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SKETCH 
 
 OF THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 
 HON. JAMES HILLHOUSE 
 
 OF NEW HAVEN. 
 
 BT 
 
 Rev. LEONARD BACON, D. D. 
 
 ii 
 
 (From Baknahd's American Journal of Education.) 
 
 NEW HAVEN. 
 
 1860. 
 
^#^ 
 

 "JAMES HILLHOUSE,. 
 
 THE STATESMAN, THE PATRIOT, THE CHRISTIAN, 
 
 BORN OCT. 2], 1754, 
 
 DIED DEC. 29, 1832. 
 
 HE LIVES IN THE AFFECTIONS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN, 
 AND HIS DEEDS ARE HIS MONUMENT." 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSE 
 
 James HillHouse, the indefatigable "nursing father," and 
 administrator of the School Fund of Connecticut, for fifty years 
 treasurer of Yale College, and throughout a long and eventful 
 life a beautiful, example of the public spirited citizen in a repub- 
 lic, was born on the 20th of October, 1754, in Montville. 
 
 The name of Hillhouse is that of an ancient and honorable 
 family in the North of Ireland. More than two hundred years 
 ago, the family seats, with estates valued at more than two thou- 
 sand pounds sterling yearly, were on the shores of Lough Foyle, 
 near Londonderry ; and though the name has therebecome extinct, 
 the ancient estates, particularly Artikelly and Free Hall, are still 
 held by descendants of the family in the female line. 
 
 Early in the last century, the Rev. James Hillhouse came to 
 New England. His father, John Hillhouse, of Free Hall, was 
 the eldest son of Abraham Hillhouse, who resided at Artikelly.* 
 He " had his education, and commenced Master of Arts at the 
 famous university of Glasgow, in Scotland ; and afterward read 
 Divinity at the said college under the care of Mr. Simson, then 
 professor of Divinity there." He was ordained by the Presbytery 
 of Londonderry, in Ireland, and appears to have resided at or near 
 the ancestral home till, by the death of his father in 1716, the 
 estate descended to his elder brother Abraham. His mother died 
 a fe.w months later, in January, 1717. Not long after that date 
 he came to seek a home on this side of the Atlantic. He is sup- 
 posed to have come with those other Presbyterian emigrants from 
 the North of Ireland, who, in 1719, established themselves in New 
 Hampshire, where the towns of Derry and Londonderry, and the 
 
 * The name of Hillhouse is connected with the memorable defence of Deny 
 against the forces of James 11. James Hillhouse, a brother of John, was one of 
 the commissioners to treat with Lord Mountjoy, and was Mayor of Londonderry 
 in 1693. Abraham Hillhouse was among the signers of an address to King Wil- 
 liam and Queen Mary, on the ''occasion of the relief of the siege of Londonderry, 
 dated 29th July, 1669. 
 
6 ' .>'■;,„•'.?'; .l-^MES KILLHOUSE. 
 
 Londonderry Presbytery, as well as many Scotch-Irish family 
 names, are the permanent memorials of that migration. At the 
 close of the year 1720, we find him in Boston cotnmitting to the 
 press a " sernion" which he had composed, nearly four years be- 
 fore, on the occasion of his mother's death, but which does not 
 purport to have been preached. This work (for though entitled a 
 sermon, it is more properly a treatise in a volume of more than 
 one hundred and forty pages,) was introduced to the reader in a 
 preface from Increase and Cotton Mather, who speak of the author 
 as " a valuable minister," and again as " a worthy, hopeful young 
 minister" "lately arrived in America." He found employment 
 in the newly instituted second parish of New London, in Connec- 
 ticut, (now the town of Montville) and in 1722 was duly inducted 
 into the office of pastor in the church there. At that place he 
 died in 1740, aged 53. 
 
 The wife of the Rev. James Hillhouse was Mary, the daughter 
 of Daniel Fitch, and was descended from ancestors eminent in the 
 earliest history of Connecticut. Her paternal grandfather was the 
 Rev. James Fitch, who came from England at the age of sixteen 
 years, in 1638, and having received his education for the ministry 
 under the teaching of Hooker and Stone, in the church at Hart- 
 ford, was pastor of the church in Saybrook at its institution in 
 1646. Fourteen years afterward, he removed with the body of 
 his people to begin the settlement of Norwich, where he served 
 many years highly honored, not only by his own church, but in 
 the colony at large. Her father's mother was Priscilla Mason, a 
 daughter of Captain John Mason, the military chief of the colo- 
 nists on the Connecticut, and the hero of the Pequot war in 1637, 
 — a man distinguished by almost every trust which the young 
 republic could bestow. That she was endowed by nature with 
 superior mental gifts, and was a thoroughly educated woman, not- 
 withstanding the limited advantages for female education in her 
 day, is not a mere tradition, but is sufficiently attested by letters 
 of hers which are still preserved among her descendants. 
 
 In the first generation of descendants from the pastor of Mont- 
 ville, the nanoe of Hillhouse was borne only by his two sons, 
 William, and James Abrahann. The first wa^ born in 1728. He 
 lived and died on the paternal estate at Montville, greatly trusted 
 and honored by his fellow citizens. When he was twenty-two 
 years of age he married Sarah Griswold, who was a sister of the 
 first Governor Griswold. At the age of twenty -seven he repre- 
 sented his native town of New London in the legislature of what 
 
JAMES HII.LHOUSE. 7 
 
 was then His Majesty's colony of Connecticut. He was continued 
 in that trust by semi-annual elections, till, (in 1785) having become 
 honorably known throughout the state, he was chosen an Assist- 
 ant, or member of the Council, then commonly called " the Upper 
 House."* Thus he served in one hundred and six semi-annual 
 legislatures. Meanwhile he was also for many years a judge of 
 the County Court. Nor did his civil dignities and duties excuse 
 him from military service. He was major in the second regiment 
 of cavalry raised by Connecticut for service in the war of the 
 revolution. At the age of eighty, in the full possession of his 
 powers, he declined a reelection to the Council, and withdrew from 
 public life. Even to that advanced age his semi-annual journey 
 to Hartford and New Haven was performed on horseback and in 
 a single day, wheeled carriages being too new a fashion for a man 
 like him. He was tall, spare, swarthy, with heavy overhanging 
 eye-brows, quaint in speech, and remarkable for a primitive sim- 
 plicity of manners, combined with an impressive dignity. He 
 died at Montville in 1816, leaving a numerous posterity. Six of 
 his seven sons, and two of his three daughters lived to maturity, 
 and most of them to old age. 
 
 His brother, James Abraham Hillhouse, was born in 1730, was 
 educated at Yale College, where he graduated in 1749, and was 
 appointed tutor one year afterwards. A colleague and intimate 
 friend of Ezra Stiles (afterwards President Stiles) he devoted him- 
 self, with tbat enthusiastic scholar, to. legal studies ; and when, 
 after six years of service, he relinquished his academic employ- 
 ment, he established himself at New Haven in the profession of 
 law. He was soon distinguished at the bar by his forensic abili- 
 ities as well as by his learning. He was eminent among his fel- 
 low citizens, and was honored by their confidence. In 1772 he 
 was elected one of the twelve " Assistants" who with the Governor 
 and Lieutenant-Governor, were the Council or senate ; for, charac- 
 terized as he was by the combination of undoubted patriotism with 
 modefatian and political wisdom, he was one of those men who 
 are most needed in a state at the crisis of an impending revolu- 
 tion. Three years afterwards, at the noon of life, being only 
 forty-six years of age, he was removed by death, leaving a name 
 
 * At Governor Trumbull's retirement from the public service, William Hillhouse 
 was chosen to fill the vacancy at the council-board which had been caused by the 
 promotion of his brother-in-law, Matthew Griswold, to the office of Governor, 
 and of Samuel Huntington to the office of Lieutenant Governor. 
 
8 JAMES HIJ^LHOUSE, 
 
 that was long retained in a most affectionate remembrance among 
 his townsmen. " His christian life and conversation were truly 
 exemplary, and he was adorned with the graces of meekness, char- 
 ity and humility." His wife, a lady of French descent, whose 
 grandfather fled to this country at the revocation of the edict of 
 Nantz, was distinguished by dignity of manners, as well as by 
 substantial worth of mind and heart. She survived him almost 
 half a century, and died in 1822 at the age of 89. 
 
 Of these two brothers, the younger was childless. His mansion, 
 built by himself at the head of Church street, one of the best 
 houses in New Haven at that day, and his growing possessions, 
 ■were without a lineal heir. 
 
 James Hillhouse, the second son of William Hillhouse, of 
 Montville, was adopted into the family of his uncle at New Haven. 
 He was born on the 20th of October, 1754, and was removed from 
 his father's house to his uncle's, when he was only seven years old. 
 By this change in his domestic relations, he was placed as an only 
 child, the pride and hope of his adopted father, in a family where 
 intelligence, hospitality, courtesy, large intercourse with the best 
 society, a constant example of every manly and honorable quality, 
 and a careful religious nurture after the ancient pattern, were 
 united in the influences by which his character was molded. In 
 his early education he was one of the many thousand who have 
 had the benefits of the memorable endowment which Governor 
 Hopkins, in hiis testamentary remembrance of New England, had 
 provided a century before, and which has now sustained for two 
 hundred years the Grammar Schools of New Haven, Hartford, 
 and Hadley. While he was a student in Yale College, (from 1769 
 to 1773) the Faculty consisted of the Rev. Dr. Daggett, professor 
 of Divinity and acting President, — Nehemiah Strong, professor of 
 Mathematics and Natural Philosophy,— and three tutors. It is sug- 
 gestive to trace on the triennial catalogue the names of the men 
 who successively officiated as tutors during that period of four 
 years. For the first year the three tutors were Ebenezer Bald- 
 win, Joseph Howe, and Samuel Wales. The next year, Joseph 
 Lyman and Buckingham St. John occupied the places of Baldwin 
 and Wales. A year later, when Hillhouse was a junior sophister, 
 John Trumbull and Timothy Dwight succeeded to Lyman and 
 -St. John ; and in the last year of the four, Nathan Strong came in 
 the place of Howe. The tutor under whose immediate care and 
 instruction Hillhouse pursued Jjis studies for the first three years, 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSE. 9 
 
 was Joseph Howe, afterwards pastor of the New South Church in 
 Boston, whom he always remembered with a grateful reverence.* 
 
 One incident of his college life may be recited here in the 
 words in which it was narrated, more than half a century after- 
 wards, at his funeral : " It will not be improper to say — especially 
 as the fact may produce a salutary impression on some young 
 mind in this assembly — that he was somewhat advanced in college 
 life before he became properly conscious of his powers or of the 
 worth of time, or practically convinced of the importance of that 
 close application to whatever was in hand, by which he was after- 
 wards so distinguished. The late President Dwight, who was then 
 in college as a tutor, though not his tutor, had noticed him with 
 interest, and, with the discernment of youthful character which 
 qualified the illustrious president to be the greatest teacher of his 
 age, had seen in him the elements of future greatness; and he, by one 
 well-timed, spirited, affectionate admonition and appeal, roused the 
 man in the bosom of the unthinking stripling, and gave the coun- 
 try a patriot and a sage. To that incident our honored friend often 
 referred in after life with, grateful emotion, and from that hour he 
 regarded his benefactor with veneration." 
 
 It was almost a matter of course that he was destined to the pro- 
 fession in which his uncle had become so eminent. He began his 
 reading in the science of law soon after leaving college ; and it 
 was intended that, before entering on the practice of his profession, 
 he should devote several years to those studies, and should have 
 the benefit of the highest advantages. But on the 6th of October, 
 1775, only two years after the completion of his college course, 
 the life on which that plan of study depended, was cut off. By 
 the death of his uncle he was suddenly brought under the neces- 
 sity of directing his own course and of providing for himself. 
 Thenceforward all his success in life was dependent on his own 
 exertions. He had still, indeed, a home in his uncle's family, 
 which consisted of the widow and her mother and grandmother. 
 To a family thus constituted, he was bound not only by grateful 
 
 * Rev. Joseph Howe, pastor of the New South Church in Boston, died at Hart- 
 ford, Aug. 20, 1775. Pres. Stiles makes a record of this event in his Literary 
 Diary, and adds, apparently from some publication of the day: " The righteous 
 disposer of events was pleased to remove him from the labors of the present life, 
 soon after he had engaged the public eye and given the world reason to expect 
 much from his eminent abilities, his great attainments in literature, and the un- 
 common goodness of his heart. His church, now scattered abroad by an exertion 
 of lawless power, are overwhelmed with sorrow." The further information is 
 given, that after his first dejgree he taught a Grammar School iu Hartford, 
 
IQ ^AMES HILLHOUSB. 
 
 affection but by the consideration of their dependence upon him. 
 As soon as he could be admitted to the bar, he began the practice 
 of his chosen profession, and was successful in obtaining some 
 part of bis uncle's extensive business ; but in his later years he 
 loved to speak of his early struggles, and sometimes said that he 
 was compelled to borrow money for the payment of his first court- 
 fees. He inherited no part of his uncle's property till he was 
 nearly seventy years of age. Yet in a few years, by his diligence 
 and success in his profession, and by the judiciousness of his in. 
 vestments in real estate, he had become a man of wealth. 
 
