[Bacon, George Blagden]
Public spirit in the private citizen, as
in the life ...of Hon.Aaron N. Skinner.
New Haven, 1859.

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PUBLIC SPIRIT

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PRIYATE CITIZEN,

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AS

ILLUSTRATED IN THE LIFE AND SERVICES

HON. AARON N. SKINNER.

From, tlie "New Englander" for A-ugust, 1859

NEW HAVEN:
PRINTED BY THOMAS J. STAFFORD,
1859.

PUBLIC SPIRIT

PEIVATE CITIZEI,

AS

ILLUSTRATED IN THE LIFE AND SERVICES

OF

HON. AARON N. SKINNER.

c r^ 'US

B'rom. the "N"ew Englander" for August, 1859.
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NEW HAVEN:
PRINTED BY THOMAS J. STAFFORD.
1859.

Q.{^%.

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PUBLIC SPIRIT IN THE PRIVATE CITIZEN.

We are reminded, frequently enough perhaps, and with not
a little patriotic eloquence, in legislatures and in caucuses, from
stump, from platform and from newspaper presses, of the rare
privileges which we enjoy as a great, prosperous and self-gov
erning people. Oftener we are reminded of these privileges
than of the duties which correspond to them and are neces
sitated by them. Yet it is no less true that to every one of
these privileges there is attached an unquestionable duty ; nay
even, that the two are intermingled and inseparable, so that,
without its being thus complemented, the one becomes a value
less license, and the other an irksome bondage. The greatest
of all the benefits that our self-government confers on every
individual, is the privilege of a larger sphere of usefulness
which it becomes his duty to occupy.
Ainong the foremost of the duties which such a form of so
ciety creates, is the duty of a generous public spirit. Under a
despotic government, all that can be expected of the subject is,
that he shall sit still and be governed. With plans for the im
provement and welfare of the State or of the community he
has nothing to do. They are not in his power, nor under his
influence. The health, the prosperity, the happiness of the
State are matters to be attended to by Government, with which
an individual intermeddles at his peril. Under such a form of
society, the natural tendency is to inactivity, and to narrow
selfishness. According as the power and responsibility of the
ruler is increased, the spirit of patriotism, of broad philan-

thropy and generosity is repressed and trammeled. A care
that tlie communitj'^ shall be benefited, that the city shall be
beautiful and prosperous, that the State shall receive no detri
ment, is no man's business but the ruler's ; and the expand
ing, liberalizing, dignifying influence of such care and respon
sibility is impossible to the individuals of the "mass.
But in a democratic State, the tendencies should be in the op
posite direction. According as the freedom is more perfect
and the equality of all men more exact, a wider sphere of in
fluence becomes possible to all men. Under such a Govern
ment as ours, for instance, if a plan for public safety, (outside
of the plain routine of ordinary legislation,) for public pros
perity, for the enlightenment of the community, or for the orna
ment of the city is to be devised, it must be by some individual
from among the people ; and it must be by private energy and
zeal surrendered voluntarily to the public welfare, if at all, that
such plan is carried successfully into execution. Is it not the
crowning glory and beauty of a free democracy that, to all men
alike, there is this high privilege of doing something for the
public welfare; and does not, thus, the duty of a hearty public
spirit become imperative to all?
And yet how few there are in our country, at the present
day, who appreciate as they ought and practice as they ought,
this public-mindedness which is at once their privilege and
duty. One cause, perhaps the chief cause, of this deficiency
it is not difficult to detect. It is to be found in the mag
nificent richness of our country, in the unequaled prosperity
which it has enjoyed, and in the consequent national vices by
which we have been distinguished. Never before were fur
nished such inviting opportunities for acquiring wealth.
Never before has the reward of industrious labor seemed so
immediate and certain ; and it is the wholly natural conse
quence of opportunities and temptations like these, that the

