which has just closed, has been signal- 
 ized by the death of many of our fellow-citizens, 
 respected for their public services or loved for their 
 private virtues, and venerable for their years. Of 
 these may be reckoned, as belonging to our city, John 
 Quincy Adams, Jeremiah Mason, John D. Williams, 
 and Harrison Gray Otis, — all of whom had passed 
 far beyond the ordinary boundary allotted to human 
 life. The opening day of the present year has been 
 marked by the death of another, no less eminent for 
 his personal worth, no less distinguished for many 
 traits of character, that secured the affection and chal- 
 lenged the respect of the public. On the evening of 
 the first inst. died at his residence in Boston, Peter 
 C. Brooks, aged 83. Such is the simple record, that 
 tells a tale of mortality ; that adds one more to the 
 innumerable revelations of the oft-unheeded truth, that 
 the happiest and most protracted life must have an 
 
182 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 end. Mr. Brooks's death was attended by no sickness 
 or suffering. It was the natural decay of the physical 
 powers, the mere suspension of sensation. The silver 
 cord was gently loosed. The motion of the wheel at 
 the cistern grew faint and feeble. It stopped and 
 made no noise. Without fluttering, the vital spark 
 departed, and the mortal was clothed with immor- 
 tality. 
 
 In early life, Mr. Brooks was a distinguished 
 member of this commercial and industrious com- 
 munity. He was not technically a merchant ; but was 
 initiated, while yet a boy, in the maxims, laws, and 
 operations of Insurance. When he became a man, 
 he opened an insurance office in Boston, on his own 
 responsibility. Of course his business relations were 
 chiefly with merchants and that class of people, whose 
 intelligence and enterprize connects realm to realm, 
 spreads knowledge, science and luxury across the 
 globe, and opens, to the favorites of fortune, the 
 avenues to competence, riches, and independence. 
 As an underwriter, — generally on marine risks, — it 
 is understood that Mr. Brooks laid the foundation of 
 the wealth for which he was renowned. But we believe 
 that the basis of his prosperity was laid deep in the 
 virtues of his heart, and the wisdom of his judgement, 
 — in prudence, economy, an untainted love of justice, 
 and an inflexible adherence to the unalterable laws of 
 integrity, — the unmistakeable dictates of the spirit 
 of uprightness. As a man of business, he was exact, 
 but not illiberal, — conscientious, but not narrow in 
 his dealings. Honorable and open-hearted in all his 
 transactions, and scrupulous in the performance of 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 183 
 
 every obligation, he enjoyed the unlimited confidence 
 of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 Mr. Brooks was often called to the discharge of 
 important public trusts. He was several times placed 
 in the senate of the commonwealth, where his sober 
 judgement and sagacious foresight obtained a more 
 than common share of influence. He was also repeat- 
 edly a member of the executive council, and the 
 personal and confidential friend of Caleb Strong and 
 John Brooks, — and no man need to covet higher 
 honor. He was an active member and officer of 
 several religious and philanthropic societies, the records 
 of which bear testimony that he not only devised lib- 
 eral things, but that he was among the foremost to 
 contribute of his substance for the promotion of their 
 benevolent designs. 
 
 It is many years since Mr. Brooks withdrew from 
 public employment, and from the bustling scene of 
 mercantile traffic. The improvement of his farm at 
 Medford, — inherited, we believe, from his father, — 
 was a favorite occupation. His researches into the 
 theory, his skill in the practice, and his successful 
 experiments in the science of agriculture, rendered 
 his example contagious among his neighbors, the 
 farmers of the county of Middlesex. He was an 
 original member of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
 Society, and was careful to extend the influence of 
 that institution, and to elevate the character of the 
 husbandman. He was a practical believer in the 
 doctrine that the earth was made for man, and that 
 man was made for the earth, " to dress and to keep 
 it." The grounds about his residence, where Nature 
 
184 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 has been aided rather than changed by art and labor, 
 illustrate the beautiful force of his obedience to that 
 divine command, and the elegant simplicity of un- 
 sophisticated taste in rural retirement. 
 
 Mr. Brooks was reputed to be the wealthiest man 
 in New-England. We know not how that may be, 
 but no possessor of riches was ever more unostenta- 
 tious than he. With the undoubtedly amplest means 
 for the gratification of a disposition for that display, 
 which fixes the gaze, and feeds the envy of unthinking 
 millions, he was proverbially modest and unassuming. 
 There was no gaudy show in his equipage, no arro- 
 gance in his talk, no swagger in his gait, no averting 
 of his eye from those he knew and knew to be poor, 
 no jostling of the aspiring young whom he might meet 
 on the Exchange. In his personal appearance and 
 public demeanor there was no indication that he 
 thought himself better than those who deemed them- 
 selves respectable, no manifestations of that pride 
 which communicates discomfort and disgust to all who 
 are brought within the circle of its vision. To those 
 who had occasion to borrow and availed themselves of 
 his ability to lend, (and the number of such was not 
 small,) Mr. Brooks was uniformly courteous and 
 obliging, and we hazard no contradiction in saying, 
 that he never took advantage of times of scarcity to 
 increase his wealth, by taking unlawful interest, or 
 made the necessity of his neighbor contribute to his 
 affluence. 
 
 In the domestic establishment of Mr. Brooks, so- 
 briety and temperance were strictly and conscientious- 
 ly observed ; but his sobriety was not stinginess, his 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 185 
 
 temperance was not abstinence ; his prudence was not 
 parsimony, nor his economy avarice. His hospitality 
 was without stint, his welcome without disguise. His 
 deportment at the social board was cheerful, pleasant, 
 and sometimes sportive. With a willing disposition to 
 communicate happiness whenever he came in contact 
 with his fellow-men, Mr. Brooks could not be otherwise 
 than loving, affectionate, beloved, and honored in his 
 family. But of the parental and filial relations, it 
 does not become us to speak. Their character, and 
 the efficacy of his example and instruction, may be 
 seen in the characters and habits of his children, who, 
 we presume, are the inheritors of the principal part 
 of his wealth, and on whom the mantle of his integrity 
 and honor descends. To them he has left a legacy 
 better than silver and gold, — the fragrance of an 
 unspotted life and the remembrance of an undisturbed 
 and gentle death, illustrating the description of the 
 sacred poet : — 
 
 His hands, while they his alms bestowed, 
 His glory's future harvest sowed, 
 Whence he shall reap wealth, fame, renown, 
 A temporal and eternal crown. 
 His justice, free from all decay, 
 Shall blessings to his seed convey. 
 The sweet remembrance of the just, 
 Like a green root, revives, and bears 
 A train of blessings for his heirs, 
 When dying nature sleeps in dust. 
 January, 1849. 
 
1S6 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
 
 THE ENTRANCE OF THE NEW CENTURY, 
 
 1ST JANUARY, 1801. 
 
 Translated from the German of Schiller. 
 
 BY THE REV. N. L. FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 To * * *. 
 
 Noble friend ! where now to Peace, worn-hearted, 
 Where to Freedom is a refuge-place ? 
 
 The old century has in storm departed, 
 And the new with carnage starts its race. 
 
 And the bond of nations flies asunder, 
 And the ancient forms rush to decline j 
 
 Not the ocean hems the warring thunder, 
 Not the hill-god and the ancient Rhine. 
 
 Two imperious nations are contending 
 
 For one empire's universal field ; 
 Liberty from every people rending, 
 
 Thunderbolt and trident do they wield. 
 
 Theirs the wealth of every country's labor ; 
 
 And like Brennus in the barbarous days, 
 See, the daring Frank his iron sabre 
 
 In the balances of justice lays. 
 
 The grasping Briton his trade-fleets, like mighty 
 Arms of the ocean polypus, doth spread, 
 
 And the realm of unbound Amphitrite 
 Would he girdle like his own homestead. 
 
 To the south pole's unseen constellations 
 Pierce his keels, unhindered, resting not ; 
 
 All the isles, all coasts of farthest nations, 
 Spies he, — all but Eden's sacred spot. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 187 
 
 Ah ! in vain on charts of all Earth's order 
 Mayst thou seek that bright and blessed shore, 
 
 Where the green of Freedom's garden border, 
 Where man's prime is fresh forevermore. 
 
 Endless lies the world that thine eye traces, 
 Even Commerce scarcely belts it round ; 
 
 Yet, upon its all unmeasured space*, 
 For ten happy ones is no room found. 
 
 On the heart's holy and quiet pinion 
 
 Must thou fly from out this rough life's throng ! 
 Freedom lives but within Dream's dominion, 
 And the Beautiful blooms but in song. 
 March 8, 1837. 
 
 LINES, 
 
 Written as if for the Address to be recited at the Re-opening of the Federal 
 Street Theatre, but never offered for that purpose.* 
 
 BY THE SAME. 
 
 O'er life's quick scenes not many years have flown 
 Since wondering nations hailed the " Great Unknown." 
 A world's fond wishes could not keep him long, — 
 That king of fiction and that child of song ; 
 He shrunk to dust who swayed our hearts at will, 
 And Dryburgh's ruin shrined a nobler still. 
 
 But leave that broken spell and its lost lord j — 
 
 Look round to-night ; — here see the Great Restored. 
 
 Restored to that old form we held so dear, — 
 
 To healthful laugh and purifying tear, — 
 
 To scenic art, the Drama's acted page, 
 
 And all the guiltless witchcraft of the stage. 
 
 * The Boston Theatre, restored to the purpose for which it was originally- 
 built, was opened on the evening of August 27, 1846. This poem, published 
 in the Courier of that morning, was written as a divertisement, but was not 
 intended either for recitation or competition for the premium offered by the 
 manager. 
 
188 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Restored to many a Memory's crowding host, — 
 
 Restored to every Muse it sadly lost. 
 
 Hail, the returning Spirit of the place, 
 
 Banished so long ! Hail each recovered grace ; 
 
 Hail, renewed spot ! In thee the oldest here 
 
 Call back the figures of life's magic year ; 
 
 When all seemed real in this mimic show, 
 
 And all beamedVondrous in young Fancy's glow : 
 
 When ear and sight with strange delights were fed, 
 
 As these scant boards to spacious regions spread ; 
 
 When men looked giants by the painted trees, 
 
 And Mirth and Terror strove which most could please. 
 
 How the heart fluttered at the prompter's bell ! 
 
 What visions faded when the curtain fell! 
 
 Not all the forms the " Wizard of the North" 
 
 In light and beauty ever summoned forth 
 
 So live and move before the thought, as those 
 
 That spoke embodied as that curtain rose. 
 
 These rounding seats a whole charmed circle grew ; 
 
 That line of foot-lights bounded worlds all new. 
 
 But think what changes here have held their sway, 
 
 Since all those tricksy Powers were forced away. 
 
 Scarce were they banished, when a rabble throng* 
 
 Of scoffing spirits gloomed these walls along. 
 
 Not fallen from Heaven, — for they were never there ; 
 
 Their law low pleasure, and their creed despair. 
 
 No graceful ticket gave the entrance then ; — 
 
 'T was " largest liberty's " most sullen den. 
 
 No " hats off" rang the sullen ranks between ; — 
 
 What was respected ? What was to be seen ? 
 
 The audience dingy, far as eye could reach ; — 
 
 A gray haired atheist spectacle and speech. 
 
 Was it for this, ye foemen of our art, 
 
 Who think there 's but one way to touch the heart, 
 
 * The deserted Theatre fell first into the hands of Abner Kneeland and his 
 followers. 
 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 189 
 
 And that your own ? — was it for this ye beat 
 
 The genial Sisters from their ancient seat, 
 
 Turning this intellectual, brilliant dome 
 
 To stupid Blasphemy's disordered home ? 
 
 Was this your " Player's Lash," ye modern Prynnes ? * 
 
 To scourge enjoyments, while you beckoned sins ? 
 
 Was this your preference 'twixt the Outs and Ins ? 
 
 But lo, another change like Stockwell's own ! 
 
 The den has vanished and a church is shown. 
 
 More reverence than befits us here to tell, 
 
 We yield to courts where sacred honors dwell. 
 
 But have not they their places ? Have not we ? 
 
 Has not each liberal province leave to be ? 
 
 Not every building for one use is raised, 
 
 Nor any use is singly to be praised. 
 
 All School — Inn — Hospital — were dull indeed j — 
 
 Our honest Playhouse but for life would plead. 
 
 But whence the name Odeon ? Here we track 
 
 Another change in these our fortunes back. 
 
 Music, charming, though no word be sung ! 
 
 What stringed expression ! What an air-shaped tongue ! 
 
 Far be from us the jealous heart to slight 
 
 The listening transport of each tuneful night ! 
 
 And yet the Academy's most skillful powers 
 
 In scope and number surely yield to ours. 
 
 Here all the Aonian maids their gifts combine : — 
 
 And who will say that One was worth the Nine ? 
 
 Another metamorphosis recall 
 
 To Memory ranging round this scenic hall. 
 
 As if the last Muse left had met her doom, — 
 
 Euterpe gone, — behold a Lecture Room ! 
 
 A sober uniformity bears rule, 
 
 While old and wise here gravely come to school. 
 
 Now, deepest learning highest truths imparts ; — 
 
 Now, Genius, Eloquence, entrance all hearts. 
 
 * Poor William Prynne's " Histrio-Mastix " was published in ]632. 
 
190 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 But where the various splendor that here blazed ? 
 
 The various interest that here breathless gazed? 
 
 The stage was but a chair ; the scene became 
 
 An illustration or a diagram. 
 
 The whole machinery presented then 
 
 A planetarium or a specimen. 
 
 No fictions clad in colored glories shone, 
 
 But all was real as a fossil bone. 
 
 Star-eyed Urania spoke in broadcloth suit ; 
 
 Unlaureled Clio walked without her lute. 
 
 Solid Philosophies their facts display, 
 
 As sixty patient minutes grant delay ; 
 
 Or mystic thought ideal pictures draws, 
 
 "While transcendental bonnets nod applause. 
 
 Enough of this. We own, as own we must, 
 These walls were honored by a use so just ; 
 And, while they stand to win new rights to fame, 
 Rejoice to have been allied to Lowell's name. 
 
 Restored! Restored ! "Well known so long a time, 
 
 These buried glories rise as in their prime. 
 
 Our tastes may change as fickle fashions fly, 
 
 But Art is safe : the Drama cannot die. 
 
 More than restored ! Whate'er the pen since wrought 
 
 Of loftiest, sprightliest, here that wealth has brought, 
 
 "Whale'er the progress of the age has lent 
 
 Of purer taste and comelier ornament, — 
 
 To this our Temple it transfers its store, 
 
 And makes each point shine lovelier than before. 
 
 But more yet, — and how much ! We claim a praise 
 The Playhouse knew not in the ancient days. 
 Own us, ye hearts with moral purpose warm ! 
 Our word Renewal adds the word Reform. 
 Too long the Drama's garments have been stained 
 By vices not her own. Accused, arraigned, 
 Condemned, she hopeless stood. Her fate has been 
 To allow, and suffer for, a foreign sin. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 191 
 
 Not all unjust. For foul abuses cleaved 
 
 Fast to her skirts ; though never unperceived, 
 
 Never washed out, — and thus a blame she bears, 
 
 That nothing in her nature needs or shares. 
 