 In his twenty-fourth year, on the first of January, 1779, he was 
 united in marriage with Sarah, daughter of John Lloyd, Esq., of 
 Stamford. But before that new year had ended, his young wife 
 and the infant she had borne him, were laid in the grave. 
 About three years afterwards he married Rebecca, daughter of Col. 
 Melancthon Woolsey, of Dosoris, Long Island. Till after his second 
 marriage, he continued to reside with the widow of his deceased un- 
 cle. Afterwards, when the growth of his own family required a sep- 
 arate home for them, he established his residence in close proximity 
 to the mansion that had sheltered his childhood ; and till the death 
 of his aged relative, nothing that the tenderest filial kindness could 
 do for her was wanting on his part. By his second marriage he 
 had two sons and three daughters. The sons were James A. Hill- 
 house, the poet, and Augustus L. Hillhouse, Esq., who still sur- 
 vives at Paris, where he has resided for more than forty years. 
 Mrs. Hillhouse died on the 29th of December, 1813, and was 
 buried on the new-year's day ensuing. That day was selected for 
 the funeral by her husband's choice because it was the thirty-fifth 
 anniversary of his first marriage. 
 
 Much more might be said concerning his domestic life, but this 
 memoir is designed to exhibit his public services and his character 
 as a citizen and a benefactor of the state, rather than those details 
 of personal experience which cannot be adequately represented in 
 any other way than by a liberal use of materials which the sensi- 
 tiveness of family affection still keeps back from the public. Per- 
 haps the time may come when his private correspondence with his 
 family, and with his intimate friends, will be added to the already 
 accumulated mass of the published letters which exhibit the great 
 men of our revolutionary period in their private friendships and 
 personal sympathies or antipathies, and in their domestic affections 
 and vicissitudes. For our present purpose, it may be enough to 
 say that his was a happy home, where a large and hearty hospl. 
 
JAMES niLLHOUSE 11 
 
 tality flourished after the fashion of what has now become the 
 olden time, and where the dignity without the stiiTnese of antique 
 New England courtesy was combined with a true and affectionate 
 simplicity of manners, and with eminent intelligence and refine- 
 
 ment. 
 
 Passing from youth to manhood just when the great struggle for 
 independence was about to commence, James Hill house shared 
 largely in the patriotic enthusiasm of the time. Before he was of 
 acre, he was hitidered from joining his townsnf>an, Benedict Arnold, 
 in the memorable expedition of 1775, only by a positive prohibi- 
 tion from his uncle. The death of that relative, in the autumn of 
 the same year, threw upon him, as we have seen, new and heavy 
 responsibilities quite inconsistent with his military aspirations. 
 But in those times every man had opportunity to show what- 
 ever capability he might have of military skill and prowess. 
 When every man from eighteen years of age to forty-five was 
 enrolled in the militia and required to do military duty, and wh&n 
 every militia company was constantly liable to be summoned into 
 active service, a commission in the militia had more significance 
 than it can have in times like these. In 1779, James Hillhouse 
 was Captain Hillhouse of the Company of Governor's Foot Guards. 
 Congress, after conferring with General Washington on the condition 
 and constitution of the army, made a new arrangement, requir- 
 ing each separate State to raise its own definite quota of recruits 
 for the continental service, and ofTerinej, through the State, large 
 bounties in lands and money to encourage enlistments. The 
 legislature of Connecticut had determined to offer additional boun- 
 ties and new guarantees against the depreciation of the currency, 
 and had made special provision for the families of soldiers in the 
 army. Captain Hillhouse was specially entrusted by Governor 
 Trumbull with the duty of promoting enlistments in one of the 
 brigades. A stirring appeal from liim, inviting enlistments, and 
 calling on "all friends to American freedom" for their patriotic 
 cooperation in promoting the object, was published in the New 
 Haven newspaper of June 23d, 1779.* 
 
 * We transcribe the address at length from the Connecticut Journal of the 
 above named date. 
 
 ALL FRIENDS TO AMEBICAN FREEDOM. 
 
 The period is now come, when (in all probability) we may, with proper exer- 
 tions, put a speedy termination to the war. And nothing is more necessary to 
 bring about so desirable an event, than furnishing a competent number of men for 
 the field. The encouragement for soldiers to enlist is truly great, and the oflfers 
 
1^ JAMBS HILLHOUSE. 
 
 A few days afterwards, on Monday, July 5th, the Anniversary 
 of the Declaration of Independence was to be celebrated for the 
 first time in New Haven. Captain Hillhouse was among the most 
 active in making the arrangements and preparations for that occa- 
 sion. Sunday evening — for the New England sabbath was then 
 measured from sunset to sunset— there was a public assembly of 
 citizens in the meetmg-house of the First Church, (the old " Middle 
 Brick") and the programme of the intended celebration was comple- 
 ted. Some of the more zealous and active were occupied till a late 
 
 generous. The time of service will most likely be short ; they are to suffer noth- 
 ing by the depreciation of currency ; their families are to be supplied with the 
 substantial of life at the oldjprice ; the army are well clothed, and provided with 
 everything necessary and convenient ; and at the end of the war they are to re- 
 ceive a handsome reward for their services. I am sensible our internal foes, our 
 worst enemies, will throw every discouragement in the way,— will tell you that 
 our money is almost run out, and that we must inevitably submit. But you may 
 be assured that no exertions will be wanting on the part of the United States to 
 disappoint their expectations. And I am confident that should it ever be our 
 misfortune to experience such a calamity, the free-born sons of America would 
 arm themselves and go forth, Avithout hire or reward, against our enemies, and 
 never lay down their arms till they had driven every invader from our land. 
 Never have the Americans been animated with a becoming spirit, but the}' have 
 been successful. No sooner were our Southern Brethren roused to proper exer- 
 tions, than they defeated the troops, sent upon an expedition, from the success of 
 which our enemies have made such pompous boasts, and have driven them off 
 loaded with infamy and disgrace. 
 
 His Excellency, the Governor, has directed me to enlist all within this brigade 
 who shall be so nobly and virtuously inclined. Tt being a matter of public con- 
 cern, I beg every individual will use his influence to encourage a competent num- 
 ber to enlist, as it will save the disagreeable necessity of a draught: And volun- 
 tary enlistment is certainly much the most eligible, as it will convince our ene- 
 mies we have not yet lost our spirits, and will fill our brethren, already in the 
 field, with new life and courage to find ns ready with cheerfuLaess to lend them 
 our aid. 
 
 Lest there should be any who cannot engage upon the above terms, for fear the 
 war may chance to continue longer than they think they can possibly absent 
 themselves from their families and farms, I am authorized by his Excellency 
 to offer those who will engage to serve in said army until the fifteenth day of Jan- 
 uary next, twenty pounds bounty, a new regimental coat, and the same pay, re- 
 freshment, and family support, during the term of their services respectively as 
 other soldiers in the Continental army, with liberty to choose the company in 
 which they will be joined. And who is there that will deprive himself of the 
 pleasure and satisfaction he would derive through his whole life, from reflecting 
 upon his having served a campaign in so important a period of the war. I hereby 
 invite all, and shall make the off"er to as many as possible, to engage befo/e the 
 10th day of July next, when I am to make return to his Excellency. Those who 
 incline to accept, will, by making application, receive their bounty in bills, and 
 be kindly treated by their most obedient and humble servant, 
 
 JAMES HILLHOUSE. 
 
 New Haven, June 21, 1779. 
 
JAMES HILLH0U3E. 1 3 
 
 hour in making preparations. They could not have had much 
 time for sleep, when at two o'clock in the morning of that day 
 a British fleet, which had sailed from New York on Saturday, 
 anchored off West- Haven. Alarm guns were fired, and the mili- 
 tia were called to arms. A portion of the inhabitants made haste 
 to remove their families, and whatever of their household goods 
 was most valuable. Others were slow to believe that any great 
 danger was impending, and flattered themselves with the hope 
 that the fleet would sail in the morning. But not long after sun- 
 rise, those who were watching with a telescope on the tower of the 
 college chapel, (the building now known as the Athenaeum) saw 
 distinctly boats putting off from the shipping for the shore, and 
 there was no longer room for the most incredulous or the most 
 hopeful to doubt what were the intentions of the enemy. Of the 
 adult male population, a large portion armed themselves and went 
 forth to meet the invaders. Another portion left the town with 
 those of the women and children who were removed to places of 
 safety. Others, to the number of ninety or a hundred, remained 
 at home, " partly tories, partly timid whigs," as President Stiles 
 describes them. The land force designed for the destruction of 
 New Haven was two thousand six hundred men, as officially re- 
 ported. One division, under the command of Gen. Garth, was 
 landed, and as soon as that operation was completed the fleet sailed 
 to the other side of the harbor, where the landing of the other' 
 division, under the immediate command of Gen. Tryon; was 
 speedily effected. The inhabitants of East Haven and the adjoin- 
 ing towns found occupation for Gen. Tryon and his troops, while 
 the available force of New Haven, amounting to not more than 
 two hundred men, with two field pieces, went out to encounter 
 Gen. Garth. Hezekiah Sabin, who was a lieutenant colonel in 
 the militia, seems to have been the recognized commander of the 
 little force extemporaneously raised. The two pieces of artillery 
 were stationed at West Bridge, where some slight defences were 
 hastily raised in a position to com.mand not only the bridge but the 
 long causeway by which it is approached from the west. " Cap- 
 tain Hillhouse," says President Stiles, " with twenty or thirty brave 
 young men, together with many others, crossed the bridge over to 
 Milford Hill, and within a hundred yards or a quarter of a mile 
 of the [West Haven] meeting house, where the enemy were pa- 
 raded. Upon their beginning the march. Captain Hillhouse fired 
 upon the advanced guard so as to drive them in upon the main 
 body. But coming-in force, the enemy proceeded. Others be. 
 
14 JAMES HILLHOUSE. 
 
 sides Hillhouse's party had by this time passsd the bridge and 
 reached the hill, to perhaps one hundred and fifty men. These 
 kept up a galling fire on especially their outguards extending per- 
 haps forty or fifty rods on each side the column.* Our artillery 
 at the bridge was well managed by Captain [Phineas] Bradley, 
 threw shot successfully across to Mil ford Hill, and prevented the 
 enemy from passing the causeway and so into town that way." 
 Thus baffled at that point the enemy continued their march north- 
 ward to what is now the Westville Bridge, annoyed and harassed 
 on their march by a party of the New Haven men on their left 
 under the leadership of Aaron Burr, who happened to be with 
 some of his relatives in New Haven at that time, and who after 
 carrying a young daughter of his uncle, Pierpont Edwards,f to a 
 place of safety in North Haven, had returned in time to partake 
 in the fight. Meanwhile Captain Hillhouse and the remainder of 
 the little force on Milford Hill returned over West fridge, and 
 with Col. Sabin and the two field pieces went across the fields to 
 meet the enemy at the Westville Bridge. There the enemy effected 
 
 * It was " at the second mile-stone," just where the road to West Haven di- 
 verges from the Milford road, that the Rev. Dr. Daggett, Professor of Divinity in 
 Yale College, (and the acting President for nine years before the accession of Dr. 
 Stiles) encoimtered the enemy. He had come from the town "riding furiously 
 on his old black mare, with his long fowling piece in his hand." At the bridge 
 he had addressed a few "patriotic and earnest words" to the little company that 
 was to serve the artillery. Rushing by the company of young men under 
 Capt. Hillhouse, several of them students, he was greeted with cheers. As they 
 turned southward toward West Haven, they saw him ascending a little to the 
 west, and taking his station deliberately in a little copse of woods. When the 
 young men, having driven back the advanced guard and encountered the main 
 body of the enemy, were making their hasty retreat to regain the other side of the 
 river, the professor, who never had learned to " advance backward," kept his sta- 
 tion with characteristic fearlessness and tenacity, waiting for the enemy. As the 
 British column came up, several successive shots from the hill side arrested their 
 attention, and the sturdy form of the professor in his clerical costume was easily 
 discovered by the party sent to the spot whence the firing proceeded. " What are 
 you doing there, you old fool, firing on His Majesty's troops?" was the exclama- 
 tion of the officer. " Exercising the rights of war,'''' replied the professor. The 
 oddity of such an answer, proceeding from such a person, probably arrested the 
 shot or the bayonet that might have killed him on the instant ; and the question 
 was put whether, if his life was spared, he would be likely ever to do such a 
 thing again. " Nothing more li'kely,'''' said he, " I rather think I should.'''' He was 
 permitted to surrender himself; but was cruelly pierced with bayonets, and driven 
 at the head of their column till they reached the town. For a month afterwards 
 his life was in danger from the wounds and injuries which he had received, and 
 indeed, his death, which took place in the following year, was hastened by those 
 sufterings. See the article^ on Prof. Daggett in Dr. Sprague's Annals of the 
 American Pulpit, Vol. I. 
 
 t The late Mrs. Johnson, of Stratford. 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSE. 15 
 
 their passage, partly over the bridge and partly by fording the 
 river. But as they came up the hill from the river, and took the 
 road towards the town, the force commanded by Col. Sabin and 
 Captain Hillhouse, " gave them a heavy fire and took a number 
 of prisoners." By this time, too, they began to be annoyed by 
 parties of militia from Derby and other towns. The New Haven 
 men kept up their firing as they retreated toward their homes. 
 Just at the entrance of the town as it then was, near virhere the 
 junction of Dixwell street and Whalley avenue now is, there was 
 something like a battle for a little while, and a number were killed 
 on both sides. The enemy entered the town at a little before one 
 o'clock p. m., greatly exhausted with the extreme heat of the day 
 as well as with their long march and the annoyances they had met 
 by the way. 
 