selfishness which is sufficiently patent in all men, under the
best circumstances, should be intensified into a mad and
sordid greediness of gain ; — that a thirsty haste for riches
should swallow up, in a great measure, the spirit of private
sacrifice for public good, to which the freedom of our Kepub-
lican Government would otherwise famish occasions and
inducements so unparalleled. The existence of this danger,
and of the evil trait in our national character which grew
out of it, was early discovered by observant minds in other
countries, and is no longer to be hidden from ourselves.
There are not wanting men of patriotic boldnesss and sagacity
to warn us, by their precept and example, lest in prating of
the blessings of our freedom, our prosperity, our greatness,
" We have made them a curse," — "
and to exhort us that more of the noble and generous fruits of
Eepublican freedom should appear among us, to prove the truth
and safety of the principles in which our fathers trusted and
which they labored to establish. There are not wanting in
dications that all the intense and active industry that charac
terizes our nation, (and that has its parallel only in the patient
and laborious industry of the crowded nation at our anti
podes,) is to become tempered with more thoughtfulness, and
to be purified from its hungry, sordid selfishness.
It is because we have recent in our minds the memory of
one who was a singular example of unselfish public spirit, and
because we feel that it is most appropriate and can hardly fail
to be instructive thus to commemorate his valuable services,
that we devote these pages to a view of the public character
of the Hon. Aakon N. Skinnee. When a man becomes con
spicuous by his generous and enlightened efforts for the public
welfare, it is right not only that his memory should live in
the affectionate gratitude of those for whom he labored, but

also that there should be public record made of his services.
Thus the community, by giving expression to its gratitude,
makes it more lively and intense, and thus, perhaps, may
other raen, by seeing his good works, be provoked to culti
vate his spirit.
This one fact should be stated at the outset and should be
borne in mind continually, — that Mr. Skinner was mostly
a private citizen ; that, although from time to time, on occa
sions when there were questions of special public interest,
or duty, to be decided, the confidence and respect of his
fellow citizens called him into stations of authority and trust,
he was not much in what is called public life. He did not
pretend to be a statesman, and certainly he was far from be
ing a politician. The profession to which he devoted his
life was one wliich naturally forbade his joining in the ex
citements and assuming to any great extent the duties of pub
lic office, and which raight easily have excused him for put
ting off', upon others, responsibility and care for the public
interest. It is peculiarly in this view that we wish to notice
his life and character, and to make him an example of how
much a single private citizen, without surrendering his
life solely to the service of society, may do to promote the
happiness and prosperity of the comraunity in which he lives.
Of professional servants of the public with honorable titles
and with well paid salaries, we have enough and to spare.
Here was a man unambitious and unselfish who was public-
spirited in his private life and frora principle, and not because
it was especially his business to be so.
Although we do not propose to give an elaborate biography
of Mr. Skinner, it will be convenient for us, before we atterapt
to set forth and estimate the traits of character which made
him so distinguished and so deservedly honored, to know the
chief facts of his history. We will state then, briefly, that he

was born at Woodstock, in Connecticut, in the year 1800 ; that
he entered the class which graduated at Yale College in 1823,
and took so high a position as a scholar that he was rewarded
with the second honor at commencement. Afterwards he was
appointed a tutor ; and by this official connection with the
college, were strengthened those feelings of affection and vene
ration for the institution by which he was always distinguished.
He studied law and commenced the practice of his profession
in New Haven, with much prospect of eminent success. Soon
after, in addition to the duties of his practice, he took upon
himself those of a teacher, commencing by receiving into his
family a few private pupils. Aa the number of these pupils
increased, and as his own love for teaching grew upon him, he
gradually withdrew from, and finally abandoned wholly his
practice as a lawyer. For the rest of his life, — until a few
weeks before the end of all his labors, he was a practical
school-teacher, — arid so successful as such, that his school long
ranked among the best to be found in the country. On
several occasions during his life as a teacher, he found time to
answer the call of his fellow-citizens and to do them public
service in both branches of the State legislature. And four
years in succession — from 1850 to 1854 — he was chosen Mayor
of New Haven, declining at last to be renominated a fifth
time, and carrying with him into his retirement the almost
unanimous respect and gratitude of the freemen of the city, of
whatever party. In October, 1858, it became evident that his
health, -which had been gradually becoming infirm for some
time, was at last breaking down wholly. Kealizing the fact
that his work was done, he calmlj' set his house in order. He
closed his school, dismissing his young pupils to their horaes,
arranged his affairs, and surrendered, at the call of death, the
declining strength of a manhood which had been always
noble, and was now beginning to be venerable with the cares
of nearly three-score years.

