LIBRARY UNWERS.TY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIE3O ?s V.I t LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA CAN DIEOO Ts 1755" \SS e f V.I RECOLLECTIONS OR MEN AND THINGS I HAVE SEEN: A SERIES OF FAMILIAR LETTERS TO A FRIEND, HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, ANECDOTICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE. BY S. G" GOODRICH. VOL. I. NEW YOKE : C. M. SAXTON, 25 PARK ROW. 1859. Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 185*, By 8. G. GOODRICH, Tn the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. C. A. ALVORD, PKIHTU, No. 15 Vandewater Street, N. Y. PREFATORY NOTE. THE first Letter in the ensuing pages will inform the reader as to the origin of these vol umes, and the leading ideas of the author in writing them. It is necessary to state, how ever, that although the work was begun two years since as indicated by the date of the first of these Letters, and while the author was residing abroad a considerable portion of it has been written within the last year, and since his return to America. This state ment is necessary, in order to explain several passages which will be found scattered through its pages. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1856. ENGRAVINGS. VOL. I. PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR Frontispiece From the Medallion presented to him by the American citizens in Paris, on steel, engraved by Bitch le. PAGE AUNT DELIGHT 36 MAKING MAPLE SCGAB 68 WHITTLING 94 CATCHING PIGEONS 100 How ARE YOU, PRIEST ? How ARE YOU, DEMOCRAT ? 180 THE JERKING EXERCISE 202 DEACON OLMSTEAD 222 GRACE INGERSOLL AT THE COURT OF NAPOEEON 260 THE HERMTTESS 294 FIEST ADVENTURE UPON THE SEA 342 THE COLD FRIDAY 894 PEACE! PEACE!... .. 504 VOL. II. GEORGE CABOT 86 EMIGRATION IN 1817 80 PERCIVAL 182 BRAINARD WRITING " FALL OF NIAGARA" 148 SIR WALTER SCOTT, CLERK OF THE COURT OF SESSIONS 176 EDINBURGH 180 ENGLAND 214 BYRON'S COFFIN 250 THESE ARE GOD'S SPELLING-BOOK 810 THE STUDENT 484 VIEW lie PABB 502 HOME . . 526 CONTENTS. LETTER I. Introductory and explanatory 9 LETTER IL Geography and chronology The old brown house Grandfathers Ridgefield The meeting-house Parson Mead Keeler's tavern Lieutenant Smith The cannon-ball 15 LETTER III. The first remembered event High Ridge The spy-glass Sea and Mountain The peel The black patch in the road 24 LETTER IV. Education in New England The burial-ground of the suicide West Lane Old Chichester The school-house The first day at school Aunt Delight Lewis Olmstead A return after twenty years Peter Parley and Mother Goose 80 LETTER V. The joyous nature of childhood Drawbacks The small-pox The pest- house Our house a hospital Inoculation The force of early impres sions Rogers' Pleasures of Memory My first whistle My sister's recollections of a Sunday afternoon The song of Kalewala Poetic -character of early life Obligations to make childhood happy 41 LETTER VL The inner life of towns Physical aspect and character of Ridgefield Effects of cultivation upon climate Energetic character of the first settlers of Ridgefield Classes of the people as to descent Their oc cupations Newspapers Position of my father's family Management of the farm Domestic economy, f the People as to Descent Their Oc cupations Newspapers Position of my Father's Family Management of the Farm Domestic Economy Mechanical Professions Bttf and PorkTht Thanksgioing Turkey Bread Fuel Flint and Steel- Friction Matches Prof. Sittiman Pyroligntous Acid Maple Sugar /?m Dram-drinking Tansey Bitters Brandy Whisky The First ".SWU" Wine Dr. .'* Sacramental Wine Domestic Products Bread and Butter Linen and Woolen Cloth Cotton flax and Wool The LittU Spinning-toheel Sally St. John and the Rat-trap Manufacture of Wool Molly Gregory and Faying Tunes The Tanner and Hatter The Revolving Slioetnaker Whipping the Cat Carpets Coverlids and (Juiltings Village Bees and Raisings The Mieting- Jtou.se that was destroyed by Lightning Deaconing a Hymn. MY PEAK 0****** It will be no new suggestion to a reflecting man like yourself, that towns, as well as men, have their inner and their outer life. There is a striking differ ence in one respect, between the two subjects ; the age of man is set at threescore years and ten, while towns seldom die. The pendulum of human life vibrates by seconds, that of towns by centuries. The history of cities, the focal points of society, may be duly chronicled even to their minutest incidents ; but cities do not constitute nations ; the mass of al most every country is in the smaller towns and vil lages. The outer life of these is vaguely jotted down HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. 57 in the census, and reported in the Gazetteers; but their inner life, which comprises the condition and progress of the community at large, is seldom writ ten. We may see glimpses of it in occasional ser mons, in special biographies, in genealogical memo randa. We- may take periods of fifty years, and deduce certain general inferences from statistical ta bles of births and deaths ; but still, the living men and manners as they rise in a country town, are sel dom portrayed. I am therefore tempted to give you a rapid sketch of Ridgefield and of the people how they lived, thought, and felt, at the beginning of the present century. It will serve as an example of rustic life throughout New England, fifty years ago, and it will moreover enable me, by contrasting this state of things with what I found to exist many years after, to show the steady, though silent, and perhaps unnoted progress of society among us. From what I have already said, you will easily imagine the prominent physical characteristics and aspect of my native town a general mass of hills, rising up in a crescent of low mountains, and com manding a wide view on every side. The soil was naturally hard, and thickly sown with stones of ev ery size, from the immovable rock to the pebble. The fields, at this time, were divided by rude stone walls, and the surface of most was dotted with gathered heaps of stones and rocks, thus clearing spaces for cultivation, yet leaving a large portion of 8* 58 LKTTEKS BIOGRAPHICAL, the land still encumbered with its original curse. The climate was severe, on account of the elevation of the site, yet this was perhaps fully compensated by a corresponding salubrity. I may add, in passing, that the climate of New England generally, has been mitigated within the last fifty years by the changes which civilization has wrought on the surface of the country the felling of forests, the draining of marshes, the cultivation of the soil, and other similar causes to an extent not generally appreciated. A person who has not made observations for a long period of time, is hardly aware of these mutations effected by a growing and industrious agricultural community, even in the stern er features of nature. This may, however, be easily appreciated, if one will compare a district of country covered with its original forests, and converted into one vast sponge by its thick coating of weeds, shrubs, mosses, and decayed wood the accumulations of cen- turies thus making the hills and valleys a universal swamp, hoarding the rains of summer, and treasuring the snows of winter with the same district, cleared of its trees, its soil turned up by the plow to the sun, and its waste waters carried off by roads and drains. Such a process over a whole country, is evi dently sufficient to affect its temperature, and ma terially to modify its climate. I know many tracts of land, which, fifty years ago, were reeking with moisture, their surface defying cultivation bv llio HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 59 plow, and their roads impassable a great part of the year by means of the accumulation of water in the soil now covered with houses, gardens, and corn fields, and all the result of the slow but transform ing processes bestowed by man upon every country which he subjects to cultivation. Nature is like man himself rude in his aspect and severe in his temper, until softened and subdued by civilization. Our New England, two centuries ago, was, like its inhabitants, bleak and wild to the view, harsh and merciless in its climate : the change of these is analogous to the change which has been effected by substituting towns and villages for wigwams, and Christian man for the sa\ age. Yet despite the somewhat forbidding nature of the soil and climate of Eidgefield, it may be regarded as presenting a favorable example of New England country life and society, at the beginning of the pres ent century. The town was originally settled by a sturdy race of men, mostly the immediate descendants of English emigrants, some from Norwalk and some from Milford. Their migration over an intervening space of savage hills, rocks, and ravines, into a ter ritory so forbidding, and their speedy conversion of this into a thriving and smiling village, are witnesses to their courage and energy. The names which they bore, and which have been disseminated over the Union Benedicts, Olmsteads, Northups, Keelers, Hoyts, Nashes, Dauceys, Meads, Hawleys are no (JO LK'l'lKKS IJIOGUAPHICAL, less significant of the vigor and manliness of the stock to which they belonged. At the time' referred to, the date of my earliest recollection, the society of Eidgefield was exclusively English, and the manners and customs such as might have been expected, under the modifying influence of existing circumstances. I remember but one Irish man, one negro, and one Indian in the town. The first had begged and blarneyed his way from Long Island, where he had been wrecked ; the second was a- liberated slave; and the last was the vestige of a tribe, which dwelt of yore in a swampy tract, the name of which I have forgotten. We had a pro fessed beggar, called Jagger, who had served in the armies of more than one of the Georges, and insisted upon crying " God save the king !" even on the 4th of July, and when openly threatened by the boya with a gratuitous ride on a rail. We had one set tled pauper, Mrs. Yabacomb, who, for the first dozen years of my life, was my standard type for the witch of Endor. Nearly all the inhabitants of Eidgefield were farm ers, with the few mechanics that were necessary to carry on society in a somewhat primeval state. Even the persons not professionally devoted to agri culture, had each his farm, or at least his garden and home lot, with his pigs, poultry, and cattle. The pop ulation might ha'v, been 1200, comprising two hun dred families. All could read and write, but in point HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 61 of fact, beyond the Almanac and Watts' Psalms and Hymns, their literary acquirements had little scope.. There were, I think, four newspapers, all weekly, published in the State : one at Hartford, one at New London, one at New Haven, and one at Litchfield. There were, however, not more than three subscribers to all these in our village. We had, however, a pub lic library of some two hundred volumes, and what was of equal consequence the town was on the road which was then the great thoroughfare, connecting Boston with New York, and hence it had means of intelligence from travelers constantly passing through the place, which kept it up with the march of events. If Kidgefield was thus rather above the average of Connecticut villages in its range of civilization, I sup pose the circumstances and modes of life in my fa ther's family, were somewhat above those of most people around us. We had a farm of forty acres, with four cows, two horses, and some two dozen sheep, to which may be added a stock of poultry, in cluding a flock of geese. My father carried on the farm, besides preaching two sermons a week, and at tending to other parochial duties visiting the sick, attending funerals, solemnizing marriages, &c. He personally laid out the beds and planted the garden , he pruned the fruit-trees, and worked with the men in the meadow in the press of haying-time. He generally cut the corn-stalks himself, and always shelled the ears ; the latter being done by drawing 62 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, them across the handle of the frying-pan, fastened over a wash-tub. I was sometimes permitted, as an indulgence, to spell my father in this, which was a favorite employment. With these and a few other exceptions, our agricultural operations were carried on by hired help. It may seem that I should have passed over these somewhat commonplace passages in my father's life, but my judgment teaches me otherwise. There is good example and good argument in behalf of these labors of the garden and the field, even in a profes sional man. Not to cite Achilles and Abraham, who slaughtered their own mutton, and Cinciunatus, who held his own plow, it was the custom in New Eng land, at the time I speak of, for country lawyers, physicians, clergymen even Doctors of Divinity, to partake of these homespun labors. In the library of the Atheneum at Hartford, is a collection of Al manacs, formerly belonging to John Cotton Smith one of the most elegant and accomplished men of his time a distinguished member of Congress, Judge of the Superior Court, and several years Governor of the State. In looking it over, I observed such notes as the following, made with his own hand: "cut my barley," "began rye harvest," "planted field of po tatoes," &c.; thus showing his personal attention to, if not his participation in, the affairs of the farm.* * See ;i further notice of Gov. Smith, page 89. vol ii HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 63 Nearly all the judges of the Superior Court occasion ally worked in the field, in these hearty old federal times. Whether these facts may be connected with others, which I am about to state, is a question I leave for doctors to determine. Certain it is that at this period professional men had good health and good diges tion : no clergyman was known to have bronchitis. I seldom heard of dyspepsia, bodily or mental, during the existence of the Charter of Charles II. There is a pretty common notion in the United States, that Jefferson infused a general demagogism into this country, which percolated through the blood and bone of society, and set everybody in some way or other, to flattering the masses. It is certain that about this time, not only the politician, but the preacher, the lawyer, the editor, the author, all took to talking, speech- making, lecturing in a new way, in a new sense that is, so as to seduce the multitude. Thus was ushered in the Age of Talk, which soon grew into a rage. The mania kept pace with democ racy, and democracy with the mania ; and at last, at the end of this national flatulence, the world grew light-headed, and forth came a spawn of isms, which no man can number. Under the influence of this advent of new notions, some took to cold water and some to mint-juleps ; some to raw vegetables and some to hot slings. All agonized in one way or another Every thing grew intense : politics swam with pota- K4- LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, tions ; religion got mixed up with transcendentalism ; until at last, professors took to table-turning and judges to spirit-rappings. Now I do not say that all this is a sequence of logical deductions : that spirit ualism is to be fathered upon Thomas Jefferson : what I affirm is, that demagogism and democracy, dyspep sia and transcendentalism, vegetarianism and spirit ualism, have all come np, one after another, since old federalism went down ! If it is any object to cure mankind of these vapors, I recommend that we all go back to the habits of other days, in which ministers, judges and governors wrought occasionally in the field. But I return to Eidgefield. The household, as well as political, economy of these days lay in this, that every family lived as much as possible within itself. Money was scarce, wages being about fifty cents a day, though these were generally paid in meat, vegetables, and other articles of use seldom in money. There was not a factory of any kind in the place.* There was a butcher, but he only went from house to house to slaughter the cattle and swine of his neighbors. There was a tanner, but he only dressed other people's skins: there was a clothier, but he generally fulled and dressed other people's cloth. All this is typical of the mechanical opera- * I recollect, as tin after-thought, one exception. There was shatter who supplied the town ; but he generally mode hats to order, and usu ally in exchange for the skins of foxes, rabbits, muskrats, and other chance peltry. I frequently purchased my powder and shot from the proceeds of skins which I sold him. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 65 tions of the place. Even dyeing blue a portion of the wool, so as to make linsey-woolsey for short gowns, aprons, and blue-mixed stockings vital ne cessities in those days was a domestic operation. During the autumn, a dye-tub in the chimney corner thus placed so as to be cherished by the genial heat was as familiar in all thrifty houses, as the Bible or the back-log. It was covered with a board, and formed a cosy seat in the wide-mouthed fireplace, especially of a chill evening. When the night had waned, and the family had retired, it frequently be came the anxious seat of the lover, who was per mitted to carry on his courtship, the object of his addresses sitting demurely in the opposite corner. Some of the first families in Connecticut, I suspect, could their full annals be written, would find their foundations to have been laid in these chimney-corner courtships. Being thus exposed, this institution of the dye-tub was the frequent subject of distressing and exciting accidents. Among the early, indelible incidents in my memory, happening to all vigorous characters, turning this over is one of the most prominent. Noth ing so roused the indignation of thrifty housewives, [for besides the ignominious avalanche of blue upon the floor, there was an infernal appeal made to an other sense than that of sight. Every youth of parts was laden with experience in this way. I have a vague impression that Philip N . . . ., while courting 66 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, H . . . . M . . ., was suspended for six weeks, for one of these mischances. If it was not he, it was some other spark of that generation. To this general system of domestic economy our family was not an exception. Every autumn, it was a matter of course that we had a fat ox or a fat cow, ready for slaughter. One full barrel was salted down ; the hams were cut out, slightly salted, and hung up in the chimney for a few days, and thus be came "dried" or "hung beef," then as essential as the staff of life. Pork was managed in a similar way, though even on a larger scale, for two barrels were indispensable. A few pieces, as the spare-ribs, &c., were distributed to the neighbors, who paid in kind when they killed their swine. Mutton and poultry came in their turn, all from our own stock, save that on Thanksgiving-day some of the magnates gave the parson a turkey. This, let me observe, in those good old times, was a bird of mark ; no timid, crouching biped, with downcast head and pallid countenance, but stalking like a lord, and having wattles red as a "banner bathed in slaughter." His beard, or in modern parlance, his goat, without the aid of gum and black-ball, was so long, shining, and wiry, that it might have provoked the envy of his modern human rival in foppery. There was, in fact, something of the genius of the native bird still in him, for though the race was near ly extinct, a few wild flocks lingered in the remote HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 67 woods. Occasionally in the depth of winter, and along to the early spring, these stole to the barnyard, and held communion with their civilized compatriots. Se vere battles ensued among the leaders for the favors of the fair, and as the wild cocks always conquered, the vigor of the race was kept up. Our bread was of rye, tinged with Indian meal. Wheat bread was reserved for the sacrament and company ; a proof not of its superiority, but of its scarcity and consequent estimation. All the vegeta bles came from our garden and farm. The fuel was supplied by our own woods sweet-scented hickory, snapping chestnut, odoriferous oak, and reeking, fiz zling ash the hot juice of the latter, by the way, being a sovereign antidote for the ear-ache. These were laid in huge piles, all alive with sap, on the tall, gaunt andirons. You might have thought you heard John Rogers and his family at the stake, by their plain- tive simmerings. The building of a fire was a real architectural achievement, favored by the wide yawn ing fireplace, and was always begun by daybreak. There was first a back-log, from fifteen to four and twenty inches in diameter and five feet long, imbed ded in the ashes ; then came a top log ; then a fore stick; then a middle stick, and then a heap of kin dlings, reaching from the bowels down to the bottom. A-top of all was a pyramid of smaller fragments, art fully adjusted, with spaces for the blaze. Friction matches had not then been sent from the 68 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, regions of brimstone, to enable every boy or beggar to carry a conflagration in his pocket. If there were no coals left from the last night's fire, and none to be borrowed from the neighbors, resort was had to flint, steel, and tinder-box. Often, when the flint was dull, and the steel soft, and the tinder damp, the striking of fire was a task requiring both energy and patience. If the edifice on the andirons was skilfully construct ed, the spark being applied, there was soon a furious stinging smoke, which Silliman told the world some years after, consisted mainly of pyroligneous acid. Nevertheless, in utter ignorance of this philosophical fact, the forked flame soon began to lick the sweat ing sticks above, and by the time the family had arisen, and assembled in the " keeping room," there was a roaring blaze, which defied even the bitter blasts of winter and which, by the way, found abun dant admittance through the crannies of the doors and windows. To feed the family fire in those days, during the severe season, was fully one man's work. But to go on with our household history. Sugar was partially supplied by our maple-trees. These were tapped in March, the sap being collected, and boiled down in the woods. This was wholly a do mestic operation, and one in which all the children rejoiced, each taking his privilege of an occasional sip or dip, from the period of the limpid sap, to the granulated condiment. Nevertheless, the chief sup. ply of sugar was from the West Indies. MAKIXG MAPLE SUGAR. Vol. 1, p. 68. HISTORICAL, ANECDOT1CAL, ETC. G9 Bum was largely consumed, but our distilleries had scarcely begun. A half-pint of it was given as a matter of course to every day-laborer, more particu larly in the summer season. In all families, rich or poor, it was offered to male visitors as an essential point of hospitality, or even good manners. Wo men I beg pardon ladies, took their schnapps, then named "Hopkins' Elixir," which was the most deli cious and seductive means of getting tipsy that has been invented. Crying babies were silenced with hot toddy, then esteemed an infallible remedy for wind on the stomach. Every man imbibed his morning dram, and this was esteemed temperance. There is a story of a preacher about those days, who thus lec tured his parish : "I say nothing, my beloved breth ren, against taking a little bitters before breakfast, and after breakfast, especially if you are used to it. What I contend against is this dramming, dramming, dramming, at all hours of the day. There are some men who take a glass at eleven o'clock in the fore noon, and at four in the afternoon. I do not pur pose to contend against old established customs, my brethren, rendered respectable by time and author ity ; but this dramming, dramming, is a crying sin in the land." However absurd this may seem now, it was not then very wide of the public sentiment. Huxham's tincture was largely prescribed by the physicians. Tansey bitters were esteemed a sort of panacea, 70 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, moral as well as physical, for even the morning prayer went up heavily without it. The place of Stoughton for this mixture was not then invented was supplied by a tuft of tansey which Providence seemed to place somewhere in every man's garden or home lot. As to brandy, I scarcely heard of it, so far as I can recollect, till I was sixteen years old, and as ap prentice in a country store, was called upon to sell it. Cider was the universal table beverage. Cider brandy and whisky were soon after evoked from the infernal caldron of evil spirits. I remember, in my boyhood, to have seen a strange, zigzag tin tube, denominated a " still," belonging to one of our neigh bors, converting, drop by drop, certain innocent liquids into the infernal fire-water. But, in the days I speak of, French brandy was rather confined to the houses of the rich, and to the drug shop. Wine in our country towns was then almost ex clusively used for the sacrament. I remember to have heard a story of these days, which is suggestive. The Rev. Dr. G of J. ... had a brother who had lived some years in France, and was familiar with the wines of that country. On a certain occasion, he dined with his clerical brother, who after dinner gave him a glass of this beverage. The visitor having tasted it, shrugged his shoulders, and made wry faces. " Where did you get this liquor, brother ?" said he. HISTORICAL, ANECDOtlCAL, ETC. 71 " Why it is some that was left over from the sacra ment, and my deacons sent it to me." " I don't wonder, brother," was the reply, " that your church is so small, now that I know what wine you give them." There was, of course, no baker in Ridgefield ; each family not only made its own bread, cakes, and pies, but their own soap, candles, butter, cheese, and the like. The fabrication of cloth, linen, and woolen was no less a domestic operation. Cotton that is, raw cotton was then wholly unknown among us at the North, except as a mere curiosity, produced some where in the tropics ; but whether it grew on a plant, or an animal, was not clearly settled in the public mind. We raised our own flax, rotted it, hackled it, dressed it, and spun it. The little wheel, turned by the foot, had its place, and was as familiar as if it had been a member of the family. How often have I seen my mother, and my grandmother too, sit down to it though this, as I remember, was for the purpose of spinning some finer kind of thread the burden of the spinning being done by a neighbor of ours, Sally St. John. By the way, she was a good-hearted, cheer ful old maid, who petted me beyond my deserts. I grieve to say, that I repaid her partiality by many mischievous pranks, for which I should have been roundly punished, had not the good creature, like charity, covered a multitude of sins. I did indeed 72 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, get filliped for catching her foot one day in a steel- trap, but I declare that I was innocent of malice pre pense, inasmuch as I had set the trap for a rat in stead of the said Sally. Nevertheless, the verdict was against me, not wholly because of my misdemea nor in this particular instance, but partly upon the general theory that if I did not deserve punishment for that, I had deserved it, and should deserve it for something else, and so it was safe to administer it. .The wool was also spun in the family, partly by my sisters, and partly by Molly Gregory, daughter of our neighbor, the town carpenter. I remember her well as she sang and spun aloft in the attic. In those days, church singing was one of the fine arts the only one, indeed, which flourished in Ridgefield, except the music of the drum and fife. The choir was divided into four parts, ranged on three sides ol the meeting-house gallery. The tenor, led by Dea con Hawley, was in front of the pulpit, the base to the left, and the treble and counter to the right* the whole being set in motion by a pitch-pipe, made by the deacon himself, who was a cabinet-maker. Molly took upon herself the entire counter, for she had excellent lungs. The fuging tunes, which had then run a little mad, were her delight, and of all these, Montgomery was the general favorite. In her solitary operations aloft, I have often heard * This separation of a choir is seldom pit rticed now in our churches, Out was in general use at this period. HISTORICAL, ASECDOTICAL, ETC. 73 her send forth from the attic windows, the droning hum of her wheel, with fitful snatches of a hymn, in which the base began, the tenor followed, then the treble, and finally, the counter winding up with ir resistible pathos. Molly singing to herself, and all un conscious of eavesdroppers, carried on all the parts, thus : Base. " Long for a cooling Tenor. " Long for a cooling Treble. " Long for a cooling Counter. " Long for a cooling stream at hand, And they must drink or die 1" The knitting of stockings was performed by the female part of the family in the evening, and espe cially at tea parties. According to the theory of so ciety in that golden age, this was a moral as well as an economical employment, inasmuch as Satan was held to find " Some mischief still For idle hands to do." Satan, however, dodged the question, for if the hands were occupied, the tongue was loose ; and it was said that in some families, he kept them well oc cupied with idle gossip. At all events, pianos, chess boards, graces, battledoors, and shuttlecocks, with other safety-valves of the kind, were only known by the hearing of the ear, as belonging to some such Vanity Fair as New York or Boston. VOL. I. * 74 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, The weaving of cloth linen, as well as woolen was performed by an itinerant workman, who came to the house, put up his loom, and threw his shuttle, till the season's work was done. The linen was bleached, and made up by the family ; the woolen cloth was sent to the fuller to be dyed and dressed. Twice a year, that is, in the spring and autumn, the tailor came to the house and fabricated the semi annual stock of clothes for the male members this being called " whipping the cat." Mantuamakers and milliners came in their turn, to fit out the female members of the family. There was a similar process as to boots and shoes. We sent the hides of the cattle cows and calves we had killed to the tanner, and these came back in assorted leather. Occasionally a little morocco, then wholly a foreign manufacture, was bought at the store, and made up for the ladies' best shoes. Amby Benedict, the circulating shoemaker, upon due notice, came with his bench, lapstone, and awls, and converted some little room into a shop, till the household was duly shod. He was a merry fellow, and threw in lots of singing gratis. He played all the popular airs upon his lapstone as hurdygurdies and hand- organs do now. Carpets were then only known in a few families, and were confined to the keeping-room and parlor. They were all home-made : the warp consisting of woolen yarn, and the woof of lists and old woolen HI8TOKICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 15 cloth, cut into strips, and sewed together at the ends. Coverlids generally consisted of quilts, made of pieces of waste calico, elaborately sewed together in octagons, and quilted in rectangles, giving the whole a gay and rich appearance. This process of quilting generally brought together the women of the neighborhood, married and single, and a great time they had of it what with tea, talk, and stitch ing. In the evening, the beaux were admitted, so that a quilting was a real festival, not unfrequently getting young people into entanglements which mat rimony alone could unravel. I am here reminded of a sort of communism or so cialism which prevailed in our rural districts long before Owen or Fourier was born. If some old Arca dian of the golden age had written his life, as I now write mine, I have no doubt that it would have ap peared that this system existed then and there, and that these pretended inventors were mere imitators. At all events, at Bidgefield we used to have " stone bees," when all the men of a village or hamlet came togeth er with their draft cattle, and united to clear some patch of earth which had been stigmatized by nature with an undue visitation of stones and rocks. All this labor was gratuitously rendered, save only that the proprietor of the land furnished the grog. Such a meeting was always of course a very social and sociable affair. When the work was done, gymnas tic exercises such as hopping, wrestling, and foot- 76 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, racing took place among the athletic young men My father generally attended these celebrations as a looker-on. It was indeed the custom for the clergy of the olden time, to mingle with the people, even in their labors and their pastimes. For some reason or other, it seemed that things went better when the parson gave them his countenance. I followed my father's example, and attended these cheerful and beneficial gatherings. Most of the boys of the town did the same. I may add that, if I may trust the tra ditions of Bidgefield, the cellar of our new house was dug by a bee in a single day, and that was Christ mas. House-raising and barn-raising, the framework be ing always of wood, were done in the same way by a neighborly gathering of the people. I remember an anecdote of a church-raising, which I may as well relate here. In the eastern part of the State, I think at Lyme, or Pautipaug, a meeting-house was destroyed by lightning. After a year or two, the society mus tered its energies, and raised the frame of another on the site of the old one. It stood about six months, and was then blown over. In due time, another frame was prepared, and the neighborhood gathered together to raise it. It was now proposed by Deacon Hart that they should commence the performances by a prayer and hymn, it having been suggested that perhaps the want of these pious preliminaries on former occasions, had something to HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 77 do with the calamitous results which attended them. "When all was ready, therefore, a prayer was made, and the chorister of the place deaconed* the first two lines of the hymn thus : " If God to build the house deny, The builders work in vain." This being sung, the chorister completed the verse thus, adapting the lines to the occasion : " Unless the Lord doth shingle it, It will blow down agin !" 1 must not fail to give you a portrait of one of our village homes of the middle class at this era. I take as an example that of our neighbor, J B . . . . who had been a tailor, but having thriven in his affairs, and now advanced to the age of some fifty years, had become a farmer such a career, by the way, being common at the time ; for the prudent mechanic, adding to his house and his lands, as his necessities and his thrift dictated, usually ended as the proprietor of an ample house, fifty to a hundred acres of land, and an ample barn, stocked with half * Deaconing a hymn or psalm, was adopted on occasions when there was but a single book, or perhaps but one or two books, at hand a circumstance more common fifty years ago, when singing-books were scarce, than nt present, when books of all kinds render food for the mind as cheap and abundant as that for the body. In such cases, the leader of the choir, or the deacon, or some other person, read a verse, or perhaps two lines of a hymn, which being sung, other stanzas were read, and then sung in the same way. 78 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, a dozen cows, one or two horses, a flock of sheep, and a general assortment of poultry. The home of this, our neighbor B , was situ ated on the road leading to Salem, there being a wide space in front occupied by the wood-pile, which in these days was not only a matter of great importance, but of formidable bulk. The size of the wood-pile was indeed in some sort an index to the rank and condition of the proprietor. The house itself was a low edifice, forty feet long, and of two stories in front; the rear being what was called a breakback, that is, sloping down to a height of ten feet ; this low part furnishing a shelter for garden tools, and various household instruments. The whole was constructed of wood ; the outside being of the dun complexion assumed by unpainted wood, exposed to the weather for twenty or thirty years, save only that the roof was tinged of a reddish-brown by a fine moss that found sustenance in the chestnut shingles. To the left was the garden, which in the produc tive season was a wilderness of onions, squashes, cu cumbers, beets, parsnips, and currants, with the never- failing tansey for bitters, horseradish for seasoning, and fennel for keeping old women awake in church time. A sprig of fennel was in fact the theological smelling-bottle of the tender sex, and not unfre- quently of the men, who, from long sitting in the sanctuary after a week of labor in the field found themselves too strongly tempted to visit the forbidden HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 79 land of Nod would sometimes borrow a sprig of fennel, and exorcise the fiend that threatened their spiritual welfare. The interior of the house presented a parlor with plain, whitewashed walls, a home-made carpet upon the floor, calico curtains at the window, and a mirror three feet by two against the side, with a mahogany frame : to these must be added eight chairs and a cherry table, of the manufacture of Deacon Hawley. The keeping or sitting^ room had also a carpet, a dozen rush-bottom chairs, a table, &c. The kitchen was large fully twenty feet square, with a fireplace six feet wide and four feet deep. On one side, it looked out upon the garden, the squashes and cu cumbers climbing up and forming festoons over the door ; on the other a view was presented of the or chard, embracing first a circle of peaches, pears, and plums, and beyond^a wide-spread clover field, embow ered with apple-trees. Just by, was the well, with its tall sweep, the old oaken bucket dangling from the pole. The kitchen was in fact the most comfortable room in the house ; cool in summer, and perfumed with the breath of the garden and the orchard : in winter, with its roaring blaze of hickory, it was a cosy resort, defying the bitterest blasts of the season. Here the whole family assembled at meals, save only when the presence of company made it proper to serve tea in the parlor. The chambers were all without carpets, and the 80 LE'ITERS BIOGKAPHICAL, furniture was generally of a simple character. The beds, however, were of ample size, and well filled with geese feathers, these being deemed essential for comfortable people. I must say, by the way, that every decent family had its flock of geese, of course, which was picked thrice a year, despite the noisy re monstrances of both goose and gander. The sheets of the bed, though of home-made linen, were as white as the driven snow. Indeed, the beds of this era showed that sleep was a luxury, well understood and duly cherished by all classes. The cellar, extending under the whole house, was a vast receptacle, and by no means the least important part of the establish ment. In the autumn, it was supplied with three barrels of beef and as many of pork, twenty barrels of cider, with numerous bins of potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, and cabbages. The garret, which was of huge dimensions, at the same time displayed a laby rinth of dried pumpkins, peaches, and apples hung in festoons upon the rafters, amid bunches of summer savory, boneset, fennel, and other herbs the floor being occupied by heaps of wool, flax, tow, and the like. The barn corresponded to the house. It was a low brown structure, having abundance of sheds built on to it, without the least regard to symmetry. I need not say it was well stocked with hay, oats, rye, and buckwheat. Six cows, one or two horses, three dozen sheep, and an ample supply of poultry, including two HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 81 or three broods of turkeys, constituted its living tenants. The farm I need not describe in detail, but the orchard must not be overlooked. This consisted of three acres, covered, as I have said, with apple-trees, yielding abundantly as well for the cider-mill as for the table, including the indispensable winter apple sauce according to their kinds. In the spring, an apple orchard is one of the most beautiful objects in the world. No tree or shrub presents a bloom at once so gorgeous, and so fragrant. Just at this time it is the paradise of the bees and the birds the former filling the air with their gentle murmurs, and the latter celebrating their nuptials with all the frolic and fun of a universal jubilee. How often have I ventured into Uncle Josey's ample orchard at this joyous season, andj^ood entranced among the robins, blackbirds, woodpeckers, bluebirds, jays, and orioles, all seeming to me like playmates, racing, cha sing, singing, rollicking, in the exuberance of their joy, or perchance slyly pursuing their courtships, or even more slyly building their nests, and rearing their young. The inmates of the house I need not describe, fur ther than to say that Uncle Josey himself was a little deaf, and of moderate capacity, yet he lived to good account, for he reared a large family, and was gath ered to his fathers at a good old age, leaving be hind him a handsome estate, a fair name, and a safe 82 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, example. His wife, who spent her early life at ser vice in a kitchen, was a handsome, lively, efficient woman, mother of a large and prosperous family, and a universal favorite in the neighborhood. She is still living in a green old age, with several genera tions of descendants, who call down blessings on her name. This is the homely picture of a Ridgefield farmer's home, half a century ago. There were other estab lishments more extensive and more sumptuous in the town, as there were others also of an inferior grade. Yet this was a fair sample of the houses, barns, and farms of the middle class the majority of the peo ple. Since then the times have changed, as I shall hereafter show : the general standard of living has in all things improved; but still the same elements of thrift, economy, piety, prudence, and progress are visible on every side. Uncle Josey's house is still standing ; its exterior shows no coat of paint, but the interior displays Kidderminster carpets made at Enfield or Lowell mahogany bureaus, gilt looking- glasses, and a small well-filled mahogany bookcase. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 83 LETTER VII. Domestic Habits of the People Meals Servants and Masters Dress Amusements Festivals Marriages Funeral-s Dancing Winter Sports Up and Dawn My Two Grandmothers. R C****** You will gather from my preceding letter, some ideas of the household industry and occupations of country people in Connecticut, at .the beginning of the present century. Their manners, in other re spects, had a corresponding stamp of homeliness and simplicity. In most families, the first exercise of the morning was reading the Bible, followed by a prayer, at which all were assembled, including the servants and help ers of the kitchen and the farm. Then came the breakfast, which was a substantial meal, always in cluding hot viands, with vegetables, apple-sauce, pick les, mustard, horseradish, and various other condi ments. Cider was the common drink for laboring people; even children drank it at will. Tea was common, but not so general as now. Coffee was al most unknown. Dinner was a still more hearty and varied repast characterized by abundance of garden vegetables ; tea was a light supper. The day began early : breakfast was had at six in summer and seven in winter ; dinner at noon the 4 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, work people in the fields being called to their meals by a conch-shell, usually winded by some kitchen Triton. The echoing of this noon-tide horn, from farm to farm, and over hill and dale, was a species of music which even rivaled the popular melody of drum and fife. Tea the evening meal, usually took place about sundown. In families where all were laborers, all sat at table, servants as well as masters the food being served before sitting down. In families where the masters and mistresses did not share the labors of the household or the farm, the meals of the domes tics were had separate. There was, however, in those days a perfectly good understanding and good feeling between the masters and servants. The latter were not Irish ; they had not as yet imbibed the pie heiau envy of those above them, which has- since so generally embittered and embarrassed American do mestic life. The terms democrat and aristocrat had not got into use: these distinctions, and the feelings now implied by them, had indeed no existence in the hearts of the people. Our servants, during all my early life, were of the neighborhood, generally the daughters of respectable farmers and mechanics, and respecting others, were themselves respected and cherished. They were devoted to the interests ol the family, and were always relied upon and treated as friends. In health, they had the same food ; in sickness, the same care as the masters and mistresses or their children. This servitude implied no degra- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AT,, >ITC. 85 dation, because it did not degrade the heart or man ners of those subjected to it. It was never thought of as a reproach to a man or woman in the stations they afterwards filled that he or she had been out to service. If servitude has since become associated with debasement, it is only because servants them selves, under the bad guidance of demagogues, have lowered their calling by low feelings and low man ners. At the period of my earliest recollections, men of all classes were dressed in long, broad-tailed coats, with huge pockets, long waistcoats, and breeches. Hats had low crowns, with broad brims some so wide as to be supported at the sides with cords. The stockings of the parson, and a few others, were of silk in summer and worsted in winter ; those of the people were generally of wool, and blue and gray mixed. Women dressed in wide bonnets some times of straw and sometimes of silk : the gowns were of silk, muslin, gingham, &c. generally close and short-waisted, the breast and shoulders being covered by a full muslin kerchief. Girls ornamented themselves with a large white Vandyke. On the whole, the dress of both men and women has greatly changed. As to the former, short, snug, close-fitting garments have succeeded to the loose latitudinarian coats of former times : stove-pipe hats have followed broad brims, and pantaloons have taken the place of breeches. With the other sex little French bon- 80 I.KTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, nets, set round with glowing flowers, flourish in the plaee of the plain, yawning hats of yore ; then it was as much an effort to make the waists short, as it is now to make them long. As to the hips, which now make so formidable a display it seems to me that in the days I allude to, ladies had none to speak of. The amusements were then much the same as at present though some striking differences may be noted. Books and newspapers which are now dif fused even among the country towns, so as to be in the hands of all, young and old were then scarce, and were read respectfully, and as if they were grave mat- lei's, demanding thought and attention. They were not toys and pastimes, taken up every day, and by everybody, in the short intervals of labor, and then hastily dismissed, like waste paper. The aged sat down when they read, and drew forth their specta cles, and put them deliberately and reverently upon the nose. These instruments were not as now, little tortoise-shell hooks, attached to a ribbon, and put off and on with a jerk ; but they were of silver or steel, sub stantially made, and calculated to hold on with a firm and steady grasp, showing the gravity of the uses to which they were devoted. Even the young ap proached a book with reverence, and a newspaper with awe. How the world has changed ! The two great festivals were Thanksgiving and 1 training-day" the latter deriving, from the still lin gering spirit of the revolutionary war, a decidedly IIISTOniCAL, ANKCDOTTCAL, ETC. 87 martial character. The marching of the troops, and the discharge of gunpowder, which invariably closed the exercises, were glorious and inspiring mementoes of heroic achievements, upon many a bloody field. The music of the drum and fife resounded on every side. A match between two rival drummers always drew an admiring crowd, aud was in fact one of the chief excitements of the great day. Tavern haunting especially in winter, when there was little to do for manufactures had not then sprung up to give profitable occupation, during this inclement season was common, even with respectable farmers. Marriages were celebrated in the evening, at the house of the bride, with a general gathering of the neigh borhood, and usually wound off by dancing. Every body went, as to a public exhibition, without invita tion. Funerals generally drew large processions, which proceeded to the grave. Here the minister always made an. address, suited to the occasion. If there was any thing remarkable in the history of the deceased, it was turned to religious account in the next Sunday's sermon. Singing meetings, to practice church music, were a great resource for the young, in winter. Dances at private houses were common, and drew no reproaches from the sober people present. Balls at the taverns were frequented by the young: the children of deacons and ministers attended, though the parents did not. The winter brought sleighing, skating, and the usual round of indoor sports. In 88 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, general, the intercourse of all classes was kindly and considerate no one arrogating superiority, and yet no one refusing to acknowledge it, where it existed. You would hardly have noticed that there was a higher and a lower class. Such there were certainly, for there must always and everywhere be the strong and the weak, the wise and the foolish those of supe rior and those of inferior intellect, taste, manners, ap pearance, and character. But in our society, these existed without being felt as a privilege to one which must give offence to another. The feuds between Up and Down, which have since disturbed the whole fab ric of society, had not then begun. It may serve, in some degree, to throw light upon the manners and customs of this period, if I give you a sketch of my two grandmothers. Both were wid ows, and were well stricken in years, when they came to visit us at Ridgefield about the year 1803 or 4. My grandmother Ely was of the old regime a lady of the old school, and sustaining the char acter in her upright carriage, her long, tapering waist, and her high-heeled shoes. The costumes of Louis XV.'s tune had prevailed in New York and . Boston, and even at this period they still lingered there, in isolated cases, though the Revolution had generally exercised a transforming influence upon the toilet of both men and women. It is curious enough that at this moment 1855 the female attire of a century ago is revived ; and in every black-eyed, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 89 stately old lady, dressed in black silk, and showing her steel-gray hair beneath her cap, I can now see semblances of this, my maternal grandmother. My other grandmother was in all things the oppo site : short, fat, blue -eyed, practical, utilitarian. She was a good example of the country dame hearty, homespun, familiar, full of strong sense and practical energy. I scarcely know which of the two I liked the best. The first sang me plaintive songs ; told me sto ries of the Revolution her husband, Col. Ely, hav ing had a large and painful share in its vicissitudes; she described Gen. Washington, whom she had seen ; and the French officers, Lafayette, Rochambeau, and others, who had been inmates of her house. She told me tales of even more ancient date, and recited poetry, generally consisting of ballads, which were suited to my taste. And all this lore was commended to me by a voice of inimitable tenderness, and a manner at once lofty and condescending. My other grandmoth er was not less kind, but she promoted my happiness and prosperity in another way. Instead of stories, she gave me bread and butter: in place of poetry, she fed me with apple-sauce and pie. Never was there a more hearty old lady : she had a firm con viction that children must be fed, and what she be lieved, she practiced. 