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CHARLES H. TAYLO* LIBRARY

 

No. 482 |
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Cornell oe Library

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All books are subject to recall after two weeks Life s Gallaudet.
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1

GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A.

i’.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

A Manual of International Law.

By EDWARD M. GALLAUDET, Ph.D., LL.D.,
PRESIDENT OF COLLEGE FOR DEAF-MUTES, WASHINGTON, D. C.

New Edition, with Questions for Analysis by ALEXANDER
JouNnstTon, Professor in Princeton College. 12mo.
330 pp. Teachers’ price, $1.30.

OPINIONS.

From Rev, A. P. Peasopy, D.D., Professor in Harvard University :—Your
** Manual of International Law” is, in my judgment, a work not merely of merit,
but of exceptional merit. Itis full yet brief; concise yet clear; learned but
not dud, The principles are so admirably illustrated—wherever possible by
example—that the book has, incidentally, no little historic value.

From James B. ANGELL, President of the University of Michigan :—It
seems to me admirably suited to its purpose. The arrangement is good, the state-
ments are lucid, the historical illustrations are well chosen. I think you have
given a special value to the work for our students by drawing so largely for illus-
tration from the discussions growing out of our war. I took pleasure in commend-
ing the book to my class at the close of last term.

From the Boston Daity ADvERTISER:—It is a model of careful and skilful
work, and deserves the attention of all schools aiming to improve their means of
education in this important and interesting study.

From the New York Trisung:—Dr. Gallaudet evinces a remarkable gift of
judicious selection and skilful condensation ; he wastes no time in the treatment of
extraneous points ; his illustrations are apt and forcible, his diction is choice and
his style simple and effective.

From the Boston Eveninc Transcript :—This work is a valuable and timely
contribution to legal literature. It is brief and comprehensive, and well fitted to
serve as_a_manual in educational institutions. M. Charles Calvo's admirable
work, ‘* Le Droit International, Théorique et Practique,” has been taken by the
author as his basis, and to it he has added much original matter. The book bears
evidence of thoroughness commensurate with the importance of the subject
treated. This subject of international law has gained rapidly in importance within
the past few years ; in fact, so general is the interest now taken in it that a manual
of this kind has become a desideratum. The study of international law should be
adopted in our educational institutions generally.
 

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LIFE OF

THOMAS HOPKINS GALLAUDET

FOUNDER OF DEAF-MUTE INSTRUCTION IN AMERICA,

BY HIS SON
EDWARD MINER GALLAUDET

 

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1gTo
 

CopyricHT, 1888,
BY

HENRY HOLT & CO,
PREFACE.

On the one hundredth anniversary of Dr. Gallau-
det’s birth, this record of his life is completed and
offered to the deaf of America, and their friends,
with an assurance of their ‘friendly interest in its
publication. jooe

The writer ventures to hope, also, that to pro-
moters of education and benevolent effort, gener-
ally, the volume will be welcome.

A word of explanation is due for an omission
which may be noticed by certain readers.

The Hartford School for the Deaf has in its cor-
porate and popular name the word “asylum.”

Whatever may be said in justification of the use
of this term in earlier years, it is now generally
condemned as altogether out of place when applied
to establishments designed solely for educational
purposes. Many institutions for the deaf have
dropped it from their official titles as inappropriate
and misleading. No schools organized within the
last thirty years make use of it. It has been
thought best, therefore, in the interest of a most
reasonable reform, to omit it from the following
pages.

The portrait which serves as a frontispiece is
iv PREFACE.

taken from an oil painting made by the late George
F. Wright, of Hartford, a short time after Dr. Gal-
laudet’s death.

Mr. Wright’s intimacy with Dr. Gallaudet had
been so close and so long extended that he was
able to produce a likeness much more characteristic
and satisfactory, in the estimation of the family,
than any other; not excepting the daguerreotype
from which all of the existing prints and photo-
graphs have been copied.

NatTionaL Dear-MUTE COLLEGE,
KENDALL GREEN, NEAR WASHINGTON, D. C.
December roth, 1887,
CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

1556—1685—1787—1805.

Ancestry—Parentage—Childhood—Family Environment—

School and College Life. ‘ 3 P 3 2
CHAPTER II.
1805—1815.

Study of Law—Tutorship in Yale College—Serious IIl-
health—Religious Despondency and Doubts—Active
Business and Travel—Theological Study at Andover
—A Call to the Ministry at Portsmouth, New Hamp-
shire... : ‘ F “ . 26

CHAPTER III.

1815—1816.

Interest in Deaf-Mutes — Alice Cogswell—An Invitation
from Citizens of Hartford to Undertake the Education
of the Deaf in America—A Tour to England, Scotland
and France to Gain Information — Difficulties and
Hindrances in Great Britain—Success in France—
Temporary Pastorate in Paris. . . . - 45
vi

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

1816—1823,

Return to America—Efforts to Interest the Public in the

Education of the Deaf— Public Addresses in Many
Cities — Organization and Opening of the School at
Hartford — Favorable Action of State and National
Legislatures — Munificent Grant of Land from Con-
gress—Erection and Dedication of Permanent Build-
ings for the Institution—Rapid Increase of Number of
Pupils—Difficulties in Management—Attempt in the
Board of Directors to Remove Mr. Gallaudet from
Office.

CHAPTER V.

1821.

Marriage to Sophia Fowler, One of the Earliest Pupils of

the School—Characteristic Letter written Two Days
after the Wedding—Description of Mrs. Gallaudet—
Happiness in the Married Life.

CHAPTER VI.

1823—1830.

Arduous Labors as Principal and Teacher—lInvention of

~ tion of Principalship.

Methods of Pantomimic Communication—Visit of Col.
John Trumbull — Solicitations to aid in Establishing
Schools for the Deaf outside of New England—Failing
Health—Application to the Directors for Relief from
Certain Duties — Opposition of Associates to such
Relief—The Institution Established on a Firm and
Permanent Basis — Increasing Feebleness—Resigna-

PAGE

. Iii

. 141

- 157
CONTENTS. vii

PAGE
CHAPTER VII.

Services in Aid of Various Public Enterprises—Foreign
Missions—The Tract Society — Education — Prince
Abdul Rahhamann—A Visit to Washington—A Ser-
mon in the House of Representatives—Notes from
John Quincy Adams’ Diary—Education of Negroes as
Missionaries to Africa—Letters from Dr. Milnor and
Gerrit Smith. . ‘ ‘ 5 ‘ - 195

CHAPTER VIII.
1830—1838.

Invitations to fill a Number of Important Positions—To
Inaugurate the Education of the Blind of America at
Boston—To represent the Colonization Society in New
England—To take Professors’ Chairs in several Colleges
and to become Principal of Various Institutions—To
Inaugurate a Professorship of the Philosophy of Edu-
cation in New York University—Mr. Gallaudet De-
clines all these Offers and Devotes Himself to the
Preparation of Books for the Young—Correspondence
with the King of Siam—Interest in Manual Training
and Normal Schools—An Important Secret Mission
to the West—Invitation to become Principal of the
First Normal School. . : ; . . 221

CHAPTER IX.
1838—1851.

Interest in the Insane—An Invitation to Preach at the In-
sane Hospital in Worcester, Mass., and to become
Permanent Chaplain—A Similar Invitation from the
Retreat at Hartford Accepted—Extracts from the
Chaplain’s Diary—Suggestions as to Treatment of the
Insane. . : . . . . 254

~
vili , CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER X,

A Home School—Family Government — Hospitality—A
Letter from Dr. Yung Wing—A letter to Jenny Lind—
Gift of a House from the Institution for the Deaf and
a Few Personal Friends—Presentation of Silver Plate
by Former Pupils—Friendship with the Clergy of all
Denominations—Extracts from Personal Diary—Fail-
ing Health—Last IlIness—Death. : : . 286

CHAPTER XI.

Funeral, Tributes of Respect, Public Meeting and Eulogy
by Hon. Henry Barnard, LL. D.— Action of the
Directors of the Institution for the Deaf—Monument
Erected by the Deaf of the United States—A Bronze
Statue of Dr. Gallaudet to be Erected at Washington
by the Deaf of the Whole Country in 1888... - 321
LIFE OF
THOMAS HOPKINS GALLAUDET.

 

CHAPTER I.

1556—1685—1 787—1805.

Ancestry — Parentage — Childhood — Family Environment —
School and College Life.

N Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet were com-
bined, by inheritance, more or less of the
canny Scot, the persistent Briton, the viva-
cious Frank and the graceful Italian. These
elements were harmonized and unified by the
fire of that devoted and self-sacrificing spirit
which has made the term Huguenot noble in
history.
Tracing the ancestry of the subject of this
biography, we go back, first, to Joshua Gal-
laudet, who lived at Mauzé, a village about
twenty miles east of La Rochelle, France, at
the time of the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes, 1685.
2 FRENCH AND SCOTCH ANCESTRY.

Very little can be said, on authority, as to
the origin of the Gallaudet family. The
name, in the spelling of which no change has
taken place, seems to be rather Latin than
French in its composition. A coat of arms,
brought by the family from France, has as its
motto :—

UT QUIESCAS LABORA.

The wife of Joshua Gallaudet was Margaret
Prioleau. Their son, Peter Elisha, spoken of
as a physician, fled from France, not long after
the Revocation, and settled very early in the
last century at New Rochelle, N. Y., where
some of his descendants now reside. Thomas,
a son of the emigrant, born in 1724, was mar-
ried about 1750 to Catharine Edgar, a
daughter of Thomas Edgar, of Edinburgh,
Scotland, who belonged to the Edgar family
of Keithock and Wedderlie. This Thomas
Edgar, known in his day as “the squire,” mar-
ried Janet Knox of Edinburgh, and settled in
Rahway, N. J., about 1718, building a house
which has remained uninterruptedly in the
possession of his descendants.

Second of the six children of Thomas and
Catharine Edgar Gallaudet, was Peter Wal-
lace, who married Jane Hopkins of Hartford,
ENGLISH ANCESTRY. 3

Conn., a descendant of John Hopkins, one of
the Puritan settlers of Hartford, as also of the
Reverend Thomas Hooker, founder of that
town, and first pastor of its first church. An
interesting memorandum in the handwriting
of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet gives the
direct line of his descent from the Hartford
divine as follows.

“Rev. Thomas Hooker, from England, first
minister in Hartford. His son, Rev. Samuel
Hooker, Farmington. His son, Nath]. Hooker,
merchant, Hartford. His daughter Alice
married Saml. Howard, Hartford. Their
daughter Alice Howard married Thomas
Hopkins, Hartford. Their daughter Jane
married P. W. Gallaudet. T. H. Gallaudet
their son. So T. H.G. is the great-grandson
of the great-grand-daughter of Rev. Thomas
Hooker.”

Margaret Prioleau, the mother of the first
Gallaudet in America, was the grand-daughter
of Elizée Prioleau, a distinguished Huguenot,
pastor at Niort, near La Rochelle, from 1639 to
1650. The Prioleau family furnished many
devoted and eminent clergymen to the Hu-
guenot church, among them a son of Elizée
named Samuel, pastor at La Rochelle, 1660,
and later at Pons in Saintonge, where he died
4 VENETIAN ANCESTRY.

in 1683; and Elie, a son of Samuel, who suc-
ceeded his father at Pons, fled from France
after the Revocation and became the first
pastor of the Huguenot Church in Charleston,
S. C., where some of his descendants are still
to be found.

Elizée Prioleau, of Niort, had the title
of “Sieur de La Viennerie,” and is on good
authority stated to have been a son of Antonio
Priuli, Doge of Venice, 1618-1623.

The Priuli family was prominent in Venice
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, -
furnishing the Doge Lorenzo, 1556-1559, and
his brother the Doge Jerome, 1559-1567; also
the Cardinal and Patriarch Lorenzo in 1592—,
besides several ambassadors and other nota-
bles.

There are writers who deny that Elizée
Prioleau was the son of the Doge Antonio
Priuli, and derive his lineage from an ances-
try of clergymen resident in the district of
Saintonge. If these writers are correct,
the connection between the Prioleaus of
France and the Priulis of Venice still remains,
for it is recorded in the history of Venetian
diplomacy that in 1554 a young nephewof the
Doges Lorenzo and Jerome, named Antonio,
going with a maternal uncle on an embassy to
VENETIAN ANCESTRY. 5

France, fell in love with and married a
daughter of a gentleman of Saintonge. A
law of Venice forbidding the nobility of the
Republic to marry foreigners, young Antonio
was banished, and took up his residence in
Saintonge among his wife’s relations. Here
he became the father of a numerous family,
which embraced the Huguenot faith during
the reign of Henry IV. Among his descend-
ants was Benjamin Priolo, born at St. Jean
d’Angely in Saintonge in 1602, who became a
distinguished author and diplomat. Benja-
min Priolo’s claim of descent from the Priulis
having been disputed, he submitted evidences
to the Venetian government on the strength
of which he received a patent under the seal
of the Republic in 1660, recognizing and sub-
stantiating his right to consider himself a
member of the noble Venetian family.

Mr. Gallaudet’s mother possessed many of
the qualities of her Puritan great-grandpar-
ents. Her father, Captain Thomas Hopkins,
was for some years the commander of a ves-
sel engaged in foreign trade, and built the
first brick house in Hartford, bringing the
shingles and bricks for the same from Hol-
land.

The letters of Mrs, Gallaudet to her son
6 PETER WALLACE GALLAUDET.

show her to have been a woman of clear
intellect and deep piety, her most cherished
object in life being to make it certain that
her children should be active, earnest Chris-
tians.

Peter Wallace Gallaudet was born in New
York City, April 21, 1756.

He settled in Philadelphia early in life, and
was engaged in business as a commission
merchant in that city at the time of his mar-
riage in 1787.

In the year 1800 he removed with his fam-
ily to Hartford, Connecticut, where he lived,
a merchant, for nearly fifteen years. During
this residence in Hartford, he was honored
with several positions of trust by his fellow-
townsmen, among which may be mentioned
the treasurership of the “ First Church” (Con-
gregational), in which he was a prominent
member. It was during his incumbency of
this office that the last church erection took
place, and a carefully kept account book in
his handwriting is in existence, showing all
the receipts and disbursements for this
object.

He lived in New York for a few years after
1815, for a short time in Philadelphia about
1820, and in 1824 took up his residence in
PETER WALLACE GALLAUDET. 7

Washington, D. C., occupying a position in
the Register’s office in the United States
Treasury until the time of his death, which
occurred in May, 1843, a few weeks after he
had entered upon his eighty-eighth year.
Although nearly seventy years of age when
his Washington life began, he was more
actively engaged than many of his juniors.
He was made an elder in the Fourth Presby-
terian Church in 1830, filling this position to
the time of his death.

Early in 1835, then in his eightieth year, he
became the founder of ‘ Washington’s
Manual Labor School and Male Orphan
Asylum,” associating with himself Michael
Nourse, James L. Edwards, John Coyle,
Peter Force, and other prominent citizens.

To raise funds for the support of this insti-
tution, he and his friend, Michael Nourse, at
the time chief clerk of the Register of the
Treasury, secured the publication of “A fac-
simile copy of the Accounts of General Wash-
ington’s expenses during the Revolutionary
War, also a copy of a line of march proposed
by him for the British army in the expedition
of 1758 against Fort Du Quesne.”

An examination of the records of the soci-
ety shows Peter W. Gallaudet to have been
8 PETER WALLACE GALLAUDET.

not only the founder but the moving spirit in
the organization.

From the sale of the fac-similes of Wash-
ington’s accounts some two thousand dollars
were realized, and in 1842, when he had been
made president of the society, the institution
was incorporated by Act of Congress.

Following the passage of the Act of incor-
poration steps were taken to secure the estab-
lishment of the school, but with Mr. Gallau-
det’s death, the life seems to have gone out
of the society, and nothing was ever done ex-
cept to increase the small endowment already
secured, by the addition of accruing interest
to the principal.

In 1860, the officers of the association, see-
ing no prospect of being able to raise a suff-
cient sum of money to provide for the estab-
lishment of the proposed school, asked and
received the permission of Congress to dis-
solve the corporation, and make over its
assets, amounting in value to some $5,000, to
the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb, in which the income of the fund has
been used to promote industrial training
among the deaf.

Peter W. Gallaudet is remembered by a
few now living in Washington. In manners
PETER WALLACE GALLAUDET. 9

he was a gentleman of the old school ; in dis-
position retiring and charitable, at the same
time progressive and public-spirited, having
clear convictions of duty, with the courage to
express and live up tothem. He was a veg-
etarian for the last twenty-five years of his
life.

His frequent letters to his son Thomas show
him to have been in full sympathy with all his
benevolent works, and ready to encourage him
to spend his strength in them, rather than in
labors calculated to win applause or wealth.

The subject of this memoir was born in
Philadelphia, on the roth of December, 1787.
He was the eldest of a family of twelve chil-
dren. Little can be said of his childhood, except
that he was of studious habit, precocious in
mental development and of delicate physique.
During his infancy an event occurred which
could not have failed to exert an important influ-
ence on the family life. His father, when thirty-
seven years of age, having up to that time lived
without acknowledging any personal obliga-
tions in matters of a religious nature, passed .
through a season of great thoughtfulness, |
which resulted in his making a public pro-
fession of his faith.

A few paragraphs from a letter written to an
10 FAMILY ENVIRONMENT.

intimate friend on the fifteenth of May, 1793,
will disclose something of the character of the
man, giving, at the same time, an idea of the
experience through which he had passed :—
“During my life, like all the human race, I
have been in pursuit of happiness. I have
sought it in the paths of what the world calls
pleasure, amusements and gratification of the
passions. I have pursued it by my endeavors
in acquiring wealth and reputation. Still as
it eluded my grasp I changed my grounds or
added to those that of domestic enjoyment ;
but even here I found something wanting,
though I could not tell what. Ihad frequent
periods of leisure, which were often filled up
with anxious thought. When busily engaged,
not having time for reflection, I had the most
happiness, if it could be called such; but at
best it was only of the negative kind.
I have reason to be thankful I have been
arrested in my way and made to see and feel
that the pursuit of religion, only, can give and
secure happiness. . . . I have less anxious
thoughts and find myself more patient and
equal to all the various duties connected with
my situation, and to what but the blessed in-
fluence of religion can I attribute this change.
I believe whoever will read the Scrip-
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT. It

tures dispassionately, with a desire to receive
instruction therefrom, earnestly seeking the
truth, and if these things be true that their
minds may receive them as such, will assuredly
find a disposition within them leading them to
assent to and embrace the precepts therein
contained. . . . Religion, like all other ac-
quirements, seems to me to be progressive.
What can we learn that is useful without dili-
gence and perseverance? No science unfolds
itself all at once ; and shall we reject a system
because we can not on slight reading or thinking
comprehend all its parts? After a long life
spent in arduous study in any science how many
things remain in mystery ! and is it surprising
that in the most important of all, mysteries
should also befound? . . . Howarethey
who reject religion deceived! They con-
clude it to be a continued scene of self-denial
and mortification, calculated to sink the mind
in gloom and inaction, preventing every useful
or ornamental improvement. Allow me to
assure you, my friend, so far is this from being
the case, that it is a life of true rational pleas-
ure and enjoyment, and will lead to all useful
improvement. . . . I have with truthand
candor related my sentiments, and as your
well-wisher do seriously recommend the sub-
12 FAMILY ENVIRONMENT.

ject to your dispassionate reflection, believing
that our present happiness and eternal felicity
depend on our embracing the truth as revealed
in the Scriptures, and for our encouragement
we have an assurance that they that seek shall
jnd. That you may be led thereto is the
earnest prayer of
“Your sincere friend,
«P, W. GALLAUDET.”

During a life prolonged for fifty years, to a
day, from the writing of this letter, its author
proved the sincerity of the sentiments and
purposes so clearly expressed to his friend.
The rules he laid down for the government
of his family would, probably, be now called
austere. There was more Bible reading and
prayer and churchgoing and exhortation than
iscommon in our day. And while it is true
that some of the sons grew up to reject
religion, for a time, if not to scoff at it, it can
be said that a majority of this large family
became men and women of singular purity
of life.

In the letters found among Mr. Gallaudet’s
papers from his brothers and sisters, much
may be gathered of the spirit and manner of
the family life. And were this to be a larger
book, many extracts of interest might be
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT. 13

inserted from this correspondence. Room
for but very few can, however, be taken.

Charles, who was later a partner in business
of William H. Imlay, well known as the first
millionaire in Hartford, Conn., writes to his
brother Thomas :

“ The pursuit I have in contemplation is to
become an engraver. I think it is a profession
more suited to my taste and genius than a
mercantile life . . . In activity of
enterprise, in shrewd sagacity, in jostling
through the crowd and being on my guard
against the cunning of men I am deficient—
I want decision of character.”

The seventh child of the family was William
Edgar, a boy of unusual intelligence and
vivacity. When fourteen years of age he
naively informs his brother Thomas that his
“studies go on as usual, but under a different
guidance. I have left the Grammar School
through request of the master and am pursuing
my classical studies at home in the forenoon.”

A few weeks later he writes: “I do think
itis my duty to disappoint your anticipations
of my misapplication. I shall endeavor to
gain as much knowledge of Greek as possible
from Homer, but in my humble opinion I
should be more acquainted with it, if I fol-
14 FAMILY ENVIRONMENT.

lowed it, not as a classical study, but a famil-
iar language. The same, I think, holds true
in other studies. A child in his first attempts
at speaking and language is not presented
with the sublime diction, but the vulgar
conversation. The rules and principles of
language are the necessary followers, not pre-
cursors, of his attainment.”

On leaving Yale College at eighteen, Wil-
liam writes his brother as follows: “It is
after much deliberation that I have decided
to take the profession of physic, and I assure
you, entirely of my own choice, unless it be
the company of Legaré, an intimate friend of
mine from Charleston, S. C., who contem-
plates the study of medicine in New York.
I struck the balance between literary errantry,
merchandise, law, and physic. The first had
too little respectability and wealth ; the second
too little science and reflection, and the third
not enough either of science, literature or
wealth; so that I decided in favor of the last,
which unites in itself science, literature, wealth
and honor. You see I have not taken ease
into consideration; and I have not, because
I do not think myself made for a gentleman
at large. I want some employment that
will give scope to all the vigor I can bring
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT. 15

into the field, and yet I am so much a votary
of sense as to wish for wealth to gratify my
passions.”

William, however, for reasons which do not
now fully appear, gave up the study of medi-
cine and made his way to a south-western
state, where, after meeting with some disap-
pointments, he secured a position as a teacher.
He writes of his first experiences as follows:
“To be as I have been in the midst of
strangers without money; to meet with the
impertinence and often the insults of those
whom in my heart I despise ; to be obliged to
muffle my pride lest it should injure my for-
tunes ; to make a thousand pretenses to gain
the respect of people and then to bear my
own contempt for the meanness of dissimula-
tion ; these are things which come home to
that proud spirit which I know all our family
possess. After pawning various articles I
have at length found a temporary resource in
a little copy of poems which have been col-
lecting since I left home. These are transla-
tions from the Spanish which I made on Cap-
tain B.’s plantation, under Mrs. P.’s instruc-
tion, and a few short pieces, such as a version
of Solomon’s Song and some parts of Job.
The rascally publisher has, however, cheated
16 FAMILY ENVIRONMENT.

me through my necessities, and has boasted
since of getting for fifteen dollars what I
might have disposed of for fifty.”

Returning to New York in June, 1817, he
lived in that city for four years, doing some
literary work both in prose and poetry, having
plans for publishing a periodical, and finally
entered the office of the city clerk. While in
this position he was taken suddenly ill and
died at the age of twenty-four.

The tenth child was Theodore, who became
a Presbyterian clergyman. His pastorates
were in Virginia and Maryland, and the last
twenty-five years of his life were spent as an
itinerant missionary and Bible distributor.
He was a man of some eccentricities, but of
great earnestness in the performance of what-
ever he believed to be his duty. He died
near Westminster, Md., in the summer of
1885, in his eighty-first year.

Three years younger than Theodore came
Edward. This brother developed ina marked
degree the artistic talent possessed two gen-
erations earlier by his great-uncle Elisha, who
engraved a portrait of George Whitefield in
New York as early as 1774.

Two miniatures of Edward, painted when
he was in his twentieth year, show him to have
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT. 17

been a youth of uncommon beauty. Hissuc-
cess as an engraver was brilliant, and speci-
mens of his work give evidence of a mar-
velously fine and sympathetic touch. But his
life, which opened with the most flattering
promise, was overshadowed by a grievous dis-
appointment, from the effects of which he
never recovered.

While practicing his art in Boston, side by
side with his intimate friend and fellow artist,
John Cheney, he became engaged to a young
lady who was his equal in personal beauty,
and in other ways most attractive. Her
parents looked with disfavor on Edward
Gal]laudet, only because he was not then a pro-
fessing Christian. Their opposition was so
pronounced that the match was broken off.

The effect on Edward was disastrous, and
although he could, and did when he exerted
himself, execute engravings of a high order
of merit, he worked irregularly, and with a
broken spirit.

A portrait taken of him at thirty-five, not
long before his death, shows him to be what
he was, a disappointed and shattered man.

Not many years ago one of his nieces met
quite accidentally an elderly lady, who on learn-
ing her name inquired with eagerness if she
18 FAMILY ENVIRONMENT.

were a relative of Edward Gallaudet. On
receiving an affirmative answer, the old lady,
with eyes full of tears, said: “‘ My parents broke
off my engagement to your uncle and I
married another, but my heart has always
belonged to Edward Gallaudet.”

The family letters, from which the incidents
just narrated have been gleaned, give frequent
evidence of mutual devotion and tenderness
of feeling, as beautiful as they are rare. But
the especial interest attaching to them, as affect-
ing the subject of this memoir, grows out of the
fact that they show him to have been the actual
center of the family. Leaned upon and often
sought in counsel and otherwise by his parents
in their laborious and not always successful
struggles for the maintenance of their many
children ; looked up to and confided in by
his brothers and sisters as, perhaps, their most
able adviser, this faithful and helpful elder
brother foreshadows in the earlier third of his
life those qualities that marked his dealings with
the world at a later period.

Thomas was thirteen years of age when his
father removed from Philadelphia to Hart-
ford in 1800.

He completed his preparation for college at
the Hartford Grammar School in the summer
BOYHOOD. 19

of 1802, and entered the Sophomore class at
Yale the following autumn.

In writing, a few years later, of his boyhood
he says:

I can remember that when I was a boy I used to
steal away from my companions, and find out a
lonely spot in the fields or woods where we were
sporting, and, seating myself under the shade of
some venerable tree, and drawing a thousand strange
figures in the sand before me, and ever and anon
whistling a simple air of the nursery, give up my
youthful fancy to any dreams of future happiness or
greatness which it might choose to form. And as I
grew older, I used to delight to dwell upon what
might be, and to conjure up such scenes of prosperity
for myself and friends and all mankind, as would
more than realize, could they have an existence, the
warmest expectations of the most enthusiastic phil-
anthropist.

These were no idle dreams—they were the
“stuff” his future was ‘made on”; and that
he was no mere dreamer even in the days of
his youth, his career in college gave abund-
ant proof. His classmate, Heman Hum-
phrey, writes thus of him as a collegian :*

 

*«*The Life and Labors of the Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, LL. D.”
by Rev. Heman Humphrey, D. D., pp. 22, 23. New York : Robert
Carter & Brothers, 1857.
20 COLLEGE LIFE.

More youthful in appearance than even in age;
modest, unobtrusive, and strictly correct in all his
habits, Gallaudet was a universal favorite in his class.
We all loved him and anticipated much from
him, in whatever profession he might choose to
enter. In his studies he was remarkably system-
atic, and was scrupulously punctual in his attend-
ance upon all college exercises. Rarely, if ever, had
he a mark upon the monitor’s bill, and whoever else
might boggle over the lesson, Gallaudet was sure to
have mastered it. He hada talent and a taste for
mathematics, which would have given him very high
distinction as a professor in that department had he
chosen to devote his life to it. In English composi-
tion he had no superior, and no equal in his class.
Indeed there was no branch, except declamation, in
which he did not excel; and in that he always ac-
quitted himself handsomely, though his voice was
not strong, and he was too modest to do himself
full justice on the college stage. He graduated in
1805, with the highest honors of his class, and left
our Alma Mater with the confident prediction of
those who knew him best, that should his life and
health be spared he would become one of our
brightest ornaments.

Although, as his classmate states, he did
not excel in declamation, he was a frequent
debater in the meetings of his literary society,
the Brothers in Unity. The notes of his
speeches on such questions as :—“ Ought the
COLLEGE LIFE. 21

dictates of conscience invariably to be fol-
lowed?” “Would it be just and politic for
the nations of the earth to combine and extir-
pate the Barbary powers ?” and “ Would it be
politic in the United States to emancipate
the slaves?” give evidence of maturity of
judgment, depth of thought, and ability to
keep close to the subject not common in a
boy of sixteen. In the debate on the ques-
tion of emancipation it is particularly inter-
esting to note that while the writer is
strongly opposed to slavery, his arguments
are full and conclusive as to the zmpolicy of
the immediate and wholesale manumission
of the slaves.

Manuscripts are in existence of two
addresses delivered by Mr. Gallaudet at the
close of his college career, one to the mem-
bers of the Brothers in Unity, the other his
commencement oration.

The former is evidently the only copy he
made of the address, being full of corrections
and interlineations. It conveys an earnest
and thoughtful appeal to his juniors in the
society to maintain the organization, and
presents an array of advantages to be gained
from such a society by those who avail them-
selves of their privileges and discharge their
22 COLLEGE LIFE.

duties as members. He ends with a short
original poem, the closing lines of which are as
follows :

May the bright lamp of science guide your way,
Your minds illumine with perpetual day,

Teach you to aim at truth and truth alone,
Error forsake and virtue call your own.

To these be added all the heartfelt joys

Of sweet domestic life, far from the noise

Of proud Ambition’s bustle and alarm,

Kindling with frenzy, raging like the storm.
And when the busy cares of life are o’er,

When sounds the trembling silver cord no more,
When bursts, at length, in twain the golden bowl,
And when the cistern wheel no more is whole,
May purer joys than blest the Elysian field

To your rapt senses kindly be revealed.

The subject of the commencement oration
will doubtless provoke a smile, for we of this
day find it difficult to realize that in 1805
there was warrant for raising a note of warn-
ing “On the increase of luxury in Connecti-
cut, and its destructive consequences.”

The cry of this youthful Jeremiah must
have exerted a greater influence than is com-
monly traceable to the oratory of college
commencements, for it is certain that the ruin
predicted for the then young commonwealth
COLLEGE LIFE. 23

has not as yet overtaken it, and the relative
standard of morality and religion is known to
be higher now than it was in the early days
of the century.

A word as to the appearance of the
manuscript of this commencement essay of
eighty years ago will be interesting as indi-
cating some of the personal traits of the
writer.

It is written on unruled paper, with a most
careful regard for lines and margins, suggest-
ing the use of underlines, in a clear, well
rounded but unclerkly hand, the essential
character of which belonged to Mr. Gallau-
det’s penmanship through the whole course
of his life; and the signature differs little
from many that were made forty years
later.

Carefully enveloped in a cover of marbled
paper, secured with a bit of pink and white
silk ribbon, it speaks of habits of neatness
and order in the boy, which were maintained
through life.

Gallaudet was one of six, in a class of forty-
two, to graduate with the honor of an ora-
tion. Rev. Gardiner Spring, D. D., the emi-
nent divine of New York, was the valedic-
torian.
24 COLLEGE HONORS.

The story is told on good authority that
the marks for scholarship of Spring and Gal-
laudet reached the same aggregate; but that
the former being some inches taller than the
latter was considered to have a higher stand-
zg in the class, and therefore received the
greater distinction.

Gallaudet was accorded the additional
honor on Commencement day of speaking,
with five of his classmates, in a dialogue
entitled Timophanes, or the tyrant of
Corinth. On the “Scheme of Exercises,” as
it was then called, appear the names of
Heman Humphrey, Samuel Farmar Jarvis,
Salmon Wheaton, Jeremiah Evarts and
William Maxwell, well known in later
years as eminent in the scholarly walks of
life.

Mr. Gallaudet’s college course was pursued
under the presidency of Timothy Dwight.
Among his instructors may be named Jeremiah
Day, Benjamin Silliman, then youthful profes-
sors, Moses Stuart and David A. Sherman,
then acting as tutors. In the latter portion of
his life, he was afterward heard to speak of his
college days with unmixed _ satisfaction.
Many friendships then formed he maintained
until his death. His devotion to study was
COLLEGE LIFE. 25

not carried so far as to stand in the way of his
mingling a good deal in social life; and in
this the maturity of his mind gained him the
companionship of many much older than him-
self.
CHAPTER II.
1805—I815.

Study of Law—Tutorship in Yale College—Serious Ill-health—
Religious Despondency and Doubts—Active Business and
Travel—T heological Study at Andover—A Call to the Minis-
try at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

N the autumn of 1805 Mr. Gallaudet entered
upon the study of law in the office of
Hon. Chauncey Goodrich of Hartford, having
the benefit at the same time of instruction
from the Hon. Thomas S. Williams, late chief-
justice of Connecticut. ‘Here, as in every
thing he undertook, he was punctual and
methodical, and his recitations were remark-
able fortheir accuracy. He gave every assur-
ance of becoming in time a thorough and suc-
cessful lawyer. The state of his health, how-
ever, compelled him at the close of the first
year to suspend his legal studies."* During
the year which followed he devoted himself to
the study of English literature and the prac-

 

* Barnard’s tribute.
EARLY LITERARY WORK. 27

tice of English composition. Evidences
appear among his papers that he did some
editorial work, or at least contributed to the
periodicals and newspapers of the day. In
September, 1808, he delivered an oration in
Hartford on “ Ambition as a motive in Educa-
tion,” a single quotation from which will suffi-
ciently disclose the lofty train of thought and
illustrate the style of the young orator.

“The love of praise, say they, was given for
wise purposes. It softens and ennobles the
heart. It is the nurse of great and noble
enterprise. It is the just meed of labor. It
creates a mutual dependence among mankind,
knitting them together by the nicest and most
refined of all ties, a sensibility to esteem and
reputation. Would bards have sung so sweetly,
would patriots have bled so nobly, would kings
have reigned so justly, if their hopes had not
brightened at the prospect of a glorious im-
mortality of renown? Who then shall censure
what has so long been felt by the greatest and
the best of men!

“But to this oppose the genius of Christian-
ity. Take its prominent characteristic, humil-
ity. Behold it in the living example of its
great Author. Where was His love of praise ?
Did He show it in his parentage? His reputed
28 TUTORSHIP IN YALE COLLEGE.

father was a carpenter. In His birth? It was
inamanger. In His life? He conversed with
publicansand sinners. In His followers? They
were poor fishermen. In His death? Hebled
with malefactors. It was His Father, and not
Himself He cameto honor. Whowill propose
to Christians, and it is a Christian audience
the speaker is addressing, any other example ?
But if in this great personage the love of
praise was never seen, how can it be justified in
those who are bound to imitate Him. Men
ought to consider and weigh ‘every subject
relating to human conduct, not only as men,
and as moralists, but as Christians. False and
ruinous are those theories, that would form
an economy of human life, or conjure up a
system of ethics different from those which
have been given to mankind by their divine
though incarnate legislator.”

Shortly after the delivery of this oration
Mr. Gallaudet accepted a position as tutor in
Yale College, thus renewing with great satis-
faction his connection with his Alma Mater.
Of his life during the two years of his tutorship
few incidents are recorded. But a little man-
uscript book of twenty-six pages entitled
“Prayers, Meditations and Reflections,” cover-
ing a period somewhat longer than that of his
TENDENCIES TO SKEPTICISM. 29

second residence at New Haven, gives inter-
esting and sometimes even tragic glimpses of
his spiritual experiences. These records make
it evident that from his twentieth to his twenty-
fourth year his mind was constantly and
deeply exercised on the subject of personal
religion; that he passed through seasons of
skepticism; that he fell under the stress of
temptation ; and that it was only after a severe
struggle with contending elements that he
came at length to a final and practical accept-
ance of the Christian faith.

Under date of January 1, 1808, after some
reflections natural to the New Year, the fol-
lowing appears :

I intend to mark what I think are my standing

defects of character, both in great and small things.

. Generally I am too forgetful of futurity,

too much occupied by the world, too negligent of

cultivating a Christian temper. But more particu-
larly :

First.—\I am languid, and cold, and slothful, and
irregular inthe performance of my more immediate
duties to God. I resolve with divine assistance, in
future to pray morning, noon and night in secret.
At noon I will repeat the Lord’s Prayer. Iwill
read in the Scriptures thrice a day. . . On the
Sabbath I will read five chapters in the Old and the
3° SELF-CONDEMNA TION.

same number inthe NewTestament. . . . Iwill
always attend divine worship if there be any, unless
prevented by some necessary cause.

Secondly.—| am too often disrespectful and unkind
to my parents, and unkind to my brothers and
sisters.

Thirdly.—I am too irritable.

Fourthly.—\ am too much addicted to the indul-
gence of loose and impure and trifling thoughts
and words; I have not that scrupulous regard to
exact truth in what many, even moralists, think are
things of no importance, such as the recital of stories,
pleasantries of conversation, the forms of civility.

Fifthly—\ am much, very much, too indolent.

Stxthly.—I indulge, too much, my appetite for
food and drink.

Following this enumeration of faults an
earnest prayer is recorded for God's help to
overcome them. Under date of January 6, after
allusion to Psalm cxvi., this prayer is recorded :

Heavenly Father! I have been baptized with the
baptism of thy Son. Oh! shed forth thy grace more
abundantly in my heart that I may soon also drink
of His cup. Remove, I entreat thee, those timorous
doubts, and perplexing scruples, and indeed criminal
thoughtlessness which yet keep me from the table
of my Lord. I ask this for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Some weeks later he writes despondingly :
RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 3!

God has taken His Holy Spirit from me, and
left me to the influence of surrounding temptations
and to the infidelity of my own mind. For in infi-
delity, either more complete or partial, do I at
such seasons take refuge. Man’s free agency, his
natural depravity, the impracticability of his effect-
ing a radical change of character, the immediate and
exclusive and supernatural agency of the Holy
Spirit in regeneration, the necessity of publicly
professing one’s belief in Christ, and of partaking of
the Lord’s Supper, and the eternity of future punish-
ment, have been the subjects on which I have
thought with no little distraction of mind.

Then, after self-reproaches and a prayer for
help from above, he continues :

I will here note down some of my conjectures on
those subjects which have lately occupied my mind,
that I may be able at some future period, when my
opinions are more settled, to review them and judge
of their correctness or the reverse.

The soul, I have thought, comes into existence
with no positive qualities, but merely a capability of
receiving impressions from surrounding objects by
means of the body.. As this body, and indeed the
whole economy of the natural world, by which the
body is constantly influenced, are polluted by sin,
some, and indeed most of the impressions that the
mind at first receives, being physical, tend to make
it participate of that general depravity with which
32 RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

it is surrounded. This, together with the influence
of bad example and improper education, I have
thought sufficient to account for the depravity of
human nature. In short, man’s mind is depraved,
because its receptacle is a depraved body, its dwell-
ing a depraved world, and its associates depraved
beings. Or, to present these ideas a little differ-
ently, there is no necessary tendency to sin in the
original organization of the mind; so that if any
mind, human I mean, were introduced into a holy
state of existence, with a receptacle perfectly pure,
and among beings perfectly holy, it would itself be
without sin.

I have thought that God’s influence upon the
mind in effecting regeneration was no greater than
that which He exercises upon the natural world ; that
His providence in this change always operates by
what we ¢erm secondary causes; and that man’s
agency in effecting this grand transformation of
character is as much concerned as in bringing about
any effect in the natural world, and can be calculated
upon as likely to be efficient, if proper means are
used, with as much certainty in the one case as in
the other. My reasons for this have been founded
in considering that all possible events are parts of a
general system, and are nearer and more remotely
connected with each other: so that no single event
exists without a dependence upon an infinite chain
of prior events,—that God exercises a particular
providence, and acts equally in and upon the whole
material and moral world ; so that the bringing about
of every event is to be attributed to His imme-
UNSECTARIAN SPIRIT. 33

diate agency; and that when we use the terms
“natural” and “ supernatural” we can mean nothing
more than that in natural events we can trace the
uniformity of God’s operations through a greater
succession of what we call causes and effects, than
in those events which we term supernatural.

It does not speak well for the religious teach-
ings of his day that this young theologian,
whose own views were so clear and reasonable,
should have been plunged into the depths of
mental misery by the exigeant and extreme
doctrines given forth from the pulpits of his
time.

A month or two later, writing more hope-
fully, and believing himself nearly, if not quite
ready, to make a public profession of his faith,
he thus shadows forth the broad charity which
beautified the whole course of his later life.

I think it of little consequence which sect I join,
provided its church exhibits in its doctrine and the
lives of its members evidence of evangelical Chris-
tianity.

And yet not long after he writes in the
depths of despondency and doubt because
some one has been stirring up his mind on
“the necessity of a mysterious regeneration,”
34 DEEP DESPONDENCY.

”

“eternal torments,” “the guilt of man,” and

the like.

That towards the close of this year of 1808
other influences than embarrassing specula-
tions in theology seem to have been working
against him, appears in the following rec-
ord:

Sunday, December 25, 1808, Yale College.

I know now that I am walking in the way that
leads to eternal perdition. Dreadful infatuation ;
deplorable rashness! Iam fully convinced of the
truth of Christianity, of the insignificancy of the
world, of the certainty of death, of the awful realities
of heaven and hell. I see my own woful depravity ;
my ingratitude to God, my indulgence in sensual
gratifications in food, the impurities of my imagina-
tion, my hypocrisy, insincerity, pride and vanity, and
the improper and selfish motives of my conduct. I
know the safety, and happiness, and real nobleness
of a Christian, and yet day by day, I live without
God in the world. I even seem to deceive myself
when I wish (in a lifeless manner) for another char-
acter.

An incident in his life while a tutor in Yale
College, related a short time since by an aged
friend of his still living in Hartford, should
be told, if at all, in this volume, in connection
with the quotation just made from his diary.
YOUTHFUL INDISCRETIONS. 35

On a certain social occasion, he was carried
away by the hilarity in the midst of which he
found himself, and led to take wine to such an
extent as to be plainly overcome by its in-
toxicating influence.

His mortification and distress were so great
that he could have no peace of mind until he
had repaired to Hartford and made public con-
fession to the officers of the church with which
his parents were connected, and which he him-
self expected sooner or later to join. And it
is a fact that long before the “temperance
movement ” began in this country Mr. Gallau-
det was a strict abstainer from every thing
that could intoxicate.

The same friend who related the foregoing
incident furnished another belonging to the
same period, the recording of which can do no
harm, while it will illustrate several peculiari-
ties of temperament.

The young people of Hartford, early in the
present century, were in the habit of enjoying
themselves at so-called ‘‘ Assemblies,” held in
a public hall, the entertainment consisting
mainly of dancing. These gayeties were fas-
cinating to young Gallaudet, and he was often
a leader in them.

On one occasion, in winter, when an “ As-
36 SOCIAL GAYETIES,

sembly” was in its full tide, word was
brought in that a young man known to all
had just been drowned while skating on the
river, and that at the moment his body was
being carried by. Gallaudet appealed to those
who bore the news “ not to tell the ladies,” for,
added he, “it would break up the dance.”
But the words had hardly passed his lips
before his conscience smote him for his heart-
lessness, and he presently hurried away from
the ‘“‘ Assembly ” never to attend such a gath-
ering again.

It seems not improbable that this incident
of his early days had much to do in leading
him to oppose most strenuously the amuse-
ment of dancing, as he did to the end of his
life.

During the winter of 1808-9 the enfeebled
state of Mr. Gallaudet’s health occasioned him
much depression of spirits, inducing an evi-
dently morbid condition of his feelings as to
religious matters. After several entries in
his diary that give proof of this, the follow-
ing record is made:

Thursday morning, April 6, 1809, Yale College,
in my chamber. In prayer this morning I made
two solemn vows to Almighty God; one that if He
DESPONDENCY. 37

would afford me rational conviction of my having
passed from death unto life I would (as soon as I
had obtained this) make a profession of religion ;
the other that if in His providence He should see fit
to restore me to health and strength of body, and a
capability of studying, I would devote myself to the
ministry of the Gospel. I here record them for my
future benefit.

Next succeeding the following entry is the
following, made after an interval of ten
months :

1810, February 4. Hoc opus, hic labor est.
Then a few days later:
1810, February 17.—Rursus.

Of what fruitless struggles after peace of
mind this single word “backward” pathetic-
ally speaks !

Mr. Gallaudet’s labors as a tutor in Yale
College closed in the summer of 1810 without
that improvement in health for which he had
so earnestly prayed. He therefore thought
it prudent to seek some pursuit that might
keep him much in the open air, and accepted
a commission from a large commercial house
38 ACTIVE BUSINESS.

in New York to travel through the states of
Kentucky and Ohio. This journey, made
mostly on horseback, greatly improved his
physical condition, and he found the attractions
of a business life sufficiently strong to induce
him to enter into a permanent engagement,
on his return to New York, with the firm for
which he had been traveling.

It is certain that for a time he dismissed all
idea of entering upona professional life of any
sort, and that he possessed excellent capacities
for business. But he was, in spirit, more of a
scholar than a man of business, and his convic-
tions of duty, though overborne for a time,
soon reasserted themselves. When it is con-
sidered what theman afterward became, no
surprise is occasioned by the discovery that in
his private diary immediately succeeding the
despondent Rursus of 1810, comes the follow-
ing entry after the lapse of two years.

“Andover, Massachusetts, Sunday morn-
ing, January 12, 1812. I joined the day
before yesterday (Jan. 10) the divinity college
in this place, and this morning took up my
residence within its walls. O! Thou God of
all truth, if my purpose in devoting myself to
the ministry be any but the right one, I
humbly beseech thee for Christ’s sake to dis-
THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 39

cover unto me the deceitfulness of my own
heart in cherishing it, and to lead me, by thy
good spirit, to engage in my intended pursuits
with a single eye to the promotion of thy
glory and the extension of the Redeemer’s
kingdom on earth. I desire solemnly to dedi-
cate myself, soul, body and spirit, with all my
powers and capacities of action, to thy service.
Oh! accept this offering, I beseech thee, which
indeed is justly thy due, and prepare me by
thy grace affecting my heart, thy wisdom
illuminating my mind, and thy strength invig-
orating my present weak and sickly body, to
work with diligence and success in thy vine-
yard.”

Mr. Gallaudet reached his decision to study
for the ministry before he had ever made any
public profession of his faith, and in the early
part of his course at Andover seems to have
been harassed, as when a tutor in New
Haven, with doubts and disposed to self-con-
demnation.

Having been in Andover several months, he
takes occasion, when noting in his diary
the fact of a day of prayer in behalf of
some graduates who had gone into the
foreign mission field, to make the following
record :
49 LIFE AT ANDOVER.

I would seize this occasion to mourn before the
searcher of hearts my own deplorable sinfulness,
and particularly one event of my past life in which
I grossly sinned against God, and which ought to
fill me with shame and confusion of face in His pres-
ence, and also to lament my present coldness and
stupidity.