As we call attention to the various schemes for advancing
public interests in New Haven, with which Mr. Skinner was
connected, and to the valuable services which he rendered in
connection with them, it will be noticed that all these were of
a sort not very extraordinary, and the necessity for which is
continually liable to arise in all communities. New Haven
was certainly not singular in feeling the need of such public
services, but was only raost happy in the fact that there was
found a citizen intelligent and generous enough to recognize
and supply that need.
In the spring of 1&40, a proposal was made that the New
Haven burying- ground, — which, as the city increased in size
and importance, was becoming correspondingly populous with
the dead, and gathering about itself the memories and affec
tions of more and more of the living, — should be safely pro
tected frora desecration, and should be liberally improved and
ornamented. This proposed measure was one which was com
mended with great force to Mr. Skinner's favorable regard, —
not only by its own remarkable importance and worthiness,
but also, no doubt, because the burying-ground itself was a
most eloquent and memorable example of the generous pub
lic spirit of one, whose name and meraory should be, always and
to all citizens of New Haven, a sacred incentive to public
duty. Nearly half a century previous, the Honorable Jaraes
Hillhouse had recognized the necessity that the city should
have a burial place ample, and fitted, " by its retired situ
ation, to impress the mind with a solemnity becoming the
repository of the dead." Chiefly in consequence of his intelli
gent zeal for the public good, under his careful supervision,
and largely at his personal expense, the ground had been pur
chased, laid out, and ornamented. In accordance with a plan
which he originated, it was provided that this ground should
be divided into family lots, and that these lots should be

sacredly and inviolably secured forever to the families for
which they were purchased. It ought to be remembered that
the plan of public cemeteries with private lots, which now has
become almost universal in America, and prevails also to a
great extent beyond the water, was here, for the first tirae,
conceived and executed. Under the liberal care which was
bestowed upon it so long as Mr. Hillhouse lived, the New
Haven burying-ground became an honor and an ornament to
the city, and a model deemed by strangers worthy of their
admiration and imitation. But it had fallen of late years into
neglect ; the fences were decayed or had been broken down ;
the ornamental trees and shrubbery had. perished, or were in
sufficient to make it decent and pleasant. It lay
" With scanty grace from Nature's hand,
And none from that of Art;"
instead of being aplace of sad but quiet beauty, it was coming
to be dreary and repulsive. Its influence was tending not to
soothe, but rather to make more bitter the grief with which
the dead were held in memory, and to cast a chill upon the
thoughts of those who otherwise might calmly look upon it as
" God's acre," thinking with the poet,
" Into its furrows shall we all be cast,-
In the sure faith that we shall rise again."
It was liable to desecration and to injury continually.
To some among the citizens of New Haven it was a matter
of conviction,— and to no one more deeply than to Mr. Skin
ner,  that the spirit which would neglect to honor and to
guard the resting place of the dead, was a spirit unchristian
and irreligious, a spirit unworthy of a civilized community.
Accordingly, the subject was publicly discussed and the obvi
ous duty in the case insisted upon, with such success that a
liberal appropriation was obtained from the city, which was

10
largely increased by private subscriptions, and a comraittee, of
which Mr. Skinner was a member, appointed to superintend
the work of improving and protecting the burying-ground.
But in all such public works as this, there is to be encoun
tered the obtuseness of those who fail to see any practical good
resulting from the indulgence of such mere sentimentalism as
would seek to plant the grave with flowers, or shade it with the
willow or the cypress, or fence it carefully frora profane intru
sion. And there must also be expected the niggardliness of
those who will not favor the expenditure of money, except
where it will yield immediate and pecuniary interest. In
singular contrast to such stingy dullness was the conduct of
Mr. Skinner. To him it was not enough that the general plan
of improvement had been determined upon, — that an appro
priation had been made and a committee appointed. The
work, if it was worth doing at all, was worth doing well. It
deraanded the constant supervision of a correct and cultivated
taste. By errors in judgment or in taste, which might easily
occur unless some one should faithfully give to the matter his
time and attention, the expenditure of money and of labor
might be worse than in vain. This constant and unwearied
attention Mr. Skinner devoted to it ; and to hira, more than
to any one else, do the people of New Haven owe it that their
burial-place is a place of serious and holy beauty. No one
who has ever visited it can have failed to notice the singular
appropriateness of the raassive wall and heavy iron fencing
which surrounds it, and of the grave Egyptian architecture of
.the iraposing gateway. The foliage which darkens over it, the
shady lines of young trees frora our forests within it, the shrub
bery and hedges, shut the place in from all the noise of life and
business, and in their living silence guard the silence of the
dead who sleep beneath them. The hand of Christian art,
guided by refined and religious taste, has made of a place