90 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, LETTER VIII. Interest in Mechanical Devices Agriculture My Parents Design me for a Carpenter The Dawn of the Age of Invention Fulton, &c. Per petual Motion Whittling Gentlemen St. Paul, King Alfred, Dan iel Webster, &c. Desire of Improvement, a New England Character istic^- Hunting The Bow and Arrow The Fowling-piece Pigeons Anecdote of Parson, M . . . . Aud-ubon and Wilson The Passenger Pigeon Sporting Rambles The Blacksnake and Screech-owl Fishing Advantages of Country Life and Country Training. MY DEAR C;****** I can recollect with great vividness the interest I took in the domestic events I have described, and which circled with the seasons in our household at this period. I had no great interest in the operations of the farm. Plowing, hoeing, digging, seemed to me mere drudgery, imparting no instruction, and af fording no scope for ingenuity or invention. I had not yet learned to contemplate agriculture in its eco nomical aspect, nor had my mind yet risen to that still higher view of husbandry, which leads to a sci entific study of the soil and the seasons, and teaches man to become a kind of second Providence to those portions of the earth which are subjected to his care. The mechanical operations I have described, as well as others especially those of the weaver and carpen ter, on the contrary, stimulated my curiosity, and ex cited my emulation. Thus I soon became familiar with the tools of the latter, and made such windmills, HISTORICAL, ANRCDOTICAL, ETC. 91 kites, and perpetual motions, as to extort the admi ration of my playmates, and excite the respect of my parents, so that they seriously meditated putting me apprentice to a carpenter. Up to the age of fourteen, I think this was regarded as my manifest destiny. I certainly took great delight in mechanical devices, and became a celebrity on pine shingles with a pen knife. It was a day of great endeavors among all inventive geniuses. Fulton was struggling to develop steam navigation, and other discoverers were thunder ing at the gates of knowledge, and seeking to unfold the wonders of art as well as of nature. It was, in fact, the very threshold of the era of steamboats, railroads, electric telegraphs, and a thousand other useful dis coveries, which have since changed the face of the world. In this age of excitement, perpetual motion was the great hobby of aspiring mechanics, as it has been indeed ever since. I pondered and whit tled intensely on this subject before I was ten years old. Despairing of reaching my object by mechan ical means, I attempted to arrive at it by magnetism, my father having bought me a pair of horse-shoe magnets in one of his journeys to New Haven. I should have succeeded, had it not been a principle in the nature of this curious element, that no sub stance will instantly intercept the stream of attraction. I tried to change the poles, and turn the north against the south ; but there too nature had headed me, and of course I failed. 92 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, A word, by the way, on the matter of whittling. This is generally represented as a sort of idle, fidgety, frivolous use of the penknife, and is set down by amia ble foreigners and sketchers of American manners as a peculiar characteristic of our people. No portrait of an American is deemed complete, whether in the sa loon or the senate-chamber, at home or on the high way, unless with penknife and shingle in hand. I feel not the slightest disposition to resent even this, among the thousand caricatures that pass for traits of American life. For my own part, I can testify that, during my youthful, days, I found the pen knife a source of great amusement and even of in struction. Many a long winter evening, many a dull, drizzly day, in spring and summer and autumn some times at the kitchen fireside, sometimes in the attic, amid festoons of dried apples, peaches, and pumpkins ; sometimes in a cosy nook of the barn ; sometimes in the shelter of a neighboring stone- wall, thatched over with wild grape-vines have I spent in great ecstasy, making candle-rods, or some other simple article of household goods, for my mother, or in perfecting toys for myself and my young friends, or perhaps in attempts at more ambitious achievements. This was not mere waste of time, mere idleness and dissipation. I was amused : that was something. Some of the pleasantest remembrances of my child hood carry me back to the scenes I have just indi cated, when in happy solitude, absorbed in my me- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 93 chanical devices, I still listened to the rain pattering upon the roof, or the wind roaring down the chimney thus enjoying a double bliss a pleasing occupa tion, with a conscious delight in my sense of security from the rage of the elements without. Nay more these occupations were instructive: my mind was stimulated to inquire into the mechan ical powers, and my hand was educated to mechanical dexterity. Smile, if you please but reflect ! Why is it, that we in the United States surpass all other nations, in the excellence of our tools of all kinds ? Why are our axes, knives, hoes, spades, plows, the best in the world? Because in part, at least we learn, in early life, this alphabet of mechanics the oretical and practical whittling. Nearly every head and hand is trained to it. We know and feel the difference between dull and sharp tools. At ten years old, we are all epicures in cutting instruments. This is the beginning, and we go on, as a matter of course, toward perfection. The inventive head, and the skillful, executing hand, thus become general, national, characteristic among us. I am perfectly aware that some people, in this country as well as others, despise labor, and espe cially manual labor, as ungenteel. There are people in these United States who scoff at New England on account of this general use of thrifty, productive industry, among our people as a point of education. The gentleman, say these refined persons, must not 94 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, work. It is not easy to cite a higher example of a gentleman in thought, feeling, and manner than St. Paul, and he was a tent-maker : King Alfred was a gentleman, and he could turn his hand to servile labor. But let me refer to New England examples. Daniel Webster was a gentleman, and he began with the scythe and the plow ; Abbot Lawrence was a gentleman, and he served through every grade, an apprenticeship to his profession ; Timothy Dwight was a gentleman, and was trained to the positive la bors of the farm ; Franklin, the printer ; Sherman, the shoemaker; Ellsworth, the teamster all were gen tlemen, and of that high order which regards truth, honor, manliness, as its essential basis. Nothing, in my view, is more despicable, nothing more calculated to diffuse and cherish a debasing effeminacy of body and soul, than the doctrine that labor is degrading. Where such ideas prevail, rottenness lies at the foun dation of society. But to go back to my theme. If you ask me why it is that this important institution of whit tling is indigenous among us, I reply, that, in the first place, our country is full of a great variety of woods, suited to carpentry, many of them easily wrought, and thus inviting boyhood to try its hands upon them. In the next place, labor is dear, and therefore even children are led to supply themselves with toys, or perchance to furnish some of the sim pler articles of use to the household. This dearness WHITTLING. Vol. 1, p. 94. HISTORICAL, ANLCDOT1CAL, ETC. 95 of labor, moreover, furnishes a powerful stimulant to the production of labor-saving machines, and hence it is through all these causes, co-operating one with another that steam navigation, the elec tric telegraph, the steam reaper, &c., &c., are Ameri can inventions : hence it is that, whether it be at the "World's Fair in London or Paris, we gain a greater proportion of prizes for useful inventions, than any other people. That is what comes of whittling ! There is no doubt another element to be considered in a close and philosophical view of what I state this aptitude of our people, especially those of New England, for mechanical invention. The desire of improvement is inherent in the New England char acter. This springs from two principles : first, a moral sense, founded upon religious ideas, making it the duty of every man to seek constantly to be and do better, day by day, as he advances in life. This is the great main-spring, set in the heart by Puritan ism. Its action reaches alike to time and to eternity. Mr. Webster well illustrated the New England char acter in this respect, when he describes his father as " shrinking from no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his children to a condition bet ter than his own." This desire of improvement is indeed extended to the children, and animates the bosom of every parent. The other principle I allude to is liberty, civil and social actual and practical. New England is 9t) LKTTKKS BIOGKAPHICAL, probably the only country in the world, where every man, generally speaking, has or can have the means that is, the money, the intelligence, the knowledge, the power to choose his career ; to say where he will live, what profession he will follow, what po sition he will occupy. It is this moral sense, in every man's bosom, im pelling him to seek improvement in all things, co operating with this liberty, giving him the right and the ability to seek happiness in his own way which forms this universal spirit of improvement the distinguishing feature of the New England people. It is this which has conquered our savage climate, subdued the forests, and planted the whole country with smiling towns and villages : it is this which has established a system of universal educa tion, cherished religion, promoted literature, founded benign institutions, perfected our political system, and abolished negro slavery, imposed upon us by the mother country. It is easy to trace the operations of this principle in the humblest as well as the highest classes. The man at the plow is not a mere drudge : he is not like the debased subject of European despotism, a servile tool, an unthinking, unhoping, unaspiring animal, to use his muscles, without thought as to the result of his labor. Let me tell you an anecdote which will illustrate this matter. Some years ago, a young New Englander found himself in the back parts of Penn- HISTORICAL, ANEODOT1CAL, ETC. 07 sylvania, ashore as to the means of living. In this strait he applied to a wealthy Quaker in the neigh borhood for help. "I will furnish thee with work, and pay thee for it, friend," said the Quaker ; " but it is not my cus tom to give alms to one able to labor, like thee." " Well, that's all I want," said the Yankee : " of course I am willing to work." " What can thee do, friend ?" "Any thing. I will do any thing, to get a little money, to help me out of my difficulties." " Well there is a log yonder ; and there is an axe. Thee may pound on the log with the head of the axe, and if thee is diligent and faithful, I will pay thee a dollar a day." " Agreed : I'd as soon do that as any thing else." And so the youth went to work, and pounded lustily with the head of the axe upon the log. After a time he paused to take breath ; then be began again. But after half an hour he stopped, threw down the axe impatiently, and walked away, saying, " I'll be hanged if I'll cut' wood without seeing the chips fly 1" Thus the Yankee laborer has a mind that must be contented : he looks to the result of his labor ; and if his tools or implements are imperfect, his first im pulse is to improve them, and finally to perfect them. In this endeavor, he is of course aided by the me chanical aptitude, to which I have already alluded ; and hence it is, that not only our utensils, for every VOL. I. ft 98 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, species of common work, but our machines generally for the saving of labor, are thus excellent. With what painful sympathy have I seen the peasants in ingenious France and classic Italy sweating and toil ing with uncouth, unhandy implements, which have undergone no improvement for a thousand years, and which abundantly bespeak the despotism which for that period has kept their minds as well as their bodies in bondage ! You will not wonder that such observations have carried me back to my native New England, and taught me to appreciate the character and institutions of its people. I must add, in descending from this lofty digres sion to my simpler story, that in these early days, I was a Nimrod, a mighty hunter first with a bow and arrow, and afterward with the old hereditary firelock, which snapped six times and went off once. The smaller kinds of game were abundant. The thickets teemed with quails ;* partridges drummed in every wood ; the gray-squirrel the most picturesque animal of our forests enlivened every hickory copse with his mocking laugh, his lively gambols, and his long bannered tail. The pigeons in spring and au tumn migrated in countless flocks, and many lin gered in our woods for the season, Everybody was then a hunter, not of course a * The American quail is a species of partridge, in size between the European quail and partridge. The partridge of New England is the pheatant of the South, and the ruffed grouse of the naturalists. HISTORICAL, ANECDOT1CAL, ETC. 99 sportsman, for the chase was followed more for profit than for pastime. Grame was, in point of fact, a substantial portion of the supply of food at cer tain seasons of the year. All were then good shots, and my father could not be an exception : he was even beyond his generation in netting pigeons. This was not deemed a reproach at that time in a clergy man, nor was he the only parson that indulged in these occupations. One day, as I was with him on West Mountain, baiting pigeons, we had seduced a flock of three or four dozen down into the bed where they were feeding my father and myself lying concealed in our bush-hut, close by. Suddenly, whang went a gun into the middle of the flock ! Out we ran in great indignation, for at least a dozen of the birds were bleeding and fluttering before us. Scarcely had we reached the spot, when we met Parson M . . . . of Lower Salem, who had thus unwittingly poached upon us. The two clergymen had first a flurry and then a good laugh, after which they divided the plun der and parted. The stories told by Wilson and Audubon as to the amazing quantity of pigeons in the West, were real ized by us in Connecticut half a century ago. I have seen a stream of these noble birds, pouring at brief intervals through the skies, from the rising to the setting sun, and this in the county of Fairfield. I may here add, that of all the pigeon tribe, this of our coun try the passenger pigeon is the swiftest and most 100 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, beautiful of a swift and beautiful generation. At the same time it is unquestionably superior to any other for the table. All the other species of the eastern as well as the western continent, which I have tasted, are soft and flavorless in comparison. I can recollect no sports of my youth which equal ed in excitement our pigeon hunts, generally ta king place in September and October. We usually started on horseback before daylight, and made a rapid progress to some stubble-field on West Mount ain. The ride in the keen, fresh air, especially as the dawn began to break, was delightful. The gradual encroachment of day upon the night, filled my mind with sublime images : the waking up of a world from sleep, the joyousness of birds and beasts in the re turn of morning, and my own sympathy in this cheerful and grateful homage of the heart to God, the Giver of good all contributed to render these adventures most impressive upon my young heart. My memory, is still full of the sights and sounds of those glorious mornings : the silvery whistle of the wings of migrating flocks of plover invisible in the gray mists of dawn ; the faint murmur of the distant mountain torrents ; the sonorous gong of the long- trailing flocks of wild geese, seeming to come from the unseen depths of the skies these were among the suggestive sounds that stole through the dim twilight. As morning advanced, the scene was inconceivably beautiful the mountain sides, clothed in autumnal CATCHING_PIGEONS. Vol. 1, p. 100. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 101 green and purple and gold, rendered more glowing by the sunrise with the valleys covered with mists and spreading out like lakes of silver; while on every side the ear was saluted by the mocking screams of the red-headed woodpecker, the cawing of congresses of crows, clamorous as if talking to Buncombe; and finally the rushing sound of the pigeons, pouring like a tide over the tops of the trees. By this time of course our nets were ready, and our flyers and stool-birds on the alert. What mo ments of ecstasy were these, and especially when the head of the flock some red-breasted old father or grandfather caught the sight of our pigeons, and turning at the call, drew the whole train down into our net-bed. I have often seen a hundred, or two hundred of these splendid birds, come upon us, with a noise absolutely deafening, and sweeping the air with a sudden gust, like the breath of a thunder cloud. Sometimes our bush-hut, where we lay con cealed, was covered all over with pigeons, and we dared not move a finger, as their red, piercing eyes were upon us. When at last, with a sudden pull of the rope, the net was sprung, and we went out to secure our booty often fifty, and sometimes even a hundred birds I felt a fullness of triumph, which words are wholly inadequate to express ! Up to the age of eight years, I was never trusted with a gun. Whenever I went forth as a sportsman on my own account, it was only with a bow and arrow 104 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, associations physical, moral, and intellectual are thus established and developed. It is a riddle to many people that the emigrants from the country into the city, in all ages, outstrip the natives, and become their masters. The reason is obvious : country education and country life are practical, and invigorating to body and mind, and hence those who are thus qualified triumph in the race of life. It has always been, it will always be so ; the rustic Goths and Yandals will march in and conquer Home, in the future, as they have done in the past. I say this, by no means insisting that my own life furnishes any very striking proof of the truth of my remarks ; still, I may say that but for the country training and experience I have alluded to, and which served as a foothold for subsequent prog ress, I should have lingered in my career far behind the humble advances I have actually made. Let me illustrate and verify my meaning by spe cific examples. In my youth I became familiar with every bird common to the country : I knew his call, his song, his hue, his food, his habits ; in short, his natural history. I could detect him by his flight, as far as the eye could reach. I knew all the quadru peds wild as well as tame. I was acquainted with almost every tree, shrub, bush, and flower, indige nous to the country ; not botanically, but according to popular ideas. I recognized them instantly, where- over I saw them ; I knew their forms, hues, leaves. HISTORICAL, AXKCDOTICAL, KTC. 105 blossoms, and fruit. I could tell their characteristics, their uses, the legends and traditions that belonged to them. All this I learned by familiarity with these objects ; meeting with them in all my walks and ram bles, and taking note of them with the emphasis and vigor of early experience and observation. In after days, I have never had time to make natural history a systematic study ; yet my knowledge as to these things has constantly accumulated, and that without special effort. When I have traveled in other coun tries, the birds, the animals, the vegetation, have in terested me as well by their resemblances as their differences, when compared with our own. In look ing over the pages of scientific works on natural his tory, I have always read with the eagerness and in telligence of preparation ; indeed, of vivid and pleasing aasociations. Every idea I had touching these mat ters was living and sympathetic, and beckoned other ideas to it, and these again originated still others. Thus it is that in the race of a busy life, by means of a homely, hearty start at the beginning, I have, as to these subjects, easily and naturally supplied, in some humble degree, the defects of my irregular edu cation, and that too, not by a process of repulsive toil, but with a relish superior to all the seductions of romance. I am therefore a believer in the benefits accruing from simple country life and simple coun try habits, as here illustrated, and am therefore, on all occasions, anxious to recommend them to my 106 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, friends and countrymen. To city people, I would say, educate your children, at least partially, in the country, so as to imbue them with the love 'of na ture, and that knowledge and training which spring from simple rustic sports, exercises, and employ ments. To country people, I would remark, be not envious of the city, for in the general balance of good and evil, you have your full portion of the first, with a diminished share of the last. LETTER IX. Death of Washington Jefferson and Democracy Ridgefald on the Great ThorO'ughfare between New York and Boston Jerome Bonaparte and hi* Young Wife Oliver Wolcott, Governor Treadwett, and Deacon Olm- stead Inauguration of Jefferson Jerry Mead and Ensign feeler Democracy and Federalism Charter of Ciiarles II. Elizur Goodrich, Deacon Bishop, and President Jefferson Abraham Bishop and " A)x>ut Enough, Democracy' MY DEAR The incidents I have just related revolved about the period of 1800 some a little earlier and some a little later. Among the events of general interest that occurred near this time, I remember the death of Washington, which took place in 1799, and was commemorated all through the country by the tolling of bells, funeral ceremonies, orations, sermons, hymns, and dirges, attended by n mournful sense of loss, HISTORICAL. ANECDOTIC A I., ETC. 107 seeming to cast a pall over the entire heavens. In Bidgefield, the meeting-house was dressed in black, and we had a discourse pronounced by a Mr. Ed monds, of Newtown. The subject, indeed, engrossed all minds. Lieutenant Smith came every day to our house to talk over the event, and to bring us the pro ceedings in different parts of the country. Among other papers, he brought us a copy of the Connec ticut Courant, then, as now, orthodox in all good things, and according to the taste of the times, duly sprinkled with murders, burglaries, and awful disclosures in general. This gave us the particu lars of the rites and ceremonies which took place in Hartford, in commemoration of the Great Man's de cease. The paper was bordered with black, which left its indelible ink in my memory. The celebrated hymn,* written for the occasion by Theodore D wight, sank into my mother's heart for she had a constitu- * HYMN sung at Hartford, Conn., during 1 religious services performed on the occasion of the death of George Washington, Dec. 27th, 1799. What solemn sounds the ear invade ? What wraps the land in sorrow's shade ? From heaven the awful mandate flies The Father of his Country dies. Let every heart be till'd with woe, Let every eye with tears o'erflow ; Each form, oppress'd with deepest gloom, Be clad in vestments of the tomb. Behold that venerable band The rulers of our mourning land, With grief proclaim from shore to shore, Our guide, our Washington's no more. 108 i.rm.i:- Dionn. \riucAL, tional love of things mournful and poetic and she often repeated it, so that it became a part of the cher ished lore of my childhood. This hymn has ever since been to me suggestive of a solemn pathos, min gled with the Eidgefield commemoration of Wash ington's death the black drapery of the meeting house, and the toll of those funeral bells, far, far over the distant hills, now lost and now remembered, as if half a dream and half a reality yet for these reasons, perhaps, the more suggestive and the more mournful. I give you these scenes and feelings in some detail, to impress you with the depth and sincerity of this mourning of the American nation, in cities and towns, in villages and hamlets, for the death of Washington. It seems to me wholesome to go back and sympathize with those who had stood in his presence, and catch from them the feeling which should be sacredly cher ished in all future time.* Where shall our country torn its eye? What help remains beneath the sky ? Our Friend, Protector, Strength, and Trust, Lies low, and mouldering in the dust. Almighty God ! to Thee we fly ; Before Thy throne above the sky, In deep prostration humbly bow, And pour the penitential vow. Hear, Most High ! our earnest prayer Our country take beneath Thy care ; When dangers press and foes draw near, Let future Washingtons appear. * Mr. Jefferson and his satellites had begun their attacks upon Washington several years before this poriod ; but beyond the circle of AN'KCDOTK'AL, J.TC. 109 I have already said that Eidgefield was on the great thoroughfare between Boston and New York, for the day of steamers and railroads had not interested partisans, and those to whom virtue is a reproach and glory an offence, they had not yet corrupted or abused the hearts of the peo ple. Some years later, under the presidency of Jefferson and his im mediate successor, democracy being in the ascendant, Washington seemed to be fading from the national remembrance. Jefferson was then the master ; and even somewhat later, a distinguished Senator said in his place in Congress, that his name and his principles exercised a greater influence over the minds of the people of his native State Vir ginia than even the " Father of his Country." Strange to say, thin declaration was made rather in the spirit of triumph than of humiliation. At the present day the name of Jefferson has lost much of its charm in the United States: democracy itself seeirns to be taking down its first idol, and placing Andrew Jackson upon the pedestal. Formerly " Jrf- ffrson Democracy 1 '' was the party watchword : now it is " Jackson De mocracy." The disclosures of the last thirty years made by Mr. Jeffer son's own correspondence, and that of others show him to have been very different from what he appeared to be. Had his true charade* been fully understood, it is doubtful if he would ever have been Presi dent of the United States. He was in fact a marvelous compound of good and evil, and it is not stransre that it has taken time to comprehend him. He was a man of rare intellectual faculties, but he had one defect ft want of practical controlling faith in God and man in human truth and human virtue. He did good things, great things : he aided to con struct noble institutions, but he undermined them by taking away their foundations. He was, in most respects, the opposite of Washington, and hence his hatred of him was no doubt sincere. We may even sup pose that the virulent abuse which he caused to be heaped upon him by hireling editors, was at least partially founded upon conviction. Wash ington believed in God, and made right the starting-point of all his ac tions. Next to God, was his country. His principles went before ; there was no expediency for him, that was not dictated by rectitude of thought, word, and deed. He was a democrat, but in the English, Puritan, sense that of depositing power in the hands of the people, and of seeking to guide them only by the truth by instructing them, elevating them, and exclusively for their own good. Jefferson, on the contrary, was a democrat according to French ideas, and those of the loosest days of the Revolution. Expediency was with him the betrinninsr, the middle, the end of conduct. God seems not to have been in all his thought. He penetrated the masses with his astute in telligence : he had soon in Paris how they could be deluded, stimulated, 110 LETTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, dawned. Even the mania for- turnpikes, which ere long overspread New England, had not yet arrived. The stage-coaches took four days to make the trip of two hundred miles between the two great cities. In winter, the journey was often protracted to a week, and during the furious snow-storms of those times, to eight or ten days. With such public con- led, and especially by artful appeals to the baser passions. His party policy seems to have been founded upon alow estimate of human na ture in general, and a contempt of the majority in particular. Hence, in attempting to elevate himself to the chief magistracy of the Union, nis method was to vilify Washington, and at the same time to pay court to the foibles, prejudices, and low propensities of the million. Dema- gogism was his system, and never was it more seductively practiced. Over all there was a profound vaiJ of dissimulation ; a placid philosophy seemed .to sit upon his face, even while he was secretly urging the as sassin's blade to the hilt, against the name and fame of him who was " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Simplicity and humility appeared to rule in his bosom, while yet he was steadily paving his way to power. He succeeded, and through the pres tige of his position, the original democracy of the United States was oast in his image. He was the father, the founder, the establishor of dema- gogism in this country, and this unmanly and debasing system of pol icy has since continued to contaminate and debauch the politics of the land. There is perhaps some growing disgust at this state of things, but whether we shall ever return to the open, manly, patriotic principles and practice of Washington, is a question which no man can presume tp answer. At all events, it seems to me, every one who lias influence should sedulously exert it to purify, elevate, and ennoble the public spirit. As one means, let us ever keep in view let us study and cher ish the character of Washington. Let our politicians even, do this, i\nd while they esteem and follow what was really good in Jefferson, let tiiem beware how they commend his character us an example to those over whom they exercise a controlling influence. 1'ower is ennobling, when honorably acquired, and patriotically em ployed ; but when obtained by intrigue, aud used for selfish ends, it is degrading alike to him who exercises it and those who are subjected to its influence. It is quite time that all good men should combine to l>ut down demagogues ami dcmago^ism. HTSTOUICAL, ANKCDOTICAT,, ETC. Ill veyances, great people for even then the world was divided into the great and little, as it is now-^- traveled in their own carriages. About this time it must have been in the sum mer of 1804 I remember Jerome Bonaparte coming np to Keeler's tavern with a coach and four, attend ed by his young wife, Miss Patterson, of Baltimore. It was a gay establishment, and the honeymoon sat happily on the tall, sallow stripling, and his young bride. You must remember that Napoleon was then filling the world with his fame: at this mo ment his feet were on the threshold of the empire. The arrival of his brother in the United States of course made a sensation. His marriage, his move ments, all were gossiped over, from Maine to Georgia not Castine to California these being the extreme points of the Union. His entrance into Eidgefield pro duced a flutter of excitement, even there. A crowd gathered around Keeler's tavern, to catch a sight of the strangers, and I among the rest. I had a good, long look at Jerome, who was the chief object of in terest, and the image never faded from my recollec tion. Half a century later, I was one evening at the Tuil- cries, amid the flush and the fair of Louis Napoleon's new court. Among them I saw an old man, taller than the mass around his nose and chin almost meeting in contact, while his toothless gums were "munching the airy meal of dotage and decrepitude," I was irre- 112 I.KTIKIW m sistibly chained to this object, as if a spectre had risen up through the floor, and stood among the garish throng. My memory traveled back back among the winding labyrinths of years. Suddenly I found the clue: the stranger was Jerome Bona parte ! Ah, what a history lay between the past and pres ent a lapse of nearly fifty years. What a differ ence between him then and now ! Then he was a gay and gallant bridegroom; now, though he had the title of king, he was throneless and scepterless an Invalid Governor of Invalids the puppet and pageant of an adventurer, whose power lay in the mere magic of a name.* * Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon, was horn in 1784, and is now (1856) 72 years old. He was educated for the nav:il service, and in 1801 had the command of the corvette, L'Epervier. In this, the same year, he sailed with the expedition to St. Domingo, com- munded by his brother-in-law, Gen. Leclerc. In March following he was cent to France with dispatches, but speedily returned. Hostilities oon after were renewed between France and England, and he sailed on a cruise for some months, finally putting into the port of New York. Me was treated with marked attention in the principal cities New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In the latter ho became attached to Elizabeth Patterson daughter of an eminent merchant there and distinguished for her beauty and accomplishments. In December, 1803, they were married with due ceremony by John Carroll, the Catholic Bishop of Baltimore, in the presence of several persons of high dis tinction. He remained about a year in America, and in the spring of 18<5 he sailed with his wife for Europe. Napoleon disapproved of the match, and on the arrival of the vessel at the Texel, it was found that orders had been left with the authorities not to permit Jerome's wife to lnd. She accordingly sailed for England, and taking up her residence in the vicinity of London, gave birth to a son, July 7, 1805. This is the present Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, of Baltimore. Napoleon, who had now become emperor, and desired to use his broth- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 113 About this time, as I well remember, Oliver Wol- cott passed through our village. He arrived at the tavern late on Saturday evening, but he called at our house in the morning, his family being connected ers for his own purposes, set himself to work to abrogate the marriage, and applied to Pope Pius VII. for this purpose. That prelate, however, refused, inasmuch as the grounds set forth for such a measure were alto gether fallacious. Napoleon, however, who was wholly unscrupulous, forced his brother into another match, August 12, 1807, with the prin cess Frederica Catherina, daughter of the King of Wurtemburg. A few clays after he was proclaimed King of Westphalia, which had been created into a kingdom for him. He remained in this position till the overthrow of the Bonapartes in 1814. After this he lived sometimes in Austria, sometimes in Italy, and finally in Paris. He was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1848, and was afterwards made Gov ernor of the Invalidcs. When Louis Napoleon became emperor in 1852, the Palais Royal was fitted up for him, and he now resides there his eon, Prince Napoleon, and his daughter (formerly married to the Eus- sian Prince Demidoff, but divorced some ten years ago), Princess Ma- thilde, also having their apartments there. Jerome Bonaparte has very moderate abilities, and though he is now considered as nominally in the line of succession after the present em peror, his position is only that of a pageant, and even this is derived solely from his being the brother of Napoleon. He is taller by some inches than was the emperor : he, however, has the bronze complexion, and something of the black, stealthy eye, broad brow, the strong, prom- iiient chin, the oval face, and the cold, stony expression, which char acterized his renowned brother. Mrs. Patterson has not followed the career of her weak and unprinci pled husband, but has continned to respect her marriage vow. In 1824, being in Dublin, I was informed by Lady Morgan, who had recently seen her in Paris, that the princess Borghese (Napoleon's sister Pauline) had offered to Mrs. Patterson to adopt her son, and make him heir of her immense possessions, if he would come to Italy, and be placed under her care : her answer was, that she preferred to have him a respectable citizen of the United States to any position wealth or power could give him in Europe. She doubtless judged well and wisely, for the Princess Borghese has left behind her a most detestable reputation. Jerome Na poleon Bonaparte, of Baltimore, has recently been to Paris, where he has been well received by his father and the emperor; and his son, ed ucated at West Point, is a captain in the French army in the Crimea, and has just been decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor (1856). 114: LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, with ours. He was a great man then ; for not only are the Wolcotts traditionally and historically a dis tinguished race in Connecticut, but he had recently been a member of Washington's cabinet. I shall have occasion to speak of him more particularly hereafter. I mention him now only for the pur pose of noting his deference to public opinion, char acteristic of the eminent men of that day. In the morning he went to church, but immediately after the sermon, he had his horses brought up, and pro ceeded on his way. He, however, had requested my father to state to his.people, at the opening of the afternoon service, that he was traveling on public business, and though he regretted it, he was obliged to continue his journey on the Sabbath. This my father did, but Deacon Ol instead, the Jeremiah of the parish, shook his white locks, and lifted up his voice against such a desecration of the Lord's day. Some years after as I remember Lieutenant-gov ernor Treadwell arrived at Keeler's tavern on Satur day evening, and prepared to prosecute his journey the next morning, his daughter, who was with him, being ill. This same Deacon Olmstead called upon him, and said, " Sir, if you thus set the example of a violation of the Sabbath, you must expect to get one vote less at the next election !" The Governor was so much struck by the appearance of the deacon who was the very image of a patriarch or a prophet that he deferred his departure till Monday. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. 115 Another event of this era I remember, and that is, the celebration of the inauguration of Jefferson, March 4th, A. D. 1801. At this period, the Demo cratic, or, as it was then called, the Kepublican party, was not large in Connecticut, yet it was zealous in proportion to its insignificance. The men of wealth, the professional men those of good position and large influence generally throughout the State, were almost exclusively federalists. The old platform of religion and politics still stood strong, although agitated and fretted a little by the rising tide of what afterward swelled into a flood, under the captivating name of Toleration. The young Hercules in Ridgefield was in his cradle when Jefferson was made President ; but nevertheless, he used his lungs lustily upon the occa sion. On the day of the inauguration, the old field- piece, a four-pounder, which had been stuck muzzle down as a horse-post at Keeler's tavern, since the fight of 1777, was dug up, swabbed, and fired off sixteen times, that being the number of States then in the Union. At first the cannon had a somewhat stifled and wheezing tone, but this soon, grew louder, and at last the hills re-echoed to the rejoicing of de mocracy from High Ridge to West Mountain. This might be taken as prophetic, for the voice of democ racy, then small and asthmatic, like this old field- piece, soon cleared its throat, and thundered like Sinai, giving law to the land. My father was a man of calm and liberal temper, 116 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, but he was still of the old school, believing in things as they were, and therefore he regarded these dem onstrations with a certain degree of horror. But no doubt he felt increased anxiety from the fact that several of the members of his congregation partici pated in these unseemly orgies. Among these who would have thought it ? was Jerry Mead, the shoe maker, once itinerant, but now settled down, and keeping his shop. He was one of our near neigh bors, and the sound of his lapstone, early and late, was as regular as the tides. His son Sammy was his apprentice, and having a turn for mirth and music, diverted the neighborhood by playing popular airs as he pounded his leather ; but Jerry himself was a grave, nay, an austere person, and for this reason, as well as others, was esteemed a respectability. He was a man of plain, strong sense ; he went regularly to meeting ; sent his children to school, and cut their hair, close and square, according to the creed. It might have been natural enough for his son Sammy, who was given to the earthly vanities of music, dancing, and the like, to have turned out a demo crat; but for sour, sober, sensible Jerry- -it was quite another thing. What must have b?'.r/ my father's concern to find on the occasion of th/ aforesaid cele bration that Jerry Mead had joined the rabble, and in a moment of exaltation, it is said delivered an oration at one of their clubs! This might have been borne for Jerry was not then a professor but HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 117 conceive his emotion when he heard that Ensign Kee- ler the butcher and bell-ringer who was a half-way coven ant- member of the church, had touched off the cannon ! I am happy to believe that both these per sons saw the error of their ways, and died old feder alists, as well as church members in full communion notwithstanding these dark episodes; but for the time, their conduct seemed to shake the very pillars of the state. It is difficult for the present generation to enter into the feelings of those days. We who are now familiar with democracy, can hardly comprehend the odium attached to it in the age to which I refer, espe cially in the minds of the sober people of our neigh borhood. They not only regarded it as hostile to good government, but as associated with infidelity in religion, radicalism in government, and licentious ness in society. It was considered a sort of monster, born of Tom Paine,* the French Ee volution, foreign * The French Kevolution reached its height in 1793, under what was called the Convention. The king perished on the scaffold in January of that year, and the queen and the other members of the royal family soon after. Atheism had taken the place of religion, and government was a wholesale system of murder. All that was good in society seemed to have perished. The Eeign of Terror was established under Kobes- pierre and his Jacobin Associates in 1794. About this time the French Minister Genet came to the United States, and under his auspices, Democratic Ulvbs, modeled after those in France, which had enabled the Jacobins to get possession of the government of France, were organ ized in the United States. Their object was to place our government in the hands of the Jacobins here. This was the beginning of democ racy in this country. The people of America, grateful to France for her assistance iu ob- 118 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, renegadoes, and the great Father of Evil. Mr. Jeffer son, the founder of the party, had been in France, and was supposed by his political opponents to have adopted the atheism and the libertinism of the rev olutionists. His personal character and dangerous taining our Independence, naturally sympathized with that nation in its attempts to establish a free government. They therefore looked upon the Revolution there with favor, amounting at the outset to enthusiasm. When Genet arrived, not fully appreciating the horrors it was perpetra ting, many of our people still clung to it with hope, if not with confi dence. Designing men saw the use they could make of this feeling, and in order to employ it for the purposes of seizing upon the govern ment, promoted the democratic clubs, and sought to rouse the feelings of the masses into a rage resembling that which was deluging Paris with blood. Some of these leaders were Americans, but the most ac tive were foreigners, many of them adventurers, and men of desperate character. One of the most prominent was Thomas Paine, whose name is now synonymous with infamy. He was a fair representative of de mocracy at this period. Fortunately for our country and for mankind, Washington was now President, and by his wisdom, his calmness, and his force of character and influence, conducted the country through a tempest of disorder which threatened to overwhelm it. Thus, a second time was he the Saviour of his country. He naturally became the object of hatred to the democrats, and upon him all the vials of their wrath were poured. Jefferson, as is now known, encouraged, employed, and paid some of these defamers. It is true that at this time he did not adopt the term democrat nor do we believe he shared its spirit to the full extent : he preferred the, term republican, as did his followers, at the outset. A 1- terward they adopted the term democrat, in which they now rejoica. Of the democratic party, Jefferson was, however, the efficient promoter at the beginning, and may be considered its father and its founder. From these facts, it will be seen that this dread of him, on the part of the staid, conservative, Puritan people of New England, was not without good foundation. See HUdreWs History of the United States, second series, vol. i. pp. 424 and 455 ; also Griswold^s Republican Guurt, p. 290. As Jefferson was the leader of the democratic party, so Washington was the head of the federalists. Since that period the terms democrat and federalist have undergone many changes of signification, and have l>een u?ed for various purposes. Democracy is still the watchword of party, but the term federalism is merely historical, that of whig having been adopted by the conservatives. HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, KTC. 119 political proclivities, as I have said, were not then well understood. The greatest fear of him, at this time, was as to his moral, religious, and social influence. It was supposed that his worshipers could not be bet ter than their idol, and it must be confessed that the democracy of New England in its beginning raked up and absorbed the chaff of society. It is due to the truth of history to state that men of blemished reputa tions, tipplers, persons of irregular tempers, odd peo ple, those who were constitutionally upsetters,* de- * I have just stated the historical origin of the two great parties in the United States. These, though taking their rise from passing events, had a deeper root. In all countries, where there is liberty of speech and print, there will be two parties the Conservatives and the Radicals. These differences arise mainly from the constitutions of men and their varying conditions in society. Some are born Destructives and some Constfuctives. The former constitute the nucleus of the radical party. They are without property, and therefore make war on property, and those who possess it. One of this class, a born radical, usually passes his whole life in this condition, for in his nature he is opposed to accu mulation. He is characterized by the parable of the rolling-stone which gathers no moss. The mass of the radical party in all countries is made up of such persons. The born constructive, on the contrary, is for law and order by instinct as well as reflection. He is industrious, frnjral, acquisitive : he accumulates property, he constructs a fortune, and be comes in all things conservative. From these two sources, the great parties in the United States derive their chief recruits. Most men of intelligence and reflection, however, are conservatives in their convictions, because it is by the maintenance ot order alone that life and liberty can be preserved. But unhappily intel ligent men are often destitute of principle ; they sometimes desire to wield political power, and as this is frequently in the hands of the radi cals, they piny the demagogue, and flatter the masses, to obtain their votes. Ex-president John Adams said, with great truth, that when a man, born in the circle of aristocracy, undertakes to play the demagogue, he generally does it with more art and success than any other person, When the demagogue has acquired power when he has attained the object of his ambition he generally takes off the mask, and as he can now afford it he is henceforth a conservative. This is the history of 120 I.ETTKK8 BIOGRAPHICAL, structives, comeouters, flocked spontaneously, as if by a kind of instinct, to the banner of democracy, about the period of Jefferson's first election, and constituted, for a considerable period afterward, the staple of the party. In due time and when they had increased in numbers, they gradually acquired respectable lead ers. General King, who became the head of the party in Kidgefield, was a high-minded, intelligent man; and so it happened in other places. But still, the mass in the outset were such as I have described. It may be conjectured, then, with what concern a sincere and earnest pastor like my father saw some most demagogues in this country. Hence it is that demagogism has not had the fatal consequences that might have been anticipated. It has indeed defiled our politics, it has degraded our manners, and should be spurned by every manly bosom ; but yet it has stopped short of the de struction of our government and our institutions. Demagogism has prevailed to such an extent among us, that a very large share of the political offices are now held by demagogues. It was otherwise at the outset of our government. The people then cast about and selected their best men : now party managers take the matter into their own hands, and often select the worst men for offi cers, as none but persons who can be bought and sold would answer their purpose. Thus, office has sunk in respectability. We have no ionger Washingtons, Ellsworths, Shermans men of honor to the heart's core at the head of affairs, and stamping our manners and our institu tions with virtue and dignity. Office is so low that our first-class men shun it. We have too many inferior men in high places who, in de grading their stations, degrade the country. This is wrong : it is a sin against reason, common sense, patriotism, and prudence. Neverthe less, there is, despite these adverse circumstances, spread over this vast country a sober, solid, and virtuous majority some in one party and some in another who will not permit these-evils to destroy our institu tions. Whoever may