*

The next and last entry in the little diary
of Prayers, Meditations, and Reflections is in
these words: | _

I made a public profession of my faith in Christ
on the 11th of October, 1812, and was admitted a
member of the first ecclesiastical Congregational
Church in Hartford, Rev. Nathan Strong being pas-
tor thereof. The vows of God are upon me.

Small record remains in any form of Mr.
Gallaudet’s life at Andover. Letters from his
father disclose the facts that an accident oc-
curred to one of his eyes which threatened seri-
ous results, and that at the end of the first
year the state of his health was so unsatisfac-
tory as to raise a question as to his continuing
study. But in spite of all drawbacks he com-
pleted the full course of study and was licensed
to preach by the “ Association of Salem and
vicinity, meeting at the house of the Rev. Mr,
LICENSE TO PREACH. Al

Walker, in Danvers, June 14, 1814.” His
diploma of graduation from the seminary bears
the date of September 23, 1814, and the sig-
natures of Ebenezer Porter, Leonard Woods
and Moses Stuart, professors.

Mr. Gallaudet’s reputation asa scholar at
Andover was so high, and the faith of his
instructors in his success as a preacher so
strong, that before the completion of his
theological studies he received several flatter-
ing invitations to take charge of vacant pul-
pits.

Among them was a very earnest call from
the “ North Parish” of Portsmouth, N. H., of
which Rev. Dr. Buckminster had long been
the pastor, signed by John Langdon, Ammi
R. Cutter, Daniel Webster (then just com-
mencing his career in Congress), and Henry
Ladd.

Mr. Gallaudet’s reply to these gentlemen
reveals much of the spirit of the man, and
shows at the same time against how great
odds he was struggling in the matter of his
health.

ANDOVER, July 7, 1814.
GENTLEMEN :—
Permit me to thank you for the very kind manner
in which you are pleased to invite me to labor among
42 CALL TO PORTSMOUTH.

you as a candidate for settlement in the Gospel
ministry. Whatever opinion my friends may be
good enough to entertain of me I feel myself, at
present, very incompetent to perform the arduous
duties and undertake the high responsibility of such
a station as he who may become your pastor will
occupy. But this is not my only, nor indeed prin-
cipal, reason for declining entirely a compliance with
your solicitations. I have been very much of an
invalid for these nine or ten years and still labor
under the pressure of considerable bodily infirmity.
My eyes and lungs are both weak and my general
health is such that I can devote but little time to
study. My purpose is, for some time to come, to
preach only occasionally as my strength will permit,
to journey at frequent intervals, and to decline being
settled, unless indeed some situation should offer
which would involve cares and duties far less numer-
ous than must be attached to the ministry among
so large a congregation as yours. Indeed with my
present state of health, I should deem it not only
an ungenerous imposition on your good will, but a
rash exposure to the entire loss of future usefulness,
and of course an unwarranted reliance upon unex-
pected aid from Providence, to attempt the supply
of your pulpit. So grateful dol feel to you, gentle-
men, for the very delicate and obliging nature of
your communication, and so strong is my impres-
sion, as I trust, that an invitation like yours is to be
considered most seriously and prayerfully by one
who ought to hold himself ready to go wherever the
great Master of the vineyard shall direct,—that I
A WINTER OF LEISURE. 43

hope this my refusal will, on the one hand, appear
perfectly reasonable and satisfactory to yourselves,
and, on the other, be no breach of that solemn obli-
gation which is imposed upon me of entire devoted-
ness to the interests of Zion.

Wishing you, gentlemen, and the society to whom
you stand related, the continual protection and
blessing of almighty God,

I am very respectfully yours,
THomas H. GALLAUDET.

During the following autumn and winter
‘Mr. Gallaudet carried out his purpose of
preaching occasionally and traveling consider-
ably. That some of his friends thought him
disposed to live rather easily and postpone the
assumption of serious duties is evident from
a caution in a letter of a fellow student at
Andover, written in April, 1815: ‘What
_have you been about this winter? Do not
love your liberty too well. Pledge yourself
to some constant, arduous efforts. ‘Labora
ut guiescas.’”

What indeed had Mr. Gallaudet been about
during this winter of 1814-15! The sequel
will prove that he had been no idler, nor mere
lover of his liberty ; it will also show that this
undersized invalid, who with “eyes and
lungs both weak,” ‘could devote but little
44 A WINTER OF LEISURE.

time to study,” was ready to spring joyfully to
his life work when plainly called to it; that
in his delicate frame dwelt a spirit large
enough and strong enough to make him the
practical pioneer if not the father of all sys-
tematic philanthropic work in America; that
the culture of New England had fitted him to
meet, on a level, the scholars and philosophers
of the mother country; that in the capitals
of Europe this fledgling from a humble
provincial school of theology could win the
admiration of the ablest critics as a preacher.
CHAPTER III.

1815—1816.

Interest in Deaf-Mutes—Alice Cogswell—An Invitation From
Citizens of Hartford to Undertake the Education of the
Deaf in America—A Tour to England, Scotland and
France to Gain Information—Difficulties and Hindrances
in Great Britain—Success in France—Temporary Pastorate
in Paris.

URING the winter of 1814-1815 Mr.

Gallaudet remained mostly at his fath-

ers home in Hartford; preaching occasion-

ally, and waiting for some decided indication

of Providence as to the path of duty. There

was no marked improvement in the state of
his health.

Among his papers, one, entitled “A Rev-
erie,” bears internal evidence of having been
written about this period, and closes as fol-
lows, after a reference to the importance of
the then novel work of preaching the gospel
to heathen nations:

Before the millennium arrives will ove language
prevail and swallow up the rest, or will mankind
46 REVERIES.

agree to form a universal language? Would not
such a project be pregnant with incalculable advan-
tages? How shall it be accomplished ? What shall
this universal language be? Is there already one,
provided by Nature herself, easy of acquisition, uni-
versal in its application, and which demands neither
types nor paper? Has such a language yet eluded
the research of the profoundest philosophers, and is
it left for some happy genius yet to find it? As is
often the case, just when the mind is ready to light
upon some most wonderful discovery, the capricious
fancy disdains the dull process of beating out truth
upon the anvil of experiment—and my reverie
ended.

Again can it be said in telling the story of
this life that ‘we are such stuff as dreams are
made on,” for the fulfillment of his ‘ reverie”
came to Mr. Gallaudet when this possible
“universal language” demanding “neither
types nor paper” was realized in the lan-
guage of signs which played so important a
part in his work of teaching the deaf.

One of Peter Wallace Gallaudet’s nearest
neighbors in Hartford was Dr. Mason Fitch
Cogswell—a physician of high professional
and social standing. Among Dr. Cogswell’s
children was a lovely daughter nine years of
age, on whom the blight of total deafness had
fallen some years before, the result of a severe
 
ALICE COGSWELL, 47

attack of spotted fever. Asis not uncommon
in such cases a loss of speech followed the loss
of hearing, and before she had completed her
fourth year this child was practically dumb as
well as deaf. Her parents and family friends
did what they could, in a very imperfect way,
to develop her intelligence. But while their
efforts were by no means fruitless, they did
not succeed, as time went on, in establishing
any clear and effective means of communicat-
ing thought. The child gained nothing of
verbal language from the teachings of her
zealous and loving friends.

It was during one of Mr. Gallaudet’s vaca-
tions, while a student at Andover, that his
attention was directed to the deaf child of his
neighbor. His first interview with her was in
his father’s garden, where she was at play with
his younger brothers and sisters.

One* who married, a few years later, a sister
of Alice Cogswell, writes thus of this meet-

ing :

His compassionate interest in her situation, with
astrong desire to alleviate it, was immediate and
deep. Heat once attempted to converse with and

 

* Lewis Weld, who was Mr. Gallaudet’s successor as princi-
pal of the institution for deaf-mutes at Hartford.
48 ALICE COGSWELL.

instruct her, and actually succeeded in teaching her
the word hat before she left the garden where the
interview took place.

Another,* writing of this memorable inci-
dent, says:

Following up this first step in such methods as
his own ingenuity could suggest, and with such
lights as he could gather from a publication of the
Abbé Sicard which Dr. Cogswell had procured from
Paris, Mr. Gallaudet, from time to time, succeeded
in imparting to her a knowledge of many simple
words and sentences, which were much enlarged by
members of her own family, and especially by her
first teacher, Miss Lydia Huntley [afterwards well-
known as the poetess Lydia H. Sigourney]. This
success encouraged her father in the hope, that
instead of sending his child, made more dear to him
by her privations, away from home, to Edinburgh,
or London, for instruction in the schools of Rev. R.
Kinniburgh, or Dr. Watson, that a school might be
opened in Hartford.

As Mr. Gallaudet’s acquaintance with Alice
Cogswell continued, there grew up, to quote
Mr. Weld again, ‘‘a very intimate intercourse
with the child and her father’s family, during
intervals of relaxation from professional
studies, extending through several years,

*Henry Barnard, LL.D. Tribute to Gallaudet. Hartford:
1852. :

 
ALICE COGSWELL, 49

which resulted in her acquiring, chiefly through
his agency, so much knowledge of very simple
words and sentences, as satisfied her friends
that she might learn to write and read, and
that Mr. Gallaudet, of all the circle of their
acquaintance, was the person best qualified to
undertake her instruction.”

It was during Mr. Gallaudet’s winter in
Hartford, after his graduation at Andover,
that his interest in Alice Cogswell began to
take practical shape, and that he induced her
parents to place her under the direct instruc-
tion of Miss Huntley.

Nothing was more natural than that the
mind of Dr. Cogswell, made thus painfully
alive to the importance of establishing schools
for the deaf in America, should turn to the
young clergyman who had shown such enthu-
siastic interest in his child, as the man of
destiny for the deaf of his country.

At the invitation of Dr. Cogswell the fol-
lowing friends and neighbors met at his house
on the 13th of April, 1815, to confer with him
as to the practicability of establishing a school
for deaf-mute children in Hartford: Ward
Woodbridge, Daniel Wadsworth, Henry Hud-
son, Hon. Nathaniel Terry, John Caldwell,
Daniel Buck, Rev. Nathan Strong, D. D.,
50 INVITATION TO VISIT EUROPE.

Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet (all of Hartford),
and Joseph Battel, of Norfolk, Ct.

The blessing of God was invoked on the
enterprise by Dr. Strong, and after an evening
spent in discussing various means for attaining
the desired object, it was determined to make
an effort to send a suitable person to Europe
for the purpose of acquiring the art of teaching
the deaf in some one of the schools then
existing in the old world. Dr. Cogswell and
Mr. Woodbridge were appointed a committee
to ascertain the name of a competent man
who would consent to go, and to raise funds
to meet the expense of sending such person.
So great was the interest taken by the benev-
olent of Hartford in the novel undertaking,
that Mr. Woodbridge was able to secure the
promise of ample funds in a single day.

Mr. Gallaudet was the first choice of all
interested in the enterprise. His modesty and
distrust of his ability to undertake so impor-
tant a work led him to defer accepting the
mission for a number of days, and to urge
that some other man should be named. His
friends, however, were so convinced of zs
peculiar and eminent qualifications that they
were hardly willing to seek for any other man.
So at the end of a week Mr. Gallaudet felt
DECISION TO GO TO EUROPE. 51

himself compelled to respond favorably to
what seemed to be a plain call of duty.

The following entry heads the first page of
“A Journal of some Occurrences in my Life

which have a Relation to the Instruction of the
Deaf and Dumb.”

Hartford, Conn., Thursday evening, April 20,
1815. I informed Dr. Mason F. Cogswell and Mr.
Ward Woodbridge of my willingness to undertake
the employment of instructing the deaf and dumb
in my own country.

And now must be noticed one of those
strange coincidences that occasionally mark
the lives of men, especially of such as seem to
be called by Providence to do some particular
work in the world.

Events in Mr. Gallaudet’s life had led
naturally up to his selection by those who
knew him best in the home of his youth, to
undertake an enterprise the success of which
demanded a rare combination of qualifications.

But in no way connected with this chain of
circumstances was the following letter which
undoubtedly reached his hand on the very day
he decided to accept the proposal of Dr. Cogs-
well and his friends :
52 CURIOUS COINCIDENCE.

ANDOVER, April 18, 1815.

My DEAR FRIEND :—Three days ago I met in
Boston your old friend Mr. George Hall. He told
me he should sail the next day for Savannah.
Thence he should go to England, thence to the con-
tinent. The next winter he will spend in Paris, with
the intent of acquiring information in regard to the
instruction of the deafand dumb. He does not mean
to become a teacher, but to perfect his old system
and gratify curiosity is his design.

He wishes earnestly for a companion, and for you
to be that companion. Having but lately deter-
mined upon this voyage, and ignorant of your abid-
ing place, he had no opportunity of communicating
his wishes to you. His first question when I met
him: ‘‘ Where is Gallaudet ?”” His second “ Will you
write him this very day?” He will be five or six
weeks in Savannah. There he wishes you to join
him; visit England and then France. Or find him
in England in the summer, etc., etc., etc. He will
stay here or there as long as you please, do what
you please, and be as agreeable as all the world. He
believes that his old system of instruction will afford
great facilities in acquiring information on the sub-
ject of the mission, that your acquaintance with.
deaf and dumb persons will be also of essential
service, and that of course you will be mutually
serviceable to each other, and be of all the rest
of the world the most suitable for such an under-
taking.—He is sorry he could not have seen you, but
nevertheless wishes you to pack up, and be off with
all convenient expedition, He wished me to write
CURIOUS COINCIDENCE. 53

without delay, and urge every motive that might
induce you to engage in this benevolent undertaking.
I make no comments. May Providence direct and
bless you always.
Yours truly,
LorD.
[Nathan Lord, later President of Dartmouth College.]

A letter received on the same day, from
Ebenezer Kellogg, who had been with Nathan
Lord a fellow student of Mr. Gallaudet’s at
Andover, and who was for many years a pro-
fessor in Williams College, says :

Thad a letter from home yesterday :—the deaf and
dumb girl I carried you to see makes very consider-
able progress.

From both these letters evidence is afforded
that Mr. Gallaudet had been led by his interest
in Alice Cogswell to seek out other deaf chil-
dren, while he was still a student at Andover,
and that he was known by his friends to have
considered, at least, the subject of general deaf-
mute education.

Of course the suggestion of Mr. George
Hall, through Nathan Lord, can not besaid to
have produced any result. And yet the object
he aimed at was attained through the very
54 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS.

man he had named as fitted, better than any
other, to the work. :

Mr. Gallaudet was now in the twenty-eighth
year of his age. Precocious -in his early
development as a scholar, he had added to his
college course of study a decade of varied and
valuable training. A year’s study of law;
two of teaching; three given to active busi-
ness, including extended travel; three of
theological study, and one spent in general
reading, with practice in writing and public
speaking, had combined to give him an experi-
ence, every element of which was of import-
ance, as will appear in the sequel, in preparing
him for the work that now opened before
him. His social surroundings had been such
as to make it easy for him to meet, on a level,
persons of the highest rank in society. His
sacred profession gave him a standing in the
community second to none. His personal
character secured him the confidence of every
one who knew him, while his manners were
so engaging as to inspire almost equal trust
in the minds of strangers. In spite of his
delicate health he exercised great personal
magnetism. Although small in stature, his
bearing was so dignified, and the evidences of
his intellectual and moral strength so marked
SACRIFICES. 55

that many persons have been known to say,
after meeting him, that they remembered him
as a person of imposing presence.

All these elements of strength and influ-
ence would have proved as valuable in the
profession of his choice, as they did in the
career to which he was chosen. Few men
have ever stood on the threshold of the
Christian ministry with greater promise of
success than was Mr. Gallaudet’s at this time.
The esteem in which he was held at Yale
College and Andover Seminary was such as
would have insured him an eligible position
whenever he should signify his disposition to
begin work. It was after many mental
struggles that he had decided to devote him-
self to the preaching of the gospel, and he felt
“the vows of God” to be upon him. He had
completed his preparations in spite of great
difficulties and discouragements and was now
ready to preach. He was not without ambi-
tion, and in 1815 the position of a clergyman
in New England carried enough of weight
and influence to make it attractive to a young
man.

It is not difficult to perceive, therefore, that
while Mr. Gallaudet accepted cheerfully the
responsibility now laid on his young shoulders,
56 ON THE WAY TO ENGLAND.

and did not hesitate to respond to the call of
duty, so soon as he perceived it to be such,
this decision involved no small personal
sacrifice.

But the decision once made there was no
looking back, and the second entry in his
journal (May 1oth) shows that in less than
three weeks he was onhis way to Europe. In
the mean time (May 5th) he went with Dr.
Cogswell to Glastonbury, ten miles from
Hartford, where he had a memorable interview
with the blind deaf-mute Julia Brace, then
eight years of age, whose education at a later
period attracted a degree of attention second
only to that excited by the development of
the more brilliant Laura Bridgman.

Spending a few days’ in New York, where
his father’s family were then residing, Mr.
Gallaudet embarked on May 25th, in the
Mexico, burden three hundred tons, S. Weeks,
Master, for Liverpool. Among the passen-
gerswas Washington Irving; also a number
of English army officers, of one of whom Mr.
Gallaudet related the following incident :

One of my military friends who was commonly
lively and cheerful in his manner came to the table
one morning with a verylong face. I took occasion
ARRIVAL AT LIVERPOOL. 57

to ask him, later, if any thing unusual had occurred
to dampen his spirits ; when he told me that during
the night he was suddenly awakened by what seemed
to be the pressure of a heavy weight lying across
him. Rousing up he perceived by the light of the
moon, the body of a man in naval uniform stretched
out on him in his berth. For some seconds after
he was fully awake the apparition remained, and
then gradually faded from his sight. He _ rose,
dressed and walked the deck until morning. The
chief cause of his depression of spirits lay in the fact
that he had a brother in the navy. A note was
made of the day and hour, and on our arrival at
Liverpool my friend told me before we parted on
the wharf that news had met him of his brother's
death at sea on the night when his wraith appeared.

Mr. Gallaudet landed at Liverpool on Sun-
day, June 25th. During the few days he
remained in Liverpool he made the acquaint-
ance of Rev. Thos. Raffles and Rev. Robt.
Philip, and visited the school for the blind sev-
eral times. The following Sunday he spent
in Leicester, preaching for Rev. Robert Hall
in the afternoon, spending the evening, until
a late hour, with the noted divine.

Of this visit he writes as follows to a
friend in Hartford:

I called at his house just before the morning
service, and went with him to his chapel, which is
58 VISIT WITH ROBERT HALL.

quite a small building in an obscure part of the
town. Mr. Hall’s discourse was from these words:
“ There shall be no more curse there.” His subject
was set forth in a very plain, perspicuous and affec-
tionate manner, with considerable feeling. There
was nothing in his style, or expression, or turn of
thought, very remarkable or eloquent. Yet there
was a charm cast over the whole, a delicacy, a ten-
derness, a simplicity, in short, an accommodation of a
great and lofty spirit to the weak comprehension of
even the lambs of his flock, which raised my admi-
ration more than the grandest display of his decid-
edly powerful talents would have done.

T witnessed his family devotions in the evening, and
there was something in his prayer which said, what
he well knew and felt, that the real saint has always
in remembrance the injunction of our Saviour,
which requires of His followers to become like little
children. Mr. Hall, though a Baptist, is most lib-
eral in his feelings toward other Christian sects.
His congregation are in part Independents, who, of
course, have their children baptized by some other
clergyman. Oh! that the spirit of Catholicism
would pervade all the Christian world !

On Monday, July 3d, he visited a small
school for the deaf in Birmingham, on Tues-
day he had a glimpse of Oxford, and on Wed-
nesday, the 5th, he reached London, where he
expected to achieve the object of his mission
to Europe. He was aware that schools for
ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 59

the deaf had been in operation for more than
fifty years in Great Britain, and that in Lon-
don the largest and presumably the best of
them was to be found.

To the managers of this institution he pre-
sented himself with suitable letters of recom-
mendation, expecting to find open doors, cor-
dial hearts and ready hands to aid him in his
work of benevolence. A very different recep-
tion awaited him. For he was soon to learn
the astounding fact that in Great Britain the
benevolent and Christ-like work of teaching the
deaf had been for two generations a monop-
oly in the hands of a certain family; a
monopoly so heartless that it refused to allow
schools to be established in Ireland, and so
grasping that at the moment of his visit to
England a member of this family, of doubtful
reputation and unsteady habits, was in America
seeking to establish the monopoly in the New
World.

The following letter from Mr. Gallaudet to
Dr. Cogswell gives so full an account of the
difficulties encountered by the former in Lon-
don, that it may be inserted entire without
further comment than to remind the reader
that all the persons mentioned have long
since passed away: in view of which it can
60 LETTER FROM LONDON.

not be thought indelicate to permit Mr. Gal-
laudet’s expressions concerning them, never

before published, to be made public.

LONDON, August 15, 1815.

My Dear S1R:—I have not yet received a single
letter from America. Surely my friends have not
been waiting to hear from me before they wrote. I
expected to have been made acquainted, before this
time, with the progress of the concern in which we
are mutually and so deeply interested. And such
information I have really needed in order to con-
duct my negotiations with the school here in the
best manner. For my application for admission
into it has been attended with delays and obstacles
that I did not expect. I will find no fault at pres-
ent with those who compose the committee of the
school, for I believe they have really wished to
gratify me in what I requested of them, nor with Dr.
Watson, its instructor, till I know a little more of
his true character and learn whether his conduct
toward me has proceeded from a wise and prudent
caution or a cold and selfish heart.

Premising that since my arrival in England I have
written yourself and Mr. Woodbridge five times,
giving you an account of what I had then done with
regard to our project and the circumstances in which
I stood—I will now lay before you a succinct narra-
tive of my proceedings till the present day.

I arrived at Liverpool on the 25thof June last and
in this city on the 5th of July. On the 7th I
MEETING WITH SICARD. 61

delivered my letter of introduction to the Rev. John
Townsend, accompanied by Mr. Barlow(Mr. Wood-
bridge’s friend). I made Mr. T. acquainted with my
object in visiting this country. He wished me to
call at the City of London Tavern on the ioth,
where he would converse with me further on the
subject.

July 8th, I formed an acquaintance with the Abbé
Sicard, who has since returned to Paris. He prom-
ised me every attention and facility at his school
there, and his secretary invited me to attend the
lectures which he was then delivering in this city.

1oth, I called at the City of London Tavern, and in
a note sent my credentials to the Rev. Mr. Townsend,
who was in the committee room. After some time
Isaw him. He told me that he had laid my appli-
cation before the committee and that a sub-committee
had been chosen to confer with Dr. Watson on the
subject. The same day, in the afternoon, I attended
the Abbé Sicard’s lecture. :

14th, I called on Mr. Michael Gibbs, one of the
sub-committee. Nothing had yet been done res-
pecting my application.

21st, After waiting a week, in hopes that I should
hear from the sub-committee, I called again on Mr.
Gibbs. He was not within. I left a note for him.
I called again and found a note from him, in which
he informed me that Mr. Townsend had two days
before sent him my papers (meaning my credentials,
such as Gov. Smith’s, Gov. Goodrich’s, Dr. Strong’s,
Dr. Green’s of Princeton, certificates, which, by the
way, so great is English caution towards foreigners,
62 DIFFICULTIES IN LONDON.

T have found absolutely necessary and almost indis-
pensable)—which he had sent to Dr. Watson. He
also advised me to go with Mr. Townsend, who
could attend to it in a day or two, to Dr. Watson’s.
I had been advised before by Mr. T. not to visit the
school for the present. I immediately rode to Mr.
Townsend’s, who lives some distance from town, but
did not find him at home. 24th, I received a note
from Mr. Townsend, in which he said that on the
26th he would accompany me to Dr. Watson’s.

So on this day I had my first interview with the
doctor. He started certain fears and difficulties on
the subject of my admission, and I explained the na-
‘ture of my object and views. I observed, at parting,
that I wished for an answer to my application as soon
as convenient, as my expenses were considerable and
their increase was diminishing the fund in America
for the relief of our unfortunate deaf and dumb.
Dr. W. said he wished for a little time to consider
the subject, and that after conferring with Mr. Gibbs,
he would acquaint me with the result. On my
return I called on Mr. Gibbs and was informed that
he had left town and would not return till the ensu-
ing week. 28th, I visited the school and had a
short conversation with Dr. W., but nothing decisive
transpired. 29th, I went to Mr. Townsend’s and had
some conversation with him on my business. He
said he would do every thing in his power to serve
me, that he would endeavor to see Mr. Gibbs
immediately on his return and urge the importance
of a speedy meeting of the sub-committee.

31st, I again visited the school, and had some
CHARLES H. TAYLSX LIBRARY
WEARY DAYS OF WAITING. 63

conversation with Dr. W. In the course of it, I
inferred from what he said, that it would have been
more correct for me (in his opinion), to have origin-
ally made my application to himself rather than to
the committee, inasmuch as his engagement with
them was simply to instruct the pupils of the school.
But I acted by the advice of Mr. Townsend, the
original founder of the institution and now one of
the committee, and indeed, would it not have been
indecorous in me to have gained an introduction to a
public and charitable institution without first apply-
ing to those who have the management of it? Aug.
ist, I visited Mr. Townsend and also Mr. Gibbs, who
said he would endeavor to have a meeting of the
sub-committee held in two or three days. 3d, I
called again on Mr. Gibbs, who said the sub-commit-
tee would meet the ensuing week. 5th, I had some
conversation with Mr. Piper, one of the sub-com-
mittee. He expressed his wish to promote my views,
but alluded to some difficulties that Dr. Watson had
suggested, with fears that they might not be
obviated. 7th, I had another interview of con-
siderable length with Dr. W. I asked him if he could
propose any plan by which he could give me the
benefit of becoming acquainted with the theory and
practice of his art. He replied, that he should rather
wait to see the decision of the sub-committee.
Heagain observed that the committee had no con-
trol over him any further than that he had engaged
with them to instruct the deaf pupils who might be
introduced into the school.

toth, I left with Mr. Piper a paper of some length
64 EMBARRASSING CONDITIONS.

to be laid before the sub-committee, who were to
meet this day at the City of London Tavern, accom-
panied with my credentials for their examination.
In this paper I gave a succinct account of what had
transpired before I left home with regard to the pro.
posed institution at Hartford, and also stated my
reasons for not being willing to assent to any pro-
posal of carrying to America with me an instructor
of the deaf and dumb from this country, or of
pledging myself, at present, to continue with Dr.
W. for a definite period of time, without first mak-
ing trial of my capacities for improvement in his art.
T concluded with respectfully asking the sub-com-
mittee, whether they could in any way assist me in
the accomplishment of my object.

11th, I received a note from Mr. Stephen Hough,
chairman of the sub-committee, inclosing a copy of
the report which they had concluded to make to the
committee. It was as follows—

“Resolved, That after mature deliberation, taking
into view the due discipline of the institution and
the proper time requisite to qualify an effective
instructor of the deaf and dumb: The auditors, in
conjunction with Dr. Watson, beg to recommend the
committee to allow Mr. Gallaudet to be received
into the school for one month upon liking, with the
view that on the expiration of that period he shall
be engaged as an assistant for three years on the
usual terms, with power to Dr. Watson to release
him from his engagement sooner, if it should appear
that Mr. G. is qualified before the end of that time.”

12th, I called on Mr. Parnell, one of the sub-
DRUDGERY DEMANDED. 65

committee, to inquire whether the “liking” men-
tioned in the report was to be reciprocal. He said
that that was the intention of the sub-committee.

15th, I visited Dr. Watson at the school in order
to inquire into the duties of his assistants. He
informed me that it is expected of them, and would be
of me, to be in the school from seven o’clock in the
morning till eight in the evening and also with the
pupils in their hours of recreation. He observed
that the first employment of an assistant is to teach
the pupils pexmanshi~. This I remarked would be
a part of the principal difficulty that I had antici-
pated and would serve to illustrate it. For it showed
that I might be familiar both with the theory and
practice of certain stages of his pupils’ improvement
and yet be detained from advancing until they also
should become familiar with them. This I observed
would be a useless sacrifice of time on my part. I
suggested again the plan of my having intercourse
with his private pupils, but he declined saying any
thing on that point, till I had made up my mind
with regard to the proposal of the committee.

I called also on Mr. Parnell. He informed me
that the committee had accepted the report of the
sub-committee.

Thus you see, my dear sir, the dilemma in which
Iam placed. The committee throughout all this
affair have been obliged to act with the greatest
caution toward Dr. Watson. They have not been
willing to offend him. I think I do not use too
strong language. And I do believe had my business
rested solely on the feelings of the committee I
66 ILLIBERALITY OF DR. WATSON.

should have had every facility granted me that I
could wish. But Dr. Watson, I must say, from the
very first has conducted toward me with a cautious
reserve that I did not expect, and suggested certain
plans which I thought interfered a little with my
right of private judgment, not to say with my feel-
ings of delicacyand honor. Forinstance, he alluded
to the Mr. Braidwood, who is now in America, and
suggested the expediency of his being associated
with me in the school at Hartford. On this I need
make no remarks. He also urged quite strongly
the scheme of my carrying one of his assistants to
America with me. How could I do this? How
could I at present (not having heard aword from you)
pledge myself to bear the expenses of an assistant
across the water, and also that he should be sup-
ported when he arrived there. Besides, I knew not
the character or talents of his assistants, and a more
formidable objection still was the fear, lest my plans
of instruction and government might clash with this
assistant’s. He would be wedded to Dr. Watson’s
mode. I should wish, and I yet hope, to combine
the peculiar advantages of both the French and En-
glish modes of instruction. Forthere are considera-
ble differences between them. Well, Dr. Watson
saw that I was bent upon acquiring the art myself
and of pursuing my own plans of conduct. He now
began to talk of difficulties in the way of my admis-
sion into the institution, always taking care to let
me know that I ought originally to have applied to
him and that the committee had no control over
him in reference to this affair. He invited me, to be
ONEROUS CONDITIONS. 67

sure, to visit the school and look among the pupils.
He promised to give me any information in his power
and to solve if possible any difficulties I had
found in his art. But although I feel thankful to
him for these civilities yet he must have known
that I never could think of visiting his school, day
after day, in the character of a mere visitor. I
should soon have rendered myself obnoxious to him
and to his assistants by the ardor of my curiosity
and the frequency of my intercourse with his pupils.
No, I wanted a definite arrangement with him of
some kind or other that would have enabled me for
several months, perhaps more than a year, to have
become familiar with the theory and practice of his
art. I offered him a remuneration for any services
of this kind, but he declined it. He always talked
of the length of time that would be necessary to
acquire his art and generally spoke of four or five
years. He alluded also to the difficulty of intro-
ducing me into the school in any other character
than that of an assistant and for any short period of
time; inasmuch as doing otherwise would create dis-
affection among his assistants, who engage to stay
with him five years. I doubt not his views and feel-
ings had great influence upon the sub-committee in
making their report. And you see what this report
is. If I comply with it I must d2zd myself to dador
for Dr. Watson three whole years, be subject to his
complete disposal of me during that time, have no
hope of freedom unless he please (and all his feel-
ings of interest would lead him to detain me in
order to make his art appear as difficult and impor-
68 APPRENTICE WAGES OFFERED.

tant as possible), and what is worse than all, be con-
tinually retarded and cramped in my progress,
because I should be obliged to wait for the progress
of the pupils whom I might instruct. Besides, when
am I to avail myself of the Abbé Sicard’s kindness?
During these three years? No; Dr. Watson would
not consent to this. Afterwards? Then four or
five years must elapse from the time when I left you
to my return. This is too monstrous a sacrifice of
time and patience and money. Again, is it generous
to place me thus absolutely at Dr. Watson’s disposal
to say when I am qualified? Shall I be treated like
a mere apprentice, whom his master must chain by
indentures lest he make his escape ? Is no conf-
dence to be placed in my own judgment and integ-
rity? The more I think of this proposed arrange-
ment the more I dislike it, and I already begin to
look for some other way in which Providence may
guide me to the accomplishment of my wishes. I
do hope my perplexities here have taught me more
sensibly my dependence on Him. To Him do I look
for direction and I ask your prayers and the prayers
of my friends, that I may be enabled by His grace
to conduct with all due wisdom, discretion and pru-
dence in my arduous undertaking. I ought to have
observed that a salary of £35 per annum (with my
board), for the first year and something more for the
next is offered me, if I become Dr. Watson's assist-
ant. This would be well earned in toiling for him
from morning till night with only one-half day’s
recreation in the week allowed me!!! Think, my
dear sir, what a wound my feelings have received in
HOPE OF SUCCESS IN EDINBURGH. 69

all this business. Think how we used to speak
before I left you of the ready welcome and the
cheerful assistance that I should receive here. Com-
pare this with what has happened. You can easily
fillup the picture. Well, it has all been ordered
right and I have not despaired. Idonot. Edinburgh
and Paris are yet opento me. At the former is a
very respectable school under xod/e patronage, of
which a Mr. Kinniburgh is the teacher. My friends
here (many of them) advise me to go there. J can
not get worse terms than are offered mehere. J may
get better. The Scotch are hospitable. No rivalry
exists between Mr. Kinniburgh and the Abbé
Sicard. Living may be somewhat cheaper. The
voyage thither occupies at this season of the year
only three or four days and costs only as many
guineas. The Rev. David Bogue, of Gosport, of
whom you have doubtless heard, is now in London.
Ihave often consulted with him on my business.
He advises me strongly to go to Edinburgh. He
has been there and is intimately acquainted with
several eminent characters. He does not doubt my
success. He will give me the best letters of intro-
duction, among others, one to his particular friend,
J. F. Gordon, Esq., one of the secretaries of the
deaf and dumb institution. If I go to Edinburgh,
I shall hope for more openness and cordiality, and
for some arrangement with Mr. Kinniburgh which
will enable me to become acquainted with the English
mode of instruction at the same time that I may be
revising my French in order to go to Paris, as soon
as the state of France and my own preparation for
7° VARIOUS PLANS.

such a visit will permit. As to revising my French
here or having any leisure, it would be out of the
question under the arrangement which the commit-
tee propose to me. I can not write you any thing
yet respecting the internal economy and arrange-
ment of the school here, for I have not had the
opportunity of becoming acquainted with them. I
hope you are advancing in the affair athome. What-
ever arrangements can be made with regard to the
collection of money, for the erection of buildings
and the support of charity scholars ought, I think,
to be done. With regard to the structure of such
buildings, and the mode in which the pupils are
received, and supported and taught, I shall give you
the earliest information in my power. My funds
also will require an increase. My expenses are con- |
siderable already, although I conscientiously study
the strictest economy. They were much increased
by my journey from Liverpool hither. Besides, I
wish to purchase all the valuable books that I can
procure which have a reference to my future profes-
sion—the instruction of deaf-mutes. Ihave already
been to almost every bookshop in London for this
purpose and have procured a few, both in French
and English. The school in Hartford must have
suchalibrary. It is a pleasure to me to think that I
have the confidence of my friends at home, so that
when I ask for funds they will, I know, feel satisfied
that they will be applied with prudence to the fur-
therance of my object. I sometimes feel, however,
that as I have devoted myself to the deaf and dumb
in the early part of my life, with no stipulation with
PURCHASE OF BOOKS. 7

regard to my future support, trusting for this to the
ordering of events by a kind Providence, that I
might now be indulged with something more than
the mere paying of my expenses. A trifling sum
which I might use while in Europe for the procur-
ing of a small library of my own would be a favor
to me, and this I desire only because I have now
so good an opportunity of collecting a few books,
and have no resources of my own to do it with.
And, in fact, rather than be deprived of the advan-
tage of this opportunity, I should even seek for a
loan of a small sum of money from some of my
friends, hoping to be able to refund it after the
establishment of our school. But on this point I
merely disclose my feelings to yourself and Mr.
‘Woodbridge, and I should never wish to have it
mentioned if it would be at all unfriendly to the
nicest honor of my own character as a man and a
Christian, or unfriendly zz the least to the welfare of
the projected undertaking in which we have
embarked.

I ought to have mentioned that there are various
school-books and ingenious modes of instructing
youth in the different branches of knowledge, which
I ought to purchase while abroad for the use of our
school, and this also will make an increase to the
fund necessary. Perhaps in the course of the fall,
if itispracticable, you had better remit some money
to Peter Barlow, Esq., 8 Tokenhouse Yard, London,
by the way of a bill drawn in his favor on some
house here for my use. This would be better than
to draw in my favor directly, as I may be in Edin-
72 EXPENSES.

burgh. In the meanwhile I shall hope to get per-
manently settled and to write you more explicitly
than I now can respecting the probable extent of
my expenses and the length of my absence. I
have already expended since I concluded to embark
in this enterprise a little more than £130 sterling.
But you will observe this sum went to pay for the
necessary preparations for my voyage before I left
America; my expenses from Hartford to New York
and same at New York; my passage to Liverpool
and expenses there; my journey from Liverpool
hither ; a month’s residence here and some clothes
and books. What my expenses will in future be I
can not tell. I fear, however, that with the strictest
economy my personal expenses when settled (not
including necessary traveling or voyages, nor books,
etc., for the school), will not be less than 1000 dollars a
year. And this in London just enablesa single man to
live comfortably if he means to preserve an inter-
course with a few respectable people. August 17th.
This morning I breakfasted with Mr. Bogue and laid
before him all my views with regard to the arrange-
ment proposed to me at the school here. He
thought it best for me immediately to goto Edin-
burgh, so that you must not be surprised if I conclude
to shape my course thither within a few days.

The mother of Mr. Braidwood, who is in America,
will be much obliged by any information you can
give me respecting him. Do take some pains to do
this. I wish to oblige her, and write all you know of
him, be it good, bad or indifferent.

If, after all, I should judge it expedient to carry
LETTER FROM LONDON. 73

back with me an assistant from this side of the.
water for the benefit of the school in Hartford,
when I have qualified myself,—or should this
become the more necessary, in case I should con-
tinue to be met with obstacles in becoming familiar
with the English mode of instruction, and have easy
access only to the French school, what would the
patrons of our school say to such a plan? Should
we commence with a considerable number of pupils,
such an assistant might be quite necessary; for I
said that one person can not successfully devote his
whole attention to a great many. I only suggest
this for consideration and I wish to hear from you
and the other gentlemen on this point.

BE PARTICULAR also to send me by the earliest
opportunity an exact account of what has been done
with regard to the proposed school. And also some-
thing in the shape of a document to show these zwo
things : that the school is to be a public and charit-
able institution, and that I am the proposed teacher
of it and sent abroad for that purpose. Let this be
signed by some persons in their official capacity. I
have wanted already such a document very much.

August Igth. YesterdayI saw Dr. Watson and
informed him that I had concluded not to accept of
the arrangement proposed to me by the committee.
I asked him whether he could propose any plan for
the accomplishment of my wishes. He rather
waived the subject and soon observed that I might
perhaps as well make experiments upon deaf and
dumb pupils in the United States as here. And yet
he often speaks of the long time in which, under
74 DECISION TO LEAVE LONDON.

Mr. Braidwood, he was acquiring a familiarity with
the theory and practice of his art. I did not press
the subject. He again alluded to the difficulty there
would be in introducing me into his school in an
unknown character, meaning, no doubt, that I had
not brought with me any officzal document to show
that I was designated as the instructor of a public
and charitable institution.

But with regard to what I have said of Dr. Wat-
son’s character and motives, it is my most earnest
and particular request, that no publicity be given,
inany shape. I have aright to form my own opinion
of the treatment which I have met with here and to
“communicate it in confidence to my friends. But it
is the part of prudence and of Christian forbearance,
too, in what we say openly of others, not to
impeach their motives of conduct unless they avow
them. It will be enough, therefore, to say, that the
committee have proposed terms to me, that I could
not feel myself justified in accepting, when I con-
sidered the importance of accomplishing my object
as speedily as its final success would permit.

I hope to leave London for Edinburgh next week.
I shall have the best letters of introduction, and I
hope Providence will see fit to smile upon my visit
there. You shall hear from me very soon again.
Yesterday I wrote Mr. Woodbridge by the Crtteria
for New York, giving him a sort of epitome of this
letter. This I did that you might be sure to hear
from me.

What has become of Julia Brace? I hope she
will not be forgotten. You may think it chimerical,
COURAGE UNABATED. 75

but I do believe she might be taught many words
and perhaps to read, by having raised letters, in
relief, as it were, which she might feel. This is the
way the blind are taught at Amsterdam. I have a
specimen of their type. They are now learning to
read the Bible with their fingers.

IT long to see Hartford once more and to be in the
midst of my deaf and dumb children. I feel more
than ever devoted to the object. Be assured I shall
not be deterred from prosecuting it by any obstacles.
It’s a good cause, and Providence, we have every
‘reason to think, will crown it with final success, But
we must feel our dependence on Him. Mere human
wisdom and strength are broken reeds on which to
lean. How much I want to hear of your welfare
and that of your dear family—may I say, of your
spiritual welfare. How often while I was with you,
did I wish to ask the question, but my heart failed
me, whether you did indulge the hope of being born
of God. Even now, perhaps, I am taking a liberty
which it is sometimes thought even the closest
friendship will not justify. Pardon me. You will
not object, however, to my saying that it is often
my most earnest prayer that all that dwell beneath
your roof may receive the richest of spiritual blessings
in Christ Jesus, and that God may enter into covenant
with each of your souls. Let me ask, also, your
prayers for me, that I may be preserved in safety
till my return, and above all, that I may be enabled
continually to act with a reference to the glory of
God and to the best good of my fellow-men.

‘I have once written Alice, and I again write her.
76 EDINBURGH.

I shall hope to hear from her. Remember me
affectionately to Mrs. C. and all your family and
to other friends who may think of me.

Yours sincerely,

T. H. GALLAUDET.

A few days after writing this letter, Mr.
Gallaudet repaired to Edinburgh, with strong
hopes of attaining the object he had so much
at heart. But in Edinburgh, as in London,
he was to encounter the Braidwood monopoly,
and to find men of naturally benevolent dis-
positions and generous impulses, willing to
recognize its binding force as against such an
appeal from a distant foreign land as he most
eloquently urged. Mr. Gallaudet’s experience
in Edinburgh is fully given in the following
letters, the first being to Dr. Cogswell :

EDINBURGH, Sept. 22, 1815.

My DEaRr SIR:—Not a syllable has yet reached
me from Hartford. Indeed I am much grieved at
this. I want to know your movements with regard
to our project. I can not account for your silence.
So many opportunities by which to write me, and
yet four months now have elapsed since I left you,
‘and I am wholly ignorant of what you are doing.
I have written you and Mr. Woodbridge again and
again, giving you a circumstantial detail of my pro-
ceedings. My last letters were sent by Mr. Junius
LETTER FROM EDINBURGH. 77

Smith, who sailed in the Venus, bound for New
York, the latter part of the last month. By him I
gave you a journal of my proceedings at London.
Strange that I should meet with any disappointment
at the institution in that metropolis for the deaf and
dumb! But so it was. Although I had frequent
access to the school and several conferences with
Dr. Watson, yet when I proposed any thing like
an effectual arrangement for the accomplishment of
my object, terms were offered me by the committee
to which I could not accede. But of all this trans-
action, I have given both yourself and Mr. Wood-
bridge, by different vessels, a particular account.
And here also I am surrounded with unexpected
embarrassments. Mr. Kinniburgh, the instructor of
the school in this place for the deaf and dumb,
received his first instructions in his art from Mr.
Thomas Braidwood, the grandson of the original
Mr. Braidwood, to whom he bound himself not to
communicate any information respecting the subject
to any individual for seven years. Four years of this
period have expired. I have been corresponding
with Mr. Thomas Braidwood on this subject, in hopes
that I might prevail on him to release Mr. Kinni-
burgh so far as his bond might refer to America.
But Mr. Braidwood is not to be moved. This morn-
ing I received a positive refusal to my application.
The reason for this which Mr. B. assigned is, that his
brother, Mr. Jno. B., is in our country,—the same
gentleman of whom we heard as being in Virginia.
The truth is, he left this place a few years since in
disgrace. He was solicited to undertake the super-
78 THE BRAIDWOOD MONOPOLY.

intendence of a public school for the deaf and dumb.
He conducted so badly and contracted so many
debts, that he was obliged to abscond. What de-
pendence can be placed on such a character! Still
I do not despair. I hope yet to persuade the com-
mittee of the school here either that the bond
under which Mr. Kinniburgh is laid is an illegal one,
or at least that it has no reference to one froma
foreign country. Still my success in this is prob-
lematical. I shall make all the efforts in my power.
If I fail I shall resort to one or two private instruc-
tors in this neighborhood and in London, and if the
state of France will permit, I shall visit the Abbé
Sicard. I shall want more money to be remitted
to Mr. Barlow. My expenses have been consider-
ably increased by my unexpected delays and disap-
pointments. Indeed I am confounded almost by
this scene of trial which I have to pass through.
But Ido not despair. You must trust me that I
will gain all the advantages I can for the promotion
of our common object. I feel devoted to it. I long
to see it accomplished. If you mean to have this
business carried through, it will be necessary speedily
to remit more money. Not that Iam yet in want
of it, but it is better to be beforehand in affairs of
this kind. Perhaps I may yet have to expend some
money in accomplishing my arrangements with the
instructor here or with some private instructor in
the way of a fee. Possibly an offer of this kind may
yet move Mr. Braidwood. Mr. Kinniburgh wants
no such reward.. He is a most benevolent man.
Should such an arrangement be necessary, how large
MEETING WITH DUGALD STEWART. 79

a sum can you devote to this purpose? How much
have you already raised? Rest assured I shall study
economy in all my personal expenses; but if, after
having devoted myself to this object simply on the
condition at present of having my expenses defrayed,
I am left in the lurch for the sake of a little money
which I know could be raised in a short time in
Boston and New York, I shall be extremely dis-
appointed with regard to the generosity of my
countrymen. For some days past I have been
laboring to procure acquaintance among persons of
influence here who may be able to assist me in any
plans which I may finally think it expedient to
adopt. Among these I feel a peculiar satisfaction
in naming Dugald Stewart, Esq. And how do you
think I found access to him? It was by means of
Julia Brace, the little deaf, dumb, and blind girl, the
importance of visiting whom I so strongly urged
upon you, as you, no doubt, recollect. I mentioned
her case to Dr. Buchanan, one of the clergymen of
this place, observing that I should much like to
communicate the facts respecting her to Mr. Stewart.
Mr. S. happened soon to be in town. Dr. B. intro-
duced me to him. Iwas invited to spend a day and
night in his family at Kinneil house, about eighteen
miles distant. I did this a few days since and left
with him an account of Julia Brace with which he
appeared to be much interested. I shall hope to
see him in town before long. In the meanwhile
Mrs. Stewart gave me a letter of introduction to
Dr. John Gordon, the writer of the article “Deaf
and Dumb” in the Encyclopedia, one of the com-
80 , AINDRANCES.

mittee of the institution here, on whom I have called,
and I have no doubt that he will do every thing in
his power to promote my object. He feels a deep
interest in the general subject. But you can hardly
conceive how slow a business it is to get at large
bodies of men in this country. Several weeks, you
recollect, elapsed in London before their committee
could give me their ultimatum. And it will be some
time before I can make my final arrangements here.
I rejoice, however, that I came to Edinburgh. Here
men of science have taken an interest in the instruc-
tion of the deaf and dumb. Here there are several
pupils, men of respectability, of the former Mr.
Braidwood’s, with whom I can have an acquaintance.
There is also one gentleman in town, and another
thirty or forty miles distant, who have practiced
this art; so that I shall procure a great deal of
general information on the subject, even if I should
not be able finally to get access to Mr. Kinniburgh’s
school. As soon as I make any definite arrangement
T shall be careful to inform you by the first oppor-
tunity. I have been in Mr. Kinniburgh’s school.
Several of his pupils have made great progress;
Turner, especially, whose letters are published in the
Edinburgh Encyclopedia. I am now reading the
Abbé Sicard’s system in French, by way of prepara-
tion, in case I should visit him in Paris. He expects
to publish a new work on the subject in the course
of a few months. It will appear in London. Could
I get all the necessary instruction in Scotland or
England, and have a complete set of the Abbé
Sicard’s works, I should think it of less importance
GREETINGS TO FRIENDS AT HOME. 81

to visit Paris. But time alone can determine this.
In the meanwhile, I hope my friends in Hartford
will continue to remember me in their prayers, that
I may be carried through this arduous undertaking
successfully. Indeed I long to return. I feel more
and more satisfied that the simple, quiet, retired
path of duty, in which we can in some way or other
serve God and do good to the bodies and souls of
men, is the only path of peace. Oh, that we may all
be enabled to walk in it! During the short time that
I have been in Edinburgh I have seen objects and
formed acquaintances which, on the other side of
the water, would, in prospect, have filled my soul
with the most splendid visions of delight. To tread
this classic ground, to be in the Athens of the world,
and even to have intercourse with some of its
greatest philosophers and literati, all this would
promise much. But it has all served to convince
me that nothing can satisfy the immortal mind but
God Himself, and that so long as we divide our
hearts between Him and any other object, so long
there must be a tumult of wretchedness in our
breasts.