11
which had by nature no special beauty, a resting place for the
dead most solemn, peaceful, and appropriate. We cannot for
bear especially to commend that singular discernment of pro
priety and rare good taste which, from the beginning, never
sought to raake the burying-ground anything else than a place
for burial; which never sought to turn it into a pleasure
ground, with lakes, and woods, and rural drives that should
become the resort of idle, or of wanton people ; which never
sought to hide the soleran sight of graves, nor to dissipate the
serious lessons of mortality, and the sublime lessons of immor
tality, which their presence ought to teach. Surely, in this
respect, the New Haven cemetery is most worthy to be
admired. It is not, and was never meant to be, a place for gay
resort, nor yet for trifling sentimentalism ; but it has become
what Mr. Skinner and his fellow-laborers of the committee
hoped it might be, a place of holy and of soleran influences.
Surely, as the committee said in their report, " he must have
a bad heart who can visit such a spot without reflections calcu
lated to make him a wiser and better man. That community
must be far less moral and enlightened than ours, which will
not be improved by the silent and impressive lessons taught in
such a place."
The invaluable services which Mr. Skinner rendered in con
nection with this great public iraproveraent, were best appre
ciated by those who had the best opportunities of knowing
them. His colleagues of the committee speak of them more
than once in terms of earnest praise. Had it not been for his
constant and gratuitous supervision of the whole work, the
expense of it would unavoidably have been much greater.
The chairman of the committee, the late Professor Olmsted,
referred to Mr. Skimner in the following graceful tribute,
which is taken from an address delivered at the laying of the
corner stone of the burying-ground gateway :

12
" Although the direction of this enterprise has required of
all and each of the committee much time and pains, yet it is
due to trutli and justice to state that to the cultivated taste,
sound judgment and untiring assiduity of one of its members,
(whose name needs no formal mention,) the accomplishment
of the work is peculiarly and emphatically indebted. The
onerous and indispensable duty of superintending its daily
progress has been performed in a raanner which no money
could have secured, by one who has neither expected nor
sought the least requital. Still his disinterested labors will
have their reward: they will receive a requital the most con
sonant of all others to desert like this."
We have dwelt at sorae length on this particular under
taking, which ow^ed its successful execution in such large de
gree to Mr. Skinner, because it illustrates very clearly not only
his disinterested zeal for the public welfare, but also the re
fined and intelligent good taste, and high moral and religious
sense by which that zeal was guided. A like earnestness, con
trolled and guided in like manner, was exhibited in his efforts
for the improvement of the New Haven Green. To this sub
ject he turned his thoughts as soon as his labors for the burying-
ground were ended. Here, too, as in almost all of those plans
for the public good, Avhich occupied his attention, he found
himself following up and imitating the wise public spirit of
former generations. It was a prudent and a generous foresight
which our fathers showed when, in laying out the city which
they founded in the wilderness, they reserved that central
square to be at once a beautiful ornament and a healthful
breathing place for the city, and to be the conspicuous and
honored site of the house of God. Like theirs in generosity
and thoughtful wisdom, but more than theirs in its clear per
ception of the refining and elevating influence of beauty, was
the public spirit which led James Hillhouse to supplement and

13
carry towards perfection the work which they began , which
impelled him to set out those goodly lines of elms, in the rich
beauty of whose shade, all men who pass beneath them, con
sciously or not, rejoice with natural and grateful joy. Of sim
ilar and perhaps equal value were the services that Mr. Skin
ner rendered. This beautiful Green of which the city was so
proud was enclosed by a mean and insufficient wooden fence ;
and it was proposed to substitute for this, a fence more worthy
of the place and raore creditable to the city. A committee,
of which Mr. Skinner was the chairman, and the hard work of
which came in very large measui-e upon him, was appointed to
consider and report upon the subject. The earnest and disin
terested laboriousness with which he devoted himself to it are
worthy of special remark and commendation. He gathered
from all sources, — (for it is no disparagement to the labors of the
other members of the committee to speak of the work as chiefly
his,) — he gathered from all sources a great mass of statistics and
a vast variety of plans and patterns, — compared them carefully
and selected from them, adding improvments which his own
admirable good taste suggested. The result was that the com
mittee were able to recomraend a fence that singularly com
bined both strength and elegance, at a cost so small that it
seemed to many quite incredible. Against the proposal of the
committee there was not a little earnest opposition. To some
it seemed important that the fence should be a high and mas
sive one, and should be built at great expense. To some it
seemed that only a coarse wooden fence should be built, at as
small a cost as possible. Against all these objections, however,
the plan that Mr. Skinner reported was with slight modifica
tions adopted; and to-day it would be difficult to find any one
who does not recognize and admire the simple, elegant beauty
of the fence about the Green. It perfectly protects the place
from injury and is in remarkable accordance with the quiet