rule, there is and will be a preponderance of con servatism, and this, we trust, will save us. Democracy may rave radicalism may foam at the mouth, and these may get the votes and appropriate the spoils, but still law and order will prevail, through tho supremacy of reason, rectitude, and religion. HISTORICAL, ANECixmOAL, ETC. 1^1 of the members of his own flock, including others whom he hoped to gather into the fold, kneeling down to this Moloch of democracy. Time passed on, and less than twenty years after, federalism was overturn ed, and democracy triumphed in Connecticut. The old time-honored parchment of Charles II., supposed to be a sort of eleventh commandment, and firm as Plymouth Eock, passed away, like a scroll, and a new constitution was established. "What bodings, what anxieties, were experienced during this long agony of Conservatism ! And yet society survived. The old landmarks, though shaken, still remained, and some of them even derived confidence, if not firmness, from the agitation. Nay, strange to say, in the succeeding generation, democracy cast its slough, put on clean linen, and affected respectability. Many of the sons of the democrats of 1800, and conceived in its image, were the leaders of federalism in 1825. Indeed, the word democracy, which was first used as synonymous with Jacobinism, has essentially changed its significa tion, and now means little more than the progressive party, in opposition to the conservative party. Such is the cycle of politics, such are the oscilla tions of progress and conservatism, which, in point of fact, regulate the great march of society, and spur it on to constant advances in civilization. These two forces, if not indispensable to liberty, are always at tendant upon it; one is centripetal, the other cen trifugal, and are always in conflict and contending VOL. I. 6 122 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, against each other. The domination of either would doubtless lead to abuses ; but the spirit of both, duly tempered, combmes to work out the good of all. One thing is settled in this country though democ racy may seem to rule ; though it may carry the elec tions and engross the offices, it is still obliged to bow to conservatism, which insists upon the supremacy of law and order. Democracy may be a good ladder on which to climb into power, but it is then generally thrown down, with contempt, by those who have ac complished their object, and have no further use for it. I must here note, in due chronological order, an event which caused no little public emotion. One of the first, and perhaps the most conspicuous victim of proscription in Jefferson's time, was my uncle, Elizur Goodrich, Collector of the port of New Ha ven at that time an office of some importance, as New Haven had then a large West India trade. The story is thus told by the historian : " One of the most noticeable of these cases was the removal of Elizur Goodrich, lately a representative in Congress from Con necticut, who had resigned his seat to accept the office of Col lector of New Haven. In his place was appointed Samuel Bish op, a respectable old man of seventy-seven, but so nearly blind, that he could hardly write his name, and with no particular qualifications for the office, or claim to it, except being the fa ther of one Abraham Bishop, a young democrat, a lawyer with out practice, for whom the appointment was originally intended. The claims of the younger Bishop consisted in two political orations, which he had recently delivered ; one of them by a sort of surprise before a literary society of Yale College, an occa- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 123 si >n upon which all the dignitaries of the State were collected. This was a vehement and flippant, bnt excessively shallow dec lamation, yet suited to alarm the popular mind, the burden of it being that by commercial, military, clerical, and legal delu sions, a monarchy* and aristocracy were just on the point of being saddled on the country. To this oration, already in print be fore it had been delivered, and which was at once distributed as an electioneering document the choice of presidential electors being then about to take place NV>ah Webster had immediately published a cutting reply, entitled ' A Rod for the Fool's Back.' The younger Bishop's second oration, delivered at a festival to celebrate the republican triumph, was a parallel, drawn at great length, between Jefferson and Jesus Christ ' The illustrious chief who, once insulted, now presides over the Union, and Him who, once insulted, now presides over the universe.' " Hil- dretK's History of the United States, vol. ii. p. 429. For several reasons, this event caused great excite ment. The election of Jefferson had been made by the House of Representatives, after a severe conflict, which lasted several weeks. The choice was finally effected by Mr. Jefferson's giving pledges to James A. Bayard, of Delaware, and some other federal mem bers, who consequently withdrew their opposition. He agreed, if elected, to follow certain principles .of con duct, and stipulated, that while, of course, he would fill * The great alarm-cry of the leaders of democracy at this period was, that the federalists sympathized with England and hated France ; that hence it was clear they were monarchists at heart, and designed to over throw our republic, and establish a monarchy in its place. Washington was openly and repeatedly charged as a traitor, entertaining these views and purposes. It is now known, as already intimated, that Jeffersoc. encouraged and even paid some of the editors who made these charges. Bee Httdreth, vol. ii. p. 454, 2 J.KTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, nomination of Madison for the presidency by the democratic party, which had that morning been an nounced. " Dear me !" said the barber, " surely this coun try is doomed to disgrace and shame. What Presi dents we might have, sir ! Just look at Daggett of Connecticut and Stockton of New Jersey ! What queues they have got, sir as big as your wrist, and powdered every day, sir, like real gentlemen as they are. Such men, sir, would confer dignity upon the chief magistracy ; but this little Jim Madison, with a queue no bigger than a pipe-stem ! Sir, it is enough to make a man forswear his country !" But I must return to locomotion not railing but wheeling. In Ridgefield, in the year 1800, there was but a single chaise, and that belonged to Col onel Bradley, one of the principal citizens of the place. It was without a top, and had a pair ol wide-spreading, asinine ears. That multitudinous generation of traveling vehicles, so universal and so convenient now such as top-wagons, four-wheeled chaises, tilburies, dearborns, &c., was totally un known. Even if these things had been invented, the roads would scarcely have permitted the use of them. Physicians who had occasion to go from town to town, went on horseback ; all clergymen, except perhaps Bishop Seabury, who rode in a coach, trav eled in the same way. My father's people, who lived at a distance, came to church on horseback their HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, KIT. wives and daughters being seated on pillions behind them. In a few cases as in spring-time, when the mud had no soundings the farm wagon was used for transporting the family. In winter it was otherwise, for we had three or four months of sleighing. Then the whole country was a railroad, and gay times we had. Oh ! those beau tiful winters, which would drive me shivering to the fireside now : what vivid delight have I had in your slidings and skatings, your sleddings and sleigh ings ! One thing strikes me now with wonder, and that is, the general indifference, in those days, to the intensity of winter. No doubt, as I have said before, the climate was then more severe ; but be that as it may, people seemed to suffer less from it than at the present day. Nobody thought of staying at home from church because of the extremity of the weather. We had no thermometers, it is true, to frighten us with the revelation that it was twenty-five degrees below zero. The habits of the people were simple and hardy, and there were few defences against the assaults of the seasons. The houses were not tight ; we had no stoves, no Lehigh or Lackawanna coal ; yet we lived, and comfortably too ; nay, we even changed burly winter into a season of enjoyment. Let me tell you a story, by the way, upon the meeting-houses of those days. They were of wood, and slenderly built, of course admitting somewhat freely the blasts of the seasons. In the severe win- 184: LETTEE8 BIOGRAPHICAL, ter days, we only mitigated the temperature by foot- stoves ; but these were deemed effeminate luxuries, suited to women and children. What would have been thought of Deacon Olmstead and Granther Bald win, had they yielded to the weakness of a foot-stove ! The age of comfortable meeting-houses and churches, in county towns, was subsequent to this, some twenty or thirty years. All improvement is gradual, and frequently advances only by conflict with prejudice, and victory over opposition. In a certain county town within my knowledge, the intro duction of stoves into the meeting-house, about the year 1830, threatened to overturn society. The inci dent may be worth detailing, for trifles often throw light upon important subjects. In this case, the metropolis, which we will call H . . ., had adopted stoves in the churches, and nat urally enough some people of the neighboring town of E .... set about introducing this custom into the meeting-house in their own village. Now, the two master-spirits of society the Demon of Progress and the Angel of Conservatism somehow or other had got into the place, and as soon as this reform was sug gested, they began to wrestle with the people, until at last the -church and society were divided into two violent factions the Stove Party and the Anti-stove Party. At the head of the first was Mrs. Deacon K . . . . and at the head of the latter was Mrs. Deacon I* The battle raged portentously, very much HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 185 like the renowned tempest in a teapot. Society was indeed lashed into a foam. The minister, between the contending factions, scarcely dared to say his soul was his own. He could scarcely find a text from " Genesis to Jude," that might not commit him on one side or the other. The strife of course ran into politics, and the representative to the assembly got in by a happy knack at dodging the question in such wise as to be claimed by both parties. Finally, the progressionists prevailed the stove party triumphed, and the stoves were accordingly installed. Great was the humiliation of the anti- stoveites ; nevertheless, they concluded to be submis sive to the dispensations of Providence. On the Sabbath succeeding the installation of the stoves, Mrs. Deacon P . . . ., instead of staying away, did as she ought, and went to church. As she moved up the broad aisle, it was remarked that she looked pale but calm, as a martyr should, conscious of injury, yet struggling to forgive. Nevertheless, when the min ister named his text Eomans xii. 20 and spoke about heaping coals of fire on the head she slid from her seat, and subsided gently upon the floor. The train of ideas suggested was, in fact, too much for her heated brain and shattered nerves. Sud denly there was a rush to the pew, and the fainting Jady was taken out. When she came to the air, she slightly revived. "I ray what is the matter?" said Mrs. Deacon 1M LF.TTKR8 BIOOKAPH1UAL, K . . . ., who bent over her, holding a smelling-bottle to her nose. " Oh, it is the heat of those awful stoves," said Mrs. Deacon P . . . . " No, no, my dear," said Mrs. Deacon K . . . . ; "that can't be: it's a warm day, you know, and there's no fire in them." " No fire in the stoves ?" said Mrs. Deacon P . . . . "Not a particle," said Mrs. Deacon K . . . . " Well, I feel better now," said the poor lady ; and so bidding her friends good-by, she went home, in a manner suited to the occasion. I have said that in the year 1800 there was but a single chaise in Ridgefield, and this was brought, I believe, from New Haven. There was not, I im agine, a coach, or any kind of pleasure vehicle that crazy old chaise excepted in the county of Fairfield, out of the two half-shire towns. Such things, in deed, were known at New York, Boston, and Phila delphia for already the government had laid a tax upon pleasure conveyances ; but they were compar atively few in number, and were mostly imported. In 1798, there was but one public hack in New Ha ven, and but one coach ; the latter belonging to Pier- point Edwards, being a large four-wheeled vehicle, for two persons, called a chariot. In the smaller toyvns, there were no pleasure vehicles in use throughout New England. What an Old Fogy the world was then ! About that time, there came to our village a man HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, KTC. 137 by the name of Jesse J. Skellinger, an Englishman, and chaisemaker by trade. My father engaged him to build him a chaise. A bench was set up in our barn, and certain trees of oak and ash were cut in our neighboring woods. These were sawed and sea soned, and shaped into wheels and shafts. Eben. Hawley, half blacksmith and half wheelwright, was duly initiated, and he cunningly wrought the iron necessary for the work. In five months the chaise was finished, with a standing top greatly to the ad- ' miration of our family. What a gaze was there, my countrymen, as this vehicle went through Ridgefield- street upon its first expedition! This was the beginning of the chaise manufactory in Ridgefield, which has since been a source of large revenue to the town. Skellinger was engaged by Elijah Hawley, who had formerly done something as a \ragon-builder, and thus in due time an establish ment was founded, which for many years was noted for the beauty and excellence of its pleasure vehicles. The origin of local and special kinds of industry is often hidden in mystery. It would be difficult to tell who began the manufactory of needles at Red- ditch, ribbons at St. Etienne, or watches at Geneva; but it is certain that our chaise, built in our barn, was the commencement of the Ridgefield carriage manufactory, which greatly flourished for a time, and gave rise to other branches of mechanical industry, which still contribute to the prosperity of the place. 138 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, LETTER XI. Cp-town and Down-town East End and West End Master Stebbins A Model Schoolmaster The School-house Administration, of the School Zeek Sanford School-books Arithmetic History Grammar Anec dote of O H. Country Schools of New England in these Days Matter Stabbing 1 s Scholart. MY DEAR 0****** Eidgefield, as well as most other places, had its Up-town and Down-town terms which have not unfrequently been the occasion of serious divisions in the affairs of Church and State. In London this distinction takes the name of West End and the City. The French philosophers say that every great cap ital has similar divisions West End being always the residence of the aristocracy and East End of the canaille. They affirm that it is not only so in fact as to London, Paris, Vienna, and other capitals of the present day, but that it was so in Rome, Athens, Babylon, and Nineveh of old. This they explain by a general law, pervading all countries and all ages, which establishes a current of air from west to east, thus ventilating and purifying the one, and charging the other with the fuliginous vapors of a crowded population. Hence, they say that not only cities must have their West End and East End, but that houses should be built on the same principle the parlor to the west and the kitchen to the east. This HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. is surely laying deep the foundations of the patrician and plebeian divisions of society. Whether our great American cities furnish any support to this ingenious theory, I leave to be deter mined by the philosophers. I shall only venture to remark that Kidgefield, being a village, had a right to follow its own whim, and therefore West Lane, instead of being the aristocratic end of the place, was really rather the low end. It constituted in fact what was called Down-town, in distinction from the more eastern and northern section, called Up-town. In this latter portion, and about the middle of the main street, was the Up-town school, the leading seminary of the village, for at this period it had not arrived at the honors of an academy. At the age of ten years I was sent here, the institution be ing then, and many years after, under the charge of Master Stebbins. He was a man with a conciliating stoop in the shoulders, a long body, short legs, and a swaying walk. He was, at this period, some fifty years old, his hair being thin and silvery, and always falling in well-combed rolls, over his coat-collar. His eye was blue, and his dress invariably of the same color. Breeches and knee-buckles, blue-mixed stock ings, and shoes with bright buckles, seemed as much a part of the man as his head and shoulders. On the whole, his appearance was that of the middle- class gentleman of the olden tune, and he was in fact what he seemed. 140 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, This seminary of learning for the rising aristocracy of Eidgefield was a wooden edifice, thirty by twenty feet, covered with brown clapboards, and except an entry, consisted of a single room. Around, and against the walls ran a continuous line of seats, front ed by a continuous writing-desk. Beneath, were depositories for books and writing materials. The center was occupied by slab seats, similar to those of West Lane. The larger scholars were ranged on the outer sides, at the desks ; the smaller fry of a-b-c-darians were seated in the center. The master was enshrined on the east side of the room, contrary, be it remembered, to the law of the French savans, which places dominion invariably in the west. Reg ular as the sun, Master Stebbins was in his seat at nine o'clock, and the performances of the school began. According to the Catechism which, by the way, we learned and recited on Saturday the chief end of man was to glorify God and keep his commandments : according to the routine of this school, one would have thought it to be reading, writing, and arithme tic, to which we may add spelling. From morning to night, in all weathers, through every season of the year, these exercises were carried on with the energy, patience, and perseverance of a manufactory. Master Stebbins respected his calling: his heart was in his work ; and so, what he pretended to teach, he taught well. When I entered the school, I found HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 141 that a huge stride had been achieved in the march ol mind since I had left West Lane. Webster's Spelling- book had taken the place of Dil worth, which was a great improvement. The drill in spelling was very thorough, and applied every day to the whole school. I imagine that the exercises might have been amusing to a stranger, especially as one scholar would some times go off in a voice as grum as that of a bull-frog, while another would follow in tones as fine and pi ping as a peet-weet. The blunders, too, were often ineffably ludicrous ; even we children would some times have tittered, had not such an enormity been certain to have brought out the birch. As to rewards and punishments, the system was this: whoever miss ed went down ; so that perfection mounted to the top. Here was the beginning of the up and down of life. Beading was performed in classes, which generally plodded on without a hint from the master. Never theless, when Zeek Sanford* who was said to have a streak of lightning in him in his haste to be smart, * Ezekiel Sanford was a sou of Colonel Benjamin Sanford, of Reading. The latter married a daughter of Col. David Olmstead, of Ridgefield, a man of great respectability : after residing a few years here, he removed to Onondaga county, New York, and thence to Philadelphia, and after ward to Germantown, where he died about thirty years ago. Ezekiel, our schoolmate, was a lad of great spirit and excellent ca pacity. He was educated at Yale College, and was there noted as a promising writer. He subsequently became editor of the Eclectic Maga zine at Philadelphia, and in 1819, published a History of the United States before the Revolution,, with some account of the Aborigines. Having stud ied law, he removed to Columbia, South Carolina, where he died about the year 1825. 142 LKTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, read the 37th verse of the 2d chapter of the Acts " Now when they heard this, they were pickled in their heart" the birch stick on Master Stebbins's ta ble seemed to quiver and peel at the little end, as if to give warning of the wrath to come. When Orry Keeler Orry was a girl, you know, and not a boy drawled out in spelling : k o n, kon, a h u n t s, shunts, konshunts the bristles in the master's eyebrows fidgeted like Aunt Delight's knitting-nee dles. Occasionally, when the reading was insupport- ably bad, he took a book and read himself, as an example. We were taught arithmetic in Daboll, then a new book, and which, being adapted to^our measures of length, weight, and currency, was a prodigious leap over the head of poor old Dilworth, whose rules and examples were modeled upon English customs. In consequence of the general use of Dilworth in our schools, for perhaps a century pounds, shillings, and pence were classical, and dollars and cents vulgar, for several succeeding generations. " I would not give a penny for it," was genteel ; " I would not give a cent for it," was plebeian. We have not yet got over this : we sometimes say red cent in familiar parlance, but it can hardly be put in print without offense. Master Stebbins was a "great man with a slate and pencil, and I have an idea that we were a generation after his own heart. We certainly achieved wonders according to our own conceptions, some of us going HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 143 even beyond the Rule of Three, and making forays into the mysterious region of Vulgar Fractions. Several daring geniuses actually entered and took possession. But after all, penmanship was Master Stebbins's great accomplishment. He had no magniloquent system ; no pompous lessons upon single lines and bifid lines, and the like. The revelations of in spired copy-book makers had not then been vouch safed to man. He could not cut an American eagle with a single flourish of a goose-quill. He was gui ded by good taste and native instinct, and wrote a smooth round hand, like copper-plate. His lessons from A to &, all written by himself, consisted of pithy proverbs and useful moral lessons. On every page of our writing-books he wrote the first line himself. The effect was what might have been expected with such models, patiently enforced, nearly all became good writers. Beyond these simple elements, the Up-town school made few pretensions. When I was there, two Web ster's Grammars and one or two Dwight's Geographies were in use. The latter was without maps or illustra tions, and was in fact little more than an expanded ta ble of contents, taken from Morse's Universal Geogra phy the mammoth monument of American learning and genius of that age and generation. The grammar was a clever book ; but I have an idea that neither Master Stebbins nor his pupils ever fathomed its 144 LETTERS BIOGBAPHICAL, depths. They floundered about in it, as if in a quagmire, and after some time came out pretty nearly where they went in, though perhaps a little obfus cated by the dim and dusky atmosphere of these labyrinths. The fact undoubtedly is, that the art of teaching, as now understood, beyond the simplest elements, was neither known nor deemed necessary in our country schools in their day of small things. Repe tition, drilling, line upon line, and precept upon pre cept, with here and there a little of the birch con stituted the entire system. James G. Carter* had not then begun the series ol publications, which laid the foundation of the great movement in school education, which afterward per vaded New England. " Bring up a child in the way in which he should go," was the principle ; the prac tice regarded this way as straight and narrow somewhat like a gun-barrel and the scholar as a bullet, who was to go ahead, whether he had to encounter a pine board or an oak knot. In climb ing up the steep ascent to knowledge, he was expect ed to rely upon his own genius ; a kindly, helping hand along the rough and dubious passages, was rare ly extended to him. " Do this!" said the master, with his eye bent on the ferule, and generally the pupil did it, if the matter related to the simpler school * See note V., D. 540. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 14:5 exercises. But when you came to grammar that was quite another thing. Let me here repeat an anecdote, which I have in deed told before, but which I had from the lips of its hero, G . . . H . . ., a clergyman of some note thirty years ago, and which well illustrates this part of my story. At a village school, not many miles from Bidgefield, he was put into Webster's Grammar. Here he read, "A noun is the name of a thing as horse, hair, justice" Now, in his innocence, he read it thus : " A noun is the name of a thing-r-as horse-hair justice.' 1 " What then," said he, ruminating deeply, " is a noun ? But first I must find out what a horse-hair justice is." Upon this he meditated for some days, but still he was as far as ever from the solution. Now his father was a man of authority in those parts, and moreover he was a justice of the peace. Withal, he was of respectable ancestry, and so there had de scended to him a somewhat stately high-backed settee, covered with horse-hair. One day, as the youth came from school, pondering upon the great grammatical problem, he entered the front door of the house, and there he saw before him, his father, officiating in his legal capacity, and seated upon the old horse-hair settee. " I have found it !" said the boy to himself, as greatly delighted as was Archimedes when he ex claimed Eureka " my father is a horse-hair justice, and therefore a noun !" VOL. I. 7 146 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the world got on remarkably well in spite of this narrowness of the country schools. The elements of an Eng lish education were pretty well taught throughout the village seminaries of Connecticut, and I may add, of New England. The teachers were heartily devoted to their profession : they respected their call ing, and were respected and encouraged by the com munity. They had this merit, that while they at tempted but little, that, at least, was thoroughly per formed. 1 -; As to the country at large, it was a day of quiet, though earnest action : Franklin's spirit was the great " schoolmaster abroad" teaching industry, persever ance, frugality, and thrift, as the end and aim of am bition. The education of youth was suited to what was expected of them. With the simple lessons of the country schools, they moved the world imme diately around them. Though I can recollect only a single case that already alluded to of Ezekiel San- ford in which one of Master Stebbins's scholars at tained any degree of literary distinction, still, quite a number of them, with no school learning beyond what he gave them, rose to a certain degree of emi nence. His three sons obtained situations in New York as accountants, and became distinguished in their career. At one period there were three gradu ates of his school, who were cashiers of banks in that city. My mind adverts now with great satisfac- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 147 tion to several names among the wealthy, honorable, and still active merchants of the great metropolis, who were my fellow-students of the Up-town school, and who there began and completed their education. I will venture to name another Bufus H. King, of Albany, who was my competitor in every study, and my friend in every play. May I not be permit ted to add that he has ever been, and still is, my friend ? As a man, he is precisely what he promised to be as Master Stebbins's pupil. I know he will ex cuse me for thus speaking of him in behalf of our revered old schoolmaster, to whose character and memory I can inscribe no more worthy monument than this reference to his pupils. LETTER XII. Horsemanship Bigjs Adventures A Dead Shot A Race Academical Honors Charles Chatterbox My Father's School My Exercises in Latin Tityre tu patulce, etc. Rambles Literary Aspirations -My Mother Family Worship Standing and Kneeling at Prayer Anecdotes Out Philistine Temple. MY DEAR 0****** Permit me a few more details as to my school- day recollections. I went steadily to the Up-town school for three winters, being occupied during the Bummers upon the farm, and in various minor duties. 148 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, I was a great deal on horseback^ often carrying mes sages to the neighboring towns of Reading, Wilton, Westou, and Lower Salem, for then the post-routes were few, and the mails, which were weekly, crept like snails over hill and valley. I became a bold rider at an early age ; before I was eight years old, I frequently ventured to put a horse to his speed, and that, too, without a saddle. A person who has never tried it, can hardly conceive of the wild delight of riding a swift horse when he lays down his ears, tosses his tail in air, and stretches himself out in a full race. The change which the creature undergoes, in passing from an ordinary gait into a run, is felt by the rider to be a kind of sudden inspiration, which triumphs like wings over the dull, dragging laws of gravitation. The intense energy of the beast's movements, the rush of the air, the swimming backward of lands, houses, and trees, with the clattering thunder of the hoofs all convey to the rider a fierce ecstasy, which, perhaps, nothing else can give. About this period, however, I received a lesson, which lasted me a life time. You must know that Deacon Benedict, one of our neighbors, had a fellow living with him, named Abijah. He was an adventurous youth, and more than once led me into tribulation. I remember that on one occasion I went with him to shoot a dog that was said to worry the deacon's sheep. It was night, and dark as Egypt, but Bige said he could see the HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 149 creature, close to tho cow-house, back of the barn He banged away, and then jumped over the fence, to pick up the game. After a time he came back, but said not a word. Next morning it was found that he had shot the brindled cow; mistaking a white spot in her forehead for the dog, he had taken deadly aim, and put the whole charge into her pate. For tunately her skull was thick and the shot small, so the honest creature was only a little cracked. Bige, however, was terribly scolded by the deacon, who was a justice of the peace, and had a deep sense of the importance of his duties. I came in for a share of blame, though I was only a looker-on. Bige said the deacon called me a "parsnip scrimmage," but more probably it was a particeps criminis. But to proceed. One day I was taking home from the pasture, a horse that belonged to some clergyman I believe Dr. Eipley, of Green sfarms. Just as I came upon the level ground in front of Jerry Mead's old house, Bige came up behind me on the deacon's mare an ambling brute with a bushy tail and shaggy mane. As he approached, he gave a chirrup, and my horse, half in fright and half in fun, bounded away, like Tarn O'Shanter's mare. Every hair in the creature's tail and mane stood out, as if spinning Avith electricity. Away we went, I holding on as well as I could, for the animal was round as a barrel. He was no doubt used to a frolic of this sort, although he belonged to a D. D., and looked as if he believed in total deprav- 150 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, ity. When he finally broke into a ran, he flew like the wind, at the same time bounding up and down with a tearing energy, quite frightful to think of. After a short race, he went from under me, and I came with a terrible shock to the ground. The breath was knocked out of me for some sec onds, and as I recovered it with a gasping effort, iny sensations were indescribably agonizing. Greatly humbled, and sorely bruised, I managed to get home, where the story of my adventure had preceded me. I was severely lectured by my parents, which, how ever, I might have forgotten, had not the concussion entered into my bones, and made an indelible impres sion upon my memory, thus perpetuating the whole some counsel. When I was about twelve years old, a man by the name of Sackett was employed to keep a high- school, or, as it was then called, an Academy. Here I went irregularly for a few weeks, and at a public exhibition I remember to have spoken a piece upon a stage fitted up in the meeting-house, entitled "Charles Chatterbox." Irad Hawley, Rufus H. King, and Sally Ingersoll, played Hagar and Ishmael. This was the substance of my achievements at Sackett's semi nary. The narrowness of my father's income, and the needs of a large family, induced him to take half a dozen pupils to be fitted for college. This he con tinued for a series of years. Some of his scholars HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 151 came from New Haven, some from Danbury, and some from other places. I may remark, in passing, that a number of these some of whom are still liv ing distinguished themselves in various liberal pur suits. It might seem natural that I should have shared in these advantages ; but, in the first place, my only and elder brother, Charles A. Goodrich now widely known by his numerous useful publica tions had been destined for the clerical profession, partly by his own predilection, partly by encourage ment from a relative, and partly too from an idea that his somewhat delicate constitution forbade a more hardy career. To this may doubtless be added the natural desire of his parents that at least one of their sons should follow the honored calling to which father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been devoted. Hence, he was put in training for college. The expenses to be thus incurred were formidable enough to my parents, without adding to them, by attempting any thing of the kind for me. And be sides, I had manifested no love of study, and evi dently preferred action to books. Moreover, it must be remembered that I was regarded as a born carpen ter, and it would have seemed a tempting of Provi dence to have set me upon any other career. So, with perfect content on my part, from the age of twelve to fourteen, I was chiefly employed in active services about the house and farm. I could read, write, and cipher; this was suffi ,ient for my ambi- 152 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, tion, and satisfactory to my parents, in view of the life to which I was apparently destined. Nevertheless, though my school exercises were such as I have described, I doubtless gathered some little odds and ends of learning about those days, beyond the range of my horn-books. I heard a good deal of conversation from the clergymen who visited us, and above all, I listened to the long discourses of Lieutenant Smith upon matters and things in gen eral. My father, too, had a brother in Congress, from whom he received letters, documents, and mes sages, all of which became subjects of discussion. I remember furthermore, that out of some childish im itation, I thumbed over Corderius and Erasmus the first Latin books, then constantly in the hands of my father's pupils. I was so accustomed to hear them recite their lessons in Virgil, that Tityre tu patula recubaw sub tegmine fngi "7 and Anna-, arms virumque, aud the man carw, I sing were as familiar to my ears as hillery, tillery, zachery zan, and probably conveyed to my mind about as much meaning. Even the first lesson in Greek Ev, in r Nelson' had frequently strove to get it (in order to philosophize about it), but he could not ; and observed they could not accouo* for it '. Jonathan Ingersoll Lieutenant-governor IngersoU New Haven Bellas A chivalrous Virginian among the Connecticut D.DSs Grace IngersoU A New Haven Girl at Napoleon's Court Real Ro mance A Puritan in a Convent. MY DEAR C ****** General King's house stood on the northern slope of a small swell of ground, midway between the two extremities of the main street, and on the western side. It was a rather large two-story edifice, always neatly kept, and glowing in fresh white paint. "Wealth and respectability in the full tide of successful experiment, were as readable in its appearance as if it had been so written in front, like the designation of a railway station. Contiguous to this fresh and flourishing mansion, on the southern side, was a brown, gable-roofed house, with two venerable, but still green and flourishing button-wood trees in front. The building was mark ed with age, the surface of its clapboards, unprotected by paint, being softened and spongy through the in fluence of the seasons. The roof was of a yellowish- green tint, imparted by a gathering film of moss. The windows were contracted, and the casing, thin and plain, bespoke the architecture of our day of small things. All aroxmd was rather bare, and 'the little HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, KTC. recess in front, open and un inclosed, was at once shaven close and desecrated by a flock of geese that every night made it their camp-ground. Nevertheless, there was a certain dignity about the button-wood trees in front, and the old brown house in the rear, that excited respect and curiosity in the beholder. There was indeed some reason, for this was the home of the Ingersolls. The Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll* was my father's im mediate predecessor, as minister of the First Congre gational Church in Ridgefield. Though he has been dead three fourths of a century, tradition still cher ishes his memory as an able preacher, a devoted pas tor, and a most amiable man. In my boyhood he had long since passed away, but his widow still lin gered in the old brown house I have described. She was every way a superior woman wise, good, lov ing, and beloved. Her husband's mantle descended upon her shoulders, and she wore it worthily before the world and the Church. By the latter she was cherished as a guardian saint. She was always my father's friend, and in the critical and difficult pas sages which are sure to arise between a pastor and his people, she was the ready and efficient peacemaker. I remember her, though faintly and as a dream, yet one in which I saw a pale, gray, saintly old lady, almost too good for this wicked world. * See note I., p. 516. 11* 2T)0 LKTTER8 BIOGliA PlilCAI,, Mr. Ingersoll had a large family, all of whom were of mature age at the period of my childhood. The youngest daughter was wife of Gen. King, and mother of the family I have described. Two of the three sons Joseph and Moss were deaf and dumb, and occu pied the family mansion : the other son was the late Jonathan Ingersoll, of New Haven, distinguished by his eminent talents and many virtues. Joseph Ingersoll according to my recollection v/as a plain, solid, dull-looking man, who passed to and fro with rigid directness, never smiling, and seeming to take little interest in what was passing around him. Though naturally quick-minded, and able to express a few ideas by signs, he still seemed to shun intercourse with the world, and even with his friends and neighbors. He and his brother Moss carried on the farm. He rose every day at the same hour ; took his meals and retired to bed. with the precision of a chronometer. You might safely liavc set your clock by him. At a particular time in the morning he went to the fields, where he labor- rd with the steadiness of a mill : at a particular time in the afternoon or evening he returned. He re volved through the seasons, performing the labors- due to each with the same exactitude. Had he been u machine, wound up and set each day, he could hardly have been more the creature of routine. Moss Ingersoll was singularly unlike his brother Jcxenh. While the latter remained a bachelor, the IlISTOItlt'AL, ANKCDOTlCAr,, KTf. 251 loriner \vasrnarried, and bad a family of several chil dren. He was of a sharp, ready mind, social in his dis position, cheerful, witty, and of pleasing personal ap pearance and address. His whole face beamed with intelligence ; his manners bespoke a certain natural refinement, and a quick sensibility to the pleasures of social intercourse. It must be remembered that this was long prior to the modern art of teaching the deaf and dumb ; nevertheless, his father had taken great pains with him, and had given him some instruction through the use of signs. By means of these, Moss conversed to a limited extent with his wife and chil dren, and indeed the whole neighborhood. He came frequently to our house, and was a great favorite. I learned to talk with him a little, and when I met him, he always had something interesting to say. His signs were descriptive, and displayed a turn for humorous associations. Deacon Olmstead was the Big Cane ; my father the Bald Pate ; Gen. King the Long Sword ; Lieut. Smith the See-Saw, and so on. He could write so as to keep accounts, but could not read, and it is probable his range of abstract ideas was narrow. His ready perceptions, however, gave him a large acquaintance with common things. He even seemed to comprehend the outlines of Chris tianity, and to feel the obligations of conforming to its requisitions. How far he reached into the pro- founder depths of religion' the mysteries of God and eternity, of man and his vast capacities and ama- 252 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, zing destinies, as unfolded by revelation it is impos sible to know. It is related that a deaf and dumb man in France grew up to manhood, and seemed to have a highly religious tendency and experience. He attended the services of the church with steadfast assiduity, and wore a devout and penitential air. No one doubted his comprehension of the groundwork of religion, or the reality of his piety. Afterward, by a surgical operation, he recovered his hearing. It then appeared that he had never conceived the idea of God, a future state, or moral responsibility ! His religion was wholly a pantomime. He saw that reli gious forms and ceremonies were esteemed, and hence he found pleasure in them. He was not a hypocrite, nor an automaton, but a simple exemplification of that mimetic aptitude which is a part of our nature. How large a part of the religion of the world is no better than this, it is not for us to say. It is probable that Moss Ingersoll had passed be yond this state of living death: no doubt he com prehended faintly, at least the idea of a God and human accountability ; it is even supposed that he conceived the triune existence of the Deity. He certainly understood something of astronomy, and the nature of the heavenly bodies. Knowing so much, how must he have yearned to know more ! How must his active, earnest mind have struggled within its prison, and sought to solve a thousand mysteries which haunted^ and perplexed it ! What HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 253 a world of thought and knowledge would have been opened to him by the gift of speech, and yet what unfathomed and unfathomable mysteries would have remained unsolved, still to haunt and perplex him ! Within the narrow circle of his observation and experience, he was almost as near the great mys teries hid in the bosom of the Almighty, which come so often and so anxiously to ask a solution, as the profoundest philosopher. I remember once, while traveling with Mr. Webster, to have asked him if he had been able, in any degree, to penetrate the curtain which hangs over the origin of man, of nature, and of God. He replied that the plainest mind could see just as far in that direction as the most acute : the Almighty had shut the door upon these his secrets, and it was vain for us to attempt to open it. How hard is it to submit to this stern decree ! Be hind that awful barrier lie those mighty truths which from the beginning have stimulated, yet baffled, hu man thought and inquiry. No mind can see them, or yet forego them. There is God : there is man's history, man's destiny, written in letters of light ! Oh that we could behold and read the amazing revela tion ! It may not be : the door is closed ; we can not force it ! The tyrant Death holds the key : he alone has power to open it ; and he at last will open it to us all. Till then, patience, hope, submission these are our only resources. When I left Ridgefield, the two deaf and dumb 254 LETTERS BIOGRAPHKUC, Jngersolls were still living. On my return there, some years after, b6th were in their graves. If their privileges were less than those of other men, so doubtless was their accountability. Perhaps even the balance of enjoyment in their lives was not much less than it would have been had they possessed their full faculties. With increased gifts come increased temptations. Men of superior endowments too often abuse their privileges, and their lives sink even be low the level of ordinary men. Those who are born rich often squander their wealth, and thus the bankrupt is even more wretched than he who was a pauper from the beginning. At all events, I look back upon the somewhat mournful story of these two men with a cheerful conviction that on earth their lives passed tranquilly away, and that hereafter the cloud that shaded their minds will be removed iu such manner and measure as to compensate for the privations they suffered here. Jonathan Ingersoll, their brother, was an eminent lawyer, and settled at New Haven. Personally, he was erect, slender, and very much like his distinguished son, the present Ralph I. Ingersoll. He was marked by a nervous twitch of the face, which usually signal ized itself when he began to address the jury. On these occasions his eyes opened and shut spasmodically ; at the same time he drew the corners of his mouth up and down, the whole seeming as if it was his object to set the court in a roar. Sometimes he succeeded, in HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 25 spite of all his efforts to the contrary. Indeed, it -was impossible for a person on seeing this for the first time, to avoid a srnile perhaps a broad one. It might seem that such a frailty would have been a stumbling-block in his profession ; yet it was not so. I suspect, indeed, that his practice as a lawyer was benefited by it for the world likes an easy handle to a great name, and this is readily supplied by a per sonal peculiarity. At all events, such was the dignity of his character, the grace of his language, and the perfection of his logic, his law, and his learning, that he stood among the foremost of his profession. He became Lieutenant-governor of the State, a judge of the Supreme Court, and held various other respon sible offices. This gentleman had a large family sons and daughters : the names of the former are honorably recorded in the official annals of their native State nay, of the United States. The daughters were distinguished for personal attractions and refined ac complishments,. One of them claims a special notice Grace Ingersoll : how beautiful the name, how sug gestive of what she was in mind, in person, in char acter ! I saw her once but once, and I was then a child yet her image is as distinct as if I had seen her yesterday. In my boyhood these New Haven Ingersolls came to Ridgefield occasionally, especially in summer, to visit their relations there. Thev all seemed to rne 250 I.KTTKE8 BIOGRAPHICAL, like superior beings, especially Mrs. Ingersoll, who was fair and forty about those days. On a certain occasion, Grace, who was a school companion of my elder sister's, came to our house. I imagine she did not see or notice me. Certainly she did not discover in the shy boy in the corner her future biographer. She was tall and slender, yet fully rounded, with rich, dark hair, and large Spanish eyes now seeming blue and now black, and changing with the objects on which she looked, or the play of emotions within her breast. In complexion she was a brunette, yet with a melting glow in her cheek, as if she had stolen from the sun the generous hues which are reserved for the finest of fruit and flowers. Her beauty was in fact so striking at once so superb and so concil iating that I was both awed and fascinated by her. Wherever she went I followed, though keeping at si distance, and never losing sight of her. She spent the afternoon at our house, and then departed, and I saw her no more. It was not long after *his that a Frenchman by the name of Grellet, who had come to America on some important commercial affairs, chanced to be at New York, and there saw Grace Ingersoll. Such beauty as that of the New Haven belle is rare in any coun try : it is never indigenous in France. Even if such could be born there, the imperious force of conven tional manners would have stamped itself upon her, and made her a fashionable lady, at the expense HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC. 257 of that Eve-like beauty and simplicity which charac terized her. It is not astonishing, then, that the stranger accustomed as he was to all the beauty of French fashionable life should still have been smit ten with this new and startling type of female love liness. I may remark, in passing, and as pertinent to my narrative, that the women of New Haven in these bygone days were famous for their beauty. They may be so yet, but I have not been there except as a railroad passenger for years, and can not estab lish the point by my own direct testimony. As to the olden time, however, I can verify my statements from the evidence of my own eyes, as well as the rec ords of long tradition. Among the legends I have heard on this subject is one to this effect. There was once a certain Major L . . . . a Virginian who I be lieve was at one time a member of Congress. He was a federalist ; and when I saw him at Washington, about the year 1820, he wore a thick queue, and a good sprinkling of hair-powder then generally es teemed very undemocratic. He was a large and handsome man, and at the period of which I speak was some fifty years of age. But being a Virgin ian, and withal a bachelor, he was still highly chiv alrous in his feelings and conduct toward the fair sex. Now, once upon a time this handsome old bachelor paid a visit to New England. Having stayed a while 258 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, at Boston, lie journeyed homeward till he came to New Haven. It chanced to be Commencement-day the great jubilee of the city while he was there. Having no acquaintances, he set out in the morning to go and see the ceremonies. Directed by the cur rent of people to the chapel, he went thither, and asked for admittance. It was the custom first to re ceive the reverend clergy and the ladies, who had privileged seats reserved for them the world at large being kept out till these were accommodated : a fact which shows that our Puritan ancestors, if they did not hold women to be divine, placed them on the same level as divines. The doorkeeper scanned Major L .... as he came up to the place, and observ ing him to be a good-looking gentleman in black, with a tinge of powder on his coat-collar, set him down as a minister of the Gospel, and so let him pass. The sexton within took him in charge, and placed him in the clerical quarter between two old D. D.'s Dr. Perkins, of West Hartford, and Dr. Marsh, of Wethersfield, each having the Five Points sticking out the one from his gray locks and the other from his frizzed wig as plainly as if they had been em blazoned on a banner. The major, with the conscious ease of his genial nature and southern breeding, took his seat and sur veyed the scene. His gaze soon fell upon a battery of eyes beautiful, yet dangerous that ran along the gallery. Unconscious of the sanctity and sain tli ness HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 259 of his position, he half rose and made a low and gra cious bow to the ladies above, as if to challenge their whole artillery. Every eye in the house was thus drawn toward him. Before he had time to compose himself, Miss F , one of the belles of the day, came down the Woad aisle, full upon him ! He had never seen any thing so marvellously beautiful at once so simple and so superb, so much a woman and so much a divinity. He held his breath till she had passed, when he turned suddenly to Eev. Dr. Marsh, and giving him a slap on his shoulder which dis lodged a shower of powder from his wig exclaimed, " By all the gods, sir, there is Yen us herself!" . It is not easy to conceive of the consternation of all around, and especially of the reverend clergy. Their grizzled hair stood out, as if participating in the general horror. What could possess their rev erend brother? Was he suddenly beset by the Evil One, thus to utter the unhallowed name of Venus in the house of God ? It was, indeed a mystery. Grad ually, and one by one, they left the infected pew, and Major L . . . ., finding himself alone, quietly pocketed the joke, which, however, he often repeated to his friends after his return to Virginia. This legend refers to a date some dozen years sub sequent to the era of Grace Ingersoll, and which therefore shows that the traditional beauty of the New Haven ladies had not then declined. I now return to my story. From the first view of that fair lady, 260 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, M. Grellet was a doomed man. Familiar with the brilliant court of the Parisian capital, he might have passed by unharmed, even by one as fair as our he roine, had it not been for that simplicity, that Puri tanism of look and manner, which belonged to the social climate in which she was brought up so strong ly in contrast to the prescribed pattern graces of a French lady. He came, he saw, he was conquered. Being made captive, he had no other way than to capitulate. He was a man of good family, a fine scholar, and a finished gentleman. He made due and honorable proposals, and was accepted though on the part of the parents with many misgivings. Marriage ensued, and the happy pair departed for France. This took place in 1806. M. Grellet held a high social position, and on his arrival at Paris, it was a matter of propriety that his bride should be pre sented at court. Napoleon was then in the full flush of his imperial glory. It must have been with some palpitations of heart that the New Ha ven girl scarcely turned of eighteen years, and new to the great world prepared to be introduced to the glittering circle of the Tuileries, and under the eye of the emperor himself. As she was presented to him, in the midst of a dazzling throng, blazing with orders and diamonds, she was a little agitated, and her foot was entangled for a moment in her long train then an indispensable part of the court costume. Napo- .DAME GREU.ET (GRACE INGERSOLL) AT THE COURT OF NAPOLEOX. Vol. l. p. 263. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 261 leon, who, with all his greatness, never rose to the dignity of a gentleman, said in her hearing, " Voild de lo, gaucherie am&ricaine I" American awkward ness ! Perhaps a certain tinge of political bitterness mingled in the speech, for Jerome had been seduced into marriage by the beauty of an American lady, greatly to the chagrin of his aspiring and unprinci pled brother. At all events, though he saw the blush his rudeness had created, a malicious smile played upon his lips, indicative of that contempt of the feel ings of women, which was one of his characteristics.* Madame Grellet, however, survived the shock of this discourtesy, which signalized her entry into fash ionable life. She soon became a celebrity in the court circles, and always maintained pre-eminence, alike for beauty of person, grace of manners, and delicacy and dignity of character. More than once she had her re venge upon the emperor, when in the center of an ad miring circle, he, with others, paid homage to her fas cinations. Yet this transplantation of the fair Puritan, even to the Paradise of fashion, was not healthful. M. Grellet became one of Bonaparte's receivers- general, and took up his residence in the department of the Dordogne though spending the winters in Paris. * Napoleon's estimate of woman was very low : it was his cherished opinion that the orientals understood much better how to dispose of the female sex than the Europeans. There was a brusquerie, a precipitancy in his manner toward women, both in public and private, which his greatest admirers admit to have been repugnant to every feeling of fe male delicacy. See Alison's Europe, vol. ix. p. 151. 262 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Upon the fall of Napoleon, he lost his office, but was reappointed during the "hundred days," only to lose it again upon the final restoration of Louis XVIII. The shadows now gathered thick and dark around him. His wife having taken a violent cold was at tacked with pleurisy, which resulted in a gradual de cline. Gently but surely her life faded away. Death loves a shining mark, and at the early age of five-and- twenty she descended to the tomb. With two lovely daughters the remembrances of his love and his affliction M. Grellet returned to the south of France, and in the course of years, he too was numbered with the dead. Almost half a century passed away, and the mem ory of Grace Ingersoll had long been obliterated from my mind, when it was accidentally recalled. One evening, being at the Tuileries among the celebrities of the world's most brilliant court I saw her brother, B. I. Ingersoll. It was curious to meet here with one to whom I had not spoken though I had occasion ally seen him since we were boys together in Ridge- field. The last incident associated with him in my memory was that we played mumbletepeg together on the green mound, beneath the old Ingersoll but- tonwoods. He was now the American Ambassador to Russia, and on his way thither, and I was a chance sojourner m Paris. We met as if we were old friends. At length I recollected his sister Grace, and asked if her children HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 263 were living. He replied in the affirmative, and that he was on the point of paying them a visit. 1 saw him a month afterward, and he told me that he had just returned from the south of France, where he had enjoyed a most interesting stay -of a fortnight with his nieces. One the elder was married, and had children around her. She was the wife of an eminent physician, and in easy circumstances occupying a good social position. She was a charming person, and, as he thought, possessed something of the appearance and character of his lost sis'ter. He found that she could sing the simple Connecticut ballads taught her in childhood, perhaps in the cradle by her mother : she had also some of her sketches in pencil, and other personal mementoes, which she cherished as sacred relics of her' parent, who now seemed a saint in her memory. How beautiful and how touching are such remembrances flowers that cast perfume around the very precincts of the tomb ! The other neice where was she? In a convent, lost to the world devoted to God if indeed to ex tinguish the lights of life be devotion to Him who gave them ! By special favor, however, she was permitted to leave her seclusion for a short period, that she might see her uncle. She came to the house of her sister, and remained there several days She was a most interesting person, delicate, grace ful, sensitive, still alive to all human affections. She was generally cheerful, and entered with a ready 264 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, heart into the pleasures of home and friends around her. I shall venture to quote a single passage from a letter on this subject, addressed to me by her uncle. Speaking of his visit above alluded to, he says : " One day, after we had been talking as usual of America and her American relations, she excused herself to me for a short time, that she might go to her room and write a letter to the convent. She was gone from me much longer than I had expected, and on her return I said to her : " ' You must have been writing a long letter, if I may judge by the time you have been about it?' " ' Yes,' was her reply ; ' but I have not been wri ting all the while ; I have been praying.' " ' Indeed ! Do you pray often ?' " ' Yes and even more often here than when I am at the convent.' "'Why so?' -- " ' I fear, my dear uncle, that my affection for you will attach me too much to earth.' " How strange, how affecting. are the vicissitudes of life as we read them in the intimate personal histo ries of homes and hearts! The direct descendants of the Puritan minister of Bidgefield the one a mother, blending her name, her lineage, and her lan guage, in the annals of a foreign land ; the other, a devotee, seeking in the seclusion of her cell and per haps not altogether in vain "that peace which the world can not give I" HISTORICAL, ANECIX3TICAL, ETC. LETTER XIX, Mat Olmstead, the Town WiL-The Salamander Ratr-The Great Eclipse Sharp Logic Lieutenant Smith, the Town Philosopher The Pur- ' chase of Louisiana Lewis and Clarke's Exploring Expedition The Great Meteor Hamilton and Burr The Leopard and the Chesapeake Fulton's Steamboats Granther Baldwin, the Village Miser Sarah Bishop, the Hermitess. MY DEAR C****** Matthew Olmstead, or Mat Olmstead, as he was usually called, was a day laborer, and though his speciality was the laying of stone fences, he was equal ly adroit at hoeing corn, mowing, and farm-work in general. He /was rather short and thick-set, with a long nose, a little bulbous in his latter days with a ruddy complexion, and a mouth shutting like a pair of nippers the lips having an oblique dip to the left, giving a keen and mischievous expression to his face, qualified, however, by more of mirth than malice. This feature was indicative of his mind and character, for he was sharp in speech, and affected a crisp, bi ting brevity, called dry wit. He had also a turn for practical jokes, and a great many of these were told of him, to which, perhaps, he had no historical claim. The following is one of them, and is illustrative oi his manner, even if it originated elsewhere. On a cold stormy day in December as I received the tale a man chanced to come into the bar-room VOL. I. 12 266 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, of Keeler's tavern, where Mat Olmstead and several of his companions were lounging. The stranger had on a new hat of the latest fashion, and still shining with the gloss of the iron. He seemed conscious of his dignity, and carried his head in such a manner as to invite attention to it. Mat's knowing eye imme diately detected the weakness of the stranger ; so he approached him, and said " What a very nice hat you've got on. Pray who made it?" " Oh, it came from New York," was the reply. " Well, let me take it," said Mat. The stranger took it off his head, gingerly, and handed it to him. " It is a wonderful nice hat," said Matthew ; " and I see it's a real salamander !" " Salamander?" said the other. " What's that ?" " Why a real salamander hat won't burn !" " No ? I never heard of that before : I don't be lieve it's one of that kind." " Sartain sure ; I'll bet you a mug of flip of it." " Well, I'll stand you !" " Done : now I'll just put it under the fore-stick ?" "Well." It being thus arranged, Mat put the hat under the fore-stick into a glowing mass of coals. In an instant it took fire, collapsed, and rolled into a black, crum pled mass of cinders. " I du declare," said Mat Olmstead, affecting great HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 267 astonishment "it ain't a salamander hat arter all. Well ; I'll pay the flip !" Yet wit is not always wisdom. Keen as this man was as to things immediately before him, he was of narrow understanding. He seemed not to possess the faculty of reasoning beyond his senses. He never would admit that the sun was fixed, and that the world turned round. In an argument upon this point before an audience of his class, he would have floored Sir John Herschel or Lord Eosse by his homely but pointed ridicule. I remember that when the great solar eclipse of 1806 was approaching, he with two other men were at work in one of our fields, not far from the house. The eclipse was to begin at ten or eleven o'clock, and my father sent an invitation to the workmen to come up and observe it through some pieces of smoked glass. They came, though Mat ridiculed the idea of an eclipse not but the thing might happen but it was idle to suppose it could be foretold. While they were waiting and watching for the great event, my father explain ed that the light of the sun upon the earth was to be interrupted by the intrusion of the moon, and that this was to produce a transient night upon the scene around us. Mat laughed with that low scoffing chuckle, with which a woodchuck, safe in his rocky den, replies to the bark of a besieging dog. " So you don't believe this ?" said my father. 268 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, " No," said Mat, shaking his head, and bringing his lips obliquely together, like the blades of a pair of shears. " I don't believe a word of it. You say, Par son Goodrich, that the sun is fixed, and don't move ?" " Yes, I say so." " Well : didn't you preach last Sunday out of the 10th chapter of Joshua ?" " Yes." " And didn't you tell us that Joshua commanded the sun and moon to stand still ?" " Yes." " Well : what was the use of telling the sun to stand still if it never moved ?" This was a dead shot, especially at a parson, and in the presence of an audience inclined, from the fel lowship of ignorance, to receive the argument. Being thus successful, Mat went on. " Now, Parson Goodrich, let's try it agin. If you turn a thing that's got water in it bottom up, the wa- ter'll run out, won't it ?" " No doubt." " If the world turns round, then, your well will be turned bottom up, and the water'll run out !" At this point my father applied his eye to the son through a piece of smoked glass. The eclipse had begun ; a small piece was evidently cut off from the rim. My father stated the fact, and the company around looked through the glass and saw that it was so. Mat Olmstead, however, sturdily refused to try it, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 269 and bore on his face an air of supreme contempt, as much as to say, " You don't humbug me!" But ignorance and denial of the works of God do not interrupt their march. By slow and invisible degrees, a shade crept over the landscape. There was no cloud in the sky, but a chill stole through the atmosphere, and a strange dimness fell over the world. It was midday, yet it seemed like the ap proach of night. There was something fearful in this, as if the sun was about to be blotted out in the midst of his glory the light of the world to be extinguished at the moment of its noon ! All na ture seemed chilled and awed by the strange phenom enon. The birds, with startled looks and ominous notes, left their busy cares and gathered in the thick branches of the trees, where they seemed to hold counsel one with another. The hens, with slow and hesitating steps, set their faces toward their roosts. One old hen, with a brood of chickens, walked along with a tall, halting tread, and sought shelter upon the barn-floor, where she gathered her young ones under her wings, continuing to make a low sound, as if saying " Hush, my babes, lie still and slumber." At the same time, like many a mother before her, while seeking to bring peace to her offspring, her own heart was agitated with profound anxiety. I well remember this phenomenon* the first of the * Tliis eclipse (June 16th, 1806), being total, attracted great attention The weather was perfectly calm, and the phenomena exceedingly hi 270 LETTEKS BIOGRAPHICAL, kind I had ever witnessed. Its sublimity absorbed ray whole faculties : it seemed to me the veritable, visible work of the Almighty. The ordinary course of nature was, indeed, equally stupendous ; but this incident, from its mere novelty, was a startling and impressive display of the mighty mechanism of the skies. Yet, though thus occupied by this seeming conflict of the heavenly bodies, I recollect to have paid some attention to the effect of the scene upon others. Mat Olmstead said not a word ; the other workmen were overwhelmed with emotions of awe. At length the eclipse began to pass away, and na ture slowly returned to her equanimity. The birds came forth, and sang a jubilee, as if relieved from some impending calamity. The hum of life again filled the air ; the old hen with her brood gayly re sumed her rambles, and made the leaves and gravel teresting. At the point of greatest obscuration, the air was so chill as to make an overcoat desirable. A short time before this, the dark ness in the west assumed the appearance of an approaching thunder storm. A luminous ring surrounded the moon after the sun was to tally hid. Such was the darkness that the time could not be determined by a watch. The number of stars visible was greater than at the Hill moon. An account of the scene in Boston thus describes it: "The morning tras ushered in with the usual hum of business, which gradually sub- ekled as the darkness advanced. An uninterrupted silence succeed ed. A fresh breeze which had prevailed, now ceased, and all was calm. The birds retired to rest : the rolling chariot and the rumbling car were no more heard. The axe and the hammer were suspended. Heturning light reanimated the face of things. We seemed as in the dawn of creation, when ' God said, Let there he light, and there wa light T and an involuntary cheer of graUilation burst from the assembled spec tator*." Monthly Anthology, 1806. HISTORICAL. ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 271 fly with her invigorated scratchings. The workmen, too, having taken a glass of grog, returned thought fully to their labors. " After all," said one of the men, as they passed along to the field, " I guess the parson was right about the sun and the moon." " Well, perhaps he was," said Mat ; " but then Joshua was wrong." Notwithstanding this man's habitual incredulity, he had still his weak side, for he was a firm believer in ghosts not ghosts in general, but two that he had seen himself. Like most other ghost-seers, he patron ized none but his own. These were of enormous size, white and winged like angels. He had seen them one dark night as he was going to his house a little brown tenement, situated on a lonesome lane that diverged to the left from the high-road to Salern. It was very late, and Mat had spent the evening at the tavern, like Tarn O'Shanter ; like him, he ." was na fou, but just had plenty" a circumstance, I must say, rather uncommon with him, for he was by no means a tippler, beyond the habits of that day. It is prob able that all modern ghosts are revealed only to the second-sight of alcohol, insanity, or the vapors ; even in this case of Mat OlmsteaxTs, it turned out that his two angels were a couple of white geese, whom he had startled into flight, as he stumbled upon them quietly snoozing in the joint of a rail fence ! It has often appeared to me that Mat Olmstead was 272 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, a type a representative of a class of men not very rare in this world of ours. It is not at all uncom mon to find people, and those who are called strong- minded, who are habitual unbelievers in things pos sible and probable nay, in things well established by testimony while they readily become the dupes of the most absurd illusions and impositions. Dr. Johnson, it is stated, did not believe in the great earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, until six months after it had happened, while he readily accepted the egre gious deception of the Cock Lane Ghost. In our day we see people and sharp ones too who reject the plainest teachings of common sense, sanctioned by the good and wise of centuries, and follow with im plicit faith some goose of the imagination, like Joe Smith orBrigham Young. These are Mat Olmsteads, a little intoxicated by their own imaginations, and in their night of ignorance and folly, .they fall down and worship the grossest and goosiest of illusions. I now turn to a different character, Lieutenant, or as we all called him, Leftenant Smith. He has been already introduced to you, but a few touches are still necessary to complete hi portrait. He was a man o extensive reading, and large information. He was also some sixty years old, and had stored in his memory the results of his own observation and experience. He read the newspapers, and conversed with travelers thus keeping up with the march of events. He affected philosophy, and deemed himself the great HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 273 intelligencer of the town. If he was thus rich in lore, he dearly loved to dispense it, asking only in return attentive listeners. He liked discussion, pro vided it was all left to himself. He was equal to all questions : with my father, he dilated upon such high matters as the Purchase of Louisiana ; Lewis and Clarke's Exploring Expedition ; the death of Ham ilton in the duel with Aaron Burr ; the attack of the Leopard on the Chesapeake ;* Fulton's attempts at steam navigation, and the other agitating topics of * These several events, which have now passed into the mist of dis tance, all caused great excitement at the time they transpired. The Purchase of Louisiana, in 1803, was made by our ministers in France, Livingston and Monroe, of Bonaparte, then " Consul for life," for the sum of fifteen millions of dollars. Though the treaty was wholly un authorized, our government accepted and ratified it. Jefferson, then President, sanctioned and promoted it, though he knew it to be un constitutional, as has since appeared by his private correspondence : a fact the more remarkable, as he had always pretended to make a strict construction of the Constitution a cardinal political principle. The federalists opposed the treaty, as unconstitutional, and as a de struction of the balance between the free States and slave States, established by that instrument. The democratic party, knowing the truth of all this, but having a majority, accepted the treaty. Though apparently a beneficial measure the mode in which it was effected, has laid the foundation of the most alarming evils. This example of a pal pable violation of the Constitution by Jefferson the great apostle of democracy and sanctioned and glorified by that dominant party, has deprived that instrument of much of its binding force upon the con science of the country. Hence, it has become the constant subject of invasion and violation by party. If our government is ever overthrown, its death-blow will be traced to this act. Had the true course been adopted that of a modification of the Constitution by the people no doubt that stipulations in respect to slavery would have been imposed, which would have prevented its present enormous extension, and saved the country from the irritating difficulties in which that subject now in volves us. It is a matter worthy of remark that this first violation of the Consti tution came from the strict oonstractionista : it is from them also, at tl* 12* 274 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, those times, as they came one after another. He was profound upon the sources of the Nile and the Niger, learned upon the site of Eldorado, and magniloquent upon Napoleon, then making the whole earth re sound with his ominous march toward universal do minion. To a humble auditory of men and boys, gathered by chance as on a wet day, or a Saturday afternoon, in the stoop of Keeler's tavern he told about Putnam and the wolf, General Stark and his wife Molly, with variations of Washington and the war. present day, that we hear that instrument made the constant object of threatened nullification or repudiation. Lewis and Clarke's Expedition to the Pacific, across the continent by way of the sources of the Missouri, began in 1803 and was completed in 1806. This was made the theme of great eulogy by the friends of Jefferson, whose scientific pretensions provoked abundance of ridicule in his opponents. In January, 1807, a dinner waa given at Washington to Capt. Lewis, in compliment and congratulation for his success in the expedition. Joel Barlow produced a song on the occasion, full of ri diculous bombast. One verse will give an idea of it : " With the same soaring genius thy Lewis ascends, And seizes the car of the sun ; O'er the sky-propping hills, and high waters he bends, And gives the proud earth a new zone." This was sarcastically parodied by John Q. Adams, who did not dis dain to make the domestic frailties of Jefferson the object of his satire. One verse is as follows, it having reference to Barlow's suggestion that the name of the Columbia river should be changed to Lewis' river. " Let Dusky Sally henceforth bear The name of Isabella : And let the mountains all of salt, Be christened Monticolla. The hog with navel on his back, Tom Paine may be when drank, sir : And Joel call'd the prairie dog. Which once was call'd a skunk, sir. 11 It is curious and instructive to know that soon after this (March, 1808), J. Q. Adams, having lost caste with the federalists of Massachusetts, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 275 I have an impression that Lieut. Smith after all, was not very profound ; but to me he was a miracle of learning. I listened to his discussions with very little interest, but his narratives engaged my whole atten tion. These were always descriptive of actual events, for he would have disdained fiction : from them I de rived a satisfaction that I never found in fables. The travels of Mungo Park, his strange adventures and melancholy death which about those days transpired through the newspapers, and all of which Lieutenant went to Jefferson, and accused them of treasonable designs, and was consequently made a good democrat, and sent as Minister to Russia in 1809. The transformations of politicians are often as wonderful as those of Harlequin. The Death of Alexander Hamilton, July 11, 1804, in a duel with Aaron Burr, the Vice-President of the United States, produced the most vivid emotions of mingled regret and indignation. Hamilton, though in pri vate life not without blemishes, was a man of noble character and vast abilities. Burr was in every thing false and unprincipled. He feared and envied Hamilton, and with the express purpose of taking his life, forced him into the conflict. Hamilton fell, fatally wounded, at the lirst fire, and Burr, like another Cain, fled to the South, and at last to Europe, before the indignation of the whole nation. After many years he re turned neglected, shunned, despised -yet lingering on to the year 183(5, when at the age of eighty he died, leaving his blackened name to stand by the side of that of Benedict Arnold. The Attack of the British ship-of-wai- Leopard on the U. IS. hip C7/W- upeake, took place off Hampton Koads, in June, 1807. The latter, com manded by Commodore Barron, was just out of port, and apprehending no danger, was totally unprepared for action. The commander of the British vessel demanded four sailors of the Chesapeake, claimed to bo deserters, and as these were not surrendered, he poured his broadsides into the American vessel, which was speedily disabled. He then took the four seamen, and the Chesapeake put back to Norfolk. This auda cious act was perpetrated under the "right of search," as maintained by Great Britain. The indignation of the American people knew no bounds : Jefferson demanded apology, and the British government im mediately offered it. It was not the policy of our President, however, to settle the matter with Great Britain : so this difficulty was kept along i>76 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Smith had at his tongue's end excited my interest and my imagination even beyond the romances of Sinbad the Sailor and Robinson Crusoe. In the year 1807, an event occurred, not only start ling in itself, but giving exercise to all the philosoph ical powers of Lieutenant Smith. On the morning of the 14th of December, about daybreak, I had arisen and was occupied in building a fire, this being my daily duty. Suddenly the room was filled with light, and looking up, I saw through the windows a ball of fire, nearly the size of the moon, passing across the heavens from northwest to southeast. It was at an immense height, and of intense brilliancy. Having passed the zenith, it swiftly descended toward the earth : while still at a great elevation it burst, with three successive explosions, into fiery fragments. The report was like three claps of rattling thunder in quick succession. My father, who saw the light and heard the sounds, declared it to be a meteor of extraordinary magnitude. It was noticed all over the town, and caused great excitement. On the following day the news came that huge fragments of stone had fallen in the adjacent town of Weston, some eight or ten for yeara, and became a proverb, significant of delay and diplomatic chi canery. " I would as soon attempt to settle the off air of the Chesapeake" was a common mode of characterizing any dispute which seemed inter minable. Commodore Barron was suspended from his command, and it was some painful allusion to this by Commodore Decatur, tha* caused a duel between these two persons, which ended in the death of the lat ter, March 22, 1820. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. -277 miles southeast of Kidgefield. The story spread far and wide, and some of the professors of Yale College came to the place, and examined the fragments of this strange visitor from the skies. It appeared that the people in the neighborhood heard the rush ing of the stones through the air, as well as the shock when they struck the earth. One, weighing two hun dred pounds, fell on a rock, which it splintered its huge fragments plowing up the ground around to the extent of a hundred feet. One piece, weighing twen ty-five pounds, was taken to New Haven, where it is still to be seen, in the mineralogical cabinet of the college. The professors estimated this meteor* to be half a mile in diameter, and to have traveled through the heavens at the rate of two or three hundred miles a minute. On this extraordinary occasion the lieutenant came to our house, according to his wont, and for several successive evenings discoursed to us upon the sub ject. I must endeavor to give you a specimen of his performances. * The extraordinary meteor, here alluded to, was so distinctly ob served, as to have settled many points respecting meteoric stones, which were before involved in some doubt. The immense speed of its prog ress and its enormous size were determined by the fact that it was seen at the moment of its explosion, through a space more than a hundred miles in diameter, and that it passed across the zenith in about ten seconds. It appears probable that it was not a solid mass, nor is it to be supposed that more than a small portion of it fell to the earth when the explosion took place. It must be admitted, however, that we have yet no satisfactory theory as to the origin and nature of these wonder ful bodies. 278 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, " It seems to me, sir," said he, addressing my fa ther, " that these meteors, or falling stars, or what not, are very strange things, and have not received due attention from the learned world. They are of great antiquity, sir: their appearance is recorded as far back as 654 B. c. One is spoken of by the elder Pliny, sir, which fell near the town of Gallipoli, in Asia Minor, about 405 B. c. This was to be seen in Pliny's time that 'is, five hundred years afterward, and was then as big as a wagon, sir. From these remote dates down to the present time, these wonder ful phenomena have occurred at intervals, so that two hundred instances are on record. It is probable that many more have passed unnoticed by man, either in the night, or in remote places, or in the vast oceans which cover two thirds of the earth's surface. In gen eral, sir, these meteors send down showers of stones, of various sizes. Some of the fragments are no big ger than a pea ; others are of greater magnitude in one instance weighing twenty-five thousand pounds. " "Well, sir, this subject becomes one of importance, And the inquiry as to what these strange things are, demands attention of the philosopher. I have stud ied the subject profoundly ; I have looked into the va rious theories, and am by no means satisfied with any of them, sir. Some suppose these meteors to be cast out of the volcanic craters of the moon, but that sup position I deem incompatible with Scripture, and the general aspect of the universe. The Bible represents HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 279 nature as harmonious : it speaks of the morning stars as singing together. It is impious, then, to suppose that the moon, a mere satellite of the earth, can be in a state of rebellion, and discharging its destructive batteries upon the earth, its lord and master. Besides, the moon thus constantly firing at the earth would, in the course of time, be all shot away." "That is," said my father, "it would get out of ammunition, as the Americans did at Bunker Hill ?" " Just so, sir : therefore I look upon these as crude opinions, arising from a superficial view of the uni verse. I have examined the subject, sir, and am inclined to the opinion that these phenomena are animals revolving in the orbits of space between the heavenly bodies. Occasionally, one of them comes too near the earth, and rushing through our atmo sphere with immense velocit} 7 , takes fire and ex plodes !" " This is rather a new theory, is it not?" said my father. "It appears that these meteoric stones, in whatever country they fall, are composed of the same ingredients mostly silex, iron, and nickel : these substances would make rather a hard character, if en- dowed with animal life, and especially with the capa city of rushing through -space at the rate of two or three hundred miles a minute, and then exploding ?" "These substances I consider only as the shell of the animal, sir." 'You regard the creature as a huge shell-fish, then ?" LKTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, " Not necessarily a fish, for a whole order of na ture, called Crustacea, has the bones on the outside. In this case of meteors, I suppose them to be cov ered with some softer substance, for it frequently happens that a jelly-like matter comes down with meteoric stones. This resembles coagulated blood ; and thus what is called bloody rain or snow, has often fallen over great spaces of country. Now, when the chemists analyze these things the stones, which I consider the bones, and the jelly, which I consider the fat, and the rain, which I consider the blood they find them all to consist of the same ele ments that is, silex, iron, nickel, &c. None but my animal theory will harmonize all these phenom ena, sir." "But," interposed my father, "consider the enor mous size of your aerial monsters. I recollect to have read only a short time since, that in the year 1803, about one o'clock in the afternoon, the inhabitants of several towns of Normandy, in France, heard noises in the sky, like the peals of cannon and mus ketry, with a long-continued roll of drums. Looking upward, they saw something like a small cloud at an immense elevation, which soon seemed to explode, sending its vapor in all directions. At last a hissing noise was heard, and then stones fell, spreading over a country three miles wide by eight miles long. No less than two thousand pieces were collected, weigh ing from one ounce to seventeen pounds. That must HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. 281 have been rather a large animal eight miles long and three miles wide !" " What is that, sir, in comparison with the earth, which Kepler, the greatest philosopher that ever lived, conceived to be a huge beast?" " Yes ; but did he prove it ?" " He gave good reasons for it, sir. He found ver j striking analogies between the earth and animal ex istences : such as the tides, indicating its breathing through vast internal lungs ; earthquakes, resembling eructations from the stomach ; and volcanoes, sugges tive of boils, pimples, and other cutaneous eruptions." " I think I have seen your theory set to verse." Saying this, my father rose, and bringing a book, read as follows : " To me things are not as to vulgar eyes I would all nature's works anatomize : This world a living monster seems to me, Rolling and sporting in the aerial sea : The soil encompasses her rocks and stones. As flesh in animals encircles bones. I see vast ocean, like a heart in play, Pant systole and diastole every day, And by unnumber'd venus streams supplied, Up her broad rivers force the aerial tide. The world's great lungs, monsoons and trade-winds show From east to west, from west to east they blow The hills are pimples, which earth's face defile, And burning Etna an eruptive boil. On her high mountains living forests grow, And downy grass o'erspreads the vales below : 282 LETTEE8 BIOGBAPHICJLL, From her vast body perspirations rise, Condense in clouds and float beneath the skies."* My father having closed the book, the profound lieutenant, who did not conceive it possible that a thing so serious could be made the subject of a joke, said : " A happy illustration of my philosophy, sir, though I can not commend the form in which it is put. If a man has any thing worth saying, sir, he should use prose. Poetry is only proper when one wishes to embellish folly, or dignify trifles. In this case it is otherwise, I admit ; and I am happy to find so pow erful a supporter of my animal theory of meteors. I shall consider the subject, and present it for the con sideration of the philosophic world." One prominent characteristic of this our Ridgefield philosopher was, that when a great event came about, he fancied that he had foreseen and predicted it from the beginning. Now about this time Fulton actually succeeded in his long-sought application of steam to * This is from the " Oration which might have teen, delivered" by Francis Hopkiuson, LL. D., published in a volume entitled, " American Poems, selected and original,' 1 ' 1 LitchflelS, Conn., 1793. This work I con sidered, in my youth, one of the marvels of Amerii-an literature : in point of fact it comprised nearly all the living American poetry at that era. The chief names in its galaxy of stars were, Trumbnll, tho author of M'Fingal, Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, David Humphries, Lemuel Hopkins, William Livingston, Richard Alsop, Theodore Dwight, and Philip Freneau. It is now not without interest, especially an one of the signs of those times the taste, tone, scope, and extent of the cur rent indigenous poets and poetry only sixty years ago. At that era Connecticut was the focal point of poetic inspiration on this continent. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 283 navigation. The general opinion of the country had been, all along, that he was a monomaniac, attempt ing an impossibility. He was the standing theme of cheap newspaper wit, and the general God-send of orators, who were hard run for a joke. Lieutenant Smith, who was only an echo of what passed around him, during the period of Fulton's labors, participated in the curreat contempt ; but when the news came, in October, 1807, that he had actually succeeded that one of his boats had walked the waters like a thing of life, at the rate of five miles an hour, against the cur rent of the Hudson river then, still an echo of the public voice did he greatly jubilate. " I told you so : I told you so !" was his first ex clamation, as he entered the house, swelling with the account. " Well, and what is it ?" said my father. " Fulton has made his boat go, sir ! I told you how it would be, sir. It opens a new era in the his tory of navigation. We shall go to Europe in ten days, sir!" Now you will readily understand, that in these sketches I do not pretend to report with literal pre cision the profound discourses of our Bidgefield sa vant ; I remember only the general outlines, the rest being easily suggested. My desire is to present the portrait of one of the notables of our village one whom I remember with pleasure, and whom I con ceive to be a representative of the amiable, and per- 284 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, haps useful race of fussy philosophers to be found in most country villages. He was, in fact, a sort of Yan kee Pickwick, full of knowledge, and a yearning de sire to make everybody share in his learning. As was proper, he was a prophet, an " I-TOLD-YOU-SO !' w*ho foresees every thing after it has happened. Un like Mat Olmstead, who believed too little, perhaps he believed too much : for whatever he saw in print, he considered as proved. If he ever doubted any thing, it was when he had not been the first to reveal it to the village. Yet whatever his foibles, I was certainly indebted to him for many hours of amuse ment, and no doubt for a great deal of information. From the town oracle, I turn to the town miser. Granther Baldwin, as I remember him, was threescore years and ten perhaps a little more. He was a man of middle size, but thin, wiry, and bloodless, and hav ing his body bent forward at a sharp angle with his hips, while his head was thrown back over his shoul ders giving his person the general form of a reversed letter Z. His complexion was brown and stony ; his eye gray and twinkling, with a nose and chin almost meeting like a pair of forceps. His hair standing out with an irritable frizz was of a rusty gray. He was always restless, and walked and rode with a sort ol haggish rapidity. At church, he wriggled in his seat, tasted fennel, and bobbed his head up and down and around. He could not afford tobacco, so he chewed, with a constant activity, either an oak chip or the HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 285 roots of elecampane, which was indigenous in the lane near his house. On Sundays he was decent in his attire, but on week-days he was a beggarly curios ity. It was said that he once exchanged hats with a scarecrow, and cheated scandalously in the bargain. His boots a withered wreck of an old pair of white- tops dangled over his shrunken calves, and a coat in tatters fluttered from his body. He rode a switch- tailed, ambling mare, which always went like the wind, shaking the old gentleman merrily from right to left, and making his bones, boots, and rags rustle like his own bush-harrow. Familiar as he was, the school-boys were never tired of him, and when he passed, " There goes Granther Baldwin !" was the in variable ejaculation. I must add in order to complete the picture that in contrast to his elvish leanness and wizard activity, his wife was bloated with fat, and either from indo lence or lethargy, dozed away half her life in the chimney corner. It was said, and no doubt truly, that she often went to sleep at the table, sometimes allowing a rind of bacon to stick out of her mouth till her nap was over. I have a faint notion of hav ing seen this myself. She spent a large part of her life in cheating her husband out of fourpence-ha 1 pen nies,* of which more than a peck were found secreted in an old chest, at her death. * According to the old New England currency, the Spanish sixteenth of a dollar the sixpence of New York and the picayune of Louisiana 286 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, It was the boast of this man that he had risen from poverty to wealth, and he loved to describe the pro cess of his advancement. He always worked in the corn-field till it was so dark that he could see his hoe strike fire. When in the heat of summer he was obliged occasionally to let his cattle breathe, he sat on a sharp stone, lest he should rest too long. He paid half a dollar to the parson for marrying him, which he al ways regretted, as one of his neighbors got the job done for a pint of mustard-seed. On fast-days, he made his cattle go without food as well as himself. He systematically stooped to save a crooked pin or a rusty nail, as it would cost more to make it than to pick it up. Such were his boasts or at least, such were the things traditionally imputed to him. He was withal a man of keen faculties ; sagacious in the purchase of land, as well as in the rotation of crops. He was literally honest, and never cheated any one out of a farthing, according to his arithmetic though he had sometimes an odd way of reckoning. It is said that in his day the Connecticut age of blue the statute imposed a fine of one dollar for profane swearing. During this period, Granther Baldwin employed a carpenter who was somewhat notoriously addicted to this vice. Granther kept a strict account of every instance of transgression, and when the job was fourpence-halfpenny. This word was formerly the shibboleth of the Yankees every one being set down as a New Englander who said fourptnoe-hd 'penny. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 287 was done, and the time came to settle the account, he said to the carpenter " You've worked with me thirty days, I think, Mr. Kellogg?" " Yes, Granther," was the reply. " At a dollar a day, that makes thirty dollars, I think?" " Yes, Granther." "Mr. Kellogg, I am sorry to observe that you have a very bad habit of taking the Lord's name in vain " " Yes, Granther." " Well, you know that's agin the law." " Yes, Granther." " And there's a fine of one dollar for each offense." " Yes, Granther." " Well here's the account I've kept, and I find you've broken the law twenty-five times ; that is, six teen times in April, and nine in May. At a dollar a time, that makes twenty-five dollars, don't it?" " Yes, Granther.", " So then, twenty-five from thirty leaves five : it appears, therefore, that there is a balance of five dol lars due to you. How'll you take it, Mr. Kellogg ? In cash, or in my way say in 'taters, pork, and other things?" At this point, the carpenter's brow lowered, but with a prodigious effort at composure, he replied " Well, Granther, you may keep the five dollars, 288 LKTTERS BIOGKAPHICAL, and I'll take it out in my way, that is, in swearing !" Upon this he hurled at the old gentleman a volley of oaths, quite too numerous and too profane to re peat. Now I do not vouch for the precise accuracy of this story in its application to Granther Baldwin. I only say it was one of the things laid to him/ A man of marked character is very apt to be saddled with all the floating tales that might suit him. I re member once to have told a well-authenticated story of Ethan Allen, when Dr. L . . ., a German professor, being present, laughed outright, saying, " I have heard my father tell the same story of old Baron Von Skippenhutten, and declare that he was present when the thing happened I" I need not enlarge upon the adventures between Granther Baldwin and the school-boys, who took de light in pocketing his apples, pears, and nuts. These things were so abundant in those days, that everybody picked and ate, without the idea of trespass. But Granther's heart was sorely afllicted at these dis pensations. He could not bear the idea of losing a pocketful of apples, or a handful of butternuts, chestnuts, or walnuts, even if they lay' decaying in heaps upon his grounds. As I have said, his house and farm were close by West Lane school, and it was quite a matter of course that his hard, unrelenting conservatism should clash with the ideas of the natural rights of schoolboys, entertained by such HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC'. '2>H free-born youths as those at this seminary. They loved the fruit, and considered liberal pickings to be their birthright. Had the old gentleman let them alone, or had he smiled on them in their small pil- ferings, they had, no doubt, been moderate in their plunder. But when he made war on them even unto sticks, stones, and pitchforks the love of fun and the glory of mischief added an indescribable rel ish to their forays upon his woods and orchards. I confess to have been drawn in more than once to these misdoings. Perhaps, too, I was sometimes a leader in them. I confess, with all due contrition, that when the old miser, hearing the walnuts rattle down by the bushel in the forest back of his house knowing that mischief was in the wind came forth in a fury, pitchfork in hand ; when I have heard his hoarse yet impotent threats ; I have rather enjoyed than sympathized with his agonies. Poor old gentleman let me now expiate my sins by doing justice to his memory ! It is true he was a miser selfish and mean by na ture. Born in poverty, and only rising from this con dition by threescore years and ten of toil and parsi mony, was it possible for him to be otherwise ? What a burden of sin and misery is often laid upon a single soul ! And yet Granther Baldwin was not wholly lost. He professed religion, and the New Man wres tled bravely with the Old Man. The latter got the better too often, no doubt ; for avarice once lodged VOL. I. 13 290 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, in the soul is usually the last vice that capitulates to Christianity. It so readily assumes the guise of re spectable virtues frugality, providence, industry, prudence, economy that it easily dupes the heart that gives it shelter. And besides, religion in its sterner exercises for bids the pleasures of life, in which mankind generally content the universal craving for excitement. The moral constitution of man the mind and the heart have their hunger and their thirst as well as the body. These can not be annihilated : if they are not ap peased in one way, they will be in another. Old Bur ton says they are like badgers : if you stop up one hole, they will dig out at another. And thus, if a man is too rigid in his creed to allow the genial excite ments of society, he is very likely to satisfy himself with something worse. He generally resorts to se cret indulgences of some kind, and thus lays the axe at the root of all religion, by establishing a system of hypocrisy. To a man thus situated, the respectable vice of avarice is commended, for while, as I have said, it takes the guise of various virtues, it furnishes gratification to the desire of excitement by its accu mulations, its growing heaps of gold, its enlarging boundaries of land, its spreading network of bonds and mortgages, its web of debt woven at the rate of compound interest over the bodies and souls of men debtors, borrowers, speculators, and other worship ers of Mammon. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 291 It is so easy therefore to be misled by this demon of avarice, that I shall deal gently with it in Gran- ther Baldwin's case, seeing that he had so many temptations in his nature and his position. Never theless, I am bound to say that it so dried up the fountains of his heart as to render him absolutely insensible even to the idea of personal appearance as if God gave man his own image to wear a scare crow's hat, and boots that a beggar would despise. But for his avarice, he might have discovered that want of decency is want of sense ; but for his ava rice, his heart might have been the sun of a system, circling around the fireside and diffusing its blessings over each member of the family ; but for his avarice, he might, being rich, and increased in goods, have even enlarged his heart, and been the benefactor of the neighborhood. Still, I shall not parade these sins before you : let me rather speak of the old man's virtues. He was a firm believer in the Bible, and set the example of im plicit submission to its doctrines, as he discovered them. He made an open profession of his faith, and in sickness and in health, in rain and shine, in sum mer and winter, he sustained the established institu tions of religion. No weather ever prevented him from attending church, though he lived nearly two miles from the place of worship. Often have I seen him on a Sunday morning, facing the keen blast, plodding his way thither, when it seemed as if his 292 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, heart mast be reduced to an icicle. He attended all funerals within the precincts of the place. He was present at every town meeting : he paid his taxes, civil and ecclesiastical, at the appointed day. He kept thanksgivings and fasts the first gingerly, and the last with all his heart. He had a clock and a noon-mark, and when they varied, he insisted that the sun was wrong. He believed profoundly in arith metic, and submitted, without repining, to its decrees. Here was the skeleton of a man and a Christian ; all that it wanted was a soul ! One sketch more, and my gallery of eccentricities is finished. Men hermits have been frequently heard of, but a woman hermit is of rare occurrence. Nev ertheless, Ridgefield could boast of one of these among its curiosities. Sarah Bishop was, at the period of my boyhood, a thin, ghostly old woman, bent and wrinkled, but still possessing a good deal of activity. She lived in a cave, formed by nature, in a mass of projecting rocks that overhung a deep valley or gorge in "West Mountain. This was about four miles from our house, and was, I believe, actually within the limits of North Salem ; but being on the eastern slope of the mountain, it was most easily accessible from Ridgefield, and hence its tenant was called an inhabitant of our town. This strange woman was no mere amateur recluse. The rock bare and desolate was actually her home, except that occasionally she strayed to the neighbor- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 29? ing villages, seldom being absent more than one or two days at a time. She never begged, but received such articles as were given to her. She was of a highly religious turn of mind, and at long intervals came to our church, and partpok of the sacrament. She sometimes visited our family the only one thus favored in the town and occasionally remained over night. She never would eat with us at the table, nor engage in general conversation. Upon her early his tory she was invariably silent ; indeed, she spoke of her affairs with great reluctance. She neither seemed to have sympathy for others, nor to ask it in return. If there was any exception, it was only in respect to the religious exercises of the family : she listened in tently to the reading of the Bible, and joined with apparent devotion in the morning and evening prayer. I have very often seen this eccentric personage stealing into the church, or moving along the street, or wending her way through lane and footpath up to her mo'untain home. She always appeared desirous of escaping notice, and though her step was active, she had a gliding, noiseless movement, which seemed to ally her to the spirit-world. In my rambles among the mountains, I have seen her passing through the forest, or sitting silent as a statue upon the prostrate trunk of a tree, or perchance upon a stone or mound, scarcely to be distinguished from the inanimate ob jects wood, earth, and rock around her. She had a sense of propriety as to personal appearance, for 294 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, when she visited the town, she was decently, though poorly clad ; when alone in the wilderness she seemed little more than a squalid mass of rags. My excur sions frequently brought me within the wild precincts of her solitary den. Several times I have paid a visit to the spot, and in two instances found her at home. A place more desolate in its general outline more absolutely given up to the wildness of nature, it is impossible to conceive. Her cave was a hollow in the rack, about six feet square. Except a few rags and an old basin, it was without furniture her bed being the floor of the cave, and her pillow a projecting point of the rock. It was entered by a natural door about three feet wide and four feet high, and was closed in severe weather only by pieces of bark. At a distance of a few feet was a cleft, where she kept a supply of roots and nuts, which she gathered, and the food that was given her. She was reputed to have a secret depository, where she kept a quantity of antique dresses, several of them of rich silks, and apparently suited to fashionable life : though I think this was an exaggeration. At a little distance down the ledge, there was a fine spring of water, in the vicinity of which she was often found in fair weather. There was no attempt, either in or around the spot, to bestow upon it an air of convenience or comfort. A small space of cleared ground was occupied by a few thriftless peach-trees, and in summer a patch of starveling beans, cucumbers, and potatoes. Up two or THE HERMITESS. Vol. 1, p. 294. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. three of the adjacent forest-trees there clambered lux uriant grape-vines, highly productive in their season. With the exception of these feeble marks of cultiva tion, all was left ghastly and savage as nature made it. The trees, standing upon the tops of the cliff, and ex posed to the shock of the tempest, were bent, and stooping toward the valley their limbs contorted, and their roots clinging, as with an agonizing grasp, into the rifts of the rocks upon which they stood. Many of them were hoary with age, and hollow with decay ; others were stripped of their leaves by the blasts, and others still, grooved and splintered by the lightning. The valley below, enriched with the decay of centuries, and fed with moisture from the surrounding hills, was a wild paradise of towering oaks, and other giants of the vegetable kingdom, with a rank undergrowth of tangled shrubs. In the distance, to the east, the gathered streams spread out into a beautiful expanse of water called Long Pond. A place at once so secluded and so wild was, of course, the chosen haunt of birds, beasts, and reptiles. The eagle built her nest and reared her young in the clefts of the rocks ; foxes found shelter in the caverns, and serpents reveled alike in the dry hol lows of the cliffs, and the dank recesses of the val ley. The hermitess had made companionship with these brute tenants of the wood. The birds had become so familiar with her, that they seemed to heed her almost as little as if she had been a stone. The 290 LKTTERS BIOGRAPHIC A.I., fox fearlessly pursued his hunt and his gambols in her presence. The rattlesnake hushed his monitory signal as he approached her. Such things, at least, were entertained by the popular belief. It was said, indeed, that she had domesticated a particular rattle snake, and that he paid her daily visits. She was accustomed so said the legend to bring him milk from the villages, which he devoured with great relish. It will not surprise you that a subject like this should have given rise to one of my first poetical ef forts the first verses, in fact, that I ever published. I gave them to Brainard, then editor of the Mirror, at Hartford, and he inserted them, probably about the year 1823. I have not a copy of them, and can onlv recollect the following stanzas : For many a year the mountain hag Was a theme of village wonder, For she made her home in the dizzy crag, Where the eagle bore his plunder. Up the beetling cliff she was seen at night Like a ghost to glide away ; But she came again with the morning light, From the forest wild and gray. Her face was wrinkled, and passionless seem'd, As her bosom, all blasted and dead And her colorless eye like an icicle gleam'd, Yet 110 sorrow or sympathy shed. Her long snowy locks, as the winter drift, On the wind were backward cast ; And her shrivel'd form glided by so swift, You had said 'twere a ghost that pass'd. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 297 Her house was a cave in a giddy rock, That o'erhung a lonesome vale ; And 'twas deeply scarr'd by the lightning's shock, And swept by the vengeful gale. As alone on the cliff she musingly sate The fox at her fingers would snap ; The crow would sit on her snow-white pate, And the rattlesnake coil in her lap. The night-hawk look'd down with a welcome eye, As he stoop'd in his airy swing; And the haughty eagle hover'd so nigh, As to fan her long locks with his wing. But when winter roll'd dark his sullen wave, From the west with gusty shock, Old Sarah, deserted, crept cold to her cave, And slept without bed in her rock. No fire illumined her dismal den, Yet a tatter'd Bible she read ; For she saw in the dark with a wizard ken, And talk'd with the troubled dead. And often she mutter'd a foreign name, With curses too fearful to tell, And a tale of horror of madness and shame She told to the walls of her cell ! I insert these lines not as claiming any praise, nor as rigidly accurate in the delineation of their subject but as a sketch of the impressions she made upon the public mind, vividly reflected by my own im agination. The facts in respect to this Nun of the Mountain were indeed strange enough without any embellish- 1 ?,* 298 LKTTKR3 BIOGRAPHICAL, ments of fancy. During the winter she was confined for several mpuths to her cell. At that period she lived upon roots and nuts, which she had laid in for the season. She had no fire, and, deserted even by her brute companions, she was absolutely alone, save that she seemed to hold communion with the invisible world. She appeared to have no sense of solitude, no weariness at the slow lapse of days and months : night had no darkness, the tempest no terror, winter no desolation, for her. When spring returned, she came down from her mountain, a mere shadow each year her form more bent, her limbs more thin and wasted, her hair more blanched, her eye more colorless. At last life seemed ebbing away like the faint light of a lamp, sinking into the socket. The final winter came it passed, and she was not seen in the villages around. Some of the inhabitants went to the mountain, and found her standing erect, her feet sunk in the frozen marsh of the valley. In this situation, being unable, as it appeared, to extri cate herself alone, yet not alone she had yielded her breath to Him who gave it ! The early history of this strange personage was involved in some mystery. So much as this, how ever, was ascertained, that she was of good family, and lived on Long Island. During the Eevolutionary war in one of the numerous forays of the British soldiers her father's house was burned ; and, as if this were not enough, she was made the victim of one of those HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 29tf demoniacal acts, which in peace are compensated by the gibbet, but which, in war, embellish the life of the soldier. Desolate in fortune, blighted at heart, she fled from human .society, and for a long time con cealed her sorrows in the cavern which she had acci dentally found. Her grief softened by time, per haps alleviated by a vail of insanity was at length so far mitigated, that, although she did not seek human society, she could endure it. The shame of her maidenhood if not forgotten was obliter ated by her rags, her age, and her grisly visage in which every gentle trace of her sex had disappeared. She continued to occupy her cave till the year 1810 or 1811, when she departed, in the manner I have described, and we may hope, for a brighter and hap pier existence. LETTER XX. A Lfing Farewell A Return Rldgefteld as it is The Past and Present Compared. MY DEAR C****** In the autumn of 1808 an event occurred which suddenly gave a new direction to my life, and took me from Kidgefield, never to return to it, but as a visitor. My narrative is therefore 'about to take a final leave of my birthplace, but before I say farewell, let me give you a hasty sketch of it, as it now is or as jt 300 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, appeared to me last summer after a long absence. My brother had set out with me to pay it a visit, but at New Haven he was taken ill, and returned to his home at Hartford. I pursued my journey, and a few days after, gave him a rapid sketch of my observa tions, in a letter which I beg leave here to copy. YOEK, August 20, 1855. DEAR BROTHER : I greatly regret that you could not continue your journey with us to Ridgefield. The weather was fine, and the season crowning the earth with ahnndance made every landscape beautiful. The woods which, as you know, abound along the route, spread their intense shade over the land, thus mitigating the heat of the unclouded sun ; and the frequent fields of Indian corn, with their long leaves and silken tassels, all fluttering in the breeze, gave a sort of holiday-look to the scene. Of all agri cultural crops this is the most picturesque and the most impo sing. Let others magniloquize upon the vineyards of France and the olive orchards of Italy ; I parted with these scenes a few weeks since, and do not hesitate to say, that, as a spectacle to the eye, our maize fields are infinitely superior. Leaving New Haven by rail, we reached Norwalk In forty minutes ; an hour after we were at Ridgefield having journeyed three miles by stage, from the Danbury and Norwalk station, Thus we performed a jour ney, in less than two hours, which cost a day's travel in our boyhood. You can well comprehend that we had a good time of it. As I approached the town, I began to recognize localities roads, houses, and hills. I was in a glow of excitement, for it was nineteen years since I had visited the place, and there was a mixture of the strange and familiar all around, which was at once pleasing and painful ; pleasing, because it revived many cherished memories, and painful, because it suggested that time HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC. 301 \s a tomb, into which man and his works are ever plunging, like a stream flowing on, only to disappear in an unfathomable gulf. The bright village of to-day is in fact the graveyard of the past generation. I was here like one risen from the dead, and come to look on the place which I once knew, but which I shall soon know no more. All seemed to me a kind of dream half real and hall' imaginary now presenting some familiar and cherished remembrance, and now mocking me with strange and baffling revelations. Nevertheless, all things considered, I enjoyed the scene. The physiognomy of the town a swelling mound of hills, rising in a crescent of mountains was all as I had learned it by heart in childhood. To the north, the bending line of Aspen Ledge ; to the east, the Eedding Hills ; to the west, the Highlands of the Hudson; to the south, the sea of forest-crowned undulations, sloping down to Long Island Sound, all in a cool but brilliant August sun, and all tinted with intense verdure, presented a scene to me the pilgrim returning to his birthplace of unri valed interest. In general the- whole country seemed embowered in trees- fresh and exuberant, and strongly in contrast with the worn-out lands of the old countries with openings here and there upon hillside and valley, consisting of green meadow, or pasture, or blooming maize, or perhaps patches of yellow stubble, for the smaller grains had been already harvested. As I came within the precincts of the village, I could not but admire the fields, as well on account of their evident richness of soil and excellent cultivation, as their general neatness. The town, you know, was originally blessed or cursed, as the case may be, by a most abun dant crop of stones. To clear the land of these was the Hercu lean task of the early settlers. For many generations, they usurped the soil, obstructed the plow, dulled the scythe, and now, after ages of labor, they are formed into sturdy walls, neatly laid, giving to the entire landscape au aspect not only of comfort, but refinement. In our day, these were rudely 302 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, piled up with frequent breaches the tempting openings for vagrant sheep, and loose, yearling cattle. No better evidence can be afforded of a general progress and improvement, than that most of these have been relaid with something of the art and nicety of mason-work. The Mat Olmsteads and Azor Smiths of the past half century, who laid stone wall for Granther Bald win and General King at a dollar a rod, would be amazed to see that the succeeding generation has thrown their works aside in disgust, and replaced them by constructions having somewhat, of the solidity and exactitude of fortifications. As we passed along, I observed that nearly all the houses which existed when we were boys, had given place to new, and for the most part larger, structures. Here and there was an original dwelling. A general change had passed over the land : swamps had been converted into meadows ; streams that sprawled across the path, now flowed tidily beneath stone bridges ; little shallow- ponds the haunts of muddling geese had disappeared: the un dergrowth of woods and copses had been cleared away ; briers and brambles, once thick with fruit,.or abounding in birds'-neste, or perchance the hiding-place of snakes, had been extirpated, and corn and potatoes flourished in their stead. In one place, where 1 recollected to have unearthed a woodchuck, I saw a gar den, and among its redolent pumpkins, cucumbers, and cabbages, was a row of tomatoes a plant which in my early days was only known as a strange exotic, producing little red balls, which bore the enticing name of love-apples ! At last we came into the main street. This is the same yet not the same. Ah 1 the distances seemed less than as I had marked them in my memory. From the meeting-house to 'Squire Keeler's which I thought to be a quarter of a mile it is but thirty rods. At the same time the undulations seemed more frequent and abrupt. The old houses are mostly gone, and more sumptuous ones are in their place. A certain neatness and ele gance have succeeded to the plain and primitive characteristics of other days. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 303 The street, on the whole, is one of the most beautiful I know of. It is more than a mile in length and a hundred and twenty feet in width, ornamented with two continuous lines of trees elms, sycamores, and sugar-maples save only here and there a brief interval. Some of these, in front of the more imposing houses, are truly majestic. The entire street is carpeted with a green sod, soft as velvet to the feet. The high-road runs in the middle, with a foot -walk on either side. These passages are not paved, but are covered with gravel, and so neatly cut, that they appear like pleasure-grounds. All is so bright and so tasteful that you might expect to see some imperative sign-board, warn ing you, on peril of the law, not to tread upon the grass. Yet, as I learned, all this embellishment flows spontaneously from the choice of the people, and not from police regulations. The general aspect of the street, however, let me observe, is not sumptuous, like Hartford and New Haven, or even Fair- field. There is still a certain quaintness and primness about the place. Here and there you see old respectable houses, showing the dim vestiges of ancient paint, while the contiguous gardens, groaning with rich fruits and vegetables, and the stately rows of elms in front, declare it to be taste, and not necessity, that thus cherishes the reverend hue of unsophisticated clapboards, and the venerable rust with which time baptizes unprotected shingles. There is a stillness about the town which lends favor to this char acteristic of studied rusticity. There is no fast driving, no shout ing, no railroad whistle for you must remember that the station of the Danbury and Norwalk line is three miles off. Few peo ple are to be seen in the streets, and those who do appear move with an air of leisure and tranquillity. It would seem dull and almost melancholy were it not that all around is so thrifty, so tidy, so really comfortable. Houses white or brown with green window-blinds, and embowered in lilacs and fruit-trees, and seen beneath the arches of wide-spreading American elms the finest of the whole elm family can never be otherwise than cheerful. 30-i LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, I went ot course to the old Keeler tavern, for lodgings. The sign was gone, and thongh the house retained its ancient form, it was so neatly painted, and all around had such a look of repose, that I feared it had ceased from its ancient hospitalities. I, however, went to the door and rapped : it was locked ! A bad sign, thought I. Ere long, however, a respectable dame ap peared, turned the key, and let me in. It was Anne Keeler converted into Mrs. Ressequie. Had it been her mother, I should only have said that she had grown a little taller and more dig nified : as it was, the idea crossed iny mind " Fanny was younger once than she is now !" But it seemed to me that her matronly graces fully compensated for all she might have lost of earlier pretensions. She looked at me gazingly, as if she half knew me. She was about inquiring my name, when I suggested that she might call me Smith, and begged her to tell me if she could give me lodgings. She replied that they did sometimes receive strangers, though they did not keep a tavern. I afterward heard that the family was rich, and that it was courtesy more than cash, which induced them to keep up the old habit of the place. I was kindly received, though at first as a stranger. After a short time I was found out, and welcomed as a friend. What fragrant butter, what white bread, what delicious succotash they gave me ! And as to the milk it was just such as cows gave fifty years ago, and upon the slightest encouragement positively produced an envelope of gold en cream ! Alas 1 how cows have degenerated especially in the great cities of the earth, in New York, London, or Paris it is all the same. He who wishes to eat with a relish that the Astor House or Morley's or the Grand Hotel du Louvre can not give, should go to Ridgefield, and put himself under the care of Mrs. Ressequie. If he be served, as I was, by her daughter a thing, however, that I can not promise he may enjoy a lively and pleas ant conversation while he discusses his meal. When you go there as go you must do not forget, to order ham and eggs, for they HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC A L, ETC. 305 are such as we ate in our childhood not a mass of red leather steeped in grease, and covered with a tough, bluish gum as is now the fashion in these things. As to blackberry and huc kleberry pies, and similar good gifts, you will find them just such as our mother made fifty years ago, when these bounties of Prov idence were included in the prayer " Give us this day our daily bread," and were a worthy answer to such a petition. Immediately after my arrival, waiting only to deposit my carpet-bag in my room, I set out to visit our house our former home. As I came near I saw that the footpath we had worn across Deacon Benedict's lot to shorten the Distance from the street, had given place to a highway. I entered this, and was approaching the object of my visit, when I was overtaken by a young man, walking with a long stride. " Whose house is this on the hill ?" said I. " It is mine," was the reply. " Indeed ; you must have a fine view from your upper win dows?" " Yes, the view is famous, and the house itself is somewhat noted. It was built by Peter Parley, and here he lived many years !" By this time we had reached the place. The strauger, after I had looked at the premises a few moments, said, " Perhaps you would like to ascend the hill to the north, from which the view is very extensive?" I gave assent, and we went thither soon finding ourselves in the old Keeler lot, on the top of High Eidge, bo familiar to our youthful rambles. With all the vividness of my early recollections, I really had no adequate idea of the beauty of the scene, as now presented to us. The circle of view was indeed less than I had imagined, for I once thought it immense ; but tl>* objects were more striking, more vividly tinted, more pic turesquely disposed. Long Island Sound, which extends for sixty miles before the eye, except as it is hidden here and there by intercepting hills mid trees, seems nearer than it did to the inex erieMccd vi--ii>ii <>;'in c.hiMhnud. I could distinuish the dilfer- 306 LETTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, ent kinds of vessels on the water, and the island itself stretch ed out in a long blue line beyond presented its cloud-like tis sues of forest, alternating with patches of yellow sandbanks along the shore. I could distinctly indicate the site of Norwalk ; and the spires peering through the mass of trees to the eastward, spoke suggestively of the beautiful towns and villages that line the northern banks of the Sound. West Mountain seemed nearer and less imposing than I had imagined, but the sea of mountains beyond, terminating in the Highlands of the Hudson, more than fullilled my remembrances. The scene has no abrupt and startling grandeur from this point of view, but in that kind of beauty which consists in blending the peace and quietude of cultivated valleys with the sublimity of mountains all in the enchantment of distance, and all man tled with the vivid hues of summer it equals the fairest scenes in Italy. The deep blue velvet which is thrown over our northern landscapes, differs indeed from the reddish-purple of the Apen nines, but it is in all things as poetic, as stimulating to the imagi nation, as available to the painter, as suggestive to the poet to all, indeed, who feel and appreciate the truly beautiful. As I gazed upon this lovely scene, how did the memories of early days come back, clothed in the romance of childhood ! I had then no idea of distance beyond these mountains ; no conception of landscape beauty, no idea of picturesque sublimity that sur passed what was familiar to me here. Indeed, all my first measures of grandeur and beauty, in nature, were formed upon these glorious models, now before me. How often have I stood upon this mound, at the approach of sunset, and gazed in speech less wonder upon yonder mountains, glowing as they were in the flood of sapphire which was then poured upon them ! I pray you to excuse my constant reference to foreign lands ; but as I have just left them, it is natural to make comparisons with these ob jects, familiar to my childhood. Let me say, then, that no sunsets surpass our own in splendor, nor have I seen any thing to equal them in brilliancy, when the retiring orb of day, as if to shed HISTORICAL, ANECPOTICAL, ETC. 307 glory upon his departure, pours his rays upon the outstretched fleece of clouds, and these reflect their blaze upon the mountain landscape, below. Then, for a brief space, as you know, the heavens seem a canopy of burnished gold, and the earth beneath a kingdom robed in purple velvet, and crowned with rubies and sapphires. In Italy, the sunset sky has its enchantments, but while these perhaps surpass the same exhibitions of- nature in our climate, in respect to a certain tranquil softness and ex quisite blending of rainbow hues, they are still inferior, in gor geous splendor, to the scenes which I have been describing. Having taken a hasty but earnest view of the grand panora ma of High Ridge, I returned with my guide to the house. I feigned thirst, and begged a glass of water. This was readily given, and I tasted once more the nectar of our " old oaken bucket." After glancing around, and making a few observa tions, I thanked my attendant for his courtesy who, by the way, had no suspicion that I knew the place as well as him self and took my leave, and returned to the hotel. My emo tions upon thus visiting our early home so full of the liveliest associations it would be utterly in vain to attempt to describa It was now Saturday evening, which I spent quietly with my host and his family, in talking over old times. In the morning I rose early, for it seemed a sin to waste such hours as these. Standing on the northern stoop of the Keeler tavern, I looked upon the beautiful landscape bounded by the Redding and Dan- bury hills, and saw the glorious march of morning over the scene. The weather was clear, and the serenity of the Sabbath was in the breath of nature : even the breezy morn soon subsided into stillness, as if the voice of God hallowed it. The birds seemed to know that He rested on this seventh day. As the sun came up, ttie fluttering leaves sank into repose : no voice of lowing herd )r baying hound broke over the hills. All was silent and motion- ess in the street : every thing seemed to feel that solemn com mand Remember the Sabbath-day! save only a strapping Shanghai cock in Mr. Lewis's yard over the way, which strut- L:-;JV::;:S :n 01: \ \ nir AI. ted, crowed, and chased the hens like a very Mormon evi dently caring for none of these things. At nine o'clock the first bell rang. The first stroke told me that it was not the same to which my childish ear was accus tomed. Upon inquiry, I learned that on a certain Fourth of July, some ten years back, it was rung so merrily as to be cracked ! Had any one asked me who was likely to have done this, 1 should have said J . . . . H , and he indeed it was. With a good-will, however, quite characteristic of him, he caused it to be replaced by a new one, and though its tone is deeper, and even more melodious than the old one, I felt disappointed, and a shade of sadness came over my mind. On going into the meeting-house, I found it to be totally changed. The pulpit, instead of being at the west, was at the north, and the galleries had been transposed to suit this new arrangement. The Puritan pine color of the pews had given way to white paint. The good old oaken floor was covered bj Kidderminster carpets. The choir, instead of being distributed into four parts, and placed on different sides of the gallery, was all packed together in a heap. Instead of Deacon Hawley for chorister, there was a young man who " knew not Joseph," and in lieu of a pitch-pipe to give the key, there was a melodeon to lead the choir. Instead of Hear, Old Hundred, Aylesbury, Mont gomery, or New Durham songs full of piety and pathos, and in which the whole congregation simultaneously joined they sang modern tunes, whose name and measure I did not know. The performance was artistic and skillful, but it seemed to lack the unction of a hearty echo from the bosom of the assembly, as was the saintly custom among the fathers. The congregation was no less changed than the place itself, for remember, I had not been in this building for live and forty years. The patriarchs of my boyhood Deacon Olmstead, Deacon Ben edict, Deacon Hawley, Granther Baldwin, 'Squire Keeler, Nathan Smith -were not there, nor were their types in their places. A few gray-haired men I saw, having dim and fleeting semblances HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. to these Anakims of my youthful imagination, but who they were, I conld not tell. I afterward heard that most of them were the companions of my early days, now grown to manhood and bearing the impress of their parentage blent with vestiges of their youth thus at once inciting and baffling my curiosity. For the most part, however, the assembly was composed of a new generation. In several instances I felt a strange sort of embarrassment as to whether the person I saw was the boy grown up or the papa grown down. It produces a very odd confusion of ideas to realize in an old man before you, the play mate of your childhood, whom you had forgotten for forty years, but who in that time has been trudging along in life, at the same pace as yourself. At first, every thing looked belittled, degen erated in dimensions. The house seemed small, the galleries low, the pulpit mean. The people appeared Lilliputian. These im pressions soon passed off, and I began to recognize a few per sons around me. William Hawley is just as you would have expected ; his hair white as snow, his countenance mild, refined, cheerful, though marked with threescore and ten. Irad Haw- ley, though he has his residence in "Fifth Avenue," spends his summers here, and begins now to look like his father the deacon. I thought I discovered Gen. King in an erect and martial form in one of the pews, but it proved to be his son Joshua who now occupies the family mansion, and worthily stands at the head of the house. As I came out of church, I was greeted with many hearty shakes of the hand, but in most cases I could with difficulty remember those who thus claimed recog nition. The discourse was very clever, and thoroughly orthodox, as it should be, for I found that the Confession and Covenant of 1750 were still in force, just as our father left them. Even the eleventh article stands as it was " You believe that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a day of judgment, in which God will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ ; when the righteous shall be acquitted and received to eternal life, and MlU LKTTKR3 BIOGRAPHICAL, the wicked shall bo sentenced to everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." I was, I confess, not a little shocked to hear the account the minister gave of the church members, for he declared that they were full of evil thoughts envy, jealousy, revenge, and all un- charitableness. He said he knew all about it, and could testify that they were a great deal worse than the world in general be lieved, or conceived them to be. Indeed, he affirmed that it took a real experimental Christian to understand how totally depraved they were. I was consoled at finding that this was not the settled minister Mr. Clark but a missionary, accus tomed to preach in certain lost places in that awful Babylon, called New York. Perhaps the sermon was adapted to the people it was designed for, but it seemed ill suited to the latitude and longitude of such a quaint, primitive parish as liidgefield, which is without an oyster-cellar, a livery stable, a grog-shop, a lawyer, a broker, a drunkard, or a profane swearer. This circumstance reminded me of an itinerant Boanerges, who, in his migrations, half a century ago, through western New York, was requested to prepare a sermon to be preached at the execution of an Indian, who had been convicted of murder, and was speedily to be hung. This he complied with, but the con vict escaped, and the ceremony did not take place. The preacher, however, not liking to have so good a thing lost, delivered it the next Sabbath to a pious congregation in the Western Reserve, where he chanced to be stating that it was composed for a hanging, but as that did not take place, he would preach it now, presuming that it would be found appropriate to the occasion ! In the afternoon we had a begging sermon from a young con verted Jew, who undertook to prove that his tribe was the most interesting in the world, and their conversion the first step to ward the millennium. After the sermon they took up a contri bution to aid him in getting an education ; he also sold a little story-book of his conversion at twelve and a half cents a copy, for the benefit of his converted sister. I have no objection to HISTORICAL, AXECDOTICAL, KTC. 311 Jews, converted or unconverted, but I must say that ray reve rence for the house of God is such that I do not like to hear there the chink of copper, which generally prevails in a contri- bntion-box. Even that of silver and gold has no melody for me, in such a place. It always reminds me painfully of those vulgar pigeon dealers who were so summarily and so properly scourged out of the Temple. The old dilapidated Episcopal church, which you remember on the main street a church not only without a bishop, but without a congregation has given place to a new edifice and stated services, with a large and respectable body of worshipers. The Methodists, who were wont to assemble, fifty years ago, in Dr. Baker's kitchen, have put up a new house, white and bright, and crowded every Sabbath with attentive listeners. This church numbers two hundred members, and is the largest in the place. Though, in its origin, it seemed to thrive upon the outcasts of society its people are now as respectable as those of any other religious society in the town. No longer do they choose to worship in barns, schoolhouses, and byplaces : no longer do they affect leanness, long faces, and loose, uncombed hair : no longer do they cherish bad grammar, low idioms, and the euphony of a nasal twang, in preaching. Their place of worship is in good taste and good keeping: their dress is comely, and in the fashion of the day. The preacher is a man of education, refine ment, and dignity, and he and the Rev. Mr. Clark our father's successor exchange pulpits, and call each other brother ! Has not the good time come ? On Monday morning, I took a wide range over the town with Joshua King, who, by the way, is not only the successor, but in some things the repetition of his father. He represents him ip person as I have already intimated and has many of his qual itiea. He has remodeled the grounds around the old family man eion, amplifying and embellishing them with much judgment The house itself is unchanged, except by paint and the introduc tion of certain articles of furniture and tasteful decorations tes- Z 12 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, timonials of the proprietor's repeated visits to Europe. Here, being a bachelor, he has gathered some of his nieces, and here he receives the members of the King dynasty down to the third generation all seeming to regard it as the Jerusalem of the family. The summer gathering is delightful, bringing hither the refinements of the best society of New York, Philadelphia, and other places. Here I spent some pleasant hours, meeting, of course, many of the neighbors, who came to see me with al most as much curiosity as if I had been the veritable Joyce Heth. In all parts of the town I was struck with the evidences of change gentle, gradual, it is true but still bespeaking the lapse of half a century. Along the main street, the general outline of things is the same, but, in detail, all is trans formed, or at least modified. Most of the old houses have disappeared, or have undergone such mutations as hardly to be recognized. New and more expensive edifices are scat tered here and there. If you ask who are the proprietors, you will be told Dr. Perry, Joshua King, Nathan Smith but they are not those whom we knew by these names they are their sons, perhaps their grandsons. Master Steb- bins's schoolhouse is swept away, and even the pond across the road the scene of many a school-day frolic is evaporated ! I am constantly struck with the general desiccation which has passed over the place ; many of the brooks, which formed our winter skating and sliding places, have vanished. I looked in vain for the pool back of Deacon John Benedict's house which I always imagined to be the scene of the ballad : " What shall we have for dinner, Mrs. Bond! There's beef in the larder and ducks iu the pond: Dill, dill, dill, dill, dilled, Come here and be killed !" Col. Bradley's house, that seemed once so awful and so exclu sive, is now a dim, rickety, and tenantless edifice, for sale, with HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 313 all its appurtenances, for twenty-five hundred dollars ! Is it not strange to see this once proud tenement, the subject of blight and decay, and that too in the midst of general prosper ity? Nor is this all: it has just been the subject of a degra ding hoax. I must tell you the story, for it will show you that the march of progress has invaded even Ridgefield. About three days since there appeared in the village, a man claiming to be the son-in-law of George Law. In a mysterious manner he agreed to buy the Bradley estate. With equal mys tery, he contracted to purchase several other houses in. the vicinity. It then leaked out that a grand speculation was on foot : there was to be a railroad through Ridgefield ; the town was to be turned into a city, and a hotel, resembling the Astor House, was to take the place of the old dilapidated shell now upon the Bradley premises! An electric feeling soon ran through the village ; speculation began to swell in the bosom of society. Under this impulse, rocks rose, rivers doubled, hills mounted, valleys oscillated. This sober town anchored in everlasting granite, having defied the shock of ages now trembled in the hysterical balance of trade. Two days passed, and the bubble burst ; the puflf-ball was punctured ; the sham son-in-law of George Law was discovered to be a lawless son of a pauper of Danbury. All his operations were in fact a hoax. At twelve o'clock on Saturday night he was seized, and taken from his bed by an independent corps under Capt. Lynch. They tied him fast to a buttonwood-tree in the main street, called the Liberty Pole. " No man e'er felt the halter draw, In good opinion of the law :" At all events, the prisoner deemed it a great incongruity to use an institution consecrated to the rights of man and the cause of freedom, for the purpose of depriving him of the power to seek happiness in his own way; so about ten o'clock on Sunday morning finding it unpleasant to be hi this situation while the VOL. I. 14 314 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, people went by, shaking their heads, on their way to church he managed to get out his penknife, cut his cords, and make a bee-line for South Salem. Farther on, proceeding northward, I found that Dr. Baker's old house its kitchen the cradle of Ridgefield Methodism had departed, and two or three modern edifices were near its site. Master Stebbins's house* from its elevated position at the head of the street, seeming like the guardian genius of the place still stands, venerable alike from its dun complexion, its antique form, and its historical remembrances. Its days may be set at a hundred years, and hence it is an antiquity in our brief chro nology. It almost saw the birth of Ridgefield : it has probably looked down upon the building of every other edifice in the street. It presided over the fight of 1777. Close by, Arnold's horse was shot under him, and he, according to tradition, made a flying leap over a six-barred gate, and escaped. Near its threshold the British cannon was planted, which sent a ball into the north eastern corner-post of 'Squire Keeler's tavern, and which, cov ered up by a sliding shingle, as a relic too precious for the open air, is still to be seen there. The old house I found embowered in trees some, primeval elms, spreading their wide branches protectingly over the roof, stoop, and foreground ; others sugar-maples, upright, symmetri cal, and deeply verdant, as is the wont of these beautiful children of our American forest. Other trees apples, pears, peaches, and plums, bending with fruit occupied the orchard grounds back of the house. The garden at the left seemed a jubilee of tomatoes, beets, squashes, onions, cucumbers, beans, and pumpkins. A vine of the latter had invaded a peach-tree, and a huge oval pumpkin, deeply ribbed, and now emerging from its bronze hue into a golden yellow, swung aloft as if to proclaim the victory. By the porch was a thick clambering grape-vine, presenting iw * For an engraving of this building, see Lossing's Field Book, vol i p. 409. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. 315 purple bunches almost to your mouth, as you entered the door. T knocked, and Anne Stebbins, my former schoolmate, let me in. She was still a maiden, in strange contrast to the prolific and progressive state of all around. She did not know me, but when I told her how I once saw her climb through the open ing in the schoolhouse wall, overhead, and suggested the blue- mixed hue of her stockings she rallied, and gave me a hearty welcome. You will no doubt, in some degree, comprehend the feelings with which I rambled over these scenes of our boyhood, and you will forgive, if you can not approve, the length of this random epistle. I will trespass but little further upon your patience. I must repeat, that the general aspect of the town, in respect to its roads, churches, houses, lands all show a general progress in wealth, taste, and refinement. Nor is this advance in civili zation merely external. William Hawley a most competent judge, as he has been the leading merchant of the place for forty years mentioned some striking evidences of this. At the be ginning of this century, most of the farmers were in debt, and a large part of their lands were under mortgage : now not four farms in the place are thus encumbered. Then it was the custom for the men to spend a good deal of their time, and especially in winter, at the stores and taverns, in tippling and small gambling. This practice has ceased. Drunkenness, profane swearing, Sab bath-breaking, noisy night rows, which were common, are now almost wholly unknown. There are but two town paupers, and these are not indigenous. Education is better, higher in its stand ard, and is nearly universal. Ideas of comfort in the modes of life are more elevated, the houses are improved, the furniture is more convenient and more abundant. That religion has not lost its hold on the conscience, is evident from the fact that three flour ishing churches exist ; that the duties of patriotism are not for gotten, is evinced by a universal attendance at the polls on election days ; at the same time it is clear that religious and po litical discussions have lost their acerbity thus leaving the feel- 310 LETTERS BIOGR APHIC AL, ing of good neighborhood more general, and the tone of human ity in all tilings more exalted. Is there not encouragement, hope, in these things for Ridge- field is not alone in this forward march of society ? It is in the general tide of prosperity economical, social, and moral but %n example of what has been going on all over New England perhaps over the whole country. We hear a great deal of the iniquities in the larger cities ; but society even there, is not worse than formerly : these places their houses, streets, prisons, brothels are exhausted, as by an air-pump, of all their doings, good and bad, and the seething mass of details is doled out day after day, by the penny press, to appease the hunger and thirst of society for excitement. Thus, what was once hidden is now thrown open, and seems multiplied and magnified by a dozen powerful lenses each making the most of it, and seeking to outdo all others in dressing up the show for the public taste. If you will make the comparison, you will see that, now, tip ping over an omnibus, or the foundering of a ferry-boat, takes up more space in a newspaper, than did six murders or a dozen conflagrations fifty years ago. Then the world's do ings could be dispatched in a weekly folio of four pages, with pica type ; now they require forty pages of brevier, every day. Our population is increased doubled, quadrupled, if you please but the newspaper press has enlarged its functions a thousand fold. It costs more paper and print to determine whether a po liceman of New York, was born in England or the United States, than are usually consumed in telling the story of the Revolution ary war. This institution the Press has, in fact, become a microscope and a mirror seeing all, magnifying ah 1 , reflecting all until at last it requires a steady brain to discover in its shift ing and passing panoramas, the sober, simple truth. So far as the subject of which I am writing is concerned, I am satisfied that if our cities seem more corrupt than formerly, it is only in appearance and not in reality. If we hear more about the vices of society, it is because, in the first place, things are more ex- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 317 posed to the public view, and in the next place, the moral stand ards are higher, and hence these evils are made the subject of louder and more noticeable comment. These obvious sugges tions will solve whatever difficulty there may be in adopting my conclusions. But however the fact may be as to our larger cities, it can not be doubted that all over New England, at least, there has been a quiet, but earnest and steady march of civilization es pecially within the last forty years. The war of 1812 was dis astrous to our part of the country ; disastrous, I firmly believe, to our whole country. In New England it checked the natural progress of society, it impoverished the people, it debased their manners, it corrupted their hearts. Let others vaunt the glory of war ; I shall venture to say what I have seen and known. We have now had forty years of peace, and the happy ad vances I have noticed bringing increased light and comfort in at every door, rich or poor, to bless the inhabitants are its legitimate fruits. The inherent tendency of our New England society is to improvement : give us peace, give us tranquillity, and with the blessing of God we shall continue to advance. You will not suppose me to say that government can do nothing : the prosperity of which I speak is in a great measure imputable to the encouragement given, for a series of years, to our domestic industry. When farming absorbed society, a large part of the year was lost, or worse than lost ; because tavern haunting, tippling, and gambling were the chief resources of men in the dead and dreary winter months. Manufactures gave profitable occupation during this inclement period. Formerly the markets were remote, and we all know, from the records of universal history, that farmers without the stimulus of ready markets, sink into indolence and indifference. The protection, the encouragement, the stimulating of our manufacturing and mechanical industry, created home markets in every valley, along every stream thus rousing the taste, energy, and ambition of the farmers within reach of these pervading influences. Ridge- 318 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, field is not, strictly speaking, a manufacturing town ; but the beneficent operation of the multiplying and diversifying of the oc cupations of society, has reached this, as it has every other town and village in the State, actually transforming the condition of the people, by increasing their wealth, multiplying their com forts, enlarging their minds, elevating their sentiments : in short, increasing their happiness. The importance of the fact I state the progress and improve ment of the country towns is plain, when we consider that here, and not in the great cities New York, or Boston, or Philadel phia are the hope, strength, and glory of our nation. Here, in the smaller towns and villages, are indeed the majority of the people, and here there is a weight of sober thought, just judg ment, and virtuous feeling, that will serve as rudder and ballast to our country, whatever weather may betide. As I have so recently traveled through some of the finest and most renowned portions of the European continent, I find my self constantly comparing the towns and villages which I see here with these foreign lands. One thing is clear, that there are in continental Europe no such country towns and villages as those of New England and some other portions of this country. Not only the exterior but the interior is totally different. The villages there resemble the squalid suburbs of a city : the people are like then* houses poor and subservient narrow in intellect, feeling, and habits of thought. I know twenty towns in France having from two to ten thousand inhabitants, where, if you ex cept the prefects, mayors, notaries, and a few other persons in each place there is scarcely a family that rises to the least independ ence of thought, or even a moderate elevation of character. All the power, all the thought, all the genius, all the expanse of in tellect, are centered at Paris. The blood of the country is drawn to this