 This bold defense of New Haven against a force so greatly 
 superior, answered its main purpose. It gave time not only for 
 the escape of a large portion of the alarmed defenseless popula- 
 tion, but also for the removal and concealment of much property 
 that would otherwise have been destroyed or carried off by the 
 enemy ; and it saved the town from the fate which immediately 
 afterwards fell upon Fairfield and Norwalk. " From the first en- 
 trance till eight in the evening, the town was given up to ravage 
 and plunder, from which only a few houses were protected." Mrs. 
 Hillhouse, the widow of James Abraham Hillhouse, was a mem- 
 ber of the Church of England, and her political sympathies were 
 with the British. Hers, therefore, was one of the few houses to 
 be protected from pillage. Some of the British officers were 
 quartered there, and were received with the courtesy due to men 
 who bore His Majesty's commission. Yet the loyal lady was in 
 great danger from the imputation of her nephew's patriotism. It 
 happened that the newspaper containing Captain Hillhouse's patri- . 
 otic call for recruits came under the notice of the officers almost 
 as soon as they entered the house which was to be protected for its 
 loyalty. The house and its contents would have been immediately 
 given up to the plundering soldiers, had not the lady, with a dig- 
 nified frankness which repelled suspicion, informed her guests that 
 though the young man whose name was subscribed to that call 
 was a near and valued relative of hers, and was actually resident 
 under that roof, the property was entirely her own ; and that the 
 part which he had taken in the conflict with Great Britain, was 
 taken not only on his own responsibility, but in opposition to her 
 judgment and her sympathies. 
 
IQ JAMES H1LLU0US6. 
 
 Gen. Tryon's official report shows that the conflagration of the 
 town was intended, and that the purpose was relinquished because 
 it became necessary to hasten the re-embarkation of the troops. 
 The intended junction of the division which landed on the East 
 Haven side with that which landed at West Haven, could not be 
 effected. Squads and companies of militia from the neighboring 
 towns were beginning to gather on every side like angry clouds 
 portending a tempest. The invaders found themselves in a dan- 
 gerous position ; and at the earliest morning hour they called in 
 their guards, and were glad to find that they were permitted to 
 embark without molestation. The result of iheir expedition was 
 that they had killed twenty-seven Americans, (including those who 
 were slain in their own houses) and had wounded nineteen, while 
 they themselves had lost about eighty in killed and wounded ; that 
 they had carried away some tories who dared not stay behind, and 
 a few prisoners (including some whose only offense was that they 
 were respected and trusted by their fellow-citizens) ; that they had 
 destroyed about seventy thousand dollars worth of private pro- 
 perty ; and that they had effectually extirpated whatever sentiment 
 of loyalty toward the British crown had lingered till then among 
 the more conservative sort of people. 
 
 In May, 1780, the roll of the House of Representatives in the 
 State legislature shows the name of "Captain James Hillhouse" as 
 the second representative from the town of New Haven. The 
 next year he was first representative ; and thenceforward he was 
 frequently reelected by his townsmen to this trust, till the people 
 of the whole State in 1789 called him to a seat in the Council. In 
 1786, and again in 1787, he was elected by the people at large a 
 delegate to the Congress of the old confederation ; but he did not 
 serve in that capacity. It is believed that no other instance can be 
 found in which so young a man has been so trusted and honored 
 by the people of Connecticut. 
 
 In 1782, he was elected Treasurer of Yale College, and he held 
 that office through all the remainder of his life, just fifty years. 
 Nor did it become to him a merely honorary office, when other 
 public trusts and duties required him to be absent from New Haven 
 for a large part of every year. An Assistant Treasurer was 
 employed by the corporation to relieve him of the executive details 
 of the business; but he himself, through all that long term of ser. 
 vice, superintended the finances of the institution, and was ever 
 active and watchful to promote its interests. He loved it not only 
 because of his personal relation to it as an alumnus, but also be- 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSE. 1 7 
 
 cause, in his estimation, its continued efficiency and the enlarge- 
 ment of its means of usefulness were essential to the welfare and 
 the political and social advancement of his native Connecticut. 
 Few names in the history of Yale College are more worthy than 
 his to be had in perpetual and grateful remenibrance. 
 
 In October, 1790, Mr. Hillhouse was elected one of the five rep- 
 resentatives from Connecticut in the second Congress of the United 
 States. His colleagues in the representation were Jonathan Stur- 
 ges, Jonathan Trumbull, Jeremiah Wadsworth, and Amasa 
 Learned. The published diebates (see Benton's Abridg::ment) give 
 ample evidence of his activity and influence as a member of the 
 House of Representatives. Many important questions in relation 
 to the working of the government under the Federal Constitution 
 were to be considered and decided ; for though the first Congress, 
 in its three laborious sessions, had organized the judiciary and the 
 various departments of executive administration, had provided a 
 revenue for the Federal treasury, had re-established the public 
 credit, had enacted a rule of naturalization, had made the neces- 
 sary regulations for the sale and settlement of the public lands, 
 and by the wisdom of their measures had secured for the new gov- 
 ernment the widest confidence in its stability and efficiency, there 
 remained other great questions incidental to the newness of the 
 constitution. We find Mr. Hillhouse taking part in almost every 
 great debate ;" and his speeches show not only his ability as a de- 
 bater, but his blunt and fearless honesty, his unfailing good humor, 
 and his sagacious and large-minded patriotism. His first speech, as 
 given in the Abridged Debates, was on the ratio of representation. 
 Next he takes part in the discussion on a provision for declaring 
 what officer shall act as President in case of a vacancy in the 
 office both of President and Vice President. In the second session 
 of that Congress, we find him speaking, first against a proposed 
 reduction of the army at a time when the United States were at 
 war with powerful tribes of Indians, and, next, in the great and 
 protracted debate on the official conduct of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. In the third Congress, the repre- 
 sentation of Connecticut being increased by the new apportionment, 
 his colleagues were Learned, Trumbull and Wadsworth, of the 
 former delegation, together with Joshua Coit, Zephaniah Swift, and 
 Uriah Tracy. In the fourth Congress he had three new col- 
 leagues in the places of Learned, Trumbull and Wadsworth, 
 namely, Chauncey Goodrich, Rocrer Griswold, and Nathaniel 
 Smith. The first session of that Congress was signalized by two 
 
18 JAMliS UILLUOUSE. 
 
 memorable debates on questions arising out of the treaty with 
 Great Britain, known as Jay's Treaty ;— first, on a motion to re. 
 quest of the President (Washington) a copy of the instructions 
 given to the minister by whom the treaty was negotiated, and of all 
 the correspondence and documents in relation to it ; and after* 
 wards on the expediency of legislation to carry the treaty into 
 effect. In both those debates, and especially in the second, Mr. 
 Hillhouse had a conspicuous part. 
 
 At the opening of the next session, which began at Philadelphia, 
 Dec. 5, 1796, he entered the Senate, having been chosen to com- 
 plete the unexpired term of Oliver Ellsworth, who had resigned 
 his seat in the Senate for the seat of Chief Justice in the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. At the inauguration of President 
 John Adams, March 4, 1797, he presented the credentials of his 
 re-election for the full term of six years then commencing. 
 When Mr. Jefferson, after being elected President, withdrew from 
 the presidency of the Senate, Mr. Hillhouse was made President 
 pro tempore oiihoX body. He was duly re-elected for another 
 term commencing in March, 1803, and for yet another commencing 
 with the first inauguration of President Madison, in 1809. He 
 and his colleague, Uriah Tracy, who entered the Senate with him, 
 as successor of Jonathan Trumbull for an unexpired term, are the 
 only senators four times elected to that place by the State of Con- 
 necticut. Hillhouse and Tracy were colleagues in the Senate till 
 the death of the latter in 1807, just at the commencement of his 
 fourth term of service. In the party divisions of that period, Mr. 
 Hilliiouse ranked with the Federalists. He had supported the ad- 
 ministration of Washington and the elder Adams, and he was in 
 the opposition under the administration of Jefferson. Yet his 
 speeches show that he was by no means a mere partizan, and that 
 on great questions of statesmanship, he ordinarily rose to views 
 above the range of party interests. Thus in the debate of Novem- 
 ber, 1803, on that amendment to the Constitution by which the 
 present mode of electing President and Vice President was intro- 
 duced, we find him saying — 
 
 Thougti it is impossible to prevent party altogether, much more when pop- 
 ulation and luxury increase, and corruption and vice with them, it is prudent 
 to preserve as many checks against it as are practicable. I have been long 
 in Congress, and have seen the conflicting interests of large and small States 
 operate. The time may not be remote when party will adopt new designa- 
 tions. Federal and Republican parties have had their day ; their designa- 
 tions will not last long, and the ground of difference between parties will not 
 be the same that it has been ; new names and new views will be taken ; it has 
 been the course in all nations. * * * A fsinciful difference in politics is 
 the bugbear of party now, because no other, no real cause of difference has 
 subsisted. 
 
JAMES UILLIIOUSB. 19 
 
 Federalist as he was, his theory of the Federal government, 
 even while the party with which he acted was ascendant in the 
 Union abhorred the idea of centralized and consolidated power. 
 He regarded the State governments as the great conservative force 
 in our political system, the guardians of liberty against power, 
 the depositaries of all the most important public trusts, and the 
 ultimate security, under God, for the efficiency and permanence 
 of republican principles. He opposed whatever tended to mag- 
 nify with factitious honors and means of influence the functiona- 
 ries of the Federal power. The Presidency of the United States, 
 with its great and ever growing accumulation of power, and with 
 the excitements and perils of the quadrennial election, was to his 
 view the point of peril in our system. He sometimes said among 
 his friends, that the Presidency was made for Washington ; that 
 the Convention in defining the powers of that office, and the States, 
 in accepting the constitution as it was, had Washington only in 
 their thoughts ; and that the powers of that office were too great 
 to be committed to any other man. Such considerations, long 
 cherished, led him to propose, in April, 1808, certain amendments 
 to the constitution, aiming at a radical reformation of what he con- 
 sidered as the dangerous tendencies in the system of our Federal 
 government. That proposal has been so often associated with his 
 name by those who know little of what it was, or of what he was, 
 that the readers of this memoir will reasonably expect to find here 
 his own statement and explanation of his views. The lapse of 
 more than half a century since his speech in the Senate explain- 
 ing his proposed amendments, has added as much to the strength 
 of the Union as it has added to our territorial dimensions and to 
 our imperial wealth and greatness ; but it has not invigorated the 
 sentiment of State sovereignty ; nor has it diminished the power 
 of the President or the excitements that attend a Presidential elec- 
 tion. Tljose who have already forgotten what threats were gravely 
 made. by the gravest sort of men while the last election was in 
 progress, and what schemes were projected by fiery and danger- 
 ous men to dissolve the Union by violence in the event of the suc- 
 cess of the candidate whom they opposed — those who do not know 
 that the business of making Presidents has become the absorbing 
 and all-subordinating business of our national politics ; nor that 
 the salaries, jobs, and perquisites, directly or indirectly at the dis- 
 posal of the President, are claimed and acknowledged as due to the 
 party workers who have helped him to his place of power — may 
 
20 JAMKa lULLHOUSM. 
 
 smile al the fear which so old-fashioned a patriot as James Hill* 
 house could not but feel for' the future of his country.* 
 
 * The resolution in which Mr. Hilihouse presented his proposed amendments to 
 the Senate, was as follows : 
 
 Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amer- 
 ica^ in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses concurring,) That the follow- 
 ing articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments 
 to the Constitution of the United States ; iill or any of which articles when rati- 
 fied by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and T>urpo- 
 ses as part of the said Constitution, viz: ^ 
 
 Articles- in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution 0¥ the United 
 
 States of Amekica, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures 
 
 of the several States, pursuant to the fifth article of the original Constitution. 
 
 I. After the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the 
 House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every year by 
 the people of the several States : their electors in each State shall have the quali- 
 fications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legisla- 
 ture ; and their term of service shall expire on the first Tuesday of April in each 
 year. 
 
 IL After the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the 
 Senators of the United States shall be chosen for three years, and their term of 
 service shall expire on the first Tuesday of April. 
 
 Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the first election, 
 they shall be divided as equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of the 
 first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the first year ; of the second class 
 at the expiration of the second year ; and of the third class, at the expiration of 
 the third year: so that one third maybe chosen every year. Vacancies to be 
 filled as already provided. 
 
 in. On the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the 
 President of the United States shall be appointed, and shall hold his ofiice until 
 the expiration of the first Tuesday of April, one thousand eight hundred and four- 
 teen. And on the first Tuesday of April, one thousand eight hundred and four- 
 teen, and on the first Tuesday df April, in each succeeding year, the President 
 shall be appointed, to hold his office during the term of one yeiu-. The mode of 
 appointment shall be as follows.: 
 
 In presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, each Senator belong- 
 ing to the class whose term of service will first expire, and constitutionally eligi- 
 ble to the office of President, of which the House of Representatives shall be the 
 sole judges, and shall decide without debate, shall, beginning with the first on the 
 alphabet, and in their alphabetical order, draw a ball out of a box containing the 
 same number of uniform balls as there shall be Senators present and eligible, one 
 of which balls shall be colored, the others white. The Senator who shall 
 draw the colored ball shall be President. A Committee of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, to consist of a member from each State, to be appointed in such man- 
 ner as the House shall direct, shall place the balls in the box, shall shake the same 
 so as to intemiix them, and shall superintend the drawing thereof. In case of the 
 removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to 
 discharge the powers and duties thereof, if Congress be theii in session, or if not, 
 as soon as they shall be in session, the President shall, in the manner before men- 
 tioned, be appointed for the residue of the term. And until the disability be re- 
 moved, or a President be appointed, the Speaker of the Senate shall act as Presi- 
 dent. And Congress may, by law, provide for the case of removal by death, 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSB. 21 
 
 The entire speech in which Mr. Hillhouse explained to the Sen- 
 
 ate his proposals for amendments to the constitution, is too long to 
 
 be transcribed in this place. A condensed abstract, with a few 
 
 selected passages, may serve to exhibit the mind and spirit of the 
 
 man. Having referred, in his exordium, to the circumstances in 
 
 which the constitution was formed and adopted, he said : 
 
 Before I proceed with my explanatory remarks, I must take the liberty of 
 stating that in using the terms ' monarchy,' ' aristocracy,' and ' democracy,' 
 I do not use them as the cant words of party ; I use them in their fair genu- 
 ine sense. The terms ' FederaUst' and ' RepubUcan,' I do not use by way of 
 commendation or reproach, but merely by way of description, as the first 
 names of individuals to distinguish them from others of the same family 
 name. 
 
 resignation, or inability of the President, and vacancy in the office, or inability 
 of the Speaker of the Senate ; and such officer shall act accordingly until the dis- 
 ability of the President be removed, or another be appointed. 
 
 The seat of a Senator who shall be appointed as President, shall thereby be 
 vacated. 
 
 IV. After the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, 
 the compensation of the President shall not exceed fifteen thousand dollars a year. 
 
 V. After the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the 
 office of Vice-President shall cease. And the Senate, on the same day in each 
 year, when the President shall be annually appointed, shall choose a Speaker; 
 and in the absence of the Speaker, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi- 
 dent, the Senate shall choose a Speaker protempore. 
 
 VI. After the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the 
 President shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate 
 and of the House of Representatives, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public 
 Ministers, and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Coui*t, and all other officers of the 
 United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which 
 shall be established by law. But Congress may, by law, vest the appointment 
 of such officers as they think proper, in the President, by and with the ad- 
 vice and consent of the Senate ; and of the inferior officers in the President alone, 
 in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. But no law vesting the 
 power of appointment shall be for a longer term than two years. All proceedings 
 on nominations shall be with closed doors, and without debate ; but information 
 of the character and qualifications of the person nominated shall be received. 
 
 VII. After the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, 
 the President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the 
 recess of Congress, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of 
 their next session. No removal from office shall take place without the consent 
 of the Senate and House of Representatives. But Congress may, by law, author- 
 ize the removal, by the same power as may, by law, be authorized to make the 
 appointment. But in every case of misconduct in office, where the consent of 
 the Senate, or of the Senate and House of Representatives, shall be necessary to a 
 removal, the President, during the recess of Congress, may suspend the officer, 
 and make a temporary appointment of a person to exercise the office, until the 
 next meeting of Congress, and until a decision can be had by the Senate, or by 
 the Senate and House of Representatives, as the case may be, on a question for 
 the removal of the officer suspended. All proceedings respecting removal from 
 office shall be had without debate, upon the information and reasons which shall 
 be communicated by the President, and with closed doors. 
 
22 ^ JAMES HILLUOUSB. 
 
 Federalists and RepublicaRS never divided upon the elementary principles 
 of government. There are very few Americans who are not in principle at- 
 tached to a free republican government ; though they may differ on minor 
 points, and about the best mode of organizing it. Persons attached to mon- 
 archy or aristocracy are few indeed, they are but as the dust in the balance. 
 No one in his sober senses can believe it practicable, or politic if practicable 
 to use either. If ever introduced, which God forbid, it must be done at the 
 point of the bayonet. 
 
 He referred to the origin of parties under the constitution, and 
 to the names of the parties then existing, and said — " The supposed 
 differences are more imaginary than real. Names may, and some- 
 times do, deceive ignorant, uninformed individuals, but these names 
 now scarcely do that." 
 
 Some of the important features of our constitution were borrowed from a 
 model which did not very well suit our condition. I mean the constitution 
 and government of England, a mixed monarchy, in which monarchy, aris- 
 tocracy and democracy are so combined as to form a check on each other. 
 One important and indispensable requisite of such a government is, that the 
 two first branches should be hereditary, and that the monarch should be the 
 fountain of honor and source of power. In the United States, the people are 
 the source of all power. 
 
 Placing in the hands of the Chief Magistrate, who depends on a popular 
 election, prerogatives and powers in many respects equal to — in some, ex- 
 ceeding in practice those exercised by the King of Great Britain, is one of 
 the errors of the constitution. This error can be corrected only in one of 
 two ways ; either the office must be stripped of those high prerogatives and 
 powers, and the term of holding the office shortened, or some other mode 
 devised than a popular election, for appointing a President ; otherwise our 
 country must perpetually groan under the scourge of party rage and vio- 
 lence ; and be continually exposed to that worst of all calamities, civil war. 
 
 He was well aware that he had engaged in a difficult under- 
 taking, but after speaking briefly of the prejudices and interests 
 which were in his way, and courteously claiming for his propo- 
 sals a deliberate and candid hearing, he proceeded : 
 
 A prominent feature of the amendments is, to shorten the term of service 
 of the President, Senators, and Representatives. Observation and experi- 
 ence having convinced me that in an elective government, long terms of office 
 and high compensations do not tend to make independent public servants, 
 while they produce an anxious solicitude in the incumbents to keep their 
 places, and render seekers of office more eager to obtain them, and more re- 
 gardless of the means. 
 
 My first amendment goes to reduce the term of service of the members of 
 the House of Representatives to one year. 
 
 Ko inconvenience can arise from this arrangement, because there is a con- 
 stitutional provision that Congress shall assemble once in every year. That 
 body, composed of the immediate representatives of the people, ought to 
 exhibit a fair representation of their sentiments and will ; and coming fresh 
 from the people to the Congress of each year, will, it may be presumed, fairly 
 express such sentiments and will. And if, in an interval from one session of 
 Congress to another, there be a real change of public sentiment, why should 
 not that change be expressed ? Will an attempt in their representatives to 
 resist it tend to tranquillize the public mind ? or will it not, Uke persecution in 
 religion, tend to make proselytes to their sentiments? 
 
 Constitutions, except so far as they are necessary to organize the several 
 departments of government, and bring the public functionaries into a situa- 
 tion to deliberate and act — and in the General government to draw the line 
 
JiJStLES HILLHOUSE. 23 
 
 of demarcation between that and the State governments, to prevent interfer- 
 ence and coUisiou, — are of little avail, and present but feeble barriers against 
 the public will. Whenever a measure is understood and believed to be neces- 
 sary to promote the general welfare, the people will not fail to effect it. If 
 they cannot, by construction, get round the constitution, they will by an 
 amendment, go directly to their object. The danger is that by attempting 
 to extend constitutional restrictions too far, unnatural and mischievous exer- 
 tions of power may be produced. 
 
 The application of this last remark to the point immediately un- 
 der discussion is, that if the Federal Constitution undertakes to 
 check the power of the States (that is of the people in the States) 
 over their own united government, by making the election of rep- 
 resentatives infrequent, it gives occasion and temptation to " unnat- 
 ural and mischievous exertions of power." If the people are not 
 allowed to express their will in the frequent election of those who 
 are to be the organs of that will, they will naturally resort to other 
 and irregular methods. But without making this application, he 
 proceeded : 
 
 By the second amendment, the term of service of the senators is to be re- 
 duced to three years ; one-third to be chosen each year. * * * 
 Senators represent the rights and interests of States in respect to their 
 sovereignty. In them, therefore, the States ought to feel a confidence. And 
 this confidence will rather be increased than lessened by shortening the term 
 of service to three years. Shall I be told that the legislatures of the States 
 are not to be relied on for their stability and patriotism? that it would be 
 unsafe, every third year to trust them with the appointment of their sena- 
 tors ? No, surely. The several States are the pillars on which the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States rests, and imist rest. If these pillars are not sound 
 — if they are composed of feeble, frail materials, then must the General gov- 
 ernment moulder into ruin. This, however, is not my belief. I have con- 
 fidence in the State governments. I am for keeping them in their full vi- 
 gor and strength. For if any disaster befalls the General government, 
 the States, having within their respective spheres all the power of indepen- 
 dent governments, will be the arks of safety to which the citizens can flee 
 for protection from anarchy and the horrid evils which follow in its train. 
 I have therefore uniformly been opposed to measures which had the remo- 
 test tendency to their consolidation. * * * 
 
 The third amendment provides for the appointment of a President. He 
 is to be taken by lot from the Senate, and is to hold his office for one year. 
 
 Of course, he could not but acknowledge that this mode of selec- 
 tion was liable to obvious objections. He would not have proposed 
 it "if any other could have been devised which would not convulse 
 the whole body politic, set wide open the door to intrigue and ca- 
 bal, and bring upon the nation incalculable evils, evils already felt 
 and growing much more serious." The two objections which he 
 undertook to answer were, first, that this mode of selection *' is a 
 departure from the elective 'principle,^ and, secondly, " that it will 
 not always ensure the best talents." The answer to both these 
 objections is involved in the progress of his argument. 
 
 When senators shall be chosen with an eye to this provision, every State 
 will be anxious to make such a selection of persons as will not disgrace it in the 
 eventual elevation of one gf them to the Presidential chair. Every State 
 
g4 JAMES iniLHOUSS. 
 
 legislature would, in the choice of the senator, consider itself as nominating 
 a candidate for the Presidency. The effect of this arrangement would be, in 
 reality, that instead of the States appointing Electors to choose a President, 
 the legislatures themselves would become the Electors, with this advantage, 
 that the nomination would be made when not under the influence of a Presi- 
 dential electioneering fever. In the regular course of appointing senators, 
 only one nomination would be made at one time in each State ; and, in most 
 cases, three years would elapse before he could be designated for the Presi- 
 dency. The great caution in the selection of senators, with a reference to 
 that high office, would produce another excellent effect : it would ensure the 
 continuance in that body of men of the most respectable talents and educa- 
 tion — an object of the highest importance to the general welfare. 
 
 The two objections "are disposed of ; the first by showing that, 
 under the existing constitution, whenever the House of Represen- 
 tatives, voting by States, selects a President from among three of 
 the candidates from the Electoral colleges, the departure from the 
 elective principle is hardly less than if a President were to be de- 
 signated by lot from among a larger yet carefully selected number 
 of candidates ; — and the second, by showing that if every sena- 
 tor were to be selected with reference to the contingency of his 
 serving in the chief executive office of the government, men of 
 inferior ability would naturally be excluded from the Senate; that 
 under the present system there is the same possibility of having a 
 President neither distinguished for talents nor for integrity, and the 
 further danger of having one of that sort, who, instead of going out 
 of office at the end of a year, will be President for four years ; and 
 that the eminent talents and experience of subordinate functiona- 
 ries, such as the heads of departments, will be no less available, 
 and no more necessary to a President thus appointed for one year 
 than they now are to a President appointed in conformity with the 
 constitution as it is. 
 
 Having disposed of the objections to his plan, the Senator pro- 
 ceeded to exhibit in a more positive way some of the dangers 
 inseparable from that part of the Constitution which he was pro- 
 posing to amend. Whether those dangers are real, and whether 
 they are on the whole less threatening now than they were fifty 
 years ago, are questions on which, perhaps, there is room for a dif- 
 ference of opinion among thoughtful and patriotic minds. 
 
 The office of President is the only one in our goverjiment clothed with such 
 powers as might endanger Uberty, and I am not without apprehension that, 
 at some future period, they may be exerted to overthrow the liberties of our 
 country. The change from four to ten years is small ; the next step would 
 be from ten years to life, and then to the nomination of a successor, from 
 which the transition to an hereditary monarchy would almost follow of course. 
 The exigencies of the country, the public safety, and the means of defense 
 against foreign invasion, may place m the hands of an ambitious, daring 
 President, an army of which he would be the legitimate commander, and with 
 which he might enforce his claim. This may not Jiappen in my day ; it prob- 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSlL 05 
 
 ably will not ; but I have children whom I love, and whom I expect to leave 
 behind me to share in the destinies of our common country. I cannot there- 
 fore feel indifferent to what may befall them, and generations yet unborn. 
 