 We have effaced this blot, nor more endure 
 
 In Gallery or Saloon the vicious lure. 
 
 No cups of sparkling ruin gleam below ; 
 
 No frail disgraces fill an upper row. 
 
 All bad alliances we safely spurn, 
 
 And scorn the favor we must basely earn. 
 
 To purest service of our Art we now 
 
 Its long dismantled Temple freshly vow, 
 
 And to its cause the proudest works devote 
 
 That ever Taste contrived or Genius wrote. 
 
 Come each, and help us ! Be our Drama's friend ! 
 
 Some it instructs, and none it need offend. 
 
 Hearts are improved by Feeling's play and strife ; 
 
 Refined amusement humanizes life. 
 
 So wrote the Sages, whom the world admired ; 
 
 So sung the Poets, who the world inspired. 
 
 "Why in New-England's Athens is decried 
 
 What old Athenian culture thought its pride? 
 
 Again we bid our Thespian ensigns fly; 
 
 Teach through the emotions, lecture to the eye ; 
 
 Again to Nature hold the Mirror up j 
 
 Agaiu our emblems, — dagger, mask and cup ! 
 
 Act we, and not recite, that bard sublime, 
 
 Who " was not of an age, but for all time." 
 
 Come, friends of Virtue ! Share the feast we spread. 
 
 It loads no spirits, and it heats no head j 
 
 But rouses forth each power of mind and soul 
 
 With food ambrosial and its fairy bowl. 
 
 Your " masters of the revels " we appear, 
 
 And greet you. Give us back one hearty cheer. 
 
 The Roman actors, when the play was done, 
 
 Cried out, Applaud ! Then first their praise was won. 
 
 Reward our greater boldness, friends, for we 
 
 Make our commencement with our " Plaudite. " 
 
192 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 THE FUGITIVE SLAVE'S APOSTROPHE TO NIAGARA. 
 AUTHOR UNKNOWN. 
 
 Hail to thy roaring flood, 
 Eternal torrent ! dark Niagara, hail ! 
 
 How bounds my boiling blood, 
 As thy loud voice comes thundering on the gale, 
 And the tumultuous waves thy dark-brown rocks assail. 
 
 Fierce is thy thunder-shock, 
 As the wild waters in their madness leap 
 
 From the eternal rock, 
 Plunging and raging, with impetuous sweep, 
 Till on the lake's calm breast thy boiling billows sleep. 
 
 So terrible and strong, 
 "Whirl maddening passions in the bondman's breast, 
 
 Trampled and scarred by Wrong, 
 Ere the tired spirit finds its hallowed rest, 
 In Freedom's stormless home, and glorious sunlight blessed. 
 
 Roll and roar on, wild river ! 
 Man's fetters cannot bind thy billows free, 
 
 Chainless and strong forever ; 
 As thou hast been, thy leaping flood shall be, 
 Guarding, with watery wall, the land of liberty. 
 
 Glory to God on high ! 
 Free as thy tide are my unshackled limbs ; 
 
 And here, unawed, will I 
 Join the wild chorus thy mad torrent hymns, 
 Stirring the pictured mist that o'er thy bosom swims. 
 
 Far from the southern plains, 
 I've traced my pathway, through the sunless wild, 
 
 Spurning the hated chains 
 That on my heel clanked heavy, from a child, 
 Binding to earth the soul, degraded and defiled. 
 
 On, by the beacon led, 
 That burns, unerring, in the northern sky, 
 O'er the lone fields I fled, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 193 
 
 To where thy thunder lifts its voice on high, 
 
 And to the bondman tells the land of freedom nigh. 
 
 Here, by thy foaming surge, 
 Back on the hated land where I was born, — 
 
 Land of the chain and scourge, — 
 I pour the fires of unrelenting scorn, 
 And hatred that shall burn, till life's last ray is gone. 
 
 "Home of the true and brave," 
 Where Bastard Freedom broods her mongrel horde, 
 
 And on the imbruted slave 
 Plants the red heel, and with the life-blood poured, 
 Stains the fell altars, where her horrid name 's adored. 
 
 It gave me but the chain, 
 The scourge, and task, and bondman's life of woe, 
 
 And ruthless torn in twain 
 The holiest ties that bind us here below, — 
 Hearts that inwoven beat with' one united flow. 
 
 Nor thus to me alone, — 
 But fettered millions lift their arms on high, 
 
 And shriek, and wail, and groan, 
 To Heaven ascending, in one fearful cry, 
 Bid the red bolts of wrath in hissing vengeance fly. 
 
 And yet our God shall turn, 
 And on this land his fiery volleys pour, 
 
 Till his fierce wrath shall burn 
 From far Astoria, to her eastern shore, 
 And from her JSable cape, to where thy waters roar. 
 
 Joy to the bondmen then, 
 When his right arm is laid for Justice bare, 
 
 And loud from every glen 
 And mountain, lit by one funereal glare, 
 Ascends the tyrant's wail upon the troubled air. 
 
 Then shall thy torrent be 
 Their strong munition, and its bounding flood 
 
 A guard, to 
 VOL. II. 13 
 
194 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 From the Avenger of the Negro's blood ; 
 
 Where blackness shrouds the land, where erst her glory stood. 
 
 Over thy rugged brow 
 Changeless and bright, the bow of promise bends, 
 
 Making the dark mist glow, 
 As Hope the clouds of Sorrow, when she lends 
 To Earth the joyous light which from her glance descends. 
 
 Eternal Priestess, thine 
 Is the pure baptism of the chainless free ; 
 
 Cool on this brow of mine 
 Thy holy drops descend, as broad to me 
 Unroll the temple-gates of meek-eyed Liberty ! 
 
 Let the fell tyrant rage ; 
 Into thy arms my sinewy form I fling, 
 
 And though his keel may wage 
 Mad warfare with thy billows,^ buffeting 
 The roaring floods with might, thou'lt guard me from his sting. 
 
 He may not cross thy tide, 
 With the strong fetters of a tyrant's power ; 
 
 Thy waves in foaming pride 
 The shrieking wretch in madness would devour, 
 And clap their hands, and shout the bondman's triumph hour. 
 
 that the Negro's God 
 Would give to dust this mortal part once more, 
 
 That o'er thy awful flood, 
 Swathed in the cloud-wreath dim, my soul might soar, 
 Exulting in the sound of thy eternal roar. 
 
 Loud with thy thunder tone 
 My voice shall blend, and when this land shall rock 
 
 With its last earthquake groan, 
 My shout the tyrant's dying shriek should mock, 
 And chant the victor-hymn to Ruin's rending shock. 
 
 E. D. H. 
 November 1, 1841. 
 
TIIE BOSTON COURIER. 195 
 
 PLEA FOR PEACE. 
 BY WILLIAM W. STORY. 
 Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." 
 
 House ye, noble hearts and fearless ! 
 
 Gather Christians near and far ! 
 Hear ye not Hell's watchword sounding ? 
 
 Hear ye not the din of war ? 
 Rouse ye, for your voice is needed ! 
 
 Trust not in a weak repose ! 
 Truth and Justice are invaded ! 
 
 Rouse ye up to meet their foes ! 
 
 Murder, in the open noonday, 
 
 Underneath war's bloody cloak, 
 Stalks abroad and calls her hirelings 
 
 To the angry battle's smoke, — 
 And from many a Christian pulpit 
 
 Pious preachers lift above 
 Prayers unto the God of battles, — 
 
 Not unto the God of love. 
 
 In our streets the fifes are playing, 
 
 Drums are beating for recruits, 
 For a lustful law of conquest, 
 
 Only worthy human brutes ; — 
 And there are who call it glory 
 
 Through a battle's crime to wade, — 
 And who deem that blood and carnage 
 
 Are a Christian's lawful trade. 
 
 Is it by a Christian people, 
 
 Is it in a Christian land, 
 That such prayers as these are lifted, 
 
 Such unholy deeds are planned ? 
 In this age of boasted Freedom 
 
 Can this wretched truth be told, 
 Our Religion is a pretence, — 
 
 We have only faith in Gold ? 
 
196 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Is it to repel invasion ? 
 
 Is it then for Freedom's cause 
 We must do man's saddest duty, 
 
 To defend our homes and laws ? 
 No, by heaven ! a baser motive 
 
 Never prompted man to war, 
 Than the mean and wicked objects 
 
 We are called to battle for. 
 
 Oh ! my country, how degraded 
 
 Is thy high estate of yore ! 
 How hath Freedom's aureole faded, 
 
 That thy young fair forehead wore ! 
 Thou wert then a star of morning, 
 
 Whither nations turned their eyes, 
 And the burning hopes of millions 
 
 Hailed the splendor of thy rise ! 
 
 Ah ! that thou should'st break thy pledges, 
 
 Dip thy hands in sin and shame, 
 Be a coward and apostate, 
 
 Falling from thy lofty aim, — 
 Treading on through blood to conquest, 
 
 Treacherous, cruel, and unjust, 
 Stealing from a weaker brother 
 
 With a base unholy lust. 
 
 Shame ! that thou should'st fight the battles 
 
 Of a coward and a thief, 
 That three million human chattels 
 
 Vainly ask a just relief! 
 If there be a God in heaven, 
 
 Justice in the end shall win ; 
 Thou shalt feel a retribution, 
 
 Deep and fearful as thy sin. 
 
 Mercy shall not always suffer, 
 Nor the law be broke in vain 
 
 That ordains, that he who giveth 
 Shall receive the like again, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 197 
 
 In its unseen sheath the Future' 
 
 Hides the avenging sword of fate, 
 And its lightning blade shall pierce thee, 
 
 Come it early, come it late. 
 
 But the heart whose aspiration 
 
 Seeketh for the good of all, 
 And would ask that every nation 
 
 Join in Truth's great festival, 
 Shudders at the chains of slavery, 
 
 At the fraud and reckless strife, 
 At the cursed thirst for money, 
 
 That corrodes this Nation's life. 
 
 But though Christian man be sunken 
 
 Deeper in his shame and crime, 
 Than the rudest untaught savage 
 
 In a Polynesian clime, — 
 Though religion be profession, 
 
 And our country's creed be gain, 
 There are noble spirits yearning 
 
 Christ's free Kingdom to attain. 
 
 And I call upon your voices, 
 
 In this hour of deepest need, 
 Ye who hold that hell rejoices 
 
 In war's foul and bloody creed, — 
 Ye who from the creed of vengeance, 
 
 As from chains have found release, 
 Mercy, Justice, call upon ye, 
 
 To uphold the law of Peace ! 
 
 Let the cunning breath of party 
 
 Blow the angry flame of strife, 
 Let men sever faith from practice, 
 
 Their religion from their life ; 
 But do ye uphold in earnest, 
 
 That the doctrine Christ hath taught 
 Is no weak and empty dogma, 
 
 But a law of life and thought. 
 
198 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Yours the task to plead for Justice, 
 
 For the holy law of Peace, — 
 Yours to win the words and mercy, 
 
 That shall give the slave release, — 
 Yours to help each struggling brother 
 
 In his efforts to be free, 
 And to wed all men and nations 
 
 In one great Humanity. 
 June 7, 1846. 
 
 I SEE THEE STILL. 
 BY CHARLES SPRAGUE. 
 
 I see thee still ; 
 Remembrance, faithful to her trust, 
 Calls thee in beauty from the dust ; 
 Thou comest in the morning light, 
 Thou 'rt with me through the gloomy night j 
 In dreams I meet thee as of old ; 
 Then thy soft arms my neck enfold, 
 And thy sweet voice is in my ear ; 
 In every scene to memory dear, 
 
 I see thee still. 
 
 I see thee still, 
 In every hallowed token round ; 
 This little ring thy finger bound, 
 This lock of hair thy forehead shaded, 
 This silken chain by thee was braided, 
 These flowers, all withered now, like thee, 
 Sweet Sister, thou didst cull for me ; 
 This book was thine ; here didst thou read ; 
 This picture — ah! yes, here, indeed, 
 
 I see thee still. 
 
 I see thee still ; 
 Here was thy summer noon's retreat, 
 Here was thy favorite fireside seat ; 
 This was thy chamber — here, each day, 
 I sat and watched thy sad decay ; 
 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 199 
 
 Here, on this bed, thou last didst lie ; 
 Here, on this pillow — thou didst die. 
 Dark hour! once more its woes unfold; 
 As then I saw thee, pale and cold, 
 I see thee still. 
 
 I see thee still ; 
 Thou art not in the grave confined — 
 Death cannot claim the immortal Mind ; 
 Let Earth close o'er its sacred trust, 
 But Goodness dies not in the dust ; 
 Thee, my Sister ! 't is not thee 
 Beneath the coffin's lid I see ; 
 Thou to a fairer land art gone ; 
 There let me hope, my journey done, 
 
 To see thee still ! 
 
 THE BROTHERS. 
 
 BY THE SAME. 
 
 "We are but two — the others sleep 
 
 Through Death's untroubled night ; 
 We are but two — let us keep 
 
 The link that binds us bright ! 
 
 Heart leaps to heart — the sacred flood 
 
 That warms us is the same ; 
 That good old man — his honest blood 
 
 Alike we fondly claim. 
 
 We in one mother's arms were locked — 
 
 Long be her love repaid ; 
 In the same cradle we were rocked, 
 
 Round the same hearth we played. 
 
 Our boyish sports were all the same, 
 
 Each little joy and woe ; — 
 Let manhood keep alive the flame, 
 
 Lit up so long ago. 
 
 "We are but two — be that the band 
 
 To hold us till we die ; 
 Shoulder to shoulder let us stand, 
 
 Till side by side we lie. 
 
200 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 THE PRESENT CRISIS. 
 BY JAMES R. LOWELL. 
 
 When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's 
 
 aching breast 
 Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west, 
 And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him 
 
 climb 
 To the awful verge of .manhood, as the energy sublime 
 Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of 
 
 Time. 
 
 Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous 
 
 throe, 
 When the travail of the Ages wrings earth's systems to and 
 
 fro ; 
 At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start, 
 Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart, 
 And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the 
 
 Future's heart. 
 
 • 
 So the Evil's triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill, 
 Under continent to continent, the sense of coming ill, 
 And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels his sympathies with 
 
 God 
 In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be drunk up by the 
 
 sod, 
 Till a corpse crawls round unburied, delving in the nobler 
 
 clod. 
 
 For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, 
 Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right or 
 
 wrong ; 
 Whether conscious or unconscious, yet humanity's vast frame 
 Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or 
 
 shame ; — 
 In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim. 
 
 Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
 In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side ; 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 201 
 
 Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom 
 
 or blight, 
 Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the 
 
 right, 
 And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that 
 
 light. 
 
 Hast thou chosen, my people, on whose party thou shalt 
 
 stand, 
 Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against 
 
 our land ? 
 Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is 
 
 strong, 
 And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng 
 Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong. 
 
 Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments see, 
 That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through Ob- 
 livion's sea ; 
 Not an ear in court or market for the low foreboding cry 
 Of those Crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet 
 
 earth's chaff must fly ; 
 Never shows the choice momentous till the judgement hath 
 passed by. 
 
 Careless seems the great Avenger ; history's pages but record 
 One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the 
 
 Word; 
 Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, — 
 Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim un- 
 known, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. 
 
 We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great, 
 Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate, 
 But the soul is still oracular ; amid the market's din, 
 List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within : 
 11 They enslave their children's children who make compromise 
 with sin." 
 
202 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Slavery, the earthborn Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood, 
 Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the 
 
 earth with blood, 
 Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day, 
 Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey ; — 
 Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children 
 
 play ? 
 
 Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched 
 
 crust, 
 Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be 
 
 just ; 
 Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands 
 
 aside, 
 Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified, 
 And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied. 
 
 Count me o'er Earth's chosen heroes, — they were souls that 
 
 stood alone 
 While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious 
 
 stone, 
 Stood serene and down the future saw the golden beam incline 
 To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, 
 By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme 
 
 design. 
 
 By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track, 
 Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not 
 
 back, 
 And these mounts of anguish number how each generation 
 
 learned 
 One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts 
 
 hath burned 
 Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven 
 
 upturned. 
 
 For Humanity sweeps onward : where to-day the martyr stands, 
 On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands ; 
 Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots 
 burn, 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 203 
 
 While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return 
 To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn. 
 
 'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves 
 Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves ; 
 "Worshipers of light ancestral make the present light a crime : 
 "Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men 
 
 behind their time ? 
 Turn those tracks toward Past or Future, that make Plymouth 
 
 rock sublime ? 
 
 They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts, 
 Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past's ; 
 But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath 
 
 made us free, 
 Hoarding it in mouldy parchments, while our tender spirits 
 
 flee 
 The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them across 
 
 the sea. 
 
 They have rights who dare maintain them ; we are traitors to 
 
 our sires, 
 Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom's new-lit altar-fires ; 
 Shall we make their creed our jailer ? Shall we, in our haste 
 
 to slay, 
 From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away 
 To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to-day? 
 
 New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good 
 uncouth ; 
 
 They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast 
 of Truth ; 
 
 Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pil- 
 grims be, 
 
 Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate 
 winter sea, 
 
 Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted 
 key. 
 December, 11, 1845. 
 
204 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 ON THE CAPTURE OF CERTAIN FUGITIVE SLAVES 
 
 NEAR WASHINGTON. 
 
 BY THE SAME. 
 
 Look on who will in apathy, and stifle they who can, 
 
 The sympathies, the hopes, the words, that make man truly 
 
 man ; 
 Let those whose hearts are dungeoned up with interest or 
 
 with ease 
 Consent to hear with quiet pulse of loathsome deeds like these ! 
 
 I first drew in New-England's air, and from her hardy breast 
 Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk that will not let me rest ; 
 And if my words seem treason to the dullard and the tame, 
 'T is but my Bay State dialect, — our fathers spake the same ! 
 
 Shame on the costly mockery of piling stone on stone 
 To those who won our liberty, the heroes dead and gone, 
 "While we look coldly on, and see law-shielded ruffians slay 
 The men who fain would win their own, the heroes of to-day! 
 
 Are we pledged to craven silence ? fling it to the wind, 
 The parchment wall that bars us from the least of human 
 
 kind, — 
 That makes us cringe, and temporize, and dumbly stand at 
 
 rest, 
 While Pity's burning flood of words is red-hot in the breast ! 
 
 Though we break our fathers' promise, we have nobler duties 
 
 first; 
 The traitor to Humanity is the traitor most accursed ; 
 Man is more than Constitutions ; better rot beneath the sod, 
 Than be true to Church and State while we are doubly false to 
 
 God! 
 
 We owe allegiance to the State ; but deeper, truer, more, 
 
 To the sympathies that God hath set within our spirit's 
 
 core ; — 
 Our country claims our fealty ; we grant it so, but then 
 Before Man made us citizens, great Nature made us men. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 205 
 
 He 's true to God who 's true to man j wherever wrong is 
 
 done, 
 To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding 
 
 sun, 
 That wrong is also done to us j and they are slaves most 
 
 base, 
 Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all their 
 
 race. 
 
 God works for all. Ye cannot hem the hope of being free 
 With parallels of latitude, with mountain-range or sea. 
 Put golden padlocks on Truth's lips, be callous as ye will, 
 From soul to soul, o'er all the world, leaps one electric thrill. 
 
 Chain down your slaves with ignorance, ye cannot keep 
 
 apart, 
 With all your craft of tyranny, the human heart from heart : 
 When first the Pilgrims landed on the Bay State's iron shore, 
 The word went forth that slavery should one day be no more. 
 
 Out from the land of bondage 't is decreed our slaves shall go, 
 And signs to us are offered, as erst to Pharaoh ; 
 If we are blind, their exodus, like Israel's of yore, 
 Through a Red Sea is doomed to be, whose surges are of gore. 
 
 'Tis ours to save our brethren, with peace and love to win 
 Their darkened hearts from error, ere they harden it to sin ; 
 But if man before his duty with a listless spirit stands, 
 Ere long the Great Avenger takes the work from out his 
 hands. 
 July 19, 1845. 
 
 THE BUBBLE CHASE. 
 BY S. G. GOODRICH. 
 " What phantoms we are, what phantoms we pursue ! " 
 'T was morn, and wending on its way, 
 
 Beside my path a stream was playing ; 
 And down its banks, in humor gay, 
 
 A thoughtless, hoyden boy was straying. 
 
206 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Light as the breeze they onward flew, — 
 That joyous youth and laughing tide, — 
 
 And seemed each other's course to woo, 
 For long they bounded side by side. 
 
 And now the dimpling water stayed, 
 And glassed its ripples in a nook ; 
 
 And on its breast a bubble played, 
 Which won the boy's admiring look. 
 
 He bent him o'er the river's brim, 
 And on the radiant vision gazed, 
 
 For lovelier still it seemed to him, 
 That in its breast his image blazed. 
 
 With beating heart and trembling finger, 
 He stooped the wondrous gem to clasp ; 
 
 But spell-bound, seemed a while to linger, 
 Ere yet he made th' adventurous grasp. 
 
 And still a while the glittering toy, 
 Coquettish seemed to shun the snare ; 
 
 And then, more eager grew the boy, 
 And followed with impetuous air. 
 
 Round and around, with heedful eyes, 
 He chased it o'er the wavy river ; 
 
 He marked his time and seized his prize — 
 But in his hand it burst forever ! 
 
 Upon the river's marge he sate, 
 
 The tears adown his young cheek gushing ; 
 And long — his heart disconsolate — 
 
 He heeded not the river's rushing. 
 
 But tears will cease — and now the boy 
 Once more looked forth upon the stream : 
 
 'T was morning still — and lo ! a toy, 
 Bright as the lost one, in the beam ! 
 
 He rose — pursued — the bubble caught ; 
 
 It burst — he sighed — then others chased ; 
 And as I parted, still he sought 
 
 New bubbles in their downward haste. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 207 
 
 My onward path I still pursued, 
 Till the high noon-tide sun was o'er me ; 
 
 And now — though changed in form and mood — 
 That youth and river seemed before me. 
 
 The deepened stream more proudly swept, 
 Though chafed by many a vessel's prow j 
 
 The youth in manhood's vigor stepped, 
 But care was chiseled on his brow. 
 
 Still on the stream he kept his eye, 
 
 And wooed the bubbles to the shore j 
 And snatched them, as they circled by, 
 
 Though bursting as they burst before. 
 
 Once more we parted — yet again 
 "We met — though now 'twas evening dim : 
 
 Onward the waters rushed amain, 
 And vanished o'er a cataract's brim. 
 
 Though fierce and wild the raging surge, 
 
 The bubble-chaser still w r as there ; 
 And bending o'er the cataract's verge, 
 
 Clutched at the gaudy things of air. 
 
 With staff in hand and tottering knee, 
 
 Upon the slippery brink he stood ; 
 And watched, with doting ecstasy, 
 
 Each wreath of foam that rode the flood ! 
 
 " One bubble more ! " I heard him call, 
 
 And saw his eager fingers play ; 
 He snatched — and down the roaring fall, 
 
 With the last bubble, passed away ! 
 
 SONG OF THE MANCHESTER FACTORY GIRL. 
 BY JOHN H. WARLAND. 
 
 sing me a song of the Factory Girl, 
 
 So merry and glad and free — 
 The bloom on her cheeks, of health how it speaks ! — 
 
 a happy creature is she ! 
 
208 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 She tends the loom, she watches the spindle, 
 
 And cheerfully talketh away j 
 Mid the din of wheels, how her bright eyes kindle 
 
 And her bosom is ever gay. 
 
 O sing me a song of the Factory Girl, 
 
 Who hath breathed our mountain air, — 
 She toils for her home, and the joys to come 
 
 To the loved ones gathered there. 
 She tends the loom, she watches the spindle, 
 
 And fancies her mother near — 
 How glows her heart, as her bright eyes kindle, 
 
 And she thinks of her sisters dear ! 
 
 sing me a song of the Factory Girl, 
 As she walks her spacious hall, 
 
 And trims the rose, and the orange that blows 
 
 In the window, scenting all. 
 She tends the loom, and watches the spindle, 
 
 And she skips in the mountain air ; — 
 
 1 know by her eyes, as their bright lights kindle, 
 
 That a queenly spirit is there. 
 
 sing me the song of the Factory Girl, 
 Whose task is easy and light — 
 
 She toileth away, till the evening gray, 
 
 And her sleep is sweet at night. 
 She tends the loom, and watches the spindle, 
 
 And ! she is honest and free — 
 
 1 know by her laugh, as her bright eyes kindle, 
 That few are more happy than she. 
 
 sing me the song of the Factory Girl, 
 
 "Whose fabric clothes the world ; 
 From the king and his peers, to the jolly tars, 
 
 "With our flag on all seas unfurled. 
 From China's gold seas, to the tainted breeze 
 
 That sweeps the smokened room — 
 Where "God save the Queen" to cry are seen 
 
 The slaves of the British loom. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 209 
 
 sing me the song of the Factory Girl ! 
 Link not her name with the slaves, — 
 
 She is brave and free as the old elm tree, 
 
 That over her homestead waves. 
 She tends the loom, she watches the spindle, 
 
 And scorns the laugh and the sneer ; — 
 
 1 know by her lips as her bright eyes kindle, 
 
 That a free-born spirit is here. 
 
 sing me the song of the Factory Girl, 
 
 Ever honest and fair and true, — 
 Her name has rung, her deeds have been sung, 
 
 O'er the land and the waters blue. 
 She tends the loom, she watches the spindle, 
 
 And her words are cheerful and gay, — 
 give me her smile, as her bright eyes kindle, 
 
 And she toils and sings away. 
 
 sing me the song of the Factory Girl, 
 Who no titled lord doth own, — 
 
 Who, with treasures as rare, is more free from care 
 
 Than a queen upon her throne. 
 She tends the loom, and watches the spindle, 
 
 And parts her glossy hair, — 
 
 1 know by her smile, as her bright eyes kindle, 
 
 That a cheerful spirit is there. 
 
 God bless our Yankee Factory Girl ! 
 
 The rose of our mountains wild, — 
 Like a merry bird, shall her song be heard, 
 
 Where'er sweet labor has smiled. 
 From our forests green, where the axe hath been, 
 
 And the waters dance in the sun, — 
 Through the southern clime to the thunder chime 
 
 Of the surging Oregon. 
 VOL. II. 14 
 
210 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 
 AUTHOR UNKNOWN. 
 
 Poet, (for that name is thine,) 
 
 As I read thy thoughtful line, 
 
 Where great thoughts like suns do shine, 
 
 Grateful tears do fill my eyes, — 
 And my heart, with glad surprize, 
 A true man doth recognize. 
 
 Ever doth thy steady hand 
 Point me to the Eternal Land, 
 Dimly seen from earthly strand ; 
 
 And its pearly gates, my eye, 
 Taught by thee, can faint descry, 
 In the deep blue of the sky. 
 
 From thy verse, where lie inurned 
 Holy thoughts by others spurned, 
 I a lesson deep have learned ; — 
 
 That the common things of life, 
 Trampled down in our hot strife, 
 Are with holiest meanings rife. 
 
 Poet ! with thy earnest heart 
 Ever choose the better part : — 
 "Wilt thou e'er be what thou art ? 
 
 Will no gilded lure of praise 
 Tempt thee from thy shadowed ways 
 To the feverish noon-day blaze ? 
 
 Wilt thou ever humble be, — 
 Ever glad and ever free, — 
 Poet of Humanity ? 
 
 Seek not for the flickering flame, 
 Which adorns the paltry fame 
 Of a cheap and passing name ; — 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 211 
 
 Let thy calm, clear, steady light 
 Shine through gloom of earthly night, 
 Like the stars from Heaven's height j — 
 
 And, as generations sweep 
 
 Onward o'er the mighty deep, 
 
 On thee their fixed eyes shall keep. f. 
 
 April 25, 1844. 
 
 HARVARD COLLEGE. 
 BY C. G. PICEMAX. 
 
 It is now two hundred years since the foundation of 
 Harvard College. The graduates of this venerable 
 institution will gather themselves with one accord to 
 lay on her altar their tribute of gratitude ; to thank 
 God for the many blessings of which He has seen fit to 
 make this college the source, and to implore his bless- 
 ing that their successors may be more faithful than 
 they have been to their duty as scholars and as Christ- 
 ians. The first, at least, the most natural feeling, 
 which rises in the heart on such an occasion, is a 
 private one, — that of deep consciousness that it has 
 not fulfilled all that it promised itself of usefulness to 
 others, — that it has not acquired all that it hoped for 
 itself, when first its possessor came to inhabit these 
 hallowed walls. How many hearts have here beat 
 high with the hope of distinction, — alas ! how many 
 such hopes have been blasted. Many a spirit has sunk 
 beneath the excitement, never to rise again, and no 
 one has gained all that it hoped for. Let not this 
 reflection sadden us, however. If there has been 
 much of disappointment, there has also been much of 
 promise fulfilled. Here, how many have gathered 
 strength for action or for suffering, and learned their 
 
212 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 best lessons for time and for eternity. It is not, how- 
 ever, to individual considerations, that we can or ought 
 to confine ourselves. It is now two hundred years 
 since a few exiles laid, in the solitudes almost of a 
 desert, this noble institution. We are but too much 
 accustomed to praise our ancestors. For my own 
 part, I hope ever to be saved from the wretched affec- 
 tation of sympathy for their sufferings or of reverence 
 for their actions. It is quite impossible to think of 
 them, however, amid the many sources of evil which 
 pressed upon their spirits, — still looking upward with 
 firm confidence to the God, who led them on, and 
 forward with calm anticipation to the welfare of their 
 posterity, — at no time giving way to distrust or 
 melancholy, — without feeling one's own soul rising 
 in gratitude and adoration. They seemed to have felt 
 religion to be, as in truth it is, the first source of bless- 
 ing to man, and they seem also to have felt strongly 
 another truth, that learning is one of the best supports 
 of religion. In this spirit they acted ; it is to this 
 action that we owe almost all the blessings of our 
 days ; and to the spirit of the same action, all that we 
 can hope of blessing for our posterity. 
 