How do you all do? What advances is Alice
making? My best regards to Mrs. C., to Mary,
Elizabeth, and Mason. Nor would I forget your
domestics, to whom I wish to be remembered. May
Almighty God continue to bless you all with every
needful temporal and spiritual good.

Yours truly,
T. H. GALLAUDET.
82 LETTER FROM EDINBURGH.

In a letter bearing date Edinburgh,
December 6, 1815, to Mr. Ward Wood-
bridge, of Hartford, Mr. Gallaudet, after
rehearsing his futile efforts to induce Mr.
Braidwood to release the authorities of the
Edinburgh school from their bond of £1,000
to him, writes as follows:

Notwithstanding Mr. B’s refusal, I still had
hopes that the committee of the institution, might,
upon reflection, consider the bond as an illegal one,
or, at least, as not applicable to my case. I was
encouraged in this by several of my friends. I
resolved, of course, to apply to the committee.
Many of them, and Mr. Gordon among the rest,
were in the country. I had to wait some time for
their return. They at last met and were unani-
mously of opinion that good faith required of them
a strict observance of the bond even in the ease of a
foreigner. I wish, however, that you should under-
stand that in all the intercourse which I have had
with the committee and with Mr. Kinniburgh, the
worthy and able teacher of the institution, I have
met with the most kind and liberal treatment; and I
have not the smallest doubt, that had it been pos-
sible, I should have received from the institution,
gratuitously and cordially, every assistance which it
could afford me. These events occupied some time.
The season had advanced considerably and several
reasons determined me to spend a few months
longer in Edinburgh. The state of France was at
LETTER FROM EDINBURGH. 83

the time very unsettled. A few months would
probably determine whether the Bourbons could
maintain their place. The libraries here contain
several rare and valuable works on the instruction
of the deaf and dumb, which I could not probably
have any other opportunity of examining. From
these, especially from a treatise by Dalgarno, belong-
ing to Dugald Stewart, Esq., I have made extracts
that I hope will be of service tome. Dr. Gordon
also, the author of the article ‘Dumb and Deaf”
in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and Dr. Thos.
Brown, Professor of Moral Philosophy, have been
kind enough from time to time to lend me books
which treat directly on the subject of my intended
pursuit. I have also been attending Dr. Brown’s
lectures on the Philosophy of the Mind and revising
my French a little; so that, all things considered, I
hope our project will not eventually suffer by my
detention here. I ought to mention also that I have
been successful enough to procure the Abbé Sicard’s
works, which I have been reading. My present plan
is to visit Paris in the spring. In some of my late
letters I have mentioned that it would be well to
add a little to my pecuniary resources. It is best
to be in season with things of this kind. I have
resolved to ask whether it would be thought quite
consistent with the strictest adherence to propriety,
to allow me while abroad something more than my
mere expenses. Uhave one reason for making this
request, the wish that I have to improve the oppor-
tunity I enjoy of purchasing a few books. But do
not mistake me. J have no wish to push this matter.
84 LETTER FROM EDINBURGH.

Whether it be pride or a better principle, I do hope
that my settled plan of life is to devote myself to
the service of God and to trust to His providence to
make provision for me, without being at all partic-
ular on this point in any dealings which I may have
with my fellow-men.

I close this letter in haste, as I have just received
a letter from my brother who expects to sail from
Liverpool in a few days. Give my best remem-
brance to all inquiring friends. My health has suf-
fered a little from the extreme variableness and
humidity of the Edinburgh winter; but I hope to
revive in the spring. May the Giver of all good
continue to yourself and family this invaluable
blessing and shower down upon you the more
delightful blessings of His grace. My best regards
to Mrs. W. and your family.

Yours truly,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

Among Mr. Gallaudet’s papers numerous
evidences appear of the efforts he speaks of
making “to procure acquaintance among
persons of influence” who might aid him in
his efforts to break down the Braidwood mon-
opoly.

His diary mentions a ‘breakfast Thursday
morning, August 31st, with Rev. D. Dickson,
D. D.;” ofa“ dinner with Dr. Duncan, senior,
Friday, September rst ;” ofa“ dinner with Mr.
SOCIAL ATTENTIONS. 85

James Carmichael, Saturday, September 2nd ;”
of a “dinner with Dr. Anderson, Sunday,
September 3d ;” of a “‘ breakfast with Rev. Dr.
Hall, Monday, September 4th, at Pulan’s farm-
house, half a mile from the Lunatic Asylum
Morning-side village, Lenton Road;” and a
dinner at a ‘festival of Pomona, Oman’s
Tavern, St. Andrew's Square, Tuesday, Sep-
tember 5th.” Among the friends he made was
Lady Anna Maria Elliott, a daughter of the
Earl of Minto, to whom Mrs. Dugald Stewart
had introduced him. Lady Anna was a friend
of Mrs. Braidwood, and expressed the hope to
Mr. Gallaudet that “Mrs. Braidwood might
perhaps listen to the representations of an
impartial person, sooner than to those who
may be supposed to have a nearer interest in
the matter.” But the Braidwood monopoly
was equally proof against the blandishments
of personal friendship and titled rank, as
against appeals in the name of Christian
charity.

To Mr. Gallaudet, and as he says, to some of
his advisers, the contract with Mr. Braidwood
seemed as one without legal force, and this
view he did not hesitate to express openly.
But when the incidents of his experience in
Edinburgh were made, somewhat later, the
86 LETTER FROM ALICE COGSWELL.

subject of comment in the public journals, he
was virulently assailed, accused of the “sin of
violating the obligations of gratitude and
truth,” charged with ‘obtuseness of under-
standing” and a “defective moral system,” all
because he had ventured to characterize the
Braidwood bond as an zllecztum pactum.
While remaining in Edinburgh Mr. Gallau-
det received an interesting letter from his far
off pupil, Alice Cogswell, which will be read
with interest as showing the progress she
was making under the instructions of Miss

Huntley [Mrs. L. H. Sigourney].

HARTFORD, Wednesday, October 11, 1815.

My Dear Sir :—I remember story Miss Huntley
was tell me. Old many years Mr. Colt little boy
Name man Peter Colt very much curls little boy hair
Oh! very beautiful mama lap little boy comb curl love
to see O beautiful. Morning long man preacher
coat black come bow ask mama give little boy hair
make wigs very beautiful preacher give, mama no
preacher yes oh yes talk long man say come back
little boy scissors cut hair white hair curls all in
heap make wig preacher am very much glad proud
little—little boy head very cold mama tie handker-
chief warm, tears no more mama very sorry. I
hope my hair never cut make wigs—This morning
study all in school away Geography all beautiful a
school all very beautiful very still very good noise
LETTER FROM DR. COGSWELL. | 87

no—the Play no, Miss Huntley work and two go
Norwich all school come not—me very sorry come
back little while—O all very glad,—O beautiful—I
love you very much—
Your affectionate,
ALICE COGSWELL.

In a letter from Dr. Cogswell, of the same
date, Alice’s letter is explained as follows :—

As soon as I knew of Mr. Upson’s sailing I pro-
posed to Alice to write you by him. She readily
consented, but said she wasat a loss what to write. I
told her to write the story Miss Huntley related to
her from Mr. Colt—the circumstances I will relate,
that you may the better understand it: Mr. Peter
Colt, from Patterson, was lately here on a visit; he
told her [Miss Huntley] what happened to him, when
he was a little boy. It seems he had avery thick
head of white curled hair: a clergyman who was
visiting his mamma, took a fancy to it, for the pur-
pose of making himself a wz, his mamma, at first,
refused, but after a little urging, talk long, as Alice
calls it, she consented, and the hair was cut off and
the wig made. You will observe that the conver.
sation between his mamma and the preacher is
somewhat in the form of a dialogue. You know so
much of her manner, that I believe you will under-
stand it. Miss Huntley communicated the story to
her by signs. Miss Huntley, as you will perceive
by Alice’s letter, isat Norwich, ona visit. The letter
88 LETTER TO DUGALD STEWART.

isall her own, without any assistance or correction.
With every wish for your success and happiness,
Iam affectionately yours,
Mason F. COGSWELL.
Mr. T. H. GALLAUDET.

Mr. Gallaudet remained in Edinburgh until
toward the close of the winter, making good
use of his time, as may be understood from
his letters, although he failed to accomplish
the special object of his visit. The memo-
randa found in his notebooks show him to
have been indefatigable in his endeavors to
improve himself in every possible way. He
made many acquaintances among the cultivated
people of Scotland—visiting Dugald Stewart
at his home near Edinburgh, and Thomas
Chalmers at Glasgow—both of whom, as well
as Mrs. Stewart, became his warm friends, Dr.
Chalmers sustaining a voluminous correspond-
ence with him after his return to America.

Mr. Gallaudet during his stay in Edinburgh
wrote a letter to Dugald Stewart, describing
the case of Julia Brace, a blind deaf-mute
whom he had visited before leaving America.
Some extracts from this letter will be of
interest, particularly in view of the fact that the
teaching of this child antedated by several
years the education of Dr. Howe’s more dis-
CASE OF JULIA BRACE. 89

tinguished deaf and blind pupil, Laura
Bridgman.

Mr. Gallaudet says, under date of September
26, 1815:

When about four years and a half old, this little
girl was afflicted with a violent fever of long con-
tinuance, on her recovery from which it was found
that she was entirely blind and deaf. She had
before this enjoyed the use of all her senses in perfec-
tion. . . . . Fora short time after her loss
of sight and hearing she retained the use of
speech, which she employed to make her wants
known to those around her. But in this she soon
became imperfect and incoherent. Still she would
delight to repeat in their order the little lessons of
words she had before learned in her spelling book,
and what was most distressing to hear, to pour forth,
occasionally, an incessant volley of oaths and impre-
cations, which were,no doubt, first taught her by
the force of a pernicious example, and now furnished
by memory on every occasion of perturbation or
anger; for at this time she was the victim of a tem-
per so furious and ungovernable, that nothing short
of absolute confinement could restrain it; and
this, as the mother acknowledged, was unfortunately
too seldom employed. Her circle of words daily
contracted within narrower and narrower limits, so
that when I saw her she uttered nothing more
during the space of a few hours than two or three
inarticulate sounds which seemed to be the result of
go CASE OF JULIA BRACE.

some emotions, though they were entirely unintelli-
gible. And these imperfect remains of speech must
soon be lost, so that she will in a little while be as
absolutely dumb as she is now deaf and blind. Her
senses of touch and smell have been gradually grow-
ing more acute and discriminating. She could goto
any part of the house without assistance, and even
into the yard, which she sometimes did with a bas-
ket for the purpose of gathering chips.

When any new object was given to her she first
felt every part of it, moving the ends of her fingers
over it with peculiar minuteness and delicacy. She
then applied it to her upper lip, on which she rubbed
it for some time, as if there was the seat of a more
nice sensibility of feeling, and after smelling it, all of
which she did with much apparent eagerness and
delight, she immediately placed it in her sister’s
hands, still retaining hold of it herself, and with her
fingers directing her sister to the same process of
touching and smelling through which she had just
passed, and the pleasure of which she seemed to
wish to enhance by making it a social one.

Speaking of a fear of strangers, and espe-
cially men, which Julia had, and which could be
traced to a dread of her physician, who had
applied painful blisters to various parts of her
body during her illness, Mr. Gallaudet says :

When I saw her this fear had very considerably
' abated; . . she freely felt us, rubbing our hands
CASE OF JULIA BRACE. gt

with her own, which she afterwards applied to her
nose, as if still retaining on them the peculiarity of
our smell, which by this curious mode of transmis-
sion she seemed to acquire with wonderful accuracy.
An experiment that we several times repeated fur-
nished satisfactory evidence of this.

We put our watchesinto herhands. While doing
it, she rubbed our hands with one of her own, which
she immediately applied to her nose, in order to
determine to whom the object belonged. Then she
passed through her usual process of feeling and
smelling the watches, with their appendages, and of
soliciting her sister to do the same. After she
appeared to be satisfied with doing this, each of us
attempted to take from her the watch which did not
belong to him. She invariably perceived the decep-
tion, would not suffer the wrong commutation, as
she might deem it, to take place, but returned to
each his own watch. . . . New clothes are
highly gratifying to her. . . . She has some-
times a disposition for sport, particularly in the way
of playing off tricks of youthful merriment on her
brothers and sisters.

After detailing some incidents, Mr. Gallau-
det expresses the opinion that a certain amount
of instruction might be imparted to this un-
fortunate child—claiming, however, much less
important results than were actually attained
when Julia came, a few years later, under his
care in the school he established at Hartford.
92 ZACHARY MACAULAY.

After having gained much useful knowledge
in school, Julia Brace lived happily for many
years in the institution at Hartford, perform-
ing certain duties in an exemplary manner,
and enjoying the society of a circle of friends
to whom she was warmly attached, and with
whom she communicated with considerable
facility through the medium of the language
of signs. She never attained to any great
proficiency in verbal language.

On the 12th of February, 1816, Mr. Gallau.
det left Edinburgh for London, where he spent
a couple of weeks before proceeding to Paris.
It was during this stay in London that he made
the acquaintance of Major-General Macaulay
and his brother Zachary, the father of the
great historian.

With Zachary Macaulay, who was then the
editor of the Chrzstzan Observer, Mr. Gallau-
det formed an intimate and valued friendship
which was broken only by the death of Mr,
Macaulay. Many long letters, on subjects of
public, as well as private, interest passed
between the two friends, one of which will
be found at the end of this chapter.

Mr. Gallaudet arrived in Paris on the goth
of March. Within three days he was cordi-
ally received by the Abbe Sicard, then at the

 
ARRIVAL IN PARTS. 93

head of the Royal School for Deaf-Mutes,
and offered every possible facility for the
achievement of the object he had been vainly
pursuing in Great Britain.

The benevolent Abbe permitted Mr. Gal-
laudet to have access to the several classes of
the school, beginning with the lowest and pro-
ceeding in regular order through those of
higher grade.

He also arranged that Mr. Gallaudet should
have private lessons from his distinguished
pupil and assistant Massieu.

For two months this work of training went
diligently forward. On the 2oth of May an
important incident occurred, which is recorded
as follows in Mr, Gallaudet’s diary :

In a conversation had with Clerc this day he
proposed going to America with me as an assistant,
if the Abbé Sicard would give hisconsent. I think
of addressing the Abbé on the subject.

Clerc was a young deaf-mute about his own
age, who had been a favorite pupil of Sicard’s,
and was then teaching a class in the Paris
institution. He was a man of more than
ordinary ability, well versed in all Sicard’s
methods of instruction.
94 : LETTER TO SICARD.

His proposal to accompany Mr. Gallaudet
to America was most opportune, for the latter
was beginning to feel somewhat impatient to
return to his native land, and begin the work
for which he had been so long endeavoring to
prepare himself.

Mr. Gallaudet lost no time in seeking the
Abbe’s consent to part with Clerc, sending
him the following letter within twenty-four
hours after Clerc had offered to accompany
him to America.

TO THE REVEREND MR. THE ABBE SICARD:

Director of the Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb, member of the National Institute of
France, etc., etc.

REVEREND AND ESTEEMED SIR:—On Sunday
last I unexpectedly met an American friend, the
commander of a vessel which is soon to sail for the
United States, who very strongly solicits me to
return with him to my native land. His request is
seconded by another of my friends, who has been
engaged in this city for twelve years past, in com-
mercial transactions, and who expects to return to
America in the same ship. The conveyance would
be peculiarly convenient and agreeable tome. I
suggested this circumstance to Mr. Clerc, at the
same time expressing my fears that it would be
quite out of my power to enjoy it, as I doubted
whether I could be sufficiently qualified for my

 

 
LETTER TO SICARD. 95

intended employment, the instruction of the deaf
anddumb. I also observed, that could I procure
some deaf-mute as an assistant, I should not hesi-
tate to doit. Mr. Clerc, of his own accord, offered
to go with me in this capacity. I told him I could
not think of proposing any arrangement of this kind
without first securing your approbation, and it is for
this reason I now take the liberty of addressing you.

Iam fully sensible, Reverend Sir, that in asking
you to part with so faithful and valuable a pupil, I soli-
cit, on your part, a great sacrifice; and I should have
but little hope of succeeding in my request, were I
not satisfied that the zzterests of humanity in the
western world will plead strongly with you in my
behalf. To these interests, in Europe, your life and
genius have been devoted, and I can assure you the
pleasure which I should feel in transmitting, from
your hands, so great a blessing to my countrymen
would only be equaled by their gratitude in receiv-
ing it. They are by no means ignorant of your
justly acquired reputation, and could I thus com-
mence the establishment in New England for the
instruction of the deaf and dumb, under your
auspices, the name of Szcard would be as dear to
America as it now is to France.

My country is already under great obligations to
you, Reverend Sir, for the very great kindness with
which you have given me free access to the advant-
ages of your important establishment, but how
would those obligations be increased, could you con-
sent to send Mr. Clerc with me, as an illustration of
the wonders you have performed in redeeming the
96 LETTER TO SICARD,

human mind from the darkness of ignorance, and in
illuminating it with the rays of knowledge and virtue.
In such a gift the world would see an illustrious
proof that phzlosophy and humanity equally prevail in
the breast of the Father of the Deaf and Dumb in
France, and that his dexevolence can surrender for the
good of mankind what his genzus has adorned with
the most useful and endearing accomplishments.

Very unexpectedly, and ina manner quite unsolic-
ited on my part, Mr. Clerc expressed his willing-
ness to go with me should it meet with your appro-
bation. Should you consent, Reverend Sir, to grant
this approbation, I have no doubt that Mr. Clerc
and myself could enter into arrangements which
would be deemed advantageous for him, both by
himself and friends. For the establishment which
I hope to commence, having already excited consid-
erable interest in New Engiand, being under public
and respectable patronage, and having a town for
its intended situation which is less than two days
journey from the large cities of Boston, New York,
and Albany, will, I trust, if properly conducted, soon
be in a flourishing condition.

T have taken the liberty, Reverend Sir, of express-
ing my thoughts in writing, for I thought I could
do this with the most clearness and precision, and
could you furnish me with your reply in the course
of a day ortwo, I shall esteem it agreat favor. I am,
Reverend Sir, with sentiments of unfeigned respect,

Your very obedient servant,
Tuomas H. GALLAUDET.

PaRISs, May 21, 1816.

 

 
LETTER FROM SICARD. 97

The venerable Abbe, now nearly eighty
years of age, hesitated at first from parting
with his favored pupil and valued teacher, but
not many days passed before the eloquent
appeal of Mr. Gallaudet produced its effect
and the consent of the Abbe was communi-
cated in the following note :

J'ai repondu, ce matin, 4 neuf heures 4 mon
cher eléve Clerc, et je lui donne mon approbation,
avec des conditions qu’il vous communiquera. J’es-
pere, monsieur, que vous serez content de moi.
Je fais, avec plaisir, le sacrifice que vous m’avez de-
mandé. ce 27 mai, 1816.

L’ABBE SICARD.

Mr. Gallaudet felt himself justified, though
not authorized in any way to bind the gentle-
men under whose patronage he was in Europe,
in entering into a contract with Mr. Clerc for
three years. The provisions of this agree-
ment were very advantageous to the young
Frenchman, and he turned his face toward the
New World under favoring conditions rarely
accorded to men. He was called to bear an
important and prominent part in a philan-
thropic work in a new country, being at the
same time free from any considerable respon-
sibility or anxiety for the undertaking; a
98 PREACHING IN PARIS.

handsome income was assured to him, with the
privilege of returning to his native land after
three years ; and he went as the friend of the
chief actor in this new enterprise.

Having secured the services of Clerc, Mr.
Gallaudet lost no time in returning to America.

Within three weeks, or as soon as Mr. Clerc
could complete his arrangements for leaving
home and friends, they sailed from Havre
on the 18th of June.

The records of Mr. Gallaudet’s stay in Paris
show that he lived a life of intense activity
during the fourteen weeks that he remained
there.

The best hours of every available working
day were devoted to the school-rooms of the
institution for deaf-mutes. Private lessons
from competent teachers supplemented these
zealouslabors. Time was found for numerous
social engagements and some sight-seeing,
and besides all this Mr. Gallaudet acted as
pastor to an English speaking congregation,
preaching no less than fifteen sermons, which
were afterwards published in a volume.

A number of these sermons were prepared
in Paris; and the entire collection, coming as
it did from one with little previous experience
as a preacher, received such high praise from

 

 
SERMONS PUBLISHED, : 99

the critics of the day as to call for more than
a passing notice in this connection.

Mr. Gallaudet, in his dedicatory note to
Mrs. Hannah More, with whom he had formed
an intimate acquaintance while in England,
speaks as follows of the sermons and the
occasion of their delivery :*

Most of them were delivered while I was prose-
cuting in Paris, under the auspices of the venerable
Abbé Sicard and his interesting pupil, Clerc, my
present fellow-laborer, the object of qualifying my-
self to instruct an unfortunate and too long neglected
portion of my countrymen, the deaf and dumb.
Several of your Nation and my own, taught in their
own lands to hallow the Sabbath of the Lord, felt a
desire to do this in the splendid and voluptuous
city where they had assembled, as their surest safe-
guard against its fascinating seductions, and, at the
request of this little flock of strangers I became
their temporary preacher in the Chapel of the Ora-
toire, to which we were kindly allowed access.

The volume, which was published in 1818,
received warm commendation in America, but
nowhere was it more highly approved than in

 

* Discourses on Various Points of Christian Faith and Prac-
tice; most of which were delivered in the Chapel of the Ora-
toire, in Paris, in the spring of 1816, by Thomas H. Gallaudet.
New York: 1818.
100 =APPROVAL OF SERMONS IN ENGLAND.

England, in the columns of the Christian
Observer, London, in July, 1818, two years
before Sidney Smith flippantly inquired, “In
the four quarters of the globe, who reads an
American book ?”

The Odserver, after a long extract from
the closing sermon, which was one delivered
at the opening of the school for deaf-mutes in
Hartford in 1817, says:

From the length of this quotation it may possi-
bly be inferred that we consider the last discourse
as the best in the collection; and perhaps, at the
moment in which we are writing these lines, there
may be some justice in the remark, so far, at least,
as regards the touching eloquence of the composi-
tion. But in truth a similar kind of impression has
accompanied us in the perusal of almost every
sermon in the volume. It is impossible to read
one of them, without perceiving the deep seriousness
of the writer, and the elevated character of his mind.
His subjects are of high importance; and he appears
to be capable of adorning any subject which falls
within the range of his Christian ministrations. His
views are scriptural and correct; his imagination
lively, but under due control; his language, at all
times, or with very rare and trifling exceptions, per-
spicuous, elegant and chaste, and often remarkable
for its vivid and glowing eloquence; and the arrange-
ment of his materials is so easy and natural, that
every thing seems to have fallen without effort into

 
APPROVAL OF SERMONS IN ENGLAND. 101

its proper place. Many of his subjects are common,
but he has the art of throwing over them an air of
novelty; and while we consent implicitly to every
statement as he proceeds, we do it with the sort of
pleasure experienced by a traveler in passing ona
road with which he was formerly acquainted, but the
beauties of which he does not recollect to have
sufficiently observed. He remembers the great
features of the country around him, but there isa
certain freshness in the air, or a luxuriance of vege-
tation, ora general liveliness in the landscape, which
had hitherto in some way escaped him; and he is
glad to dwell upon ancient recollections, with so
many circumstances of additional interest and unex-
pected gratification.

It is, further, the uniform tendency of these dis-
courses to invest Christianity with an amiable and
dignified character. We feel that there is some-
thing ennobling in religion, and are almost com-
pelled to love and toadmire it. Someof the topics of
inquiry would lead many preachers into the thorny
paths of controversial disputation; but the mind of
Mr. Gallaudet is of too high an order to be thus
beguiled. He appears to have drunk of the pure
streams of Christianity—pure as they flow from the
fountain of holy truth—and the words which he
speaks are words of truth and soberness. If his
views be elevated, his religion is also practical; and
few intelligent persons can peruse these discourses
without perceiving both the reasonableness and the
excellence of the principles which they inculcate.
We venture in conclusion, to recommend them as
102 LETTER FROM THOMAS CHALMERS.

admirable specimens of compositions for the pulpit
—equally remote from coldness and enthusiasm ;
animated, interesting, and judicious. And many as
are the valuable sermons produced by the divines
of our own country, we shall rejoice to be frequently
favored by such importations from America.

The following letters, selected from among
a great number, must serve as illustrations of
the correspondence which grew out of Mr.
Gallaudet’s stay in Great Britain.

Letter from Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D. D.

GLascGow, March 2, 1817.

My DEAR SIR:—I beg leave to transmit for your
acceptance a volume of sermons published by me
within these few days. I received all the pamphlets
about the Peace Society, and also your volume
of sermons. I am compelled to say that I have, as
yet, been able to look very little into either of them.
I am glad to understand that your volume has been
very favorably noticed in the Odserver. But really
for myself, I am so excessively engrossed, and Iam
so miserably in arrears, both with unread books,
and unanswered letters, that I must for some time
store it unread. I have been sadly pressed to take
an active part in the business of a Peace Society
established here. This I can not do, and all that I
can possibly afford in behalf of this object, is my
testimony in its favor.
LETTER FROM THOMAS CHALMERS. 103

I had, not many weeks ago, an application from
Mr. Farquhar Gordon, of Edinburgh, for your ser-
mon and report on the subject of the deaf and
dumb. He had not seen them at that time. And
I have, since I sent them, had another letter in
which he fully exculpates you. I have learned that
he was the author of the article against you in the
Instructor, though I do not think that it is at all in
harmony with the temper and principles of the
man.

I cordially acquiesce in all you say about the
dangers of conformity. I at one time thought that
much would be done to conciliate the support of
worldly men to the good cause, could its accommo-
dation to the interests of civil society be cunningly
held out to them. Iam now far less sanguine of
any good from their co-operation, and am veering
toward the opinion, that the more broadly the
aspect of peculiarity and separation is flashed upon
the public eye, so much the better. Let us not
partition this matter, or give countenance to the
doctrine that there is any compatibility between the
spirit of the Gospel and the spirit of natural and
unconverted men. At the same time I rejoice in
the belief, that Christianity is making progress; that
evangelical statements are more tolerated by the
public at large, and are entering with demonstration
and power into a great number of individual hearts;
that the national impulse at present is on the side
of religious education; and that amid the conflict
and operation of all the elements of darkness, there
is an element of grace, working and growing and
104 LETTER FROM THOMAS CHALMERS. .

making such progress, as will at length subordinate
and, like the rod of Aaron, swallow up all the others.

It is my earnest prayer, in your behalf, that as
you have experienced the fulfillment of the one say-
ing, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation,’ so you
may experience the fulfilment of the other, ‘that in
Christ ye shall have peace.’ May this peace rest in
your heart, and the world will not take it away. Do,
my dear sir, pray for the entire semplification of your
aim. ‘Let your eye besingle, and your whole body
shall be full of light.’ Oh, at what a distance do I
feel from the principle of doing all things for the
glory of God, and in the name of Jesus.

Your observations respecting the philosophy of
mind, as illustrable by the phenomena of education
in your seminary, are highly striking and just. And
this suggests to me the mention of a work just now
published by Thomas Brown, professor of moral
philosophy, Edinburgh, on “Cause and Effect.”
I used to admire his former pamphlet on this sub-
ject, and I am prepared to expect a very profound
and accurate exposition of this subtle and interest-
ing argument. I have just begun to read it, and I
think you will like it, not merely as a characteristic
of, but highly creditable to the Scottish metaphysical
school. I am, very dear sir, yours most truly,

THOMAS CHALMERS.

Letter From Mistress Hannah More.

BARLEY WOOD, NEAR BRISTOL,
28th April, 1818.

REV. AND DEAR SIR:—I would not return you
LETTER FROM HANNAH MORE. 105

my thanks for your kind letter and very valuable
volume, till I had nearly finished your admirable
sermons. You are not one of that numerous class
of authors whom it is prudent and safe to thank for
their books before one has looked into them, as the
only way of preserving both one’s veracity and good
breeding. I declare my judgment is not bribed by
your too flattering and most undeserved dedication,
when I assure you I think “ The Discourses ” are of
avery superior cast. Though deeply serious they
are perfectly uninfected with any tincture of the
errors of a certain new school in theology. Your
style and manner are in thorough good taste, a garb
in which I delight to see sound divinity arrayed.
By the blessing of God, I trust they will do much
good. The circumstances, too, under which they
were delivered, as well as the A/ace, make them still
more interesting to the reader. I was going to
point out to you the sermons with which I was par-
ticularly pleased; but I found the recapitulation
would be almost universal. I would not except any.
I was charmed and deeply affected with the sweet
letter of my dear littie dumbcorrespondent. [Alice
Cogswell.] What heart-felt joy, dear sir, must it
afford you to have been the honored instrument of
rescuing this, and so many other forlorn little
creatures, from a state of almost nonentity! “ Inas-
much as ye have done it to one of the least of these,
ye have done it unto me,” says our divine Master.

I have taken the liberty to convey to your hands,
through Mr. Macaulay, a ten-pound bank note, as a
small token of my admiration of your admirable
106 LETTER FROM ZACHARY MACAULAY.

institution, to be disposed of in such a way as your
judgment shall direct for its benefit.

Adieu, my dear sir. May it please Him without
whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, nothing is
successful, to shower down His blessings on you, and
on the great work you have, by so much labor, such
perilous voyages, and such great difficulties, accom-
plished; and may many of your pupils thank you
in Heaven for having been the favored instrument
of bringing them thither.

I remain with sincere esteem,
Your very faithful and obliged,
H. More.

Letter from Zachary Macaulay, Esq.

LONDON, 7th November, 1818.

My Dear SIrR:—I immediately forwarded your
letter to Miss More. I have not heard from her
since—indeed, there has scarcely been time: but I
can not doubt that she will readily accede to your
wish of having her likeness to adorn the library
commenced by her donation. She has, of late,
been suffering from severe attacks of illness, which
have produced a considerable prostration of her
strength; but her mind, amidst the infirmities of
sickness and age, retains all its pristine vigor, and
she labors to employ her remaining hours in elevat-
ing the views and aims of all around her, from earth
to heaven.

The luminous account you gave me of the
superiority of the French mode of instructing the
LETTER FROM ZACHARY MACAULAY. 107

deaf and dumb over the English, you will already
have seen in the pages of the Christian Observer.

I should have been glad to have seen the speci-
men of American typography which you have sent
me; but it was conveyed to me through the post-
office, with a charge of £4 5s. on the cover. I
have hesitated to pay this and the packet is still
unopened. Whatever is put up in the form of a
letter, if it comes by the packet, pays the full packet
postage of 8s. 8d. per oz.,and if bya merchant ship,
half the packet postage, besides the inland postage.
T have, of late, had many such parcels addressed me
from America, which I have been obliged to decline
receiving, on account of the enormous expense
attending them. Some of my American friends also
choose to address their letters to me by name, as
editor of the C. O. This alone forms a reason
against my receiving them. It would be a formal
acknowledgment of a fact, which I have never
acknowledged except to some private friends,
and which, indeed, is not known at all to vast multi-
tudes in this country, and only surmised even by the
religious world generally.

I thank you for your kind inquiries respecting
my son Thomas Babington. He is now in good
health, and prosecuting his studies with ardor at the
University of Cambridge. God has been pleased to
endow him with very considerable powers of mind,
and with a very strong desire for knowledge. My
prayer—and indeed I am thankful to say, my hope
is that they may be sanctified and made subservient
to His glory.
108 LETTER FROM ZA Gel Y MACAULAY.

I have, of late, been much occupied
with the congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. You will
wonder at this. But the slave trade was my object.
I have strong hopes that something effectual may be
done, before the sovereigns separate, for that cause.
I framed an address on the subject, which was put
into their hands, and has been well received. The
Emperor of Russia read it, he said, with the most
entire satisfaction. He perfectly approved of the
proposal to make slave trading piracy, and would
do allin his power to effect this object. He gave
copies of the address, with his own hand, to the
kings and ministers assembled. ‘It was not to be
endured,” he said, “that Portugal should continue to
resist the united wishes of Europe, by retaining the
trade for a single day after other nations had
abandoned it. As for the miscreants who should
continue it, after it had been universally reprobated,
their only proper designation and punishment were
those of pirates. I take shame to myself,’”’ he
added, ‘‘ before God, that we should have left this .
great work unfinished at Vienna. I now see that we
were guilty of a great and criminal omission, which
must not be repeated. When I consider what Iowe
to the kindness of Providence in rescuing me and
my people from the hand of the oppressor, I should
be the most ungrateful of men if I did not labor,
with all my might, to liberate those who groan
under a worse oppression, and especially our wretched
fellow-creatures in Africa.” This was said to a friend.
Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington are
cordially co-operating with him.
LETTER FROM ZACHARY MACAULAY. 109

The emperor spoke to the same friend, on the
subject of the Peace Societies. He said “he could
disapprove of no society which had for its object to
hasten the happy time, which he firmly believed
would come, when nations should have war no more.
The great thing to be done, however, was rather to
cure the passions which lead to war, than to
declaim against war itself. He hoped to be
able to induce the governments of Europe to
concur in some plan of arbitrating their differ-
ences, which might supersede an appeal to arms ;
it was impossible, however, to effect this sud-
denly.”

In thinking over the utility of Peace Societies,
both here and in America, it occurred to me that
there was a way in which they might be infinitely
more beneficially employed, than in publishing gen-
eral declamations against war and its evils. If our
Peace Societies would take pains to correct all the
misrepresentations and exaggerations respecting the
state of feeling towards us in America, and to pro-
duce kindly feelings towards her, by exhibiting the
various circumstances of a favorable kind, which
might be noticed ; and if your Peace Societies were to
pursue a similar conduct, with respect to this coun-
try, I can have no question it would do more to
preserve peace, and prevent war between the two
countries, than all the general reasoning on the
subject of war they either have employed or can
employ. This would be a practical and practicable
object. The pursuit of it would prove the sincerity
of their professions and the strength of their princi-
110 LETTER FROM ZACHARY MACAULAY.

ples; and I think would make them popular in both
countries.

Mrs. Macaulay and my brother, the general, who
is now with us, unite in every kind wish, and in all
assurance of esteem and regard, with, my dear sir,

Yours, very sincerely,
ZACHARY MACAULAY.
CHAPTER IV.
1816-23.

Return to America—Efforts to Interest the Public in the Edu-
cation of the Deaf—Public Addresses in Many Cities—
Organization and Opening of the School at Hartford—Favor-
able Action of State and National Legislatures—Munificent
Grant of Land from Congress—Erection and Dedication of
Permanent Buildings for the Institution—Rapid Increase of
Number of Pupils—Difficulties in Management—Attempt
in the Board of Directors to Remove Mr. Gallaudet from
Office.

AGER as Mr. Gallaudet was to commence

in America the work to which he had
devoted himself with such enthusiasm, he was
destined to experience atrial of his patience on
the homeward voyage. Calms and head-winds
hindered the progress of his vessel, and fifty-
one days passed after leaving Havre before
he landed in New York. These days, however,
were not wasted, for they afforded an excellent
opportunity for him to perfect himself in the
art of deaf-mute instruction with the aid of his
assistant Clerc, and gave the latter time to
improve his knowledge of the English lan-
guage, which was slight when he left France.
Mr. Gallaudet landed in New York on the gth
II2 RETURN TO HARTFORD.

of August, 1816, and spent some days in that
city, reaching Hartford on the 22d of thesame
month, having been absent on his mission a
little more than fifteen months. The interest
manifested, everywhere, in Mr. Gallaudet’s
undertaking was, naturally, very great ; for it
must be remembered that in 1816 no public
charitable institutions of any sort, except a
small hospital for the insane in Virginia,
existed in our country; unless, indeed, alms-
houses could be spoken of as such.

The following letter from Nathaniel F.
Moore, a professor in Columbia College and
later its president, to Rev. John McVickar,
for more than half a century a professor in
the same institution, written within a fort-
night after Mr. Gallaudet’s arrival in New
York, gives a graphic picture of the attention
shown to him and his companion.

NEw YorK, August 21, 1816.

My DEAR SIR:—Knowing the interest you take
in the subject, I have procured for you from Mr.
Gallaudet a report published by the Edinburgh
Institution for the Education of the Deaf and the
Dumb, containing some specimens of their composi-
tion; and I also send you a minute of the conver-
sation we had day before yesterday with Mr. Clerc,
the deaf and dumb companion of Mr. Gallaudet.
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT MOORE. 113

This gentleman, you know, was sent abroad by the
Connecticut institution that he might qualify him-
self to take charge of a school to be established at
Hartford. He had not intended to return so soon,
but this Mr. Clerc, who was seven years a pupil of
the Abbé Sicard and eight years more a teacher in
his institution, and who when Mr. Gallaudet
became acquainted with him had charge of the
highest class, having offered to accompany him, he
thought it quite unnecessary to wait any longer,
considering Mr. Clerc as capable of forming either
the teachers or the pupils of the institution here as
the Abbé Sicard himself would be.

Mr. Clerc does not speak except by signs, by
means of which we saw him and Mr. Gallaudet com-
municate with each other as expeditiously, almost,

as we could do by words. With strangers he con-
verses by writing. Mr. Gallaudet says that Mr.
Clerc knew very little of English before they
embarked together. You may judge yourself of his
progress in it. My father saw him several days ago
at the house of Mr. Gallaudet’s father, and wrote
upon a slate, “I hope you are pleased with New
York.” He wrote in reply, “‘ Yes—so well that soon
I shall not regret France.” When he called the
day before yesterday with Mr. Gallaudet to return
my father’s visit my father wrote, “I hope you con-
tinue to be pleased with this country.” He wrote,
“Yes—better and better,’ and before my father
could read his answer he reached out his hand for
the slate and added :—‘“I meet with a good recep-
tion everywhere, and the kindest attentions are
114 LETTER FROM PRESIDENT MOORE.

shown me.” I wrote—‘ We are surprised at your
progress in English, your method of learning must
have something peculiar in it, or your industry
must be very great.” He wrote:—‘ By dint of
studying I have got some progress, but my friend,
Mr. Gallaudet, has been my best methodic.” Before
I had time to read his answer, he asked Mr. Gallau-
det by signs whether he had not committed an error
in the last word, and being told he had, he stepped
up to me and rubbed out the two last letters. I
wrote :—“It is no wonder that you make mistakes,
but that you make so few of them.” He wrote in
reply:—“ Ah, I make many mistakes, and very
often, I assure you.” When I read this he reached
his hand for the slate and wrote :—“ Before having
seen me, and being informed that I was deaf and
dumb, did you know there were deaf and dumb?
What idea had you of them? Did you think them
unhappy or did you think their situation could be
alleviated by learning to read and write?” I
replied that “We had heard a great deal in this
country respecting the Abbé Sicard and his pre-
decessor, and we took great interest in the deaf and
dumb, and consequently knew that their situation
might be alleviated.” He wrote:—‘“I thank you
for it, and the interest you express for us poor

unfortunates.”
Sarah, at Mr. Gallaudet’s request, entered into a
French correspondence with him by writing :-—“C"es¢

etonnaut gue vous écrives st bien Langlois, je serois
bien contente de pouvoir ecrire le francois aussi bien.”
The sight of his own language seemed, as Mr. Gal-
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT MOORE. 115

laudet said it would, to please him very much, and
he wrote :—

“ J etois agréablement surpris, vous écrivez trés bien
le francois, et Je crots qu'un peu plus agée, vous 0
ecrives encore mieux.’ We had more conversation,
both French and English, which was transcribed by
Sarah, or written down from recollection by me
immediately after, but as my epistle has already run
out toa great length, I must suppress a part of it.
Iam not afraid of having tired you, because I am
sure you will be, as we all are, very much interested
in this poor unfortunate, as he calls himself; though
he has, as I told him, almost lost all claim to that
name. I have not been able to learn how abstract
ideas are communicated to the deaf and dumb, but
as an example of the justness of their notions I give
you the following definition of virtue which Mr.
Clerc wrote down verbatim and literatim, as you
have it below, on my father’s asking him what idea he
had of virtue :—“It is the disposition or habit of the
soul to do good, toavoid evil, and to observe what di-
vine and human laws order and what reason dictates.”

I think the Connecticut institution will open
under the most favorable auspices—the talents and
experience of Mr. Clerc, and the great progress Mr.
Gallaudet had made even before his late visit to
Europe authorize very sanguine expectations of the
success of their joint exertions.

Believe me, with sincere respect and esteem,

Yours,
NATHANIEL F. MOORE.

The REv. JOHN McVIcCKAR, Hyde Park, N. Y.
116 FIRST LEGISLATIVE GRANT.

While Mr. Gallaudet was still in Europe,
his supporters and the friends of the deaf in
Hartford were not idle. They secured an act
of incorporation from the Legislature of Con-
necticut for the new institution in May, 1816,
and raised a considerable sum of money by
private subscription, not, however, enough to
warrant the opening of the school. The
solicitation of funds, therefore, became Mr.
Gallaudet’s first work. In October, 1816, the
Legislature of Connecticut granted five thou-
sand dollars in aid of the enterprise, which is
believed to have been the first appropriation
of public money made in America in behalf of
a benevolent institution. In New York, Phila-
delphia, Boston, Albany, and a number of
smaller towns, the cause of the deaf was suc-
cessfully urged by its young and zealous
apostle. He enlisted the generous support of
such men as Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey;
Stephen Van Rennselaer, of Albany; Daniel
Wadsworth, of Hartford; William Phillips,
William Gray and Israel Thorndike, of Bos-
ton; and Robert Oliver, of Baltimore. Many
donations of less amount followed the liberal
subscriptions of these men, and before the
opening of the new institution upwards of
seventeen thousand dollars was secured.
ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL. 117

Mr. Gallaudet’s sagacity in bringing an
educated deaf-mute from France was proved
by the effect produced by young Clerc in their
solicitations. His intelligence, and the fact
of his being well educated, made it impossible
for any one to question the feasibility of the
work proposed to be done. And yet, strange
as it may now seem, there were those who had
declared, even from the sacred desk, that the
proposal to educate the deaf was absurd, quix-
otic, involving a useless waste of money.

The records of the Board of Directors of
the institution show that it was no easy task
to effect its organization. These public
spirited men were setting out on an untrodden
path, at least in their own country, and it
was difficult to obtain information from any
source that might give them the experience
of others.

It was thought desirable, since it was neces-
sary to make the new institution a boarding-
school, that a suitable person should be em-
ployed to take charge of the domestic depart-
ment. In their search for such an officer the
directors were for a number of months singu-
larly unsuccessful, and so serious did this
difficulty become, as the time for opening the
school drew near, that a day was appointed
118 A DAY OF PRAYER.

by vote of the board on which the Divine
assistance should be formally invoked. A
special meeting of the directors was held
toward the end of February, 1817, at which
the several pastors of Hartford were invited
to be present and conduct religious services.
This occasion was in effect a solemn dedica-
tion of the new institution to the service and
honor of the Almighty, and His especial
blessing was asked on all its operations,

Soon after this meeting the organization of
the institution was completed and public
announcement was made that pupils would be
received.

It was on the 15th of April, 1817, a date
deserving to be commemorated as the birth-
day of organized philanthropic effort in
America, that Mr. Gallaudet’s heart was made
glad by the actual opening of the school, for
the establishment of which he had labored in
the face of obstacles which would have seemed
insurmountable to many men.

It is not difficult, when his singleness of
heart is remembered, and the devotedness of
his self-sacrificing spirit, to imagine with what
joy he must have contemplated the triumph of
that day.

And yet, great as had been the burdens
SELF-DEVOTION. 11g

already borne, the difficulties overcome, labors
far more severe were before him, happily
unforeseen, the strain and stress of which his
sensitive spirit and delicate frame were to
endure ere his work for the deaf of America
could be accomplished.

The devotion and self-sacrifice which he
brought to the arduous duties he was now
called upon to assume is well shown in the
following extract from a letter addressed a
fortnight earlier to the gentleman in whose
hands the domestic management of the institu-
tion was to be placed :

And I do hold it to be our sacred duty, to do all
in our power in our respective provinces to make the
school flourish, although we should just get through
the first year and save nothing, and have to complain |
of the want of generosity in the public or even in
our directors.

It will be time and money and labor lent to the
Lord and He will takecare of us. Start then in your
department upon a liberal, not an extravagant plan.

Go a little beyond what would be considered even
a fair fulfillment of your engagements. To speak
like a man of the world, I know if we make the
institution respectable and flourishing during the
first year, we shall have a power over the public
and over the directors which is always the result ofa
man’s proving himself to be worth something: and,
120 DIFFICULTIES.

my Christian brother, I want to prove, what you so
forcibly suggested in one of your letters, and what
men of business are not wont to believe, that a sense
of responsibility to God and of devotion to the cause
of Jesus Christ can lead men to nobler plans of con-
duct than all that is falsely called honor by this
world.

Former biographers of Mr. Gallaudet have
had little or nothing to say of the difficulties
and annoyances that beset him from the out-
set of his career as the recognized head of the
first public benevolent educational institution
in America. They have pointed to the rapid
development, ample endowment and firm
establishment of the school, giving him due
praise for his masterful management, and have
stated the bare fact that after fourteen years

of faithful service he was compelled on account
of failing health to resign his office as prin-
cipal.

In undertaking to give, more fully, the story
of his labors while at the head of the school
of which he was the founder, the writer begs to
disclaim all desire to criticise or condemn the
actions, and far less the motives of others who
had to do with the management of the institu-
tion. He is willing to believe they acted
always from convictions of duty—that they
DEPRESSION. E27

had the interests of the institution at heart,
that they meant no injustice to any one. They
were novices in their work—they were men of
varying degrees of ability—and for their
errors of judgment the writer bespeaks the
charity of the reader as he begins a narrative
which in the light of to-day will seem astound-
ing and even, perhaps, incredible.