 After showino- in a few words that his proposed amendments in 
 
 regard to the Presidential office would "render it impossible to 
 
 bring the high prerogatives of this office to aid in procuring it," he 
 
 went on to say — 
 
 Of the impropriety and impolicy of the present mode of electing a Presi- 
 dent, can there be stronger proof, can there be more convincing evidence, 
 than is now exhibiting in the United States ? In whatever direction we turn 
 our eyes, we behold the people arranging themselves for the purpose of com- 
 mencing the electioneering campaign for the next President and Vice Presi- 
 dent. All the passions and feelings of the human heart are brought into the 
 most active operation. The electioneering spirit finds its way to every fire- 
 side ; pervades our domestic circles, and threatens to destroy the enjoyment 
 of social harmony. The seeds of discord will be sown in families, among 
 friends, and throughout the whole community. In saying this, I do not mean 
 anything to the disadvantage of either of the candidates. They may have 
 no agency in the business. They may be the involuntary objects of such 
 competition, without the power of directing or controUng the storm. The 
 fault is in the mode of election, in setting the people to choose a King. In 
 fact, a popular election, and the exercise of such powers and prerogatives as 
 are by the Constitution vested in the President, are incompatible. The evil 
 is increasing and will increase, until it shall terminate in civil war and despo- 
 tism. The people, suffering under the scourge of party feuds and factions, 
 and finding no refuge under the State, any more than in the General govern-' 
 ment, from party persecution and oppression, may become impatient, and 
 submit to the first tyrant who can protect them against the thousand tyrants. 
 * * * * * * 
 
 Reducing the Presidential term of service to one year, will remove the ne- 
 cessity of attaching to the office the splendor of a palace. The simplicity of 
 ancient republics would better suit the nature of our government. The in- 
 stances of persons called from the plough to command armies, or to preside 
 over the public councils, show that in a republic pomp and splendor are not 
 necessary to real dignity. Cincinnatus, who was content with the scanty 
 support derived from tilling, with his own hands, his four-acre farm, has been 
 as celebrated in history as the most splendid monarchs. By these remarks I 
 would not be undei'stood to object against giving adequate salaries to all pub- 
 lic functionaries. In the case of subordinate officers, it may be left to legis- 
 lative discretion. But the President, having such great power and extensive 
 influence, his compensation ought to have a constitutional limit, and not ex- 
 ceed fifteen thousand dollars. 
 
 It is chiefly for thesake of illustrating the character of the man 
 that these extended quotations have been given. A naked state- 
 ment of his proposal, unaccompanied by any of his own explana- 
 tions, might make upon some minds a very false impression. He 
 was not a visionary statesman, like those who in their closets frame 
 ingenious schemes of government for Utopian commonwealths. 
 Nor was he one of those who have a passion for pulling down the 
 fabric of existing institutions for the sake of some new-fangled 
 reconstruction. His genius was conservative rather than revolu- 
 tionary, and practical rather than speculative. The reasons and 
 explanations which he offered in his speech, and which have been 
 
26 JAMES HILLHOUSS. 
 
 spread before the readers of this memoir, show the conservative 
 and practical character of his mind. He had observed with deep 
 insight, and with far reaching foresight, the working of those con- 
 stitutional arrangements which he proposed to amend. He saw 
 in the ever widening vortex of Presidential power and patronage, 
 and in the ever returning agitation of Presidential elections, a 
 force that threatened to engulf the independent self-government of 
 the States within their separate sovereignties ; and he desired such a 
 modification of the system as should effectually remove that danger. 
 More than twenty years afterwards, when he had retired from 
 all his public employments, he opened a correspondence with some 
 of the most eminent survivors of his own generation, asking their 
 views of his proposed remedy for what had so long seemed to him 
 the chief infirmity of the Federal Constitution. Large portions 
 of the replies which he received from President Madison, Chief 
 Justice Marshall, Chancellor Kent, and Mr. Crawford, who had 
 been contemporary with him in the Senate, and afterwards Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury under President Monroe, were communica- 
 ted to the New York Historical Society in 1848, by James H. 
 Raymond, Esq., and were published in the proceedings of the 
 Society for that year. Mr. Madison, as might be anticipated from the 
 part which he had taken in the formation of the Constitution, and 
 from his long familiarity with the exercise of executive power in 
 the highest offices of government, felt strongly and represented 
 with much clearness and force the obvious objections to the bold 
 and sweeping change proposed by Mr. Hillhouse. Chief Justice 
 Marshall acknowledged that in 1830 (the date of the correspon- 
 dence,) ' his views of this subject had changed a good deal since 
 1808.' He ' considered it, however, rather as an affair of curious 
 speculation than of probable fact.' " Your plan," said he, "comes 
 in conflict with so many opposing interests and deep-rooted preju- 
 dices, that I would despair of its success, were its ability still more 
 apparent than it is." After intimating that "we must proceed 
 with our present system till its evils become still more obvious," 
 he proceeded as follows : 
 
 My own private mind has been slowly and reluctantly advancing to the be- 
 lief that the present mode of choosing the chief magistrate threatens the 
 most serious danger to the public happiness. The passions of men are in- 
 flamed to so fearful an extent, large masses are so embittered against each 
 other, that I dread the consequences. The election agitates every section of 
 the United States, and the ferment is never to subside. Scarcely is a Presi- 
 dent elected, before the machinations respecting a successor commence. 
 Every political question is affected by it. All those who are in office, all those 
 who want office, are put in motion. The angriest, I might say the worst pas- 
 sions are roused and put into full activity. Vast masses, united closely, mov© 
 
JAMES HIIJ.HOUSB. ^7 
 
 in opposite directions, animated with the most hostile feelings towards each 
 other. What is to be the effect of all this 'i Age is, perhaps, unreasonably 
 timid. Certain it is, that I now dread consequences which I once thought 
 linaginary. I feel disposed to take refuge under some less turbulent and less 
 dangerous mode of choosing the chief magistrate, and my mind suggests 
 none less objectionable than that you have proposed. We shall no 
 longer be enlisted under the banners of particular men. Strife will no longer 
 be excited, when it can no longer affect its object. Neither the people at 
 large, nor the councils of the nation, will be agitated by the all-disturbing 
 question, — Who shall be President ? Yet he will, in truth, be chosen substan- 
 tially by the people. The Senators must always be among the most able men 
 of the States. Though not appointed for the particular purpose, they must 
 always be appointed for important purposes, and must possess a large share 
 of the pubUc confidence. If the people of the United States were to elect as 
 many persons as compose one senatorial class, and the President was to be 
 chosen among them by lot, in the manner you propose, he would be substan- 
 tially elected by the people ; and yet such a mode of election would be re- 
 commended by no advantages which your plan does not possess. In many 
 respects it would be less eligible. 
 
 Reasoning a priori, I should undoubtedly pronounce the system adopted by 
 the Convention, the best that could be devised. Judgiog from experience, I 
 am driven to a different conclusion. 
 
 Chancellor Kent wrote in the same vein of thought. He said 
 of "the popular election of the President," (which, by the way, 
 was not intended by the framersof the Constitution*) " it is that part 
 of the machine of our government that I am afraid is doomed to 
 destroy us." "Our plan of election of a President, I apprehend, 
 has failed of its purpose, as it was presumed and foretold that it 
 would fail by some of the profoundest statesmen of 1787. We 
 cannot but perceive that this very presidential question has already 
 disturbed and corrupted the administration of the government, and 
 cherishes intrigue, duplicity, abuse of power, and corrupt and 
 arbitrary measures." " Your reflections are sage, patriotic, and 
 denote a deep and just knowledge of government and man." 
 
 Mr. Crawford's letter records the fact that he seconded in the 
 Senate Mr. Hillhouse's resolution proposing his amendments of 
 the Constitution, though at that time he had not made up his mind 
 definitely upon the principle of the amendments. But subsequent 
 " reflection and experience" had convinced him. He went on to 
 say — . 
 
 * Did the framers of the Constitution expect that, in less than half a century, 
 the colleges of Electors, assembling in their several States ostensibly for the per- 
 formance of a duty requiring the highest wisdom and the most enlarged patriot- 
 ism, would have no other function than simply to register the decrees of party 
 conventions — a function to which any man with intelligence enough to write his 
 name, and honesty enough to keep out of the penitentiary, would be perfectly 
 competent ? Was it their intention that the several Electoral colleges, in the per- 
 formance of their high duty, would have precisely the same liberty of choice 
 with the dean and chapter of an English cathedral in the election of a bishop -vvho 
 has already received the appointment from the Crown, and Avhom they cannot 
 refuse to vote for without incurring the penalties of a premunire f 
 
28 JAMES niLLHOUSB 
 
 I am now entirely convinced that great talents are not necessary for the 
 chief magistracy of this nation. A moderate share of talents, with integrity 
 of character and conduct, is all that is necessary. Under the principle of 
 your amendment, I think there is little probability that a President would be 
 
 elected, weaker than Col. , or with less practical common sense than 
 
 Mr. . But I am not certain that the nation is prepared for such an 
 
 amendment. There is something fascinating in the idea of selecting the best 
 talents in the nation for the chief magistrate of the Union. The view which 
 ought to decide in favor of the principle of your amendment, is seldom taken. 
 The true view is this : elective chief magistrates are not, and cannot, in the 
 nature of things, be the best men in the nation ; while such elections never 
 fail to produce mischief to the nation. The evils of such elections have 
 generally induced civilized nations to submit to hereditary monarchy. 
 Now the evil which is incident to this form of government, is that of having 
 the oldest son of the monarch for ruler, whether he is a fool, a rascal, or a 
 madman. I think no man who will reflect coolly upon the subject, but would 
 prefer a President chosen by lot out of the Senate, to running the risk of 
 having a fool, a rascal, or a madman, in the oldest son of the wisest and most 
 benevolent sovereign that ever Uved. When the amendment is considered in 
 this point of view I think it will find favor, especially when it must be admit- 
 ted that the election of a President in this manner will be productive of 
 as little turmoil and agitation as the accession of the son to the lather in 
 hereditary monarchies. The more I reflect upon the subject, the more I am 
 in favor of your amendment. 
 
 Mr. Hillhouse, after fourteen years of service in the Senate, 
 resigned his seat that he might accept a new and more arduous 
 trust to which he was invited by his native State, and for which he 
 was eminently qualified by his peculiar talents, his great experi- 
 ence, and his high character for disinterestedness and public spirit 
 as well as for strict fidelity to every duty. 
 
 The royal charters which had defined the boundaries of the 
 States while they were colonies, gave to several of them, and to 
 Connecticut among others, " the South Sea," or Pacific Ocean, for 
 a western limit. In 1786, while Virginia and other States were 
 marking their western boundaries at their own discretion, and ceding 
 to Congress, with various reservations, their claims to territories 
 farther west, the State of Connecticut, by its deed of cession, 
 reserved to itself a new Connecticut on the southern shore of Lake 
 Erie, of the same length, and between the same parallels of lati- 
 itude, with the old Connecticut on the northern shore of Long 
 Island Sound. A portion of the lands thus reserved was appro- 
 priated to indemnify the inhabitants of those towns which had been 
 wholly or partially destroyed by the British forces in the war of 
 the revolution. In May, 1795, the legislature made arrangements 
 for the sale of the remainder, (not far from 3,300,000 acres in 
 extent) by a commission of eight persons appointed for that pur- 
 pose, the Hon. John Treadwell being chairman. By the same 
 legislature it was ordained that the avails should constitute a per- 
 manent fund for the support of those common schools which had 
 been from the beginning a characteristic institution of New Eng- 
 
JAME3 HILLHOUSB. 29 
 
 land. At the October session of the same year, the commissioners 
 reported that the land had been sold to a company of capitalists 
 for the sum of 1,200,000 dollars, payable in five years, with annu- 
 al interest after the expiration of two years. The. fund thus es- 
 tablished was continued in the care of the original commissioners 
 till the year 1800, when payment from the purchasers. of the 
 Reserve became due. At that time Mr. Treadwell, afterwards 
 governor, and four others, including the State Treasurer for the 
 time being, were appointed " Managers of the funds arising on the 
 sales of the Western Reserve," an arrangement which continued 
 ten years. But notwithstanding the unquestioned fidelity of those 
 " Managers," the expectations with which the fund was instituted 
 had not been realized. The payments of interest which began to 
 be due in 1797, instead of being 872,000 annually, as they should 
 have been according to the conditions of the sale, fell so far short, 
 that in thirteen years the average amount that had been annually 
 distributed for the support of schools, was less than half the legal 
 interest of the capital. From the report of the Managers to the 
 legislature, at the October session in 1809, it appeared that not 
 only that large amount of interest remained unpaid, but that con- 
 siderable portions of the capital, also, were in danger of being lost by 
 the failure of collateral securities. A committee, of which the 
 Hon. David Daggett was chairman, recommended that the fund 
 should be entrusted to the care and control of pne man ; and at 
 the next session, in May, 1810, after due deliberation by the peo- 
 ple as well as by their representatives, the office of" Commissioner 
 of the School Fund" was created ; and the Board of Managers 
 was abolished. 
 