 With such feelings let the graduates of this college 
 come up to their solemn festival, — and let them at the 
 same time look to it, and see if there be nothing want- 
 ing to their individual duty. Their duty at this time 
 is something of a religious one, the veneration of learn- 
 ing raising itself most readily with that of devotion; 
 the first suggestion of individual duty is therefore one 
 of reconciliation and harmony. Let us not offer our 
 gifts, while our brother has aught against us ; let us 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 213 
 
 not dare any longer to wander among the still streams 
 and quiet pastures of literature, with spirits alloyed 
 by feelings of political excitement. Here, at least, 
 let contention cease, and like brethren of the same 
 household, returning after a long interval to their 
 common home, let us forget every thing but our 
 former affection. 
 
 As public men, let us also look to it, and reform 
 whatever we can in ourselves and in others. There 
 are fearful sounds upon every passing breeze, — we 
 must see that ignorance is informed, — that excited 
 fanaticism of all kinds is put down, or all that we 
 have now, all that we hope for in future, must fall. 
 The experiment is here and now to be tried, and for 
 aught we see, it is the last trial, how far man can 
 govern himself; it well becomes us to arm ourselves 
 for the conflict. If there be any thing in our literary 
 institutions, which can be improved, so as to give 
 new strength to our exertions, in the name of all that 
 is good and true, let us now see to it. We owe much 
 to our ancestors, we owe much to ourselves, but more 
 than to either, we owe much to posterity. The forms 
 of future men are around us, pressing forward to fill 
 our places ; — on us, it depends, whether existence 
 shall be to them a blessing, or a curse ; whether they 
 can look back, as we do, on our ancestors, unstained 
 and irreproachable, or with the bitter feeling, that, 
 but for us, they might have been great and happy. 
 On us all this depends ; the responsibility is indeed 
 awful, but let it only excite us to renewed effort. 
 
214 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND EXPLANATION. 
 
 A multitude of communications are contained in 
 the Courier, which, if here collected, would impart to 
 these volumes something of that agreeable and attract- 
 ive variety in which they may, doubtless, be deficient. 
 But to enlarge the selection would be impracticable, 
 and to name all the writers who have had anonymous 
 intercourse with the public through the columns of the 
 Courier would be undesirable, perhaps indelicate, and 
 next to impossible. Among those not already named, 
 to whom the greatest obligations are due, were John 
 Pickering and Henry A. S. Dearborn, and are Henry 
 Lee, William Sturgis, Charles F. Adams, William 
 Foster, John Pickens, A. C. Spooner, and, though 
 last not least, Samuel Kettell, than whom no cor- 
 respondent ever contributed more matter to pro- 
 duce broad laughter and good-humored merriment to 
 readers. His pieces are numerous, and as various in 
 their character and subjects as the talents and capa- 
 bilities of the actors, whom old Polonius so felicitously 
 described to Hamlet. " Peeping Tom's " Letters from 
 Hull have often " set the table in a roar," put obstinate 
 gravity at defiance, and challenged resistance from the 
 sturdiest longitudinal countenance. The humor, with 
 which certain incidents and the actors in them are 
 burlesqued and caricatured, is inimitable. He is 
 master of a style that is peculiarly his own, in which 
 whoever attempts competition may be sure to produce 
 an abortion. This style may not be the most suitable 
 for the discussion of weighty and important subjects, 
 but it is admirably adapted for ludicrous description, 
 and to raise a laugh at the expense of any thing and 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 215 
 
 every thing, which he deems to be legitimate subjects 
 for lampoonery and ridicule. 
 
 The initials "J. H. B." which are of frequent occur- 
 rence, indicate the name of a son, who was an efficient 
 assistant in the editorial department for almost twenty 
 years. On some occasions he performed the whole 
 duty of an editor, with credit to himself and the 
 satisfaction of subscribers. While connected with 
 the Courier, he made two voyages to Europe, and 
 furnished Letters from England and France, which 
 occupy a prominent place in the paper, and afford 
 evidence that he was not a mere lounger in the 
 French and English capitals. After the dethrone- 
 ment of Louis Philippe, in 1848, he wrote several 
 chapters on " The last two Revolutions in France." 
 A long series of articles under the titles " Diary 
 at Home," " Diary Abroad," and " Letters from 
 the West," written in 1846, 1847, and 1848, — 
 more than a hundred in number, present a proof of 
 the industrious employment of a happy talent for 
 observation and description. He was on board the 
 ill-fated ship Poland, when it was burnt at sea in May, 
 1840, and was the last passenger to leave its flaming 
 deck. The account, which he wrote of that awful 
 catastrophe, and which found its way into most of the 
 newspapers, is a simple and pathetic relation of facts, 
 which, as it required no decoration of fancy, is written 
 with no attempt to display extraneous embellishment. 
 
 Pursuant to a deliberately-formed resolution, a few 
 days after the nomination of General Taylor as the 
 whig candidate for the Presidency, I disposed of my 
 
216 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 interest in the Courier, and relinquished the character 
 and services of an editor. No other explanation is 
 necessary to introduce the following article, which 
 closed my editorial career, June 24, 1848 : — 
 
 VALEDICTORY. 
 
 The connection of the subscriber with the Boston 
 Courier, as editor and proprietor, terminated on the 
 twenty-second instant. 
 
 To make this annunciation costs me a pang, the 
 severity of which was not anticipated. It records the 
 dissolution of relations that to me have been a source 
 of unspeakable pleasure, and which I fain would hope 
 will be remembered by others with kindly regard. My 
 relations to the public, as the editor of this and another 
 paper, have existed more than thirty years, and have 
 occupied the most active and vigorous portion of my 
 life. Circumstances which it were tedious to detail, 
 and which few would care to know, render it expedi- 
 ent, and even a duty, that I should retire, and seek 
 some other path in which to close the career of life. 
 To answer all inquiries that may be made, let it be 
 sufficient to say, that without sacrificing my own per- 
 sonal integrity to the views of others, or hazarding the 
 interest of others to gratify my own notions of honor 
 and independence, — notions, which, after all, may be 
 as unsound as I know they are unpopular, — I could 
 not retain my position. Justice to those with whom I 
 have been most agreeably connected in business, and 
 whose pecuniary interest in the proprietorship of this 
 paper was equal to mine, dictated the course I have 
 unhesitatingly adopted. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 217 
 
 'As the occasion is one of personal explanation, a 
 brief reference to the history of the Boston Courier, 
 may be pardonable. The first number was issued on 
 the second day of March, 1824, with the encourage- 
 ment of less than two hundred subscribers. There 
 was then one daily paper in the city, and the attempt 
 to establish another was thought to be a reckless ex- 
 periment. I had nothing but the small and rather 
 precarious income of a weekly paper, (the New-Eng- 
 land Galaxy,) and a confidence that perseverance and 
 industry would eventually command success, to sustain 
 me in the struggle. The inducement that led to the 
 
 DO 
 
 undertaking was the belief that a paper devoted to the 
 cause of American manufactures and Internal Improve- 
 ments was needed, — a cause, which, at that time, 
 received no encouragement from the press. For some 
 years, this was the only paper in New England, so far 
 as my knowledge extends, that undertook to advocate 
 a Protective Tariff. For this cause it had to encounter 
 opposition and rebuke from the newspapers of that 
 day, and the relentless hostility of individuals, which, 
 at one time, was manifested in an effort to stop its 
 circulation among the merchants of the city, — an 
 effort that was defeated, and is remembered only to be 
 forgiven. Its support, during the early period of its 
 existence, was derived mainly from the friends of the 
 Tariff, and those who pursued the business of manu- 
 facturing on a moderate scale. The richest class of 
 manufacturers, with one or two exceptions, contributed 
 but little to its circulation or support. It was, in truth, 
 the organ and the advocate of what may be called, 
 without reproach, the " Middling Interest," and to that 
 
218 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 class of the people it was chiefly indebted for such 
 measure of prosperity as it finally attained. 
 
 The circulation of the Courier has never been aug- 
 mented by a purchased union with other establishments, 
 which their owners might deem it expedient for any 
 reason to relinquish. It has been under the control of 
 no one but myself. It now passes into other hands. 
 My position will hereafter be occupied by those that 
 will bring to the duty more available talent and more 
 acceptable activity, though, I am sure, not a more lofty 
 ambition to elevate and dignify the character of the 
 press, nor a more sincere desire to be serviceable to 
 their country and their race. For them I entreat the 
 encouraging smile of the public. One of them has 
 often contributed the effusions of his genius and wit to 
 enliven and embellish the columns of the Courier. 
 The other has long been an associate, and the public 
 are not unacquainted with the results of his industry 
 and intelligence, manifested in the news and business 
 departments of the paper. In relinquishing the pa- 
 rental control of the child I have fondly cherished and 
 proudly trained, I could not confide it to more honora- 
 ble and trustworthy possession. 
 
 In reviewing the period that is now closing, I find 
 much that will furnish subjects for pleasing reflection. 
 I have made some friends that have been constant 
 through good report and evil report, — many, whose 
 kindness has cheered hours of gloom and darkness, — 
 many, whose generosity has relieved distressing em- 
 barrassments, — many, whose approbation has given 
 me confidence when suffering under adversity, and 
 inspired hope when on the verge of despair. In imagi- 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 219 
 
 nation, at least, those friends will be my dearest com- 
 panions in whatever situation I may hereafter be placed, 
 and I shall never cease to implore for them all the good 
 they can desire. 
 
 But it is not to be supposed that all, with whom I 
 have come in contact as an editor, have parted in 
 friendship. My opinions have been expressed with 
 freedom and boldness ; but I am not conscious that I 
 have ever stated as a fact what I did not religiously 
 believe to be true, nor an opinion that I did not firmly 
 believe to be well-founded. Errors innumerable I have 
 doubtless committed, which, when shown to be errors, 
 have been cheerfully acknowledged. If, through my 
 agency, wrong has been done to the person, feelings, 
 property, or good name of a single individual, let this 
 general declaration of penitence secure remission and 
 forgiveness. 
 
 For many testimonials of sympathy and approbation 
 I am indebted to my cotemporaries of the press. Their 
 courtesy will always be gratefully remembered. If 
 any kind expression of theirs has not been recipro- 
 cated, the omission has been the effect of inadvertence 
 and not of intention. I have been engaged in many 
 controversies with brethren of the profession, and 
 bitter words have been uttered and retaliated. It is 
 not in my nature to take reproach with meekness, but 
 I believe I have seldom been the aggressor in an edito- 
 rial warfare. In all such altercations I believe I am 
 quite as much sinned against as sinning. But on 
 whichever side the balance may be due, let the record 
 be written on the sand, that the next wave may oblite- 
 rate it. 
 
220 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 If I have failed in my attempt to conduct a paper 
 that should be the exponent of my own views of public 
 policy, while it afforded a channel for the communica- 
 tion of opposite opinions from correspondents, the fault 
 has been entirely in my want of judgement and capa- 
 city. Had I been less liberal in the avowal of personal 
 opinions, — more flexible in temper, — and more sub- 
 missive to individual or party dictation, I might now 
 withdraw from public notice with more ample means 
 for the indulgence of ease, at a period of life when 
 new pursuits, and further attempts to obtain independ- 
 ence by intellectual or physical exertion, would be 
 equally unavailing. Could I have endured, passively, 
 " the proud man's contumely," or tamely " crooked the 
 pregnant hinges of the knee," that "thrift might follow 
 fawning," I might now retire without feeling the morti- 
 fying incapacity to discharge pecuniary obligations, 
 that have caused me more painful regrets than those to 
 whom those obligations are due, have ever expressed. 
 But I make no complaints. The public are the best 
 judges of the merits of the candidates for their support, 
 and generally award their favor to those who serve 
 them best. In my comments on public measures, and 
 on the conduct and characters of public men, there is 
 but little that I would cancel or retract. " What I 
 have written, I have written." I have but few regrets 
 to utter, — but few concessions to make. This may 
 sound like the vaporing of vanity and conceit, but it 
 is the voice of honest conviction. If it be arrogant 
 and presumptuous, let it be condemned or disregarded ; 
 if absurd and foolish, may it be pitied, pardoned, and 
 forgotten. 
 
THE BOSTON COURIER. 221 
 
 The change that now takes place in my condition, 
 relieves me from active participation in the political 
 struggle that now agitates the public mind. In this 
 contest, though I now have no other agency or influ- 
 ence than that of the humblest individual, it must not 
 be supposed that I am to be an indifferent or uncon- 
 cerned spectator. My political sympathies are known 
 to be with the whig party ; and however I may 
 differ from some individuals of that party on some 
 questions of public policy, it is not possible that I 
 can ever be treacherous to the principles, which form 
 the basis on which rest the true honor and glory of 
 the nation. In the contest that has now begun, and 
 that will last for five or six months to come, there 
 needs no prophetic vision to foresee that there will 
 be crimination and recrimination ; that the father 
 will be against the son ; and that brother will rise up 
 against brother. It is, perhaps, fortunate for me that 
 I am removed from a situation, in which I might be 
 brought into unwilling contact with the best of friends, 
 and exposed to the chance of being engaged in dis- 
 cordant discussions with those whom I most esteem 
 and love. I pray that this tempestuous agitation of 
 the political elements may be the prelude to a period 
 of union, harmony and peace. The Patriot's motto 
 will be " Our country, our whole country, and noth- 
 ing but our country.'" Yet no one can be insensible 
 to the claims of that peculiar region which he calls 
 his home. Born and bred in New-England, my affec- 
 tions and sympathies centre there ; if I forget her, 
 may my right hand forget its cunning ! Massachusetts 
 has been my home for more than half a century, — 
 
222 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 the birth-place of my children, — the scene of my 
 labor, my affliction and my triumph. If I cease to 
 pray for her peace, freedom, and glory, may my 
 tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ! 
 
 And now, — to long-tried and warm-hearted friends, 
 — to enemies, if I have any, — to my former part- 
 ners, — to my successors, — to my fellow-laborers of 
 the press, of whatever faith in politics and religion, — 
 to those who have faithfully and cheerfully wrought 
 with me and for me in the laborious mechanical 
 operations required to produce a daily paper, which 
 none can know but from hard experience, — to each 
 and all, there remains but one more word, — 
 
 • FAREWELL ! 
 
 A word, which here embraces a devout and solemn 
 aspiration for their individual prosperity in all hon- 
 orable pursuits, and for our common country a spot- 
 less name and a career of glory that shall know 
 neither diminution nor end. J. T. B. 
 
 In the autumn of 1849, my name was placed on 
 the list of candidates for senators in the county of 
 Middlesex, by a convention of delegates from the 
 freesoil and democratic parties. The nomination was 
 followed by private and public animadversion, which 
 provoked the following statement of 
 
 MY POSITION, AND HOW I CAME TO BE IN IT. 
 