seat and center, leaving the limbs and members cold and pulseless "as those of a corpse. How different is it in this country : the life, vigor, power of these United States are diffused through a thousand veins HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 319 and arteries over the whole people, every limb nourished, every member invigorated ! New York, Philadelphia, and Bos ton do not give law to this country ; that comes from the people, the majority of whom resemble those I have described at Ridge- field farmers, mechanics, manufacturers, merchants independ ent in their circumstances, and sober, religious, virtuous in then habits of thought and conduct. I make allowance for the sinister influence of vice, which abounds in some places ; for the debasing effects of demagogism in our politicians ; for the corruption of selfish and degrading interests, cast into the general current of public feeling and opinion. I admit that these sometimes make the nation swerve, for a time, from the path of wisdom, but the wandering is neither wide nor long. The preponderating na tional mind is just and sound, and if danger comes, it will mani fest its power and avert it. But I must close this long letter, and with it bid adieu to my birthplace. Farewell to Ridgefield ! Its soil is indeed stubborn, its climate severe, its creed rigid ; yet where is the landscape more smiling, the sky more glorious, the earth more cheering? Where is society more kindly, neighbor hood more equal, life more tranquil? Where is the senti ment of humanity higher, life more blest? Where else can you find two thousand country people, with the refinements of the city their farms unmortgaged, their speech unblemished with oaths, their breath uncontaminated with alcohol, their poor- house without a single native pauper ? Daniel Webster once said, jocosely, that New Hampshire is a good place to come from : it seems to me, in all sincerity, that Ridgefield is a good place to go to. Should I ever return there to end my days, this may be my epitaph : My faults forgotten, and my sins forgiven, Let this, my tranquil birthplace, be my grave : As in tny youth I deem'd it nearest heaven So here I give to God the breath He gave ! Yours ever, S. G. G. LKTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Here, my dear C . . . ., endeth the first lesson of my life that portion of it which pertaineth to Kidge- field. Peradventure this has been drawn out in such length as to have taxed your patience beyond endu rance. If such be the truth, I beg to offer as pallia tion, that to me these scenes, incidents, and charac ters simple and commonplace though they be seem not unworthy of being recorded, for the very reason that they are thus common, and therefore are repre sentatives of our New England village people as they were a brief half century ago, and as they are now. If as such, they present a spectacle of little interest I beg to suggest further, that the picture at least affords a means of measuring the silent but steady advance of society among us ; thus refuting the cal umnies of the misanthrope, and vindicating the hopes of the sincere lover of mankind. I admit that the scale upon which my observations are made that of a mere country village is small, but in proportion to its minuteness, is the certainty of the conclusions we may draw. A survey of a great city or a large space of country, may be deceptive from its extent and the complexity of its details ; but in respect to such a community as that I have described, it is impos sible to be mistaken. The progress there in wealth, taste, refinement, morals all that constitutes civiliza tion is as certain as the advance of time. Nor is this village an exception to the tendency of things in American societv: it rnav differ in the celeritv of its HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 321 progress, but in its general experience it unquestion ably sympathizes with New England at large, and to some extent with the entire United States. And one thing more : if Ridgefield is thus a repre sentative of the New England village, I may remark that here the comparison ends : at least, there are no such villages in any portion of the Old World: none where the whole people are thus independent in their circumstances; where all are thus educated, so far as to be able to form just opinions upon the great ques tions of life, in religion, government, and morals ; none where the people, conscious of their power, are thus in the habit of forming their own opinions from their own reflections ; none where the majority are thus living on their own lands and in their own tene ments ; none where a general sentiment of equality and good neighborhood thus levels the distinctions of wealth and condition ; none where religion and edu cation, left to the free will of the people, thus fur nish, in the schoolhouses and the churches, the chief visible and permanent monuments of society. The view I have taken suggests also another idea, and that is the radical difference between the consti tution of things in our country and all others. In all . the continent of Europe, the power, genius, intel ligence of each country is centralized in the capital It is and has been, from time immemorial, the design of kings and princes of all dynasties, to make the seat of the government the focal point of light of 14* 322 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, learning, taste, fashion, wealth, and influence. The Court is not only the head but the heart of the body politic : the country the people at large the limbs and members are but the subservient tools and instruments of the privileged orders, who rule not only by divine right, but first and foremost for their own benefit. In our system, this is reversed. Diffusion an equal distribution of power and privilege to every individual is the law in government and society, here. It is curious it is animating and cheering to see the eifect of this, in its tendency to raise all up to a respectable standard of intelligence and refinement. Compare the people of the villages of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, or Eng land even, with those of Ridgefield, or any other of our villages, and see the amazing difference : the first, rude, ignorant, servile; the other, intelli gent, modest, manly accustomed to respect others, but extorting respect in return. Let any one go into the houses of the country mechanics and la borers of Europe, and he will see ignorance, squalid- ness, and degradation, which admits of no remedy and offers no hope of improvement : let him go into the houses of the same classes in the places to which I refer, and he will find intelligence, comfort, and a con stant, cheering, stimulating expectation of advance ment in their circumstances. And let it be remem bered that of these, and such as these the toiling HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIOAL, ETC. 323 million the majority of all nations are composed. Say not, then, that I have written these light and hasty sketches in vain ! LETTER XXI. f \rewell to Ridgefield Farewell to Home Danbvry My new Vocation A Revolutionary Patriarch Life in a Country Store Homesickness My Brother-in-law Lawyer Hatch. MY DEAR C****** It was in the autumn of the year 1808, as I have intimated, that a sudden change took place in my pros pects. My eldest sister had married a gentleman by the name ofCooke, in the adjacent town of Danburv. He was a merchant, and being in want of a clerk, offered me the place. It was considered a desirable situation by my parents, and overlooking my me chanical aptitudes, they accepted it at once, and at the age of fifteen I found myself installed in a coun try store. This arrangement gratified my love of change, com mon to the young and inexperienced. At the same time, Danbury was a much more considerable town than Ridgefield, and going to live there naturally suggested the idea of advancement, especially as I was to exchange my uncertain prospects for a posi. tive profession. However, I little comprehended 324 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, what it meant to say farewell to home: I have since learned its significance. In thus bidding adieu to the paternal roof, we part with youth forever words of mournful import, which every succeeding year, to the very end, impresses on the heart. We part with the spring-tide of life, which strews every path with flowers, fills the air with poetry, and the heart with rejoicing. We part with that genial spirit which endows familiar objects brooks, lawns, play-grounds, hillsides with its own sweet illusions : we bid adieu to this and its fairy companionships. Even if, in after life, we return to the scenes of our childhood, they have lost the bloom of youth, and in its place we see the wrinkles of that age which has graven its hard lines upon our hearts. Farewell to home implies something even yet more serious: we relinquish, and often with exultation, the tender providence of parents, in order to take upon ourselves the dread responsibilities of independence. What seeming infatuation it is, that renders us thus impatient of the guidance of those who gave us being, and who are on earth the brightest reflection of heav en making us at the same time anxious to spread our untried sails upon an untried sea, and upon a voyage which involves all the chances evil as well as good of existence. And yet it is not infatuation it is in stinct. We can not always be young ; we can not all remain under the paternal roof. The old birds push the young ones from the nest, and force them to a HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 325 trial ol their wings. It is the system of nature that impels us to go forth and try our fortunes, and it is a kind Providence, after all, which thus endues us with courage for the outset of our uncertain career. I was not long in discovering that my new voca tion was very different from what I had expected, and very different from my accustomed way of life. My habits had been active, my employments chiefly abroad in the open air. I was accustomed to be fre quently on horseback, and to make excursions to the neighboring towns ; I had also enjoyed large person al liberty, which I failed not to use in rambling over the fields and forests. All this was now changed. My duties lay exclusively in the store, and this seemed now my prison. From morning to night I remained here, and as our business was not large, I had many hours upon my hands with nothing to do, but to con sider the weariness of my situation. My brother-in- law was always present, and being a man of severe aspect and large ubiquitous eyes, I felt a sort of re straint, which, for a time, was agonizing. I had con sequently pretty sharp attacks of homesickness, a disease which save that it is not dangerous is one of the most distressing to which suffering humanity is exposed. This state of sin and misery continued for some weeks, during which time I actually revolved various plans of escape from my confinement such as steal ing away at night, making my way to Norwalk, get- 326 LETTKR8 BIOGRAPHICAL, ting on board a sloop, and going as cabin-boy to the West Indies. I am inclined to think that a small impulse might have set me upon some such mad ex pedition. By degrees, however, I became habitu ated to my occupation, and as my situation was eli gible in other respects, I found myself, ere long, reconciled to it. The father and mother of my brother-in-law were aged people living with him, in the same house, and as one family. They were persons of great amiability and excellence of character : the former, Col. Cooke, was eighty years of age, but he had still the perfect exercise of his faculties, and though he had ceased all business, he was cheerful, and took a lively inter est in passing events. His career* had been one of * Colonel Joseph Platt Cooke, son of Eev. Samuel Cooke, of Strattield, now Bridgeport, was one of fourteen children, and born Dec. 24, 1729, (old style): Nov. 22, 1759, he was married to Sarah Benedict: he died Feb. 3, 1816. Their children were Joseph P. Cooke, Thomas Cooke, Elizabeth Cooke, Daniel Benedict Cooke, and Amos Cooke the latter, my brother-in-law, born Oct. 11, 1773, and deceased Nov. 13, 1810. Tho Rev. Samuel Cooke, now (1856) of St. Bartholomew's Church, New York, is a son of Daniel B. Cooke, who was Judge of Probate at Dan- bury for a number of years. To his brother, Joseph P. Cooke, I am in debted for some of the following incidents. Col. Joseph P. Cooke graduated at Yale College in 1750. He estab lished himself in Danbury, and when the British, under Tryon, having landed at Campo. Point, on Long Island Sound, April 25, 1777, march ed upon that place, he was colonel of the militia there. Having advice of the advance of the enemy, he sent a messenger to Gen. Silliman, giving the information he had acquired, and asking for troops, ammu nition, and instructions. This messenger, coming suddenly upon the invading army, was fired upon, wounded, and taken prisoner. General Silliman, who was attached to the Connecticut militia, was upon his farm at Fairfield, when he heard of the British expedition. Ho immediately dispatched messenffers to nrouse the people, and set HISTORICAL, ANKCIxmCAL, ETC. 327 great activity and usefulness. During the Revolution he was a colonel of the Connecticut militia, and upon the death of Gen. Wooster, in the retreat from Dan- bury, the command devolved upon him, the next in rank. He was greatly esteemed, not only by the com munity, but by the leading men of the country. He enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Washing ton, and the acquaintance of Lafayette, Rochambeau, and De Grasse, whom he entertained at his house. He out himself for Eeading. Here he was joined by the fiery Arnold and the experienced Wooster : altogether they had about seven hundred men mostly raw militia, fresh from their farms. So rapid was the march of the British, that the people of Danbury were not informed of their danger, till the enemy were within eight Tniles of the town. Knowing that the public stores were their object, and well advised of the terrors of a British marauding army, the whole place was a scene of the wildest confusion and alarm. Those who could fly, sought safety in the woods and adjacent villages, taking their wo men and children with them. The sick and decrepit remained, with u few persons to take care of them. There were no means of defense in the place: about a hundred and fifty militia, without ammunition, under Colonels Cooke and Hunting- ton, were there, but retired upon the approach of the enemy. Having marched through Weston and Reading, Tryon and his force of two thousand men, reached Danbury in the afternoon of the day subsequent to their landing. Insult to the people and conflagration of the buiMinirs, public and private, followed. The only houses intentionally spared by the enemy were those of the tories ; some other dwellings, however, escaped. Nineteen houses, one meeting-house, and twenty stores and barns, with their contents, were destroyed. The scenes enacted in this tragedy were in the highest degree appall ing. Among the articles consumed were three thousand barrels of pork. The fat of these ran in rivers of flame in the gutters, while the soldiers,- intoxicated with liquors they had procured, yelled like demons amid the conflagration, or reeled through the streets, or lay down, like swine, in by-places. It adds horror to the scene to know that a portion of the inhabitants of the town opened their arms to the enemy, and saw with rejoicing the ruin and vengeance wrought upon their friends and neigh bors. 328 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, was a member of Congress under the Confederation, and subsequently filled the various offices of judge of the County Court, judge of Probate, and member of the Governor's council receiving for many years a larger popular vote than any other individual of that body. His style of living was liberal, and with a large family, settled in the neighborhood, he was like one of the patriarchs of old dignified, tranquil loving and beloved. In manner and dress, he was Early on the morning of the next day (Sunday, April 27), while the whole country around was lighted with the flames of Danbury, Tryon, hearing that the militia were gathering from all quarters to attack him, began a rapid retreat, taking the route through Ridgebury and Ridge- field. Gen. Wooster, who had been joined by Col. Cooke and his men, cross ing from Reading, overtook the enemy about two miles north of Ridge- fleld-strect. One of his aids was Stephen Rowe Bradley, afterward, for sixteen years, a senator of the United States from Vermont. A smart skirmish ensued, and forty British prisoners were taken. Unfortunate ly, at this critical moment, Wooster fell, fatally wounded by a bullet-shot in the groin. This caused a temporary panic, during which the enemy pushed on toward Ridgefield. Here, however, at the head of the street, they were met by the impetuous Arnold, who, with only two hundred men behind a stone wall, boldly confronted them. After a time, they were driven back, and the British made their way to their point of em- barkment. The untimely fall of Wooster probably only saved them from surrender, or ignominious loss and defeat. Among the stores burned in Danbury was that of Col. Cooke with a loss of one thousand pounds. The British soldiers occupied his house, where they had a riotous time. An old negro slave, who was left be hind, waited upon them, and contrived to prevent a good deal of dam age. When the marauders heard that the Americans were coming they took some bundles of straw, set the house on fire, and fled. The old negro put out the flames, and thus saved his master's dwelling. For this he had his freedom, and ever after was supported and cherished, with the consideration due to his conduct. The following original letter placed at my disposal by Mrs. Stites, granddaughter of Colonel Cooke not only throws some pleasing light upon his character, but it presents facts of the deepest and most tragic HISTORICAL, ANECDOT1CAL, ETC. 329 strongly marked with the "Washingtonian era : he was sedate, courteous, methodical in all his ways : he wore breeches, knee-buckles, shoe-buckles, and a cocked hat, to the last. The amenity and serenity of his countenance and conduct, bespoke the refined gentleman and disciplined Christian. His wife was a sister of the Kev. Noah Benedict, of "Woodbury, and inherited the traditionary talent of that branch of the Benedict family. Never have I seen a more interest. It was written while he was at New York attending to his duties there as a member of Congress. [Letter from Colonel Oooke to his son Amos Cooke,~\ NEW YORK, June 3, 1785. MY DEAR LITTLE SON : Your letter of the 30th ultimo car5 safe to hand, but I had not time to return you an answer by the same post, and this may often happen by reason of my quarters being on Long Island. I am very glad to hear that your mamma enjoys a tolerable state of health, and I doubt not but that you will always be very attentive to her comfort. Should she in any good measure recover her strength, 1 fear she will undertake sotiie business which may be detrimental to her health. Whenever you observe any thing of that kind, I would have you suggest the thought to her, in a very dutiful manner, telling her that you do it at my de sire. Platt did very well in taking the method you mentioned for getting Daniel to New Haven. I hope the Society will adopt nome plan for going forward with building the meeting-house, for until they do, I wisli not to see the Courts held in Danbury. I am not, however, appre hensive that the Assembly will repeal the act. There are now six members of Congress, who board at Mr. Hunt's. Our accommodations are very good, and we have no rats to annoy us. We have been honored with a visit from the President and most of the members of Congress, who all admire our situation, which com mands a prospect of the whole city, of all the shipping in the harbor and on the stocks (of which there are a very considerable number, one of which being a ship of about three hundred tons, we saw launched yesterday), and of every vessel that either goes out or comes in, of which we se forty or fifty under sail at the same time. But amidst all these pleasing scenes there is something that damps our spirits, and 330 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, pleasing spectacle than this reverend couple at the age of fourscore both smoking their pipes in the evening, with two generations around them, all look ing with affectionate veneration upon the patriarchal pair. My brother-in-law was a man of decided character, and his portrait deserves a place in these annals. He was graduated at Yale College, and had been qualified for the bar, but his health was feeble, and therefore chiefly for occupation he succeeded to the store casts a gloom over the whole. At about half a mile's distance from our lodgings, lies the wreck of a ship which was the Jersey Prison Ship, from which so many thousands of our poor countrymen, who had the misfortune during the late war to be taken prisoners, were thrown. I wish I could say buried, for then some part of the British inhumanity would have been concealed, but that was not the case. The banks near which this Prison ship lay are high and sandy. The dead bodies of our friends, only wrapped up in old blankets, were laid at the bottom of the bank, and the sand drawn over them. Soon after we came to live upon Long Island, several of us took a walk that way, and were struck with horror at beholding a large number of human bones, some fragments of flesh not quite consumed, with many pieces of old blankets lying upon the shore. In consequence of a representation made to Congress, they were soon after taken up and buried. But walking along the same place not many days ago, we saw a number more which were washed out, and at tempting to bury them ourselves, we found the bank full of them. Such conduct hasfixed.a stain upon the British character which will not soon be wiped off. The weather has been so very tempestuous this day, that none of us have attempted to cross the ferry, which is the first time we have failed since we have been here. It gives me pleasure to observe by your last letter that you improve both in writing and composing ; and I hope you will give frequent in stances of improvement in the same way. Give my kind love to your mamma and all the family, and tell Platt ] intend to write him by the next post. These from your affectionate parent, JOSEPH P. COOKE. Master AMOS COOKE. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 331 which his father had kept before him. Being in easy circumstances, he made no great efforts in business. Though, as I have said, he was of stern aspect, and his manners were somewhat cold and distant, he was always a gentleman, and his substantial character that of a just and kind man. In business, he treated peo ple respectfully, but he never solicited custom : he showed, but never recommended his goods. If his advice were asked, he offered it without regard to his own interest. He gave me no instructions, but left me to the influence of his example. . He was of a highly religious turn of mind, not merely performing the accustomed duties of a Christian, but making de votional books a large part of his study. Perhaps he was conscious of failing health, and already heard the monitory voice of that disease which was ere long to terminate his career. Nevertheless, he was not insensible to the pleasures of cultivated society, and however grave he might be in his general air and manner, he was particularly gratified with the visits of a man, in all things his opposite Moses Hatch, then a leading lawyer in Danbury. Mr. Cooke was tall, emaciated, somewhat bent, with a large head, and large melancholy eyes. His look was gravity itself, his air meditative, his movements measured, slow, and wavering. 'Squire Hatch,* on the contrary, was rather short, full-chested, * Moses Hatch was born at Kent, Litehfield county, Conn., \. D. 1780, and died at the same place in 1820, on his return from Saratoga, whcra 332 LETTEKS BIOGRAPHICAL, perpendicular, and with a short, quick, emphatic step. His eye was small, gray, and twinkling; his lips sharp and close-set, his hair erect and combed back, giving to his face the keen expression of the old-fashioned flint, set in a gun-lock. You expected, of course, on the least movement to see the fire fly; he was, in fact, a man celebrated for his wit no less than his learning, and he seldom opened his mouth without making a report of one or both. This person was a frequent visitor to the store, and the long winter which commenced soon after I en tered upon my apprenticeship, was not a little enli vened by his conversations with my master. It fre quently happened during the deep snows, that the day passed without a single customer, and on these occasions, Lawyer Hatch was pretty sure to make us a visit. It was curious to see these two men an tipodes in character attracted to each other as if by contradiction. My brother-in-law evidently found a pleasant relaxation in the conversation of his neigh bor, embellished with elegant wit and varied learn ing, while the latter derived equal gratification from the serious, solid, manly intellect of his friend. In he had been for the benefit of his health. He graduated at Yale in 1800, with high honors, delivering a poem on the occasion. As a lawyer, he always thought the cause of his client just, and with that feeling, he generally succeeded in cases before a jury. He seems to have had a sort of somnambulic habit, and when an interesting case was on his mind, or he was preparing for it, he would po through with his argument in his sleep, addressing the court and jury, with inucli the same method he usually adopted in the actual trial. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 333 general -\e former was the talker, and the latter the listener , yet sometimes the conversation became dis cussion, and a keen trial of wit, versus logic, ensued. The lawyer always contended for victory, my brother- in-law for the truth : the one was influenced, no doubt, by the easy practices of his profession ; the other by the stern habit of his conscience and character. The precise form of these conversations has van ished from my mind, but some of the topics remain. I recollect long talks about the embargo, non-inter course, and other Jeffersonian measures, which were treated with unsparing ridicule and reproach : anec dotes and incidents of Napoleon, who excited mingled admiration and terror, with observations upon public men, as well in Europe as in America. I remember also a very keen discussion upon Berkeley's theory of the idealty of nature, mental and material, which so far excited my curiosity, that finding the " Minute Philosopher," by that author, in the family library, I read it through with great interest and attention. The frequent references to Shakspeare, in these con versations, led me to look into his works, and incited by the recommendations of my sister I read them through, somewhat doggedly, seeking even to pene trate the more difficult and obscure passages. It frequently happened that my master owing to tue influence of disease was affected with depres sion of spirits, and the lawyer's best wit and choicest stories were expended without even exciting a smile. 334 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Not discouraged, but rather stimulated by such ad versity, he usually went on, and was pretty sure, at last, to strike the vein, as Moses did the water in the rock, and a gush of uncontrollable laughter was the result. I remember in one instance, Mr. Cooke sat for a long time, looking moodily into the fire, while 'Squire Hatch went on telling stories, chiefly about clergymen, of which he had a great assortment. I will endeavor to give you a sketch of the scene. " I know not why it is so," said the lawyer, " but the fact is undeniable, that the most amusing anec dotes are about clergymen. The reason perhaps is, that incongruity is the source of humorous associa tions, and this is evidently the most frequent and striking in a profession which sets apart its members as above the mass of mankind, in a certain gravity of character and demeanor, of which the black coat is the emblem. A spot upon this strikes every eye, while a brown coat, being the color of dirt, hides rather than reveals what is upon its surface. Thus it is, as we all know, that what would be insipid as coming from a layman, is very laughable if it hap pens to a parson. I have heard that on a certain occasion, as the Eev. J . . . M was about to read a hymn, he saw a little boy sitting behind the chor ister in the gallery, who had intensely red hair. The day was cold, and the little rogue was pretending to warm his hands by holding them close to the chor ister's head. This so disconcerted the minister, that HISTORICAL, ANECDOT1CAL, ETC. 335 it was some minutes before he could go on with the services. The only effect of this was, that my master drew down one corner of his mouth. "I have heard of another clergyman," said the lawyer, " who suffered in a similar way. One day, in the very midst of his sermon, he saw Deacon B . . . . fast asleep, his head leaning back on the rail of the pew, and his mouth wide open. A young fellow in the gallery above, directly over him, took a quid of tobacco from his mouth, and taking a care ful aim, let it drop plump into the deacon's mouth. The latter started from his sleep, and went through a terrible paroxysm of fright and choking before he recovered." Mr. Cooke bit his lip, but was silent. Lawyer Hatch although he pretended to be all the while looking into the fire got a quick side glance at the face of his auditor, and continued " You know the Kev. Dr. B of B., sir ? Well, one day he told me that as he was on his way to New Haven, he came to the house of one of his former pa rishioners, who, some years before, had removed to that place. As he was about to pass it, he remem bered that this person had died recently, and he thought it meet and proper to stop and condole with the widow. She met him very cheerfully, and they had some pleasant chat together. " ' Madam,' said he, after a time, ' it is a painfuJ 336 LETTERS BIOOKA.P1IICAL, subject but you have recently met with a severe loss.' " She instantly applied her apron to her eyes, and said " ' Oh yes, doctor ; there's no telling how I feel.' " ' It is indeed a great bereavement you have suf fered.' " 'Yes, doctor; very great indeed.' " ' I hope you bear it with submission ?' " ' I try tu ; but oh, doctor, I sometimes feel in my heart Goosy, goosy gander, where shall I wander !' " The lawyer glanced at the object of his attack, and seeming to see a small breach in the wall, he thought it time to bring up his heavy guns. He went on : " There's another story about this same Dr. B . . . . which is amusing. Some years ago he lost his wife, and after a time he began to look out for another. At last he fixed his mind upon a respectable lady in a neighboring town, and commenced paying her his addresses. This naturally absorbed much of his time and attention, and his parish became dissatisfied. The deacons of the church held several conferences on the subject, and it was finally agreed that Deacon Becket, who had the grace of smooth speech, should give the reverend doctor a hint of what they deemed his fearful backsliding. Accordingly, the next Sab bath morning, on going to church, the deacon over took the parson, and the following dialogue ensued : HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 337 " ' Good morning, Dr. B ' " ' Good morning,' Deacon Becket. " ' Well, doctor, I'm glad to meet you ; for I want ed to say to you, as how I thought of changing my pew!' " ' Indeed ! And why so ?' " ' "Well, I'll tell you. I sit, as you know, clear over the back-side of the meeting-house; and be tween me and the pulpit, there's Judy Vickar, Molly Warren, Experience Pettybone, and half-a-dozen old maids, who sit with their mouths wide open, and they catch all the best of your sarmon, and when it gets to me, it's plaguey poor stuff!'" My brother-in-law could hold out no longer : his face was agitated for a moment with nervous spasms, and then bending forward, he burst into a round, hearty laugh. The lawyer who made it a point never to smile at his own jokes still had a look upon his face as much as to say " Well, sir, I thought I should get my case." It may be easily imagined that I was greatly inter ested by these conversations and discussions, and al ways felt not a little annoyed, if perchance, as some times happened, I was called away in the midst of a good story or a keen debate, to supply a customer with a gallon of molasses, or a paper of pins. I know not if this gave me a disgust of my trade, but it is very certain that I conceived for it a great dislike, nearly from the beginning. Never, so far as I can VOL. I. 15 338 LETTERS BIOGKAPHICAL, recollect, did I for one moment enter heartily into its spirit. I was always, while I continued in it, ji mere servile laborer, doing my duty, perhaps, yet with a languid and reluctant heart. However, I got through the winter, and when the summer came, Mr. Cooke nearly gave up personal attention to busi ness, in consequence of ill health, and we had a new clerk, H. N. Lockwood, who was older than myself, and took the responsible charge of the establishment. He was an excellent merchant, and to me was a kind and indulgent friend. He afterward settled in Troy, where I am happy to say he is still living, and in the en joyment of an ample fortune, and an excellent repu tation as a father, friend, Christian, and neighbor the natural fruit of good sense, good temper, and good conduct. LETTER XXII. Visit to New Haven The City Yale College My Uncles Home John Allen First view of the Ocean The Court-bouse Dr. Dwight Pro fessor SUKman Ghemifttry, Mineralogy, Geology Anecdote of Onions GibbsMi Whitney The Cotton-gin The Gun-factory. MY DEAR C ****** In the summer of 1809 I took a short tour with my brother-in-law and my sister, for the health oi the former. This to me was a grand expedition, for among other places we visited was New Haven, then a sort of Jerusalem in my imagination a holy place, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 339 containing Yale College, of which Dr. Dwight was president. Besides all this, one of my uncles and some of my cousins lived there, and better still, my brother was there, and then a member of the college. Ah, how my heart beat when we set out ! Such was the vividness of my perceptions, that I could fill a book with recollections of that short, simple journey the whole circuit not exceeding one hundred and twenty miles. But, my dear C . . . ., be not alarmed ! I shall not inflict them upon you : a few brief notes will be the entire burden you shall bear, on this occasion. I pass over the journey to New Haven, and permit you at once to enter the city. I was of course duly impressed with its beauty, for then, as now, it was celebrated for a rare union of rural freshness and city elegance. I have recently, in passing through it, had a -transient view of its appearance, and may safely affirm that after pretty large observation in the Old World, as well as in the New, I know of no town or city more inviting ; especially to one whose j udgment is cultivated by observation and study, and whose feelings are chastened by reflection and expe rience. There is a taste of the university in the long shady streets, fit for the walks of Plato, and a metro politan air in the public buildings and squares, sug gestive of ideas of the Forum. There is something of the activity and bustle of commerce in a part of the town, and at one point, all the spasm of a railway station. In other portions of the place, and over 340 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, three- fourths of its area, there is the quietude and repose proper to a seat of learning. Here the houses seem suited to the city, each with a garden, breathing the perfumes of the country. At the period of the visit I am describing, New Haven had not one half its present population, and many of the institutions which now adorn it did not exist. The college, however, was then, as now, a leading literary institution in the country. To me it was an object of special reverence, as my grand father and his five sons had all been graduated there. My brother and two of my cousins were at this time among its inmates. Of course I looked with intense curiosity at the several buildings that belonged to it. The splendid mineralogical cabinet, now the first in the United States, was not there ; nay, the science ol mineralogy hardly existed at that time. The Trumbull Gallery of Paintings, comprising many of the best productions of that distinguished painter, and en riched by nearly two hundred portraits of celebrated men, has since been added. Nevertheless, many things here excited my admiration. I looked with particular interest I may add with some degree of envy at the students, who seemed to me the privi leged sons of the earth. Several were pointed out as promising to be the master-spirits of their age and generation ; in some cases I have since seen these an ticipations fulfilled. Next to the college I visited the bay, and for the HISTORICAL ANEODOTICAL, ETC. 341 first time actually sto.od upon the shore of that liv ing sea, which through my whole childhood had spread its blue bosom before me, in the distant ho rizon. A party of three or four of us took a boat, and went down toward the entrance of the bay, landing on the eastern side. From this point the view was enchanting it being a soft summer afternoon, and the sea only breathed upon by light puffs of wind that came from the west. I looked long, and with a species of enhancement, at its heaving and swelling surface : I ran my eye far away, till it met the line where sky and wave are blent together : I followed the lulling surf as it broke, curling and winding, among the mimic bays of the rocky shore. I looked down into the depths of the water, and perceived the finny inhabitants, gliding through the dim recesses, half sheltered in their tranquil domain by groves of sea- weed, or the shadows of the deepening waters. It was a spectacle not only full of beauty in itself, but to me it was a revelation and a fulfillment of the thousand half-formed fancies, which had been strug gling in my longing bosom from very childhood. Our party was so occupied with our contempla tions, that we had scarcely noticed a thunder-storm, which now approached and menaced us from the west. We set out to return, but before we had got half across the bay, it broke full upon us. The change in the aspect of the sea was fearful : all its gentleness was gone, and now, black and scowling, 342 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, it seemed, as if agitated by a demon, threatening every thing with destruction that came within its scope. By a severe struggle, we succeeded in reach ing Long Wharf, though not without risk. The gen eral impression of the whole scene upon my mind, may be gathered from the following lines, though you must not consider me as the literal hero of the story, nor must you regard this description as a ver itable account of the day's adventure : I stood Upon a rock that wall'd the Deep : Before me roll'd the boundless flood A Glorious Dreamer in its sleep ! 'Twas summer morn, and bright as heaven ; And though I wept, I was not sad, For tears, thou knowest, are often given When the o'erflowing heart is glad. Long, long I watch'd the waves, whose whirls* Leap'd up the rocks, their brows to kiss, And dallied with the sea-weed curls That stoop'd and wooed the protfer'd bliss. Long, long I listen'd to the peal That whisper'd from the pebbly shore, And like a spirit seem'd to steal In music to my bosonrs core. And now I look'd afar, and thought The Sea a glad and glorious thing ; And fancy to my bosom brought Wild dreams upon her wizard wing Her wing that stretch'd o'er spreading waves, And chased the far-off flashing ray, Or hovering deep in twilight caves Caught the lone mermaid at her play. FIKST ADVENTURE UPON THE SEA. Vol. 1, p. 342. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIOAL, ETC. 343 And thus the sunny day went by, And night came brooding o'er the seas ; A thick cloud swathed the distant sky, And hollow murmurs fill'd the breeze. The white-gull, screaming, left the rock, And seaward bent her glancing wing, While heavy waves, with measured shock, Made the dun cliff with echoes ring. How changed the scene ! The glassy deep, That si umber d in its resting-place, And, seeming in its morning sleep To woo me to its soft embrace N"ow waken'd, was a fearful thing A giant with a scowling form, Who from his bosom seem'd to fling The blacken'd billows to the storm ! The wailing winds in terror gush'd From the swart sky, and seem'd to lash The foaming waves, which madly rush'd Toward the tall cliff with headlong dash. Upward the glittering spray was sent, Backward the growling surges whirl'd, And splintered rocks by lightnings rent, Down thundering midst the waves were hurl'd. I trembled, yet I would not fly ; 1 fear'tl, yet loved, the awful scene ; And gazing on the sea and sky, Spell-bound I stood the rocks between. 'T\vas strange that I a mountain-boy A lover of green fields and flowers One who with laughing rills could toy, And hold companionship for hours With leaves that whisper'd low at night, Or fountains bubbling from their springs 344 J.K'ITERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Or summer winds, whose downy flight Seem'd but the sweep of angel wings : 'Twas strange that I should love the clash Of ocean in its maddest hour, And joy to see the billows dash O'er the rent cliff with fearful power. 'Twas strange but I was nature's own, Uncheck'd, untutor'd ; in my soul A harp was set, that gave its tone To every touch without control. The zephyr stirr'd, in childhood warm, Thoughts like itself, as soft and blest ; And the swift fingers of the storm, Woke its own echo in my breast. Aye, and the strings that else had lain Untouch'd, and to myself unknown, Within iny heart, gave back the strain, That o'er the sea and rock was thrown. These lines were written many years after the events I have been describing, yet the feelings and fancies they portray were suggested, at least in part, by this my first visit to the sea, and my first adven ture upon its capricious bosom. I have since crossed the Atlantic sixteen times, and am therefore familiar with all the aspects of the ocean but never have they impressed me so deeply and so vividly as upon this occasion. The next object that attracted my attention was the Court-house. Here, for the first time, I saw a "Court" its awful judges, holding the issues of life and death, and sitting high and apart upon the HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, KTC. 345 "Bench;" here also were twelve hard-looking men, exercising the high functions of that glorious Saxon institution, called a "Jury." Here also was that terri ble man the " sheriff," and a poor wretch in a pen the " prisoner at the bar." The trial had already be gun, and a lawyer, with a powdered head, was telling the court the jury and the judges what a desperate scoundrel he was. He proved him to be a burglar of the very worst description. I felt my heart burn with indignation that such a monster should ever have been at large among society. Pretty soon another lawyer got up, and made it as clear as light, that the man was entirely innocent. My feelings were now totally changed, and I felt as if he were a most de serving and most injured person. The jury at last went out, and after an anxious half hour, returned with a verdict of " guilty." The court then seTi- tenced the culprit to " Simsbury Mines"* for five years. * The place called Simsbury Mines, or Newgate Prison, sixteen miles northwest ot' Hartford, is actually within the limits of the town of Gran- by, the latter having been set off from Simsbury in 1786. The mines consist of deep excavations made in the rocks, for copper ore, by an English company, about 1760. The speculation ended in disaster, and the caverns began to be used for a prison about the time of the Revo lutionary war. In 1790, by a legislative act, it was established as a per manent state-prison under the name of Newgate suitable buildings be ing erected over the caverns for the purpose. I visited the place about the year 1811 or 1812. The prisoners were heavily ironed with hand- cutt's and fetters. In some cases several were fastened together by chains attached to a bar of iron. Most of them worked in a smithy, where each man was chained to his forge or bench. Sentinels, with loaded muskets, stood ready to fire in case of revolt. The object of the prison was not only to shut up felons, and thus to protect society, but to cre:itc an 'ulna of horror in the public mind, and 346 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, I had been three hours in the court-room, and my interest had been wound up to the highest pitch. When I left it, my head was in a whirl ; my feelings also were painfully excited. I had deemed that a Court of Justice was holy ground ; that judges were saints, and jurors grave men, deeply impressed with the duty of a religious fulfillment of their high func tions. I had imagined lawyers to be profoundly skilled in the art of discerning and developing the thus by a moral influence to prevent crime. The abandoned copper mines were the sleeping place of the criminals. The descent to these infernal regions was by a trap-door, leading down a ladder sixty or seventy feet, through one of the shafts. At the bottom was a consider able space, with short galleries leading in various directions. Here were wooden berths, filled with straw. The prisoners descended the perpen dicular ladder in their irons, and thus slept at night. They rose at four in the morning, and went to their rest at four in the afternoon. Their food was principally salt pork, salt beef, and beans. The caverns were ventilated by a large shaft, descending into a well, near the center of the excavations. Strange to say, the health of the prisoners was generally excellent. As if these gloomy regions did not inspire sufficient terror, it ap pears that the neighborhood, according to popular ideas, was for a long time peopled with beings from the other world. At one period certain persons seemed to be bewitched, hearing singular noises, and seeing spirits in the air. More recently, the crying of a child and other strange sounds were heard in an uninhabited house. Several persons cauie here to investigate the subject, and upon hearing the noises, suddenly entered the place, but found nothing. Two young men one night slept in the house, and about midnight, heard something rush in at the win dow, like a gust of wind, upsetting the chairs, shovel and tongs, and then pass down the ash-hole. What could it have been but Old Sooty himself? It is not astonishing that the very name of Slmsbury Mines did, in fact, inspire ideas of peculiar horror. When I was a boy, it was regarded as next door to that place which it is not polite to name. Malefactors, it is said, were very shy of practicing their profession in Connecticut, for fear of getting into this dreadful place. However, after a time, a total change of ideas spread over the community, in regard to prisons : it was HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AT., ETC. 3tt7 truth. I bad indulged a fancy that justice and judg ment would here reign in every heart, appear in every face, and guide every tongue. How different seemed the reality! The general impression on my mind was a horror of the place, and all the proceedings : it appeared to me that lawyers, judges, jury, sheriff, and all, were a set of the most heartless creatures I had ever seen pretending to seek justice, and yet without a single sentiment of humanity. Even de cency seemed to be outraged, in the treatment of wit nesses, and in jibes cast at the poor prisoner, who, however guilty, rather invited sympathy than ridi cule. I must confess that I have never got entirely over this my first impression : the atmosphere of a court-room is to me always depressing though, I am aware, that the manners here have undergone a great and favorable revolution in modern times. On Sunday I went to the college chapel, and heard Dr. Dwight preach. He was then at the zenith of his fame a popular poet, an eloquent divine, a learned author, and, crowning all, president of the college. discovered that vindictive punishment was alike wrong 'in principle and effect; that, in fact, it hardened the sinner, while it should always be the object of punishment, in restraining the felon for the benefit of society, to exercise a moral influence for his reformation. This idea must be classed among the larger humanities which have enlightened and en nobled the public spirit of modern times. Some thirty years ago, in conformity with these views, Simsbury Mines ceased to be a State Prison, aud an excellent institution for that object was established in the beautiful town of Wethersfleld. Soon after this period, Simsbury Mines were again wrought for copper, and I be lieve with success. 348 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, He was unquestionably, at that time, the most con spicuous man in New England, filling a larger space in the public eye, and exerting a greater influence than any other individual. No man, since his -time, has held an equal ascendency, during his day and generation, in New England except perhaps Daniel Webster. In allusion to his authority in matters ec clesiastical as well as civil for he was a statesman, and exercised his influence in politics, not obtrusive ly, but by his counsel he was familiarly called by political adversaries, Old Pope Dwight. In person he was about six feet in height, and of a full, round, manly form. His head was modeled rather for beauty than craniological display. Indeed, phrenology had not then been discovered, and accord ingly great men were born without paying the slight est attention to its doctrines. Dr. Dwight had, in fact, no bumps : I have never seen a smoother, rounder pa^e than his, which, being slightly bald and close shorn, was easily examined. He had, how ever, a noble aspect a full forehead and piercing black eyes, though partly covered up with large spectacles in a tortoise-shell frame for he had been long afflicted with a morbid sensibility of the organs of sight. On the whole, his presence was singularly commanding, enforced by a manner somewhat authoritative and emphatic. This might have been offensive, had not his character and position prepared all around to tol erate, perhaps to admire it. His voice was one of HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 349 the finest I ever have heard from the pulpit clear, hearty, sympathetic and entering into the soul .like the middle notes of an organ. The subject of his discourse I do not recollect ; trained, however, as I had been from childhood, to regard him as second only to St. Paul I discovered in it full justification of his great fame.