 As Mr. Hillhouse was wont to say* that the office of President 
 of the United States was made for George Washington, so we may 
 say that in Connecticut the office of " Commissioner of the School 
 Fund" was created at that juncture because all eyes were turned 
 toward one man as singularly competent to so great and delicate 
 a trust. The committee by whom the change of system in the 
 management of the Fund was proposed to the legislature, had no 
 other thought thail of that one man to undertake the arduous 
 work. Accordingly, when Mr. Hillhouse returned from Wash- 
 ington, after the adjournment of Congress, (which took place that 
 year on the first of May) he was met by a call to this new office. 
 He accepted the office, and his successor in the Senate (Hon Sam- 
 uel W. Dana) was appointed at the same session of the legislature. 
 
 .The condition of the School Fund, when it was committed to 
 
30 JAMES HILLHOUSB. 
 
 his care, has already been described in part ; but the difficulty of 
 his task and the greatness of his success cannot be appreciated 
 without a more complete statement on this point. Such a state- 
 ment was made, not long after the death of Mr. Hillhouse, by the 
 late Hon. Roger Minott Sherman, in a paper which he drew up 
 with the expectation that it would be presented to the legislature. 
 According to that well-considered statement, in which every word 
 was measured with the accuracy so characteristic of the author, 
 the Fund, in 1810, " had so diminished in value as to excite in the 
 minds of the people a serious apprehension that in a few years it 
 would become comparatively useless, if not utterly extinct. It 
 consisted chiefly of the debts due from the original purchasers of 
 the Western Reserve, and those substituted securities which had 
 been accepted in their stead. A great proportion rested on mere 
 personal security, and in the course of nearly twenty years, by 
 death, insolvency, and -the many other changes to which human 
 affairs are subject, its actual value fell far short of its nominal 
 amount. The interest had fallen greatly in arrear, and in many 
 instances nearly equalled the principal. The debtors were dis- 
 persed in different States, and over a territory several hundred 
 miles in extent ; and such were the embarrassments of very many, 
 and the complicated derangement of their affairs, that little but 
 their ruin and the loss of the claims of the State could be expected 
 from legal coercion." It may be added, to illustrate still further 
 the complicated nature of the work that was to be done, that the 
 thirty-six bonds amounting in the aggregate to $1,200,000, which 
 were given by the original purchasers of the Reserve, and which 
 were the original investment of the Fund, had become, by the 
 process of payment and reinvestment or by other modes of sub- 
 stitution, nearly five hundred in number ; and that, so far as they 
 rested on any other than personal security, they were secured by 
 mortgages on lands distributed through Connecticut, Massachu- 
 setts, New York, and the Western Reserve. Such was the trust 
 which the State committed to his fidelity. So difficult, so compli- 
 cated, so laborious, so delicate in many of its relations, was the 
 work which he undertook for the State, and which employed his 
 time and strength unremittingly through a period of fifteen years. 
 For the first year of his service in that trust, his salary was only 
 one thousand dollars. Afterwards he received fifteen hundred 
 dollars annually, till October, 1818, when the compensation for 
 his services was reduced to one thousand dollars, ancl so continued 
 till his retirement from office. The State of Connecticut has 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSB. 3 J 
 
 never been celebrated for the munificence of its compensation to 
 public officers ; but we may doubt whether such services of those 
 of James Hillhouse, in so responsible a trust, were ever rendered, 
 even in Connecticut, for so slight a compensation. If the School 
 Fund, in the condition in which it was when he received the trust, 
 had been a private estate, to be settled, invested and managed for 
 the same period of time, what would have, been the compensation 
 of a competent trustee ? 
 
 In what manner, and with what measure of success, Mr, Hill- 
 house performed the work which he had undertaken for the State, 
 cannot be better described than by quoting from the document 
 already referred to, the words of the late Judge Sherman.. " He 
 accepted the office and held it until his resignation in 1825 — a 
 period of fifteen years. In this period, without a single litigated 
 suit, or a dollar paid for counsel, he restored the Fund to safety 
 and order — rendered it productive of large and increasing annual 
 dividends, and left it augmented to seventeen hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, of well secured and solid capital. During his administra- 
 tion of the School Fund he attended to little else. At all seasons 
 of the year, however inclement, he journeyed over the extensive 
 country through which his cares were dispersed — guarded the 
 public land from depredation, — made himself familiar with 
 every debtor and the state of his property — and by indefatigable 
 labor, and by kind attention and assistance, improved the cir- 
 cumstances of improvident debtors, through the very measures 
 which he pursued for the security of the Fund. Many fam- 
 ilies, and among them the widows and the orphans of deceased 
 debtors, whose property had become incumbered by mortgages 
 contracts and speculations, and their hopes broken, and their exer- 
 tions paralyzed, by the apparently inextricable condition of their 
 affairs, were restored to easy circumstances by his wise disposition 
 of their property and adjustment of their concerns. All his ope- 
 rations were characterized by a benevolent regard to individual 
 interest, and an enthusiastic devotion to the public good." 
 
 The relation of debtor and creditor is not favorable to friend- 
 ship, especially when the debtor is bankrupt or on the verge of 
 bankruptcy, and the creditor is secured by mortgages and obliga- 
 tions which cannot be met without a serious loss. But Mr. Hill- 
 house made the debtors of the School Fund friends, by making 
 himself their friend. Instead of acting against them as the mere 
 attorney of an adverse party, he was their adviser, and acted with 
 them and for them. The forbearance which he (with powers 
 almost unlimited, save by his own fidelity to his trust) was able to 
 
82 JAMES HILLHOUSE 
 
 exercise towards embarrassed but honest debtors, — the legal and 
 financial counsel which he was so well qualified to give, and the 
 aid which, in one way or another, he could so often render when 
 
 the claims of other creditors were pressed too urgently were all 
 
 at the service of his great and kindly heart. Thus while he was 
 far more careful for the safbty of the Fund than if it had been his 
 own, he became the benefactor of debtors who could not have 
 extricated themselves from their embarrassments by any efforts 
 of their own, and in whose final insolvency the State would have 
 been a losing creditor. In some remarkable instances, the aid 
 which he gave to embarrassed debtors of the Fund in the settle- 
 ment of their affairs, was acknowledged with a gratitude which 
 deserves a distinct commemoration. 
 
 Among the original purchasers of the Western Reserve, the 
 names of Oliver Phelps and Gideon Granger are conspicuous. 
 Mr. Phelps was the agent of the company by which the purchase 
 was efTected ; and of the thirty-six subscriptions to the capital of 
 twelve hundred thousand dollars, one of eighty thousand was the 
 joint subscription of Phelps and Granger, and another of more 
 than one hundred and sixty-eight thousand was in the name of 
 Phelps alone. Of the remaining subscriptions, three, from as 
 many individuals, were of sixty thousand each, and all the others 
 were in various amounts from nearly fifty-eight thousand down to 
 less than seventeen hundred. Twenty-five years later, the ex- 
 pected results of the speculation on the part of Messrs. Phelps 
 and Granger had not been realized, and the aggregate of their 
 original indebtedness to the School Fund, great as it was at the 
 beginning, had greatly increased. Harassed by other creditors, 
 Mr. Phelps, though rich in lands that could not be converted into 
 money, had died while imprisoned for debt. How his embarrassed 
 affairs were settled after his death, how the School Fund was kept 
 unharmed, is best described by Judge Sherman. " His debt to 
 the School Fund, including a balance due from his son, was nearly 
 tliree hundred thousand dollars. He left an extensive property in 
 new lands, but was deeply in debt at the time of his decease, and 
 had suspended payment, until his arrears of interest to this State, 
 which had been accumulating for ten years, exceeded fifty-six 
 thousand dollars. His immense real estate was heavily encum- 
 bered with mortgages, and so involved and perplexed with execu- 
 tory contracts and unperfected titles, as seemed to defy any attempt 
 at extrication, and render the claims of this State and other credit- 
 ors apparently hopeless. But nothing which human effort could 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSE. 33 
 
 tend to surmount, ever discouraged Mr. Hillhouse. Great obsta- 
 cles seemed but to inspirit his resolution and give vigor to his ex- 
 ertions. The condition of this estate had baffled the efforts and 
 appalled the heart of its enterprising proprietor, and saddened his 
 last days with embarrassment and despondency. But Mr. Hill- 
 house went into the western country where it lay, and by long, 
 laborious, and patient exertions night and day, he threaded all its 
 labyrinths, cleared off every embarrassment, paid up in full the 
 debt to the School Fund and the claims of every other cred- 
 itor, dealt out perfect justice to every party in interest, and 
 restored the widow and orphan children of Mr. Phelps to comfort 
 and affluence. A large ledger is filled with the numerous accounts 
 of sales, payments and settlements which arose in the course of 
 the transactions." 
 
 How much he gained for the State by all this extra-official labor 
 performed in the interest of what some would have regarded as 
 the adverse party, let Judge Sherman tell. "So much were the 
 family of Mr. Phelps benefited by the services which he rendered 
 them, beyond what "the interests of this State required, that besides 
 paying all the expenses incident to the operation in searching 
 records, foreclosing mortgages, defraying taxes, paying agents, 
 &c., they allowed compound interest on the School Fund debt, 
 which exceeded more than fourteen thousand five hundred dollars, 
 the amount which could have been recovered by law. He placed 
 the demand of the State, which had been deemed almost worth- 
 less, on an interest of seven per cent., amply secured by hoods and 
 mortgages." 
 
 But the concession of compound interest on the great and long 
 deferred indebtedness of that estate to the Connecticut School 
 Fund, did not satisfy in the. heirs the sense of their obligation to 
 their benefactor. " The family of Mr. Phelps had once been in 
 affluence, but had fallen into a state of want and embarrasment, 
 in which they had long been involved. They were now restored 
 .to competency by the extraordinary exertions of Mr. Hillhouse in 
 their behalf. Having consented that full and ample justice should 
 be done the State, they gratefully tendered to Mr. Hillhouse the 
 sum of six thousand dollars for his own personal use, and begged 
 him to accept it." 
 
 Such a testimonial of a grateful sense of obligation on their part, 
 deserves to be remembered for their sake as well as for his. But 
 did he accept their offer ? He did. Yet strange as it may seem, 
 and hardly credible in these days of plunder and official venality, 
 
34 JAMES HILLHOUSE. 
 
 he " declined retaining a donation from those with whom he dealt 
 as a public agent, and paid the six thousand dollars into the treas- 
 ury of the School Fund." This " delicate sense of honor" was 
 actually extant less than thirty years ago, in a man who had been 
 almost twenty years a member of Congress, and who came directly 
 from Washington to the management of a great pecuniary trust 
 for the public. 
 
 At the time of these transactions, Mr. Granger, the associate 
 of Mr. Phelps, was still living, after a long career of public ser- 
 vice ; and his sense of the value of similar services rendered in 
 the settlement of his indebtedness to the State of Connecticut, was 
 acknowledged by a similar testimonial amounting to nearly twenty- 
 five hundred dollars. At the same time, an allowance of more 
 than fifteen hundred dollars was made to him, for the same reason, 
 in the settlement of another estate largely indebted to the Fund — 
 that of Arnold Potter. These donations were also passed over to 
 the School Fund.. The entire amount of what he thus, from a 
 high sense of honor, transferred to the State, was only less than 
 ten thousand dollars ($9,982,02) — every cent of it fairly his own 
 earning by extra-official labor. 
 
 The extent to which his bodily power of activity and endurance 
 was tasked in the great and crowning work of his life, cannot be 
 adequately described within the limits of this brief memoir. At 
 his entrance on the work, he was already passing into the evening 
 of life, when most men, amid the lengthening shadows, think rather 
 of retirement and repose than of new and more arduous enter- 
 prises. But no young emigrant making his way into the wilder- 
 ness to lay there the foundations of future wealth, ever encoun- 
 tered hardships, fatigue and peril, more patiently or cheerfully 
 than he. Unattended, he made long journeys westward, year after 
 year, at all seasons, and with all sorts of hazards, in his sulky, at the 
 heels of the fleet and hardy little mare that was his chief locomotive 
 power for the first six or eight years of his commissionership. 
 Once he came near death by freezing in a winter drive ; twice by 
 fever caught in miasmatic regions which his duty required him to 
 explore. But it is safe to say, that whether using the utmost speed 
 of his mare to leave at a safe distance behind him some dogging 
 ruffians who had attempted to rob him, or making his way slowly 
 through the woods with an armed Indian silently and wistfully 
 trotting at his side, or arrested as a criminal at the instigation of a 
 malicious debtor (which was once the case), he never lost for an 
 hour his courage or cheerful good 'humor. No difficulties of the 
 
JAMES UlLLHOUSB 35 
 
 way could ever turn him back. The story is told that " after half a 
 day's solitary traveling, he once came to a stream, apparently swol- 
 len with rain to an unusual depth. It was necessary to cross it 
 or be frustrated of his object, besides measuring back a weary 
 way. He undressed himself, strapped his trunk of clothes, pa- 
 pers, &c., on the top of his sulky, and reached the opposite bank 
 with no other inconvenience than an unseasonable bath."* 
 
 What Mr. Hillhouse did for the School Fund in the fifteen years 
 of his administration, was in many respects a difFerent work from 
 that which has devolved on any of his successors. It was for him to 
 extricate the Fund from the embarrassed and imperilled condition 
 in which it was committed to his care. It was for him to arrange 
 and institute a system of administration ; the department was to be 
 all but created by his constructive genius. He labored as a pio- 
 neer, preparing the way in which others were to follow. His im- 
 mediate successor, (Hon. Seth P. Beers,) who had been for two 
 years his assistant, entered upon the work when the age of rail- 
 way traveling had not yet begun, and when the superintend- 
 ence of the School Fund was still attended with more personal 
 fatigue and hardship than belonged to any other office in the ser- 
 vice of the State. But the second Commissioner entered into the 
 labors of the first; and it is no disparagement of his ability or of 
 his success, to say that his work during the twenty. four years of 
 his administration was easy in comparison with the pioneer work 
 which had already been done. In those years of pioneer labor, 
 Mr. Hillhouse had not merely rescued the Fund from depreciation 
 and gradual destruction, and restored it to its original value. By 
 his indefatigable industry and skill in the collection of debts, and 
 by the wisdom of his reinvestments, he had added to it more than 
 half a million of dollars. The policy which he inaugurated was 
 continued by his successor, at the close of whose administration 
 the Fund had received another augmentation of three hundred 
 thousand dollars, — and though the capital has received since then 
 •no farther augmentation, the investments have become more pro. 
 ductive, till now the annual income is seven per cent, on the entire 
 amount of the Fund. In the fifty-six years since the first dividend 
 was made, the School Fund of Connecticut has divided among the 
 towns and school societies an aggregate amount of income almost 
 four times greater than the capital was at the beginning. The 
 traditions of his administration still give to the office a dignity 
 which lifts it above the ordinary sweep of party revolution, and 
 *Dramas, Discourses, &c,, by James A. Hillhouse, II., 42-44, 51-54. 
 