 TO THE EDITORS OP THE COURIER : 
 
 I ask of you the favor, my old associates and friends, to let 
 this communication appear in the Courier of Tuesday next. 
 My reason for desiring to have it published at that time, is, 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 223 
 
 perhaps, too obvious to need explanation ; yet, permit me to 
 say, that, wishing to "define my position," I should like to 
 do it at such a time, and in such a manner, as shall secure me 
 against any charge of attempting to produce any e-ffect, favor- 
 able or adverse, on the action of any political party, by its 
 publication ; — for the election will then have been decided ; — 
 and as the letter will then have been in your possession some 
 three or four days, it will not be in the power of any one to 
 impute the writing of it to any feeling of mortification or 
 satisfaction at the result of the election, whatever that result 
 may have been. I am aware that my position is of exceedingly 
 little importance to the world in general, or even to that por- 
 tion of it, which your subscription list embraces ; but, inas- 
 much as it has been a subject of some newspaper comments, 
 and some personal rebuke, — of rather an ungentle character, 
 — I feel constrained, though at the hazard of encountering 
 some reproach, to make this exposition. 
 
 It is well known that I was opposed to the election of 
 General Taylor to the Presidency. When his name was first 
 mentioned in that connection, I considered the nomination, — 
 as I suppose almost every Whig in the country did, — to have 
 been made rather in jest and to produce fun for a convivial 
 party, than as a serious and dignified act of sober and discreet 
 politicians. It was deemed so ineffably ludicrous, that a man, 
 who should have opposed it by argument, would have been 
 laughed at as a dunce of the very greenest teint. But time 
 passed on. Victories were achieved by the General in Mexico. 
 As a candidate for the Presidency his name was mentioned in 
 some democratic gatherings in the South and West, and it 
 became less potential as a provocative to ridicule. Votes of 
 thanks were tendered to him from various places, by legisla- 
 tive and other assemblies. In the winter of 1846-'47, a whig 
 paper, here and there, took up the nomination ; and a gen- 
 tleman, then in Washington, whose letters written for the 
 Courier were always accepted, and read with avidity, under- 
 took to make use of my columns (they were mine, tken) to 
 place before the people the excellent qualifications of General 
 Taylor for a President of the United States. You well know, 
 
224 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 that, with all the truth of feeling and all the power of lan- 
 guage, that I could command, I endeavored to show the folly 
 of this gentleman's arguments, and that I never failed, for a 
 year and a half before the assembling of the Philadelphia 
 Convention, on every available occasion, as editor of the 
 Courier, and as a member of the Senate of Massachusetts, to 
 lift my voice against what I believed to be the madness that 
 prevailed in certain portions of the community. In all this, 
 if I have any conception of what honesty is, I acted from pure 
 and honest motives. I believed that the elevation of General 
 Taylor, — or any military hero, — to the chair of the Chief 
 Magistrate, would be a most disastrous event, and produce 
 most pernicious effects. I do not know that my conduct in 
 this matter, thus far, was disapproved by the Whigs. On the 
 contrary, I had reason to believe that it met their cordial con- 
 currence. So far as my acquaintance with the whig press 
 extended, no newspaper, except one in the city of New York, 
 undertook to administer reproof or to express any uneasiness. 
 Some of the democratic prints were severe in their denuncia- 
 tions of the Courier and its editor. The Boston Times was 
 especially harsh and acrimonious in its remarks ; but of its 
 severity I did not then, and do not now complain. 
 
 At length, the nomination of General Taylor was made by 
 a "National Whig Convention." It seemed to me then, and, 
 to my unenlightened understanding, it appears to me still, 
 that, in the making of that nomination, every principle, which 
 had been claimed by the Whigs as peculiarly characteristic 
 of the party, was abandoned. Under the force of that im- 
 pression, I could not, in conscience, — laugh and sneer at the 
 word, if you please, gentlemen, — support the nomination. 
 To give up at once, all that I had been contending for, during 
 the whole term of my editorial life, and to record the act of 
 degradation with my own pen and press, required the agency 
 of joints and muscles more flexible than mine. As it was 
 supposed the pecuniary value of the Courier might be de- 
 preciated, if it were conducted in opposition to the whig 
 nomination, and being unwilling to diminish the income, to 
 throw a damper on the prosperity, or to cast a shade of doubt 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 225 
 
 on the political orthodoxy, of those friends, with whom I was 
 connected, I relinquished my interest in the concern, and with- 
 drew from all connection with the newspaper press. 
 
 In the mean time, certain gentlemen, to whom the nomina- 
 tion of Gen. Taylor was no more acceptable than it was to 
 me, effected the organization of a new party, which is now 
 known as the Free Soil party. It was not, perhaps, unnat- 
 ural, that they should ask my co-operation and wish me to 
 unite with them. But I took no part in their proceedings, and 
 had no share in the measures proposed for opposition to the 
 election of Gen. Taylor. I was present at a District Conven 
 tion, held at Concord in August following, was appointed a 
 delegate to the proposed Buffalo Convention, and declined the 
 appointment, against the unanimous and urgent importunity 
 of the meeting ; and no other political meeting, for any pur- 
 pose whatever, have I attended, for more than three years. 
 
 And now, Messrs. Editors, I come to the point, to which 
 this tedious retrospective preliminary tends. 
 
 Two Conventions, — composed of delegates from the Free 
 Soil and Democratic parties, respectively, — recently assem- 
 bled in the County of Middlesex. Through the intervention 
 of committees, (as I learn from the newspapers, for no com- 
 munication of their proceedings has been made to me in any 
 other form,) they agreed to form a union Senatorial ticket, and 
 on this ticket, in the newspapers, too, I find my name. No 
 one asked my permission to place it there. No one questioned 
 me as to my opinion upon the questions that agitate the po- 
 litical community. No pledge for future action was required ; 
 no pledge has been given. No one inquired whether I still 
 held to the declaration of readiness to live and die in the faith 
 of the Hartford Convention, or if I would repudiate the old 
 Federal doctrines, which I had always upheld. I was not 
 requested to unsay any thing, that I may have uttered, in 
 political discussions, concerning Thomas Jefferson, James 
 Madison, or any other idol of the old anti-Federal party, — 
 and I have as little inclination to do so as I have to retract a 
 syllable that I have written against Zachary Taylor, or to join 
 in the grand hallelujah chorus to his praise and glory, which 
 
 vol. it. 15 
 
226 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 is now sung or said so rapturously in the whig church, — 
 frighting the state from its propriety. This spontaneous, un- 
 solicited, unexpected, unpledged nomination, I can view in no 
 other light than as an evidence that the principles on which I 
 conducted the Courier, and in obedience to which I had en- 
 deavored to shape my course, were approved by the men who 
 made it. It was an acknowledgement of confidence in my 
 well-known sentiments, — sentiments that had received the 
 approbation of the great body of the [late ?] whig party. Say 
 what you will, laugh and sneer at my vanity, condemn and 
 scold at me for perverseness, lampoon and reproach me, if 
 you like, that nomination was a triumph of principle over the 
 prejudice of party. 
 
 As I have not declined the nomination, I am accused of 
 inconsistency, — of leaving the whig party, and uniting with 
 their adversaries, — of a repudiation of my former principles. 
 To all these and other similar charges, I plead not guilty, and 
 cheerfully put myself on the unprejudiced good sense and 
 enlightened candor of the community for trial. The accusa- 
 tion is untrue in every particular. I have disavowed no sen- 
 timent that I can recollect to have entertained for the last 
 thirty years. I have not left the whig party. The elementary 
 principles of that party, I always supposed to be peace, anti- 
 slavery, and protection. I have always been a friend to peace, 
 and never, knowingly, advocated or justified an act of aggres- 
 sive war, or war for any purpose but to repel invasion. I 
 have always entertained a deadly hostility to the slave power, 
 and now look with disgust and hatred upon any effort to extend 
 its limits, to soothe its resentment, or to conciliate its favor. I 
 am now, as I have ever been, the unwavering and unflinching 
 friend and advocate of protection to home industry, and the 
 most liberal compensation to labor. If any Whig, Democrat 
 or Free Soiler, has manifested or will manifest a stronger or 
 more faithful attachment to these principles, let him exhibit 
 his claim, and it shall be cheerfully recognized. Left the whig 
 party ! I traveled with it in the broad road of honor, and 
 fidelity to its avowed principles ; but when it turned aside into 
 by-paths, and broke over all the acknowledged landmarks of 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 227 
 
 the party, to elevate a leader, who had acknowledged himself 
 unfit for the office, and whose nomination had been declared, 
 by the greatest statesman in the country, as one n not fit to be 
 made," the party left me. Left the Whigs ! joined their ene- 
 mies ! Both the charges are unfounded and unjust. If I am 
 not united to the Whigs now, it is because they have adopted 
 new doctrines, and chosen to worship new and false gods. 
 
 If to keep entirely aloof and remain a passive spectator of 
 political movements, be a crime against those with whom I 
 have formerly acted, that crime I certainly have perpetrated, 
 and cheerfully bare my neck to the axe. If it should subject 
 me to the loss of friendships, valued and long-since formed, — 
 if it should deprive me of the courtesies, to which I have been 
 accustomed from neighbors and fellow-citizens, — if, in the 
 estimation of those, with whom I have enjoyed a general 
 correspondence of opinion and conformity of sentiment, an 
 oft-occurring community of hearts, and a frequent mingling 
 of sympathies, it has imparted an ineffaceable spot to my 
 name, — why, I must submit to be thus buffeted and shunned. 
 I cannot think of seeking refuge from the storm, by discarding 
 principles which I have cherished through life. Politic and 
 far-seeing statesmen, profound and sagacious professors, pious 
 and consecrated ministers, may convince themselves, and 
 others, that it is a duty, patriotic and honorable, to follow 
 their party wherever it may lead them, and that, to choose the 
 least of two evils is to follow the example of Him, who, rather 
 than choose any evil, endured the cross and despised the 
 shame ; but they have failed to convince me, and I am too 
 imperfectly skilled in the science of metaphysics to convince 
 myself, that such a course is just and proper, or consistent with 
 Christianity and truth. I charge no individual with hypocrisy, 
 and claim for myself no more of the virtue of sincerity than I 
 suppose others to possess. But when I see men of great intel- 
 lectual powers, of extensive learning, and of lofty pretensions 
 to morality and religion, elevating to high offices of honor and 
 trust the warrior and the slave-holder, I confess I am puzzled 
 to know by what process of reasoning they justify their pro- 
 ceedings. That such men should elect and sustain and almost 
 
228 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 worship a Chief Magistrate, every morsel of whose food is 
 seasoned with the blood of a slave, would be inconceivable, if 
 every day did not afford evidence of the fact. And since the 
 whig candidates are selected exclusively from among those, 
 who profess to be the friends of the present national adminis- 
 tration, to my simple perceptions, every vote that will be given 
 on Monday for those candidates, will be equivalent to a vote 
 to sustain the odious prepotency of the Slave Power in our 
 national councils, and to postpone, if not forever to prevent, 
 the acquisition of that political equality of privilege and pre- 
 rogative, which rightfully belongs to the free states. 
 
 Allow me to say, in conclusion, that having taken no part 
 in the movements preparatory to the coming election, I shall 
 persevere in my inactivity to the end. The result, to me, per- 
 sonally, will be a matter of listless indifference. Principles 
 are at stake, in comparison with which the success of one set 
 of individuals or another, — the elevation of one candidate or 
 the defeat of another, — except as the candidates are the expo- 
 nents of those principles, — is too insignificant to cause a 
 moment's solicitude. With true regard, your friend, 
 
 J. T. B. 
 
 Cambridge, November 9, 1849. 
 
 When a man has been his own hero through five 
 hundred pages, the aggregate amount of his guilt will 
 not be perceptibly increased, nor his punishment be 
 greatly augmented, by a few additional illustrations of 
 egotism. Even personal vanity may plead some in- 
 dulgence, when it proclaims only the official record of 
 facts. This personal memoir would be incomplete, 
 and its author might justly be obnoxious to a charge 
 of affectation, if, as it draws near to its conclusion, no 
 notice were taken of the services he had endeavored 
 to perform, beside such as are most appropriate to his 
 profession as a printer and editor. He can conscien- 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 229 
 
 tiously affirm that he sought for no other avenue to 
 public favor or notoriety ; yet it pleased his fellow- 
 citizens to call him from professional pursuits to other 
 offices of honor and responsibility, — enough, and 
 more than enough, to satisfy all the ambitious cravings 
 he ever felt, — and, in regard to such offices, his only 
 regret is that, in occupying them, his ability fell far 
 short of his desire to fulfill the duties they imposed. 
 
 Of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Associa- 
 tion I became a member in 1810; — served it five 
 years as secretary ; three years as trustee ; two years 
 as vice-president, and three years (the constitutional 
 term) as President. My connection with this associa- 
 tion has been of the most agreeable nature, and I 
 have received from many of its members unquestioned 
 testimonials of that disinterested friendship, which is 
 "not a plant of hasty growth." As I write these 
 lines, the names of the living throng too thickly to be 
 enumerated, but those of the dead, — Jonathan Hune- 
 well, Benjamin Russell, Joseph Lovering, Thomas 
 W. Sumner, Henry Purkitt, Jonathan Harrington, 
 Gerry Fairbanks, Gedney King, John Cotton, Daniel 
 Messinger, — 
 
 Friends my soul with joy remembers ! 
 
 How like quivering flames they start, 
 When I fan the living embers 
 
 On the hearth-stone of my heart ! 
 
 Of the Bunker-Hill Monument Association I was 
 three years the first vice-president, and succeeded the 
 late Hon. William Prescott as president, to which office 
 1 was re-elected for ten successive years. In all this 
 time, my exertions to procure the funds necessary to 
 
230 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 complete that imposing memorial of the patriotism of 
 our fathers, were incessant, and performed at the ex- 
 pense of time, which might have been more profitably 
 but not more honorably employed. It is gratifying to 
 my pride to know that during this period the means 
 were obtained, and the monument finished. Its com- 
 pletion was splendidly celebrated on the seventeenth 
 of June, 1843. 
 
 By the favor of the Middlesex Agricultural Society 
 I was three years vice-president, and two years the 
 president of that institution, and delivered the anni- 
 versary address at their Cattle Show and Fair in 1845. 
 While holding these offices, I was also chairman of 
 the committee on farms, and wrote the annual reports 
 required by law from agricultural societies. 
 
 In the years 1828, 1831, 1832, and 1833, I was a 
 representative in the Legislature, from the city of 
 Boston ; and, in 1836, 1838, and 1839, held the same 
 office by election of the town of Cambridge. In 1847, 
 1848, 1850, and 1851, 1 was a senator from the county 
 of Middlesex, — making, in all, eleven terms of ser- 
 vice in the Legislature. Of the manner, in which the 
 delegated duties of a representative and a senator 
 were executed, it does not become me to speak ; but 
 it is no offence against delicacy to say, that the Re- 
 ports I wrote, — introducing an act for the suppression 
 of lotteries, in 1833; — an act establishing a bounty 
 on the cultivation of wheat, in 1838; — an act to 
 establish the Massachusetts Academy of Agriculture ; 
 and Resolves concerning the Mexican War, in 1848; 
 — and Resolves concerning Slavery, in 1851, are 
 matters on which Memory and Reflection produce no 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 231 
 
 paroxysm of self-reproach, of shame or regret. All 
 these reports, and several others from committees of 
 which I was honored with the position of chairman, 
 may be found among the printed documents of the 
 Legislature. 
 