* The house of my uncle, Elizur Goodrich, where * The life of Timothy Dwight is full of interesting materials for the biographer. His family connections, his precocity, his development, his performances, his heart, his mind, the details of his career all abound in those striking lights and shades, which rivet the attention. His father was a merchant of Northampton, his mother daughter of Jonathan Edwards the most renowned metaphysician America has pro duced. He was born May 14, 1752. He learned the alphabet of his moth er at one lesson : at six he read Latin ; at eight was fitted for college ; at thirteen he entered Yale ; at nineteen he began his great poem of the Conquest of Canaan, and finished it in three years, though it was not published till 1785. He taught rhetoric, mathematics, and oratory in the college for six years. After this he returned to Northamptop, and in 1777, married Miss Woolsey, sister of Wm. W. Woolsey, for many years a distinguished merchant in New Haven. The same year he was licensed to preach, and became chaplain in the army, which he joined at West Point. Here he wrote his celebrated song of Columbia. In 1781 he was a member of the State legislature ; and in 1783 was settled as minister at Greenfield. His meeting-house was visible to the naked eye from the windows of our house at Kidgefield. In this village he wrote his fine poem of Greenfield Hill, which appeared in 1794. The next year he succeeded Dr. Stiles as President of ^Yale College, a post which he filled till his death, Jan. 11, 1817, at the age of 64. Dr. Dwight's works are numerous and valuable : besides poems, es says, &c., he wrote several volumes of Travels, descriptive of scenes and places in New England, which he had visited during college vacations. His greatest work is Theology Explained and Defended. .This has been extensively published here and in England, and is greatly admired for its argument, its eloquence, and its happy manner as well of statement as of illustration. The following memoranda, respecting this great man, have been mostly furnished me by his nephew, Mr. Theodore Dwight, now of New York (1856). 350 , LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, we stayed, was then rather the focal point of society in the city partly because of his official position and genial manners, and partly, also, on account of the character of his wife, who, to say the least, in a happy union of the highest womanly qualities, was in ferior to few ladies of her time. Every evening there was here a levee of accidental visitors, consisting of The Dwiglit family in this country ia descended from John Dwight, who came from England in 1637, and settled at Dedham, in Massachu setts. The grandfather of Dr. Dwight built Fort Dummur, the first set tlement within the bounds of Vermont, about 1723-4. Here the father of Dr. Dwight was born. He was a man of immense strength and stature. During the Revolutionary war he went to New Orleans and up the Mississippi, where he purchased land, intending to remove there with his large family. The tract extended some miles along the bank, and included the site of the present city of Natchez ; but he soon after died of a fever. A son who accompanied him was lost at sea, and the evidence of his title to the land was never found. The news of the death of the father of the family was about a year in reaching them. It was a summer day, and one of the elder sons was making hay in a field, when one of the smallest children, who had been present at its announcement, came tottering through the grass, with the sad story. The youth threw his pitchfork into the air, and exclaimed, " Then we're all ruined !" and such was the force of his emo tions, that his mind never recovered from the effects to the day of his death. Timothy, the eldest son, was absent with the army. He now (1778) went to reside in Northampton, with his mother, and assumed the manage ment of the aifairs of the family. He carried on their two farms, and at the same time conducted a school, and preached in the adjacent towns. A number of young ladies and gentlemen from different parts of the country, were among his pupils. He had two ushers one of whom was Joel Barlow. Gen. Zechariah Huntington and Judge Hosmer were his pupils ; and a number of young men went to him from Yale College, after the capture of New Haven. He was at that time very acceptable as :i preacher, often filling the pulpit where his grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, had officiated. He not only directed the business of the farms, but often worked in the field with the men, his brother Theodore being at his side. The latter, from whom these facts are derived, mentioned that the hired men used to contest for the privilege of mowing next to Timothy, "that they .might hear him talk'' 1 fluent, interesting, and in- HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 351 the distinguished men of the city, and often including other celebrities. Among the noted individuals I saw there, was John Allen,' brother of Mrs. Goodrich a man of eminent talents and most imposing person, being six feet six inches high, with a corresponding power of expression in his form and face. He had been a member of Congress, and is recorded in its structive conversation being at that time, as through life, one of his characteristics. The family comprised thirteen children, nearly all of whom were now at home. The house was in King-street, and next to it, on the east, was that which had been the residence of Jonathan Edwards during his ministry. There David Brainard had died, nursed in his last sickness by one of the daughters of Mr. E. , to whom he was engaged. In the burying-ground was the 'grave of Brainard, which was then, and long after, annually visited by some of his Indian converts, who used to make long journeys through the wilderness to sit a few hours in silent medi tation and mourning, over his ashes. Timothy Dwight had been trained from his earliest years among the simple but refined society of Northampton, and was familiarized with the history of the French and Indian wars, which had been the sources of so much suffering to the friends and ancestors of those around him. The impressions which he received from such scenes and examples, were permanent on his character and life. He entered the American revolu tionary army as a chaplain to General Putnam's regiment, with the ardor of a youthful Christian patriot; preached with energy to the troops in camp, sometimes with a pile of the regiment's drums before him, instead of a desk. One of his sermons, intended to raise the drooping cour age of the country, when Bnrgoyne had come down from Canada with his army, and was carrying all before him was published, and a copy read to the garrison in Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk river, when Sir John Johnson had cut oft" their- communications with Albany, and threat ened their destruction. The venerable Colonel Platt, many years after, affirmed that it was owing to this sermon, that the garrison resolved to hold out to the last extremity, and made the sally in which they routed and drove off their besiegers, delivering Albany from imminent danger, and contributing materially to the defeat of the British in their cam paign of 1777. Many of the personal traits of Dr. Dwight were interesting. He wrote like copperplate : such was the rapid flow of his ideas that he could em ploy at the same time two amanuenses, by dictating to them on totally 352 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, annals by the title of " Long John." He was in person, as well as mind, a sort of Anakim among the members of the House.* Here also I saw Dr. Dwight, who was perhaps even more distinguished in conversation than in the pulpit. He was indeed regarded as without a rival in this respect : his knowledge was extensive and various, and his language eloquent, rich, and flowing. His fine voice and noble person gave great effect to what he said. When he spoke, others were silent. This arose in part from the superiority of his powers, but in part also from his manner, which, as I have said, was somewhat authoritative. Thus he engrossed, not rudely, but with the willing assent of those around him, the lead in conversation. Nevertheless, I must remark, that in society the imposing grandeur of different subjects. He labored daily in the garden, or in some other way, holding it to be the duty of every man to labor, bodily, so as to insure the perfection of life and enjoyment. He advised professional men, in traveling, and on other occasions, to enter into easy and kindly conver sation with strangers, as a means of gaining knowledge, and cultivating a kindly feeling in society. He constantly taught the duty of courtesy and politeness ; he loved his country and our free institutions, and in culcated the duty of a constant endeavor to elevate and ennoble the public sentiment. He despised all meanness, and especially that dem- agogism, which, under a pretense of patriotism, is seeking only for self- promotion, and which is even willing to degrade the people, in order to gratify personal ambition. It is impossible to measure the good done by such a man by his personal example, by his influence upon the stu dents under his care for twenty years, and by the impress of his noble character upon the important institution which was the theater of his labors. * Hon. John Allen was a native of Great Barrington : he settled in Litchfield in 1785, and died in 1812. He was not only a member of Con gress, but also of the State Council for several years. His sou, John W. Allen, of Cleveland, has been a member of Congress. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 353 his personal appearance in the pulpit, was softened by a general blandness of expression and a sedulous courtesy of manner, which were always conciliating, and sometimes really captivating. His smile was irresistible. In reflecting upon this good and great man, and reading his works in after-time, I am still impressed with his general superiority his manly intellect, his vast range of knowledge, and his large heart ; yet, I am persuaded that, on account of his noble person the perfection of the visible man he exercised a pow er in his day and generation, somewhat beyond the natural scope of his mental endowments. Those who read his works only, can not fully realize the impres sion which he made upon the age in which he lived. His name is still honored : many of his works still live. His Body of Divinity takes the precedence, not only here, but in England, over all works of the same kind and the same doctrine ; but at the period to which I refer, he was regarded with a species of idolatry by those around him. Even the pupils of the college under his presidential charge those who are not usually inclined to hero-worship almost adored him. To this day, those who had the good fortune to receive their education under his auspices, look back upon it as a great era in their lives. There was indeed reason for this. With all his greatness in other respects, Dr. Dwight seems to have been more particularly felicitous as the teacher, the 354: LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, counsellor, the guide, of educated young men. In the lecture-room all his high and noble qualities seemed to find their full scope. He did not here confine himself to merely scientific instruction : he gave lessons in morals and manners, and taught, with a wisdom which experience and common sense only could have furnished, the various ways to in sure success in life. He gave lectures upon health the art of maintaining a vigorous constitution, with the earnest pursuit of professional duties citing his own example, which consisted in laboring every day in the garden, when the season permitted, and at other times at some mechanical employment. He recommended that in intercourse with mankind, his pupils should always converse with each individual upon that subject in which he was most instructed, observing that he never met a man of whom he could not learn something. He gave counsel, suited to the various professions ; to those who were to become clergymen, he imparted the wisdom which he had gathered by a life of long and active experience : he counseled those who were to become lawyers, physi cians, merchants and all with a fullness of knowl edge and a felicity of illustration and application, as if he had actually spent a life in each of these voca tions. And more than this : he sought to infuse into the bosom of all, that high principle which served to inspire his own soul that is, to be always a gen tleman, taking St. Paul as his model. He considered HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 355 not courtesy only, but truth, honor, manliness in all things, as essential to this character. Every kind of meanness he despised. Love of country was the con stant theme of his eulogy. Religion was the soul of his system. God was the center of gravity, and man should make the moral law as inflexible as the law of nature. Seeking to elevate all to this sphere, he still made its orbit full of light fhe light of love, and honor, and patriotism, and literature, and ambi tion all verging toward that fullness of glory, which earth only reflects and heaven only can unfold. Was not this greatness ? not the greatness of ge nius, for after all Dr. D wight was only a man of large common sense and a large heart, inspired by high moral principles. He was, in fact, a Yankee, Christian gentleman nothing more nothing less. Where could such character with such lights and shades be produced, except here in our stern, yet kindly cli mate of New England ? Can you find such a biog raphy as this in France ? in Germany ? in Old Eng land, even ? You may find men of genius, but hardly of that Puritan type, so well illustrated in the life and character of Timothy Dwight. Shake not your head, then, my dear C . . . ., and say that nothing good can come of this, our cold, northern Nazareth ! Another man, whom I now saw for the first time, was Professor Silliman, then beginning to fill a large space in the public eye. He had recently returned from a visit to Europe, but did not publish his " Jour 356 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, nal of Travels" till the next year. It was a great thing then to go to Europe, and get back safe. It was a great thing then to look upon a person who had achieved such an enterprise, and especially a man like the professor, who had held communication with the learned and famous people on the other side of the Atlantic. But this was not all : Professor Silliman had begun to popularize the discoveries of the new science of Chemistry. What wonders were thus dis closed to the astonished people ! By means of blow pipes, flasks, and crucibles, all nature seemed to be transformed as by the spells of a sorcerer. The four old- fashioned elements were changed proved, in short, to be impostors, having been passed off from time immemorial as solid, substantial, honest elements, while they were in fact, each and all, only a parcel of compounds ! Fire was no longer fire ; it was only an incident of combustion : heat was a sensation, and at the bottom of the whole matter was a thing called caloric. Earth, that stable, old-fashioned footstool of man and his Maker, was resolved into at least fifty ingredients ; air was found to be made up of two gases, called oxygen and nitrogen one being a sort of good angel, supporting life and combustion, and the other a kind of bad devil, stifling the breath, put ting out the candle, and destroying vegetation. As to water, that, too, was forced to confess that it had hitherto practiced an imposition upon the world, for instead of being a simple, frank, honest element, it HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 357 was composed of oxygen and hydrogen the latter of such levity as to be fit for little else than inflating balloons ! What a general upsetting of all old-fashioned ideas of creation was this ! It is scarcely possible for any one to conceive what a change has taken place, through the influence of chemistry, within the last half century. Every substance in nature has been attacked, and few have preserved their integrity. This science has passed from the laboratory to the workshop, the manufactory, the farm, the garden, the kitchen. Everybody is now familiar with its discov eries, its principles, its uses. Chemistry, which was. a black art when I was a boy, is in the school-books now ; and Professor Silliman was the great magi cian that brought about this revolution in our coun try. He had just commenced his incantations, and already the world began to echo with their wonders. With what engrossing admiration did I look at him, when he came into the room, and I heard his name announced ! At this time, his lectures were not only attended by the youth of the college, but by a few privileged ladies and gentlemen from the world without. I went with one of my cousins, entertaining the common idea that chemistry was much the same as alchemy an art whose chief laboratory was in the infernal re gions. I had read something about the diableries of Friar Bacon, seeking by compact with the Great 358 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Blacksmith below, to discover the philosopher's stone, but hitting by accident upon gunpowder ; and this formed my general notion of the science. When I entered the lecture-room, and saw around, a furnace, an anvil, a sink, crucibles, flasks, retorts, receivers, spatulas, a heap of charcoal, a bed ol sand, with thermometers, pyrometers, barometers, hydrometers, and an array of other ometers, with a variety of odd-looking instruments the use of which I could not imagine I began to feel a strange sort of bewilderment. This was turned to anxiety, when I perceived in the air an odor that I had never experienced before, and which seemed to me to breathe of that pit which is nameless as well as bot tomless. I asked one of the pupils who sat near me about it, and he said it was sulphureted hydrogen, whereupon I became composed ; not that I knew any better what it was, but as they had a name for it, I supposed it was of earth and not of the other place. At last the lecturer began. I was immediately at tracted by his bland manner and beautiful speech. All my horrors passed instantly away, and in a few moments I was deep in the labyrinths of alkalies, acids, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, &c. I learned how sulphur with an ic meant one thing, with an ous, another, with an et, another, and so on. Finally, the professor got beyond my reach, and I was completely lost in a maze of words, too deep for my comprehen sion. But now the theory was done, and the experi HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 359 ments began. The lights were put out. A piece of wire was coiled in a glass jar, filled with oxygen. A light was applied and fizz fizz fizz, went the wire, actually burning like a witch-quill ! That was chem istry, brought down to the meanest capacity. We all clapped hands, as they do now at Niblo's. Af ter this, one or two of the pupils took exhilarating gas, and thereupon seemed to enjoy the most deli cious trances. Still other experiments followed, and everybody was convinced that the new science was not. a thing to be feared, as smelling of necromancy, but that in fact it was an honest science, fit to be introduced even into the domestic arts. Since that time it has actually transformed the whole business of life, producing benefits which no words can ade quately describe. Geology followed close upon the heels of chemis try. This, too, which was confined to the arcana of science in my boyhood, and was even there a novelty, is now a school study. Professor Silliman has been a leader in this also. He had commenced at the peri od of which I am speaking, but he had only advanced into its precincts the science of mineralogy. This had begun to be popular in the centers of learning : young collegians went into the mountains with bags and hammers, and came back loaded with queer stones. In fact, hunting specimens took the place of hunting bears, deer, and foxes, and was pursued with all the ardor of the chase. Ladies, turning blue, had pieces 360 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, of marble, ore, quartz, and other things o f the kind, on their mantel-pieces, and those who were thorough ly dyed, had little cabinets, all arranged on Haiiy's principles of crystallography. Let me tell an anecdote in illustration of the spirit of the age. About this time Colonel Gibbs, originally from Rhode Island, but who now lived on Long Island, near Flushing, became an enthusiast in the new sci ence. He was in fact the founder of the splendid min- eralogical cabinet at present belonging to Yale Col lege. While he was in the very crisis of his fever, he chanced to be traveling in a stage-coach among one of the remote rocky districts of New Hampshire. Coming at last to a region which looked promising of min- eralogical discoveries, he stopped at a small, obscure tavern, borrowed a hammer, and went into the mount ains. Here he soon became engrossed in his research es, which were speedily rewarded by several interest ing specimens. In his enthusiasm, his own exertions were not sufficient, so that he employed several per sons to assist him in knocking the rocks to pieces. At the end of a week he had completely exhausted his cash. He then paid the workmen in coats, panta loons, boots, shoes, and at last in shirts. These finally came to an end, and he paid in promises, in no de gree abating his zeal. By this time he had collected three sacks of stones, which it took six men to carry. The people around did not comprehend him, and of course supposed him to be insane. One day, while HISTOKICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 361 he chanced to be in the tavern, an acquaintance of his came along in the stage-coach, and the two eager ly exchanged salutations. The keeper of the hotel, seeing this, took the stranger aside, and said : " You seem to be acquainted with this gentleman ?" " Yes ; I know him : it is Colonel Gibbs, of Long Island." " Well, he said his name was Gibbs, but he is as mad as a March hare." " Indeed : what makes you think so ?" " Why he has been here a fortnight knocking all Monadnock to pieces. He has spent all his money, and given away his clothes, till he hasn't a shirt to his back. If you are a friend of his, you ought to make his family acquainted with his situation, so that he may be taken care of." " Oh, I understand. The colonel is not insane : he is a mineralogist." " A what ?" " A mineralogist a collector of curious stones." " Are they to eat ?" " No ; they are specimens to be preserved for sci entific purposes." " Ha, ha ! what quiddles there are in this world f Every little while, one on 'em comes along here. Last year, a man, called a professor from Cambridge, stopped here a week, ketching all the bugs, beetles, and butterflies he could find. About the same time, another man carne, and he went into the mountains, VOL. I. 16 LETf ERS BIOGRAPHIC AL, pulling up all the odd weeds and strange plants he met with. He took away a bundle as big as a hay cock ; and now this Colonel somebody is making a collection of queer stones 1 I think the people down your way can't have much to du, else they wouldn't take to such nonsense as this." I give you this story, not vouching for its precise accuracy, but as characterizing the zeal for modern sci ence, in this its birthday. The truth is, that somewhat more than half a century ago, physical science had al most completely engrossed the leading minds in Eu rope. Discouraged or disgusted with diving into the depths of metaphysics, the learned world eagerly be gan to bore into the bowels of the earth : instead of studying mind, they pounded and pondered upon mat ter. Chemistry, mineralogy, geology, and a whole family of ologies, became the rage. This transat lantic epidemic migrated to America. It was in full vigor among the learned here, at the time I speak of. In the benighted parts of the country, as in the precincts of Monadnock, this mania still appeared to be madness. There was method in it, how ever. The modern discoveries of chemistry, min eralogy, &c., as already intimated, have wrought a change in human knowledge, astonishing alike for the enlargement of its boundaries, the novelty of its revelations, and the certainty and precision which have taken the place of doubt and conjecture. The hills, the mountains, the valleys, with their founda- HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC. 303 tions the layers of rocks which have been hidden from the "beginning" have been examined, and their secrets laid open to the world. Here have been found the traces of kingdoms vegetable, mineral, and an imal belonging to other creations, such as leaves of perished races of plants, bones of extinct races of ani mals, rocks built before the flood. These have all become familiar to us, and their inscriptions have dis closed wonders of which mankind had never before dreamed. Thus within the last fifty years, new sci ences have been created, and have lavished their wonders upon the astonished world. Champollion discovered the means of interpreting the mystic signs upon the monuments of Egypt ; but behold a greater wonder : Cuvier and his followers have enabled us to read the lines written by God upon the rocks which were laid deep in the foundations of the earth, mil lions of ages ago ! When Dr. Webster came to revise his Dictionary in 1840, after a lapse of twelve years, he found it ne cessary to add several thousand words, in order to express the ideas which had recently passed from technological science, into our common language. Similar additions were required, a few years after, in the preparation of another revised edition. Nothing can more strikingly mark the progress of knowledge, not merely in the minds of scholars, but among the masses, during the period to which I refer, than this. There is no half century like the last, in the history LKTTKKS BIOGKAl'lIIOAL of mankind. Nor is the end jet. The thirst for discovery seems only to have begun. Indeed, such is the celerity of our progress, that some heads grow giddy. They begin to see double : old men have visions, and young maidens dream dreams. Materialism pervades the air, and the new spiritual world is a mere mesmeric phantasmagoria of this earthy ball, which we inhabit. Spirits, now-a-days, push about tables, rap at the door, tumble over the chairs, learn the alphabet, and spell their names with emphasis. Lusty spirits are they, with vigorous mus cles, hard knuckles, and rollicking humors! They will talk, too, and as great nonsense as any alive. If these are the only kind of souls to be met with, in their seven heavens, one would hardly like to go there. Eeally, these mesmeric spirits seem very much of the ardent kind, and I suspect have more alcohol of the imagination than real immortality about them. Another remarkable person whom I saw at my un cle's house was Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton- gin. He was a large man of rather full habit, slightly round-shouldered, and doubling himself forward as he sat. His face was large and slightly oval ; his nose long and hooked ; his eye deep-set, black, and keen ; his look penetrating and prolonged. His hair was black, though sprinkled with gray, for he was now some five and forty years old ; his skin was smooth, sallow, and pallid. Altogether, his appearance was striking, the expression of his face having a deep HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 365 thoughtfulness about the brow, tempered by a pleas ant smile at the corners of the mouth. In conversation he was slow, but his thoughts were clear and weighty. His knowledge seemed at once exact and diversified : he spoke more of science than literature ; he was not discursive, but logically pursued trains of thought, shedding light at every sentence. Few men have lived to more purpose than he. Before his time, cotton was separated from the seed by hand, and hence its price was thirty to fifty cents a pound. He produced a machine, by which a series of hooked, iron teeth, playing through openings in a receiver, performed the labor of five hundred men in a day ! An immense facility in the production of cotton has been the result, with a cor responding fall in its price and extension of its use, throughout Christendom. In 1790,* cotton was hardly known in this country ; * Cotton appears to have been used in India for making cloths as early as 440 B. c., and probably long before that time, yet here the art remained isolated for ages. The Arabians at length brought India cot ton to Adula, on the Red Sea, whence it was introduced into Europe. The cotton manufacture was brought there by the Moors of Spain in the ninth century. Raw cotton was first introduced into England from the Levant, chiefly for candlewicks. The cotton manufacture was brought hither by the refugees from the Low Countries in the time of Queen Elizabeth. For a long time, the fabrics produced were coarse ; the finei cotton goods muslins, calicoes, chintzes, being largely supplied from India. In 1730, Mr. Wyatt first began to spin cotton by machinery. IK 1742, the first cotton-spinning mill was built at Manchester, the motive- power being mules and horses. The entire value of the cotton manu facture of England in 1760 was a million of dollars: now it is probablj two hundred millions of dollars. In 1790, Mr. Slater put up at Pawtucket, R. I., the first cotton-mill in 866 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, in 1800, the whole product of the United States was eighty -five thousand bales ; in 1855, it is three millions and a half of bales. Nearly half the nations of the earth, seventy-five years ago, went naked or in rags, or in bark or skins ; but they are now clothed in cot ton. Then a shirt cost a week's work ; now a. man earns two shirts in a day. Now, during every twelve hours of daylight, the spindles of the world produce threads of cotton sufficient to belt our globe twenty times round at the equator! And Eli Whitney was the Chief Magician who brought this about. At the time I speak of, his Gun-factory, two miles north of New Haven, was the great curiosity of the neighborhood. Indeed, people traveled fifty miles to see it. I think it employed about a hundred men. It was symmetrically built in a wild romantic spot, near the foot of East Eock, and had a cheerful, taste ful appearance like a small tidy village. We visited it of course, and my admiration was excited* to the utmost. What a bound did my ideas make in me chanics, from the operations of the penknife, to this miracle of machinery ! It was, at the time, wholly America. In 1802, the first cotton factory was erected in New Hampshire. In 1804, the first power-loom was introduced at Waltham ; in 1822, the first cotton factory was built at Lowell. The cotton manufactures of the United States now amount to sixty-five millions of dollars a year ! In 1789, about one million pounds of cotton were produced in the Uni ted States; in 1792, Whitney perfected his gin for cleaning cotton; in 1810, the United States produced eighty-five millions pounds of cotton: in 1820, one hundred and sixty millions; in 1830, three hundred and fifty millions ; in 1855, probably fourteen hundred millions. The Uni ted States are now the chief cotton producers for the world. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 367 engaged in manufacturing muskets for the govern ment. Mr. Whitney was present, and showed us over the place, explaining the various processes. Every part of the weapons was made by machinery, and so systematized that any lock or stock would fit any barrel. All this, which may seem no wonder now, was remarkable at the time, there being no sim ilar establishment in the country. Among other things, we here saw the original model of the Cotton- gin,* upon which Mr. Whitney's patent was founded. * Eli Whitney was born at Westborough, Mass., in 1765, of parents in the middle ranks of life. He showed an early propensity to mechan ics, first making a very good fiddle, and then mending fiddles for the neighborhood. He once got his father's watch, aud slily took it to pieces, but contrived to put it together again, BO as not to be detected. At the age of thirteen he made a table-knife to match the set, one of which had been broken. During the Kevolutionary war he took to nail- making, nails being very scarce, and made a profitable business of it. He then made long pins for ladies' bonnets, walking-canes, &c. At the age ot' nineteen he began to think of college, and surmounting various obsta cles, entered Yale in 1789, having been fitted in part by Dr. Goodrich, of Durham. In college he displayed great vividness of imagination in his compositions, with striking mechanical talent mending, on a cer tain occasion, some philosophical apparatus, greatly to the satisfaction and surprise of the Faculty. In 1792 he went to Georgia, as teacher in the family of Mr. B . . . . On his arrival, he found that the place was supplied; happily he fell under the kind care and patronage of Mrs. Greene, widow of Gen. G. Hearing the planters lament that there was no way of separating cotton from the seed but by hand, and that it took a slave a whole day to clean a pound, he set privately to work, and after a time produced his gin, which was to make such a revolution in the world. In this process, he was obliged to make his own wire. On disclosing his discovery, the planters saw at once the vast field of enterprise open to them. Whitney took immediate steps to secure a patent, and made arrangements to man ufacture gins, but a series of misfortunes and discouragements defeated him. The history of his career at this period is a melancholy story of efforts baffled, hopes disappointed, and engagements violated, disclo sing the most shameful wrongs and outrages on the part of Individ- 368 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, LETTER XXIII, Durham History of Connecticut- -Distinguished Families of Durham-- Tho Chau.nceys, Wadsworths, Lymans, Goodriches, Austins, dkc. Wood,- bury How Romance becomes History Rev. Noah Benedict Judge Smith. MY DKAK C****** Having spent about a. week at New Haven, we proceeded to Durham, an old-fashioned, sleepy town of a thousand inhabitants. Its history lies chiefly in the remarkable men it has produced the Chaun- Vila, and even of courts and legislatures. He instituted sixty suits in Georgia for violations of his rights, and was not able to get a single de cision until thirteen years from the commencement ! Thus, in fact, tho great benefactor of the cotton interest of the South, only derived years of misery and vexation from his invention. In 1798, through the influence of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, he obtained a contract for the manufacture of arms for the United States, and then established his factory at Whitneyville. He was eight years in producing ten thousand pieces. At length, however, his measures being completed, his establishment was one of the most perfect in the world, and the arms he provided were probably the best then made in any country. In 1822, he applied for a renewal of his patent for the cotton-gin. It was estimated that the value of one hundred millions of dollars had then been added to the lands of the South by tliis invention, while he had reaped only sorrow and embarrassment ; yet he failed, most of the southern members of Congress opposing his request ! In 1817, he married a daughter of the celebrated Pierpont Edwards, Jndge of the District Court for the State of Connecticut. In 1822, he was attacked witli disease, which terminated his career in 1825. His character, like life life, was remarkable : though a refined scholar, he was a skillful mechanic no man in his shop being able to handle tools more dexterously than himself: though possessing a fine imagination, and a keen inventive faculty, he had a perseverance in pursuing his plans to completion, that nothing could arrest. He was at once ener getic and systematic; dignified, yet courteous ; large in his views, yet HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 36'J ceys,* celebrated in the literary, clerical, official, and professional annals of New England, and I may add, of the country at large ; the Wadsworths, no less noted in various commanding stations, military and civil, public and private ; the Lymans, renowned in the battle-field, the college, the pulpit, and the sen ate ; the Austins father and son to whose talent and enterprise Texas owes her position as a member of this Union. precise in detail ; a profound thinker, and scrutinizing nature and its phenomena with amazing depth of thought, yet coming at last with the docility of a child to the Christian's confession " I am a sinner, may God have mercy upon me !" * Whoever would understand the true history of Connecticut, should not confine his reading to general works on this subject, but should look into the local histories and genealogical memoranda of towns and villages, of which there are now agreat number. A good collection may be found in the Library of the Hartford Athenenrn. If any one desires to know the annals of Durham, let him read the sermon delivered by Professor W. C. Fowler at that place, Dec. 29, 1847, and printed at Araherst, Mass., 1848. The notes will prove a revelation, not of history only, but of something like romance. The number of great men pro ceeding from this small town, in times past, is not only striking but instructive, as it suggests and illustrates the manner in which Connec ticut has exerted a powerful influence upon this country the United States I might even say upon this continent. Among the families of Durham, noticed by Professor Fowler, are the following : The Chauneeys. Nathaniel Chauncey, grandson of President Chaun- ccy, of Harvard College, was born at Hatfield, Mass., 1681, was gradu ated at Yale in 1702 belonging to the first class that graduated in that college, all of whom became ministers. He was ordained at Durham in 1711, and died there 1756. His son, Elihu Chauncey, lived in Durham, and was a man of high character and large influence. His daughter, Catherine, married Dr. Goodrich, who was my grandfather. His son, Charles Chauncey, settled at New Haven, and was a man of extensive learning and great ability. He became attorney-general of the State and judge of the Superior Court. He received the title of LL. D. from the college at MMdlebury ; and died 1823. Among his children were < 'hurles Chauncoy, LL.D.. distinguished MS an cminci.t lawver and re- 16* 370 LKTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, To this list of remarkable names, I trust I may add that of the Goodriches, without the imputation of egotism, for historical justice demands it. At the time I visited the place, nearly all the family had long since left it. My grandfather Dr. Goodrich died in 1797, but my grandmother was living, as well as her daughter, Mrs. Smith, wife of Rev. David Smith, the clergyman of the place, who had succeed ed to my grandfather's pulpit. I had never any great fancy for genealogies, so I did not study the broad-spreading tree of the family, its roots running back to the time of Godric the Saxon the great Adam of the race as is duly set forth fined gentleman, settled at Philadelphia, and died 1349 ; Elihu Chnnn- cey, a distinguished merchant of Philadelphia, died 1847. Many others, descendants of the Durham Chaunceys, attained distinction. The Wadxworths. Among the Durham Wadsworths, were the follow ing : Col. James, from Farmington, born 1675, filled various offices, civil and military, and was much honored and respected in his time. Gen eral James Wadsworth, grandson of the preceding, became major- general and member of Congress during the Revolutionary war, died 1*17, aged 87. James Wadsworth, nephew of the preceding, born 17(53, founded the great Wadsworth estate in western New York, and distin guished himself by his successful labors in behalf of school education : lie died 1844. Other members of this branch of the family have reached high and honored celebrity. The Lymans. Phineas Lyrnan, born at Durham, 1716, became major- general ; gained the victory at Lake George, in the French and Indian war, for Gen. William Johnson (who received five thousand pounds and a baronetcy therefor), and performed various other military exploits. Jle projected a settlement in the Southwest, and died in West Florida, 1775. The history of his family is full of tragic interest. Other mem- bi-rs of the family were distinguished. The Goodrichw. See Fowler's notes, above mentioned ; also Hollis- ter's History of Connecticut, vol. ii. pp. 684, etc. The Austins.- -For this remarkable fumilv. consult also Fowler's notes. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 371 in King William's Doomsday-Book. Two old bache lors of the place a little quaint and starch, but studi ously polite and very gentleman-like, with a splendid farm, and a house embellished with old oak carvings told me something about it, and made it out, by a long chain of links, that I was their great, great, double cousin ; that is, on my mother's, as well as my father's side. My grandmother also explained to me, that somewhere since the building of Babel, her family was blent with the Griswolds, whence I got my middle name in token of which she gave me a reverend silver-headed cane, marked I. G., that is, John Gris- wold, who was her great-grandfather. Of course, I have piously kept this antediluvian relic to the pres ent day. I trust I have all due respect for this my little, fat, paternal grandmother, and who has already, by the way, been introduced to your notice. She was now quite lame, having broken her leg some years before, and appeared to me shorter than ever ; ' nevertheless, she was active, energetic, and alive to every thing that was passing. She welcomed me heartily, and took 'he best care of me in the world lavishing upon me, without stint, all the treasures of her abundant larder. Vs to her Indian puddings alas, I shall never see -heir like again ! A comfortable old body she was in all things and as I have before remarked, took a special interest in the welfare of the generation of descendants risinsr UD around her. When she saw .', i 3 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, me eating with a good appetite, her benignant grand motherly face beamed like a lantern. She was a model housekeeper, and as such had great administrative talents. Every thing went right in the household, the garden, the home lot, the pasture, and the little farm. The hens laid lots of large fresh eggs, the cows gave abundance of milk, the pigs were fat as butter ; the wood-pile was always full. There was never any agony about the house : all was me thodical, as if regulated by some law of nature. The tall old clock in the entry, although an octogenarian, was still staunch, and ticked and struck with an em phasis that enforced obedience. When it told seven in the morning, the breakfast carne without daring to delay even for a minute. The stroke of twelve brought the sun to the noon -mark, and dinner to the table. The tea came at six. At sunset on Saturday evening, the week's work was done, and according to the Puritan usage, the Sabbath was begun. All sud denly became quiet and holy. Even the knitting- work was laid aside. Meditation was on every brow ; the cat in the corner sat with her eyes half shut, as if she too were considering her ways. On the morning of the Holy Day, all around was silent. The knife and fork were handled quietly, at the table. The toilet, though sedulously performed, was made in secret. People walked as if they had gloves on their shoes. Inanimate nature seemed to know that God rested on that day, arid hallowed it. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 373 The birds put on a Sunday air : the cows did not low from hill to hill as on other days. The obstre perous hen deposited her egg, and cackled not. At nine o'clock, the solemn church bell rang, and in the universal stillness, its tones swelled over the village like a voice from above. At ten, the second bell rang, and the congregation gathered in. There, in the place she had held for forty years, was my good grandmother, in rain and shine, in summer and in winter. Though now well stricken in years, and the mother of staunch men their names honored in the pulpit, the senate, and at the bar she still faltered not in the strait and narrow path of duty. She was strong-minded, and showed it by a life which ele vated, ennobled, and illustrated the character of the mother, the wife, the woman, as she had learned to re gard it. It was pleasant to see with what affectionate reverence the people saluted her, as if, in addition to the love they bore her, she still carried with her re membrances of her now almost worshiped husband. Many years she lived after this, but she is now num bered with the dead. Let her portrait have a place in these pages as a fine specimen of the New England wife of the olden time. As to my uncle and aunt Smith, I may remark that they were plain, pious people, the former worthily fill ing the pulpit of my grandfather, and enjoying a high degree of respect, alike from his position and charac ter. Besides attending to his parochial duties, he fit- 374 LKTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, ted young men for college. Among his pupils were Samuel D. Hubbard, late Postmaster-general of the United States, Dr. Dekay, the naturalist, Commodore Dekay, and other persons who attained distinction. As a man, he was distinguished for his cheerful, frank, friendly manners: as a preacher, he was practical, sincere, and successful. I must mention a story of him, among my pulpit anecdotes. As sometimes hap pens, in a congregation of farmers during midsum mer, it once chanced that a large number of his people fell asleep and in the very midst of the sermon. Even the deacons in the' sacramental seat had gone cosily to the land of Nod. The minister looked around, and just at that moment, the only person who seemed quite awake, was his eldest son, David, sitting in the minister's pew by the side of the pulpit. Pausing a moment and looking down upon his son, he exclaim ed, in a powerful voice " David, wake up!" In a moment the whole congregation roused them selves, and long did they remember the rebuke. In after-times, when, through the temptations of the devil and the weakness of the flesh, during s.ermon- time, their sight became drowsy, and dreams floated softly over their eyelids, then would come to mind the ominous sound, " David, wake up !" and starting from their slumbers, they would shake themselves, and fix their eyes on the preacher, and wrestle with their in firmities like Jacob sometimes, though not always, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 375 prevailing like Israel. I need only add in respect to this excellent old gentleman, that he is still living, at the age of eighty-nine, and last year (1855) preached at the capitol in "Washington to an attentive and grat ified audience. During our stay of two or three weeks at Durham, my brother-in-law was so ill as to need the advice of a skillful physician. Accordingly I was dispatch ed on horseback to Middletown, a distance of eight or ten miles, for Dr. O . . . ., then famous in all the country round about. On my way I met a man of weather-beaten complexion and threadbare garments, mounted on a lean and jaded mare. Beneath him was a pair of plump saddlebags. He had all the marks of a doctor, for then men of this profession traversed the country on horseback, carrying with them a collection of pills, powders, and elixirs, equiv alent to an apothecarj^s shop. A plain instinct told me that he was my man. As I was about to pass him, I drew in my breath, to ask if he were Dr. O . . . ., but a sudden bashfulness seized me : the pro pitious moment passed, and I went on. On arriving at the house of Dr. O , I learned that he had gone to a village in the southwestern part of the town, six or eight miles off. " There!" said I to myself, " I knew it was he : if I had only spoken to him !" However, reflection was vain. I followed to the designated spot, and there I found that he had left about half an hour before, for another 376 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, village in the central part of the town. I gave chase, but he was too quick for me, so that I was obliged to return to Durham without him. " Ah !" I thought, "how much trouble a little courage would have saved me !" In fact, I took the incident fo heart, and have often practiced to advantage upon the lesson it sug gested, which is, never to let a doctor, or any thing else, slip, for the want of asking an opportune ques tion. This Dr. O . . . . made several visits to Durham, and I remember to have heard my brother-in-law once ask him whether he was a Brunonian* or a Cullenite ; to which he replied, smartly " Sir, I am a doctor * About this time, the " spotted fever" appeared along the Connec ticut river, and a change in the general character of fevers took place, there being now a tendency to typhoid, instead of inflammatory, symp toms, as had been the case before. These circumstances embarrassed and baffled the profession. In general, however, they followed their procliv ities, and either physicked or stimulated, as their doctrines dictated. In point of fact, one practice killed and cured about as well as the other. At all events, the plague raged for some years at certain places and at particular seasons, and thus society was wrought into a state of frenzy upon the two modes of treatment. At a somewhat later date about 1812 a family that held to brandy, would hardly hold intercourse with another which held to jalap. At Hartford, Doctors Todd und Welles, who stimulated, were looked upon as little better than infidels by those who believed in Dr. Bacon and purgatives. These divisions even caught the hues of political parties, and alcohol became democratic, while depletion was held to be fe.deral. In the end it proved that botli systems were right and both wrong to a certain extent. Experience showed that the true mode of practice was to treat each case according to its symptoms. The fitness of a physician for his profession, was, under these circumstances, manifested by the sagacity with which he found his way out of the woods. Dr. O . . . . was one of those who, at an early stage of the difficulty, being a doctor himself, that is. being gui ded by good sense, and not by slavery, to a system arrived at the true mode of practice. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, KTC. 3 7 i myself!" The pith of this answer will be felt, when it is known that at this period, and indeed for some years after, there was a schism in the medical profes sion of this region, which became divided into two parties ; one of them adopting the theory and prac tice of John Brown,* that life is a forced state, de pending upon stimuli, and hence that disease and death are to be constantly combated by stimulants. According to this theory, even certain fevers were to be treated with brandy, and in extreme cases, with a tincture of Spanish flies internally administered! The other followed the theory of Cullen, who adopt ed the opposite practice of purgatives and depletion, more especially in fevers. A real frenzy ensued, and * John Brown was born at Dunse, Scotland, 1735. He studied med icine with Cullen, then the leading man of the profession in Great Brit ain. After a time he produced his Elements of Medicine, in Latin, de signed to overthrow the system which Cullen had produced. Its general doctrine, as stated above, was that life is a forced state, only sustained by the action of external agents operating upon the body, every part of which is furnished with a certain amount of excitability. He discarded all drugs, and confined himself to alcohol wine, brandy, &c. for one set of diseases, and opium for the opposite set. The simplicity of the doctrine and the ability with which it was set forth, gave it for a time a fatal currency, not only in Europe but in America. The celebrated Dr. Beddoes, among others, adopted and propagated it. The system, however, after a time, fell into disrepute. Brown died in 1788, a victim of intemperance, probably the result of his medical system. William Cullen was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 1712, and having studied medicine, he practiced with credit at Glasgow. In 1756, he be came Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, where he greatly distinguished himself. In 1763, he succeeded Dr. Alston as Professor of Medicine. As a teacher, his popularity was unbounded. His personal character was distinguished for amiableness and purity : his medical works for a time exercised a powerful influence, and he is still regarded as having greatly advanced the science of medicine, though some of his theories have been modified and others rejected. 