86 
 
 JAM£S UlLLHOUSB. 
 
 guards it against being made, like so many other offices of trust 
 and honor, a reward for party services. If that magnificent en- 
 dowment yields any benefit to the people of Connecticut to-day 
 
 if it diminishes the weight of their public burthens, and distributes 
 to all parts of the State, year by year, for the most important of 
 all public interests, a greater revenue than all that the people pay 
 in taxes for their own State government — if it secures a free school 
 in every neighborhood and within the reach of every family, and 
 leaves hardly a native adult that cannot read and write — it is to 
 him more than to any other man that the debt of public gratitude 
 is due. Others now living, who need not be named, and who will 
 not be forgotten when they shall have been gathered to the dead, 
 have contributed to make the School Fund efficient for the ends 
 to which it was devoted, have taught the people how to use it, have 
 kept it from becoming a disgrace instead of a glory to the State ; 
 but the Fund itself is the patrimony which his heroic labor rescued 
 and enlarged, and which, by the success of his wise and faithful 
 stewardship, became an inheritance forever for the State he loved 
 so well. 
 
 At the time of Mr. Hillhouse's retirement from the Commission- 
 ership in the seventy-first year of his age, the citizens of New 
 Haven had determined on attempting the construction of a canal 
 from their own harbor to the Connecticut River at Northampton. 
 He had taken no leading part either in the consultations and dis- 
 cussions which preceded that determination, or in the application 
 which obtained from the legislature of the Slate a charter with a 
 full grant of necessary powers to a company organized for the 
 purpose. But his townsmen, from the day in which he led the 
 young men of the town to battle in defense of their homes, had 
 been accustomed to confide implicitly in his ability to accomplish 
 whatever he might be induced to undertake. Through all the fifty 
 years of his participation in their public affairs, there had hardly 
 been a scheme or effort of local improvement in which he had not 
 been a leader. His own judgment, confirmed by that of men 
 whose large experience and acknowledged wisdom in such mat- 
 ters gave authority to their opinions, had been convinced that the pro- 
 posal was practicable and would open for the commerce of New 
 Haven a most desirable channel of communication with the interior 
 of New England. He yielded to the solicitations of his neighbors 
 and accepted from the company the appointment of Superintend- 
 ent. His connection with the work, and the unfailing zeal and 
 force with which he entered into it, inspired the people of New 
 
JAMBS HILLHOUSB. 37 
 
 Haven, and of other towns along the route, with much of his own 
 confidence in its success. Six years he sustained it through every 
 discouragement, and then, beginning at last to feel that it was time 
 for him to rest, he resigned the task to younger hands. The con- 
 struction of that canal was indeed a loss to the Company ; but the 
 explanation of the failure is chiefly to be found in causes that 
 were then beyond the ken of human sagacity. Only a few out 
 of the many works of that sort in the United States have ever re- 
 paid to the proprietors the expense of construction. Nobody now 
 thinks of making a canal unless it be something like a ship canal 
 across a narrow isthmus between oceans. Five and thirty years 
 ago nobody thought that the time was at hand when railways would 
 be constructed for the convenience of commerce along the shores 
 of navigable waters, when the whole extent of the Union, from 
 Maine to Louisiana, would be overspread with a network of iron 
 tracks, and when even the wildernesses beyond the Mississippi 
 would begin to be made attractive to emigration, by the construc- 
 tion of railways over orairies hardly yet deserted of the Indian 
 and the buffalo. 
 
 The connection of Mr. Hillhouse, from youth to old age, with 
 all the progress of local improvement in New Haven, has already 
 been referred to, but deserves a more particular notice. One 
 strong indication of a man's character, and of the force with which 
 he has acted upon his fellow-men, is found, sometimes at least, in 
 the impression which he has left upon the place of his abode, and 
 the extent in which his influence has incorporated itself with the 
 history and the future of the locality. Since Theophilus Eaton 
 and John Davenport, with others from the parish of St. Stephens, 
 Coleman Street, in London, came to Quinnipiack in 1638, and 
 laid out their beautiful town-plat around the open square which 
 they reserved for their public buildings, their market-place, and 
 their graves, no man has ever done so much by personal influence 
 and labor for the beauty of New Haven, as was done by James 
 Hillhouse. He had a part in the subdivision of the original nine 
 squares, by new streets parallel to the old, and a voice in giving 
 both to the old streets and the new the names which they still 
 bear.* He was the engineer (probably chairman of a committee) 
 
 * A part of the ancient town was incorporated as a city, at a winter session of 
 the legislature in 1784, Mr. H. being fhen a representative. At the first city elec- 
 tion, Feb., 1784 he was chosen into the Common Council. The streets were 
 named by vote of a city meeting, Sept. 17 1784. The new streets, subdividing 
 the old town-plat, appear to have been opened by the owners of the property at 
 their own convenience and discretion, according to some plan spontaneously 
 
38 JAMES UILLHOXJSE. 
 
 who leveled " the lower green," as the lower half of the public 
 square was called, and enclosed the whole square for the first time, 
 cutting off the winding cart path that ran diagonally from the 
 northwestern corner to the southeastern. He brought from a farm 
 of his in Meriden, and set out, partly with his own hands, the elms 
 that now interlock their giant arms over the famous colonnade of 
 Temple street. The once renowned but now half deserted turn, 
 pike road from New Haven to Hartford, with its marvelous recti- 
 linearity, was not indeed laid out under his direction (his common 
 sense would have avoided the hills) ; but after the line had been 
 determined, and the work imperfectly constructed, in his absence, 
 the completion of it was effected by his executive ability.* He 
 formed and carried into eftect the plan of the New Haven Ceme- 
 tery which has now become so honored with historic graves — his 
 own among the most illustrious. That was the earliest attempt any- 
 where to provide a public cemetery so arranged that every family 
 might have its own family burial place as an inalienable posses- 
 sion like Abraham's burial place at Hebron. The records of the 
 parish of which he was a member testify to his activity and zeal 
 in promoting the interests of that ecclesiastical society. Five suc- 
 cessive pastors of the church in which he made his early vows, 
 learned to value his generous friendship ; and the last of them, hav- 
 ing pronounced the eulogium at his funeral more than a quarter 
 of a century ago, is permitted now, after so long a time, to com- 
 mend him to the grateful remembrance of another generation. 
 
 One office Mr. Hillhouse retained to the close of his life. For 
 fifty years he was the Treasurer of Yale College. In all his cares 
 and labors for the town, for the State, and for the Union, he never 
 ceased to care affectionately for the venerable institution in" which 
 
 agreed upon. Mr. H., as a proprietor, had an agency in the opening of some of 
 those streets ; and the writer of this note remembers to have heard him ex- 
 press a regi'et that he did not insist on carrying every street through in a straight 
 line to the water, viz : to the harbor in one direction, and from Mill Kiver to West 
 River in the other. 
 
 * In connection with Mr. Hillhouse' s superintendence of the Hartford and New 
 Haven turnpike road, a story is extant, which if it is only a myth, is nevertheless 
 worth repeating in a Journal of Education. The tradition is that while Mr. H. 
 was making the road, he was visited by Gen. Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, 
 one of his associates in the House of Representatives. Of course it was a part of 
 «* the Sachem's" hospitality to show his Southern friend the great work that 
 was in progress. The well trained oxen, as well as other things that he saw, 
 were much admired by the stranger. " See," said he to the negro servant who 
 attended him, " how those oxen work! Tom! they know more than you do." 
 " Ah ! Mas'r," said the negro in reply, " Dem ar oxen has had a Yankee bring- 
 ing up." .#■ 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSE. 39 
 
 he had been educated. A special service which he rendered to 
 that institution at the time of its greatest peril, entitles him to be 
 commemorated among its greatest benefactors. The college^ 
 founded by the clergy, yet patronized and aided to some extent, 
 in its early days, by the State, had always been under the govern- 
 ment of an exclusively clerical corporation. Very naturally, 
 some degree of jealousy had long existed between the corporation 
 of the college and certain leading influences in the government of 
 the State. After the revolutionary war, the college, which had 
 shared deeply in the general impoverishment of the country, had 
 not begun to share in the return of prosperity and the progress of 
 wealth. Its expectations of aid from the State were met with va- 
 rious demands for such a modification of its charter as would at 
 least divide the control of the institution between the clergy and 
 the legislature or the politicians. In some quarters there were 
 plans on foot for another institution to be governed by the State. 
 At last, in the years 1791-2, these difficulties were coming to a 
 crisis. A legislative committee was appointed to inquire into the 
 affairs of the institution. Mr. Hillhouse came home from his 
 place in Congress to attend the corporation in their conference with 
 that committee, which was supposed to be not favorable to the then 
 existing constitution of the college. His advice to the corporation 
 was that they should meet the committee with all frankness and 
 confidence, and with the fullest exposition not only of their finan- 
 cial affairs and necessities, but of their policy in the management 
 of the college, and of their hopes and wishes for the future. They 
 adopted his advice, and the result was that the committee made a 
 report highly favorable to the fidelity and ability with which the 
 college had been governed by the corporation. Just at that time 
 Hamilton's great measure for the assumption by the Federal gov- 
 ernment of the debts which the several States had contracted for 
 the common cause in the revolutionarj'- struggle, had been carried 
 through Congress. The State of Connecticut had laid taxes to 
 •meet the interest, and, in part, the principal of its revolutionary 
 debt ; and large amounts of those taxes, payable in evidences of 
 that debt, were at that moment in the hands of collectors through- 
 out the State. If those amounts were paid over by the collectors 
 to the treasury of the State they would cease to be, what in reality 
 they were, a portion of that revolutionary debt which had been 
 assumed by the Federal government ; or, in other words, the State 
 would resume and discharge a portion of the debt which had just 
 been assumed by the Union. Mr. Hillhouse had conceived the 
 
40 JAMES HILLHOUSB. 
 
 idea of ceding to Yale College all those outstanding taxes which were 
 payable in evidences of the revolutionary debt. It was at his advice 
 that the Corporation of the College had presented the plan to the 
 legislature in a memorial. As an inducement to the grant, he pro- 
 posed, the value of it not being yet ascertained, that one half of 
 the amount which the college might realize in stock of the United 
 States from the cession of those evidences of the State debt, should 
 be transferred by the corporation to the State, for the use and ben- 
 efit of the State itself. He well knew that there were strong pre- 
 judices to be avoided or subdued, and many difficulties to be over- 
 come. Among those members of the legislature who had no pre- 
 judices against the college, and whose intelligence recognized the 
 importance of such an institution to the State, there were some who 
 had no faith whatever that the scheme could succeed. But with 
 his characteristic tact and skill, he addressed himself directly to 
 another class of members, the "substantial farmers," who are even 
 ito this day the ruling class in Connecticut. In his plain, honest 
 way, he availed himself of the great confidence which men. of that 
 class always had in him. He made them feel that the college was 
 an institution in which the whole State had an interest, and of 
 which the State ought to be proud. He made them see that the 
 State as well as the college had a pecuniary interest in his plan. 
 His perseverance and the strength of his personal influence, at last 
 prevailed ; and the measure was carried chiefly by the sympa- 
 thies and the votes of that very class who had no literary or pro- 
 fessional interest in the college. An instinctive confidence in the 
 plain good sense and the public spirit of the people, was charac- 
 teristic of Mr. Hillhouse, and was one reason why the people 
 always had confidence in him and were ready to follow him. 
 