 The Report on Lotteries cost me many hours labor.* 
 It began with a* brief statement of the proceedings of 
 the British Parliament in regard to their suppression, 
 and of the action of several state legislatures, and 
 declared that " Massachusetts ought not to be in the 
 rear of any of her cotemporaries, in any project of 
 reformation or improvement. She owes it to the char- 
 acter of her Pilgrim Fathers, the Saints and Sages of 
 
 * Some reader may feel interest enough in this subject to inquire into the 
 origin of this movement in the Legislature. For several years previous to 1833, 
 an opinion was generally prevalent that lotteries were a great and increasing 
 evil, and many schemes had been proposed for regulating the sale of tickets 
 by licenses. The mischief, however, continued to increase, and several in- 
 stances were known of clerks having defrauded their employers, to procure 
 the means of speculating in tickets. In February, 1833, during the session of 
 the Legislature, a person of the age of thirty-five years, who had been employed 
 in a mercantile house in Boston, whose integrity and ability were so much 
 relied on, that he had been placed for ten years in the station of book-keeper 
 and treasurer, became a victim to the temptation of gaining by lotteries ; and 
 having consumed all his own property, and in the short space of eight months 
 contrived to defraud his employers of eighteen thousand dollars, which was 
 lost in the same traffic, — excited by the terrors of guilt, he committed suicide. 
 Knowing these facts, and being then a member of the House of Representatives, 
 I moved for a " committee to inquire whether any alterations are expedient in 
 the laws for the suppression of the sale of lottery tickets." The motion was 
 adopted, and the committee had leave to " report by bill or otherwise." The 
 next day a message was received from the Governor, enclosing a memorial 
 from certain citizens of Boston, which was read and referred to the committee 
 " on the subject of lotteries." The memorial recited the facts above-stated in 
 regard to the suicide, and earnestly prayed that " measures might be taken to 
 propose to the proper authorities, in all the states of the Union, the absolute 
 and entire abolition of lotteries," &c. &c. This memorial was signed by Will- 
 iam Sullivan, James Read, Charles Tappan, Abbott Lawrence, Stephen Fair- 
 banks, Gustavus Tuckerman, William Sturgis, and Charles Sprague. 
 
232 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 a departed age, — she owes it to the present generation 
 of her children, as an exertion of prudent and affection- 
 ate solicitude for the improvement of its virtue and the 
 security of its happiness, to assume a firm and digni- 
 fied position, and stretch forth the arm of her authority 
 to arrest the progress of this moral pestilence." After 
 giving a sketch of the proceedings in* the Municipal 
 Court, and the number of indictments found by the 
 grand jury for violation of the lottery laws, and a de- 
 scription of some of the modes adopted by the dealer 
 in tickets to evade the laws, the report proceeded to 
 analyze the offence, and to consider what remedies 
 could be adopted. To the question, What is the 
 offence ? the report answered, — 
 
 1. It is gaming. This is against the policy of society, and 
 there are few civilized nations that have not adopted means to 
 restrain or entirely prohibit it ; because it is seeking property 
 for which no equivalent is to be paid; and because it leads 
 directly to losses and poverty, and, by exciting bad passions, 
 is the fruitful original of vice and crime. 
 
 2. It is the worst species of gaming, because it brings adroit- 
 ness, cunning, experience, and skill, to contend against igno- 
 rance, folly, distress, and desperation. It can be carried on to 
 an indefinite and indefinable extent without exposure ; and, b) r 
 a mode of settling the chances by " combination numbers," — 
 an invention of the modern school of gambling, — the fate of 
 thousands and hundreds of thousands may be determined by 
 a single turn of the wheel. 
 
 3. Lotteries, in their best and least questionable character, 
 proceed upon the ground that ninety adventurers in a hundred 
 must lose, in order that ten may acquire, in different proportions, 
 and in cases, too, in which none have a right to acquire. 
 
 4. Lotteries, like other games of chance, are seductive and 
 infatuating. Every new loss is an inducement to a new 
 adventure ; and, filled with vain hopes of recovering what is 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 233 
 
 lost, the unthinking victim is led on, from step to step, till he 
 finds it impossible to regain his ground, and he gradually 
 sinks into a miserable outcast ; or, by a bold and still more 
 guilty effort, plunges at once into that gulf where he hopes 
 protection from the stings of conscience, a refuge from the 
 reproaches of the world, and oblivion from existence. 
 
 Considered as a means to unfair and fraudulent dealing, 
 lotteries are to be classed with those crimes, by which one 
 man is cheated out of his property by another. AVhen lotteries 
 are entirely fictitious, the offence of selling a ticket, purport- 
 ing to have been issued by authority, and signed by some one, 
 who purports from the signature to be authorized to sign, is 
 equivalent, in the opinion of the committee, to forgery, and 
 no reason, it is believed, can be shown, why the offence should 
 not be punished as a forgery. 
 
 If we consider the dealing in lottery tickets as a calling or 
 employment, so far as the venders are concerned, it deserves to 
 be treated, in legislation, as those acts are, which are done to 
 get money by making others suffer ; to live upon society by 
 making a portion of its members dishonest, idle, poor, vicious 
 and criminal. Considered in relation to those who are thus ope- 
 rated upon, by the effect of lottery dealing, and most especially 
 those who may be defrauded by the operation, they are entitled 
 to be protected against themselves, by removing the temptation 
 to do wrong. In the opinion of the committee, there is a legis- 
 lative power in the commonwealth, which, in these respects, 
 might be usefully exerted, and they respectfully ask if the time 
 has not arrived when such power should be exerted ? In its 
 character and consequences, the dealing in lottery tickets is 
 the worst species of gaming, and deserves a severer punishment 
 than any fine would amount to. If it involves the moral and 
 legal offences of fraud and cheating, does it not deserve an 
 infamous punishment, if any fraudulent acquisition of mere 
 property should be punished with infamy? Considered in its 
 complicated wrongs to society, it certainly deserves the severest 
 punishment, because it makes infamous criminals out of inno- 
 cent persons, and visits severe afflictions on parents, employ- 
 ers, family connections, and others, who, in this respect, have 
 
234 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 done no wrong themselves ; and thus the innocent are made 
 to suffer for the guilty, — an anomaly which is revolting to all 
 our notions of justice, and to all the moral and natural sympa- 
 thies of mankind. 
 
 The report then proceeded to consider the remedies, 
 — influence of public opinion and penal laws. Public 
 opinion could not be regulated by law, and the penal- 
 ties and punishments which the report proposed, were 
 embraced in a bill which was presented with it. In 
 regard to the penalties, the report said, — 
 
 There would seem to be a propriety in a classification of 
 penalties, ranging from a heavy fine, and imprisonment for 
 non-payment, up to sentence to the state-prison. If a half- 
 starved, miserable wretch, who steals a piece of goods to cover 
 his nakedness, or perhaps an article of food to keep a family 
 from starving, must go the state-prison, what ought to be done 
 with him who aids and entices a youth to abuse the confidence 
 reposed in him by his employer ; to ruin his own character ; 
 to fill with inexpressible agony the bosoms of his father and 
 mother ; to bring shame and reproach on the nearest and dear- 
 est connections in life ; to break and rend asunder the sympa. 
 thies and affections of humanity ; to heap vice upon folly, and 
 crime upon vice ; to add to theft forgery, and to forgery rob- 
 bery, and to robbery suicide : to dig a grave for the body, and 
 to send the soul to its awful account, where no human eye can 
 discover the result, but all is left to the horrible imaginings of 
 a guilty conscience, and the unutterable fears attendant upon 
 the consciousness of abused faculties, perverted privileges, and 
 successive violations of the laws of God ? 
 
 On the question, Whether public opinion would 
 sanction severer penalties than the law already im- 
 posed, the report continued, — 
 
 The public sentiment, at the present moment, is highly 
 excited in regard to lotteries. While it would be improper to 
 suffer the indignant feelings of an outraged and insulted com- 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 235 
 
 munity, to influence the action of a discreet and sober Legisla- 
 ture, it would yet be unwise for such a Legislature to neglect 
 to avail itself of even a temporary excitement, to effect a per- 
 manent good. Neither justice nor policy would interpose to 
 prevent the passage of a salutary statute, merely because cir- 
 cumstances had conspired to show its necessity. The passion 
 for gaming seems to be common to a great portion of the 
 human family, in every age and country. Traffic in lottery 
 tickets is but one species of it ; and if all good citizens could 
 be persuaded to discountenance the practice, and to unite their 
 efforts to prosecute offenders, the evil, no doubt, would be 
 greatly lessened, if not wholly corrected. It is the business of 
 the Legislature to encourage such as are willing to undertake 
 so unpopular a task to persevere in the cause, and, by judicious 
 and constitutional provisions, to accelerate the progress of re- 
 formation, and secure the final accomplishment of the purpose 
 in view. 
 
 The committee are constrained to dissent from the opinion 
 of the attorney-general, that the penalties are sufficiently 
 severe. One hundred dollars is now the highest fine that can 
 be imposed. From information obtained incidentally, during 
 an official investigation by a public notary, it cannot be doubted 
 that the yearly traffic in lottery tickets, in the city of Boston 
 alone, amounts to more than one million of dollars, and on 
 this, provided the tickets are genuine, and truly what they 
 purport to be, a commission is allowed to the wholesale broker 
 of twenty-five per cent, amounting, in the whole sum, to 
 $250,000. Now, supposing there should be forty of these 
 wholesale dealers, (though, in fact, there is not supposed to be 
 half that number,) each of them would be in the receipt of an 
 annual income of $6250. Admitting, then, that either of them 
 should be fined twenty times in a year to the utmost limit of 
 the existing statute, he would still get $4250 by his trade j a 
 sum larger than the salary of the Governor, the Chief Justice, 
 or any other officer of the state government, and equal to that 
 of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. Very 
 few of our most prosperous and enterprizing merchants can 
 count upon such an aggregate of annual profit. If the penalties 
 
236 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 were doubled, the lottery dealer would still run the hazard, 
 and continue, in defiance of laws and courts, and prosecuting 
 attorneys, to follow a gainful occupation. 
 
 The bill reported by the committee was elaborately 
 drawn and submitted to the criticism and final revision 
 of William Sullivan and Charles G. Loring. It passed 
 with but very slight alterations, after great deliberation 
 in both branches, and was introduced into the Revised 
 Statutes, where it remains as one of the unchanged 
 laws of the commonwealth. 
 
 In the legislative session of 1848, I was chairman of 
 a joint committee,* to which was referred so much of 
 the Governor's address at the opening of the session, 
 as related to the existing war between the United States 
 and Mexico, and made a report, from which the follow- 
 ing is an extract, which received the cordial assent of 
 all the members of the committee, except one. It was 
 adopted in the Senate without debate or a dissenting 
 voice, and in the House of Representatives by a vote 
 nearly unanimous : — 
 
 That all wars, of whatever nature, are to be deplored as 
 national calamities, — impoverishing the public treasury, de- 
 feating the promise of industrious enterprize, diminishing the 
 substance of the laboring classes, wasting human life, and 
 carrying misery and desolation to the homes of thousands, 
 that would otherwise be happy ; that they are productive only 
 of evil to the body politic, by depressing the standard of 
 morals, encouraging a pernicious passion for military glory, 
 
 * Like all joint committees of the Massachusetts Legislature, this consisted 
 of seven members, — two of the Senate and five of the House of Representa- 
 tives. On this occasion my colleague of the Senate was Mr A. D. Foster, of 
 Worcester. The members from the House of Representatives were Messrs 
 Giles of Boston, Stevens of Andover, Kendall of Townsend, Hubbard of Sun- 
 derland, and Peck of Mendou. Mr. Kendall dissented. 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 237 
 
 extinguishing the higher sympathies of human nature, and 
 creating a thirst for the enjoyment, by conquest, of something 
 which cannot be obtained by milder methods, — are propo- 
 sitions which, it is presumed, few or none will have the 
 hardihood to deny. It is an alarming evidence of the exist- 
 ence of a spirit of despotism, when rulers are eager to rush 
 into war. It is a proof that force has usurped the prerogative 
 of reason, when the sword is employed to settle misunder- 
 standings, and the cannon to reconcile differences of opinion. 
 
 An offensive war is a war of aggression ; and whatever may 
 have been the popular sentiment in the age of chivalry, or 
 even in days not far remote from the recollection of the present 
 generation, a war of aggression is not in accordance with the 
 spirit of the present age A nation, which commences such 
 a war, for the purpose of acquiring territory, or obtaining 
 privileges rightfully in the possession of another nation, 
 assumes a fearful responsibility j and the committee are 
 unable to perceive that the moral character of an action under- 
 goes any essential change, whether it be the act of an indi- 
 vidual or a nation j nor do they perceive how magistrates and 
 legislators, when they carry on wars of aggression, can be 
 absolved from the guilt, or escape the moral retribution, that 
 await the individual perpetrator of a similar crime. 
 
 A defensive war is of a different character. Far be it from 
 the committee to denounce as unjustifiable a war to repel in- 
 vasion, or to obtain or secure an unquestionable right. No 
 moral obligation requires a nation or an individual to sub- 
 mit to spoliation, oppression, or violence, without resistance. 
 Neither nature nor religion, neither reason nor instinct, pro- 
 hibits a resort to force for purposes of self-defence, — to protect 
 our country, our homes, and our kindred, — or to secure that 
 freedom and independence, which are the rightful property of 
 every human being. 
 
 Is the war, in which our country is now engaged with 
 Mexico, a war of defence, or is it a war of aggression ? 
 
 The solution of this problem may be obtained by reference 
 to facts. The committee would not assail, with language 
 severe or disrespectful, the acts or declarations of the Chief 
 
238 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 Magistrate of the Union ; but it is a fact, too notorious to be 
 kept out of sight in this report, that the causes he has assigned 
 for the commencement and prosecution of hostilities on the 
 acknowledged territory of Mexico, have been shown to be 
 groundless or frivolous. This was elaborately demonstrated 
 in the paper accompanying the resolutions adopted by our 
 predecessors in 1847, and to which the committee have before 
 alluded. On the present occasion, it is deemed necessary only 
 to reaffirm the facts, and adopt the conclusions, so ably and 
 irrefutably set forth in that document. 
 