14
beauty of the Public Square itself, and of the streets and build
ings about it ; and it is not intrusive and conspicuous either on
the one hand from its costly and ambitious elaborateness, nor
on the other frora its stingy and insufficient meanness. In
view of this and other measures which Mr. Skinner planned
and executed, it may be safely said that no one, since the days
of Mr. Hillhouse, has done so much as he to make the New
Haven Green a constant source of benefit and pleasure to the
citizens who enjoy the glory and the beauty of its shady aisles ;
so much to make its fame deservedly so wide ; so much to
attract and fascinate the admiration of the visitor who comes
for business or for pleasure to the city.
These were among the raore iraportant of the public works
with which Mr. Skinner, simply as a private citizen, busied
himself. But not only thus was he busied. All this while, he
was successfully discharging the duties of his profession, — and
was exerting in ways less conspicuous, a useful infiuence which
still lives after him. So well known and so highly appreciated
was his good taste, that his advice and aid was continually ap
pealed to in regard to the erection of public buildings, and
even by private citizens in regard to their private dwellings.
Continually as he went about the city, he was on the look out
for opportunities to exert himself for the good of the public,
and when he found thera he was prorapt to act.
This notable public-mindedness could not remain wholly un
appreciated by his fellow citizens, and in the year 1850, while
Mr. Skinner was absent from the city, he was, without his
own knowledge or consent, nominated ^nd elected Mayor of
New Haven. If he had been previously consulted, it is
doubtful whether he could have been persuaded to be a
candidate for such a position, because he surely did not need
the incentive of an official name and station to make him
faithful in his public duty, and because the calls which would

15
thus be made upon his time and strength might interfere with
his occupation and duties as a teacher. But, finding himself
thus involuntarily put in office, he gave himself up with what
ever of ability and energy he possessed to tho discharge of
its responsibilities. It may well be doubted whether the city
ever had a chief magistrate M'ho merited in such high degree
the thanks of the community. To him it was not enough that
the city government should be well cai-ried on, that the laws
should be wisely enforced and the safety of life and property
secured ; but he regarded his office as lifting him to a position
where he could better observe what new measures were
needed to secure the prosperity of the city. He seemed to
feel not only that he had assumed the peculiar duties of a
public office, but that his sphere of usefulness as a private
citizen was widened. Under his wise and watchful adminis
tration, a new survey of the city, which had for sorae time been
needed, was proposed and executed ; the military and police
force, the usefulness and necessity of which became painfully
evident by a serious riot which Mr. Skinner was efficient in
quelling, was established on a more liberal basis, was enlarg
ed and encouraged ; the most careful attention was given to
the protection of the trees from injury by the canker worms,
which, in preceding years, had stripped them of their foliage till
they looked as cheerless and almost as barren in June as ever
iu mid-winter. Day after day, the Mayor was to be seen
personally superintending the workmen, and providing that
no negligence or error should peril the safety of a single elm.
The simple and ingenious arrangement by which the trees are
now so perfectly protected was not, indeed, devised by him ; but
it was largely in consequence of his exertions and advice that
it was introduced and efficiently carried into operation. The
city grew in wealth and prosperity, in beauty and in health-
fulness, and more in consequence of his single, energetic, in-

16
telligent labors, than frora any other cause. To all these
raeasures he gave his careful personal attention, investigating
thoroughly the need and selecting wisely the best raeans to
supply it,— corresponding with the officers of other cities,
collecting information and statistics, and availing hiraself of
the advice and experience of all who were able to aid him.
It is believed that the personal expense, in money alone, to
which his disinterested public spirit subjected him, during the
four years of his mayoralty, more than exceeded the amount of
salary which he received ; and besides all this, there was the
value of his time and labor, and of his refined good taste, and
of his noble example, which was more than any raoney could
have purchased.
Mr. Skinner was interested not alone in raeasures for pro
moting the material prosperity of the community. All plans
that tended to give expression to, or to promote the growth of,
patriotism, and of generous public sympathy with what is
right and good, received his hearty and active support. He
could see in the commeraoration of national anniversaries, in
the celebration of public festivals and solemnities, a deep
propriety, the neglect of which was a dangerous syraptom of
cold and narrow selfishness in the individuals of whom the
community is made up. When, as happened once or twice du
ring his terra as raayor, there carae the news of sorae public ca
lamity ; if a great statesman had been stricken down by death,*
or a high magistrate reraoved from his post, he was i>rorapt to
see that public recognition should be made of the event and
of the overruling Providence that caused it, and that the
tribute of public respect should be paid to honored memories.
When the brave and eloquent Hungarian exile who had
* President Taylor, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Webster, all died during the term of
Mr. Skinner's mayoralty, and in such case the event was, at his suggestion, ap
propriately commemorated.