 At the same time a change in the charter of the college was 
 efiected partly, at least, by his influence. The legislature was 
 induced to content itself with proposing, and the corporation was 
 persuaded to accept, a modification by which, while the ten cleri- 
 cal " Fellows" who represent the original founders were to retain 
 the right of filling their own vacancies in perpetual succession, 
 the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and six senior Assistants (now 
 Senators) of the State government for the time being, were to be 
 also members of the Corporation. By this arrangement many 
 ancient jealousies were removed ; and Yale College was not indeed 
 subjected to the State, to be mixed up in all the strifes of politics, 
 but placed in a natura;l and just connection with the civil govern- 
 ment of the commonwealth. In the language of President Stiles, 
 
JAMES HnXHOUSB. 41 
 
 " Moses and Aaron were united." Never, it is believed, has there 
 been any collision or friction in the working of this arrangement. 
 The only thing to be regretted is that of late years the contempti- 
 ble principle of "rotation in office," superseding the old principle 
 of " steady habits," has too much deprived the Corporation of the dig. 
 nity and strength which it ought to receive from its alliance with 
 the State. Senators who have been elevated to office because it 
 was their turn, and who are sure to be displaced next year because 
 they will have had their day of honor, if they happen to be desig. 
 nated by lot as " Senior Senators," can hardly be expected to take 
 much interest in the one meeting of the Corporation which takes 
 plnce each year. 
 
 The memorable " Act for enlarging the powers and increasing 
 the funds of Yale College," saved the institution. It brought to 
 the treasury a net amount of about forty thousand dollars. Out 
 'of that sum, administered with exemplary economy, building 
 after building, arranged according to a plan which Mr. Hillhouse 
 and the artist Trumbull had devised, was added to the line of col- 
 lege edifices. Under the administration of President D wight, 
 which began three years after the passage of that act, the course of 
 studies, the system of government, and the provisions and arrange- 
 ments for instruction, were gradually but rapidly modified to meet the 
 exigencies of the times. The increased resort of students was 
 more than parallel with the increase of accommodations. In process 
 of time, as the poverty of the institution, in relation to the work it had 
 to do, was made the more conspicuous by its growing usefulness and 
 its spreading renown, friends and benefactors began to appear, 
 whose donations or legacies still kept it from sinking. Its Alumni 
 in all parts of the Union, came to its aid. New departments of 
 instruction in the learned professions were organized, and to some 
 extent endowed ; and before Mr. Flillhouse ceased to be treasurer, . 
 the college became, in fact, a university though not affecting the 
 grandeur of so lofty a name. 
 
 It is not strange then, that when, in his old age, he had relin- 
 quished all other offices and public employments, and had retired 
 into the bosom of his family, where he was preparing himself for 
 his last repose, he still retained his official connection with the col- 
 lege. On the 18th of December, 1832, the sudden death of the 
 Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Twining, Esq., threw upon him an 
 unusual and urgent pressure of business, in preparation for the 
 Prudential Committee of the Corporation. On the 29th of Decem- 
 ber, he attended the meeting of that Committee. About noon, 
 
42 JAMES HILLHOUSE. 
 
 after a session of several hours, he returned to his house, as he had 
 gone out, hale, erect, cheerful, with no weakness in his step and no 
 dimness in his eye. He sat down with the family, and while con- 
 versing with them, began to open the letters which had come to hand 
 that morning. As he was reading a letter on college business, he rose 
 from his chair, and without saying anything, went into his bed- 
 room. Only a moment had passed when his son, having occasion 
 to speak to him, followed him. But the old man was asleep. He 
 had lain down quietly upon his bed, and a gentle touch from 
 some kind angel had released him from his labors. 
 
 Those who have a personal remembrance of Mr. Hillhouse are 
 growing few. But of the vividness with which his form and looks 
 and character rise before their minds at the mention of his name, 
 after the lapse of so many years since he was carried to his grave, 
 it is difficult to give a just impression. This brief narrative of 
 hist long life, and of his many public services, cannot convey to 
 those who never saw him, any adequate notion of what he was • 
 still less can the writer hope to set before them by any analysis, or to 
 portray by any art of word-painting, the remarkable and memora- 
 ble peculiarities of the man. 
 
 Physically, as well as in his characteristic moral and mental 
 constitution, he was cast in a heroic mold. Without any extraor- 
 dinary personal beauty — without any statuesque symmetry or fin- 
 ish of figure and features — bis face and person were such that no 
 stranger could look upon him for a moment without looking again and 
 saying to himself, 'That is no ordinary jnan.' Tall, long-limbed, 
 with high cheek-bones, swarthy, lithe in motion, lightness in his step, 
 and strength and freedom in his stride, he seemed a little like some 
 Indian Chief of poetry or romance — the Outalissi of Campbell's 
 Gertrude of Wyoming — the Massasoit or King Philip of our early 
 history as fancy pictures them — ^so much so that with a kind of 
 affectionate respect he was sometimes called " the Sachem." 
 
 It has already been said that his genius and the constitutional 
 elements of his character were such as might have achieved dis- 
 tinction in a military career. The blood of the old Pequot-queller, 
 John Mason, and of the heroic defenders in the siege of Derry was 
 mingled in his veins ; and it is safe to say that nobody ever saw him 
 frightened or disconcerted. But mere courage qualifies no man to 
 be a leader. He had that sort of natural leadership among his equals ; 
 that special faculty of influence over men, that power of winning 
 their full confidence and of making them willing to follow where 
 
JAMES niLLHOUSE. 43 
 
 he led, which is given only in nature's patent of nobility. He 
 had an intuitive knowledge of men, whoever they were with whom 
 he had to do : — without any suspiciousness in his nature, or any 
 slowness in yielding his confidence, he was rarely deceived in 
 those whom he trusted. His prompt discernment of exigencies, 
 and the exhaustless fertility of his resources, gave him an instan- 
 taneous quickness of adaptation to whatever emergency. It was 
 by this military combination of qualities in his mental constitution 
 and development, that he accomplished so much for the town he 
 lived in, for his native State, and for his country. 
 
 Had he been a selfish man — had his nature lacked the glow 
 and charm of living sympathies — the development and organiza- 
 tion of his entire character would have differed from what it was. 
 His spontaneous and genial affectionateness, not only in his family 
 but in every relation — his frank heartiness in all intercourse with 
 friends and neighbors — his ready sensibility to whatsoever things 
 are true or honest, or just, or pure, or lovely or of good report — 
 in a word, the generosity of his nature, even more than the un- 
 doubted superiority of his intellectual powers, commanded the full 
 confidence of all who had to do with him and of all who knew him. 
 What was admired and honored in James Hillhouse was, not the 
 man's extraordinary ability- — not his eloquence or his wit — not the 
 depth and reach of his learning, or the acutenessand power of his 
 logic, — ^but the man himself. It was his integrity, in the original 
 and largest sense of that word — the wholeness of his manly nature 
 with all manly affections and sympathies as well as manly powers, 
 that commanded homage. In his earlier years, before he had 
 given himself up entirely to public affairs, he was rising to enii- 
 nence as an advocate, arguing cases with distinguished success 
 before the highest tribunals ; and sometimes when Hamilton and 
 Burr, with the splendor and authority of the one and the unscru- 
 pulous genius and cunning of the other, were both arrayed against 
 him.. He could not undertake a cause whhout first gaining in his 
 own mind an assurance of its justice ; and when he came to the 
 argument, with his most unaffected honesty and earnestness in 
 every word and look, that assurance of his being in the right com- 
 municated itself to those who heard him. The nature of the con- 
 fidence which his fellow-citizens had in him may be illustrated by 
 a story that is still repeated in New Haven, and is not without a 
 moral. Long ago, when parties had hardly been organized in 
 Connecticut, it happened that a leading man whose name is not 
 essential to the point of the story, but of whom we may say that 
 
44 JAMES HILLHOUSE. 
 
 he had aspirations as well as opinions, went out on some occasion 
 from New Haven into one of the neighboring towns to make a po. 
 litical speech. The school-house, in which the orator held forth, 
 was filled with plain but thinking farmers, who gave a silent atten- 
 tion while he tried to show them with plausible arguments and at 
 great length, how much they were wronged by the then existing 
 administration of their public affairs. When he had finished, one 
 
 of his hearers rose and gave him this conclusive reply : " Mr. ^ 
 
 you are a lamed man, and you know a great deal more than we 
 do ; but we know one thing, and that is that Jemmy Hillhouse is 
 an honester man than you be." 
 
 The combination of simplicity and dignity in Mr. Hillhouse 
 was altogether unique. The simplicity and the dignity being 
 alike unaffected, were not merely combined ; they were one and 
 the same thing. They were the perfectly unconscious manifesta- 
 tion of a strong and self-reliant mind, rich with various knowledge 
 and the shrewdest common sense, controled by the highest moral 
 principles, and alive with every manly affection and every honora- 
 ble sensibility. With what statesmanlike propriety and force of 
 expression, and with what command of classical English, he could 
 discuss high questions of government, is sufficiently shown on some 
 of the foregoing pages by extracts from the Congressional debates ; 
 yet his speaking on all occasions was characterised by that ancient 
 New England pronunciation which was simply the pure and 
 true pronunciation of our mother tongue as it was before the reign 
 of Charles II., but which is now so rarely heard from educated 
 persons or in connection with refinement of thought and man- 
 ners. His ordinary colloquial discourse, often humorous, often 
 full of the most mteresting personal reminiscences, always instruc- 
 tive, was enriched with quaint New England idioms and homely 
 Connecticut proverbs. In all this there was no lack of dignity, 
 for his way of speaking was simply antique, not vulgar. His peo- 
 nunciation was such as Milton used, and Hampden ; and even 
 those Doric colloquialisms of his were, for the most part, such as 
 Brewster and Winthrop, Haynes and Eaton, might have brought 
 with them from England. Yet it would be an injustice to his 
 memory if the reader should think of him as using purposely the 
 antique style in anything, or imagine his old age as decorated with 
 the wig and the shoe buckles which old men wore when he was 
 young. As he did not affect the antique in speech, he was equally 
 above all affectation of the antique in costume. He was not per- 
 
JAMES HILLHOUSE 45 
 
 forming a part ia a play, and had therefore no occasion to dress in 
 character. Doubtless he wore knee-buckles and powdered hair 
 when he was young ; but in his venerable age, when buckles and 
 powder had gone out of fashion, they could have added nothing to 
 his dignity. Those little archaisms of dress are sometimes grace- 
 ful in an old man, and dignified ; but they would hardly have befit- 
 ted him. He was as dignified with his coat off and with a 
 scythe in his hands, leading the mowers across the field, and cut- 
 ting the widest swarth of all, as when he stood conspicuous and 
 honored in the Senate, or on a Sabbath morning walked to the 
 house of prayer with patriarchal grace, beneath the stately elms 
 which his own hands had planted. Everybody in his presence 
 • felt his dignity ; but the dignity was in the man, not in the man- 
 ner His dignity was not put on, and could not be put off. It was 
 nothing else than his transparent simplicity, continually revealing 
 an unaffected nobleness of soul. 
 
 None will suppose that in a public career so long as his, and 
 so full of the most various activity, and with so much independence 
 and resoluteness of mind, he encountered no unfriendly opposition 
 and no reproach from "evil tongues." With all the traits that 
 made him popular, with all his tact in guiding and influencing 
 men, and with all the kindliness of his disposition, he was still just 
 the man to encounter, now and then, some unexpected and violent 
 hostility. Nor was he by nature "slow to wrath." He was so 
 constituted that he had a quick and impetuous sensibility to injury 
 and especially to insult. Yet his religious principles and habits 
 suffered him to harbor no resentment. As a Christian man he had 
 learned to restrain his vindictive feelings, to bear injury with pa- 
 tience, and to repel insult and make it contemptible by the dignity 
 and magnanimity of meekness. 
 
 This last mentioned feature in his character might be referred 
 in part to his habitual regard for other interests than his own. A& 
 he was not living for himself it was the easier for him to be mag- 
 nanimous under any personal wrong. Not only so, but the large- 
 ness of the plan on which he lived, helped to lift him above the 
 depression of whatever personal disappointments and sorrows were 
 in his lot, and to illuminate the entire sphere of his activity and 
 his enjoyments. In words that were spoken at his burial, " He 
 aimed at the public good. He lived for his country. Thus his 
 activity was activity freed from the corrosion of selfishness, and 
 in all his toil there was a consciousness of noble purposes which 
 
46 JlMiJS HILLHOUSE. 
 
 lightened every labor, and even took away froni disappointment 
 the power to vex him. Thus his soul was expanded into more 
 colossal dimensions, his being, as it were, spread out and extended. 
 Tiiere was more of existence in a day of his life than there would 
 be in centuries of some men's living. His influence, his volun. 
 tary influence to do good, being thus extended, he lived with a sort 
 of ubiquity, wherever that influence was feit, — happy in the con. 
 sciousnessof living to good purpose. And for all this he was none 
 tiie less happy — he was far more happy — in his family, and in all 
 the relations of private and personal friendship. The way to en. 
 joy home with the highest zest, the way to have the fireside bright 
 with the most quiet, heartfelt happiness, is to be active even to 
 weariness, and to come home for refreshment and repose. The 
 way to give new vigor and delight to all the pulses of domestic 
 love and private friemdship, is to enlarge the soul and prove it kin- 
 dred to higher orders of existence by the culture of large and gen- 
 erous affections." 
 
^HIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE r. 
 
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