In Mr. Gallaudet’s diary the following
entry appears under date of Sunday, January
25, 1818:

During the time which has elapsed since the
opening of the school [ten months] I have had to
encounter great trials. Now I am quite exhausted
in health and strength. Oh! that God would appear
for me, and make haste to help me. If I know my
own heart I long for but one kind of happiness, that
of zealous and cheerful activity in doing good. I
have of late begun to ponder a good deal on the
difficulty of my continuing to be the principal of
such an establishment as this with which I am now
connected will probably be. Most gladly would I
hail as my superior here and as the head of the
institution some one of acknowledged piety and
talents and of more force of character than myself.
Alas, how is my energy gone! How I shrink from
difficulties! Oh! Almighty God, in thy wise provi-
dence thou hast placed me in my present situation.
—Thou seest my heart—Thou knowest my desire is
122 NERVOUS PROSTRATION.

to be devoted to thy service and to be made the
instrument of training up the deaf and dumb for
heaven. Oh! turn not a deaf ear to my request.
Oh! raise me from this bodily and intellectual and
religious lethargy which has now so long prostrated
all the energies and deadened the affections of my
soul! Oh! show me clearly the path of duty, and
teach me submission to thy holy will—more self-

denial and humility—more patience and persever-
ance.

Thus did an over-burdened, fainting man, cry
out in self-condemnation and self-distrust, lay-
ing on himself blame that belonged, if there
was blame, elsewhere. With more of daily
labor, hourly care, ever present sense of
responsibility, oft recurring worry, frequent
annoyance and opposition where cordial co-
operation was to have been expected, all of
which combined to form a burden too heavy
for the strongest man to carry, this invalid
with a heart of gold and a soul of steel, patient
and persevering in the extreme, self-denying
and humble to a fault, wrote himself down
incapable, proud, impatient and negligent of
duty, allowing his conscience to castigate his
upright spirit when he was merely suffering
from an entirely natural and inevitable attack
of nervous prostration. .
MULTIFARIOUS DUTIES. 123

From the time he assumed charge of the
institution Mr. Gallaudet’s duty was to give
six hours daily to the teaching of a class that
had no other instructor: he was expected to
receive those, and they were many, who
desired to visit the school: he maintained a
large correspondence with the relatives and
friends of pupils: he arranged and conducted
exhibitions of pupils for the purpose of enlist-
ing the interest of legislatures and the public
in the institution: though not understood to
have charge of the domestic concerns of the
school he had more trouble with them than
would have been the case had he been clothed
with proper authority to manage them : it was
necessary that he should take time needed for
rest to train new teachers for their work: he
gave up days of his vacation for the prepara-
tion of Annual Reports to which the name of
the Clerk of the Board of Directors, and not
his own, was appended: he was appointed by
vote of the directors to membership on some
of their committees and asked to attend and
give advice at the meetings of the board, and
then was called intrusive and impertinent by
members of the board because he had com-
plied with such requests.

Ample evidence of these facts is in the hands
*

124. FRICTION IN DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT.

of the writer, to give all of which would unneces-
sarily burden these pages.

Two quotations from letters to the directors
will suffice.

On the 4th of September, 1817, less than five
months after the opening of the school, Mr,
Gallaudet addressed a long communication to
the board in reference to the management of
the domestic affairs of the institution. These
had been placed under the control of a gentle-
man and his wife who were supposed to be
competent and trustworthy. This not proving
to be the case, abuses were reported to Mr,

Gallaudet, who felt compelled to interfere in
behalf of those who had suffered.

 

Mr. , says Mr. Gallaudet to the directors,
is bound by his contract to take care of the pupils
on the Sabbath. Commodious seats in church were
provided for them by the committee; but Mr. and
Mrs. absolutely declined sitting with them.
The care of them has, of course, devolved on some
of the directors and the principal, who will continue
cheerfully to accompany them to church on one
condition, that Mr. be made explicitly to
understand that in this particular, he is to exercise
no control over them, and especially, that he is not
in the face of the whole congregation to make signs
of rebuke at them, thus situated under the care of the
principal, very much, as has often been the case, to

 

 
°
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 125

the mortification of the elder pupils, especially the
_ young ladies.

I am told by my friend and fellow laborer [Mr.
Clerc] that he is sometimes neglected in the grati-
fication of so simple a want as that of a piece
of white bread, and that when the mistress of
the family, who is well acquainted with his wishes
in this respect, makes not provision to have them
always gratified, and when he has asked the servant
for so small a favor and been told that “the house
can not furnish it,”’ with his accustomed good nature
he has contented himself with a draught of milk
alone.

After speaking of many other complaints,
which he feels are well grounded, Mr. Gal-
laudet concludes as follows:

I would beg leave, respectfully, to inquire
whether the principal of the institution is not enti-
tled to some kind of authority within its walls;
whether the pupils are to regard him as quite on a
level, out of the schoolroom, with themselves; or
whether he is to have the right of interposition or
control, should he see the pupils ill-treated, their
conduct and language, as it has often been, very
much misapprehended, and themselves incapable of
understanding the signs which are awkwardly and
vehemently made to them? Are they to feel them-
selves destitute of redress in case of grievances; of
an interpreter in case of a mistake; of a friend in
case of abuse? These things are suggested not, I
126 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

hope, from feelings of wounded pride, as has been
most ungenerously attributed to me, nor from a
wish to exercise authority, which is by no means, to
me at least, a pleasant task, but from the conviction,
and surely it is a sober one, that the usefulness of
that man is soon at an end, who, filling a public sta-
tion of responsibility, and called to form the minds
and conduct the education of those who look up to
him as their teacher and guide, suffers the loss of
that respect without the enjoyment of which both
himself and his office must soon become con-
temptible.

The other communication to the board is so
short that it may be given entire:

March 18, 1818.
TO THE DIRECTORS ETC., GENTLEMEN :

When your board first began to hold its meet-
ings, I felt reluctant to attend them, and I did not
until I was told by many gentlemen that my attend-
ance would be very acceptable. I was even urged
to go on the ground of my having been sent
abroad on purpose to collect that information and
experience, the knowledge of which might prove
highly useful to the directors in their deliberations.
‘You will be wanted as our chaplain,’ was said to
me, ‘and you must be on committees for the trans-
action of business, which committees will have to
report to the directors, and your presence therefore,
so far from indicating any thing like intrusion, is
really made necessary by the fact of your being
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 127

placed on these committees. I, of course, began
habitually to attend the meetings of the board, and
to express my opinions on subjects relating to the
welfare of the institution. Instances have occurred
when I have hesitated about giving my opinion and
have been told that no apology was necessary, but
to express my mind freely. It was with feelings
of surprise, therefore, that I have heard it suggested
that my attendanceat the meetings of this board has,
in some instances, I know not by how many of the
members, been deemed incorrect. Whatever rights
may be supposed to belong to the principal of an
establishment like this with regard to his attendance
on the meetings of the directors, whatever value
may be attached to his opinions on subjects touch-
ing the interests of the school, how great ought
to be the confidence placed in one, or how much
the indulgence, if indeed it deserve this name,
shown him, who has been a laborious servant of the
deaf and dumb—how far an invitation to this effect
has virtually been given by placing him on several
committees—these are considerations, gentlemen,
which I would not wish to urge for one moment.
After being invited and solicited to attend the
meetings of this board, I retire from them, only
requesting at the same time that the directors
would please to express an opinion on this subject
and to inform me what their views are with regard to
the propriety of attending their meetings, a thing
which I did not at first solicit and which I have not
the least wish to repeat should it be unacceptable to
this respectable board. T am, etc.
128 UNFAILING MODESTY.

The embarrassment as to Mr. Gallaudet’s
attending meetings of the directors was hap-
pily relieved some months later by the con-
tribution of one hundred dollars from a friend
in Baltimore, whose name was not disclosed,
for the purpose of making him a member of
the board for life. And his unfailing modesty
appears in his unwillingness to accept even
this solution of the difficulty, until the direct-
ors had by a formal vote declared that they
saw no impropriety in his becoming a director
while holding the office of principal.

It must be said in this connection that Mr.
Gallaudet’s distrust of his own ability, and
indisposition to assume and exercise authority
which was not definitely conferred upon him,
proceeding no doubt from his sincere modesty
and his strict sense of justice, had the effect
on certain occasions to impair his efficiency, and
oftener to add greatly to his cares and worries.

The directors apparently failed to under-
stand Mr. Gallaudet in this matter. When
he hesitated as to his ability and showed a
disinclination to accept power, they would
take him at his own estimate, providing for
the government of the institution in ways that
were ineffective and cumbersome, and which
were sure to end unfortunately, as they did.
DIVISION OF AUTHORITY. 129

A clearer discernment on the part of the
directors of Mr. Gallaudet’s ability to manage
the institution, in all its departments, would
have led them to give him full powers—an
arrangement which would certainly have saved
a vast amount of exhausting friction on all
sides.

But this clearer vision did not come to the
directors, nor did Mr. Gallaudet ask for those
broad powers which naturally belonged to his
office. As aconsequence the fourteen years in
which he continued to act as principal of the
institution were full of exasperating difficulties
growing out of the mistaken policy of the
board as to the method of government.

In July, 1818, the directors adopted a series
of regulations recognizing the existence, defin-
ing the powers, and prescribing the duties of
a Faculty, consisting of the Przuczpal, the
assistant Zeachers and: the Superintendent.”

In certain matters the faculty were to act
by vote, the members having equal power.
Certain duties were assigned to the principal,
and he was to perform them without interfer-
ence from the faculty or the superintendent.
Certain other duties were given to this last
named officer, who was, so far as they were
concerned, made equally independent.
130 UNSATISFACTORY RESULTS.

Under such a divided organization the won-
der is, not that there were serious difficulties
and an utter lack of harmonious management,
but that the institution was not overwhelmed
with disaster and left to break down by its
discouraged and handicapped nominal head.

The writer believes he is not awarding
undue praise when he claimsthat few mencould
be found who would have shown the tact,
forbearance, boundless patience and supreme
charity in all judgments of associates that. was
ever exhibited by Mr. Gallaudet while he con-
tinued to hold the office of principal.

Evidences of the unwisdom of the “ Fac-
ulty” organization abound in Mr. Gallaudet’s
papers.

A few months after the adoption of the
regulations described above, which made the
assistant teachers of equal authority in the
faculty with the principal, Mr. Gallaudet
received a note from one of these teachers, Mr.
Clerc, in which he expressed his purpose to
return to France, at least for a time. Mr.
Clerc concludes as follows :—

Tell me frankly if you desire me to return to
the United States, and if so, how many years do
you wish me to stay? Do not say forever, for I am
not willing to do it. Tell me likewise if you would
NOTE TO MR. CLERC. 13L

have any objection to my having a salary larger
than your own?

Mr. Gallaudet responds:

In reply to your note of this morning I tell you
frankly that it is the first and most ardent desire of
my heart that you would not go to France at all,
and that if you must go you would return as soon
as possible. It is indeed my earnest prayer that we
may continue to labor together in doing good to
the dear immortal souls by whom we are surrounded.
If you can not conclude to spend your days with us,
can not you engage after your return to stay five or
six years? I do not urge this point. I would rather
have you return to stay only two or three years
than not to returnat all. With regard to my salary,
while I remain single, I shall be perfectly satisfied
with my present income, unless some very unex-
pected change in the affairs of the institution by the
liberal increase of its funds should make it conveni-
ent for the directors to increase it without injury to
the institution. Nor shall I feel at all disappointed
if your salary is made to exceed mine.

Strange as it may now seem, the suggestion
of Mr. Clerc as to salary was, at a later period,
acted upon favorably by the directors, and
more astonishing yet, other instructors, whose
services were considered of less value to the
132 AID FROM CONGRESS.

school than those of Mr. Clerc, received for
years salaries larger than Mr. Gallaudet’s.

In spite of these annoying experiences, the
affairs of the new institution moved on in a
full current of prosperity.

In the winter of 1818 it was thought best to
solicit the aid of Congress and it was proposed
that the principal should visit Washington for
the purpose of pleading the cause of deaf-mute
education at the capital. Mr. Gallaudet felt
that the appearance of an educated person of
the class for which aid was to be sought would
have great effect, and advised, quite unself-
ishly, that Mr. Clerc goin his place: since
they could not both be absent at the same
time.

This advice was followed and the influence
exerted by Mr. Clerc at Washington was such
as to secure the hearty co-operation of many
prominent men. A year later an earnest and
formal appeal for aid was presented to Con-
gress through the representatives from Con-
necticut, Hon. Nathaniel Terry, Hon. Thomas
S. Williams and Hon. Timothy Pitkin. This
movement was warmly supported by many
philanthropic members in both branches of
Congress, prominent among whom was Hon.
Henry Clay, then Speaker of the House. An

 

a Ne RE i
 

HARTFORD SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF.
PERMANENT BUILDINGS. 133

act was speedily passed appropriating a town-
ship of wild land, more than twenty-three
thousand acres, from the sale of which an
endowment for the institution was ultimately
realized amounting to more than three hun-
dred thousand dollars.

Following closely upon this favorable action
of Congress came the permanent establish-
ment of the school in buildings and grounds
of its own, which were ready for occupancy
early in 1821. On the 22d of May in that
year dedicatory services were held in the new
building, Mr. Gallaudet preaching a sermon
from 2 Corinthians v: 1: ‘“ For we know that
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens.”

This sermon, and the dedicatory prayer
which followed it, are remarkable for the
intense spirit of dependence and devotion to
God which pervade them, and they illustrate
in what rare proportions the highly spiritual
and thoroughly practical were blended in the
mind of their author.

We see before us, he says, a little group of
our fellow-beings, who are called in the mysterious
134 “DEDICATORV SERMON.

providence of God to endure affliction. This
affliction may become comparatively light to them,
and as it were, enduring but a moment, could it be
made instrumental of working out for them a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

They are just introduced into an earthly house
well calculated for their accommodation, but it
becomes both them and all of us, who feel interested
in their welfare, to keep constantly in mind, that
this goodly edifice, with its various sources of
instruction and improvement, is one of the things
which, though seen perhaps with grateful satisfac
tion, is still temporal, the worldly advantages may
prove uncertain and must be transitory, and at
which, therefore, we ought not to look with any
sense of strong and undue attachment, but rather,
raise the eye of our faith, and persuade these suffer-
ers to do likewise, to a better home, to that building
of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens. When I say the worldly advantages of
this institution may prove uncertain, do not under-
stand me as wishing to disparage their true import-
ance and value. To do this would be alike unwise
and ungrateful. It would be unwise; for godliness
hath the promise of this life as well as of that which
is to come, and it is only a misguided enthusiasm
which can aim to prepare youth for a better world,
without, at the same time, training them up toa
faithful discharge of all their duties in this. It
would be ungrateful ; for every creature of God is
good, and nothing to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving; and we might as well close our
DEDICATORY SERMON. 135

eyes to the budding beauties of this season, which
the kind Author of nature is now unfolding to our
view, as to shut our hearts against that general
aspect of convenience, and that prospect of future
comfort to the deaf and dumb, which the same Giver
of every good and perfect gift deigns to shed over
the establishment which we wish this day to dedi-
cate to Him. But the brightest hopes of spring
sometimes fall before an untimely frost, and human
establishments of the fairest promise have often
been so perverted from their original design as to
become the nurseries of error, or so conducted in
their progress as to promote the views of personal
interest, or so decked out with the pomp and circum-
stance of greatness, as to serve rather for the
ornaments with which ambition would love to
decorate itself, than as the plain and useful instru-
ments which the hand of unostentatious charity
would employ to dispense our simple and substantial
benefits to the suffering objects of hercare. Believe
me, these are the rocks on which this institution
may be ship-wrecked. -Its very prosperity should
serve as the beacon of its danger.

The following is the key-note of the dedi-
catory prayer :

Almighty and most merciful God, in behalf of
those whom thou hast called in thy Providence to
direct and govern its concerns, we do now dedicate
this whole institution to thee; to thee in all its
departments of intellectual, moral and religious
136 DEDICATORY PRAYER.

instruction ; to thee in all its privileges of worship,
prayer and praise; to thee in all its domestic regu-
lations, and various means of comfort and useful-
ness; to thee with all its benefits both spiritual
and temporal, beseeching thee to accept the offering
and to make it subservient to the promotion of thy
glory, to the honor of thy son Jesus Christ, and to
the building up of His kingdom in the hearts of all
who have been, who now are, or who may be the
objects of its care.

No sooner was the school for the deaf in
Hartford suitably housed, than Mr. Gallaudet
began to labor for the extension of its benefits.
Pupils from several of the New England
States, besides Connecticut, had been admitted
on the payment of their expenses by their
friends, but up to this time public provision
for the poor was lacking. Mr. Gallaudet
visited the capitals of the several New England
States, exhibiting to the legislatures the happy
results attained with many of his pupils. He
delivered on numerous occasions a sermon
from the text, “But as it is written, to whom
he was not spoken of, they shall see ; and they
that have not heard, shall understand.”
Romans xv: 21.

So eloquent and effective were these appeals
that within a short time grants of money were
SERIOUS OPPOSITION. 137

made by all the New England legislatures for
the education of the deaf, and the number of
pupils rose soon after the completion of per-
manent buildings to one hundred and twenty-
eight.

In the midst of all this prosperity and while
Mr. Gallaudet was working far beyond the
limit of his physical ability, a tempest rose
about him that few men would have had the
courage or the discretion to outride.

It was the natural outcome of the system,
unwisely adopted by the Board of Directors,
of placing the institution under the charge of
two men, neither one controlled by the other.

The superintendent, to whom was com-
mitted the domestic management of the estab-
lishment, was jealous of the prominence and
importance attaching to the office of principal
—he being the nominal head of the institu-
tion, though not controlling the superintend-
ent, as he ought to have been allowed to
do.

Under such an arrangement friction was
inevitable ; and soserious did this become that
a movement was made in the board to secure
the removal of the superintendent.

No evidence appears that Mr. Gallaudet
took any part in this effort, but the “other
138 EFFORTS TO REMOVE MR. GALLAUDET.

head of the institution,” as he sometimes
styled himself, believed it to have been inspired
by him, and took such active measures in
retaliation, that when on the 15th of Septem-
ber, 1823, the directors voted to discharge
the superintendent, a resolution was _intro-
duced “‘ That the Rev. :T. H. Gallaudet, the
principal, be requested to resign his place.”
Action was deferred until the next meeting of
the board and Mr. Gallaudet was informed
that such a measure was pending.

The excitement among those interested in
the institution was most intense during the next
forty-eight hours. So far as can now be ascer-
tained Mr. Gallaudet made no effort to prevent
the adoption of the resolution requesting his
resignation. Indeed, there is good reason for
believing that he was disposed to resign and
step out from under the heavy and unreason-
able burdens which had been heaped upon
him, without waiting for the possible passage
of the hostile resolution. But those who
knew best how valuable his services were to
the cause of which he had been thus far the
leader, would not listen to a suggestion of his
retirement.

On the 17th of September a meeting of the
directors was held at Morgan’s Hotel, on
A TIE VOTE. 139

State Street, to take final action on the pend-
ing resolution.

Twenty directors were present and the
meeting continued for several hours.

The assistant instructors, five in number,
had signed a paper resigning their’ positions
and had placed this in the hands of the clerk
of the board, with the understanding that it
was to be presented at once in the event of the
adoption of the resolution asking for the
resignation of the principal. These teachers
were at the hotel in a room adjoining the one
occupied by the board. Communication
between them and the directors was frequent
during the progress of the meeting.

The attitude of the teachers was regarded
by many of the directors as an unwarrantable
attempt at coercion and resented accordingly.
Passion rather than reason controlled the
minds of many, and the resolution failed only
by a tie vote, most of those who voted for it
being regarded as warm personal friends of
Mr. Gallaudet up to that time.

No stronger evidence of a willingness to
sacrifice personal feelings to a sense of duty
could be found than in Mr. Gallaudet’s action
under the circumstances. His desire was to
resign at once. He felt himself wounded in
140 SELF-SACRIFICE.

the house of his friends. His pride could ill
brook the idea of retaining a position that ten
out of twenty of his associates on the board
had asked him to vacate. He had madea
brilliant record. His name was sure to stand
in history as the founder of a great philan-
thropic enterprise. He had been underpaid
and overworked. He could have risen easily
and quickly to eminence in the profession of
his early choice, which he had relinquished
for the cause of the deaf. But he was made
to feel that his work for the children of silence
was not yet completed. Those who reasoned
calmly urged with justice that his retirement
would inflict an almost fatal blow on the
young institution; that no one could be found
who was competent to #// his place; that hav-
ing outlived the storm he must keep his hand
on the helm until all the angry elements were
at rest. These counsels prevailed and Mr.
Gallaudet kept on the even and laborious
tenor of his way, holding back nothing of time
nor strength from the work he loved until,
indeed, as the sequel will speedily show, the
drain upon his vitality became too great for
even his self-sacrificing endurance.
 

THOMAS HOPKINS GALLAUDET,
(Taken in 1822.)
CHAPTER V.

1821.

Marriage to Sophia Fowler, One of the Earliest Pupils of the
School—Characteristic Letter written Two Days afterthe
Wedding—Description of Mrs. Gallaudet—Happiness in
the Married Life.

EFORE concluding the story of Mr.

Gallaudet’s active labors as principal of

the school for the deaf at WHartford, an

interesting event must be spoken of which

exercised a most important influence over his
life.

The laws of romance would have made
Alice Cogswell his wife in due time. But
she was not twelve years of age when she
became regularly. his pupil, while he was
thirty.

And besides, there was among his earliest
scholars ‘‘a rare and radiant maiden” just on
the threshold of womanhood, whose unusual
attractiveness turned other heads and touched
other hearts than her teacher’s.
142 SOPHIA FOWLER.

One who knew her only in the last years of
her long life, but who gave her that loving
homage which none could withhold who ever
came within the circle of her influence, and to
whom she had confided much of the story of
her life, writes thus of her early days and
development :*

Her parents belonged to the hardy, independent,
pious, and active minded race of farmers from whom
have descended a great majority of the many dis-
tinguished sons and daughters of New England.
Lying a short distance back from Long Island Sound,
in a region of fertile hills and vales, abounding with
towering elms and luxuriant wild roses, her home
was equally well placed for health, for beauty, and
for the business of its inmates.

It will require no small effort, even from those
who are well acquainted with the affliction of deaf-
mutism, to realize the depth of anguish into which
the parents of this house were plunged when the
knowledge was forced upon them painfully and
slowly, yet inflexibly, that their girl-baby would be
forever incapable of responding to their voices. For
it was a far more terrible misfortune then than now.
Only in one way could it be alleviated. The parents
might be comforted, and the babe grow up useful
and happy, if they knew any means by which the

 

*Sophia Gallaudet—American Annals of the Deaf—Vol XXII.
No. 3., July, 1877, by Amos G. Draper.
SOPHIA FOWLER. 143

intelligence of the little one could be evoked, and
drawn into sympathy and communion with those
whose faces bent anxiously above it. But there
was then no such knowledge, either among the friends
of the child or in the community at large. There was
not a single school for the deaf in America, and only
ithree in the world. Even the existence of these
three was scarcely known on this side the
Atlantic; while of the systems on which they were
based, and of the methods they employed, there
seems to have been no knowledge whatever in
America in the year 1800.

It will not seem strange, therefore, that as the
child grew the deficiencies of her intellectual acquire-
ments, as compared with those of her young
associates, became painfully evident. In all else,
in mirthfulness of spirit, in vigor of physique, she
was perfectly fitted to delight in their companion-
ship. This she could do in certain games and
amusements. But if they partook of an intellectual
character her pleasure vanished. Did the group,
tired of play, subside to conversation upon the grass-
plot; was a book introduced; did the merry jest or
sparkling story pass round the happy circle—she
could but sit silent, troubled, gazing in mute won-
derment upon the swiftly-moving lips, the responsive
glances, eager to share, but unable even to com-
prehend what was to her an undefined, subtle
enjoyment, no less mysterious than precious.

So she passed through childhood to young
womanhood, with scarcely a glimpse at the ample
page of knowledge. She received no mental instruc-
144 ‘ SOPHIA FOWLER.

tion, save through the disconnected natural signs of
her friends, which could hardly treat of more than
the objects of vision.

But if her mind remained largely undeveloped,
not so her spirit. That could be reached in a meas-
ure, and, moreover, it was at work by itself. She
early gave evidence of possessing those lovely and
attractive traits which afterwards distinguished her.
Unconsciously following the guidance of her own
sense and the best models about her, she learned to
discriminate between the false and the true, and
grew up modest, kindly, conscientious, and cheerful
even to gayety. Of definite religious knowledge at
this time she had little or none. It may almost be
said to have been confined to a dim impression that
there was a power above who looked down benig-
nantly upon good actions, and frowningly upon bad.

During these calm years, also, was laid the
foundation of that superb physical condition which
attended her through life. Inthe regular and quiet
performance of household duties, in all of which she
became an adept, her frame acquired the vigor, grace,
and elasticity which afterwards, under the softening
influences of metropolitan life, gave her a rare per-
sonal comeliness, without ever losing their sustaining
qualities. Her hair was black; her eyes large, dark,
and inquiring. Her features betokened a sanguine
temperament, and her manner was vivacious and
pleasing to a remarkable degree.

Such was Sophia Fowler in character and appear-
ance as she stood at nineteen on the threshold of
womanhood ; happy in the performance of her daily
 

SOPHIA FOWLER GALLAUDBT
(Taken in 1822.)
SOPHIA FOWLER. 145

home duties, scarcely ever having passed beyond the
borders of her native town, unconscious of the
widening paths that stretched before her, apparently
destined to pursue without interruption the noiseless
tenor of her sequestered way.

In the spring of 1817, her father learned that
some gentlemen at Hartford were about to estab-
lish a school for the deaf. Soon after, hearing that
these gentlemen were at New Haven, he went there
in order to meet them, taking her with him. He
told her by signs of his hope that they would be .
able to teach her to read, to write, to cipher,—to
acquire, she afterward said, it seemed to her, knowl-
edge without end. She grew radiant with the pros-
' pect of satisfying the only craving of which her
nature felt a need.

Not long after the meeting at New Haven, Mr.
Gallaudet visited the home of the Fowlers, in Guil-
ford, and the same spring Sophia became a pupil in
the Hartford school. Her name appears as the
fifteenth in the order of those received at the open-
ing, Alice Cogswell’s being the first.

Of her progress as a pupil it is possible to judge
only by her later development. Those who are
familiar with the difficulties to be encountered will
understand the fact that for a number of years her
acquirements were confined to the common English
branches. Owing to her zeal and vigor of mind,
her advancement in these was rapid. In the spring
of 1821, however, just at the period when a bright
deaf-mute pupil may be expected to attain a fair
degree of proficiency in the subjects indicated, her
146 BETROTHAL.

studies were interrupted in a manner quite unan-
ticipated by all the parties concerned except one.

This interruption was occasioned by nothing less
than a proposal of marriage from Mr. Gallaudet. It
appears that for more than a year previous he had
carefully concealed his feelings out of regard for the
young woman's position as a pupil; his bearing
toward her, up to this time, was in no way distin-
guished from that which he observed toward the
other female pupils under his charge.

The first sensations excited in the bosom of the
young lady when she perceived his wishes give
assurance of this. There is nothing to show that
her previous feelings for him were other than those
which would naturally flow forth toward an able,
kind, and sympathetic instructor. In after life she
said that her first feeling, when she comprehended |
his meaning, was one of almost unmixed surprise.

When, to this, other and warmer feelings suc-
ceeded, they did not blind her to what she consid-
ered her lack of qualifications for such a great
change of station. She pleaded her want of knowl-
edge of the world; he averred that this would soon
be remedied by travel and society. She lamented
that her education was but just begun; he prom-
ised that it should be pursued, with himself for a
guide and helper. Considering the character and
relations of the suitor and the sought, it is not sur-
prising that this period of hesitation did not long
endure. They were married on the 29th of August,
1821, and went on a wedding journey to Saratoga.
MARRIAGE. 147

The marriage was announced by the bride-
groom in the following letter :

SAYBROOK, August 31, 1821.

My DEaR FATHER :—I wrote you a few days
since from Guilford. Iam here ona little excursion
with one to whom my fortunes are at length united
—Miss Sophia Fowler that was—Mrs. Gallaudet
that now is. We were married on Wednesday even-
ing. It isan event to which I have been looking
forward for some time, and, all things considered, I
deemed it best to have it take place now. I can
not but hope that it will increase my means of use-
fulness among the deaf and dumb to whom I feel
myself devoted. Yet I feel more than I ever did
the shortness and uncertainty of all things human.
Oh! that we could be always ready for a better and
happier state. I am now obliged to write in great
haste. You shall hear from me againsoon. Sophia
joins me in best love to yourself and our dear sis-
ters and brothers.

Your dutiful son,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

Fifty-six years later, shortly after the death
of Mrs. Gallaudet, a packet carefully envel-
oped was found in her writing desk containing
ten letters received from her husband before
her marriage.

The first bears date New York, April 20,
1818, and was written during a vacation fol-
148 LETTERS BEFORE MARRIAGE.

lowing Miss Fowler's first year at Hartford.
In order to appreciate what may seem a rather
commonplace letter, it must be considered that
the person to whom it was addressed, although
an adult in years, was no more than an infant
in the use of verbal language. On entering
school eleven months earlier Miss Fowler was
absolutely ignorant of the meaning of words,
she had no power of communicating her own
thoughts and feelings except through rude
gestures and facial expressions. That she
could now understand and enjoy such a letter
as her teacher addressed her gives evidence
no less of zeal and skill on his part than of
industry and intelligence on hers. It may
interest the curious to know that the letter
given below contains two hundred and nine-
teen different words, of which seventy are

nouns, sixty-five verbs, thirty-two adjectives,

twenty pronouns, fourteen adverbs, twelve

prepositions, three conjunctions, two articles,

with one interjection.

Mr. Gallaudet's First Letter to his Future Wife.

My DEAR FRIEND :—To-day I received your kind
letter. Iread it with great pleasure. It was com-
posed very well. I understood it all. I am very
LETTERS BEFORE MARRIAGE. 149

glad your father and you and Parnel * arrived home
in good health. I am glad all your friends are well.
You remember Mr. Woodbridge + and my sister and
Mary R and myself rode away in the stage on
Thursday morning. Werode till sunset. It was a
very unpleasant day. It rained and snowed, and it
was very cold. My sister was very sick; she was
faint and ate nothing. Mary R was very well.
God took care of us. We passed Friday in New
Haven. I saw Mr. Orr; he will come to teach the
deaf and dumb in May.

On Friday evening, when it was dark, Mr. W.and
A. and M. and myself went aboard of the steam-
boat. We soon went to bed. We sailed all night.
In the morning I rose early. I soon met my sister
and M. I shook theirhands. I asked them if they
were well. They were very well. We arrived in
New York on Saturday at noon. I got a coach.
Four of my brothers met me on the wharf. I was
glad to see them. Ann and Mary and my brother
James and myself, with all our trunks, rode in the
coach. I stopped the coach and I spoke to my
father at his book store. He was well. We again,
rode very far. We arrived at my father’s house. I
saw my dear mother and brothers and sisters and
aunt, who were all well. MaryR. slept at our house
two nights. On Tuesday she went to Albany with
her father. I did not stay long at home. I went
to Newark. I passed Sunday with Mr. Woodbridge.
I saw his father and mother. On Sunday evening

 

 

 

* A mute sister. t An instructor.
150 LETTERS BEFORE MARRIAGE.

thirty ladies and gentlemen met at Mr. W.’s. I told
them about the deaf anddumb. Three men prayed
ardently for all the deaf and dumb, that God would
bless Mr. Clerc and Mr. Woodbridge and me, and
give all the deaf and dumb clean hearts and enable
them to trust in Christ and repent of all their sins.
The thirty persons sang hymns and some of the
ladies cried very much. I heard them weeping.
How kind they were to pray for the deaf and dumb!
Oh! do not forget God and Christ. Pray for avery
clean heart. Trust in Christ. Avoid all sin. And
may God bless you, my dear pupil, both you
and your sister and your dear father and mother
and brothers and grandmother and all your
friends.

I returned to New York on Monday one week
ago. I have been very busy in buying books and
pictures for the deaf and dumb. Alice [Cogswell]
will be here probably to-morrow. I will show her
your letter; how glad she will be to see it! I had
a letter to-day from Loring ;* he writes thus: “I
love very Miss Sophia Fowler.” Loring was very
well. I received a letter from Comstock;t he was
well and all the deaf and dumb were well. When
Mr. Clerc comes to your home give him my best
love. Tell him I have already written him two
long letters. I hope he will stay and see you some
days. I wish I could be at your house also. Give
my kind regards to Parnel. I hope she is quite well.

 

*A class-mate from Boston.
+ A class-mate from Newport.
LETTERS BEFORE MARRIAGE. I51

Give my kind regards to your grandmother and your
father and mother and brothers and all my friends.
I shall soon see you again. Next year we will learn
more, and I hope love God and Christ more and
become more and more wise and holy.

My father’s family, especially my sister Ann, send
their best regards to you and your sister.

I am your sincere friend,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

In other letters written during 1818, 19 and
’20, Mr. Gallaudet addresses Miss Fowler as
“ My esteemed pupil,” or ‘ My dear pupil,”
sig: .ing himself “‘ Your affectionate teacher,” or
“Your sincere friend ;” but late in the latter
year he begins a letter ‘“‘ My dear Sophia,” and
_ signs himself “ Your affectionate friend,” in
~which he shows a much deeper interest than

that of a teacher.

Two letters written in the spring of 1821
show plainly that an engagement had taken
place, for arrangements are alluded to for Miss
Fowler to board on her return to school with
friends of Mr. Gallaudet’s, to whom he has
“spoken frankly about our expected pros-
pects.”

These letters of Mr. Gallaudet to his
future wife are unusual in two particulars—
they show a great desire to add tothe knowl-
152 LETTERS BEFORE MARRIAGE.

edge of his pupil, and the greatest possible
solicitude for her development in spiritual and
religious matters.

One little yellow folded bit of paper,
addressed in a beautiful hand, such a note as
might naturally carry a sentimental message
between lovers, and being no doubt sucha
love missive to the mind of him who though
consciously a lover was still the faithful teacher
and guardian, on being opened reveals only
these words :

The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in
the sight of God of great price.

Another note, written with equal care and
preserved to a later day by her to whom it
was addressed, is as follows : .

Pray in secret every morning and evening.

Ask God to teach you how to pray.

Ask God to give you His Holy Spirit.

Ask God to warn your conscience.

Think of God often.

Think of Christ often.

Every evening think if you have been wicked
during the day ;—ask God to forgive your sins.

Trust in Christ alone to save you.

Trust in Christ alone to enable you to avoid all
sin.
PRAVERS. 153

Often examine your heart to see if you truly love
God, and obey Him and trust in Christ-

Be humble. Be meek. Be kind. Avoid pride,
vanity, ambition.

Serve Christ every day.

Teach the young pupils, and talk with them about
God and Christ.

Be cheerful. Be contented.

Oh ! do not forget God and Christ.

May God bless you and keep you from all sin.

A little well worn pocket notebook, with a
calendar of Saints’ days in French, forthe year
1818, perhaps a gift from Mr. Clerc to Miss
Fowler, contains the following meditation
written very carefully and legibly in pencil by
Mr. Gallaudet :

Oh! Jesus, my Saviour, I love thee. I wish to
imitate thee, to be kind as thou wert kind, to be
humble us thou wert humble.—Oh! give me thy
Spirit to keep me from sin. Oh! enable me to serve ©
thee and to be kind to all and to do good every day.
And oh! prepare me to eat the Lord’s Supper.

That these lessons, given when the mind of
Sophia Fowler was at its most impressionable
period of development, took a lasting hold on
her spiritual organism was proven a thousand

times through her long and not uneventful
life.
154 MRS. GALLAUDET'S FAITH.

When heartrending sorrow came to her,
she did not need to cry,

“Oh! for a faith that will not shrink
Though pressed by every foe,

That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe.”

For at such times hers was indeed,

“A faith that shines more bright and clear,
When tempests rage without ;

That when in danger knows no fear
In darkness feels no doubt.”

Of this faith and its influence over Mrs.
Gallaudet’s life her friend quoted above writes
as follows:

A prominent characteristic was her joyous and
undoubting faith in the religion of Jesus Christ.
When they came to her, she accepted the truths of
revelation so readily and implicitly that it seemed
_as if they did but bear out and confirm the dim
intuitions of her uninstructed childhood. Not only
did she love and practice all the Christian virtues ;
not only, as one who knew her long and well has
said, was she “ most exactly just and perfectly truth-
ful and sincere, exemplifying in an eminent degree
HAPPINESS IN MARRIAGE. 155

all the virtues described by the apostle when
he exhorted us to think on whatsoever things are
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report”’
—but Christ, the embodiment of all excellences,
was to her a real and present person. When threat-
ened with blindness, in the last year of her life, and
feeling its dread approach, more than once she was
seen to pray to Him, with fervor, as if He stood in
her chamber, that He would spare her such a griev-
ous affliction; she was aged and deaf, she said, and
if now her sight must be taken she would lose the
little joy that remained to her; then, in a moment,
and in a different spirit, she would tell Him that,
though she felt it hard to bear, she wished what He
thought best should be done, and she would strive
to be resigned.

It will not surprise the reader to be told
that the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Gallaudet
was pre-eminently a happy one. His physi-
cal weaknesses and natural tendencies to
depression of spirits were often overcome by
the vigor and cheerfulness she was able
always to impart to their united life: while
her mind, eager for knowledge, could easily
supply the deficiencies of her early education
by an appeal to her ever-present teacher.

Mr. Gallaudet has been heard to say that
many trials and difficulties had come upon
him in the course of his life which he
156 HELPFULNESS.

could hardly have endured or overcome, but
for the sympathy and encouragement his
brave and loving wife was always quick to
give him.
CHAPTER VI.
1823—1830.

Arduous Labors as Principal and Teacher—Invention of Meth-
ods of Pantomimic Communication—Visit of Col. John
Trumbull—Solicitations to aid in Establishing Schools for
the Deaf outside of New England—Failing Health—A ppli-
cation to the Directors for Relief from Certain Duties—Op-
position of Associates to such Relief—The Institution Es-
tablished on a Firm and Permanent Basis—Increasing
Feebleness—Resignation of Principalship.

HE years following Mr. Gallaudet’s mar-
riage in 1821 were happy years though
full of toil.

The occupancy of enlarged and permanent
buildings by the institution was followed by
an increase in the number of pupils, necessi-
tating the employment and training of new
teachers. This growth brought added cares
and labors to the principal of the school.
But he shrank from nothing, rejoicing in work
that was thoroughly congenial. He was a
born teacher, and a teacher of teachers, as
well as of children.
158 SKILL AS A TEACHER.

His skill in adapting methods borrowed
from France to the needs of American chil-
dren was great. He possessed peculiar and
natural endowments for the special work of
instructing the deaf: prominent among which
was a really marvelous grace and clearness in
all kinds of pantomimic expression.

He was the first to suggest and use in
schools for the deaf the language of signs
in religious exercises and lectures. His elo-
quence in this language has never been sur-
passed and rarely equaled.

He had an unusual facility in communica-
ting thought by means of facial expression
and movements of the body without any
resort whatever to motions of the hands or
arms.

This process is described in an article pub-
lished three years before his death, long after
he gave up teaching.

One day our distinguished and lamented _histori-
cal painter, Col. John Trumbull, was in my school-
room during the hours of instruction, and, on alluding
to the tact which a certain pupil had of reading my
face, he expressed a wish to see ittried. Irequested
him to select any event in Greek, Roman, English
or American history of a scenic character, which
would make a striking picture on canvas, and said
VISIT OF COL. TRUMBULL. | 159

I would endeavor to communicate it to the lad.
“Tell him,” said he, “that Brutus (Lucius Junius)
condemned his two sons to death, for resisting his
authority and violating his orders.”

I folded my arms in front of me and kept them
in that position, to preclude the possibility of making
any signs or gestures, or of spelling any words on
my fingers, and proceeded, as best I could, by the
expressions of my countenance, and a few motions
of the head and attitudes of the body, to convey
the picture in my own mind to the mind of my
pupil.

It ought to be stated, that he was already
acquainted with the fact, being familiar with the
leading events in Roman history. But when I began,
he knew not from what portion of history, sacred or
profane, ancient or modern, the fact was selected.
From this wide range, my delineation on the one
hand, and his ingenuity on the other, had to bring
it within the division of Roman history, and, still
more minutely, to the particular individual and trans-
action designated by Col. Trumbull. In carrying on
the process, I made no use whatever of any arbitrary
conventional look, motion, or attitude, before settled
between us, by which to let him understand what I
wished to communicate, with the exception of a
single one, if, indeed, it ought to be considered
such.

The usual sign, at that time, among the teachers
and pupils, for a Roman was portraying an aquiline
nose by placing the fore finger crooked, in front of
the nose. As I was prevented from using my finger

w
160 PANTOMIME WITHOUT ARMS.

in this way, and having considerable command over
the muscles of my face, I endeavored to give my
nose as much of the aquiline form as possible, and
succeeded well enough for my purpose.

Every thing else that I looked and did was the
pure, natural language by which my mind spontan-
eously endeavored to convey its thoughts and feel-
ings to his mind by the varied expressions of the
countenance, some motions of the head, and attitudes
of the body.

It would be difficult to give any thing like a
complete analysis of the process which I pursued in
making the communication. To be understood it
ought to be witnessed and accompanied with the
requisite explanations. The outlines of the process,
however, I can give. They were the following :—

A stretching and searching gaze eastward, with
an undulating motion of the head, as if looking
across and beyond the Atlantic Ocean, to denote
that the event happened, not on the western, but on
the eastern continent. This was making a little
progress, as it took the subject out of the range of
American history.

A turning of the eyes upward and backward, with
frequently repeated motions of the head backward,
as if looking a great way back in past time, to denote
that the event was one of quite ancient date. The
aquiline shape of the nose already referred to, indi-
cating that a Roman was the person concerned. It
was, of course, an old Roman.

Portraying, as well as I could, by my counten-
ance, attitude, and manner, an individual high in
PANTOMIME WITHOUT ARMS. 161

authority, and commanding others, as if he expected
to be obeyed.

Looking and acting as if I were giving out a
specific order to many persons, and threatening
punishment on those who should resist my authority
—even the punishment of death.

Here was a pause in the progress of events,
which I denoted by sleeping as it were during
the night and awaking in the morning, and doing
this several times, to signify that several days had
elapsed.

Looking with deep interest and _ surprise,
as if at a single person brought and standing
before me, with an expression of countenance indi-
cating that he had violated the order which I had
given, and that I knew it. Then looking in the
same way at another person near him as also guilty.
Two offending persons were thus denoted.

Exhibiting serious deliberation—then hesitation,
accompanied with strong conflicting emotions, pro-
ducing perturbation, as if I knew not how to feel or
what to do.

Looking first at one of the persons before me
and then at the other, and then at both together,
as a father would look, indicating his distressful
parental feelings under such affecting circum-
stances.

Composing my feelings, showing that a change
was coming over me, and exhibiting towards the
imaginary persons before me, the decided look of
the inflexible commander who was determined and
ready to order them away to execution. Looking
162 PANTOMIME WITHOUT ARMS.

and acting as if the tender feelings of the father had
again got the ascendency, and as if I were about to
relent and pardon them.

These alternating states of mind I portrayed
several times, to make my representation the more
graphic and impressive.

At length the father yields, and the stern princi-
ple of justice, as expressed in my countenance and
manner, prevails. My look and action denote the
passing of the sentence of death on the offenders,
and the ordering them away to execution.

Before I had quite completed the process, I
perceived, from the expression of his countenance,
and a little of impatience in his manner, that the
pupil felt satisfied that he was fully in possession of
the fact which I was endeavoring to communicate.
But for the sake of greater certainty, I detained his
attention till I had nothing more to portray. He
quickly turned round to his slate and wrote a com-
plete and correct account of the story of Brutus and
his two sons.

Mr. Gallaudet follows with other instances
of such communication and adds:

There was another use which I found it practi-
cable to make of the mere expressions of the counten-
ance, in conveying not only ideas but words to the
mind of this pupil.

On a journey to Maine, we sat, one day, directly
facing each other in the stage-coach. I proposed to
him that we should invent an alphabet of expressions
FACIAL ALPHABET. 163

of the countenance, and see if we could not, ina
short time, become so familiar with it, as to make
it subservient to the spelling of words quite as surely
and quickly as could be done by the finger alphabet.
We began and settled it as follows:

The simple expression of awe was to denote the
letter a; of boldness, 4, of curiosity, ¢, of despair,
ad; of eagerness, ¢; of fear, f, of gladness, g, and
soon. We made various trials of this new alphabet
of the looks, and found it to succeed. It is easy to
see, that if I expressed by my countenance distinctly,
and with slight intervals between the expressions,
the emotions of despair, eagerness, awe and fear,
the letters d, ¢, a, and f, would be denoted, and, of
course, the word deaf, communicated.

Simple as this process is, it would still appear
very surprising to a person ignorant of it, after being
requested to furnish any word, no matter how
difficult or abstruse its meaning, to see it immediately
looked by the teacher into the mind of the pupil, and
the latter writing it down correctly on his slate.

These, and other experiments of a similar kind,
made by a teacher of the deaf and his pupils, may,
perhaps, seem to be matters of mere amusement,
and not of any practical use. But amusements have
their uses in all schools, and especially if the teacher
can, at suitable times, take part in them with his

pupils.

Mr. Gallaudet had strong convictions as to
the value of the sign language as a means of
164 VALUE OF SIGNS.

instruction, of which it may not be amiss to
speak in these days, when not a few men of
intelligence are found who would banish them
from all schools for the deaf.

In an article on “The Natural Language
of Signs; and its Value and Uses in the
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb,” published
long after he had given up teaching, Mr.
Gallaudet says :-—

‘““My object is to show the intrinsic value
and, indeed, indispensable necessity of the use
of natural signs in the education of the deaf
and dumb. ... In attempting this I wish
I had time to go somewhat at length into the
genius of this natural language of signs; to
compare it with merely oral language, and to
show, as I think I could, its decided superiority
over the latter, so far as respects its peculiar
adaptation to the mind of childhood and early
youth.

‘In what relates to the expression of pas-
sion and emotion, and of all the finer and
stronger sentiments of the heart, this language
is eminently appropriate and copious.

“So far as objects, motions, or actions
addressed to the senses are concerned, this
language, in its improved state, is superior in
its accuracy and force of delineation to that
VALUE OF SIGNS. 165

in which words spelled on the fingers, spoken,
written, or printed are employed.”

Mr. Gallaudet, after treating at length of
the capabilities and value of gesture language
as a means of instruction, says in closing:

Instructors of the deaf and dumb should appre-
ciate the great importance of being masters of
the natural language of signs,—of excelling in this
language; of being able to make delineating and
descriptive signs with graphical and picture-like
accuracy; of acquiring the power to have the
inmost workings of their souls,—their various
thoughts and feelings, with their fainter and stronger
shades of distinctive character,—dcam out through
the eye, countenance, attitude, movement, and
gesture ; and of doing all this with spirit, grace, and
fluency, and for the love of doing it.