17
struggled vainly against the bitter despotism of Austria,
came to America for sympathy and aid. New Haven was
araong the first to give hira words of welcome and encourage
ment ; and Mr. Skinner was foremost in the movement. The
generous impulses of his own soul impelled him to it ; and
he felt that the public sympathy thus given could not fail to
be twice blessed, as blessing " him that gives and him that
takes." When Kossuth visited New Haven it devolved on
Mr. Skinner, as raayor, to receive him ; and the propriety and
spirit of all the arrangements, and especially the eloquent
earnestness of the mayor's address, were singularly remarkable,
and received the applause of all who witnessed them.
We have to call attention to one more scheme for the public
interest, with which Mr. Skinner's connection was so promi
nent and so noble and disinterested, that, although the measure
has for the present failed of success, the citizens of New
Haven cannot soon cease to hold his services in grateful
memory. We refer to the plan for introducing water into the
city. This plan Mr. Skinner did not originate, nor was his
interest specially awakened in it, until at a city meeting in
1 852, he was put at the head of a committee for the purpose of
investigating the whole subject. Although this new duty was
put upon hira without his seeking or desiring it, he cheerfully
accepted the labor that it involved, and gave himself up to it
with singular zeal and patience. The labor involved proved
to be more arduous than could have been anticipated ; and, as
in all such committees, the greatest part of the real work
comes on some one member more capable or more magnani
mous than the others, so here confessedly to Mr. Skinner is
due the credit of the results which the committee accom
plished. The results to which they came were most impor
tant and their plans were distinguished by great wisdom and
economy. Originally it had been proposed that the water
2

18
should be introduced by a private company. But no one per
ceived more clearly than Mr. Skinner that such a matter as
this — so vital to the safety and prosperity of the whole city —
should be under the imraediate and entire control of the city
itself. The choice was between private interest and public
good, — between works constructed and managed in such man
ner as might be most profitable to a company, and works
constructed and managed for the good of the whole commu
nity. In the one case the prices would necessarily be as high
and the conveniences as few as possible : in the latter case the
supply would be abundant, and at the cheapest rate. With
clear and correct judgraent, Mr. Skinner saw that his duty to
the community demanded of him that he should do all in his
power to keep this measure out of the control of a private cor
poration of which the city should be a needy and powerless
client. This was one of the first results at which the com
mittee arrived ; and it had in its favor the sanction of the
experience of other cities, of the advice of all engineers and
authorities, of the plainest dictates of common sense. Upon
no point did Mr. Skinner insist with more earnestness and
more justice than upon this. And this one point being settled,
he went on cheerfully and confidently to investigate the neces
sity which existed for the introduction of water, — a necessity
which became more obvious the more it was examined into, —
and then to determine upon the most feasible plan for intro
ducing it. It is remarkable how all through his arduous labors
as chairman of the committee, his zealous activity was unfail
ing, and his admirable common sense unerring. It is very
noticeable that while he availed himself of the assistance
and advice of the best engineers, he never accepted any propo
sition blindly, never assented to any plan until he had thor
oughly mastered it in all its details. More than all, it is
worthy of mention that he was never satisfied to have his

19
plans— even after they had fully commended themselves to his
own judgment as desirable and necessary — accepted by a blind
or unwilling community, but that he was at the greatest pains,
by public discussion in city meetings and through the newspa
pers, to have the interest of every citizen thoroughly awakened,
so that he might act intelligently, and might appreciate fully
the privileges which were in his power. Perhaps no public
measure was ever discussed so thoroughly, so generally, with
so much of interest by the citizens of New Haven ; and no
one participated in the discussion at greater length and with
more of "intelligent and disinterested earnestness, than Mr.
Skinner. The result was that the measures recommended
by the committee were adopted in one of the largest city
meetings ever held, by nearly a two-thirds vote. A Board of
Water Commissionei-s, of which Mr. Skinner was president,
was elected, and proceeded to contract ibr and order the con
struction of the water works, according to a plan which com
bined, in a singular degree, economy, simplicity, and feasi
bility. But at this last moment, when everybody was sup
posing that the matter had been finally settled, a small
minority from among those opposed to the water works, by an
adroit and unexpected maneuvre, which was regarded by
many as of doubtful legality, succeeded in embarrassing all
the plans of the commissioners, in securing a postponement of
their operations, and finally, by re-opening the agitation ofthe
whole subject and opposing the project with unprecedented
earnestness, and not without bitterness, in securing a change
in public sentiment, in accordance with which the whole
scheme of introducing water into the city was abandoned.
From this second discussion, Mr. Skinner, with a natural and
becoming dignity, kept in a measure aloof, and his disappoint
ment at the result of it was deep and keen. Two years of the
hardest labor of his life had been given to this public measure.