 Passing over the alleged causes for beginning the war, it will 
 be observed, that the President proposes to continue it, to obtain 
 indemnification for all the expenses incurred by our govern- 
 ment in its prosecution. The committee are of opinion that 
 this motive cannot be justified, on any principle hitherto ad- 
 mitted in any acknowledged code of national ethics. They 
 are aw^are that what is called the law of nations is of a nature 
 so elastic and flexible, that the Strong may always find in it 
 an apology for preying upon the Weak j but it is believed 
 that history furnishes no example to illustrate the principle 
 involved in this claim for indemnification, from Mexico, for 
 the blood and treasure it has cost us to invade her territory, 
 to take possession of her sea-ports, to batter down her castles, 
 to burn her towns, to butcher her people, and to convert her 
 fruitful fields and smiling villages into scenes of mourning, 
 desolation, and wo. The committee have found no language 
 sufficiently expressive of their detestation of this novel doc- 
 trine ; and, had it not been promulgated more than once 
 from the highest authority in the nation, they would suppose 
 it to have been presented in derision of all the avowed causes 
 of the war. 
 
 One of the purposes declared by the President for pushing 
 on the war with relentless vigor is " to conquer a peace!" 
 The absurdity of the phrase is palpable, and is paralleled by 
 nothing buj the atrocious inhumanity of the sentiment. In 
 the ordinary acceptation of words, "to conquer a peace" 
 would be to carry on eternal warfare, to banish peace from 
 the earth, and to establish the reign of perpetual, unappease- 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 239 
 
 able discord. Peace has already been conquered in Mexico, 
 and expelled from her territory. Miserably poor and feeble, 
 she has not the power to repel aggression. Submission is all 
 that is left her j but submission is not peace ; or, if the ces- 
 sation of active resistance, when the capacity to resist no 
 longer remains, should be called by that holy name, it is such 
 a peace as exists between the parties, when the lamb ceases 
 to struggle under the paw of the lion, — when the dove has 
 done fluttering in the grasp of the vulture. That it is such a 
 peace, which our government proposes to make with Mexico, 
 there is some cause to apprehend, if there be not too much 
 evidence to admit of doutt or disbelief. 
 
 Neither can the committee doubt or disbelieve that it is the 
 intention of the authors of the war, and of those who are in 
 favor of continuing it, to pursue the career of conquest for 
 the acquisition of territory, and to acquire territory whereon 
 to extend, establish, and perpetuate the institution of slavery. 
 This has been denied by some, but by others has been openly 
 and frankly avowed ; and the general tone of the press, 
 throughout that region where the institution already exists 
 and is cherished as one of the vital elements of social happi- 
 ness and prosperity, but too plainly indicates that the current 
 of popular sentiment flows in that direction. The acquisition 
 of territory for such a purpose, the committee are confident, is 
 a project that can never find favor with the majority of the 
 people of Massachusetts. They will not avail themselves of 
 this occasion to descant on the immoral effects of slavery ; its 
 grievous injustice to those who are condemned to wear its 
 fetters ; its infringement of the precepts of the Christian 
 religion, or its cruel violation of the plainest dictates of hu- 
 manity. These views of slavery and its effects they leave to 
 be discussed by others, on occasions more pertinent to their 
 consideration, and ask the attention of the Legislature only to 
 the political consequences of the extension of slavery over an 
 immense region, which, at no very remote period, may be 
 annexed to the United States, so divided and arranged as to 
 form as many states as now compose our Union, each equal 
 in extent of territory, and eventually in population, to this 
 
240 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 commonwealth. Should such an event take place, — and the 
 children may be already born who may witness its occurrence, 
 
 — the free states can no longer be called free ; — a large 
 majority of the senators of Congress, if not of the representa- 
 tives, will be slaveholders, able and willing to enact such 
 laws, and to provide such executioners of their laws, as would 
 secure and perpetuate the enjoyment of their favorite " pe- 
 culiar institution," and to impose on the free states restrictions 
 on commercial and social intercourse, — perhaps on political 
 relations, on legislation and jurisprudence, — to which no 
 remedy could be applied but dissolution of the Union. In 
 this view of the subject, without extending their remarks to 
 the naked question of "no more territory," the committee, 
 feeling the deep responsibility of their position, believe it to 
 be the solemn duty of this Legislature, — in the name of our 
 sainted fathers, who promulgated the self-evident truth, that 
 all men are created equal, and endowed with the inalienable 
 right of life, liberty and property, — in the name of the sages, 
 who composed our own venerated bill of rights, which affirms 
 that all men are bom free and equal, and entitled to the enjoy- 
 ment of life, liberty and property, — in the awful and sacred 
 name of Jehovah, who has declared that he made of one 
 blood all the nations that dwell on the face of the earth, — to 
 protest against the institution of slavery on a single inch of 
 territory that may, hereafter, in any manner be acquired, and 
 annexed to these United States. 
 
 And the committee deem it the duty of the Legislature 
 further to protest against the continued prosecution of this 
 war. In the name of justice, which is one of the highest 
 attributes of the Almighty ; in the name of Jesus Christ, 
 who was emphatically the messenger of peace, and who has 
 directed us to do unto others as we would that others should 
 do unto us ; in the name of the people of Massachusetts, who 
 are unwilling that innocent blood should defile their garments, 
 
 — we protest against the further perpetration of a great 
 national crime. We call upon the Congress of the United 
 States to interpose its authority to stop the further expenditure 
 of treasure and blood for purposes of aggression, and to seek, 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 241 
 
 by the exercise of justice, humanity, and magnanimity, that 
 solid peace between two neighbor republics, which Christianity 
 and the spirit of the age demand, and which will be a source 
 of truer glory than any acquisition of treasure or territory, 
 that can result from the present bloody and unnatural con- 
 test. 
 
 And, in conclusion, we call upon our Senators and Repre- 
 sentatives in Congress, to avail themselves of every proper 
 occasion to present to that body a solemn and decided declara- 
 tion of opposition to the war and the extension of slavery, 
 and to do all in their power to maintain the principles herein 
 expressed. • 
 
 In the session of 1851, more than a hundred 
 petitions, signed by about fifty thousand individuals, 
 were presented to the Legislature, praying that body 
 to instruct their Senators and to request their* Repre- 
 sentatives in Congress to use their endeavors to 
 procure a repeal of the u Fugitive Slave Law ; " and 
 nearly an equal number of petitions, praying that 
 further safeguards might be provided to protect the 
 citizens in the enjoyment of their natural rights, 
 were also presented. These petitions, and likewise 
 so much of the Governor's inaugural address as 
 related to the subject of Slavery, were referred to 
 a joint committee, of which I was the chairman.* 
 The labor and the duty of preparing a report, of 
 course, devolved upon me. It was with difficulty 
 that a meeting of a majority of the committee could 
 be obtained, and I believe there was no meeting of all 
 its members at one and the same time. The argu- 
 
 * My associates were Mr. Robinson, the Senator from Essex •, and Messrs. 
 Colby of Boston, Claflin of Hopkinton, Whitney of Conway, Churchill of 
 Pitts field, and Bennet of Ilubbardston, members of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 VOL. II. 16 
 
242 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 ment in the report, for a part of which I am happy 
 to acknowledge my indebtedness to a friend, was not 
 approved unanimously by the committee, though all 
 consented that it should be offered to the Senate. 
 The following extracts from the report are sufficient 
 to show its character ; and I wish that the sentiments 
 herein expressed may be known wherever my hum- 
 ble name may be repeated. There is not a word 
 that I wish obliterated. The consciousness of its 
 truth I shall enjoy while consciousness remains, and 
 let my fidelity to its truth be u remembered in my 
 
 epitaph. v 
 
 i 
 
 All men owe absolute allegiance to the law of God, which is, 
 in its nature, a universal rule of conduct for mankind, laid 
 down by Him. It belongs to the nature of man and the nature 
 of God, and derives its sanction and validity therefrom. It is, 
 accordingly, the higher law, and so the standard of all other 
 laws. Its design is to promote the welfare of all mankind in 
 general, and of each man in particular. 
 
 Human law is, in its nature, a special rule of conduct for 
 the people by whom it is enacted, and derives its origin and 
 acquires its sanction solely from the consent of that people who 
 are to be governed thereby. The just design of human law is, 
 in general, to promote the welfare of the nation for which it is 
 made, the welfare of all, and also of each. Its design, there- 
 fore, is in special, twofold ; namely, its first and primary design 
 is to protect the person in all his natural rights, with all that 
 pertains to those rights ; the next and secondary design is, 
 to protect his property, with all that rightly pertains thereto. 
 These two objects comprise all the functions of human law j 
 for the protection of the substance of manhood and the attri- 
 butes thereof, of person and property, necessarily involves the 
 protection of the right to develop both. 
 
 In regard to the law of God, things may be distributed into 
 three classes, namely: — first, such as are absolutely right ; 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 243 
 
 second, such as are absolutely wrong ; and third, such as are 
 neither absolutely right nor absolutely wrong, but morally 
 indifferent. It is moral to do the first, immoral to do the 
 second ; to do the third is neither directly moral nor immoral, 
 but only expedient or inexpedient. 
 
 It is plain that human law cannot alter the natural relations 
 of things, nor make right wrong, or wrong right, or things 
 indifferent either right or wrong. Laws, therefore, are only 
 declaratory of the intentions of the law-makers, who therein 
 lay down a practical rule of conduct, but can no more alter 
 right and wrong, than the mariner can alter the position of the 
 stars by which he steers his vessel. Of course, then, as it is 
 the natural duty of man to do the right and avoid the wrong, 
 it is plain that human law is, morally, valid and obligatory only 
 so far as it declares the right to be the rule of conduct, and is, 
 morally, invalid and of no obligation, just so far as it declares 
 the wrong to be the rule of conduct. Otherwise, allegiance to 
 the state would transcend allegiance to God, and the statutes 
 of men be superior to the eternal law of the infinite God, — a 
 proposition which is absurd in its substance and impious in its 
 form. But if the human statute represents the right, then it is 
 so far identical with the natural law of God, and is accordingly 
 valid and obligatory. Thus human laws derive all their moral 
 validity and obligation from their conformity to the natural 
 law of God ; so natural right or justice is, and ought to be, the 
 ultimate standard-measure of all human laws in general, and 
 to that standard all human laws are amenable. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States is, in its nature, a 
 particular rule of conduct, to be observed in the governing of 
 the people by their officers, legislative, judiciary, and execu- 
 tive ; accordingly, it is a conventional and secondary standard- 
 measure of the laws made by the people. Accordingly, as it 
 is a moral duty that all human laws be made conformable to 
 the right, — else they are morally invalid and void by nature, — 
 so it is a constitutional obligation to make the laws of the 
 United States conformable to the constitution, otherwise they 
 are constitutionally invalid and void by agreement. Laws of 
 the United States are therefore amenable to the constitution. 
 
244: PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 The design of the constitution is thus declared by the people 
 of the United States in the preamble to that document, namely : 
 " To form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure do- 
 mestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote 
 the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- 
 selves and our posterity." 
 
 These words, which thus state the design, seem to be the 
 constitutional standard-measure of all other provisions of the 
 constitution itself; for the end aimed at is one thing, the 
 means to obtain that end another. This design is identical 
 with that of the law of God and of all just human law, only 
 some of the particulars which belong to human welfare are 
 distinctly specified in the preamble. 
 
 The constitution then proceeds to lay down certain particular 
 rules of conduct for the nation in organizing its ideas into insti- 
 tutions, and for administering those institutions. Some of these 
 provisions or particular rules conform to the law of God, and 
 to the general design of human laws and the special design of 
 the constitution. Some are inconsistent with all these. Your 
 committee respectfully set forth, that they are decided in their 
 conviction, that the institution of slavery, as it existed in the 
 confederated colonies at the adoption of the constitution, and 
 has ever since unhappily continued to survive, is utterly incon- 
 sistent with the natural law of God, with the general desisn of 
 all just human laws, and with the special design of the consti- 
 tution as set forth in the preamble thereto, as it is notorious 
 that this institution is, and has ever been, inconsistent with the 
 express words of the Declaration of Independence. But though 
 the committee have no hesitation in declaring their conviction 
 that the provisions in the constitution, sustaining slavery, di- 
 rectly conflict with the natural duty which men owe to their 
 fellow-men, and with the natural allegiance which all men 
 owe to the divine law, yet they do not forget their obligations 
 to the constitution, and their allegiance to their country and 
 the government which it has established. If these provisions 
 sustaining slavery be complied with, and the compliance be 
 enforced by penal laws, it should be distinctly stated that the 
 compliance is rendered, not because it is morally right, but 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 245 
 
 because it is technically legal ; nay, technically legal while it 
 was absolutely wrong, and contrary to the avowed design of the 
 constitution as set forth in the preamble. And though the 
 citizen may, by the conventional rules of society, be excused 
 for obedience to unjust laws ; though individuals may believe it 
 patriotic to assist in carrying into effect such laws, yet those who 
 enact them, and enforce a compliance by penalties, from which 
 no citizen who violates them can hope to escape, and those also 
 who volunteer in the execution of them, will hardly be acquit- 
 ed before that Tribunal, which ultimately deals out retribution 
 according to the law which every intelligent man feels to be 
 divine, irrevocable, and eternal. 
 
 The Fugitive Slave Law is, in its nature, a special rule of 
 conduct, to be followed in reducing to slavery certain persons 
 alleged to have fled from it, and for punishing such as aid them 
 in their escape. Its design is, primarily, to reduce men to 
 slavery ; that is, to remove them from the condition of men to 
 the condition of mere chattels ; and, secondarily, to punish all 
 such as aid them to remain in the condition of men, and hinder 
 them from being forced into the condition of mere chattels. 
 
 Your committee cannot resist the conclusion that this law, 
 in its nature and design, is, in general, plainly hostile to the 
 law of God, and to the design of all just human law. We 
 regard the Fugitive Slave Law, therefore, as morally, — not 
 legally, but morally, invalid and void ; and though binding on 
 the conduct, no more binding on the conscience of any man than 
 a law would be, which should command the people to enslave 
 all the tall men or all the short men, and deliver them up on 
 claims, to be held in bondage forever ; for the committee can 
 see no moral difference between enslaving a white man and a 
 black one, or a fugitive and one always free. 
 
 But this law is also plainly at variance with the design of the 
 constitution, as set forth in its own language before quoted. To 
 us the whole statute appears unconstitutional, not merely tech- 
 nically and in its details, but unconstitutional universally and 
 in the highest degree, as tending to defeat the purposes of the 
 constitution itself. On this point, however, we will not dwell. 
 
246 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 But the committee regard the Fugitive Slave Law, not only 
 as unconstitutional in general, and with regard to its design, 
 but specially, as compared with some of the provisions of the 
 constitution itself. 
 
 I. It subjects the people to " unreasonable searches and 
 seizures," and thus violates their "right to be secure in their 
 persons ; " for any man may be arrested on the affidavit of any 
 other man swearing that he is a slave, and be sent into bondage 
 by the act of a single commissioner. We have already seen 
 free men thus seized and hurried off to slavery. 
 
 II. It annuls and makes useless " the privilege of the writ of 
 habeas corpus." We learn from the opinion of the attorney- 
 general that it does not do this inform, but it does it substan- 
 tially, and in fact. 
 