_ The labor is not small, indeed, that must be
undergone, in order to possess these indispensable
qualifications of an accomplished instructor of the
deaf and dumb. To acquire them, the new and
inexperienced teacher must consent, carefully and
perseveringly, to take lesson after lesson of the older
teacher who is a proficient in this language, while
the older teacher must have the patience to give
these lessons. For the language of signs is not to
be learned from books. It can not be delineated in
pictures, or printed on paper. It must be learned,
in a great degree, from the living, looking, acting
model. Some of the finest models for such a pur-
166 VALUE OF SIGNS.

pose are found among the originators of this lan-
guage, the deaf and dumb. The peculiarities of
their mind and character, and the genius of that
singularly beautiful and impressive language which
nature has taught them, should be the constant
study of those whose beneficent calling it is to
elevate them in the scale of intellectual, social, and
moral existence; to fit them for usefulness and
respectability in this life, and for happiness in that
which is to come.

Mr. Gallaudet’s practice as a teacher was
consistent with this earnest preaching. He
loved the language of signs and made a life-
long study of it. That he was such a master
of it is due in part to his patience and _ pains-
taking asa student of it. But his eminence
in pantomime was, no doubt, in large meas-
ure owing to inherited natural ability derived
from those Italian ancestors of whom mention
was made in the early pages of this book.

Though continuing, while he remained prin-
cipal, to have the entire daily charge of a
class in the school, as required by the board,
he exerted himself in many other directions,
than in the rather narrow one of elementary
teaching.

Demands for public addresses in aid of the
cause of deaf-mute education were frequent,
PUBLIC LABORS. 167

and were cheerfully responded to. Exhibitions
of pupils before legislatures and to the general
public had often to be given, and in them Mr.
Gallaudet showed his great skill in enlisting
the sympathy and co-operation of others.

These occasions brought him in contact with
the leading men of his time, and though a
drain upon his strength were congenial to
his tastes.

Representatives of several states outside of
New England appealed for counsel and aid in
establishing schools for the deaf within their
borders, and in meeting their applications much
time and effort was expended by Mr. Gallaudet.

His services as a preacher were often sought
to supply vacant pulpits, and in most of
the organized public movements of the day
his support and active co-operation were con-

sidered essential.

No man, however vigorous, could have led
a life of such constant activity and involving
so much of ever-present care and responsibility
for many years without showing signs of
breaking ; and the wonder is that with so fra-
gile a physique these signs did not sooner
appear in Mr. Gallaudet.

He became painfully conscious during the
latter part of 1829 that he was overtaxing his
168 FAILING HEALTH.

strength and felt that he must be relieved of -
some of his duties, or relinquish them alto-
gether.

Up to this time he had taken little thought
as to his pecuniary interests, accepting such
compensation for his services in the institution
as the directors saw fit to vote him. But the
presence in his household by this time of three
sons and two daughters led him to wonder
how all the little mouths were to be fed,
the bodies clothed and the minds instructed
as time went on.

So almost for the first time since he had
been in relations with his board of directors,
now more than fourteen years, he asked their
serious consideration of his personal affairs in
a communication that needs to be read entire
to be fully understood.

Mr. Gallaudet, to the President and Directors, ete.

HARTFORD, January II, 1830.

GENTLEMEN :—I have been led, for several years
past, seriously to consider, how much longer my
health and strength would enable me to sustain the
confinement and labor necessary for the daily instruc-
tion of a class, together with the performance of
other duties, as principal, in the institution over
the interests of which you preside.
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 169

While making known these sentiments from time
to time to those more immediately connected with
the management of the school, and especially to the
instructors, I have perceived that the actual
amount of time and of labor which I have been
obliged to bestow from the commencement upon its
internal and external concérns, in addition to that
employed, in common with the other instructors, in
the daily care of a class, has been but imperfectly
understood ;—and, on this account, it has been
thought by some rather unreasonable that I should
propose, in any way, to have my labors diminished.

As I still feel it to be a duty which I owe to my-
self and family, to state explicitly that I can not any
longer undertake the daily instruction of a class,
and thinking it not improbable that this may lead
to the dissolution of my connection with the institu-
tion, I beg leave, gentlemen, to lay before you a
brief statement of what labors I have sustained in
the discharge of my various duties, since I have
been in your employment. In this way I hope to
satisfy you that, in my past wishes, and present
determination not to be confined to the daily
instruction of a class, I have been actuated only by
those views and motives which should influence the
conduct of every prudent man. I make this state-
ment, as I know your candor will do me the justice
to believe, not from the desire of vain-boasting, nor
from a wish to induce you to think it would be for
the interests of the school that my connection with
it should be continued (for Iam ever doubtful in
my own mind whether this would be the case), but
170 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

from that feeling which is common to usall, toshow
to our friends that we have not been wholly
unreasonable in our plans and conduct. Such a
statement, also, will, I think, not be without use, in
presenting to the consideration of the directors
some views with regard to both the internal and
external concerns of the institution, and, especially,
the duties which the principal, whoever he may be,
ought to have abundant time allowed him to per-
form, that may, heretofore, have escaped their
notice. Should the issue be, that you deem it best
to have some other person occupy the station which
I now hold, a decision in which I shall cheerfully
acquiesce, I can not but urge the importance of your
affording him every needful facility for sustaining
the responsibilities which he will assume, and every
suitable encouragement for making this institution
what it already aspires to be, one of the most useful
and respectable in the world.

During the twelve years and a half that I have
labored here, I may safely say that I have devoted
full as much time to the discharge of my official
duties, as is devoted by any of the presidents,
professors, or tutors, in our colleges, to the business
of their respective institutions,—and, even much
more than this during the early stages of the work.
In most of the colleges, there are three months of
vacation in each year; and, in addition to this,
many of the labors of the president and professors
are suspended from the time of the examination of
the senior class in July, to the commencement in
September. Our vacations are but two months in
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 71

the year; during some of these, it has fallen to my
lot, in common with the other instructors, to remain
and take a general oversight of the establishment,
and of such of the pupils as did not return home,
and during others, and nearly all of the vacations in
the spring, I have been detained by the business of
the annual meeting happening at that time, and by
the preparation of the annual reports, twelve of
which .I have written, and arranged and prepared
the original compositions of the pupils for the
press: a labor demanding no small amount of time
and care.

The Elementary Book which has been used in the
various classes was prepared by me, while teaching
a class, and consumed no small portion of my time
out of school hours; for this labor I did not receive,
nor, indeed, did I expect, any compensation. In
the same manner, with the assistance of Mr. W., I
also prepared the Catechism of Religious Instruction
which has been used.

I have given, out of school hours, much private
instruction to the younger teachers, and especially
a long and elaborate course of lectures to Mr. P.
For such services, from the very commencement of
the institution, Mr. Clerc has received a liberal com-
pensation, to which, indeed, he was justly entitled, at
first from you, and, afterwards, from the instructors.
For similar services, I have never received, nor asked,
any compensation.

The correspondence of the institution, more
especially that which relates to its external relations,
to the many inquiries made from different parts of
172 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

the country with regard to the terms of admission
and tothe peculiar circumstances of the pupils as
connected with their accounts with the treasurer,
has occupied no inconsiderable portion of my time.
With regard to the last particular, I may venture to
refer to the recollection of the treasurer for the
correctness of my statement. The principal degree
of responsibility with regard to the admission of
new pupils, and the recording of their names, and of
other interesting particulars respecting them, in a
book kept for this purpose, has devolved upon me,
and, also, their organization into a class, and their
getting started in the course of instruction, especially
when they have been under the care of a new and
inexperienced instructor. One part of my labors,
as principal of the institution, which has not, indeed,
attracted much observation from those employed
more immediately in its concerns, but which has
consumed, in the aggregate, a vast amount of time,
and been attended, out of school hours, with great
additional fatigue, is the attention which I have
been obliged to show to visitors. Among these
have been the patrons and friends of the school,
respectable strangers coming with letters of intro-
duction, and others introduced by some of the
directors, or by their friends in the city, and who
always expect and are entitled to receive respectful
attentions from the principal of a public institution.
Such attentions I have always cheerfully rendered,
but, it ought to be recollected, that it has more
particularly fallen upon me to render them ; that
they have often made it necessary for me out of
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. + 173

school hours, to gratify such visitors by an exhibition
of the pupils in the school-room, that I have been
liable, from my residing near at hand, to such demand
upon my time very frequently, and that such time,
after the exhaustion occasioned by the labors of the
school-room, I have often needed for relaxation and
exercise, and also, to devote to the domestic con-
cerns of my family. It is very important, however,
for the interests of an institution depending on
public patronage for its character and usefulness,
and increasing, too, like ours, in public estimation,
that the principal should be at liberty, at almost all
times, to exhibit its internal management, and the
progress of the pupils, in such a way as to excite a
deep and permanent interest in the minds of intelli-
gent visitors.

For a somewhat similar reason, too, I have had
peculiar labors to perform and embarrassments to
contend with, even during school hours, in advanc-
ing the class of which I have most usually had the
charge. This class has consisted of those pupils
who had made the most progress, and on whose
attainments, and especially on their original compo-
sitions published in the annual reports, the character
of the institution has chiefly depended.

This class I have had to advance in their studies,
while subject, during school hours, to peculiar inter-
ruptions from various sources,—from some of the
younger instructors resorting to me for signs, from
persons coming to my room for the transaction of
business; from visitors, some bringing letters of
introduction, and most of all such wishing to visit
174 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

the class taught by the principal, and he, of course,
having afterwards to provide for their being admitted
into some of the other classes. Of late, a person
has been employed to receive visitors at the door,
and to conduct them to some one of the school-rooms.
Previous to this arrangement, and for a long course
of time, the interruptions which I experienced from
this source were so frequent as tocreate no small
embarrassment in the attention which it was impor-
tant I should bestow upon the class immediately
under my care.

I have devoted also considerable time to the
religious instruction of the younger classes, where
the teacher has himself as yet been a novice in the
art of making signs.

I have long regretted that my confinement to the
daily instruction of a class has prevented me from
spending more time in what I apprehend would have
greatly contributed to the prosperity of the institu-
tion in maturing improvements in the general course
of instruction—in communicating signs, and the
results of my experience to the other instructors,
and especially to the younger ones, both by private
lectures out of school, and by explanations and sug-
gestions in school in the presence of their classes,
and in the preparation of a series of books for the
use of the deaf and dumb. To this latter object I
have been for years endeavoring to give its true
importance, while at the same time I have as con-
stantly stated that, while engaged in the instruction
of a class, it was impossible for me to prosecute it
to any effect. Surely, while confined daily to the
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 175

exhausting employment of making signs, having the
common responsibilities of an instructor of a class,
and the more peculiar ones of principal of the institu-
tion, it was not to be expected that I could find
time for the arduous task of preparing such books
as would be useful to the pupils and creditable to
the institution. I experience no small degree of
satisfaction in finding that my general views with
regard to the importance of having such books pre-
pared correspond precisely with those expressed in
a late circular of the institution for the deaf and
dumb at Paris. The employment of making signs
daily for twelve years is one demanding vigorous
health. I have found it, together with the pressure
of my other duties, making deep inroads upon my
bodily constitution. During the last term, in con-
sequence of a statement which I made to you,
gentlemen, I was released from’ the instruction of a
class, with reference more especially to the prepara-
tion of some books for the deaf and dumb.

The result of my labors I beg leave to lay before
you, and to state also the other duties which I dis-
charged during that period of time. In that period
I prepared the annual report for publication; I
carried on that part of the general correspondence of
the institution which has usually devolved upon me
(some general view of the time employed in which
the treasurer may be able to state from recollection) ;
I officiated in turn in the various religious exercises
of the .school; I devoted every Saturday forenoon
to the instruction of three of the lower classes, with
their teachers, in their religious lessons; I spent
176 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

some time in aiding the younger instructors in their
school-rooms; I delivered for one month a course
of daily lectures on signs, one hour each, to the
younger instructors, including Mr. H., who, expect-
ing soon to go to Ohio, was very anxious to have
the benefit of my experience; for this I declined
receiving any compensation, but the instructors pre-
sented me with a few books as an expression of their
thanks. I attended also to many visitors, who were
of such a character that it was indispensable that
they should be treated with respectful attention by
the principal.

Besides these more general duties, I prepared a
book of about fifty pages, which was much needed
in four of the classes. This book was ready for
publication in September last. Delay on the part
of the engraver in New York has prevented its pub-
lication. I have made an arrangement with the
publisher that I shall be able soon to furnish, free
of all charge, seven or eight hundred copies, sufficient
to supply the new classes for yearsto come. I have
also made considerable progress in the preparation
of a vocabulary for the deaf and dumb. The pre-
liminary steps which I deemed necessary for the
completion of such a work in order to render it both
creditable to the institution, and permanently useful
to this and other similar schools, required an amount
of patient labor which no one but those familiar
with pursuits of the same kind can duly appreciate.
Some estimate can be formed of the amount of this
labor when I state that it was necessary for me to
go twice through the English dictionary from A to
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 177

Z, examining carefully each time thirty or forty
thousand words in order to make the proper selec-
tions, and to arrange them in classes. In addition
to this, I have transferred to a series of charts one
principal class of these words, relating wholly to
sensible objects, and also to other charts classes of
words of a different kind. By no other process which
I could devise could I see any mode of obtaining
the materials necessary for the formation of a
vocabulary for the deaf and dumb. I am aware
that it has been thought that such a vocabulary
might be formed in the space of a few weeks. If
this were practicable, it is rather singular that it
should not ere this have been done in some of the
European institutions, for the late circular of the
Paris institution, published in September last, to
which I have already referred, states that the prep-
aration of such a vocabulary is a work of great
importance, and that the instructors in some of the
European institutions are now actually engaged in
it. The preliminary steps which I have taken are
precisely those recommended in this circular, show-
ing a remarkable coincidence of views in this respect,
and what is more, stated to be absolutely indispen-
sable. In the completion of this work there is still
needed no small amount of time and labor, and I
would most cheerfully put all my manuscripts into
the hands of any person who would undertake to
bring it to a conclusion; and if originally such a
vocabulary could have been prepared in three or
four weeks, the task will now be a much lighter one,
178 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

as many of the more difficult preliminary steps are
already accomplished.

In the review of my past connection with the
institution, I have much to lament of deficiencies
and error in the discharge of my duties; yet justice
to myself leads me to state that I have performed ser-
vices out of school for which a compensation might
reasonably have been asked, and that the actual
amount of time and labor, which for twelve years I
have expended in order to promote the prosperity
of the school, is fully equal to what any president
or professor or tutor in any of our colleges has
devoted in the same length of time to a similar
object, while the kind of labor, that of teaching the
deaf and dumb, is more exhausting, and makes
deeper encroachments upon the constitution and
bodily health than that endured in almost any other
pursuit or profession. I ought to state also that
from the first moment when I concluded to go to
Europe on my responsible and difficult undertaking
to this hour, I have never urged any pecuniary
claims, nor received any thing for any extra services.
I have taken just what the directors have seen fit to
allow me, and with this have always been contented.

When I allude, therefore, to the fact that some
of the instructors have been receiving for years past
a much larger compensation than myself, and that
others have found it perfectly consistent with their
duties to add by other labors to their income; while
it was impossible for me, when confined to the daily
instruction of .a class, and to the duties both of an
instructor and the other peculiar ones connected
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 179

with the office of principal, to engage in any pursuit
by which to add to my income: when I allude to
these facts, and also to one other of a striking
nature known to every body, that the presidents
and professors in colleges, and also many settled
clergymen, find time, after discharging the appro-
priate duties of their stations, to publish books and
to do other things as means of increasing their
resources,—I hope, gentlemen, I shall be considered
as presenting for your consideration only what I
owe to myself and family, when I state that after
having spent the very prime of my life in your ser-
vice, I have deemed it but reasonable to be released
from the instruction of a class, and also to have
sufficient leisure to command enough of my time to
devote to some objects by which to add to my
means of providing for my family and educating my
children, and of laying up a little something for the
exigencies of those future days rapidly approaching,
when the life and animation of an actor of pan-
tomime, calling into artificial exercise the most
intense effort of thought and of feeling through the
mysterious medium of the eye and the countenance
and the gestures and attitudes of the body, must
settle down into the tranquillity and even feebleness
of declining years.

It ought not to be eee that I entertain
views, with regard to what the principal of such an
institution might accomplish, if released from the
instruction of a class, so as very much to promote
its welfare, with which those of most, perhaps all, of
the other instructors, do not coincide. They think,
180 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

as I am informed by the chairman of the committee,
and this without any reference to myself personally,
that the true interests of the school require, that the
principal should, in addition to his other peculiar
duties, be engaged in the instruction of a class.
They also think that the peculiar duties of the
principal, out of school, need not occupy more than
one hour daily. Consider this estimate as correct,
though in my opinion it is far from being so, taking
into account the performance of all that I have
stated to have been performed by me, in addition to
the instruction of a class—and what time will be
left for the principal to devote to the general progress —
of the classes, to the training up of instructors, to the
delivering of lectures on signs, to the maturing im-
provements in the course of instruction, to the relig-
ious instruction of the lower classes,to the prepara-
tion of suitable books, to the general good order and
prosperity of the institution, both in the school-room
and the workshops, and to the publication of the
annual reports. Are such objects worthy of the
active and zealous efforts of such a person as is fit
to be held up to the public as competent to dis-
charge the duties of principal; and if so, how can
he justly be held responsible for the faithful dis-
charge of the duties growing out of this important
trust, while he is obliged to exhaust a great portion
of his strength, and consume the most considerable
part of his time, in the daily instruction of a class?
It is to be recollected, also, that he needs time to
attend to his family concerns,—to take a sufficient
degree of relaxation and exercise for the preservation
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 181

of his health, and surely to enjoy the opportunity of
keeping pace with his cotemporaries in the improve-
ment of his intellectual powers, which is, through
him, to affect the reputation of the institution.

My confinement, for years past, to the daily
instruction of a class—an employment, in itself, quite
as exhausting as the whole amount of the daily
duties performed by the presidents or professors in
our colleges—while numerous responsibilities, con-
nected with the state of other classes and the gen-
eral concerns of the institution, have, for want of any
other appropriate person, been constantly referred
to myself, and yet no adequate time allowed me to
discharge them; this, together with the wide field
of enterprise for promoting the prosperity and eleva-
ting the character of the school opening before me,
could I but have been released from the care of a
particular class, has tended very much, I am free to
confess, to damp the former ardor which I had dur-
ing the early progress of my work; has had no trifling
effect upon my general health and spirits, and has
furnished reasons, at times, for my friends to. fear
that the spirit of resolution and of effort had quite
- forsaken me. And yet I have held on my course,
and may I not be permitted to ask, referring to all
the past history of the institution, when has your
principal once failed in the accomplishment of any
great object connected with its prosperity? It was
an ardent and enthusiastic spirit which first led him
to embark in an undertaking considered by many as
wholly visionary, and the same spirit has always
been ready to kindle whenever any important object
182 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

has been proposed by which to add to the useful-
ness or the reputation of the institution. But for
any one to plod on in the same round of elementary
instruction to twelve or fifteen infantile minds for
twelve years, with no hope of being released from it,
while, at the same time, he sees various ways in
which his time and talents could be brought to bear
with a hundred-fold more effect upon the prosperity
of an institution, which under Providence he has
been one of the principal instruments of raising up
to usefulness and reputation,—all this is calculated,
especially where a feeble constitution has to contend
with the pressure of nervous disease, while engaged
in one of the most exhausting of all employments—
to weaken, to dishearten, nay to paralyze hope,—
although once the brightest, and resolution the
strongest, and enterprise the most undaunted.

To one point, gentlemen, permit me to invite
your particular and candid attention. Ought the
services which I have rendered to be estimated by
the exact number of hours and minutes consumed in
their performance, and ought they to be placed ona
level with those of the other instructors ?

Before I went to Europe in your employment,
I had received a very expensive education. I
had graduated at Yale College; I had been a
tutor in that institution two years; I was licensed
to preach, and, in addition to all this, I had
received a pretty thorough mercantile education.
All this cost money, and enabled me to enter upon
the discharge of the trust that you assigned me in
the origin of the school, and has since enabled me to
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 183

discharge additional ones, with so much the greater
promptness, dispatch and success. In support of
this position, may I allude to the peculiar difficulties
which I had to encounter, and which, by the bless-
ing of God, I overcame while in Europe; to the
amount of funds which I was instrumental in raising ;
to the successive annual reports which I have pre-
pared; to the impressions made by means of ad-
dresses, and sermons, and public exhibitions, on
legislatures and the inhabitants of some of our
largest cities, and on the Congress of the United
States, favorable to the prosperity of the institution ;
to the securing, by previous correspondence and by
my own personal attendance on their respective leg-
islatures, the appointment of commissioners from
the New England States, and the abandonment of
projects almost ripe for execution, for the establish-
ment of other schools, and the concentration of pub-
lic patronage on one for all New England; to the
conducting for years a very delicate and difficult
controversy, if it may be so called, with the New
York institution, and affording complete satisfaction
to the commissioners chosen on the part of that
state to visit the institution of the superiority of our
mode of instruction ; to the enlisting the feelings and
good will of hundreds of respectable visitors from all
parts of the Union; tothe carrying on a correspond-
ence with distinguished individuals and officers of
government, with regard to the interests of the
deaf and dumb generally and the welfare of this in-
stitution more particularly ; to the making improve-
ments in the course, and manner of instruction, and
184 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

in the religious exercises of the pupils; to the edu-
cating some pupils who are now assistant teachers,
and to the furnishing in the early progress of
the school specimens of the attainments of the
pupils which excited surprise even in the older
establishments in Europe; and in these, and
other ways, to the securing to this institution,
while yet in its infancy, the approbation and
patronage of our own country, and an elevated rank
among those of long standing in foreign countries.

So far as I have been instrumental, under the sup-
port of a kind superintending Providence, in the ac-
complishment of these objects; and, so faras I have
performed the more ordinary business of the institu-
tion with promptness, dispatch and success, ought
not a proper regard to be had to the qualifications
inthe possession of which I originally entered into
your employment?

Are not the services of all public agents and pro-
fessional men estimated in this way, and ought my
services, then, to be estimated by the precise num-
ber of hours and minutes that it has taken me to
render them; or ought I, in this respect, to be
placed on a level with younger men, who have not
had the same advantages of experience and of edu-
cation as myself?

If we examine the arrangements of any extensive
establishment of a commercial or manufacturing
kind, or those of the naval, the military, or the civil
department of our government, do we ever find
that those occupying important stations of trust are
obliged, in addition to the responsibilities growing
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 185

out of these stations, to labor, also, in the details of
business in the more inferior departments ?

Is the estimate placed upon theirservices, and the
compensation which they receive for them, ascer-
tained by the precise amount of time employed in
rendering them, or are they placed, in this respect,
on a level with those having less experience and
occupying subordinate stations? On the contrary,
are not their services estimated according to their
experience and skill—and do they not often receive
double the amount of pay for spending much less
time thanis employed by one in an inferior station ?
These principles are acted upon in institutions of a
similar kind in Europe, and none of the prominent
ones for the instruction of the deaf and dumb require
of the principal to be devoted to the daily instruc-
tion of a class.

Nothing but the very peculiar circumstances under
which I am placed, would lead me thus to allude to
topics, to mention which, on almost any other
occasion, would look too much like vain-boasting.
But it seemed to me indispensable to make such a
statement—in order to place in its true light the
reasonableness of my views with regard to releasing
the principal, whoever he may be, from the daily
instruction of a class, since no one but myself, how-
ever kindly disposed, is sufficiently acquainted with
all the facts of the case, to be able to state them fully
and accurately. Such a statement, for various
reasons, I wished to leave on your records—and
having thus considered the past, the great question
recurs, what is to be done with regard to the future.
186 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

After much deliberation, with the advice of several
judicious friends, I have formed my judgment on
two important points—that I ought not to be con-
fined any longer to the daily instruction of a class,
and that, in justice to an increasing family, I ought,
in some way or other, to add to my present income.

Whether, under these circumstances, the continu-
ance of my connection with your institution will be
consistent both with its true interests, and with the
duties which I owe to myself, and to my family, is
a question which I am free to confess I feel myself
much at a loss to decide, until I am made more
fully acquainted with the views of the directors, and
also with those of my colleagues, on the various
points involved in this communication.

Other spheres of usefulness, of great importance,
have been presented to my consideration and offers
made to me, within a year or two past, more compat-
ible with my health, and more productive, in a
pecuniary point of view, than that which I now
occupy ;—and as these have all related to the great
department of education toward which both the
efforts of my mind and the feelings of my heart
have long been intensely directed, and in which the
dearest interests of our common country are most
deeply involved, I confess, that I have been often
led to hesitate whether to such objects it might not
become my duty to devote my future labors. In
addition to this, so long as the other instructors
retain the views that they have expressed to the
committee, it is manifest that they can not consider
the other services which the principal of the
LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS. 187

institution might render if released from the instruc-
tion of a class, of sufficient value to justify his being
retained in his present station.

Under these circumstances, is it not obvious to
every mind possessed of any feelings of delicacy and
of self-respect, that the continuance of my connection
with the institution must be attended with much to
depress any generous feelings of enterprise and use-
fulness ? ;

_ The general question at issue, is, I am aware, but
matter of opinion. My colleagues may be in the
right, and myself in the wrong. It may be establish-
ing an injurious precedent to release the principal
from the daily instruction of a class; and should
you, gentlemen, be of this opinion, I will submit
most cheerfully to your decision; not disappointed,
should it thus prove to be the will of Providence, in
being permitted to resign a station of great respon-
sibility, full of anxieties and cares, and to discharge
the duties of which, as they ought to be discharged,
demands no small portion of both bodily and mental
labor. I will retire, in perfect good-will toward all
parties ; retaining a grateful recollection of the kind-
ness and indulgence which I have experienced at your
hands, and pledging myself, so far as any means or
influence may be left to me, to do all that I can to
promote the peace, the prosperity, and the happi-
ness of the school.

On the other hand, should you conclude that it is
desirable still to continue me in your employment, as
principal of the institution, in accordance with the
views which I have stated, I must say, with the same
188 LETTER TO THE DIRECTORS.

frankness which I have endeavored to preserve
throughout all this communication, that my decision
with regard to the course of duty will depend, not
merely on the nature and extent of the duties which
may be assigned to me, but quite as much on the
views and feelings which this may produce on the
part of my colleagues.

For it must be obvious to every one, that without
harmony and confidence between the principal and
his associates, his own comfort, and of course his
usefulness, must be greatly diminished ;—his health
impaired by a constant series of anxieties, and thus,
his efforts to promote the prosperity of the institu-
tion rendered, in a great degree, ineffectual.

Iam, gentlemen, with sentiments of esteem and
respect,

Your obedient servant,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

This letter was not without its effect on the
directors, and within a week after its presen-
tation they voted to release Mr. Gallaudet
from the duty of teaching a class for a year,
with the evident intention of making the
arrangement a permanent one. Not so ready,
however, were the assistant instructors to do
what might have retained their principal in his
place. They had already expressed their view
that he ought not to be excused from teach-
ing. Not sustained in this by the board they
OPPOSITION OF ASSISTANTS. 189

entered into an earnest controversy as to the
proper mode of governing the institution,
insisting that this should be done by a faculty
in which the principal should have little if any
more authority than one of them. It will be
remembered that in 1818 the experiment of
governing the school by a faculty was made.
This method proving unsatisfactory at that
time was not continued. Two sets of pro-
posed regulations were submitted to the
directors, one by Mr. Gallaudet and one by
his assistants.

When it became evident after almost inter-
minable correspondence that their suggestions
did not command the approval of the direct-
ors, and when they found their course of con-
duct was actually driving Mr. Gallaudet to
resign, the instructors undertook to withdraw
much they had said, and expressed a disposi-
tion to acquiesce in the decision of the board
and to give Mr. Gallaudet their support if he
would remain.

Too much argument, however, had been car-
ried on, and the differences of opinion were
too radical to allow a hope of harmonious
action to be had.

Mr. Gallaudet, therefore, on the 7th of April,
1830, forwarded his resignation to the directors,
1990 RESIGNATION OF PRINCIPALSHIP.

To one who has studied with care the many
documents that go to make up the record of
this seemingly unfortunate history, the
charity shown by Mr. Gallaudet towards
those who had been opposing him appears
little short of sublime.

While giving suitable prominence to the
differences of view existing between the
instructors and himself and showing how
unlikely it was that harmony could be
expected even though the directors should
fully sustain and the assistants acquiesce in
his policy, as both seemed disposed now to do,
he still declared his willingness to make the
attempt of continuing to direct the affairs of
the institution, were he not convinced that his
health would no longer bear the strain. He
closes his letter of resignation as follows:

Trusting, gentlemen, that whatever opinion you
may form of the expediency of the course which,
after long and deliberate reflection, I have adopted,
you will let my motives share the exercise of your
candor, I resign into your hands the office of prin-
cipal, cherishing towards all connected with the
establishment the most friendly sentiments; grate-
ful-for the kindnesses which I have received; sensi-
ble of my many deficiencies in duty and errors in
judgment; and beseeching Almighty God so to
LETTER OF RESIGNATION. 1gr

guide and bless all concerned in its management
that the institution, over whose interests you, gen-
tlemen, have so long and so successfully presided,
may go on to increase in favor with the public, and
in usefulness to that interesting and yet very
numerous class of our fellow-men, for whose benefit
it was, under the guidance of a merciful Providence,
originally established.

In their annual report following Mr. Gal-
laudet’s resignation the directors thus record
their appreciation of the value of his services :

It is well known that to this gentleman, as the
agent of the board of directors, the cause of
humanity is primarily indebted for the introduction
of the art of deaf-mute instruction into the United
States, and for the general spread of that informa-
tion necessary for prosecuting it successfully in pub-
lic institutions, of which all in operation in the
country are now experiencing the benefits. It is,
however, in our own establishment that the import-
ance of his services can be best appreciated. These
are and have ever been most highly valued by the
board. Tothem they attribute primarily and chiefly
the success of their institution hitherto, as it apper-
tains either to the patronage of public bodies, the
favor of influential individuals, the benevolent wishes
and the contributions of the charitable, and the
actual instruction of several hundred deaf anddumb
persons. Retaining his connection with the institu-
192 ACTION OF THE DIRECTORS.

tion as one of its life-directors, Mr. Gallaudet will
still be enabled to exercise an important influence in
its management; and while his associates in the
board rely upon the aid of his experience and coun-
sels in their future operations, they can not but
express their cordial desire for his own continued
prosperity and happiness, in whatever sphere of use-
fulness he may be called to engage.

It would budren these pages to relate how
often and in what manner Mr. Gallaudet’s
““experience and counsels” were of special
value to the institution in whose board of
management he retained a seat, after ceasing
to be its executive head.

These services covered a period of more
than twenty years: they were given without
thought of pecuniary reward; and that the
directors recognized later the obligations of
the institution to Mr. Gallaudet growing out
of these labors, by voting him a sum of
money, detracts nothing from the unselfish
spirit in which they were offered.

Not the least important of them was ren-
dered almost immediately after his resigna-
tion, and before his successor had been
appointed. It was to urge upon the directors
with an earnestness which good taste, and his
natural modesty, forbade him to show so long
FORBEARANCE UNDER INJUSTICE. 193

as they concerned himself, all those measures
he had proposed concerning organization and
division of duty and authority in the institu-
tion.

These measures were promptly adopted by
the board, and Mr. Gallaudet’s successor
found himself clothed with all needful power,
required only to perform such duties as were
natural to his office as principal—and these
not of an exhausting character—and in the
receipt of a salary much larger than had ever
been paid to Mr. Gallaudet.

That the directors of the institution, or the
teachers, intended to do injustice to Mr. Gal-
laudet need not be charged at this late day,
and it would probably be wrong to impute
such motives to them. That he was unjustly,
even cruelly, treated is evident from the
record. It is known that he felt himself to
have been so dealt with. But through all this
bitter experience he broke no friendship, he
accused no man of unworthy motives. He
had, with wonderful energy, discretion and
devotion, carried a great public work to a
brilliant and substantial success, in considera-
tion of which the least the directors could, in
justice, have offered him would have been a
year of absolute rest, that he might, if possi-
194 THOUGHT FOR OTHERS.

ble, regain the health which had broken down
in their service.

But it does not appear that this, or any
such measure, was even suggested in the
board, and it was left to Mr. Gallaudet to see
that the consideration he had long deserved
was bestowed on his successor.
CHAPTER VII.

Services in Aid of Various Public Enterprises—Foreign Missions
—The Tract Society—Education—Prince Abdul Rahha-
mann—A Visit to Washington—A Sermon in the House of
Representatives—Notes from John Quincy Adams’ Diary—
Education of Negroes as Missionaries to Africa—Letters
from Dr. Milnor and Gerrit Smith.

EFORE relating events which followed

Mr. Gallaudet’s resignation as principal

of the School for the Deaf it will be neces-

sary to speak of the services he rendered to

many objects of public interest while still fill-
ing that arduous office.

His mind was too active, his sympathy too
broad, and his interest in his fellow-men too
alert to allow him to become narrow even
while carrying the heavy official burdens that
were upon him.

Whatever movement was set on foot for
the benefit of humanity, for the uplifting of
the oppressed, and especially for the advance-
ment of the cause of general education, was
196 INTEREST IN EDUCATION.

sure to find him among its earliest and most
zealous supporters. Nor did he always wait
for others to start such undertakings.

In the periodicals of the day many articles
and addresses may be found from his pen on
subjects other than those connected with his
specialty, such as the Mission to the Sand-
wich Islands in 1819, the Tract Society, and
a series of elaborate articles on General Edu-
cation in Poulson’s Dazly Advertiser, Philadel-
phia, in 1820, Teachers’ Seminaries in 1826,
Female Education in 1827, the case of the
Moorish Prince Abdul Rahhamann in the
same year, and the Philosophy of Language
in 1830.

The following suggestions in a letter to his
intimate friend, S. V. S. Wilder of New York,
well known to some now living as a promi-
nent and influential merchant of his time, were
written thirteen years before the first Normal
School was established, and of which, as the
sequel will show, Mr. Gallaudet was invited
to take charge.

Letter to Mr. Wilder.

HARTFORD, Dec. I0, 1824.
My DEAR FRIEND :—I am going to jog your elbow,
as you sit by your fire with your dear wife and chil-
PROPOSAL FOR NORMAL SCHOOLS. 197

dren, about my project. I shall be as brief as possible ;
for hints to the wise are sufficient. How can we
expect any great moral change to take place in the
world, until the education of children is conducted
on the best plan, and, I would add, on evangelical
principles? The talents, and character, and fidelity,
and skill of their instructors is of immense importance.
Make the business of an instructor of youth as much
a profession as that of divinity, law, or medicine.
We have theological, law, and medical institutions.
Why not have an institution for the business of
education? Give it what name you please. Fix it
somewhere in New England. Let it be under the
control of judicious, pious men. Let it have its
professors ;—men of talents adapted to the object.
Let them deliver a course of lectures on the theory
and practice of education, so far as it relates to the
instruction of children and youth in the branches of
what is called a good, common English education,—
and on the best modes of teaching them practical,
moral, and religious truths. Let the institution
have a library, to contain all the books, theoretical
and practical, in different languages, on education ;
and also the various apparatus employed for this
purpose, Let there be placed at the institution a
sufficient number of youth to form a schoo! for
practice, so as to reduce the theories of the profes-
sors to actual experiment. Let young men go to
this institution to qualify themselves to become
instructors. Let them stay till they are well quali-
fied, and receive a diploma or certificate.

The advantages of such an institution are so many
198 PROPOSAL FOR NORMAL SCHOOLS.

and great, that I have not time to enumerate them.
Many of them will doubtless occur to you. They
would result, however, in producing throughout the
country, an uniform system of education on the best
plan, and in elevating the character of instructors, and
in producing public confidence in them, and in saving
a great deal of time, labor, and money.

This plan may need modeling and maturing (let
wiser heads than mine do it); but of the utility of
its general features can there be a doubt ?

The object of having a certain number of youth
at the institution would be to have them daily
taught by the young men who are qualifying them-
selves to become instructors, under the direction of
the professors. Thus, in a few years, a mass of ex-
perience would be accumulated that would lead to
the most profitable result. Such an institution, too,
would soon become the place where the dest school
books would be prepared; and, indeed, all sorts of
books intended for the improvement of the youthful
mind. What an engine of doing good, if well con-
ducted!

Let me add, that such an institution would be the
means of developing and establishing those correct
principles of education, which would be of immense
use to the missionaries who go to teach heathen
people, and who, of late years, are beginning to find
out and to tell us, that the great hope of Christian-
izing those among whom they labor, lies in zstruct-
ing the rising generation. Oh! for a reformer to
arise on this subject of the education of youth!
Our apparently weightier projects of doing good
VISIT TO WASHINGTON. 199

have caused this to be too much neglected. We
spend our labor upon the old trees; we too much
disregard the young shoots.
Yours in the bonds of Christian love,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

In 1828, Mr. Gallaudet visited Washington
at the request of the managers of the Pennsyl-
vania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, to
aid them in an effort to secure Congressional
aid for their young institution. This school
was, at that time, under the charge of Mr.
Lewis Weld, who had been trained for his
work by Mr. Gallaudet, and who, two years
later, was called back to Hartford at the lat-
ter’s suggestion to become his successor.

Mr. Weld accompanied Mr. Gallaudet to
Washington with a number of pupils of the
Philadelphia school, and an exhibition of their
attainments was given to Congress, of which
John Quincy Adams gives a full and discrim-
inating account in his diary.

While in Washington Mr. Gallaudet was
invited to preach in the Hall of the House of
Representatives. Of his sermon Mr. Adams
speaks as follows :—

Feb. 17, 1828. Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet
preached in the Hall of Representatives from Ro-
200 SERMON AT THE CAPITOL.

mans xv., 21: ‘“‘Butasit is written, to whom he was
not spoken of they shall see; and they that have not
heard shall understand.”

Mr. Gallaudet considered the deaf and dumb as
Gentiles of our own age and country.

This sermon, written in an unambitious style,
was fervent in manner and cogent in reasoning.
It was listened to with deep attention. Mr. Gal-
laudet is the first founder of the schools for the
deaf and dumb in this country, and may, without
imputation of arrogance, compare his own condition
and services to his fellow mortals with those of the
apostle of the Gentiles.*

The incident of Mr. Gallaudet’s interest in
Abdul Rahhamann occurred not long before
the visit to Washington.

This remarkable man, after having been
many years a slave in Mississippi, was met
and recognized by a surgeon in the United
States navy, Dr. Cox, as a Moorish prince he
had known in Tumbo, and by whom he had
been treated with great kindness when he was
sick in that place. Dr. Cox made an unsuc-
cessful effort to secure the freedom of the
prince—but left such statements on record as
induced the United States government a few
years later to send an agent to Natchez to

 

* Diary of J. Q. Adams, vol. vii., pp. 434-438.
THE MOORISH PRINCE. 201

procure his liberation, and his master, Colonel
Thomas Foster, manumitted him without com-
pensation.

“The prince* was then sixty-six years old,
having been a slave forty years. He had a
wife, five sons and eight grandchildren, all in
bondage. His wife was soon bought and set
free by benevolent individuals in Natchez and
the neighborhood. The object was to send
them back to their own country; but they
could not bear to go and leave their children
and grandchildren behind. A large sum was
required for their ransom, and how was it to
be obtained? In the number of the A/frzcan
Reposctory for October, 1828, I find the follow-
ing notice of the agency by which the purchase
money was raised :”

We have before mentioned the prince’s desire to
obtain the redemption of his entire family, and that
he had gone to the Northern cities to solicit aid.
We rejoice to find, that the Rev. Mr. Gallaudet,
principal of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb
at Hartford, and so well-known to the public for his
truly Christian and charitable enterprise, has gen-
erously devoted himself fortwo or three weeks past
to this unfortunate stranger; examined and made

 

* Rev, Dr. Humphrey’s Life of Dr, Gallaudet, p. 229.
202 THE MOORISH PRINCE.

himself familiar with his history; brought the facts
of it before the public in New England, and finally
visited New York, where he made a powerful appeal
in the Masonic Hall to the generous and wealthy
of that city.

The address was published, and greatly aided in
raising the sum required. I can not refrain from
quoting a part of the closing paragraph from that
eloquent appeal. It was thought worthy of the
man and of the sacred cause of humanity and
religion.

“The prince was born and spent his early youth
in Timbuctoo, and recollects that no one was dis-
turbed for religious opinions, and that the Alcoran
had given the people a curiosity to see the Bible.
During all his trials the prince has not forgotten his
Arabic, but reads it fluently and writes it with neat-
ness. The finger of God seems to point to great
results arising from his return. His life appears like
aromance,and would be incredible if the evidence
were not undeniable. We see in these events, that
God’s ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as
our thoughts. We see why the prisoner was not to
return with his Moorish disposition and his Moorish
sword; that Providence continued him here, till
grace had softened his heart. He will now return a
messenger of peace. Blessed be God, that we are
permitted the honor of co-operating with him. Me-
thinks I see him, like a patriarch, crossing the
Atlantic, over which he was taken forty years since,
with his flock around him, and happy in doing good.
I think I see benighted Africa taking her stand
THE MOORISH PRINCE. 203

among the nations of theearth. I think I see Egypt,
as heretofore, pouring a flood of light into Greece,
and Carthage arising in former glory.

“YT think I see Africa, one hand pointing to the
tablet of eternal justice, making even us Americans
tremble, while the words are pronounced, ‘ Ven-
geance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord ;’ and with
the other pointing to the golden rule of the
Gospel.”

Soon after their emancipation, the prince and
his family emigrated to Liberia, where he died in
a short time, and where Mr. R. R. Gurley, secretary
of the American Colonization Society, visited his
widow not long after his death. She handed himan
old pocket-book, in which he found the following
letter from Mr. Gallaudet :

Letter to the Moorish Prince.

HARTFORD, May 15, 1828.

My VENERABLE FRIEND:—I have read with
deep interest the late accounts respecting you, and
how, with the blessing of God, and by the liberality
of kind friends, yourself and wife have obtained
freedom, and are soon toreturn to your native land.

TI saw in this city, a few days since, the Rev.
Jonas King, who has lately been a Christian mis-
sionary in Palestine. He told me, that when he
should arrive in New York, from which place he
expects soon to embark for Greece, he would send
you an Arabic Bible. I hope it will reach you in
safety.
204 LETTER TO THE PRINCE.

I also send you (and of which I beg your ac-
ceptance as a small token of my esteem and friend-
ship), a small book in Arabic, which was sent to me
a few years ago by a friend in England, the Rev.
Josiah Pratt, secretary at that time of the Church
Missionary Society, which has done so much to
enlighten the Africans in their native country.

Remember, my venerable friend, that it is the
religion of Jesus Christ alone which leads men to
do good to the souls of their fellow-men. What
other religion does this? I know there are those
who call themselves Christians (and it is easy for
men to call themselves by any name), and yet
act directly contrary to the commands of Jesus
Christ. Do not judge the religion of Jesus Christ
by such men.

Read attentively, I beseech you, my venerable
friend, the New Testament. You will see in the
character of Jesus Christ, and in all His precepts, a
religion which, if cherished in the heart and prac-
ticed in the life, would make men good and happy
both in this and in the futrure world.

Perhaps you have met a few persons who are
Christians in heart, and who imitate the example of
Jesus Christ. What do you think of them? What
do you think of that religion which has removed
darkness from their minds, and made their hearts
love God and love their fellow-men? Look at such
men. Are you not glad to have them for your
friends? They are the ones who wish not only to
do you good in this world, but to prepare you
after death (which, oh, my venerable friend, can
LETTER TO THE PRINCE. 205

not be far distant from you and your dear wife), to
be happy forever in Heaven.

Was Jesus Christ, who set such an example and
taught such a religion, an impostor? You say, per-
haps He was a good man. Well, if He was a good
man He could not have spoken falsehoods, He must
always have told the truth. But if He told the
truth, His religion must be the true one, and all other
religions which do not agree with it must be false.
He said He was the only Saviour, and that only by
repentance towards God for all our sins, and by faith
in Him as our only Saviour, we can be saved. If this
is not true, what a wicked person, what an
impostor Jesus Christ must have been! The Arabic
book which I send you, my venerable friend, shows
very clearly the truth of the Christian religion.

It was first written by Hugo Grotius, a very
wise and learned man, who lived in the United
Netherlands. It was translated into Arabic by Pro-
fessor McBride, a very learned man who lives in
Oxford, England. I beg you to read it carefully.
I beg you to read the Arabic Bible carefully, which
I hope you will receive from my friend Mr. King.
I beg you at the same time, to pray Almighty God
that He would guide you by His wisdom into the
knowledge of the true religion; for, my venerable
friend, how important it is that we should find and
embrace the true religion! You, whose soul will so
soon be in eternity.

May the Holy Spirit lead you in the way of
truth, of safety, and of peace. Is not Jesus Christ
just such a Saviour, just such a teacher, just such a
206 LETTER TO THE PRINCE.

guide, just such a protector, just such a friend as
you and I need in a world like this, so full of disap-
pointments, of sorrow and of sin? Shall we not
need Him when we die, and when our souls appear
at the judgment seat at the last day?

I heard yesterday that some family near this
city had a long letter in Arabic, which you wrote
when you first came to this country, in Charleston,
South Carolina. I rode seven miles last evening to
try to find this letter. I did not succeed, but I heard
something about it, andI will try to procure it and
send it to you. Please to write me as soon as you
receive this letter, and tell me how soon you expect
to embark, and to what place I shall direct
another letter to you. Give kind regards to your
wife and children, all of whom, as well as yourself, I
commend to the protection and blessing of Almighty
God, beseeching Him for the sake of Jesus Christ to
guide you all, after the trials and changes of this
short and uncertain life, to the mansionsof eternal
rest. I am, my venerable friend, your friend in
truth, T. H. GALLAUDET.

A year before his acquaintance with the
Moorish prince Mr. Gallaudet had become
interested in the great question of the treat-
ment of the blacks in our country, probably
in consequence of the following letter received
from the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, Secretary
of the Church Missionary Society of England.
LETTER FROM DR. BICKERSTETH. 207

CHURCH MISSIONARY HOME, LONDON,
October 25, 1826.

My DEAR SIR :—The committee of our society,
having lost many valuable laborers in Africa, have
turned their attention to a supply of teachers better
fitted than Europeans to encounter the insalubrity
of its climate. They have been strongly recom-
mended to procure persons of color for this service,
and have been led to suppose there may be many
such in America, who have the requisite piety, |
talent and knowledge to fit them for such an office.

Their duty would be the religious instruction
of the liberated Africans congregated in Sierra
Leone from all parts of Africa.

We shall be much obliged if you will inform us
whether there be, in your knowledge, any persons of
this description who would be willing to devote them-
selves wholly to labor in Africa to diffuse the Gospel.

It might not, probably, be difficult for such per-
sons to obtain ordination from the bishops of the
sister church in America before they left there.

Such persons should pledge themselves to sub-
mit to the directions of the society, as to the sta-
tions in which they may labor, and their general
conduct.

The remuneration for their services would be
sufficient for their comfortable support; but on this
point, and any other connected with the design, we
shall be truly glad to have your free and full senti-
ments. I am, dear sir, faithfully yours,

EDWARD BICKERSTETH,
Sec. C. M.S.
208 TEACHERS FOR AFRICA.