20
Not a cent of remuneration had he ever received, for services
the value of which was more than could be estimated in
dollars. Actual outlay of raoney which he had made, he
neither expected nor desired to have repaid to hira. He had
laid aside the ordinary business of his life, in order that he
might give himself up more fully to a work which seemed to
him of such vast importance. He had hired additional teach
ers for his school, in order that he might coramand his tirae
completely and surrender it to the disinterested service of his
fellow-citizens. He was growing old, and was beginning to be
infirm. At the most, he could expect to enjoy the advantages
of the great public improvement which he was laboring to
secure, for a tirae much shorter than most of his fellow-citi
zens. He had no private interest in its success beyond what
was common to every citizen in the comraunity. His blame
less life, which, from his youth up, had been distinguished by
noble, generous unselfishness, ought to have placed him far
above not only the sincere suspicion, but even the insinua
tion, of motives of private and personal interest. Of all this
Mr. Skinner was fully conscious ; and although he did not
cease his active labors to secure the success of this cherished
plan, so long as it seemed probable that anything could be
accomplished by them, yet it was plain that he was discour
aged by the blind and unreasonable opposition of some, who
could not perceive what the best good of the city seemed
to him so clearly to demand. Once or twice before the
matter was finally disposed of, he appealed to his fellow-
citizens eloquently, and with a noble, unselfish earnestness
that was really pathetic, exhorting them not to throw away a
benefit which was within their grasp, and deprecating a course
which, it seemed to him, was calculated to tarnish the honor
and good name of the city which he loved with such a proud
affection. "I have been in New Haven," said he, speaking

21
in a public meeting to his fellow-citizens, " I have been in
New Haven more than thirty years. I came here a boy. I
have seen it increase in population from eight thousand to
twenty-five thousand. I have never had a wish to leave it. I
hope I never shall. I hope to live here and die here, and be
buried here, in that beautiful cemetery which you have done
so much to ornament and protect. But while witnessing the
progress of this town, I have noticed that its prosperity has
increased precisely in proportion to the amount of expenditures
for public improvements. It has engaged in many, and its
prosperity has kept pace with thera. The more liberal and
public-spirited you have been, the raore you have prospered in
private affairs. The more attractive you have raade the city
to strangers, the more real estate has risen in value and manu
factories increased. This will continue to be the case if you
continue to go forward and persist in a wise, safe, and proper
attention to public improvements." Such was the sort of
sober reasoning which he used. Alwaj's it was supported by
the commonest facts in past experience, and by the plainest
dictates of common sense — always dignified, always courteous.
And when it failed of success, and the plan was abandoned,
the contract broken, the city sued and mulcted for damages
done to the contracting party, Mr. Skinner's regret and disap
pointment were as noble and disinterested as his efforts had
been earnest and generous.
It could hardly have seemed strange to any one if, after the
plans in which Mr. Skinner had been so actively interested,
had been thus defeated, he had been disinclined to undertake
any further raeasures of a similar sort. And yet the fact that
we do not see him any longer so conspicuous in his labors for
the good of the city, is not to be attributed to any such disin
clination. His increasing cares and his increasing infirmity
made his life now necessarily a more quiet one ; but almost

22
until the day of his death his generous usefulness continued, —
and there are public improvements which will long remain to
testify that, even in these last days, he looked " not oidy on his
own things but also on the things of others," — and that he
found his own true happiness in making happy those about
hira. When Mr. Skinner died there was sincere sorrow through
out the whole commimity. How much of respect and of affec
tion his simple, noble, upright character had won for him frora
all who knew hira, and most of all frora those who knew him
best, was manifest by the general expression of sadness when
a life so useful was extiuj^uished, and when his body was laid
to rest in the still shade and beauty which he had hiraself se
cured to the place of burial. It will not be long, we trust, be
fore that public affection and respect will find a fit expression
in the monument which it is proposed to build to hira. Cer
tainly in a city whose beauty and prosperity to-day is due to
him, more than to any other man among the living or among
the xecent dead, he needs no monument. But not less certain
is it that a failure thus to commemorate his life and services
would be a dishonor and a wrong infiicted by the city on itself.
In these pages we have been careful to speak of Mr. Skin
ner mostly as he appeared in his relations to the comraunity in
which he lived. It can hardly be needful that we should dwell
at any length upon the traits of character which are so clearly
manifested in his life and acts. From his youth upward, he
had a deep and firm conviction that only as a true religion and
a pure morality were practiced by the individuals who make
up society, would that society be safe and happj^ In accord
ance with this conviction, his own support was given always
and earnestly both to morality and religion, and his own hearty
resistance was opposed to all covert or open attacks upon the
living purity of either. On repeated occasions he committed