 III. It takes away " the right of trial by jury" from the 
 alleged fugitive, and that in a matter of the greatest import- 
 ance, thus depriving him of liberty, which is of more value 
 than property or life, " without due process of law." The 
 fugitive is not tried for his liberty " by his peers or the law of 
 the land," but before a single commissioner, who does not, 
 like the jury, represent the "country," the people with their 
 human sympathy towards men and their personal duty towards 
 God ; but who is a mere official agent of government, repre- 
 senting only the will of the men in power, whose creature he 
 is, and at whose caprice he may be removed. 
 
 Then, too, as if this were not enough, the trial must be 
 conducted in a " summary manner." The committee will not 
 undertake to point out what a " summary manner " is, but 
 they submit that it is not " due process of law j " for, without 
 repeating what they have before said, the trial of an issue so 
 important is not necessarily a public one, but the commis- 
 sioner may try the alleged fugitive in the cellar of his house 
 and at midnight, allowing the miserable man no counsel to 
 aid him, and with no witness but the slave-hunter and the 
 officials and creatures of government. Even this is not all. 
 For, 
 
 IV. The commissioner is not a man vested by the constitu- 
 tion, as cited above, with "the judicial power of the United 
 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 247 
 
 States j " he is not a "judge," holding office "during good 
 behavior," but only a commissioner, removable at the pleasure 
 of the men who appointed him. Nor is this all ; but the law, 
 not content with subjecting the alleged fugitive to "unreason- 
 able seizure," with depriving him, substantially, of the benefit 
 of " the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" withholding 
 "the right of trial by jury," by "due process of law," and 
 before the "judicial power of the United States," goes further, 
 and offers a bribe to the commissioner to decide against liberty 
 and in favor of bondage. The act gives to the commissioner 
 an incitement to decide against his victims, by offering him a 
 "fee of ten dollars," if he enslaves his victim; and only 
 a "fee of five dollars," if he decides the other way! To the 
 committee this provision appears atrocious ; it holds out a 
 premium for legal wickedness. We are amazed that any one 
 should deem it constitutional. It would be a parallel in legis- 
 lation to provide that, in capital trials, the judges should have 
 a hundred dollars a-piece for each man they should hang, and 
 only fifty, when the man should be acquitted, and that the 
 jury should also be paid twice as much for the men they found 
 guilty as for those they found not guilty. 
 
 These are the chief constitutional objections, which the 
 committee bring against the law ; but beside these, we think 
 it needlessly severe in other particulars against the alleged 
 fugitive, and such as allow him the smallest shelter. It pro- 
 vides, that if any one " shall aid, abet, or assist such a person, 
 so owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, 
 to escape from such claimant," " he shall, for either of said 
 offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand 
 dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months," and 
 "shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages," 
 "the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost." 
 We are astonished at such .penalties denounced against an act 
 of mercy, which common humanity prompts, and religion 
 commands. 
 
 But leaving these and all the previous objections to this 
 law, the committee are of the opinion that Congress has no 
 constitutional power to legislate on this matter. The power 
 
248 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 of Congress to make this law, and the previous act of 1793, 
 is claimed under the following provision of the constitution : — 
 "No person held to service or labor in one state under the 
 laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of 
 any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service 
 or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
 whom such service or labor is due." We will refer to but a 
 single ambiguity; — by whom shall he "be delivered up"? 
 It must be, first, by the people acting jointly or severally ; or 
 secondly, by the state to which he has escaped ; or, thirdly, 
 by the federal government. The Supreme Court has decided 
 in favor of the federal government ; but the committee think 
 that this function of delivering up constitutionally belongs to 
 the individual states to which the fugitive may have escaped. 
 The committee are happy to have on their side the opinion of 
 so celebrated an " Expounder of the Constitution," as Mr. 
 Webster, who says, in his speech of March 7, 1850, — "I 
 always thought that the constitution addressed itself to the 
 legislatures of the states, or to the states themselves." "It 
 seems to me that the import of the passage is, that the state 
 itself shall cause him [the fugitive] to be delivered up." 
 
 The committee find the same opinion, in a report made by 
 the committee on the judiciary of the House of Representa- 
 tives of Massachusetts, in 1837, which says, — "That no 
 general authority upon the subject of slavery, or upon a sub- 
 ject which shall draw this after it as an incident, is any where 
 given to the general government." 
 
 Considering this law as unjust in its nature, wrong in its 
 principle, hostile to the designs of all just human laws, deem- 
 ing it in the highest degree unconstitutional, in general and 
 in detail, we do not hesitate to declare that we consider it an 
 infamous and wicked statute, a law not fit to be made and not 
 fit to be kept. It is a disgrace to .the age we live in, a re- 
 proach to the nation which glories in the name of democracy, 
 and a foul shame to the people that profess a religion, whose 
 great practical rule of conduct is, "To do unto others as we 
 wish them to do to us." Your committee lack time, as well 
 as language, to express the abhorrence and loathing which 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 249 
 
 they feel for this law. Yet it is a lam of the land, not officially 
 declared unconstitutional. Unconstitutional, as we believe it, 
 inhuman and wicked, as it unquestionably is, it is still a law, 
 and forcible resistance to it is a legal misdemeanor. Its 
 results are most disastrous. The innocent citizens, who have 
 fled from bondage, and found a home and reared families 
 among us, are forced to flee, and to seek in a monarchy an 
 asylum from the injustice and cruelty of a republic! They 
 flee for liberty from America to England! A queen's diadem 
 protects Christian men from the slave-driver's whip, tender 
 women from a master's lust, and new-born babes from his 
 thirst for gold. The slave-hunter profanes the soil of Massa- 
 chusetts, seeking whom he may devour. His presence spreads 
 terror among the colored people of our state. He is a hawk 
 among doves, — a wolf, a hyena, among lambs. It is with 
 deep mortification your committee confess that persons are 
 found in this city, who consent to sell their professional ser- 
 vices to the base purpose of enslaving men j — that among 
 them are found persons whom this commonwealth has honored 
 with the commission of justice of the peace, who trample 
 under foot our own constitution, in their efforts to enforce this 
 wicked law. We confess we deem it no less a crime against 
 nature and humanity to enslave a fugitive than to steal a free 
 man. To our judgement, the illegal kidnapper on the coast 
 of Africa, and the legal man-hunter in Boston, belong to the 
 same class of felons. They differ, however, specifically, and 
 we think the native species far worse than the foreign felon, 
 whom all Christian governments, and our own among the 
 number, have denounced as a pirate. We say this advisedly. 
 We have studied the action, have analyzed its motives, and 
 have examined its excuse. But while we gladly fold the 
 mantle of charity over the shame of men, whom poverty and 
 ignorance conduct to crime, we can find no palliation for the 
 hideous spectacle of citizens of Massachusetts, and even offi- 
 cers in her service, in the very city of the Pilgrims, seeking 
 to enslave a man. Let us turn off our eyes from a spectacle 
 so ghastly and disgraceful. 
 
250 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 The report then presented the substance of certain 
 resolutions, adopted by the Legislature in 1839, 1840, 
 1847, 1849, 1850. Two " Resolves concerning Slav- 
 ery," and " An Act in addition to an Act further 
 to protect personal Liberty," were appended to the 
 report. The resolves declared, — First, "That Mas- 
 sachusetts affirms anew her hostility to slavery and 
 her devotion to the Union ; that, inspired by these 
 cherished sentiments, she longs for harmony among 
 the different parts of our common country ; but she 
 cannot conceal the conviction that this can be finally 
 and permanently secured only by the overthrow of 
 slavery, so far as the same can be constitutionally 
 done, every where within the jurisdiction of the 
 national government ; that the free states may be 
 relieved from all responsibility therefor, so that free* 
 dom, instead of slavery, shall become national, and 
 slavery, instead of freedom, become sectional." And 
 Second, — " That Massachusetts protests against the 
 Fugitive Slave Law as alien to the spirit of the 
 constitution, destructive of rights secured by that 
 instrument, hostile to the sentiments of Christianity, 
 and abhorrent to the feelings of the people of this 
 commonwealth ; that such a law will naturally fail 
 to secure that support in the heart and conscience of 
 the community, without which, any law must, sooner 
 or later, become a dead letter." 
 
 It was contended that the report and the bill in- 
 volved the doctrine of nullification, and that the 
 argument in the report was no better than an attempt 
 to justify treasonable opposition to law, and an apology 
 for acts that would lead to a dissolution of the Union. 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 251 
 
 The report was attacked and commented on with 
 severity by Senators who are entitled to my respect 
 for their intelligence, patriotism, and moral integrity, 
 but whose names, in this connection only, I have no 
 wish to remember. The second resolve was particu- 
 larly objected to, because it declared the Fugitive 
 Slave Law "hostile to the sentiments of Christianity" ! 
 Both bill and resolves were rejected by a considerable 
 majority. 
 
 DEDICATION PREFACE CONCLUSION. 
 
 These volumes are dedicated to my children and to 
 the friends, who, in a time of deep and desponding 
 embarrassment, relinquished claims, which, if enforced, 
 would have made succeeding life a period of hope- 
 less labor: * — To these, the offering is worthless, ex- 
 cept as a testimony of grateful remembrance : — To 
 those, (it is all the legacy I can leave them,) let it be 
 a motive and an admonition : — To all, it is presented 
 with sentiments which none can understand, but those 
 who rejoice in the possession of moral and mental 
 independence, who have felt the power of filial and 
 parental affection, and who know how to estimate the 
 value of a substantial kindness. 
 
 There is nothing in this personal history sufficiently 
 remarkable to interest the public ; and, though not 
 insensible to the voice of public approbation, the 
 coolest reception will produce no murmur of discon- 
 tent, nor cause a pang of disappointment. The chief 
 
 * See page 105 — note. 
 
252 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 purpose of its publication is expressed in the preceding 
 paragraph, and if the publishers should be so fortunate 
 as to obtain indemnification, nothing will remain for 
 me to regret, but the imperfect manner in which my 
 task has been performed. 
 
 In making selections from my own writings, the 
 principal object in view was to exhibit my own opinions, 
 without regard to their correspondence with the opin- 
 ions of others. Many of the articles which, at the 
 time of their publication, produced conflicts with those 
 whom I thought appropriate subjects for criticism, are 
 here presented entire; and, in giving the results of a 
 controversy, I think I have been guiltless of misrepre- 
 sentation of myself or my opponents. Most of the 
 transactions related were of public notoriety, and will 
 be recollected by many of my living cotemporaries, 
 who can detect misrepresentation, if there be any, 
 and expose it to the censure which dissimulation de- 
 serves. The selection embraces many articles that 
 were applauded and many that were condemned 
 when they made their appearance, and such are 
 here reproduced without essential variation. There 
 are some things that I have hated and some that I 
 have despised. Hypocrisy and cant, in all their 
 forms, were always objects of my supreme and immiti- 
 gable hatred. Man-worship and party discipline were 
 alike objects of ineffable contempt. Whenever and 
 wherever I have seen, or thought I saw, that either 
 was a proper subject for the comments of the press, 
 I have written and published what I thought and 
 felt ; and I could no more suppress my opinion, 
 or avoid the expression of it, than I could obstruct 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 253 
 
 the operation of the physical laws of my existence. 
 Perhaps a selection more acceptable to others, and 
 more creditable to my own character, might have been 
 made from the same mass of materials ; but it would 
 have been " from the purpose, which was and is " to 
 exhibit an index of " the mind I sway by and the heart 
 I bear;" — to show that I never adopted popular opin- 
 ions because they were popular, nor shaped the con- 
 clusions of my judgement to suit the whims, or fancies, 
 or even the friendly admonitions, of others; — to place 
 on record some evidences of a resolution to act agree- 
 ably to the dictates of my own understanding, weak 
 and unenlightened though it might be, so that, if the 
 faith that upheld me, should fail, no one should hear 
 me ciy, " Alas, master ! it was borrowed." 
 
 I have been charged with using, in controversy, 
 language more bitter and reproachful than the occasion 
 demanded or justified. If the charge has a substan- 
 tial foundation, there is no escaping from the penalty 
 that awaits the perpetration of the crime ; but my most 
 industrious researches in the English vocabulary have 
 not supplied me with epithets suggestive of the mock- 
 ery and scorn with which I viewed the baseness that 
 truckles to wealth, the meanness that begs a salary 
 from the public manger, and the sublimated awe which 
 obeys the " dog in office." He, who has no aspirations 
 for that temporary and unsubstantial applause which is 
 earned by the sacrifice of personal independence and 
 self-respect, and is* bestowed only as the wages of 
 servility, — who is conscious of the worth of his own 
 moral principles and intellectual freedom, — can afford 
 
254 PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 to be scoffed at and shunned, but he will take especial 
 care that he be not pitied and despised. 
 
 These volumes contain but a very inconsiderable 
 portion of what I have written as an editor. Ample 
 materials exist to fill a dozen of equal size, but no 
 agency of mine will ever redeem them from deserved 
 oblivion. Let them perish with the flimsy texture on 
 which they are impressed. Let them rest u in the dark 
 back-ward and abysm of time.'" I hope and believe that 
 nothing herein contained will tend to revive animosi- 
 ties, the remembrance of which has been lost in the 
 slumber of years, or that will injure the feelings of any 
 individual by recalling matters which Time in his flight 
 will soon place beyond our reach. I would fain believe 
 that, in me, as with the poor Franciscan of Calais,* 
 Nature has done with her resentments, and that, like 
 him, I can let fall the staff within my arm, press my 
 hands with resignation upon my breast, and retire. 
 Heaven grant that I may, for the few brief days that 
 are to come, — 
 
 So live, that when my summons comes to join 
 
 The innumerable caravan that moves 
 
 To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
 
 His chamber in the silent halls of Death, 
 
 I go not, like the quarry slave at night, 
 
 Scourged to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed 
 
 By an unfaltering trust, go to my grave 
 
 Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
 
 About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 
 
 The preparation of these volumes for the press 
 has been the employment of hours, which might other- 
 
 * Sterne's " Sentimental Journey." 
 
PERSONAL MEMOIRS. 255 
 
 wise have been spent in idleness, or in the production 
 of some other folly, weaker or less innocent. It has 
 afforded pleasure, but not pleasure unmingled with 
 sorrowful remembrances. A man, who has lived 
 more than seventy years, and looks back upon the 
 volume of his life, cannot fail to perceive spots on its 
 pages, which no moral chemistry can remove, — 
 records, which he may wish were forgotten, but to 
 which Memory clings with undesired and solemn per- 
 tinacity, and will say to him, — as the angel said to 
 Esdras in the fields of Babylon, — "Go thy way; 
 weigh me the weight of the fire, or measure me the 
 blast of the wind, or call me again the day that is 
 past." 
 
 Covered in Fortune's shade, I rest reclined, 
 
 My griefs all silent and my joys resigned j 
 
 With patient eye life's evening gloom survey, 
 
 Nor shake the out-hastening sands, nor bid their stay ; 
 
 Yet while from life my setting prospects fly, 
 
 Fain would my mind's weak offspring shun to die ; 
 
 Fain would their hope some light through Time explore, — 
 
 Their name's kind passport, — when the man's no more. 
 
 Cambridge, August, 1852. 
 
 END.