It being found impracticable to find in
America many persons fitted to respond to
this appeal, Mr. Gallaudet bestirred himself
to secure, if possible, the establishment of a
school or schools for the education of colored
missionaries and teachers for Africa.

The following letters will serve as speci-
mens of a large correspondence on the sub-
ject :

Letter from Rev, James Milnor, D. D.

NEw YorK, February 21, 1827,

REV. AND DEAR SIR :—I should have returned an
earlier answer to your favor of January, if I had been
able to say any thing of importance in relation to the
interesting subject. Similar communications have
been received by some of the bishops of our church,
and others; and the society of our church for the
promotion of domestic and foreign missions have
taken the matter under consideration, and will no
doubt make every inquiry in their power. I have,
however, very little hope of many suitable mission-
aries being procured, except in the way you have
suggested, and even that will be attended with great
difficulty, both in the procurance of suitable charac-
ters, and providing them withthe means of acquiring
a competent education. There isan institution in an
incipient state, whose location is designed to be in
the vicinity of Newark, N. J.; but its funds at pres-
ent consist only of the moneys bequeathed by Gen-
LETTER FROM DR. MILNOR. 209

eral Kosiusco for such an object, and a great lassitude
seems to me to obtain in getting it into operation.
Much time must necessarily elapse, before efficient
aid in the supply of colored missionaries from this
country can possibly be rendered. To give a com-
petent education to pious persons of this descrip-
tion, who have spent their earlier years in slavery
and ignorance, will very rarely be practicable. It
has seemed to me indispensable to begin with a
school of children and trust to the providence and
grace of God for their obtaining, along with the
benefits of secular learning, the spiritual qualifica-
tions requisite in the missionaries of the cross.

I sincerely hope that, in this age of Christian
enterprise, this very important means of extending
to injured Africa the benefits of Christianity, will
not be lost sight of. But in the present state of
things, it is neither practicable for me to suggest to
you any way in which you can further it, nor to do
any thing for its prosecution myself, except to pre-
sent it, as opportunity offers, in all its interesting
bearings, to other minds, and thus assist in gradu-
ally exciting a spirit that may lead to determinate
measures in its favor.

I am, with great respect, Reverend and Dear
Sir, your obedient servant and brother in Christ,

JAMES MILNOR.

Letter from Hon. Gerrit Smith.

PETERBORO, N. Y., April 14, 1827.
DEAR SIR:—I received your letter with a great
210 LETTER FROM GERRIT SMITH.

deal of pleasure, and especially so, because it presents
to me, in yourself and Mr. Wright, a couple of val-
uable and earnest friends to the African cause—a
cause so neglected, that the few who come up to its
help are hailed with peculiar satisfaction. It was
with much regret that I saw in the Freedman’s
Journal the article you, no doubt, refer to, respect-
ing my purposes of good to this unhappy portion of
the human family. The reply which I immediately
sent to the editors of that paper will, I trust, go far
towards correcting the false impression on this sub-
ject. Ifthat reply meets your eye, it will show you
that I am thinking a little about my duty in this
matter, and that Iam hoping to begin to do it in a
year or two, should my life be spared so long.

I have, for a year, thought of establishing a
seminary in this place, in which to receive Africans
of from fifteen to thirty years of age, and to qualify
them for missionaries to Africa. Such being the
single object of the proposed school, none, of course,
would be admitted into it but suchas were evidently
pious. I have not intended to carry them through
such a course of instruction as would render them
polite scholars and thorough theologians. Consider-
ing the character of the people with whom they
would have to do, such an education does not seem
to be necessary. A far less expensive one, suchas I
propose, would qualify the individual, perhaps, nearly
as well for his duties, and at the same time, enable
me to double or treble the number of my school. A
common English education, and a careful instruction
in the fundamental truths of our holy religion (say
LETTER FROM GERRIT SMITH. 211

one year under a theological teacher), are the extent
of the education I purpose to give.

This is something of my plan of beneficence to
Africa. Of my little ability to do good to my fellow
creatures, I have long thought Africa entitled to the
largest share, and in no way can I serve her to any
account, unless it be in some such way asI propose.
The situation of my property forbids my helping her
in any other way. I have no money, but a number
of large and valuable farms around me. The grain
of these farms will feed my school, and from the
sheep that run upon them I can clothe it; besides,
I should get from each of my scholars two or three
months’ labor on my farms. Landed property here
is scarcely convertible into money at any price.

There are many inviting features in your plan of
taking African boys without reference to their char-
acter for piety. Ithink, however, of some objections
to it. My correspondence on the subject has satis-
fied me that there are many more pious blacks in our
country than it is generally supposed there are. I
think I could get, without difficulty, fifty or one
hundred of that description into such a school as I
propose. I should be very loath to undertake the
education of so many irreligious blacks. Aside
from religion, the motives in our country for the
black man to become a worthy person are not suffi-
ciently powerful. Our institutions, political and
social, the feelings and habits allied to them—a
thousand causes, in short, conspire to make the
black man worthless, by a power that is seldom
successfully resisted where there is not grace in the
212 LETTER FROM GERRIT SMITH.

heart. True, the prospect of being speedily trans-
planted in Africa, there to be independent and
respected, would prove, no doubt, in the case you
mention, no inconsiderable stimulant to the young
African’s ambition, and the improvement of his
character.
I am, very respectfully,
Your friend,
GERRIT SMITH.

Although the beneficent scheme of the
great abolitionist, as set forth in the foregoing
letter, was never realized, the proposal will be
regarded with interest when it is remembered
that Smith was at the date of the letter but
thirty years of age, and had, only a very short
time before, come into possession, from his
father, of that large property which was later
made the basis and source of so many munif-
icent’ benefactions.

Their interest in the colored race exhibited
in their correspondence at this time led both
Mr. Gallaudet and Mr. Smith to give active
support to the Colonization Society, and the
former as secretary of the Connecticut
Auxiliary did very important work for that
cause in New England.

Mr. Gallaudet delivered an address at the
annual meeting of this society in Hartford in
INTEREST IN MISSIONS. 213

1829 which was regarded of so great valueand
merit that it was published and _ widely
circulated.

The limits of this volume will not allow
even of mention of all the enterprises of a
public character in which Mr. Gallaudet took
an active and leading part. His interest in
foreign missions can alone be alluded to
before passing on to the next period of his
life.

He was a warm personal friend of the Rev.
Hiram Bingham, one of the earliest missiona-
ries to the Sandwich Islands, and delivered an
address in aid of the mission on the eve of
Mr. Bingham’s departure to enter upon his
life-work.

The occasion on which this address was
made was one of unusual and even romantic
interest. :

It was a meeting for prayer held in the
Center Church, Hartford, in behalf of the pro-
posed mission, and an incident of the meet-
ing was the marriage of Mr. Bingham to Miss
Sybil Moseley of Westfield, Massachusetts.

A personal friend of Miss Moseley, Mrs.
Dr. George L. Weed, of Ohio, now living at
a very advanced age, relates that an acquaint-
ance of only thirteen days preceded this mar-
214 INTEREST IN MISSIONS.

riage, the betrothal having taken place on
the morning after Mr. Bingham’s ordination
at Goshen, twelve days before.

Miss Moseley, given only twelve hours to
consider the proposal not only of marriage,
but of life as a missionary among a barbarous
people, asked permission of her hostess to sit
by the kitchen fire that she might “continue
all night in prayer,” and so reached a deci-
sion that was severely criticised in many
quarters.

This condemnation, directed chiefly against
the general policy, then almost without pre-
cedent, of allowing women to become mission-
aries, Mr. Gallaudet felt moved to combat,
and did so in the following earnest lan-

guage:

It ts easy and pleasant for those of us who sit
quietly by our own firesides, surrounded with com-
forts and luxury, to wonder at the rashness of those
who embark in such hazardous enterprises; and
while we shrink from self-denial, and do so little
for the cause of Christ, we hope in some measure
to palliate our neglect by finding fault with those
who do more. And, strange as it may seem,
woman—sent by heaven as an helpmeet for man;
designed to share and soothe his sorrows; to par-
ticipate in, and lighten his cares; to excite by her
INTEREST IN MISSIONS. 215

gentler influence, and invigorate by her kind remon-
strances, his languishing efforts in the path of duty ;
woman—who may have less active courage, but
more unbending fortitude, than man ; whose instinc-
tive good sense extricates from difficulties which his
boasted sagacity can not surmount; woman—who,
like the vestal virgin of old, keeps bright the lamp
of domestic piety in the quiet of her retirement,
while man suffers its flame to be almost extin-
guished in the tumultuous bustle of the world;
woman—may be the admired heroine of a novel;
or follow her husband through the fatigues of a mil-
itary campaign and attend him amid all the horrors
of war; or traverse with him the mighty deep, and
spend years in some sultry clime while he is toiling
to make his fortune—she may do all this, and
receive the loudest plaudits of approbation for her
intrepidity and constancy—but let her become the
partner of some humble missionary, who goes to
fight the battles of the cross, and to win an incor-
ruptible crown, and to lay up treasure in heaven,
and she no longer has any claim to magnanimity
and fortitude of soul—she must consent to bear
the reproach of weakness and rashness. Take up
this reproach, ye daughters of Zion, and patiently
endure it; followers of her, whose dust reposes in
India, but whose spirit now rejoices in heaven over
her past sufferings in the cause of Christ, and may
the same arm which shielded Rebekah, who, at the
call of Providence, left her kindred and home, even
the Almighty arm of the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob, ever sustain and protect you.
216 INTEREST IN MISSIONS.

Mr. Gallaudet was for several years chair-
man of the executive committee of the Hart-
ford County Auxiliary Foreign Mission Soci-
ety, and presented at its sixth anniversary in
September, 1829, a report which found as
great favor and exerted as great influence as
his address on colonization in the same year.

With a few paragraphs from this report the
record of the first natural important division
of Mr. Gallaudet’s life will be closed.

Why is it still necessary so often, and so earnestly,
to urge upon Christians the spiritual necessities of
the millions of the human family, who are yet “ sit-
ting in darkness and in the region of the shadow of
death?”

How quickly does every scheme of human enter-
prise, promising results favorable to the increase of
individual wealth, or of personal aggrandizement, or
of a town’s prosperity, or of a nation’s glory—com-
mand resources the most ample, efforts the most
strenuous, agents the most competent, sacrifices the
most heroic, perseverance the most indefatigable,
zeal the most ardent, toil the most unremitting!
Here, Avarice is put to the blush ; Apathy meets with
reproach; Self-denial is a virtue; Patriotism is
reverenced; and even Enthusiasm, so much feared
and ridiculed in all that relates to man’s eternal well-
being, is permitted to exercise, as worthy of such
exalted objects, its free and unlimited control !
MISSIONARY ADDRESS. 217

Here, you never have to encounter the objection,
that your object is too distant in place, or its accom.
plishment too remote in time ;—that it embraces too
wide a field of operation ;—that its results depend
too much on broad and extensive relations, or on com-
plex and uncertain contingencies ;—or that it will
serve to divert the stream of human effort and
resources into channels stretching too far from the
little spot or neighborhood, to which the eye and
hand of prudent exertion should be primarily and
principally directed!

In this respect, as in many others, “the children
of this world are wiser in their generation, than
the children of light.” They study human nature.
They act on the principles of common-sense. They
take man as he is. They use motives that they can
bring to bear upon his uniform rules of action; and
they succeed.

They aim at great things and they accomplish
great things. Look at this nation’s struggle for
independence. See how timidity vanished ; how
patriotism awoke to the contest; how courage
encountered and overcame difficulties! Count the
sacrifices of personal comfort, and of individual
wealth that were cheerfully made. Estimate the
sums of money expended; the amount of property
lost ; the number of lives offered up; the suffering,
the toil, the hardships undergone. Consequences
were calculated; enlarged views of national pros-
perity were taken; the vista of futurity opened in
bright prospective, and the welfare of millions yet -
unborn was regarded with all the fondness of
218 MISSIONARY ADDRESS.

parental affection. And who now looks back, and
regrets any thing that was lost, or expended, or
sacrificed, for the attainment of the object, not only
so productive of good to this individual nation, but
to the cause of rational freedom throughout the
world.

A whole people then rose, like one man, to their
work; they “breathed united strength”; they
achieved what they undertook, because they under-
took it on principle, with concentrated effort and with
extensive aud harmonious co-operation.

And what might not Christians accomplish, if
they, too, would thus feel, and plan, and act !

What is the struggle in which they are engaged?
Nothing less than the conflict between the powers
of darkness and the Lord of Hosts.

For what are they contending ? For the deliver-
ance of all mankind from the bondage of sin, and
their introduction into the glorious liberty of the
Sons of God !

What do they hope to accomplish? The estab-
lishment of a universal empire of truth and right-
eousness and peace, throughout the earth; so that
all men may dwell together as brethren in unity,
acknowledging God as their common Father, and
Jesus Christ as their only Saviour; and believing
and practicing that religion, which is “ pure, peace-
able, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and
of good fruits, without partiality and without
hypocrisy.”

What are their motzves to action? The hope of
rescuing millions of immortal souls from the domin-
MISSIONARY ADDRESS. 219

ion and the curse of sin, and of preparing them for
an endless progress in knowledge, in holiness, and
in happiness ;—the joy which they, in common with
the angels in heaven, will feel over every sinner that
repenteth ;—that peace of conscience, that com-
munion with God, that increase in every Christian
grace and virtue, that strengthening of faith, that
brightening of hope, that assured evidence of an
interest in Jesus Christ, that temperance in pros-
perity, that patience in adversity, that support
under affliction, that final victory over the pains of
death and the horror of the grave,—all of which
nothing so tends to promote, and cherish, and invig-
orate, as unremitting, self-denying, and benevolent
effort in the active service of their Lord and Master.

What are their responsibilities ? Too many, too
weighty, too solemn almost to be enumerated.

They have been bought with a price, even the pre-
cious price of the blood of the Son of God. How can
they repay this love that passeth knowledge!
“Lovest thou me?” saith Christ to each of his
disciples; “then, feed my sheep.” —

All that they possess has been given to them.
They are but the stewards of God’s bounty. Shall
riches be kept to foster pride; to gratify vanity; to
pamper luxury; to load the person with garments,
and the house with splendor, and the table with
delicacies? Shall wealth be hoarded up to enable a
succeeding generation to grow up in indolence; to
live in extravagance; to be exposed to temptations,
which fasten upon the sons and daughters of for-
tune as their legitimate prey ; to mingle in gayeties
220 MISSIONARY ADDRESS.

which stupefy conscience and ruin the soul ; to waste
on worthless objects what might have soothed the
couch of suffering, and supplied the cravings of
want, and shed the light of the Gospel into the
darkness and dreariness of sin; and then die with.
out hope,and leave behind no remembrance of any
honored name, but sink forgotten and unregretted
into an early grave ?

Do Christians yet feel their responsibility in this
respect? What self-denial do they practice; what
luxury, what useless comfort do they abandon, that
they may do all in their power to relieve the
numerous, the pressing, the affecting spiritual
necessities of their fellow-men ?
CHAPTER VIII.
1830—1838.

Invitations to filla Number of Important Positions—To Inaugu-
rate the Education of the Blind of America at Boston—To
Represent the Colonization Society in New England—To
take Professors’ Chairs in several Colleges and to become
Principal of Various Institutions—To Inaugurate a Profess-
orship of the Philosophy of Education in the New York
University—Mr, Gallaudet Declines all these Offers and
Devotes Himself to the Preparation of Books for the Young
—Correspondence with the King of Siam—Interest in
Manual Training and Normal Schools—An Important
Secret Mission to the West—Invitation to become Prin-
cipal of the First Normal School.

N writing of that period of Mr. Gallaudet’s
life which immediately followed his retire-
ment from the active service of the School for
the Deaf, his early biographer, Rev. Dr.
Humphrey, says:

‘Whether he had distinctly marked out
for himself any particular course of life and
labor when he left the institution does not
appear. He had, indeed, cherished the hope
that he should, sooner or later, find time to
222 INVITATIONS TO MANY PLACES.

write school books in the elementary branches
of popular education and for the moral and
religious instruction of the young. What
else he should do, he seems not to have
decided. But, in the meantime, others who
highly appreciated his talents, and had heard
of his contemplated retirement from the field
which he had cultivated with such remarkable
success, were contriving how to allure him
into their favorite inclosures, as will appear
from the applications he received from almost
every quarter.

“It is believed that the services of no man
in this country were ever more earnestly
sought for in so many departments of philan-
thropic labor. The impression was almost
universal, as far as he was known (and where
was he not known?) not only that he was
eminently qualified to take charge of any
benevolent institution in the land, or for any
educational service to which he might be
called, but that he was the frs¢ man to be
thought of for places of the highest respon-
sibility.” -

Within a few weeks after Mr. Gallaudet had
resigned his principalship, and before he had
been released from his duties, he received the
following letter :
COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 223

Office of the Colonization Society,
WASHINGTON, June 6, 1830.

REV. AND DEAR SIR :—I am delighted with your
report.* It is admirably drawn up, and must exert
a powerful influence. May I beg you to favor me
with three or four copies. Allow me to suggest
that great good would probably result from giving
it a wide circulation among the several state societies
and other auxiliaries. I hope you have printed a
large edition.

I am most happy to communicate the following
resolution, which was adopted unanimously by our
board at their last meeting:

“ Resolved, that the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet
be invited to accept of an agency for the society for
a few months, in New England, and that he be par-
ticularly requested to visit Boston, and endeavor to
establish in that city a state society, and to urge
the objects of the memorial of the society, now
before the Legislature of that state.”

I hope you will consent to lend us, for a short
time at least, the aid of your influence and talents
in arousing the good feelings of New England to
activity and energy in behalf of suffering and
neglected Africa. You have done much by your
pen; you can do much more by your intercourse
with society, and the persuasive powers of your
eloquence.

Several members of the legislature have prom-
ised their support. You will find Mr. Everett a

 

* Alluded to in the preceding chapter.
224 COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

decided friend to our cause, and I have no doubt
that Mr. Webster will give his countenance to the
scheme. Mr. Charles Tappan, our local agent at
Boston, has shown a very deep and friendly interest.
The present is a very favorable time for bringing
the subject before the citizens of Boston and of
Massachusetts. I hope, therefore, you will not deny
us your kind assistance.
Very respectfully and affectionately,
R. R. GURLEY, Secretary.

This letter was followed in a few days by
another, giving notice of Mr. Gallaudet’s ap-
pointment as permanent agent of the society
for New England at a handsome salary.

The proposition, says the secretary, is for your-
self. Our managers are unwilling to extend it to
another. . . . Ishould rejoice to see you con-
nected with our cause; and can not doubt that, were
you to accept the agency, such a connection would
be permanent.

Strongly urging Mr. Gallaudet’s acceptance
of this offer came a preamble and resolutions
from the managers of the New York Coloniza-
tion Society most complimentary to him.

Declining these overtures, Mr. Gallaudet
did not withhold his co-operation from the
society, but served its cause so faithfully by
OTHER INVITATIONS. 225

labors not paid for in money, that after his
death his friend Mr. Gurley writes as follows :

The society had, perhaps, never a more prudent,
wise, sagacious, and determined friend. Profoundly
acquainted with human nature; very conciliating
but very firm; ready always to concede in things
immaterial, but resolute of purpose in things
essential.

So prominent a friend was he of this cause
that an appeal came to him, earnest but unsuc-
cessful, from Gerard Ralston and_ others,
managers of the Pennsylvania Colonization
Society, to go into its active service in 1833.

Before Mr. Gallaudet was relieved of his
office as principal of the Hartford School for
the Deaf, in which he continued until Octo-
ber, 1830, the invitations alluded to by Dr.
Humphrey poured in upon him.

Dartmouth College, the Oneida Institute,
the Utica Female Seminary, the Norwich
Female Seminary, the High School at Bur-
lington, New Jersey, the New York High
School, the Cincinnati Seminary, sought his
services either as professor or as principal.

Two other propositions deserve more than
passing mention.

A movement was set on foot early in 1830
226 EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.

to organize a school for the blind in Boston,
there being at that time no provision for the
education of such persons in America.

Naturally some of the promoters of this
enterprise visited Mr. Gallaudet in Hartford to
obtain his advice in the premises. Among
them were William H. Prescott and John D.
Fisher. So impressed were they with what
they saw and heard at Hartford, that they at
once urged Mr. Gallaudet to become the
founder of the education of the blind in
America, as he had been that of deaf-mute
instruction.

Although he gave them no assurance of a
favorable answer, Messrs. Prescott and Fisher
on their return to Boston called the trustees of
the institution together and they at once sent
a formal and urgent appeal to Mr. Gallaudet
to take up this new and important work ; invit-
ing him to visit Boston and confer with them
in person.

Mr. Gallaudet visited Boston as requested,
and the correspondence which followed showed
that he was strongly inclined to accept the
proposals of the Boston gentlemen, which were
of a most liberal and flattering character. The
salary offered was twice what Mr. Gallaudet
had received at Hartford—the duties required
PROFESSORSHIP IN NEW YORK. 227

were much less onerous—the prospect of do-
ing good quite as great as that which attracted
him fifteen years before.

But he felt himself compelled to decline the
undertaking, for reasons which will directly
appear.

The other offer which he was strongly
tempted to accept was from the New York
University, which was then being organized.
And had the negotiations, which were begun
in December, 1830, been brought sooner to the
point of a definite proposition, it is probable
Mr. Gallaudet would have taken a professor-
ship in the university.

The chair offered him finally, some months
later, was that of the Phzlosophy of Education,
and the intention was to bring the influence of
the university to bear on the training of
teachers for common schools.

Dr. Matthews, Mr. J. Delafield, Comptroller
A.C. Flagg, and Mr. T. Dwight, Jr., were
greatly interested in securing Mr. Gallaudet’s
services to the university, but when the pro-
fessorship was offered him, he was fairly
launched in an undertaking that was congenial
to his tastes and promised great usefulness.

In declining the offers of the trustees of the
institution for the blind Mr. Gallaudet makes
228 LOVE FOR HARTFORD.

allusion to the state of his health and to his
attachment to Hartford, which was very
strong.

Hartford was then, as it has since been and
is now, a place of residence of more than
ordinary attractiveness, as well from the
refined society and literary culture to be
found there, as from its natural beauty of sit-
uation.

Bishop Chase, of Ohio, whose residence in
Hartford was contemporary with that of Mr.
Gallaudet—writes thus of the place in his
“ Reminiscences :”

In the bosom of an enlightened society, softened
by the hand of urbanity and gentleness, my enjoy-
ments, crowned with abundance of temporal bless-
ings, were as numerous and refined as fall to the lot
of man. Of the time I spent in this lovely city I
can never speak in ordinary terms.

But warm as was Mr. Gallaudet’s feeling
for the city of his adoption, it was more his
interest in the new work which engaged him
that detained him there. And this was the
preparation of books especially designed to
interest and instruct children.

In 1830 no literature for the young existed.
BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. 229

Few story-books, even, had been published ;
and inthe United States Samuel G. Goodrich,
known and loved by the boys and girls of that
time and afterward as “ Peter Parley,” stood
almost if not quite alone as a writer of chil-
dren’s books.

Mr. Gallaudet’s peculiar labors as a teacher
of the deaf had given him unusual opportuni-
ties to study the development of the mental
faculties of children, and he was strongly im-
pressed with the importance of the early train-
ing of youth, in many directions that had pre-
viously been much neglected. His particular
scheme was to promote familiarity among
children and youth with the teachings of the
sacred Scriptures. He thought the Bible
should be used asa text-book in the higher
schools and colleges, and that books should be
written, level to the understanding of children,
which should convey in simple and forcible
style the essential truths of the Christian
faith, He corresponded with a number of
prominent public men on the subject and
received letters that sustained his own views.
Two notable letters appear in this correspond-
ence, one from Hon. Roger M. Sherman, the
other from Hon. William Wirt, so warmly
approving of Mr. Gallaudet’s plans as to exert,
230 BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.

perhaps, a deciding influence on his career
at this juncture.

What now followed illustrates in a marked
manner several interesting elements in Mr.
Gallaudet’s constitution and disposition.

Early in this year (1830) he had felt him-
self quite broken down in health, and resigned
his principalship largely on that account. He
was not released from the duties of that office
until October—much of his time was taken up
in considering the many propositions made to
him to engage in other work. And yet so soon
did elasticity and mental vigor return to him
when he felt himself free, or likely soon to be,
from the pressure of official duty; so entirely
did change of work serve as the vest he needed
and craved, that before the end of 1830 he had
given to the world a remarkable book, The
Child’s Book on the Soul, followed in rapid suc-
cession by The Child’s Book on Repentance,
The Child’s Book of Bible Stories, and The
Youth’s Book on Natural Theology.

Now altogether out of print, and scarcely
known by the present generation, these vol-
umes exerted, in their day, an influence it would
be difficult to estimate. Thousands of copies
were circulated—they were translated into
many languages, besides being reprinted and
LETTER FROM THE KING OF SIAM. 231

largely sold in England. They were read as
English reading books in the schools of the
Foreign Missionary Societies, and through
‘these channels made themselves felt in unex-
pected places: as will be seen in the following
letter, which, though written some years after
the time now under review, will find its most
appropriate place here. The writer occupied
the throne of Siam during the years of which
Mrs. Leonowens has written so graphically in
her “English Governess at the Siamese
Court.”

The King of Siam to Mr. Gallaudet:

CITY OF BANGKOK, SIAM, August 30, 1848.

SIR :—Having perceived your skill and contriv-
ances effects, in some of the books of which you
were author, prepared for child and youth, viz.,
Science of Human Soul, Natural Theology (conver-
sations of Mrs. Stanhope and her son Robert),
History of Joseph, and small English dictionary,
that contains plain examples of every word, and
received also your pious qualities from of the Ameri-
can missionaries who live in this country and speak
of you, I was very glad to write you, and with much
more satisfaction and gratitude to you, as I thought
and imaged that I am alike your pupil on your
absence, because I have known and remembered
several English words from reading some the fore-
said books, of which your authority was entitled on
232 LETTER FROM THE KING OF SIAM.

first pages, and which some of missionaries and
English merchants have brought here for themselves,
and were borrowed by myself from them, who had
but one to read a few days, that they have limited
with, I was therefore sorry that I could not learn
much more lessons from your stilees, which were
easily to be understood for me, and delightful and
useful to me, as I am just studying this language
about three years indeed.

I was therefore brave to write to you, asking
you for some certain books, which you may image
or presume that suitable to me, for easily reading ;
every book of which you were author, and which
were printed, and still remained some at your hand,
or every name and subjects of every idiom’s book
that you may denote to me in your answer.

I hope very surely that you will be graceful to
me, reading this my manuscript, though I am your
heathen, and was not acquainted with you at all.

I have now but one of books which you pre-
pared. It is story of Joseph. It was bestowed to
me by a lady of Captain Daniel Brown, who is my
affectionate friend. I please much morely the small
dictionary that contain example of every word, but
I could not procure for myself in this country and
neighboring states. Please reply me through care
of some of the American missionaries who are living
in our country, and with whom you are acquainted.
I shall pay to them for the books which you men-
tioned their price, and sent me through here,
American missionaries. Almost every one of them
acquainted with me very exactly. Please pardon
LETTER TO THE KING OF SIAM. 233

me if I mistake by unproper word and sentence, and
overlook if my this letter were written ungrammati-
cal, as I am just learning this language indeed.
I have the honor to be your friend, etc.,
THE PRINCE T. Y. CHAUFA MoncG KUT,
One of high Buddhist priests.
P. S.—Please address me in your answer thus:
To His Royal Highness the Prince T. Y. Chaufa
Mong Kut, of Bangkok, Siam, as I am known by
such manner of direction to most of foreigners who
use English, that your letter would be handed to me
soon. T. Y. M.

Before this letter reached Mr. Gallaudet,
he heard through a friend that Chaufa Mong
Kut had been instructed in his books, and
desired copies of them. Acting on this sug-
gestion Mr. Gallaudet forwarded a number of
volumes, which were already on their way to
Siam when the Prince’s formal request reached
him. This will appear from the following
letter -

Mr. Gallaudet to the King of Siam.

CITY OF HARTFORD, STATE OF CONNECTICUT,
U. S. A., October 10, 1848.
To His RoyvaL HIGHNESS PRINCE CHAU-
FA Monc KutT.—SIR:—The Rev. D. B. Brad-
ley, M. D., one of the Christian missionaries in
Bangkok, tells me that you have, in a letter to him,
234 LETTER TO THE KING OF SIAM.

expressed your satisfaction in having read some
books of which I am the author, and that you
would be pleased to accept others should they be
sent to you. In this I feel highly honored, by a
person so intelligent and distinguished as yourself. I
send by him, therefore, a few volumes, of most of
which i am the author, and of which I beg your
acceptance.

They are chiefly on religious subjects, and
exhibit the principles and precepts of the religion of
Jesus Christ, in which I most devoutly believe, for
I find evidence which perfectly satisfies me that the
Bible, which contains this religion, is a revelation
from God. I find, too, that the Saviour whom it
offers for our acceptance, is just such a Saviour as
the erring and sinful beings of the whole human
family need.

How can we obtain the pardon of our sins, but
through the atoning sacrifices which this divine
Saviour made when He died on the cross? How else
can we be restored to the favor of God, whom we
have so much offended by our transgressions of His
most holy, just and good laws? How else can we
secure an immortal existence of purity and blessed-
ness beyond the grave? Is the Bible, which tells us
of this only way of salvation, truly a revelation from
God? If it is, then ~o other system of religion, as a
system, can be true, for they all differ from the Bible,
and are opposed to it in many essential things.

May I venture to beg of you to examine and
carefully reflect on this great question? To read the
volumes, “The Bible not of Man” and “ Bogue’s
LETTER TO THE KING OF SIAM. 235

Essay,” whichI send you? To read the Bible itself,
more particularly the New Testament, which con-
tains an account of the life, the miracles, the teach-
ings, the doings, the sufferings, and the death of
Jesus Christ, and shows why He came into our
world? In attending to this great subject, we need
to pray to the Father of our spirits, to open our
minds to the discovery of the Truth, and our hearts
tothe reception, love and obedience of the Truth.
I pray that His Holy Spirit may be your teacher,
guide, sanctifier and comforter.

Should you find leisure to let me know that the
books have reached you in safety, and what you
think of them, it would be a favor conferred on

Yours with sincere respect,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

P.S.—I can not but hope that “The Practical
Spelling Book ” will aid you, by its peculiar system
of classification, and its index, in overcoming (if you
have not already overcome them), the difficulties
attending the orthography of the English language,
and that the little dictionary, even, will not be with.
out some use.

Prince Chowfa Mong Kut, the actual,
though not the recognized King of Siam when
the foregoing letters were written, ascended
the throne in April, 1851, and reigned until
his death, which occurred in 1868.
236 THE KING OF SIAM.

Mrs. Leonowens speaks of his accession
to power asefollows :

In 1825 a royal prince of Siam (his birthright
wrested from him, and his life imperiled) took
refuge in a Buddhist monastery and assumed the
yellow garb of a priest. His father, commonly
known as P’tren-din-Klang, first or supreme King of
Siam, had just died, leaving this prince Chowfa
Mongkut, at ‘the age of twenty, lawful heir to the
crown; for he was the eldest son of the acknowl-
edged queen, and therefore by courtesy and honored
custom, if not by absolute right, the legitimate
successor to the throne of the Phra-batts. But he
had an elder half-brother, who, through the intrigues
of his mother, had already obtained control of the
royal treasury, and now, with the connivance, if not
by the authority of the Senabawdee, the grand
council of the kingdom, proclaimed himself king.
He had the grace, however, to promise his plundered
brother—such promises being a cheap form of pro-
pitiation in Siam—to hold the reins of government
only until Chowfa Mongkut should be of years and
strength and skillto manage them. But, once firmly
seated on the throne, the usurper saw in his patient
but proud and astute kinsman only a hindrance and a
peril in the path of his own crueler and fiercer aspi-
rations. Hence the forewarning and the flight, the
cloister and the yellow robes. And so the usurper
continued to reign, unchallenged by any claim from
the king that should be, until March, 1851, when,
a mortal illness having overtaken hin, he convoked
SUCCESS AS AN AUTHOR. 237

the grand council of princes and nobles around his
couch, and proposed his favorite son as his suc-
cessor. Then the safe asses of the court kicked the
dying lion with seven words of sententious scorn,—
“ The crown has already its rightful owner ;”’ where-
upon the king literally cursed himself to death, for
it was almost in the convulsion of his chagrin and
rage that he came to his end on the 3rd of April.
. Hardly had he breathed his last when, in
spite of the busy intrigues of his eldest son,
the Prince Chowfa Mongkut doffed his sacendotal
robes, emerged from his cloister, and was crowned,
with the title of Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha
Mongkut.

There seems to be no doubt that Mr. Gal-
laudet did wisely, for the world, in declining
all the positions tendered him on his quitting
the service of the school for the deaf, and
devoting himself to the preparation of books
designed to exert a wholesome influence on
the rising generation. Of his success in the
field he chose there can be no question,
although his books are not now read and sel-
dom seen. His first four volumes, already
named, were followed by the Every Day Chris-
tian; nine volumes of Scripture Biography,
from Adam to Jonah; the Child’s Picture-
Defining and Reading Book, and the Moth-

er’s Primer.
238 CHILD'S BOOK ON THE SOUL.

These works, says Dr. Humphrey, “ enroll
the name of Gallaudet among the most gifted
and attractive writers in the department which
he occupied.”

The writer of these pages has been spoken
to very many times concerning the Child’s
Book on the Soul, by persons he has casually
met in Washington and elsewhere, merely
because his name suggested the author of that
little work. Such persons have invariably
remarked upon the great effect produced by
the book on them when children. Many have
said that its clear and forcible style in treat-
ing of its important subject, had served to lay
the foundation of a Christian faith which had
stood for a lifetime.

Henry Barnard, LL. D., the distinguished
promoter of public education, speaks of this
book as “exhibiting Mr. Gallaudet’s remark-
able tact in bringing the most abstract subject
within the grasp of the feeblest and youngest
mind.”

Most of the volumes which have been
alluded to came, ultimately, to be published
by the American Tract Society, and were
issued for many years among their libraries

for Sabbath Schools.*

* The American Tract Society have published eleven vol-

 
INTEREST IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 239

Two other books, not of a religious charac-
ter, were prepared by Mr. Gallaudet with the
assistance of Rev. Horace Hooker, which had
a very large circulation. These were a Prac-
tical Spelling Book, and The School and
Family Dictionary and Illustrative Definer.
The publication of these works was continued
for a number of years after his death.

Mr. Gallaudet worked mainly as a writer of
books during a period of eight years. The
nature of thisemployment left him much freer
than before to engage as an unpaid promoter
of public enterprises of a benevolent character.

He was prominent in the organization of
the first “ Teachers’ Convention,” held in
Hartford in October, 1830, and which was
presided over by Noah Webster.

Not long after, he prepared a tract entitled
“ Public Schools Public Blessings,” which was

 

umes of Scripture Biography, the Bible Stories, the Child’s
Book on the Soul, the Child’s Book on Repentance and the
Youth’s Book of Natural Theology. Of these sixteen books an
average of about forty thousand copies each have been issued,
making a total of morethan six hundred thousand copies of
Dr. Gallaudet’s books put in circulation by the Tract Society
alone, It is not possible to state with accuracy the number
of copies printed of other works, or of these works in foreign
countries, but it will be within the mark to say that the aggre-
gate, including the issues of the Tract Society, will considerably
exceed a million copies.
240 ESSAYS ON EDUCATION.

published by the New York Public School
Society for general circulation in the City of
New York, at a time when an effort was
made, which proved successful, to enlarge the
operations of that society.

His contributions to the periodicals and
newspapers of the day were numerous and
highly appreciated.

For the Amerzcan Annals of Education he
wrote on The Philosophy of Language;
Methods of Teaching to Read; Remarks on
Seminaries for Teachers; Language of
Infancy ; Family and School Discipline, and
many other subjects of practical value. He
wrote frequently for the Connectzcut Common
School Journal and for the Mother's Magaztne,
and edited an American edition of ‘“ Princi-
ples of Teaching,” by Henry Dunn, Secretary
‘of the British and Foreign School Society,
London, under the title of the ‘“‘ Schoolmas-
ter’s Manual.”

In 1833. Mr. Gallaudet became warmly
interested in the cause of industrial education,
and endeavored with a number of gentlemen
to secure the establishment of a “ Connecti-
cut Manual Labor School.” In the interest
of this movement he was requested, with
Erastus Ellsworth, to visit the “Oneida Insti-
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 241

tute of Science and Industry,” near Utica,
N. Y. (of which it will be remembered he had
been invited to take charge two years before),
and.the “ Fellenberg Manual Labor School,”
in Greenfield, Mass.

Mr. Gallaudet’s report on the condition
and working of these two _ institutions
expresses views which, read in the light of
the present day, when the country is turning
to the policy of industrial education as, per-
haps, the only solution of some of the serious
problems of the labor question, seem alto-
gether prophetic. Had they been generally
adopted, as they were not, hand labor would
have been dignified, the acquisition of trades
by boys would have been easy, and the ele-
ment of monopoly in trades unions, which has
since become so menacing, would have been
practically neutralized.

In Sprague’s “Annals of the American Pul-
pit,” Rev. Horace Hooker, co-author with Mr.
Gallaudet of several books, alludes to his
readiness to suggest new plans for benevolent
enterprises.

“The field of human wretchedness,” says
Mr. Hooker, ‘“‘ which some visit from a sense
of duty, he delighted to explore, and never
seemed so happy as when inventing schemes
242 INEBRIATE ASYLUMS PROPOSED.

to relieve the suffering and raise the fallen.
How many volumes have I heard him utter
in our rambles in the outskirts of the city,
respecting institutions for the relief of the
intemperate, long before they were publicly
advocated ; and how many ingenious plans
have I heard him devise for institutions to
shelter and give employment to the dis-
charged prisoner until he can regain his char-
acter, and the confidence of the community.
I can hardly realize that such institutions are
not in being—so vividly were they sketched
and so minutely were all the details presented
to the mind.”

At about this time Mr. Gallaudet took an
active and prominent part in the establish-
ment of lyceums and young men’s institutes,
and was instrumental in securing the delivery
of the first course of popular lectures in Hart-
ford, under the auspices of the Goodrich As-
sociation.

He acted for some months, to meet an
emergency, as principal of the Hartford
Female Seminary, with which Miss Catharine
Beecher and Mr. John P. Brace were promi-
nently connected, and lectured for a much
longer period in that institution on English
composition and moral philosophy.
SECRET MISSION TO THE WEST. 243

In 1835 Mr. Gallaudet undertook a work
which in the estimation of its promoters
required the services of a man of very great
discretion and ability. It was an enterprise
which while, in a sense, of a public nature, it
was felt to be of the highest consequence
should be carried forward absolutely without
attracting public attention.

A few earnest Christian gentlemen resid-
ing in Hartford and New York, whose names,
even now, need not be mentioned, were
impressed with the importance of making
efforts in the interest of evangelical religion
in the new states of the West, which might
prevent the undue spread of the Roman
Catholic faith in that section of our country
—especially at points where large numbers of
Germans were settling.

These eight or ten wealthy merchants pro-
vided all the means necessary. Mr. Gallau-
det became their active agent, on a stated
salary. The spirit in which he entered upon
the work is indicated in the following brief

note:
Thursday afternoon, January 15, 1835.
My DEAR SIR :—In the strength of our Lord and
Saviour the enterprise is to be begun to-morrow.
Yours truly, T. H. GALLAUDET.

 

 

Mr.
244 : LU. P.O.

Among a mass of papers and letters bear-
ing on this enterprise the name of the asso-
ciation appears in no other way than the
L. U. P. O.—the meaning of which was a
mystery to the writer of these pages until a
very recent date, when the widow of one
interested in the enterprise solved the riddle.

“Look Upward, Press Onward,” was the
motto of the little band of earnest men whose
aim was to help save the great North-west
from becoming exclusively or largely Roman
Catholic.

Mr. Gallaudet made arrangements to leave
his family for a number of months.

His labors began, as he said they would, on
January 16,—by the writing of a number of
letters, the charge for posting which, noted in
his L. U. P. O. expense book, was thirty-
seven and a half cents. A week later he pro-
ceeded to New Haven and thence to New
York, where he remained six days. Pausing
for only two days at Philadelphia he made his
way as rapidly as possible through Harris-
burg, Pittsburg and Wheeling to Columbus,
Ohio. He spent some time at various points
in Ohio, and passed over into Kentucky
about the middle of March. During the
spring months he visited Missouri, Illinois
LU. P.O. 245

and Indiana, returning east through Ohio
and Pennsylvania, reaching Hartford on the |
13th of June.

The only diary that appears of this inter-
esting journey is Mr. Gallaudet’s expense
book, from which his route can be very dis-
tinctly traced, but which gives little insight
into the object of his travels. Of their dan-
gers and of extortions practiced even in those
primitive days occasional glimpses are fur-
nished, such as: “January 23, Life pre-
server (lost or stolen), $2.50:” “May 13,
Supper, lodging and breakfast at Louisville,
e156 2410"

The actual work of the L. U. P. O. Asso-
ciation was done after Mr. Gallaudet’s west-
ern journey, the purpose of which was to
acquaint himself with the condition and needs
of the then great North-west in religious mat-
ters.

He continued to act as the paid agent of
the society for two years, and as its unpaid
secretary for eight years more, or until 1845.

The work of the association may be briefly
summarized as follows: a considerable num-
ber of young German theological graduates,
mainly from Basle in Switzerland, were
brought to the United States at the expense
246 L. U. P.O.

of the association, and were located at prom-
inent western centers with the view of found-
ing churches, and these young clergymen
were maintained or aided by the society until
they no longer needed assistance; loans and
donations of money were made to many insti-
tutions of learning in the states visited by
Mr. Gallaudet, with the view of aiding in the
education of young men who were to labor in
their own section as evangelical ministers of
the Gospel ; tracts were printed and circulated
in many quarters in furtherance of the
great object of the society, and it is known
that the influence of these led to the forma-
tion of other associations having the same
end in view.

The history of the L. U. P. O. will probably
never be written; nor can any estimate be
made of its achievements. Very many men
were inspired by it and worked with enthusi-
asm for its objects without even knowing of
its existence.

The writer of these pages has met and con-
versed with many persons who made Mr. Gal-
laudet’s acquaintance on his Western tour,
who felt his influence, but who never dreamed
of his being at that time the agent of a society
or the apostle of a special cause. Mr, Gal-
PREACHING TO PRISONERS. 247

laudet preached constantly in prominent
churches on this Western journey. He de-
livered many addresses on educational sub-
jects. He was welcomed with enthusiasm
everywhere as an eminent philanthropist, and
was eagerly sought as an honored guest who
was understood to be studying the general
development of Western civilization, perhaps
with the purpose of writing upon it.

Just as Mr. Gallaudet concluded his active |
labors for the L. U. P. O. he was called to
perform another interesting duty, of which his
friend and eulogist, Hon. Henry Barnard,
LL.D., speaks as follows : *

In 1837 the County of Hartford, through the
exertions mainly of Alfred Smith, Esq., erected a
prison on a plan which admitted of a classification
of prisoners, of their entire separation at night, of
their employment in labor under constant super-
vision by day, and of theirreceiving appropriate moral
and religious instruction. Mr. Gallaudet sympa-
thized warmly with this movement, and in the ab-
sence of any means at the disposal of the county
commissioners to employ the services of a chaplain
and religious teacher, voluntered to discharge these
duties without pay. He continued to perform
religious service every Sabbath morning for eight

 

* Barnard’s Tribute to Gallaudet, pp. 32, 33.
248 PREACHING TO PRISONERS.

years, and to visit the prison from time to time dur-
ing each week, whenever he had reason to suppose
his presence and prayers were particularly desired.
In such labors of love to the criminal and neglected,
unseen of men, and not known,I presume to twenty
individuals in Hartford, the genuine philanthropy
and Christian spirit of this good man found its
pleasantest field of exercise.

So long as Mr. Gallaudet continued to hold
himself free from official engagements, offers
of such were made to him at short intervals.
A few of these are of sufficient importance to
be noticed.

In 1836 he received a letter from Gorham
D. Abbot, the purport of which will appear
from the following extracts :

NEw YORK, June 7.
REV. AND DEAR SIR:—I have the pleasure to
communicate to you a vote of the Executive Com-
mittee of the “ American Society for the Diffusion

of Useful Knowledge,” at their meeting last night.
The Committee of Publication, through the
Chairman, reported to the Executive Committee,
that no time was to be lost in carrying into effect
some of the plans proposed by the Society, as the
mischief which is daily done “by presses of an in-
fidel and immoral tendency is incalculable.” They
also recommend as “an indispensable measure, the
immediate employment of additional literary aid to
OFFERS OF VARIOUS POSITIONS. 249

carry forward the various departments of the soci-
ety’s contemplated labors.” :

Whereupon, it was “ Resolved, That the Execu-
tive Committee proceed to the election of two
individuals for this purpose.

“ Resolved, That the salary of $2,000 per annum
be offered to each of those individuals, with assur-
ances of augmentation as the resources of the society
shall justify.”

The Committee went into election, by ballot,
which resulted in the unanimous choice of the Rev.
Jacob Abbot and the Rev. T. H. Gallaudet.

Flattering as was this proposal, Mr. Gallau-
det declined it.

In 1838, he was the person, and the only person,
had in view to fill the office of Secretary of the
Board of Commissioners of Common Schools in
Connecticut, when the bill was drafted for a public
act “to provide for the better supervision of common
schools” in Connecticut. The post was urged on his
acceptance, with the offer and guaranty by individ-
uals of an addition of one-third to the salary paid
by the state. He declined, mainly from his unwil-
lingness to absent himself as much from his family
as the plan of operations contemplated, and also
“because of the apathy as to the importance of the
cause, which he had many reasons to know weighed
not only on the public mind generally, but on the
minds and hearts of good men, and even Christians,
250 INTEREST IN COMMON SCHOOLS.

who take an active and liberal part in other moral
and religious movements. To break up this apathy,
requires more of youthful strength and enthusiasm
than can be found in an invalid and a man of fifty
years of age.” *

Mr. Gallaudet, however, did not fail to
co-operate actively and effectively in the work
he declined to superintend.

The measures of that board, and of their secre-
tary, were determined upon after consultation with
him, and in all the preliminary operations their
resources had his personal co-operation. In com-
pany with the secretary he visited every county in
the state in 1838, and addressed conventions of
teachers, school officers and parents. He took part
in the course of instruction of the first normal class,
or teachers’ institute, held in this country, in 1839,
and again in a similar institute in 1840. He ap-
peared before the Joint Committee of Education in
the General Assembly on several occasions when
appropriations for a normal school were asked for.

Early in the year 1838, the events of which
are, chiefly, now being narrated, Mr. Gallau-
det received an invitation which must stand
by the side of several others, already referred
to in this memoir, which show how often he

 

*Barnard’s Tribute to Gallaudet, p. 30.
THE FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL. 251

was thought of by those who knew him as a
man most fit to head a new enterprise.

The following letter was from one whose
venerable form, in his high-topped boots and
knee-breeches, will be remembered by some
still living in Hartford as the embodiment of
the Historical Society.

Invitation to be Principal of the First Normal School
in the Country.

ROCHESTER, MASS., January 5, 1838.