23
himself publicly against such a political sin as slavery, and such
a national vice as intemperance, — not because they were un
wise or dishonorable merely, but because they were opposed to
the plain law of conscience and of God.
Mr. Skinner had a high estimate of the value of education,
and of the relation which, in a country like ours, the educated
few should bear to the coraparatively uneducated many. There
were few characters so repulsive to him as that of the unscru
pulous demagogue who, instead of guiding the populace, would
pander to their ignorance, and indulge their blind perverseness
for the sake of his own advancement. A higher education
and superior intelligence, he felt, brought with them new and
higher duties. The people's will should govern, to be sure,
but it should be their will intelligent and educated. Most
important was it that in all matters which ct^icern the whole
people and in which they are to act, they should be enlightened
and instructed by those whose power or opportunity of knowl
edge is greater than theirs. This trait in Mr. Skinner's char
acter was particularly apparent in his connection with the New
Haven water-project. Day after day, by personal conversation
and by column after column in the newspapers, he endeavored
to show the public what was for their highest good, preferring
that they themselves should act intelligently rather than that
they should be led, although himself might be the leader. All
measures for the diffusion of knowledge received his heartiest
approbation and support. In nothing did he take more pride,
than in the educational institutions of his own city and State.
" If there is anything," said he, "in which we may justly glory,
it is our ample provision for general education and the emi
nence of our literary institutions." To the end of his life he
was an earnest and active friend of the College where he grad
uated. A few years ago, the literary society of which he had
been a member while in college, was about to remove into a

24
new hall, and sought the advice of Mr. Skinner in decorating
and furnishing it. He at once entered into the matter, with as
much interest and ardor as if he had been still an active mem
ber of the society, of which he had once been President. His
leisure time for several weeks was spent in these labors to pro
mote its interest and prosperity ; and the exquisite beauty and
propriety of ornament and arrangement, which call forth the
admiration of all visitors to the hall of the Brothers in Unity,
should be gratefully attributed to his refined and generous
good taste.
Mr. Skinner had also a firm belief in the refining and puri
fying infiuence of art, and his belief was not merely a theo
retical one, consenting to " divorce the feeling from her mate,
the deed," but, on the contrary, was eminently practical.
The beauty of nature, cultivated and aided, when neediul, by
the graceful hand of art, was powerful, as he believed, for good
to all raen. Therefore he labored that the city where he
dwelt should be beautiful with well-kept public-squares, with
arching trees, with ornamental architecture. How much he
did in this respect for New Haven, and how much more he
would gladly have done, must sufficiently appear from the
foregoing sketch of his life and public services. We will
only add, that almost the last occasion on which Mr. Skinner
appeared in public, was the opening of an exhibition of works
of art, in New Haven, a little more than a year ago. In the
care and responsibility, and in the hard work, with which this
exhibition was attended, Mr. Skinner could not greatly share,
in consequence of his already failing health. But he justly
regarded it as a wise and generous attempt to educate and ele
vate the taste of the young men in college, and of the people
in the city. No one lent to the movement a more hearty sym
pathy, nor gave to it, as far as was possible, more cheerful
effort. And, as the gallery became more and more a place of

25
pleasurable and profitable resort, and proved in every way suc
cessful, — as it became the means of exciting and developing
in the minds of raany, a new sensibility to beauty, a new taste
for art, as it opened, before not a few of the young, a new
realm of pleasure quite unknown before, — no one rejoiced
raore cordially and more intelligently than he.
Such an example of clear-headed judgment, of refined and
cultivated taste, of patient and thorough industry, employed
for the good of the public, with a generous and unrewarded
disinterestedness ; such unselfishness which yet never became
self-forgetfulness, but was combined continually with dignity
and with an honorable self-respect, is most worthy of the
imitation of all who seek to bear " the grand old name of
gentleman." Opportunities for usefulness, like those which
Mr. Skinner had, are everywhere abundant. We see from his
example how easily, and to what good end, such opportunities
may be improved. May we not well take courage and
receive instruction from the record of a life like his ? To one
who, like the poet yearning for the " golden year," asks long-
*' Ah ! when shall all men's good
Be each man's rule f"
it surely should be eloquent with prophecy of better things.
In every life so pure, so noble, and so generous, should there
not be to us the promise of
"The larger heart, the kindlier hand,"
that shall, one day, no longer be the rare exception but the
blessed rule ?

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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