REV. AND DEAR SIR:—Before you receive this
I think you will have a letter from Rev. Dr. Davis
of Westfield. The Board of Education of this
state, for the supervision and improvement of com-
mon schools, had their annual meeting in the Coun-
cil Chamber in Boston, and resolved, as a leading
measure of their proceedings, to establish a few
schools for the instruction of teachers. I told them
that you recommended such a measure, in a series
of well-written numbers, in a newspaper, several
years ago. The board hope to be able, eventually,
to have enough to supply the wants of the state,
yet as it is somewhat a matter of experiment, they
will begin with three.

And now, Brother Gallaudet, we want you to
take chargeof the first Normal School. The object
is to instruct the pupils in such a manner as will fit
them for the best teaching and management of
common schools. Probably something will be done
252 THE FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL.

in lecturing. It must, however, be left in a great
degree to the principal. There will be no charge
for tuition. The schools are to be furnished with
the necessary apparatus and libraries. There are
several important reasons why you should comply
with our request.

First. I think this measure will be adopted in
other states extensively, and the experiment ought
to be made in the best manner.

Second. We want to manufacture the most of
our school books. Once when you were in Dr.
Hawes’ study he desired you to turn your attention
to that subject. I do not think a man could be
found that would be so acceptable to all as yourself.

Third. Few men, if any, are so conversant with
the human mind in its simple form as yourself.
With great respect,

Your friend and brother,
THOMAS ROBBINS.

At the same time, or nearly so, that Massa-
chusetts was urging Mr. Gallaudet to be the
pioneer in her work for normal education, she
was seeking his counsel concerning schools
for the very youngest children.

The primary school board of Boston, rep-
resented by Lewis G. Pray, R. W. Bayley, J.
F. Bumstead, George W. Otis, Jr., and Enoch
Hobart, addressed a letter to Mr. Gallaudet
in October, 1838, asking his counsel in meas-
INFANT EDUCATION. 253

ures they were taking “for the establishment
of a model school for children from four to
seven years of age.”

The questions propounded called for and
elicited a lengthy reply—too much so for
insertion here — in which the whole subject was
covered with the writer's usual thoroughness.

Mr. Gallaudet thought it right to decline
the invitation to become principal of the first
Normal School. But there came soon a call
which carried conviction to his mind as well
as to his heart, in yielding to which he took
again the attitude of a pioneer in an im-
portant philanthropic work. At this period
no regular religious instruction had ever been
given to the insane, as a class. A few institu-
tions for their humane and enlightened treat-
ment had been established in the country,
and this branch of benevolent effort, like
every other, had Mr. Gallaudet’s warm sym-
pathy. He was actively interested in the
Retreat, which had been opened a few
years before in Hartford, and was the intimate
friend of many of its managers.

But his work for the insane was so impor-
tant, and occupied so much of the remaining
years of his life, that it must be spoken of in
another chapter.
CHAPTER IX.
1838 — 1851.

Interest in the Insane — An Invitation to Preach at the Insane
Hospital in Worcester, Mass., and to become Permanent
Chaplain—A Similar Invitation from the Retreat at Hartford
Accepted — Extracts from the Chaplain’s Diary — Sugges-
tions as to Treatment of the Insane.

“CIN IGHT years had now elapsed since Mr.

Gallaudet left the institution for deaf-
mutes, and it does not appear that he intended
ever to connect himself with any other public
institution. He had, as we have seen, de--
clined many advantageous offers. He loved
retirement. Hartford was his home, where,
from his boyhood, he had spent nearly all of
his life, and to which he was strongly bound
by the cords of love. He had enough to do,
and just such work as he wanted. He could
write books for the young, and in many ways
aid the cause of popular education, which was,
in the largest and best sense, the dearest of all
causes to his ever active and philanthropic
mind.
 

THOMas Hopkins GALLAUDEr,
as drawn f,

(This Portratt w,
court-room of

2m 1844, on a leaf of Swift's Digest, in the
caw student

the State House, by John W. Skinner, of New York, then a

an Hartford.)
INTEREST IN THE INSANE. 255

“ But, though he was not to leave Hartford,
God was opening the way for his introduction
into a new sphere of public service, for which
he had been qualifying himself all the time of
his connection with the school for the deaf.
There, for thirteen years, he had been study-
ing the human mind, in the earliest develop-
ments of its normal state. He had been
clearing the way and opening the door for the
emancipation of the imprisoned faculties of
deaf-mutes, and bringing them into joyful fel-
lowship with their sorrowing friends, and teach-
ing them the relations which they sustained to
their Creator, of whom, before, they had no
knowledge.

“Now he was to be brought into daily con-
tact with minds bewildered, deranged, cut off
from the possibility of enjoying the endear-
ments of home, and brought together where
they might have all the curative appliances
which the highest skill, the largest experience,
and the warmest Christian sympathies can
furnish.

“Mr. Gallaudet was to go from his retire-
ment into an insane hospital to study the
human mind in this abnormal state; to be the
religious teacher, friend and adviser of hun-
dreds of persons suffering under almost every
256 INVITATION TO WORCESTER.

variety and degree of mental derangement.
But whence? He did not court the service;
he did not expect to be called to it. But the
eyes of the managers of the insane hospital
at Worcester were turned upon him as the
fittest person they could think of to fill the
difficult and important place of chaplain.
Accordingly a correspondence was opened
with him through Dr. Woodward, for so many
years the beloved and distinguished superin-
tendent of that institution.” *

Dr. Woodward to Mr. Gallaudet.

WORCESTER, February 16, 1838.

My Dear SIR:—We have introduced religious
worship into our hospital, ina manner quite satis-
factory, and with very complete success. I am very
desirous to have you come out and preach for us at
some time, and would name the first Sabbath in
March, or any one that you can name afterward,
excepting the second Sabbath in that month, on
which day we are supplied. I can offer you no great
encouragement, but will pay all your expenses of
the journey, and your board here at the American
Temperance House while you stay.

My object in writing to you now is, that I wish
to consult you on the subject of the chaplaincy.

 

* «Life and Labors of Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, L.L. D.,” by Rev.
Heman Humphrey, D.D., p.p, 340 e¢ seg.
INVITATION TO WORCESTER. 257

We are hoping to have a regular chaplain next sum-
mer. We should be glad to procure a man, witha
moderate salary, to preach for us on Sunday; if he
can pursue some other employment a part of the
time, it will be agreeable. We have thought of
you, my dear sir, as a preacher of the character
which we should like, and hoped that you could
pursue book-making as profitably in our pleasant
village as in the city of Hartford.

We have two hundred and ten patients, one hun-
dred and fifty of whom attend our chapel, which,
with our help and my family, make a snug congre-
gation of two hundred. We have a beautiful room,
of forty-five by thirty-two feet; have a very good
choir of singers, all of our own household, and per-
form all the parts common in a New England con-
gregation twice every Sabbath.

May I hear from you in the course of a few
days?

I am truly and respectfully yours,
S. B. WOODWARD.

Mr. Gallaudet visited Worcester and
preached to the patients of the hospital as
invited to do.

At the time of this visit he met a young
physician of the town, with whom he was des-
tined to be associated, later, in very intimate
relations.

This young man, now the venerable and
258 PREACHING TO THE INSANE.

justly eminent Dr. John S. Butler of Hart-
ford, spoke not long since to the writer of
these pages of the incident of Mr. Gallau-
det’s visit to Worcester in March, 1838.

He charmed us all. His ease of manner and
geniality won all hearts. The effect produced by
his preaching and personal intercourse with the
patients was remarkable. During one of the services
he showed in how high a degree he possessed that tact
and self-control that are necessary in the success-
ful management of the insane. In his sermon he
was illustrating a point by an allusion to the circum-
ference of the earth, which he said was about
twenty-five thousand miles. A stalwart man sprang
to his feet and with one hand brandished high in
the air roared out, “ That’s a lie: it’s only seven
thousand,” and remained standing in a threatening
attitude. Mr. Gallaudet took the interruption as
though it were an everyday occurrence in his
preaching, and looking kindly at the excited patient
said with a smile: “Isthat so? Very well, we will
talk about it after service,” going on at once with
his discourse. The patient sat down quietly and
made no further demonstration.

_ Dr. Woodward wrote to Mr. Gallaudet in
May, making a formal offer of the chaplaincy,
and urging its acceptance in the warmest
terms.

Negotiations continued for several weeks,
LETTER TO DR. WOODWARD. 259

when the following letter conveyed Mr. Gal-
laudet’s decision :

HARTFORD, July 6, 1838.

DEAR DR. WOODWARD :—Three weeks have not
elapsed since last I saw you. I had hoped, how-
ever, even before this time, to give an answer to the
invitation which the trustees of your institution
had been so kind as to make, to have me occupy in
it the situation of chaplain. Very peculiar circum-
stances have prevented me from doing so.

As Linformed you before my last visit to Wor-
cester, I had been appointed secretary of the newly
organized Board of Education in this state; and
although I could not, at that time, consider it my
duty to accept of this appointment, I had agreed to
postpone an absolute decision till my return and
consultation with a committee of the board. The
absence from Hartford of the acting member of the
committee delayed the decision a week, when I
declined the appointment.

In the midst of these deliberations, and wholly
unexpected to me, the appointment of chaplain to
the Retreat for the insane in this city was pro-
posed for my consideration by the board of man-
agers, about a week since. This placed me in a new
and very trying position. To make it the more so,
the committee of the Board of Education proposed,
that should I become chaplain to the Retreat, and
have any spare time, they would be glad to have my
services in connection with their operations, and in
260 LETTER TO DR. WOODWARD.

such a way as to call me very little from home, a
considerable absence from which, during the year,
was one of my principal objections to becoming sec-
retary of the board. I found, on conferring with
Dr. Fuller [superintendent of the Retreat], that it
was his wish, at present, to have but one religious
exercise on the Sabbath, prayers once a day, and
such intercourse with the patients as might be
deemed judicious; so that I could devote consider-
able time to the Board of Education, and to one
or two other sources of support which promise well
if I remain here.

In addition to this, you can readily conceive and
appreciate other and powerful motives that would
influence me to continue in Hartford. I have lived
here forty years; I have among our citizens many
old and long-tried friends; my wife finds here a
place of worship on the Sabbath, and a circle of
intimate acquaintances who know her language ; our
plans of living and of economizing are adjusted to
an experienced state of things; a school taught in
my family, and which all of my children attend,
excepting one, has been for years in successful
operation, and can be enlarged to any extent ; and
here we are very near an aged mother and deaf and
dumb sister of my wife, and her near relations.
Some of these considerations, I know, are not to be
put in the scale as weighing much against the great
objects of benevolent effort in important spheres of
duty; but they have a proper place where two, and
it may be, nearly equally important spheres of duty -
present themselves. Still I was determined to say
LETTER TO DR. WOODWARD. 261

or do nothing to forward the plan of my remaining
here, unless the whole thing should move easily, and
without any urgency on the part of my friends. I
knew—for the managers of the Retreat had told me
so—that what they could offer from the funds of the
institution would be small; but they said a few
individuals were ready to make up the deficiency.
Under these circumstances, I consented to have the
matter come before the Board of Directors, request-
ing my friends, as a personal favor, to let the thing
take its own free course, and if any the least diffi-
culties should present themselves, to drop it all, at
once; in which case I would immediately let the
trustees of the institution at Worcester know on
what terms I would be willing to go there. The
directors met a few days since, and proposed five
hundred dollars from the funds of the institution,
and two hundred and fifty from other sources, a
year, payable to me by the treasurer, and made
secure for five years, if I continue to discharge the
duties of the office acceptably; seven hundred and
fifty dollars being offered me as a salary for services
which will occupy about one-half of my time. I
concluded to accept the appointment. I have not
made the least effort to bring about this result.
Indeed, I was in a state of most perplexing, and I
may say, distressing hesitancy, to know where my
duty lay. Had there been no such unsought invita-
tion to me to stay here, or after being made, had
any thing occurred to arrest, temporarily, the course
of action on the part of the institution or my friends
toward its consummation, I should promptly and
262 LETTER TO DR. WOODWARD.

heartily have taken the steps to lead me to Worces-
ter, if our views as to the compensation had har-
monized.

Providence has ordered it otherwise, and being
guided as I have been, and taking the course which
I have, I beg you particularly, and the gentlemen
comprising your Board of Trustees, and Mr. Foster,
and any other friends, to accept my sincere thanks
for the marks of confidence and kindness which have
been shown me in our late negotiations, and my
earnest wishes and prayers for the prosperity of the
noble institution which you have been instrumental
in raising to such a high degree of usefulness, and of
honorable character in our land. In my humble
field of effort here, I shall aspire to be a fellow-
laborer of yours in your extensive sphere of benevo-
lent exertions, and shall hope, in the particular de-
partment in which I shall be called to act, to receive
no small amount of aid from the suggestions which
I have already derived from the interesting inter-
views I have enjoyed with you, and from the future
results of your observation and experiences, which, I
am sure, you will be willing to impart. I shall hope
to hear soon from you in reply; and in the mean-
while, present my very kind regards to Mrs. Wood-
ward and your family, to Dr. Chandler, Deacon Ellis,
and other friends, both in and out of the institution.
You hardly know, my dear sir, the conflict of feel-
ings through which I have passed. Never have I
been called to a similar one in my life. Every thing
inviting at Worcester, on the one hand (co-operating
with yourself in a noble department of benevolence,
CHAPLAIN TO THE RETREAT. 263

the most important feature of the scene), and Hart-
ford, with its sphere of duty, and some peculiar ad-
vantages, and a thousand exdearing associations, on
the other. The Lord bless and guide you and
yours.
Yours truly,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

Of even date with this letter an entry in
Mr. Gallaudet’s diary reads as follows:

July 6th.—I called on Dr. Fuller to inform him
that I was ready to enter upon the duties of my office.
He said a committee of the directors, appointed for
that purpose, would, in a few days, have the by-laws
prepared respecting the duties of the chaplain, and
then they would be ready to have me commence
the discharge of those duties.

In all this affair, I humbly hope, I have acted
from a sense of duty. I have continually prayed to
God for His guidance.

Nine days later his work as chaplain began.

‘Sabbath, July 15, 1838.—This day at three P. M.
I commenced my work as chaplain to the Retreat
for the Insane in Hartford, Conn., by conducting
religious service there, and preaching my introduc-
tory sermon. Out of ninety, the whole number of
patients, eighty attended. The assembly, in all,
264 CHAPLAIN TO THE RETREAT.

 

consisted of one hundred. The Rev. Mr. S
and the Rev. Mr. R , two of the patients, at
the request of Dr. Fuller, sat on my right and
left. One of the female patients, on account of
her incessant loud talking, just before the exercises
began, was led to her room. All the rest were
quiet, and conducted themselves with great propri-
ety, except a very little chattering from a male
patient, which was stopped.

 

Dr. Humphrey in his biography says:
“Mr. Gallaudet kept a diary of his labors
in the Retreat up to his last sickness, from
which I have taken the following copious and
exceedingly interesting extracts. They show
the man, and his eminent fitness for the place;
his wisdom, his conscientiousness, his piety,
his quick and lively sympathies with the pa-
tients in their unhappy condition, and his re-
markable skill as a spiritual physician in ‘the
home of mercy.’ It will be seen, too, that ad-
mirable as the curative arrangements and ap-
pliances were, he was all the time studying
how they might be increased and made per-
fect. As the result of his daily observations
and reflections, his diary abounds with sug-
gestions, such as were at the same time oc-
curring to the superintendent also, and which
CHAPLAIN’S DIARY. 265

have, one after another, been carried out by
the directors.”

Less than half of the extracts made by Dr.
Humphrey from Mr. Gallaudet’s diary can be
here given; but these may furnish sugges-
tions of the kind of labors to which he devoted
fully one-half of his time and more than
half his strength during the last  thir-
teen years of his life. Only suggestions,
however, and insufficient at best: for none
save the All-Seeing and All-Knowing One
can ever justly estimate the value of those
humble, devoted, Christ-like labors, given a
hundredfold more for love than for money,
in which the high privilege was to

“Minister to minds diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet, oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart.”

“July 23d, ’38.—While conversing with
three or four of the patients, one of them ob-
served that there were a great many crazy
folks and fools all around us. ‘ Yes,’ says an-
other, ‘and it takes a very wise man to find
out that he is a fool.’

“Aug, 8th,—Many visitors, who stayed to
266 CHAPLAIN’S DIARY.

prayers; the patients still. Mrs. H. L. Ellsworth
reminded me of the fact, which I had forgotten,
that at their house (the Dwight house in
Prospect Street), her husband being one of
the building committee, I first suggested giv-
ing the name of ‘ Retreat’ to the institution.
Mrs, Dr. Fuller told me how much she was
struck with the peculiar and reverential ap-
pearance, as she sat at the window observing
him unnoticed, of Capt. V. —, one of the
patients, in the yard, approaching the building
and listening to the prayer.

“Aug. r11th.—Have nearly succeeded in
teaching young L , from Trinidad, the
alphabet of the deaf and dumb, on the fingers.
He also learns signs very quickly. He observed
that if he had not neglected prayer, and forgot-
ten his duty to God, he would not have been
deranged. He lamented his past misconduct,
and the grief he had brought on his aged
father, and on his wife, and declared if he
were ever permitted to return to his family,
he would be a very different man.

“Aug. 19th, Sabbath.—Called on my way
home to see Mrs. H., who has a husband in
the Retreat, and had from her a particular ac-
count of his case. I am becoming more and
more convinced that a judicious physical and

 

 
CHAPLAIN’S DIARY. 267

religious education, on the simple principles
of the Gospel, with early piety, constitutes the
best security against mental alienation, and if
it must come, affords the greatest facilities for
the use of those means, which, under the bless-
ing of God, will result in restoration. Mr.
W——— rode home with me part of the way.
He thought my confession of sin, in prayer,
was too strong for the insane, that it might
disturb and agitate them. This involves a
point of deep interest—to what extent the
simple truths of the Gospel may be brought
out, in the religious exercises in the Retreat,
with benefit to the patients. My impression
now is, that the best course is, in a calm and
kind manner, to bring out these truths, and to
lead the insane to feel, so far as they have
reason left, that Chrzst, in His mediatorial
character, 7s thetr great hope, that He is
ready to sympathize with them in their afflic-
tion, and ¢o save them as sinners. But the
manner of doing this must be looked to.

“ Aug. 27th.—Commenced singing at pray-
ers. One of the female patients very noisy
and carried out.

“Aug. 29th.—Rev. prayed at the
evening service. He isa convalescent patient.
His prayer was a very appropriate one.

 

 
268 CHAPLAIN’S DIARY.

“Sept. 30th, Sabbath.— Large number of
visitors. Patients composed, excepting the
deaf and dumb young men, who tittered con-
siderably. Preached on the subject of prayer.
After service Colonel W. told me it was
the best sermon he had ever heard me preach.

“Oct. 15th.—Interesting conversation with
Mr. H , who is a member of the Free
Church, before prayers. He said he felt sorry
for the manner in which he had expressed
himself on the Sabbath, in the way of find-
ing fault with his being detained in the Re-
treat, and charging Dr. Fuller and others with
being unjust and cruel towards him. He ob-
served that the cases of derangement, accom-
panied with religious excitement, seemed to
be increasing; and he believed that, in many
cases, if Christian friends would be faithful in
doing their duty, they would not occur. He
thought a little timely attention and sympathy
on the part of his Christian brethren towards
him, when his mind first began to be disturbed,
would have saved him from coming to the
Retreat.

‘Nov. 20th.—Had some conversation with
Mr. S. about the troubles in Canada. Ob-
served to him that I hoped the time would
come when all men would be at peace with

 

 
CHAPLAIN’S DIARY. 269

each other. ‘Do you think,’ said he, ‘that the
Devil will ever become the friend of the
Almighty?’ ‘I do not,’ I replied. ‘ Well,’
he added, ‘when that happens, men will be at
peace with each other.’

“ Dec. 20th.—After prayers, had a long inter-
view with Mr. L. and Mr. B., who were to-
gether. Mr. L. considered himself as without
piety, and beyond the reach of the Gospel
salvation. He complained of having no feel-
ing on religious subjects; of trying to pray
and not being able to do it. I tried to console
him but without effect. I told him of Cow-
per, of whose piety there is satisfactory evi-
dence, and yet who suffered so much from
despondency and downright despair. But he
replied that it was by no means certain that
Cowper was a Christian. Mr. B. spoke, too,
of his own case as hopeless. He was pos-
sessed, he said, by the devil, and given over
to everlasting destruction. He said he had
committed the unpardonable sin. ‘What is
the unpardonable sin?’ said I. ‘I do not
know,’ was his reply. ‘How, then, can you
know that you have committed it?’ He made
no answer. He spoke of seeing shadows that
warned him of his doom. He said his voice
had been changed by a satanic influence, and
270 CHAPLAIN’S DIARY.

was unlike what it formerly was. I endeav-
ored to give them both such counsel as I
thought would do them good. Mr. B., his
attendant tells me, sometimes kneels down by
his bed, as if engaged in prayer.

“March rath, ’39.— Visited Mr. L. and
found him very unwell, and exceedingly de-
pressed in mind. More should be done to
bring the insane under the influence, during
the whole time, of a rational and cheerful
piety. Those who have the care of them
need such a piety themselves; and to act
from religious, benevolent principle, feeling a
pleasure in their employment, and regarding
it as one of a truly elevating kind, inasmuch
as they are, in an eminent degree, following
the example of Christ, if they act from the
motives which He presents to His followers.
The insane should have vastly more means of
interesting and useful occupation. Little par-
ties of sewing and knitting should be formed
for the females. Spinning wheels, large and
small, should be introduced. There should
be a spacious hall for exercise in bad weather,
where battledore could be played, and India rub-
ber balls used, and other innocent recreations.
Instrumental music and singing should be en-
couraged, and drawing and painting. The
CHAPLAIN’S DIARY. 271

matron should devise various modes of enter-
taining the female patients; make parties for
them, with a little fruit and lemonade.
“There should be a reading-room for the
females, and one for the males, in which should
be suitable books, periodicals, newspapers and
pictures, and other entertaining objects; a
museum of natural curiosities, collections of
shells, minerals, etc. A course of lectures in
chemistry, natural philosophy, etc., might be
delivered; on history and biography, by the
chaplain. The females might cultivate flow-
ers in pots in their apartments, and the males
also. Singing birds in cages might be intro-
duced. Workshops for the males should be
provided. Parties formed for the males, and
occasionally for both sexes to come together.
Checkers, backgammon and chess, but zo¢ cards.
1. They tempt the attendants. 2. They too
often fascinate too much the patients. 3. Pa-
tients who never played before acquire a fond-
ness for this at the institution, and the habit
goes with them, to expose them to grievous
temptations. 4. It is revolting to the feelings
of many patients who have been educated to
regard it as an immorality. 5. It must be
very narrowly watched, not sometimes to lead
to gambling among the patients. 6. It often
272 CHAPLAIN’S DIARY.

leads to profanity and to boisterous and angry
language, and in this way has annoyed other
patients within hearing of it.

‘Great pains should be taken to interest
and improve the attendants. In their leisure
time they should be provided with suitable
books, newspapers, periodicals, etc. They
should be regarded and treated as Christian
fellow-laborers in the work of doing good.
They should be encouraged to make suggest-
ions in a proper way. In doing all these
things, regard should, of course, be had to the
peculiar state of the patient, to determine
whether any, or how much, of these means of
employment and amusement may be profit-
able. But who can be among the insane a
little while, and not see how they need objects
to occupy and interest their minds?

“ April zoth.—Had some conversation with
the male patients in the physician’s room.
One of them told me that he thought it would
be much better to practice no deception with
the patients. He complained of it, and said
they would be vastly better satisfied to have
it laid aside altogether, and if they were to be
denied any thing, to be told so plainly and
explicitly.

“May 2nd.—A dance this evening. I
CHAPLAIN’S DIARY, 273

did not stay. Dr. Fuller asked me if I had
any scruples about it. I told him I thought
it depended upon the manner in which it was
conducted.

“May 1oth.—A patient arrived, making a
great noise, and using very profane language.
Another patient, standing at the door and
noticing this, said, ‘If this is being crazy, it
is bad enough; I’m sure I'll try and not be
crazy any more.’

‘‘Dec. 4th, ’40.—Soon after dinner, called
on Miss C., at Miss E.’s, who is in a deranged
state of mind. Had a long conversation with
her, and endeavored to persuade her to be
willing to go to the Retreat. She said she
would see me again to-morrow. At the
request of Mrs. H., her sister, and of Mrs. E.,
I called on Mr. B., and requested him to call
at Mrs. E.’s, and let Miss C. know that her
friends had concluded that she must go to the
Retreat, and to compel her to go if necessary.
I advised this course in preference to any thing
that involved deception or maneuvering. It
was taken, and the object accomplished with-
out any difficulty, she only protesting that she
went against her will. She arrived at the
Retreat immediately after prayers, at which
time I officiated as usual. It has been my
274 CHAPLAIN’S DIARY.

undeviating course, which I think is the only
correct one, to practice nothing like deception
or collusion with the patients, and to fulfill
strictly all my engagements with them.

“ Dec. 26th, 41, Sabbath.—Just after begin-
ning the sermon, one of the female patients
walked across the hall, rather suddenly, into
the men’s room, and was taken back with some
difficulty. As she entered the men’s room,
young B, became greatly excited. Fora min-
ute or two the doors of the males’ and of the
females’ rooms were closed and the exercises
suspended. I soon began again, and there
was entire quiet till the close. This is the
first and only time, since I have been con-
nected with the Retreat, that I have ever sus-
pended at all the course of religious exercises.

“Oct. oth, ’47.—Visited E. early in the fore-
noon and asked him if I should pray with him.
He said not now; I will let you know. I told
him I was about going into the city, but would
be back soon. Ina few minutes he sent for
me to the physician’s office, where I was. I
went to him. ‘On the whole,’ said he, ‘I
think you had better pray with me now; for
we do not know what may happen within two
or three hours.’ I began to pray. He
stopped me, saying, ‘Excuse me; but I wish
CHAPLAIN’S DIARY. 275

to have you make one special request.’ ‘What
is it?’ said I. He replied, ‘I am avery great
sinner ; pray that God would soften my heart.’

“March 14th, 1848.—S B ,a maiden
lady, who had worked in a factory at home,
was talking to me about going home, and said
it did not seem just like home to her at the
Retreat. She said: ‘I don’t hear the tea-
kettle siss.’

“The next day I handed her the following
lines, which delighted her so much that she
claimed them as her own, and read them often
to her friends. She soon after went home
cured.”

 

 

LinEs SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY A FEMALE PATIENT
IN THE RETREAT.

O! how I do, I do desire

To see my own dear home — what bliss!
To sit around our blazing fire,

And hear the old tea-kettle siss.

O! how I'd stir about, I would,
And wash, and iron, cook and bake ;
I'd strive to help them all I could,
And be the day long wide awake.

And while I worked I’d sing the song
I used to sing so blithe and clear,
Which helped me in my task along —

I try, but can not sing it here.
276 CHAPLAIN’S DIARY.

But I am crazy still they say,
And do not act like other folk,
Choosing to have my own strange way —
Perhaps they only mean to joke.

Perhaps they tell the truth, and so
I'll be contented with my lot,
For sure the doctor ought to know
Whether I’m crazy still or not.

I'll soon be well, quite well, and then

I'll hie me home — what joy, what bliss!
To feel our blazing fire again,

And hear the old tea-kettle siss.

“ April 12th, ’48.—This day my wife and I
received a bed-quilt with the accompanying
note, in the handwriting of Miss R. C., a
patient :

“«Presented to Mr. and Mrs. Gallaudet, by
the ladies of the Retreat, April 12th, 1848.’
On various parts of the quilt texts of Scrip-
ture are written by female patients, with their
signatures. The following verses accompan-

ied the present, by Miss M. G., a patient:”

This offering to thee we send,

And with it our affections tend ;

Perhaps you'll smile, perhaps you’ll laugh,
We planned it for your better half,
CHAPLAIN’S DIARY. 277

The patchwork, though so intricate,
Is from a model drawn of late.

’Twas your good friend, Mrs. C.,
That first designed this plan for thee.

We all agreed with one consent,

And with the work right onward went.
The names subscribed in pen and ink
Are well ensconced in white and pink.

These passages of Scripture truth,
You’ve made familiar from your youth ;
But each of us has placed them here,
An emblem of our love sincere.*

The few quotations now given from Mr.
Gallaudet’s diary while acting as chaplain at
the Retreat, furnish but imperfect suggestions
as to what his labors and influence in that
capacity really were.

He was a power behind the throne. Dr.
John S. Butler, who was the superintendent
during the last eight years of Mr. Gallaudet’s
chaplaincy, has frequently spoken to the
writer in terms of grateful acknowledgment of
the valuable aid he constantly received from
him, and this often in ways quite uncalled for
in the line of his official duty as chaplain.

 

* The writer of these pages slept often under the “crazy
quilt,” and remembered quieting his conscience for the morn-
ing indolence common to boyhood by studying, or pretending
to study, its tracery of Bible verses,
278 ADVICE AS TO MANAGEMENT.

Important questions of management were
discussed from day to day, the physician in
charge looking on the chaplain as his ablest
and most intelligent adviser. Dr. Butler re-
garded the influence of the chaplain on the
patients as a most important curative force.

On one occasion Mr. Gallaudet brought
him word that a certain Mrs. A———— was
very anxious to be allowed to attend prayers.
In health she had been a person of refinement
and religious habits, her special manifestation
of insanity being a disposition to break out into
language of the foulest character. In asking
to be admitted into the chapel she made the
most solemn promises to keep absolutely quiet.
Dr. Butler gave directions that she be allowed
to take a seat near the door with an attendant,
and said toher, ‘“ Mrs. A———, if you feel an
impulse to speak out, twist your handkerchief
hard in your hand.” She sat through the ser-
vice without making a sound, but was seen to
twist her handkerchief with great energy once
or twice. In speaking of her experience to the
doctor the next day she remarked: “I could
say any thing among the patients, but xotheng
in God’s holy temple.”

Dr. Butler regarded her self-restraint in
chapel as the punctum saliens in the process of
FEARLESSNESS WITH PATIENTS. 279

her recovery, which was rapid after the occur-
rence of this incident.

It was Mr. Gallaudet’s custom to seek the
physician in his office on his daily arrival for
the purpose of making personal visits to the
patients with the question: ‘What can I do
to help you to-day, doctor?” Dr. Butler
says that on occasions without number he has
answered this question by a reference to cases
in which he thought Mr. Gallaudet’s quieting
and cheering influence would do good on that
particular day: and acting on these suggest-
ions the chaplain would often accomplish re-
sults which could not otherwise have been
attained.

Mr. Gallaudet was often appealed to, even in
very extreme cases, his moral power being re-
lied on when mere physical force would not
avail. On a certain occasion a case of pro-
tracted violent mania was giving the physi-
cians much anxiety, none of the attendants be-
ing willing to venture into the furious pa-
tient’s room. The chaplain entered fearlessly,
and when the maniac advanced with an up-
lifted chair to attack him, he said with an
amused smile, ‘‘ You would not assault a little
man like me!” Instantly the patient was on
his knees asking Mr. Gallaudet’s forgiveness,
280 JOVIAL DISPOSITION.

and his delirium was shortly at an end. At
another time Mr. Gallaudet, having entered a
patient's room and closed the door behind
him, found the man armed with a knife and
himself the subject of a wholly unexpected
attack. On the instant he drew a couple of
keys from his pocket and began twirling them
in a peculiar manner, saying with a smile:
“I don’t believe you can do this.” The pa-
tient’s attention was diverted, and Mr. Geal-
laudet was able to call in assistance in time to
avoid all trouble.

It may have been inferred from the deeply
religious nature of many of the entries in Mr.
Gallaudet’s diaries, that he was of a somber
disposition and habit. This was very far from
being the case. Though subject sometimes
to attacks of even extreme despondency,
owing wholly to physical causes, his external
manners were cheerful and often playful. No
man more thoroughly enjoyed a joke, and few
were able to tell an amusing story more enter-
tainingly.* It must not be supposed that in the

 

* Mr. Gallaudet was a good deal disappointed when his eld-
est son, after having been for some years a member of the same
religious society with his father, decided to become an Episco-
palian and study for the ministry in that branch of the church.
But he would not allow himself to take a gloomy view of the
event; on the contrary, he was fond of telling the following
FONDNESS FOR JOKES. 281

chaplain’s visits to patients the talk was all of
a pious nature. Far otherwise. In alluding
to this jovial side of Mr. Gallaudet’s nature
Dr. Butler says: ‘It seemed when he died
that sunlight went out of the house.”*

Mr. Gallaudet’s influence in the Retreat
was felt in another important direction. He
did much to maintain the authority of those
who were called on to exercise it. Dr. E. K.
Hunt, now residing in Hartford, was, as a
very young man, called on unexpectedly to
fill the office of superintendent of the Retreat

 

story in the presence of his son, which the writer has heard
him do on several occasions :

A young Quaker loved a Baptist maiden. Their families
looked with disfavor on the match. A grand council was held,
at which each side hoped to gain a proselyte. But their efforts
having continued for several hours fruitlessly, the young Quaker
took his lady-love by the hand, and commanding attention, said
a conclusion had been reached. ‘“ My family,” said he, “ have
failed to make a Quakeress of Betsy, and her friends have not
been able to make a Baptist of me, so we have decided to join
the Episcopalians and go to the devil together.”

* Judge Nathaniel Shipman, of Hartford, says of Mr. Gallau-
det’s conversational powers :

“T recollect most distinctly when I was but little more than a
boy and used to see him in Prospect Street, and admired the
way in which he punctuated Mr. Elizur Goodrich’s theological
talk with his own wit, in which Mrs. Goodrich delighted, and
how he united philosophy and humor, and made conversation
sparkle with quiet fun. People don’t seem to talk now so well
as those old gentlemen did.”
282 TRIBUTE FROM DR. HUNT.

temporarily, between the terms of Dr. Fuller
and Dr. Brigham. He says that Mr. Gallau-
det, though twice his age, treated him on all
occasions with marked deference, thus greatly
strengthening his hands in the difficult task of
an ad znterzm administration.

Dr. Hunt paid a loving tribute to his friend,
not long after his death, in a published letter,
from which a few extracts may be taken :

“I remember well the first time I ever saw
him, and the impression his manner and con-
versation then made upon my mind; though
I did not hear until afterwards that it was Mr.
Gallaudet.. It was on a pleasant morning in
the fall of 1839 that, a stranger, I was stand-
ing in the hall of the Retreat for the Insane,
waiting for an interview with the physician.
Some of the more quiet of the male patients
were also there, engaged in conversation, when
a small man, of a quite unassuming, yet gen-
tlemanly bearing, entered, and was cordially
welcomed by the patients as a familiar ac-
quaintance and friend.

“Of what transpired in particular I have
no definite recollection, and only remember,
as I do distinctly, that uncommon ease and
kindness of manner ; a quiet yet animated and
interesting address ; a quick, clear, and active,
TRIBUTE FROM DR. HUNT. 283

as well as a highly cultivated mind, character-
ized the interview on the part of the gentle-
man in question.

“A feature of his character that a con-
tinued and close acquaintance brought prom-
inently to my notice, was his ever-present
sense of accountability to God, as illustrated
by the scope and tenor of his conversation.
Though eminently cheerful, and appreciat-
ing the humorous and mirthful, perhaps even
more than a majority of people, still the
momentous thought, that ‘for every idle_
word that men shall speak, they shall give an
account thereof on the day of judgment,’
seemed to stand out as if written in letters of
light, continually before his mind. I know
not that I ever spent five minutes with him in
meaningless and unprofitable conversation.
It was one of his great excellences that he
both knew how and had the disposition always
to render an interview, however short, both
agreeable and useful.

“ One of the subjects on which Mr. Gallau-
det used often to speak, and dwell with special
interest—perhaps because he thought it would
be more acceptable to me as a physician than
most other topics—was that of the physical
training and education of the young. And on
284 TRIBUTE FROM DR. BUTLER.

this subject I am greatly mistaken if his views
were not profoundly philosophical and correct.
He highly esteemed—but to that degree only
which it justly merits—the vast importance of
physical culture,not as a mere political question,
but as it stands related to the intellectual and
moral part of our nature. And in his opinion
its importance related quite as much to the
female sex as our own.

“He understood better than most men the
laws which infinite wisdom has set over the
organization of man, and the mutual reactions
of its several parts; and was also keenly alive
to its clear and harmonious development. He
knew, indeed, no completeness, either moral
or intellectual, aside from a sound bodily con-
stitution.”

With a few extracts from the annual report
of Dr. Butler, written soon after Mr. Gallau-
det’s death, the record of his labors as chap-
lain among the insane must be closed.

“ This field of labor was admirably adapted
to call into exercise the peculiar characteristics
of Mr. Gallaudet, and all these found ample
scope for their full development among the
ever-varying peculiarities of our family.

“His equanimity and calmness checked the
unduly excited ; his suavity and quiet dignity
TRIBUTE FROM DR. BUTLER. 285

calmed the turbulent; his kindness, cheerful-
ness, and wit, with his ready repartee, cheered
and amused the desponding, while his rare
conversational powers, and his fund of anec-
dote, and of general and useful knowledge,
made him the welcome companion of all.

“ His aptness of illustration, the happy man-
ner in which he applied practical religious
truth to the varying circumstances of the dif-
ferent patients, together with his quick per-
ception of individual peculiarities, gave him
ready access to every mind, especially to that
class of religious monomaniacs who are diffi-
cult of approach, and whose minds appear
most obstinately closed against right and
natural views.

“The aim of his daily life was to do good.
His whole warm heart was in his work, and
he did that work well. He seemed to bring
sunlight with him into our household, and he
left its cheering influence in every heart.”
CHAPTER X.

A Home School — Family Government — Hospitality— A Let-
ter from Dr. Yung Wing —A Letter to Jenny Lind — Gift
of a House from the Institution for the Deaf and a Few
Personal Friends — Presentation of Silver Plate by Former
Pupils — Friendship with the Clergy of all Denominations
— Extracts from Personal Diary — Failing Health — Last
Illness — Death.

EFORE speaking of the closing days of
Mr. Gallaudet’s life, which followed di-
rectly on the conclusion of hislabors as chap-
lain of the Retreat, certain matters deserve a
place in this narrative which could not, easily,
have been related in chronological order.
Allusions have been made to a home school,
organized for the purpose of educating his
own children, but into which the children of
his neighbors and friends were, to a limited
extent, admitted. This school, though never
large, held no insignificant place in Hartford,
and not a few who began their education in
it have risen to commanding positions in social
life, in letters and in art.
4A HOME SCHOOL. 287

One of the early pupils, now residing in
Hartford, writes thus of her experience :

You have asked me to give you what facts I
could recollect of the private school for the children
of your father’s family, which was taught by a
teacher whom he selected for this purpose, a few of
his chosen friends being kindly invited to send their
children to profit by the same instruction.

I find that the well-worn little books, which I
used then, and had so carefully kept for so long a
time, have been lately destroyed or given away;
thus one of the sources of information upon which
I had relied has been lost.

I do not remember any school life previous to this
time. This school I must have left when about ten
or eleven years of age. It may seem strange to
some, that a child so young should have been at all
impressed with a sense of the peculiar powers with
which your father was endowed. No especial rever-
ence, beyond that of usual good behavior, was ex-
pected of the pupils when he made his accustomed
visits to the school. Yet unconsciously to him, we
were all, I am sure, more or less aware of a presence
we could dimly feel was both noble and wise. Those
visits never failed to be of lasting benefit by way of
suggestion or incitement to some achievement on
our part. Each thought was given to us in so clear,
direct and original a way that youthful minds could
not fail to absorb it. Perhaps in his methods of
teaching the young there was an unfolding, thus
288 A HOME SCHOOL.

early, of the now popular Kinder Garten system ;
for in all his books which instruct the young in re-
gard to the truths of natural science, there are such
full and apt illustrations and explanations, that it.
might well be called object-teaching.

In comparing the past with the present, Dr. Gal-
laudet appears much in advance of his own times
in his views of education—in his estimate of what
is essential to health and vigor of both mind and
body. Only his genius, perhaps, could have led
even children themselves to feel that education is a
priceless thing; that the accepted means to that
end should be carefully considered by them even to
the care of their school-books!

I can see him now, as with a serious face, yet a
twinkle in his eye, he took up a hardly-used book
which some little hand had idly held, and turning
the pages slowly, shook his head, saying: “Chil-
dren, do you know that these curling covers are
‘dog’s ears?’ We can not have any of them in our
books.” Oneof these same scholars remembers that
on coming into the school room he always noted
how the thermometer stood, and showed to us all
his appreciation of a thorough ventilation.

Of physical exercise he was as duly mindful. It
is much less of a surprise now than it was then, that
every day the children must have a share of exer-
cise in the open air, whether they cared for it or
not.

In his visits to the school Dr. Gallaudet would
occasionally seek, in familiar conversations, to lead
our minds to worshipful and loving thoughts of our
A HOME SCHOOL. 289

Father in Heaven; and no one could be long under
his influence and teaching without being led into
some spiritual appreciation of the truths so dear
and vital to him.

This home school was an important factor
in the family. The spirit which governed the
one was the same that controlled the other.
Firm authority with love as the motive for
every action, every rule, every restraint made
the household of Mr. Gallaudet pre-eminently
a happy one. His philanthropy was not of
the Borrio-boola Gha order. In his labors
for the good of mankind he never neglected
his wife or his children. He was their com-
panion and their sympathizing friend. Even
the youngest child, fifty years his father’s
junior, remembers him as an eager comrade
in many a sport, ready to stand as one of the
chief mourners by the grave of such of his
chickens or rabbits as came to untimely ends,
or to write tear-drawing verses on the death
of his sister’s pet canary. He remembers
journeys taken with his father, notably one
that included the ascent of Mt. Holyoke on
foot, in which the old man and the child were
boys together. Mr. Gallaudet was a marvel-
ous teacher in his family. He knew how to
make instruction an entertainment. The
29° TEACHING IN THE FAMILY.

youngest son recalls a bright summer morn-
ing when he crept into his father’s bed, and
how the father gave him his first insight into
geometry. The mysteries of planes and
angles, curves and straight lines, surfaces and
solids, were so magically unfolded, that ever
after “the science of quantity, extension or
magnitude, abstractly considered,” was an
open book to the boy; the passage of the
pons astnorum, when it came, a joyous and
victorious march.

Mr. Gallaudet’s power in the discipline of
his children was as marked as his teaching
ability. The eldest son (Rev. Thomas Gal-
laudet, D. D., rector of St. Ann’s Church for
Deaf-Mutes, New York), says: ‘When I
did wrong I would have rather taken a whip-
ping at his hands than to have him call me to
his study for a kind and serious talk, con-
vincing me of my fault, making me ashamed
of what I had done, and leading me to repent-
ance and a better mind. He evidently be-
lieved in training children to grow up as
Christians without passing through a sudden
process. Father took every opportunity to
drop seed-corns into my mind, giving me
hints on which I could not help meditating.
He was shaping my life and character without
FAMILY DISCIPLINE. 2QgI1

seeming to interfere with my own gradually
developing mental processes. He had a high
idea of the purity and sacredness which should
characterize the life of a Christian family,
though smiling on all innocent recreations.”

His second son (P. W. Gallaudet, a banker
in Wall Street, New York), speaks of his
“dread of a talk in the study,” and “the
power of his father’s eye.” He remembers a
punishment, also, which he thinks was well
deserved, though it may seem to some unduly
severe. Wallace had given a terrible fright
to a deaf-mute seamstress employed in the
family, by putting an old shoe in her bed ina
way to make her think it was a rat. For this
his father kept him a week in his room on
bread and water; allowing him to leave his
room only to attend school, which was in the
house. But the discipline of the family was
not often secured through severe means.

One of the younger sons stayed out one
summer evening far beyond his usual bed-time,
which was eight o’clock. Coming in with dread
at ten, the boy found his father lying on the
sofa reading a newspaper. ‘‘Come,” said the
father as the boy entered, “I have been wait-
ing for some one to play backgammon with
me; let us have a few games.” And the
292 HOSPITALITY.

astonished boy was kept playing with his
father until midnight, and then sent to bed
without a word as to his having been out late.
The discipline was effective.

_ Mr. Gallaudet believed that one of the most
important elements in the education of a fam-
ily was the making of the house a resort for
interesting and entertaining people. And
though he could never indulge in expensive
hospitality, the number of guests who slept
under his roof and ate at his table was legion.
It was always spoken of with surprise among
the children when the “spare room” was
empty.

Mr. Gallaudet’s fame as an educator, a
philanthropist and an author, and his wide
correspondence, brought to his home many
guests whom it was an honor and a pleasure
to entertain. His children were taught to
show equal courtesy to the black missionary
from Africa and the white diplomat from
Europe.

Mr. Gallaudet loved a joke, even a practical
one, when it did not bear too hard on the vic-
tim. On one occasion a distinguished mis-
sionary, the late Dr. Poor, was, with his wife,
visiting Mr. Gallaudet during the month of,
May. The day was warm, but the good
PRACTICAL JOKING. 293

Bushnell stove in the dining-room, though it
had no fire in it, had not been taken down.
Mrs. Poor sat with her back to the stove, and
presently began to show signs of being uncom-
fortably warm. ‘Won't you change your
seat to the other side of the table, Mrs. Poor ?”
said the host; “you seem to feel the stove
somewhat.” “Thank you,” said Mrs. Poor,
and one of the children changed places with
her. Wiping the perspiration from her face,
Mrs. Poor expressed satisfaction with her
cooler place, and when Mr. Gallaudet, with a
sly twinkle in his eye, said, “I am so glad,
Mrs. Poor, though there was no fire in the
stove,” the titter which had been with diffi--
‘culty suppressed by the children broke into a
laugh, in which all were glad to join, none
‘being more amused than the victim.

It would be impossible even to name these
many visitors, much less to describe their
visits. But the impressions of one whose
presence with his friends excited unusual
interest in the family, may be given a place.
Dr. Yung Wing, well known as a distinguished
graduate of Yale College, a mandarin of high
rank in his own country, China, the promoter
of the American education of Chinese youth,
and for several years assistant Chinese minis-
294 LETTER FROM DR. VUNG WING.

ter at Washington, writes thus of a visit made
in his boyhood to the family of Mr. Gallaudet :

It was during the winter vacation of 1848 that
Dr. S. R. Brown* took Wong Shing, Wong Fin
and myself to Hartford from Munson, on a visit to
the Rev. Dr. Gallaudet. The visit, though a brief
one, made a lasting impression on my mind. Were
I an artist, I could reproduce on canvas the group
of that happy family, which appeared to me, even
then, like a little heaven on earth.

The entire domestic surroundings carried with
them a heavenly atmosphere; and no one who was
present in that home in Prospect Street, either
immediately after breakfast or after tea in the even-
ing, when all the members met together, could have
failed to be charmed with the scene.

There was the doctor himself the central figure
of the group. In person he was of medium height.
He wore spectacles. He had a full, oval face, every
feature of which bore lines of thought, and beamed
with gentle cheerfulness. His uppermost thoughts
seemed to be of Christ and humanity; and his whole
appearance bespoke a soul well anchored in Chris-
tian trust and serenity.

Then came Mrs. Gallaudet. I remember she was
the last member of the family to whom I was intro-
duced. I was not aware, at first, that she was a
mute; her face was full of healthful color, with large,
clear brown eyes that spoke volumes, though she

 

*The eminent missionary to China.
LETTER FROM DR. YUNG WING. 295

could not give her thoughts articulate expression.
She had a dignified and queen-like air, softened with
a sweet smile which seemed to be perennial.

Three sons, Thomas, William and Edward, the
last the youngest member of the family, being about
my own age, and two daughters, Kate and Alice,
completed the group.* I remember their faces well.
The two young ladies played on the flute, while one
of the brothers played on the piano. The sight and
sound were novel to me, but the music they made
at evenings was symbolic of the gentleness and har-
mony that pervaded the family.

On the morning of my departure from Hartford
the doctor handed me a hymn which he said he had
composed in the silent watches of the night previ-
ous, during his wakeful hours. This hymn I have
preserved for thirty-eight years. Inclosed herewith
is a true copy of it.

YuNG WING.

HARTFORD, Conn., Dec. 1, 1885.

A fHymn, for A Wing, composed in the night watches, Feb.
1, 1848, from his friend, T. H. Gallaudet.

TO JESUS.

Ever near, oh! Jesus, be,

With thy grace to succor me, _
Lest I stray away from thee ;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone.

 

* Peter Wallace, the second son, and Sophia and Jane, the
two elder daughters, were absent from home.
296

HYMN FOR A WING.

In temptation’s fearful hour,
When the Evil One has power,
And his legions round me lower,
Leave, ah! leave me not alone.

When the scenes of Earth delight,
With its pleasures fair and bright,
Falsely promising delight,

Leave, ah! leave me not alone.

Should its gold allure my heart,
From thy service to depart,
Keep me from its wily art ;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone.

When its glory cheats my eye,
Like a meteor in the sky,

Help me from its lure to fly ;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone.

In my darkest, dreariest day,
Still thy grace to me convey,
Still thy power to save display ;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone.

While thy goodness I adore,
May I love thee more and more ;
Till the conflict all is o’er,
Leave, ah! leave me not alone.

Till the struggling race is run,
Till the fight of faith is won,
And the Crown of Victory won,
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
LOVE FOR MUSIC. 297

Dr. Wing speaks of the pleasant element of
music in the family. This was keenly enjoyed
and sedulously cultivated by Mr. Gallaudet.
He had himself a fine ear and a sweet voice.
In sacred music he never failed to take a part,
and not infrequently he contributed to the
entertainment of the home circle in a solo.
One of his favorite songs was Dibdin’s

Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew.

The feeling with which he rendered the

lines :

And though his body’s under hatches
‘His soul has gone aloft,

never failed to move deeply those who heard
him.

Mr. Gallaudet had all his children taught to
sing, most of them in a school conducted by
Mr. S. T. Gordon, now the veteran music pub-
lisher of New York, and organist of the Jerry
McAuley Mission ; and it was a source of as
much delight to him as to the younger ones
when, through the generosity of a friend,
Alfred Smith, Esq., one of T. Gilbert & Son’s
pianos, with an organ attachment, came into
298 INTEREST IN JENNY LIND,

the house as a gift to the two younger daugh-
ters. The one drawback to music in the
family was the fact that the dear wife and
mother could derive no enjoyment from it.
Her pathetic curiosity could only be met with
an assurance that she might look forward to a
day when the “ears of the deaf should be
unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb sing.”

It was during the last year of Mr. Gallau-
det’s life that Jenny Lind made her memor-
able visit to the United States. His interest
in her wonderful singing was so great that he
not only went himself to New York to hear
her, but felt justified, so keen was his pleasure,
in sending his three youngest children to New
York, though he could ill afford to do so, that
they might have the great treasure of a life-
long memory of the sweetest music that has
yet fallen from human lips.

Letter to Jenny Lind.

HARTFORD, CT., June 3d, 1851.
MLLE. LIND:—Will you do me the favor to
accept the accompanying reports of two of the
prominent benevolent institutions of our country.
You love to do good, and it may interest you to see
something of the good we are trying to do to such
classes of the unfortunate as the deaf-mutes and the
LETTER TO JENNY LIND. 299

insane. It has been my lot to devote thirteen years
of my life to the former and as many to the latter,
among whom I am still engaged as their minister
of the Gospel.

Precious Gospel! whose benign influence, of
late years, has been found to be adapted, with
singular efficacy, to the relief of those who, al-
though bereft of reason, have hearts to respond to
its consolations and hopes.

While devoutly praying that these consolations
and hopes may richly abound to you through the
grace which is in Jesus Christ, will you suffer me
to append to these lines a few thoughts which
occurred to me after reading, not long since, some
lines which it was said, I do not know how truly,
you had written in a lady’s album, and to tell you
what great gratification I enjoyed in listening to
your inimitable voice at the concert in Tripler’s Hall
on Monday evening, the second of June.

Yours very respectfully,
T. H. GALLAUDET.

Written in the album :—

In vain I seek for rest
In all created good ;
It leaves me still unblest,
And makes me cry for God.
At rest, be sure, I shall not be,
Until my soul finds rest in thee.
300 PURCHASE OF A HOUSE.

How shall my soul find rest in thee,
Thou God of spotless purity,
And I a sinner vile!
For Sinai thunders loud and clear
Its law-curse on my trembling ear,
With awful note the while.

But a sweet voice from Calvary
Still bids my soul find rest in thee,
Through Jesus’ dying love;
I hear, I come; receive, forgive,
O Lord, and fit thy child to live
In rest with thee above.

During the year 1850, the last full year of
Mr. Gallaudet’s life, two events took place
which gave him great satisfaction. Late in
1849, the Leffingwell house on Prospect Street,
in which the family had lived for more than
eight years, was sold, and it became necessary
for Mr. Gallaudet to provide another home
by the following spring. Hehad long desired
to own a house, and for several years he had
felt the length of his daily walks to and from
the Retreat to be too great.

Very fortunately, or providentially, as he
would have been apt to say, an opportunity
occurred for him to purchase a pleasant home
in the southern part of the city, comparatively
near the Retreat, for two thousand five hun-
THE HOUSE A GIFT. gor

dred dollars, and he had a little more than
that sum in the savings bank. The house
was in Buckingham Street, and adjoined that
of his old friend Seth Terry, who had been
for many years connected with the manage-
ment of the institution for deaf-mutes, and
who was at that time commissioner of the
fund of the institution.

No one knew better than Mr. Terry that
Mr. Gallaudet’s means were very limited, and
no one more fully appreciated the value of
Mr. Gallaudet’s poorly requited services, even
in a commercial sense, in the establishment
and endowment of the school for the deaf. It
was natural, therefore, that in view of Mr.
Gallaudet’s purchase of a house, Mr. Terry
should have proposed to the directors of the
institution the action recorded as follows :

At a meeting of the Board of Directors held
February 22d, 1850, Hon. Thos. S. Williams, presi-
dent, in the chair, the following was, on motion of
Seth Terry, Esq., unanimously adopted :

Whereas, The Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet has
rendered many and great services for this institu-
tion, more particularly,

Whereas, Soon after he commenced his profes-
sional life, at the request of friends of the deaf and
dumb he visited England, Scotland and France for
302 RECOGNITION OF EARLY LABORS.

the purpose of obtaining information as to the best
mode of instructing deaf-mutes, and was absent on
this business fifteen months, and after many embar-
rassments finally returned with much valuable in-
formation upon this then new and interesting subject,
bringing with him at his own risk a distinguished
specimen of what had been accomplished by the in-
struction of this unfortunate class; thereby removing
the doubts which had paralyzed the exertions of
many, and laying the foundation of this institution
and of the funds with which it has since been en-
dowed ; and

Whereas, No pecuniary recompense beyond his
actual expenses was ever made to him therefor; and

Whereas, Since his connection with this institution
as principal was dissolved, he has rendered valuable
services for which he has not been compensated ;
therefore,

Voted, That we believe it to be the duty of this
institution to make a reasonable compensation to
Mr. Gallaudet for the time and labor thus devoted to
this important work;

Voted, That the sum of two thousand dollars be
appropriated for this purpose, and that the same be
paid to him by the order of the directing com-
mittee on the treasurer, one-half payable on the
15th day of April, and one-half on the 15th day of
July next.

In his journal Mr. Gallaudet writes under
date of March ist, 1850:
GENEROSITY OF FRIENDS. 393

I think it worthy of record that after having been
searching for a house to rent, for two or three
months, without success, and having once applied
to Mr. E to hire his, he declining—some new
arrangements of his led him to come to me with the
offer of his house for sale. It was thus providen-
‘tially and unexpectedly preserved to me, and my
concluding to purchase it being soon known to my
friends, I have no doubt led to the movement which
will place two thousand dollars in my hands to help
pay for it. In all this I see the hand of a kind
Providence, locking up and reserving this sum for
me till I most should need it, and when it would do
me and my family the most good. O! Lord, lead
me to be grateful and faithful. What shall I render
unto thee for all thy benefits?

 

In addition to the sum voted Mr. Gallaudet,
a purse of five hundred dollars was presented
him on April rst, the day he received the deed
of his house, by Hon. Thos. S. Williams,
David Watkinson, Elizur Goodrich, and James
M. Bunce of Hartford, and Richard Bigelow
of New York, thus providing for the full dis-
charge of the purchase money. Of the donors
of this last gift Mr. Gallaudet writes: ‘May
the Lord reward them, and especially with
spiritual blessings on themselves and theirs.”

On the oth of April the family occupied the
new house, which was to be Mr. Gallaudet’s
304 PRESENT OF SILVER PLATE.

home for seventeen months only. But these
were happy months, and Mr. Gallaudet took
unalloyed pleasure in the little garden and
orchard and vineyard which formed part of
his new possession.

The second event of unusual interest, oc-
curring in 1850, was the presentation of a
testimonial of regard from his old pupils, of
which Mr. Gallaudet speaks in his diary as

follows :
“September 27th.— Yesterday a silver

pitcher and salver, of beautifully exquisite
workmanship, with appropriate devices and
inscriptions, costing nearly three hundred dol-
lars, were presented to me in the Center
Church, by the hands of Mr. George H. Lor-
ing, one of my earliest pupils, in the presence
of avery large assembly, appropriate addresses
accompanying them, as a testimonial of the
gratitude and affection of many of my old
pupils, nearly two hundred of whom were
present from various parts of the country,
principally from New England. A similar
pitcher and salver were presented to Mr.
Clerc.

‘Lord! give me grace to view this in its
true light. Let not my pride in any degree
be inflated by it. I feel humbled before thee
PRESENTATION OF PLATE. 395

for my many deficiencies.in duty, while laboring
in the education of deaf-mutes. I would feel
that I was then but the very weak, imperfect
and sinful instrument in thy hands of doing
some good, and to thee be all the glory.”

_ Mr. Luzerne Rae, an instructor in the school
for the deaf at Hartford, and editor of the
American Annals in 1850, writes thus of the
origin of this testimonial :

‘ The deaf and dumb were entirely self-moved in
this matter. The idea originated with Mr. Thomas
Brown, of New Hampshire, one of Mr. Gallaudet’s
earliest and most intelligent pupils. He said tome,
in his graphic language of signs, that his spirit could
find no rest until he had devised some method of
giving expression to the grateful feeling which filled
his heart, and which the lapse of years served only
to increase. He had but to suggest the thought to
others of his former associates, when it was eagerly
seized and made the common property of them all.
In the vivid simile of the orator of the day, the
flame of love ran, like a prairie fire, through the
hearts of the whole deaf-mute band, scattered as
they were in various parts of the country; and
measures were immediately adopted for the further-
ance of the object. In avery short time the hand-
some sum of six hundred dollars was obtained;
wholly, let it be understood, from the deaf and
dumb themselves.
306 PRESENTATION OF PLATE.

Upon one side of the pitcher is an engraved
scene, representing Mr. Gallaudet in France
in 1816, with Mr. Clerc, who offers to accom-
pany him to America, and a ship waiting to
convey them. Across the sea appears the
Hartford Institution. On the other side is
seen a picture of a school-room, with teacher
and pupils and apparatus. In front and be-
tween these scenes is a good likeness of the
Abbe Sicard, Mr. Gallaudet’s teacher in Paris.
On the neck of the pitcher are chased the
coats of arms of the New England States;
and on the handles are representations of
mute cupids, and also closed hands, indicating
the sign of the mutes for the first letter of the
alphabet.

The presentation of the pitchers took place
in the Center Church, which was filled with
deaf-mutes, the officers of the institution, and
many interested citizens.

Prayer was offered by Rev. Joel Hawes,
D. D., and addresses were made by Lewis
Weld, principal of the Institution for Deaf-
Mutes, Thomas Brown, of New Hampshire,
Fisher Ames Spofford, of Ohio, and George
H. Loring, of Boston, these three being early
pupils of Mr. Gallaudet.

In responding to Mr. Loring, who made
PRESENTATION OF PLATE. 3°7

the presentation address, Mr. Gallaudet said
in closing :

I beg you to accept my cordial thanks for the
part with which you indulge me, in the touching
interest of the scene. I thank you all. I thank
your committee individually. In him from whose
hands I have just received this testimonial of your
grateful regard, I recognize one of my very earliest
and youngest pupils—one whom I taught for along
course of years, and who now, in the maturity of
manhood, is reaping the rich reward of his faithful
use of the means of improvement which he then en-
joyed. This testimonial of your affection I shall
ever cherish with emotions which I can not here ex-
press. As I look at it from time to time, should my
life be spared for a few more years, I shall think of
all the past in which you were concerned with a
‘melancholy pleasure—of this day, as standing out
with a strong and immovable prominence among
the days of my earthly pilgrimage—and of you and
your fellow-pupils with a father’s love. I shall ever
pray that God may shed down upon you His choic-
est blessings, and prepare you, by His grace in Christ
Jesus, for the holiness and happiness of heaven.”

Soon after the conclusion of the public ex-
ercises the deaf-mutes assembled within the
walls of their a/ma mater for social intercourse,
and to partake of the bountiful entertainment
308 INTELLIGENCE OF OLD PUPILS.

provided for them by the officers of the insti-
tution. They were met by the directors and
instructors, with their families, together with
a few invited guests, among whom, apparently
not the least interested of the party, was the
governor of the state.

It will be difficult to understand the pecu-
liar pleasure afforded to Mr. Gallaudet by
this notable assemblage of his old pupils. But
it needed no close observer to discover that
while he was gratified to be remembered as
he was, his greatest satisfaction grew out of
the impression made by the deaf-mutes as
mature men and women, in the community
which had before known them only as school
children.

Their intelligence, dignity and courtesy
elicited favorable comment from all observers,
even in cultivated Hartford.

The memory of these days was a sunbeam
to Mr. Gallaudet during the short year of life
that remained to him, and it was his expressed
wish that the plate should be carefully guarded
as an heir-loom in the family.

The record of Mr. Gallaudet’s life would be
far from complete without definite mention of
his labors as a preacher.

Though he was never settled as a pastor,
SEN ee ee Se

LABORS AS A PREACHER. 329

the number of his sermons was greater than
that of many a minister in a life-long pas-
torate.

His manuscripts and notes would furnish
material for a score of volumes.

His services were in constant request for
the supply of vacant pulpits, and he seldom
spent a Sabbath on a journey, even when
seeking rest, that he did not preach.

He often spoke from very brief notes, but
more frequently wrote his sermons. In his
delivery, however, he was never a slave to his
manuscript.

His relations with the clergy of his city and
state were intimate and cordial. He admired
Dr. Bushnell, and sympathized with him in
his difficulties. The two were often seen on
the streets of Hartford engaged in earnest
discussion.

A friend who knew both well relates that
on a certain Saturday they were walking
together, when Bushnell exclaimed: “I have
no sermon for to-morrow morning.” ‘Come
with me to your study,” said Gallaudet, “and
I will open the Bible and put my finger on a
text for you, without seeing it.” Bushnell
laughingly led the way, and on reaching the
study handed a Bible to Gallaudet, who
310 INTIMACY WITH DR. BUSHNELL.

opened it and rested his finger on a page,
asking Bushnell to see what had come to him.
Finding these words: ‘Who is made not
after the law of a carnal commandment, but
after the power of an endless life,” he at
once accepted them as his text for the next
day. Gallaudet left him, bidding him God-
speed, and he wrote, scarcely leaving his
table, until the hour of service the follow-
ing day, when he ascended his pulpit and
delivered one of his finest discourses.

The same friend, long a parishioner of
Bushnell’s, says of the two as preachers :

“Bushnell influenced men through their
reason, saying: ‘ My friends, here is this state-
ment and the reasons for it; if you can not
comprehend or accept it, so much the worse
for you.’ Gallaudet swayed his hearers and
led them by his personal presence and sympa-
thy—by a magnetism few could resist. None
ever heard him without wanting to know him
personally, and to come near to him.”

Dr. Barnard in his eulogy speaks thus of
Mr. Gallaudet’s power as a speaker :

As a public speaker, in the pulpit or the lecturer’s
desk, soon after he entered the ministry and during
his early work as a teacher, he was eminently pop-
ular. As a sermonizer he had but few equals.
LIBERAL RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 3il

His subject was distinctly set forth, the topics log-
ically arranged, his language polished, his imagina-
tion chaste, his manner earnest and his voice per-
suasive. The hearer was borne along by aconstantly
swelling tide, rather than swept away by a sudden
billow.

Mr.Gallaudet was intimate with the ministers
of all denominations, not excluding Israelites
and Roman Catholics. Father Brady, a well-
known Catholic priest living in Hartford at
the time of his death, was so warmly attached
to him that he preferred to incur the censure
of his superior rather than forego the satisfac-
tion of attending the funeral of his friend,
which was, naturally, in a Protestant church.

When the first Unitarian clergyman, Rev.
Joseph Harrington, came to settle in Hart-
ford, he was coldly received by many of his
orthodox brethren. But Mr. Gallaudet’s
charity was broader, and he made a friend
of him at once.

“He never took the freeman’s oath nor
exercised the elective franchise until he
was sixty years of age. This was not be-
cause he had no settled opinions on polit-
ical subjects or was indifferent to the welfare
of the country. He was conscientious in
thinking that he could do more good to his
312 FIRST VOTE FOR PRESIDENT.

fellow men by taking no part in such matters,
as thus he could secure the co-operation of all
parties in promoting his views and schemes.” *
And his only vote for a President of the
United States was cast in 1848, at the urgent
instance of his youngest son, then eleven years
of age, who was the zealous leader of a boys’
Taylor and Fillmore club.

Mr. Gallaudet’s personal journals and diaries
were fragmentary, but he commenced a little
book on the day he was sixty years old, in
which there are entries in each month from
this date, Dec. 10, 1847, up to the time of his
last illness in 1851.

In the first entry he recounts with grati-
tude to God his many and great blessings,
chief among which he mentions his dear wife
and his eight children, all in health and vigor
—the youngest ten years of age. Feeling
-even in his day the value of efficient domestic
service, he speaks thus of one of his mercies:
“We have a faithful and honest woman to
do the kitchen work, who has been with us
nearly four years, Sarah Grady, a Roman
Catholic, devout in her religion.” This estim-
able woman, well deserving to be named in
these pages, was a valued member of the fam-

 

* Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit.
VISITS TO THE SICK. 313

ily long after Mr. Gallaudet’s death, and still |
lives at Hartford, almost a centenarian, having,
apparently, no greater pleasure than to meet
a friend or relative of her old employer, to
whom she may open her heart in praise of
him.

But in this birthday entry, as will seem nat-
ural, the burden of Mr. Gallaudet’s prayer is
that spiritual blessings may abound to all the
members of his household.

Glancing through the pages of the journal
one is made to think of the Good Samaritan,
so constantly are visits to the sick and the
afflicted noted.

Jan. 4th, 1848.—Yesterday forenoon I called tosee
Mrs. L., the wife of Mr. Henry L , who mends
our shoes, and their deaf-mute son. Both were on
beds in the same room. I conversed and prayed
with the son by signs, and also conversed and
prayed with his mother.

 

Scores of visits are recorded to these two
humble people, whose dying beds were by the
loving ministrations of their faithful friend,
“made soft as downy pillows are.”

1oth.—I found lately that Mr. S , of whom
I buy my meat, has not attended church for five
years, and that he professes to be a Universalist. I

 
314 AN ALMONER OF CHARITY.

have conversed with him and put several tracts in
his hands, which he says he will read. I have also
given him “ The Child’s Book on the Soul ”’ for his
children, and “ TheChristian Family Almanac ” for
his wife. Lord, open his heart, and the hearts of
his wife and children, to receive and love the truth
as it isin Jesus. Give me grace to pray for them.

Feb. 22d.—I called to see the wife of the French
cook at the Retreat, who has a little son very sick
with scarlet fever, and gave her a trifle of money,
and some religious counsel.

May 15, 1849.—I called on Mrs. , whose
husband was found dead in his office yesterday. I
endeavored to direct her mind to the only true
source of consolation, and begged her to accept a
present of money for the children (for I thought in
their circumstances they might need it), but she
would not.

 

Mr. Gallaudet’s diary shows that he was
made the almoner of charity for others who
knew how often he found his way into the
homes of those needing help. Not infre-
quently, also, he records gifts made to himself
by kind friends who wished to share with him
of their abundance. Evidence appears of
his unbounded hospitality. Friends came and
went—as many as seven’ guests being lodged
and fed at one time. And never does a word
 

INSIGHT INTO CHARACTER. 315

of complaint appear, though many of these
visitors were evidently self-invited.

In dealing with his fellow-men, Mr. Gallau-
det was seldom deceived as to the character
of those who sought his aid. The writer,
however, recalls one Jacob G , claiming to
be a broken-down pastor from Germany, who
imposed on his father with signal success.
This Jacob was always raising money to take
him home, and as regularly failing to sail,
coming back to Hartford with plausible stories
of how he had to spend the money for sick-
ness, or that he had been robbed, etc. Mr.
Gallaudet’s neighbor and pastor, Rev. Dr.
Hawes, soon lost faith in Jacob, who came one
day from the study of the latter to the former
lamenting that ‘“‘ Minister Hawes, he very fine
shpeakit, but his heart is stone.” Mr. Gal-
laudet’s faith in the poor German was over-
strained at length, and he came no more.

Evidences abound in this journal that in the
two closing years of his life Mr. Gallaudet’s
physical strength, never great, was failing.
On his last birthday, when he was sixty-three,
he writes : “ Three peculiar bodily infirmities,
one of them of only a few months’ continu-
ance, and another considerably aggravated for
a few days past, remind me of my frailty and

 
316 FAILING HEALTH.

mortality. Am I to recover some strength,
and have comfortable health during the com-
ing year, or to find my infirmities increasing,
and perhaps be removed to the spirit world ?
Lord, thou knowest. Oh! forsake me not.
Give mea stronger faith in Christ, more fidel-
ity in thy service, more power to subdue my
sins, more meekness, more humility, and
self-denying benevolence in my family and in
all my intercourse with my fellow-men, and a
calm, quiet, secure and hopeful submission to
thy will.”

Thus did the noble soul, conscious that the
night was coming in which no man can work,
pray for an increase of that self-forgetful spirit
the brightness of which, like an aureole, had
made his whole life radiant.

What wonder that it was said of him, “ He
could not walk the length of Main Street with-
out doing some good, by word or act, to some
being, young or old;” and, “I presume it is
safe to say, that Mr. Gallaudet never rose in
the morning without having in his mind or on
his hands some extra duty of philanthropy
to perform—something beyond what attached
to him from his official or regular engage-
ments.” During the winter of 1850-51, and
the spring of the latter year, Mr. Gallaudet
 

 

LAST ILLNESS. * 317

discharged his ordinary duties with little inter-
ruption, and few of his friends were aware of
his gradually increasing feebleness. The
members of his family noticed that his step
was often languid and his spirits less buoyant
than was common. He was thinking of his
-usual summer trip for rest and recuperation,
when the extreme heat of the first week of
July prostrated both him and his wife with
severe attacks of dysentery. Mrs. Gallau-
det’s natural vigor helped her to a speedy
recovery. But it was otherwise with him.
After some weeks the disease seemed to have
left him, but his strength did not revive. The
effect of stimulants was only temporary.

But in all his weakness Mr. Gallaudet did
_ not forget the causes he had labored for in
the days of his strength. On the 27th of
August, two weeks before his death, a con-
vention of instructors of the deaf convened
in Hartford at the institution. It wasa great
disappointment to Mr. Gallaudet that he
could not meet his professional brethren on
this occasion, and he expressed his regret in
the following note, dictated to his son Thomas:

HARTFORD, August 28, 1851.
To the President, Officers and Members of the
Convention of those Interested in the Cause of the
318 UNABATED INTEREST IN THE DEAF,

Instruction of Deaf-mutes, now in Session in this
City:

GENTLEMEN :—With deep regret I perceive that
the state of my health is such as to prevent my
enjoying the pleasures and the privileges of partici-
pating with you in the objects of the convention.
Look to God for His wisdom and grace, and may it
be richly imparted to you. Accept the assurances
of my personal regard, and best wishes for your
success in your various operations.

Yours sincerely,

T. H. GALLAUDET.

Nor was he forgotten by his friends, for in
the convention a paper was read by Rev. W.
W. Turner, then a teacher in and afterwards
principal of the school in Hartford, on the
subject of a high school for the deaf, which
did not then exist, which closed as follows:

“Who will undertake this enterprise? This
is a difficult question, and one which we are
not prepared to answer. If the educated
mutes of our country were called upon to
make the selection, their eyes would turn to
him whom they have been accustomed to
regard in a peculiar sense as their father, and
the founder of institutions for their benefit in
this country. In confirmation of their choice
our eyes turn involuntarily to the chair which
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LAWS. — 319

he should have occupied on this occasion. To
this election of grateful hearts there comes
back no response. Our father, our teacher,
our guide, lies low and helpless upon the bed
of sickness, it may be upon the bed of death.
If his work is done, it has been well done;
and the name of Gallaudet will stand conspic-
uous and high upon the roll of fame among the
names of those who have been public benefac-
tors and friends of suffering humanity.”

Mr. Gallaudet had the gratification of know-
ing that he had been thus spoken of in the
house of his friends.

Another mark of appreciation came to him
not many days before his death, with which he
was pleased, though he had never sought or
even cared for such honors. The Western
Reserve College, in Ohio, recognizing his
important work as a promoter of education in
many forms, conferred on him the degree
of Doctor of Laws, and as the parchment lay
in his emaciated hand he remarked with an
amused twinkle in his eye: ‘It has come just
in time not to be too late.”

Through all his illness he was cheerful and
often jocose. He saw many of his friends—
too many, perhaps—but he could not bear to
have them refused admission. He was anx-
320 DEATH.

ious to recover, and expected to, up to within
a few days of his death. He had no fear of
what was to come after death, but he dreaded
the act of dying and often prayed that he
might pass off unconsciously. This prayer
was granted. On Sunday, the 7th of Septem-
ber, he felt the heat extremely, and during the
two following days he lay much of the time in
an unconscious state. About noon on Wed-
nesday, the roth, he told one of his daughters,
who was sitting by his bed, that he felt better.
Taking her hand he turned himself over and
said, ‘I will goto sleep.” In the quiet and
peaceful slumber which followed they

“Thought him sleeping when he died.”
CHAPTER XI.

Funeral, Tributes of Respect, Public Meeting and Eulogy by
Hon. Henry Barnard, LL. D.—Action of the Directors of
the Institution for the Deaf—Monument Erccted by the
Deaf of the United States—A Bronze Statue of Dr. Gallau-
det to be Erected at Washington by the Deaf of the Whole
Country in 1888,

T is not necessary to say that Dr. Gallau-
det’s death cast a gloom over the commu-
nity where he had so long lived.

His house was thronged by those who came
to proffer their sympathy to his wife and chil-
dren. Many stood at his gate weeping who
felt they had no right to intrude on the grief
of his family.

To his funeral, held in the South Congre-
gational Church,* there came a multitude of
loving mourners, from all ranks of society.

Appreciative mention was made of him in

 

*His own church, the Center, was at the time closed for
repairs.
322 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF RESPECT.

most of the churches of the city on the follow-
ing Sabbath.

A few days after his death a public esting
was held at the suggestion of thirty of the
principal citizens of Hartford, with a view of
devising measures for some public tribute of
respect to his memory.

This meeting was called to order by His
Excellency Thomas H. Seymour, then: gov-
ernor of the state, and organized by the ap-
pointment of Hon. Thomas Day, chairman,
and Luzerne Rae (a teacher: in the school for
the deaf), secretary.

The following preamble and resolutions
were presented by the Rev. William W. Tur-
ner, which, after brief remarks by the mover,
the Hon. Seth Terry, the Rev. Dr. Bushnell,

and others, were unanimously adopted :

Whereas, It having pleased Almighty God to re-
move by death the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet,
LL. D., aresident of Hartford for half a century, uni- -
versally known and not less universally beloved and
honored, both as a private citizen and public bene-
factor ;

Resolved, That, in the view of this meeting, the
occasion is one which demands a more public and
particular recognition than properly belongs to the
demise of an ordinary citizen.
RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT, 323

Resolved, That the whole character of the eminent
and excellent man whose death we mourn, com-
manding, as it did, our reverence and admiration
while he lived among us, will be long remembered
now that he is. dead, as a happy union of various
and often disunited qualities; of Christian faith and
philanthropic works; of liberality without laxity ;
of firmness without bigotry; of sympathy with the
vicious and criminal in their sufferings, without un-
due tenderness toward vice and crime; and as fur-
nishing in its whole development a beautiful proof
of the possibility of uniting the most vigorous de-
mands of conscience and of God, and of securing, at
the same time, the love and respect of all classes
and conditions of men.

Resolved, That, by the death of Dr. Gallaudet, so-
ciety has lost one of its brightest ornaments; the
cause of education a most able and faithful advo-
cate; religion a. shining example of daily devotion
to its principles; the young a kind and judicious
counselor; and the unfortunate of every class a
self-denying and. never wearying friend.

Resolved, That the noblest monuments of the de-
ceased are already erected ; and that his name will
- never be forgotten, so long as the two benevolent
‘institutions, one of which received its existence from

the labor of his early manhood, while the other en-
_joyed the devoted services of his later years, remain
to crown the beautiful hills in the neighborhood of
our city.
Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed
by this méeting, to devise such measures as may
324 PUBLIC MEETING.

seem expedient, in further tribute to the memory of
Dr. Gallaudet; and to make all ‘the arrangements
necessary to carry these measures into effect.

The committee, consisting of Governor Sey-
mour, B. Hudson, James H. Wells, Philip Rip-
ley, and Dr. John S. Butler, planned a public
meeting to be held in the South Congrega-
tional Church on the evening of January 7th,
1852, the chief feature of which was a eulogy
by Hon. Henry Barnard, LL.D.

The meeting was largely attended, and
original hymns were sung from the pens of
Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Luzerne Rae,
and Dr. Gallaudet.

Mrs. Sigourney and Mr. Rae pay tribute to
Dr. Gallaudet’s two great labors as follows :—

We mourn his loss

Who strove through nature’s prisoning shades
The hermit heart to reach,

And with philosophy divine
To give the silent, speech.

Who ’mid the cells of dire disease
In prayerful patience wrought,
And stricken and bewildered souls

To a Great Healer brought
FUNERAL HYMNS. 325

He dies, and still around his grave,

The silent sons of sorrow bend,

With tears for him they could not save,
Their guide—their father—and their friend;
And minds in ruin ask for him,

With wondering woe that he is gone;

And cheeks are pale, and eyes are dim
Among the outcast and forlorn.

The dirge had been written many years be-
fore by Dr. Gallaudet, with no thought of its
being sung in his own honor.

A paraphrase of Collins’ “ How Sleep the Brave.”

How sleep the good! who sink to rest,
With their Redeemer’s favor blest:
When dawns the day, by seers of old,
In sacred prophecy foretold,

Then they shall burst their humble sod,
And rise to meet their Saviuor—God.

To seats of bliss by angel tongue,

With rapture is their welcome sung ;
And at their tomb when evening gray
Hallows the hour of closing day,

Shall Faith and Hope awhile repair,

To dwell with weeping Friendship there.

Dr. Barnard’s eulogy was the tribute of a
loving friend, who had walked for many years
by the side of Dr. Gallaudet as a trusted
younger brother, and yet he spoke nothing
326 DR. BARNARD’S EULOGY.

more than was in the heart of every one who

heard him.

In forming, says Dr. Barnard, any just esti-
mate or analysis of Dr. Gallaudet’s character, we
must assign the first and prominent place to his re-
ligious views and habits. In his love to God and
love to man we are to find the hiding of his power
as a practical philanthropist.

The greatest service rendered by him as an edu-
cator and teacher—his highest claim to the gratitude
of all who are laboring to advance the cause of ed-
ucation in any grade or class of schools, is to be
found in his practical acknowledgment and able ad-
vocacy of the great fundamental truth, of the neces-
sity of special training, even for minds of the
highest order, as a pre-requisite of success in the
art of teaching. In view of this truth, he traversed
the ocean to make himself practically acquainted
with the principles and art of instructing the deaf
and dumb; to this end, he became a normal pupil
under the great normal teacher Sicard, in the great
normal school of deaf-mute instruction in Paris.
And still distrusting his own attainments, he thought
himself peculiarly fortunate in bringing back with
him to this country a teacher of still larger experience
than himself, and of an already acquired reputation.
He was ever the earnest advocate for training, under
able master-workmen in the business of education,
all who aspired to teach the young in any grade of
schools.
DR. BARNARD’S EULOGY. 327

His conversational powers were remarkable, and
he never failed to interest all who came into his so-
ciety. Toa command of language, at once simple
and felicitous, he added a stock of personal remin-
iscences drawn froma large acquaintance with the
best society in this country and in Europe—a quick
sense of the beautiful in nature, art, literature and
morals, a liveliness of manner, a ready use of all
that he had read or seen, and a real desire to make
others happy, which made his conversation always
entertaining and instructive. He was, besides, a
good listener, always deferential to old and young,
and could have patience even with the dull and
rude. With children he was eminently successful,
winning their confidence by his kind and benevolent
manner, and gaining their attention by the simplicity
and pertinency of his remarks. He seemed in so-
ciety, as in the world, to make it a matter of princi-
ple “to remember the forgotten,” and thus to draw
the old and the retiring into the circle of the regards
and attention of others.

He never spoke ill of any man, and could not lis-
ten, without exhibiting his impatience, to such
speaking in others, and never without suggesting a
charitable construction of motives, or the extenu-
ating circumstances of ignorance, or the force of
temptation. His sympathy and charity for the
erring, whether in conduct or opinion, were peculiar.

He was emphatically the friend of the poor and
the distressed. He did not muse on human misery,
but sought out its victims and did something for
their relief. There was a womanly tenderness in
328 DR. BARNARD'S EULOGY.

his nature, which was touched by the voice of sor-
row, whether it came from the hovel of the poor, or
the mansion of the rich. His benevolence was dis-
played not simply in bestowing alms, although his
own contributions were neither few nor small accord-
ing to his means—not simply as the judicious al-
moner of the bounty of others—not simply by
prayers earnest and appropriate in the hour of
mourning—but by the mode and the spirit in which
he discharged these several duties.

The least we can do to prove ourselves worthy
of possessing his name and example among the
moral treasures of our city and state, is to cherish
the family—the objects of his tenderest solicitude
and care—which he has left behind him; and by
some fit memorial to hold in fresh and everlasting
remembrance his deeds of beneficence to us and our
posterity forever. The ashes of such a man, in
whose character the sublimest Christian virtues
ceased to be abstractions, if his memory is properly
cherished, will, like the bones of the prophet, impart
life to all who come in contact therewith. The
youth of our city should be led, by some memorial
of our gratitude for his services, to study his life till
its beauty and spirit shall pass into their own souls,
and flow out afresh in their own acts of self-denying
beneficence.

These pages would be unduly burdened by
an attempt even to name the tributes of re-
spect which were shown to Dr. Gallaudet’s
TRIBUTES OF RESPECT. 329

memory in the journals of the day, by the
institutions and societies with which he had
been connected, and by personal friends in
many lands. For a very few only, can space
be taken.

Dr. Gallaudet’s associates in the manage-
ment of the institution for deaf-mutes speak
thus of him in the annual report issued a few
months after his death:

The society and its representatives, the members
of this board, the subscribers to our funds, the
parents and friends of deaf-mutes, the deaf
and dumb themselves, as they came to us, indeed
the community around us and individuals in all
parts of the country, regarded him as the central
power in a movement destined to effect great
good in the world; and which did, in fact, during
the remainder of his life, continue to increase in
magnitude and usefulness. As the institution
went forward and began to exhibit its appropriate
results, Dr. Gallaudet still occupied the central
position in its sphere of operations, and many
hearts were turned to him as in truth its animat-
ing principle, the chief source of its actual and
prospective prosperity. But when, after two or
three years, he became associated with us in a new
relation, as a member of this board, we too learned
to regard his views of education with even a
higher interest than ever before, and so have con-
33° TRIBUTES OF RESPECT.

tinued to look to him chiefly as the embodiment
of those views which ought to influence us in
directing the instruction, the government and gen-
eral internal affairs of the establishment, as well as
its relations with other institutions, with legislative
bodies and the cause of benevolence.

Dr. Harvey P. Peet, President of the New
York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at the
time of Dr. Gallaudet’s death, and who began
a long life of efficient labor for the deaf at his
side in the Hartford institution, speaks thus
of his early preceptor’s power as an instructor :

Asa teacher Dr. Gailaudet was mainly distin-
guished for the clearness and perspicacity with
which he could unfold even complex and elevated
ideas in pantomime, intelligible to the youngest and
dullest of his pupils. Even the particles, and
grammatical inflections of language, which so
much embarrass an ordinary teacher, acquired clear-
ness and significance in his signs; and this facility
led him to disregard regularity of method in intro-
ducing the difficulties of language to a greater
degree than less gifted teachers would find safe.
But it was in his religious lessons that his power
was most manifested. First of all teachers of the
deaf and dumb, he established for his pupils the
regular worship of God, including prayer, praise,
instruction, exhortation, in the only language which
can be made intelligible to the mass of an assembly
TRIBUTES OF RESPECT, 331

of deaf-mutes; the only language, also, which even
with well-educated deaf-mutes, goes most directly
to the understanding, the conscience, and the heart.
And the greatest triumph of his method was the
clearness with which he could unfold, to pupils of a
few weeks’ standing, the new and startling ideas of
immaterial existence, God and immortality.

A discriminating analysis of Dr Gallaudet’s
character and life-work appeared in The Chras-
tian Examiner, of July, 1852, from the pen of
the Rev. Joseph Harrington. A brief extract
only can be taken from this tribute:

We can not but feel, if our estimate thus far of the
character of this remarkable person be true, that in
him the spirit of the two commandments on which
Christ “hung all the law and the prophets” found
a beautiful realization.

We suppose the world would withhold from the
subject of these remarks the position of a “ great
man.” Yet to be classed with Oberlin, and Vincent
de Paul, and Clarkson, and Howard, and Tuckerman,
is a distinction of which few, certainly, are worthy.
In that company, however, is Dr. Gallaudet’s place.
In certain qualities of intellect he had no superior.
His judgment in practical affairs possessed the
accuracy of almost supernatural insight. When he
had once investigated a subject of this character,
little more remained to be discovered on the same
side. This sagacity was the result of his candor,
332 TRIBUTES OF RESPECT.

which enabled him to do justice to the objector’s
position; of his fidelity, which permitted him to
slight no work when once before him to be done;
of his power of continuous attention, which pre-
cluded the possibility of any part of the subject,
whether in its present relations or its probable issues,
eluding his scrutiny; and of his habit of applying
to these examinations the systematized fruits of his
“experience. We regard his style in writing as almost
faultless. It possessed the high charm of showing
itself the instrument of truth, not of him who held
the pen. What he wrote answered its end, in arrest-
ing attention and producing conviction.

The rich and the poor mourned his departure.
All sects rendered to his mortal remains the tribute
of their grief, and to his memory they render the
tribute of their reverence.

While many voices joined to honor Dr.
Gallaudet in eloquent words, the most touch-
ing and effective tribute of respect came from
those who were without voice among their
fellow-men, but whose minds had been set
free from the bondage of ignorance by him
who was now no more.

Republics may be ungrateful ; men with all
their faculties may be slow to do honor to
those by whom they have been blessed ; but -
not so were those whom “the finger of God
had touched.”
MONUMENT ERECTED BY THE DEAF. 333

Hardly had the remains of Dr. Gallaudet
been laid in the grave before the children of
silence, his grateful pupils, stirred in the mat-
ter of a permanent memorial of his philan-
thropy.

An association was formed with Mr. Clerc
as its president. Agents were appointed in
the several states of the Union to solicit sub-
scriptions,which were to come only from deaf-
mutes. An eminent deaf-mute artist of Phil-
adelphia, Mr. Albert Newsam, prepared the
design which was adopted. Another distin-
guished artist, Mr. John Carlin of New York,
also a deaf-mute, designed a sculptured group
for one of the panels.

The amount needed for the construction of
the monument was raised within two years,
and in September, 1854, just three years from
the date of Dr. Gallaudet’s death, the monu-
ment was unveiled with appropriate ceremo-
nies, on the grounds of the institution for
deaf-mutes in Hartford, in the presence of a
large concourse of citizens of Hartford, and
deaf-mutes from all parts of the United States,
Mr. Carlin, above referred to, being the orator
of the day.

The monument, resting ona base of Quincy
granite, is of marble, and a little more than
334 MONUMENT,

twenty feet high. The die consists of four
panels, one of which is the bas-relief designed
by Mr. Carlin, representing Dr. Gallaudet in
his school-room in the act of teaching, with
three pupils around him. The likeness of the
teacher is excellent. The opposite panel con-
tains the name Gallaudet in letters of the
manual alphabet, represented by sculptured
hands. On the other panels are inscriptions,
one giving the dates of Dr. Gallaudet’s birth
and death, the other being as follows:

ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF
REV. THOMAS HOPKINS GALLAUDET, LL.D.
BY THE DEAF AND DUMB
OF THE UNITED STATES,
AS A TESTIMONIAL
OF PROFOUND GRATITUDE
TO THEIR
EARLIEST AND BEST FRIEND
AND BENEFACTOR.

On the south side of the column, surrounded
by vadzz, is the Syriac word Ephphatha, spoken
by our Saviour when he caused the dumb man
to speak.

One who, though never a pupil of Dr.
Gallaudet’s, was one of the many who con-
tributed to rear the monument, added a per-
sonal tribute which will interest those who
MONUMENT. 335

have followed this narrative thus far. It was
published in the American Annals of the
Deaf in January, 1885.

THE GALLAUDET MONUMENT.
BY MARY TOLES PEET.

Raise we the marble here,
Where many a silent tear
Has dropped unbidden from the swimming eye ;
Join here in voiceless prayer,
And through the stilly air
Let our mute orisons ascend on high.

Here for long years he trod,
Leading our hearts to God,
A lowly, silent, and neglected band —
Here opened to our sight
The glories of that light,
Which streams from the blest star of Bethlehem.

No flaunting banners wave,
No pomp surrounds his grave,
No arch triumphal blazons forth his name;
More fitting pile we raise
For one whose brightest days
Were given to deeds worth a far nobler fame.

Plain monumental stone!
Whereon the summer’s sun
And autumn moonbeans silently will lie.
O’er thee soft gales of spring
. May float with unseen wing,
And mingle here with the mute pilgrim’s sigh.
336 STATUE TO BE ERECTED AT WASHINGTON.

And while we linger round
. This consecrated ground,
Perchance, as star-beams mirrored in the wave,
His spirit lingering near,
May be reflected here,
In silent hearts, inspiring works of love.

It would be natural to suppose that the
deaf-mutes of America, having thus promptly
erected a permanent memorial, in the form of
a monument to their benefactor, might con-
sider their duty discharged in such a direction.
This, however, has not been the case, andina
national convention of deaf-mutes held in
New York city in 1884, it was urged that a
national memorial, to be erected at the cap-
ital city, was due to a man whose life had
blessed the people of the whole country in so
many ways. It was accordingly resolved that
funds should be raised to provide for a bronze
statue of Dr. Gallaudet, to be placed on the
grounds of the National Deaf-Mute College
at Washington in the summer of 1888 — a few
months after the completion of one hundred
years since his birth. More thaneight thousand
dollars have been already secured for this
object, and it is probable the statue will be
unveiled at the time named.*

* A commission for the statue of Dr. Gallaudet has been
given to Daniel C, French of Concord, Mass.

 
TRIBUTE FROM DR. HUMPHREY. 337

He whose hand has written the foregoing
pages finds it difficult to bring his labor of
love to a close, and especially to lay down his
pen without opening his heart in that dutiful
homage which filial affection for such a father
would naturally call forth. But since this
privilege is denied him, it is with especial
pleasure that he can draw once more, as he
has several times done, on the work of his
father’s college classmate and life-long friend,
Rev. Dr. Humphrey, for fitting words with
which to close this little volume.

“Whether Dr. Gallaudet should be re-
garded as a great man, as well as one of the
most distinguished philanthropists, depends
upon the question in what true greatness con-
sists. The term admits of more than one
meaning. The deepest channel is not the
greatest river. There may be as much water,
or more, in one that spreads itself out over a
wide surface, and laves the shores of many
beautiful islands, and irrigates all the mead-
ows in its leisurely overflowings, as in the
deep, impetuous torrent, that struggles and
foams in the rapids, and shakes the earth with
its muffled thunder as it leaps headlong
over the precipice. So there may be as much
talent in a man who spreads himself out over
338 TRIBUTE FROM DR. HUMPHREY.

a wide surface, and cheers and refreshes suf-
fering humanity by his personal ministrations,
and puts in motion a thousand springs of be-
nevolent enterprise, as in a man who concen-
trates the powers of his mind upon one object,
moves on in one beaten path, and reaches any
of the high pinnacles of human renown. Be-
cause he excels all his contemporaries in that
one thing, the popular notion and verdict is,
that he is the greatest man; when those
whom he looks down upon might, perhaps,
even have eclipsed him by a like concentra-
tion of their powers, but, by throwing them-
selves into the wide current of human suffer-
ings to be mitigated, and human interests to
be promoted, have done infinitely more good.

“We are not anxious to enroll the name of
Gallaudet with those whom the world de-
lights to honor. It would be a low ambition
in his friends, and the thousands who have
been blessed by his philanthropic labors, his
wise counsels, and the ripe fruits of the talents
and attainments which he has bequeathed to
the young in his writings. In the best sense
of the term he was a great man. He had tal-
ents of a high order. He could have placed
himself in the first rank of living mathema-
ticians; he could have made himself a re- ~
TRIBUTE FROM DR. HUMPHREY. 339

nowned linguist ; he could have taken a high
rank with the best preachers of his day. In
other departments of the higher calendars of hu-
man attainments, he might have distinguished
himself had he chosen. But his mission was
to the sons and daughters of affliction; to the
‘deaf and the dumb; to the insane; and to the
children of every class, who have been
charmed, and will be charmed and instructed
by his juvenile publications. Ifto be an emi-
nent benefactor of the most unfortunate and
neglected of his race is to be great, then was
Thomas H. Gallaudet a great man. But no
matter. He was a good man, with a great,
overflowing heart. His philanthropy was no
spring freshet, to be dried up in the summer,
but a perennial fountain, always refreshing
whenever the stream flowed. He was a good
man—full of faith, abounding in charity and
good works, and his record is on high.”

THE END.