378 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, the medical profession, as well as society, were in volved in a sort of temporary insanity. At length we departed from Durham, and took our way homeward, through a series of small towns, arriving at last at Woodbury. Here we remained a week or ten days, being hospitably entertained by the Rev. Noah Benedict, my brother-in-law's uncle. He lived in a large, low, old-fashioned house, embow ered in elms, and having about it an air of antiquity, comfort, and repose. He was himself very aged, nearly eighty years old, I should judge. He was, like my own lineage, of the orthodox faith, and sometimes officiated in his pulpit, though he had now a colleague. I need not describe him, further than to say that he was a fine old man, greatly beloved by his parish, and almost adored by his immediate con nections. Close by, in a sumptuous house, lived his son, Noah B. Benedict, then a leading lawyer of the State. Half a mile to the south, in an antique, gable-roofed mansion, dwelt his daughter, the wife of Nathaniel Smith, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, and regarded as the intellectual giant of his time. I have good reason to remember the place, for it is now the home of one of my sisters, who married, many years later, the only child of its founder long since gathered to his fathers. The week of our sojourn at Woodbury flew on golden wings * ith me. The village itself was after my own Leav^ It lies in a small tranquil valley, its HISTORICAL, ANECnOTIC.VT,, ETC. 379 western boundary consisting of a succession of gentle acclivities, covered with forests ; that on the east is formed of basaltic ledges, broken into wild and pic turesque forms, rising sharp and hard against the hori zon. Through the valley, in long serpentine sweeps, flows a stream, clear and bright now dashing and now sauntering ; here presenting a rapid and there a glassy pool. In ancient times it was bordered by cities of the beaver ; it was now the haunt of a few isolated and persecuted muskrats. In the spring and autumn, the wild-ducks, in their migrations, often stooped to its bosom for a night's lodging. At all seasons it was renowned for its trout. In former ages, when the rivers, protected by the deep forests, ran full to the brim, and when the larger streams were filled to repletion with shad and salmon, this was sometimes visited by enterprising individuals of their race, which shot up cataracts, and leaped over obstructing rocks, roots, and mounds, impelled by an imperious instinct to seek places remote from the sea, where they might deposit in safety the seeds of their future progeny. In those days, I imagine, the acci dents and incidents of shad and salmon life, often rivaled the adventurous annals of Marco Polo or Rob inson Crusoe. There was, in good sooth, about this little village, a singular .union of refinement and rusticity, of cul tivated plain and steepling rock, of blooming meadow and dusky forest. The long, wide street, saving the 380 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, highway and a few stray paths, here and there, was a bright, grassy lawn, decorated with abundance of sugar-maples, which appeared to have found their Paradise.* Such is the shape of the encircling hills and ledges that the site of the village seems a sort of secluded Happy Valley, where every thing turns to poetry and romance. And this aptitude is abundantly encouraged by history for here was once the favored home of a tribe of Indians. All around the rivers, the hills, the forests are still rife with legends and remembrances of the olden time. A rocky mound, rising above the river on one side, and dark forests on the other, bears the name of " Pomperaug's Castle ;" a little to the north, near a bridle-path that traversed the meadows, was a heap of stones, called " Pompe raug's Grave." To the east I found a wild ledge, called Bethel Bock.f And each of these objects has * The street of Woodbury continues to that of Southbury, the two united being three miles in length. These are decorated by a double line of sugar-maples certainly one of the most beautiful exhibitions of the kind I have ever seen. t Woodbury is alike historical and legendary ground. Its names trace out its story. Quassapaug Lake, Shepaug River, Quanopaug Falls, Nonnewaug Falls, tell us of its original proprietors : Rattlesnake Rock, and White Deer Hills, bespeak the ancient inhabitants of the forest: Bethel Rock, Carmel Hill, and Tophet Hollow, announce the,arrival here of the Pilgrim settlers from New Haven: Hall's Rock, Good Hill, Light ing's Playground, Scuppo, Hazel Plain, Moose Horn Hill, Ash Swamp, all in Woodbury or the vicinity, indicate alike certain traits of scenery, with the final settlement of the country by the English. The remark able men that have originated in this town within the last century, pre sent a marvellous record of ability, patriotism, and piety. My imagina tion was greatly excited by the legends I heard when I first visited Woodbury, and some years after (1828) I wrote and published in the HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. 381 its story. How suggestive how full of imaginings was Woodbury to me, when I visited it, five and forty years ago ! And the woods, teeming with the smaller game the gray-squirrel, the partridge, and quail, my old West Mountain acquaintances with what delight did I traverse them, gun in hand, accompanied by a Legendary at Boston, the following story, which has now become almost historical : THE LEGEND OF BETHEL EOCK. " In the picturesque state of Connecticut, there is not a spot more beautiful than the village of Pomperaug. It is situated not very far from the western border of the state, and derives its name from a tribe of Indians, who once inhabited it. It presents a small, but level valley, surrounded by hills, with a bright stream rippling through its meadows. The tops of the high grounds which skirt the valley, are covered with forests, but the slopes are smooth with cultivation, nearly to their summits. In the time of verdure, the plain displays a vividness of green like that of velvet, while the forests are dark with the rich hues supposed to be peculiar to the climate of England. " The village of Pomperaug consists now of about two hundred houses, with three white churches, arranged on a street which passes along the eastern margin of the valley. At the distance of about twenty rods from this street, and running parallel to it for nearly a mile, is a rock, or ledge of rocks, of considerable elevation. From this, a distinct survey of the place may be had, almost at a glance. Beginning at the village, the spectator may count every house, and measure every garden ; he may compare the three churches, which now seem drawn close to gether ; he may trace the winding path of the river by the trees which bend over its waters ; he may enumerate the white farm-houses which dot the surface of the valley ; he may repose his eye on the checkered carpet which lies unrolled before him, or it may climb to the horizon over the dark blue hills which form the border of this enchanting picture. " The spot which we have thus described did not long lie concealed from the prying sagacity of the first settlers of the colony of New Haven. Though occupied by a tribe of savages, as before intimated, it was very early surveyed by more than one of the emigrants. In the general rising of the Indians in Philip's war, this tribe took part with the Pequods, and a large portion of them shared in their destruction. The chief himself was killed. His son, still a boy, with a remnant of his father's people, who had been driven inte exile, returned to their 382 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, black-eyed stripling, now my respected and gray- haired brother-in-law I It was a great time, that happy week, for be it re membered that for a whole year I had been impris oned in a country store. What melody was there in the forest echoes, then ! Ah ! I have since heard native valley, and lived for a time on terms of apparent submission to the English. " The period had now arrived when the young chief had reached the age of manhood. He took, as was the custom with his fathers, the name of his tribe, and was accordingly called Pomperaug. He was tall, finely formed, with an eye that gleamed like the flashes of a dia mond. He wus such a one as the savage would look upon with idola try. His foot was swift as that of the deer; his arrow was sure as the pursuit of the eagle; his sagacity penetrating as the light of the sun. "Such was Pomperaug. But his nation was passing away; scarce fifty of his own tribe now dwelt in the valley in which his fathers had hunted for ages. The day of their dominion had gone. There was a spell over the Dark Warrior. The Great Spirit had sealed his doom. So thought the remaining Indians in the valley of Pomperaug, and they sullenly submitted to a fate which they could not avert. " It was therefore without resistance, and, indeed, with expressions of amity, that they received a small company of English settlers into the valley. This company consisted of about thirty persons, from the New Haven colony, under the spiritual charge of the Rev. Noah Beni- Bon. He was a man of great age, but still of uncommon mental and bodily vigor. His years had passed the bourne of threescore and ten, and his hair was white as snow. But his tall and broad form was yet erect, and his cane of smooth hickory, with a golden head, was evidently a thing ' more of ornament than use.' " Mr. Benison had brought with him the last remnant of his family. She was the daughter of his only son, who, with his wife, had slept many years in the tomb. Her name was Mary, and well might she be the object of all the earthly affections which still beat in the bosom of one whom death had made acquainted with sorrow, and who but for her had been left alone. " Mary Benison was now seventeen years of age. She had received her education in England, and had been but a few months in America. She was tall and slender, with a dark eye, full of soul and sincerity. Her hair was of a glossy black, parted upon a forehead of ample and expressive beauty. When at rest, her appearance wus not striking' HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 383 Catalan! and Garcia and Pasta and Sontag and Grisi. I have even heard the Swedish nightingale ; nay, in France and Italy the very home of music and song - -I have listened to the true nightingale, which has given to Jenny Lind her sweetest and most appro priate epithet ; but never, in one or all, have I heard but if she spoke or moved, she fixed the attention of every beholder by the dignity of her air, blent vrith a tone of tender, yet serious senti ment. " The settlers had been in the valley but a few months, when some matter of business relative to a purchase of land, brought Fornperaug to the hut of Mr. Benison. It was a bright morning in autumn, and while he was talking with the old gentleman at the door, Mary, who had been gathering flowers in the woods, passed by them and entered the place. The eye of the young Indian followed her with a gaze of entrancement. His face gleamed as if he had seen a vision of more than earthly beauty , But this emotion was visible only for a moment. With the habitual self-command of a savage, he turned again to Mr. Benison, and calmly pursued the subject which occasioned their meeting. " Pomperaug went away, but he carried the image of Mary with him. He retired to his wigwam, but it did not please him. He ascended to the top of the rock, at the foot of which his wigwam was situated, and which now goes under the name of Pomperaug's Castle, and looked down upon the river, which was flashing in the slant rays of the morning. He turned away, and sent his long gaze over the checkered leaves ot the wood, which, like a sea, spread over the valley. He was still dis satisfied. With a single leap he sprang from the rock, and, alighting on his feet, snatched his bow and took the path which led into the forest. In a few moments he came back, and, seating himself on the rock, brooded for some hours in silence. " The next morning Pomperaug repaired to the house of Mr. Benison to finish the business of the preceding day. He had before signified an inclination to accede to the terms proposed by Mr. Benison, but he now started unexpected difficulties. On being asked the reason, he answered aa follows: " ' Listen, father hear a Eed Man speak ! Look into the air, and you see the eagle. The sky is his home, and doth, the eagle love his home ? Will he barter it for the sea I Look into the river, and ask the fish that is there, if he will sell it? Go to the dark-skinned hunter, and demand of him if he will part with Ms forests ? Yet, father, I will part with my forests, if you will give me the singing bird that is in thy nest.' 384 LETTERS BIOGBAPHICAL, such music as filled my ears, that incense-breathing morn, when I made a foray into the wilds of Wood- bury ! There was indeed no nightingale there : the season of wood minstrelsy was passed; even the thrush had descended from its perch aloft, and ceas ing its melodies, was busy in the cares of its young " ' Savage,' said the pilgrim, with a mingled look of disgust and in dignation, ' will the lamb lie down in the den of the wolf? Never ! Dream not of it I would sooner see her die ! Name it not.' As he spoke he struck his cane forcibly on the ground, and his broad figure seemed to expand and grow taller, while his eye gleamed, and the muscles of his brow contracted with a lowering and angry expression. The change of the old man's appearance was sudden and striking. The air and manner of the Indian, too, was changed. There was now a - kindled fire in his eye, a proud dignity in his manner, which a moment before was no,t there ; but these had stolen upon him, with that imper ceptible progress by which the dull colors of the serpent, when he be comes enraged, are succeeded by the glowing hues of the rainbow. *' The two now parted, and Pomperaug would not again enter into any negotiations for a sale of his lands. Ho kept himself, indeed, aloof froin the English, and cultivated rather a hostile spirit in his people toward them. "As might have been expected, difficulties soon grew up between the two parties, and violent feelings were shortly excited on both sides. This broke out into open quarrels, and one of the white men was shot by a savage lurking in the woods. This determined the settlers to seek instant revenge, and accordingly they followed the Indians into the broken and rocky districts which lie esfit of the valley, whither, ex pecting pursuit, they had retreated. "It was about an hour before sunset, when the English, consisting of twenty well-armed men, led by their reverend pastor, were marching through a deep ravine, about two milos east of the town. The rocks on either side were lofty, and so narrow was the dell, that the shadows of night had already gathered over it. The pursuers had sought their enemy the whole day in vain ; and having lost all trace of them, they were now returning to their homes. Suddenly a wild yell burst from the rocks at their feet, and twenty savages sprang up before them. An arrow pierced the breast of the pilgrim leader, and he fell. Two In dians were shot, and the remainder fled. Several of the English were wounded, but none mortally, save the aged pastor. "With mournful silence they bore back the body of their father. He HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC. o w 5 ones, now beginning life in the bush. It was the echo of my own heart, that gave to simple and familiar sounds that of the far-off barking dog, the low of distant herds, the swing of the village bell, the mur mur of the brooks, the rustle of the leaves in the joyous breath of morning their real melody. And was buried in a sequestered nook of the forest, and with, a desolate and breaking heart the orphan Mary turned away from his grave, to be for the first time alone in their humble house in the wilderness. * * * * * "A year passed. The savages had disappeared, and the rock on which the pilgrim met his death had been consecrated by many prayers. His blood was still visible on the spot, and his people often came with, reverence to kneel there and offer up their petitions. The place they called Bethel Rock, and piously they deemed that their hearts were visited here with the richest gifts of heavenly grace. " It was a sweet evening in summer, when Mary Benison, for the last time, went to spend an hour at this holy spot. Long had she knelt, aud most fervently had she prayed. Oh ! who can tell the bliss of that heavenly communion to which a pure heart is admitted in the hours of solitude and silence ! The sun went down, and as the vail of evening fell, the full moon climbed over the eastern ledge, pouring its silver light into the valley, and Mary was still kneeling, still communing with Him who seeth in secret. " At length a slight noise, like the crushing of a leaf, woke her from her trance, and with quickness and agitation she set out on her return. Alarmed at her distance from home at such an hour, she proceeded with great rapidity. She was obliged to climb up the face of the rocks with care, as the darkness rendered it a critical and dangerous task. At length she reached the top. Standing upon the verge of the cliff, >9'2 r.KTTEKS BIOGRAPHICAL, quite as remarkable as the greatness of his intellect. He shrunk from no public duty, but he coveted no public honors. When not officially called away, his home, his farm, and the house of worship for he was a man of steadfast piety were his chosen scenes and sources of interest. When I saw him, he was at the height of his fame: all eyes looked at him with ad miration. It may be imagined, therefore, that a strong impression was made upon my mind, when one evening chancing to be at his house I saw him kneel down in the midst of his gathered fam ily, including the servants, and offer up his evening prayer, with all the earnest simplicity and feeling of a child, addressing a revered but beloved father. There was something inexpressibly touching and affecting in the scene, and especially in the thrilling, pleading tones of the speaker, poured out as if from the fullness of an overflowing heart. It was, indeed, a scene never to be forgotten a lesson never to fail of imparting instruction.* * The family of Judge Smith has been morked with great vigor of mind and character. He assisted his brother Nathan who had shared In his early poverty and depression to fit himself for the bar, and he finally rose to great eminence professional and political. lie died at Washington being then a Senator of the United States Dec. 6, 1835, aged 85. Truman Smith, nephew of Judge Smith, settled at Litchfield, and became a leading member of the bar. In 1848, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, and was distinguished for those masculine powers of oratory, combined with practical good sense, which marked his eminent relatives, just. named. Though elected for a second term, lie resigned his seat in 1854. Nathaniel B. Smith, only child of the judge, inherited his t'ann, and HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, KTC. 393 LETTER XXIV. The Cold Winter and a Sharp Hide Description of Daribury The Hat Manufactory The Sandimanians Gen. Wooster's Monument Death of my Brother-in-law Master White Mathematics Farewell to Dan- bury. MY DEAR C ****** We returned to Danbury after a tour of some five or six weeks. The succeeding autumn and winter presented no peculiar incident with a single excep tion. There was, if I rightly remember, in the month of February,* a certain " cold Friday," which passed down to succeeding generations as among the marvels of the time. It had snowed heavily for three days, and the ground was covered three feet deep. A driving wind from the northeast then set in, and growing colder and colder, it became at last so severe as to force everybody to shelter. This continued for two days, the whole air being filled with sleet, so that the sun, with out a cloud in the sky, shone dim and gray as through a fog. The third day, the wind increased, both in force and intensity of cold. Horses, cattle, fowls, sheep, perished in their coverings. The roads were blocked up with enormous drifts: the mails were his love of agriculture, which lie has pursued with great science and success. He has filled various public offices, but probably values among liis highest honors, his medals for the best examples of stock and tillage, awarded him, on various occasions, by the Connecticut State Agricul tural Society. He is now president of that institution (13.~if>). * This was. I think, in 180'J, though it might have been a year later 17* 394 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, stopped, traveling was suspended ; the world, indeed, seemed paralyzed, and the circulation of life to be arrested. On the morning of this third day which was the ominous and famous Friday word was brought to my sister that a poor family, to whom she had long been a kind of providence, about two miles off, was in danger of starvation. She knew no fear, and tol erated no weakness. A thing with her that ought to be done, was to be done. Therefore, a sack was filled with bread, meat, candles, and a pint of rum : this was lashed around my waist. The horse was brought to the door I mounted and set off. I knew the animal well, and we had enjoyed many a scam per together. He was indeed after my own heart clean-limbed, with full, knowing eyes, and small, pointed, sensitive ears. He had a cheerful walk, a fleet, skimming trot, a swift gallop, and all these paces we had often tried. I think he knew who was on his back ; but when we got to the turning of the road, which brought his nostrils into the very tunnel of the gale, he snorted, whirled backward, and seemed resolved to return. I however brought him sternly to his work, gave him sharp advice in the ribs, and assured him that I was resolved to be master. Hesi tating a moment as if in doubt whether I could be in earnest he started forward; yet so keen was the blast, that he turned aside his head, and screamed ;is if his nostrils wore pierced with hot iron. On lie THE COLD FRIDAY. Vol. 1. p. 394. HISTORICAL, ANKCDOJICAL, KTC. 305 \veut, liowover, in some instances up to the saddle in the drift, yet clearing it at full bounds. In a few minutes we were at the door of the miser able hut, now half buried in a snow-drift. I was just in time. The wretched inmates a mother and three small children without fire, without food, without help or hope were in bed, poorly clothed, and only keeping life in their bodies by a mutual cherishing of warmth, like pigs or puppies in a sim ilar extremity. The scene within was (iismal in the extreme. The fireplace was choked with snow, which had fallen down the chimney : the ill-adjusted doors and windows admitted alike the drift and the blast, both of which swept across the room in cutting cur rents. As I entered, the pale, haggard mother, com prehending at a glance that relief had come, burst into a flood of tears. I had no time for words. I threw them the sack, remounted my horse, and, the wind at my back, I flew home. One of my ears was a little frost-bitten, and occasionally for years after, a tingling and itching sensation there, reminded me of my ride, which after all left an agreeable remembrance upon my mind. Danbury* is a handsome town, now numbering * Danbnry is one of the semi-capitals of Fairfield county, the courts being held here and at Fairfield, alternately. The main street is nearly two mL'f-k in length, and presents many handsome residences. Tho society is marked by more than ordinary intelligence and refinement. The Indian name of the place was Pah-qul-o-que, and it was first settled by the English in 1684. It has been prolific in distinguished men : the names of its early founders having been spread fur and wide, and many 39f> LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, six thousand inhabitants ; but in my time there were scarcely more than half that number. It is chiefly built on a long, wide street, crossed near the northern extremity by a small river, a branch of the Housato* nic, which, having numerous rapids, affords abundance of mill-sites in its course. At this crossing, there were two extensive hat-factories, famous over the whole country, and belonging, the one to White, Brothers & Co., and the other to Tweedy & Co. Their hats were the rage with the fashionable Genins, St. Johns, Knoxes, and Beebes of that age. I believe, indeed, that these factories, with others of more mod ern date, are still maintained. Nearly all the workmen in these establishments of whom there were several hundred at the time I am describing, were foreigners, mostly English and Irish. A large part of the business of our store was the fur nishing of rum to these poor wretches, who bought one or two quarts on Saturday night, and fuddled themselves till Monday, and frequently till Tuesday. A factory workman of those days was thought to be born to toil, to get drunk, and make a hell of his home. Philanthropy itself had not then lifted its eye or its hopes above this hideous malaria of custom. We had imported these ideas from England and other foreign manufacturing countries, and they reigned over the of them being yet preserved in the present residents of the place. Among these, the names of Wildam, Mys'att, Hoyt, Tweedy, Benedict, "White, Starr, Knupp, &<_., are conspicuous. HISTOEICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, KTC. 397 public mind. That large humanity, which has done so much, in modern times, to remove vice and crime, and to elevate the public standard of morals, had not then set its Star in the West, calling the Wise and Good to a new revelation of life. It is a modern discovery that manufacturing towns may rise up, where com fort, education, morals, and religion, in their best and happiest exercise, may be possessed by the toiling masses. This is not only a modern, but an American discovery, and refutes volumes of abuse that long- eared philosophy has leveled at republicanism. Danbury is not without other points of interest historical and social. It was, as I have shown, the scene of one of those wanton and wicked outrages, perpetrated upon the people of Connecticut, and in deed of many other parts of this country, which made the British name offensive to God and man, du ring the Revolutionary war. In commemoration of the life and services of General Wooster, who fell at Ridgefield, in an encounter with these British marau ders, there has recently been erected at Danbury a beautiful monument of Portland granite, forty feet in height, with the following inscription : DAVID WOOSTER, First Major general of the Connecticut troops in the Arniy of the Revolution; Brigadier-general of the United Colonies. Born at Hartford, March 2, 1710 or 11 ; Wounded at Ridgefield, April 27, 1777, while defending the liberties of America, And nobly died at Danbury, May 2, 1777. 31)8 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, The character of Wooster* was indeed a noble one, and the people of Danbury have shown a wise dis cernment in the construction of this beautiful memo rial of his character and career. One item more and I shall take leave of Danbury. About midway between the northern and southern extremities of the long main street, and a little to the west of it, there was a building of moderate size, somewhat between a church and a barn, in aspect. It was without tower or steeple, so it could not be the first : it was nicely built and tidily kept, and could not be the last. It was, in fact, the sanctuary of the Sandimanians, or, according to the popular accent, Sandimmians ; a small sect of forty members then, and now dwindled to a still smaller number. The history of its founder is well known. Robert Sandiman, a Scotchman, having adopted the tenets, and married the daughter, of Rev. John Glass an able * This monument stands on a solid platform, about twenty feet square, at the corners of which are massive stone posts, which support an iron railing. The plinth is richly moulded, and the name of WOOSTEB ap pears in bold raised letters, upon the front or south side. The General is represented, in a beautifully sculptured relief, in the act of falling from his horse, at the moment he received the fatal ball. Above this, appears a delineation of the State arms ; and higher still, the main shaft is ornamented with a trophy, consisting of a sash, sword, and epau lettes. On two opposite sides are various appropriate masonic and mili tary emblems. The whole is surmounted with a globe, on which stands the American Eagle, bearing in his beak the wreath of victory. This fine column was consecrated by imposing ceremonies on the 27th April, 1854, at which the Governor of the State, with many distinguished cit izens, deputations from various -lodges, and a large concourse of people, assisted. The oration, by Hon. H. C. Deming, was deeply interesting, as well on account of its eloquence as its historical reminiscences. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 399 divine, wlio seems to have been the originator of the Scotch Independents became a distinguished defend er of his theological views. After a time, he was in vited to come to America by some of his admirers there, and accordingly he arrived in 1764, and settled among them first at Boston, but finally taking up his residence at Danbury. He appears to have been much disappointed at the character of his adherents, and the general state of society in America. This was aggravated*by his taking the tory side in the agitation which now verged toward the Revolution. His days were in fact embittered, and his flock reduced to a handful of followers. His death took place in 1771, and a simple marble slab, in the burial-ground, op posite the court-house, commemorates his name and history. He was doubtless a man of ability, but his career displays the usual narrowness and in consistency of sectarianism founded upon persons, rather than principles. His doctrine was, that faith is a mere intellectual conviction a bare belief of the bare truth. Of course so cold a religion, scarcely dis tinguishable in its principle from deism, and giving no satisfaction to that constant craving of the soul for a more exalted and spiritual life, could not prosper. It was only adapted to a few rigid minds like his own. His adherents in my time met at their little church on the afternoons of Sundays and Thursdays ; they sat around a large table, each with a Bible. The men rend and discoursed, as the spirit dictated : the LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, women were silent. Spectators were admitted, but the worshipers seemed not to recognize their pres ence. After a prayer and a hymn, they went to the house of one of the members, and had a love-feast. " Greet one another with a holy kiss," was their max im and their practice. These customs remain* to the present day, save only as to the kiss, which, according to the current re port, was modified some years since. The congregation was rather mixed, and included the "W R s, a family of wealth and refinement, down to N. S . . . ., the blacksmith. Mrs. W . . . . R . . . . was a woman of great delicacy of person, manners, and dress : her lace was the finest, her silks the richest, her muslin the most immaculate. She was in breeding a lady, in position an aristocrat, in feeling an exclusive. And yet, one day, as she walked forth, and chanced to turn the corner, close to the central meeting-house, wending her way homeward, she came suddenly upon the village Vulcan, above mentioned. He was in front of his shop, and being a man of full habit, and having just put down the heel of an ox, which he was shoeing, he was damp with perspiration. Nevertheless, the faith was strong within him : "Greet one another with a holy kiss !" rushed to his mind, and he saluted Mrs. W R . . . ., as in duty bound. * A friend writes me (1856) that the Sandimanian church at Danbury now numbers three male and fifteen female members. The congrega tion comprises about thirty persons. n::-T;:irAL, A\;X!K>T;.:A:.. K7C. 401 She, a saint in profession, but alas, in practice a sin ner, as doth appear returned not the salute ! Had she been of another sect, abstinence would have been a virtue, but in this, it was of course a crime. Upon this incident rocked and quaked the whole Sandimanian church for some months. At last the agitation subsided, and the holy kiss was thence forward either abandoned or given with discretion. Such is the tale as it was told to me, nearly fifty years ago. It may be remarked that Saudimanianisrn, which originated in a hard, sarcastic mind, subsided into a sort of amiable and tranquil Quakerism. Its mem bers were noted for purity of life, and some of them for habits of abstraction, which marked themselves in a cold pallor upon the countenance. Seeming to be conscious of a chill at the heart, they sought to quicken the circulation of the Spirit, by outward ob servances and by peculiarities of worship, such as might distinguish them from other Christians. " I am better than thou, for I am other than thou," has often proved a consoling doctrine for the narrow peo ple of narrow creeds. A few brief sketches more, and I have done with Danbury. The health of my brother-in-law gradu ally failed, and at last, as winter approached, he took to his room, and finally to his bed. By almost in sensible degrees, and with singular tranquillity of mind and body, he approached his end. It was a 402 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, trait of his character, to believe nothing, to do noth ing, by halves. Having founded his faith on Christ, Christianity was now, in its duties, its promises, and its anticipations, as real as life itself. He was afflicted with no doubts, no fears. With his mind in full vigor, his strong intellect vividly awake, he was ready to shake hands with death, and to enter into the presence of his God. The hour came. He had taken leave of his friends, and then feeling a sense of repose, he asked to be left alone. They all departed save one, who sat apart, listening to every breath. In a few moments she came and found him asleep, but it was the sleep that knows no waking I I continued in the store alone for several months, selling out the goods, and closing up the affairs of the estate. I had now a good deal of time to my self, and thumbed over several books, completing my reading of Shakspeare, to which I have already alluded. It happened that we had a neighbor over the way a good-natured, chatty old gentleman, by the name of Ebenezer White. He had been a teacher, and had a great taste for mathematics. In those days it was the custom to put forth in the newspapers puz zling questions of figures, and to invite their solution. Master White was sure to give the answer, first. In fact, his genius for mathematics was so large, that it left rather a moderate space in his brain for common sense. He was, however, full of good feelings, and 16* HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIOAL, ETC. 403 was now entirely at leisure. Indeed, time hung heavy on his hands, so he made me frequent visits, and in fact lounged away an hour or two of almost every day, at the store. I became at last interested in mathematics, and under his good-natured and gra tuitous lessons, I learned something of geometry and trigonometry, and thus passed on to surveying and navigation. This was the first drop of real science that I ever tasted I might almost say the last, for though I have since skimmed a good many books,- I feel that I have really mastered almost nothing. LETTER XXV, Farewell to Danbury Hartford My First Master and, his Family Me- rino Sheep A Wind-up Another Change My new Employer A new Era in Life George Sheldon Franklin' 1 ' Biography. MY DEAR C****** I must now introduce you to a new era in my life. Early in the summer of 1811, I took leave of Danbury, and went to Hartford. On my arrival there, I was installed in the dry-goods store of C. B. K . . . ., my father having made the arrangement some weeks before. My master was a young man of ex cellent disposition, with a pretty wife and two fat cherubs of children. I was kindly treated in this family, with which I took my meals. Many a happy 404 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, rornp had I with the children this exercise filling in some degree the aching void of my bosom, arising from isolation for I was not only in a new place, but I was almost without friends or acquaintances. My master had no real turn for business, and spent much of his time away, leaving the affairs of the shop to an old fudge of a clerk, by the name of Jones, and to me. Things went rather badly, and he sought to mend his fortune by a speculation in Me rino sheep* then the rage of the day. A ram sold * The Merino sheep appears to he a breed which originated in the mountain districts of Estremadura, in Spain, in the time of the Roman dominion, from the careful mixture of celebrated European and Asiatic breeds. In the time of Tiberius, a ram of this stock was sold for a thousand dollars, an enormous price, if we consider the value of money at that period. The more tender breeds of sheep became extinct in Italy and Greece during the invasions of the northern barbarians, but the hardy Merinoes, having thriven in the mountains, survived, and have come down to modern times. All the European breeds, now celebrated for the fineness of their wool, are crosses of the Merino. The first Merinoes brought into the United States were imported by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston a pair of each sex in 1802. M. De- lessert sent a few others, soon after. Little attention, however, was paid to the subject, and it seems that about 1805, half-breeds were sold at a price below that of common sheep. Afterward, a larger importation was made by Col. Humphries, who had been our Minister to Spain, and our Consul, Jarvis : these were three hundred in number, and arrived in 1810. Humphries tells us that he had turned his thoughts to this subject before he left Spain, and as he seems to have consulted his muse iu ev ery thing that interested him, he had there written a poem, the burden of which is found in the following stanzas : " Oh might my guidance from the downs of Spain, Lead a white flock across tbe western main ; Famed like the hark that hore the Argonaut Should he the vessel with the burden fraught I Clad In the raiment my Merinoes yield ; Like Cincinnatus, fed from my own field ; Far from ambition, grandeur, care, and strife, In sweet fruition of domestic life ; HISTOKICAL, AKECDOTICAL, ETC. 405 for a thousand dollars and a ewe for a hundred a great discount certainly for gender ; but Maria An toinette Brown and her school had not yet equal ized the sexes. Fortunes were made and lost in a day, during this mania. With my master, it was great cry and little wool ; for after buying a flock and driving it to Vermont, where he spent three months, he came back pretty well shorn that is, three thousand dol lars out of pocket! This soon brought his affairs to a crisis, and so in the autumn I was transferred to the dry-goods store of J. B. H My new employer had neither wife nor child to take up his time, so he devoted himself sedulously to business. He was indeed made for it elastic in his frame, quick-minded, of even temper, and assiduous politeness. He was already well established, and things marched along as if by rail. For a time, we had another clerk, but he was soon dismissed, and I was the only assistant ; my master, however, seldom leaving the shop during business hours. Had trade been in me, I might now have learned it. I think I may say, that I fulfilled my duty, at least in form ; I was regular in my hours, kept the books duly jour nalized and posted. I never consciously wronged arithmetic to the amount of. a farthing. I duly per- There would I pass with friends, beneath my trees, What rests from public life, in letter'd ease." This poetic aspiration became history : in 1809, when Madison was inaugurated, his coat was made of Merino cloth from a manufactory established by Humphries, and his small-clothes from one founded by Chancellor Livingston. See Cyclopedia of Amer. Leterature, vol. i. p. 876 406 LETTEKS BIOGRAPHICAL, formed my task at the counter. Yet, in all this, I was a slave : my heart was not in my work. My mind was away : I dreamed of other things ; T thought of other pursuits. And yet I scarcely knew all this. I had certainly no definite plan for the future. A thousand things floated before my imagination. Every book I read drew me aside into its own vortex. Poetry made me poetical ; politics made me political ; travels made me truant. I was restless, for I was in a wrong position, yet I asked no advice, for I did not know that I needed it. My head and heart were a hive of thoughts and feelings swarming in the sunny spring tide of life without the regulating and sedative su premacy of a clear and controlling intelligence. My imagination was a flame, playing around my yet cloud ed understanding, and giving to this its own wavering and blinding light. It may seem to you, my dear C , that 1 am treating with undue emphasis and detail this unspo ken history of a boy in a country store. Yet such in the main is life, with the great as with the small. Remember, I am speaking of that crisis of existence, when an impulse to the right or left may determine the direction and the end of a whole career. You are a philosopher, and can not be indifferent to any experience that may throw light upon the history of the human heart. You are, besides, a parent, and as such, can not be too well advised of what passes in HISTORICAL, ANECDOT1CAL, ETC. 4:07 the bosom of youth, and especially as they stand at the door of manhood. No one can know too well the mastery which slight events at this period may exercise over a long and fearful future. Therefore, pass not disdainfully over this page of my story ! My experience was, no doubt, in some degree ex ceptional. With considerable knowledge, gathered by glimpses, in a scramble, as I passed along in an irreg ular and uncertain road, I had really no education in the sense of mental discipline. What I knew was by halves, and it had been so acquired that my mind was a thicket of weeds and flowers, without a defined path to get into or out of it. All that I had was instinct, somewhat enlightened, perhaps, by my early religious training. On questions of right and wrong, in feeling and conduct, my conscience should have been a safe guide ; but in respect _to the understanding, as to logic of thought I scarcely knew the process. My imagination was like an unbridled colt, and it car ried me whither it would. In reflecting upon this in maturer years, I have compared my mind to that slip pery bird of the sea the loon which usually comes up in the direction exactly opposite to that in which it goes down. In argument, in reflection, in delib eration, with myself or others if I began upon one thing, I was pretty sure to get speedily stranded upon another. All that I knew of myself was, that I felt ; I had not yet, in fact, learned the process of sober in duction and methodical reasoning. I had just that 4:08 LETTERS BIOGKAPHICAL, little learning which is a dangerous thing, because it imparts intoxication, not inspiration. So far, then, my condition was certainly peculiar. But in regard to that impulse which rises up in the youthful bosom like a gale to the ship, coming in the midst of seeming calm, and bringing every sail and spar suddenly and by surprise to its work I was like other boys at the threshold of a new and start ling era in life. What gigantic strides seem then to be at command with the seven-leagued boots of gristle manhood ! And yet, with such an impetus, the youth may yield himself to a word, a thought, which takes the helm, and guides the spirit, through weal or woe, to its doom. " My boyhood vanish'd, and I woke, Startled, to manhood's early morn No father's hand my pride to yoke, No mother's angel voice to warn ! ****** The spark forever tends to flame The ray that quivers in the plash Of yonder river, is the same That feeds the lightning's ruddy flash. The summer breeze that fans the rose, Or eddies down some flowery path, Is but the infant gale that blows To-morrow with the whirlwind's wrath. And He alone who wields the storm, And bids the arrowy lightnings play, Can guide the heart, when, wild and warm, It springs on passion's wings away. HISTORICAL, ANECDOT1CAL, ETC. 409 Cue augel minister is sent, To guard and guide us to the sky, And still her sheltering wing is bent, Till manhood rudely throws it by. Oh, then with mad disdain we spurn A mother's gentle teaching ; throw Her bosom from us, and we burn To rush in freedom, where the glow Of pleasure lights the dancing wave We launch the bark, we woo the gale, And reckless of the darkling wave That yawns below, we speed the sail!" Thus many a youth rushes upon his fate. Some, indeed, are always sober and judicious : they plod on wisely and prosperously, not so much on account of the influence of home instruction, nor indeed by happy accident, but through inherent steadiness of character. Yet these cases are not frequent. Nearly all pass through the straits of Scylla on one side and of Charybdis on the other. Some escape, but, alas, how many are fatally wrecked ! how many only live on to scandalize society, to break the hearts of their parents, to debase and degrade themselves and their companions ! It is sad to reflect upon the number of young men who are lost at this turning-point this " doubling the Cape" of life. Several of my earliest acquaintances have gone down, long since, to their graves, the victims of those hidden quicksands which, beset the youthful voyager, at the very moment when his sails are filled with flattering hopes and generous VOT,. I. 18 410 LKTTEKS BIOGRAPHICAL, aspirations yet, also, with presumptuous confidence In short, they were shoved out to sea with no pilot on board but their own passions, and destruction was but the too natural consequence. That I escaped is no special merit of my own. I formed an acquaintance with George Sheldon, which soon ripened into friendship, and this had great influ ence on my future life. He was, at the time, a clerk in the establishment of Hudson & Goodwin,* a firm * The following obituary notice, abridged from the Connecticut Cou- rant of May 14, 1844, is worthy of insertion, as well for its just picture of a good man's life, as for the facts of general interest which it presents. " Mr. George Goodwin, whose death was yesterday announced, was born in this city (Hartford) on the 7th day of January, 1757, and died the 18th day of May, 1844, being the oldest man in the town. He was de scended from one of those ancient families who made their way from Newtown, Mass., through the wilderness, to find a new home on the banks of the Connecticut river. " At the age of nine years he was placed as an apprentice in a print ing-office, where was published a small weekly print, called the Con necticut Courant, the first paper printed in this town, and for many years the only one upon this river the history of which is so intimately connected with that of the deceased as to demand notice. The first number was published by Thomas Green, October 29, 1764. In April, 1768, Mr. Green associated with him in this enterprise, Mr. Ebenezer Watson, and retired from it in December, 1770, leaving it in the hands of Mr. Watson, alone. In September, 1777, Mr. Watson died, ancl Mr Goodwin, a young man of but twenty years of age, was left to conduct it. In January, 1778, he became a partner with the widow of Mr. Wat son in the establishment, and so continued until her marriage with Mr. Hudson, in March, 1779, when he formed a partnership with that gen tleman, which continued nearly forty years, or until 1815. Mr. Good win, after the dissolution of the concern, continued to superintend the paper until the year 1836, when he relinquished it to the present pro prietor. But it can hardly be said that his connection with this paper ended at that time, for such were his habits of industry, and so fixed were his associations, and so long had ho been identified with this es tablishment, that he made it one of the stipulations of his contract, that he should have a right to work in the office as formerly, whea he HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, KTC. then known all over this hemisphere, as publishers of the Bible, Webster's Spelling-book, and the Con necticut Courant. They were, in the popular mind, regarded as the bulwarks of religion, education, and federalism three pretty staunch supporters of the New England platform, in that epoch of the world. was so disposed and for several years after did he avail himself of this privilege. Probably no man in this country, perhaps no man in the world, had pursued this business for so long a time that is. tor nearly eighty years. While under his auspices, this paper gained a circula tion almost unknown to country papers, and for a long course of years gave a tone to the morals and policy of the State. " He was always found on the side of religion and morals, nor was he ashamed to profess Christ before men : his great grief was that he had not done it earlier. He was a special friend of temperance, and imputed his good health and- success in life largely, to a rigid abstinence from intoxicating drinks. "His politics were learned in the school of the American Eevolutiou. In his opinions he was firm and decided, but modest and unassuming. Without any advantages of education beyond that of a common school, he became a highly useful and intelligent editor, and one whose influ ence was extensively felt in this community. His mind was active and sprightly. He was frank and pleasant in his manners ; he had a good share of wit and humor, and in his younger days, was the life of the circle into which he entered. He was one of the last of the old school gentlemen among us, and he certainly was a good representative of that interesting class. " It is hardly necessary to say how well he discharged all the duties of private life ; how kind and beneficent he was to the poor, or how dear to his friends. Happy in his family circle, he passed those years, which are ordinarily years ' of labor and sorrow,' in cheerful gratitude to God, and humble hope in Christ, with few of the pains and sorrows of old age until, after a sickness of a few days, he fell like a shock of corn fully ripe in the hope of a glorious immortality beyond the grave." The following lines by Mrs. Sigourney are a worthy and pleasing trib ute to this good man's memory : OUR OLDEST MAN. Meek patriarch of our city! art thou dead? The just, the saintly, and the full of days, The crown of ripen'd wisdom on thy head, The poor man's blessing, and the good man's praise T 412 I.K'ITKKS 1UOGKAPHICAL, It is very seldom that plodding industry rises so high. Mr. Hudson was a homespun old respectability, of plain, strong sense, sturdy principles, and rather dry, harsh manners, having also a limp in the leg. He took charge of the financial department of the con cern. Mr. Goodwin was a large, hale, comely old Would that our sons, who saw thee onward move With step so vigorous and serenely sage, Of thee might learn to practice, and to love The hardy virtues of an earlier age. For more than fourscore winters had not chill'd The glow of healthful years, on lip, or cheek, Nor In thy breast the warm pulsation still'd, That moves with upright zeal to act and speak. Ne'er from the righteous cause withheld by fear, Of honest toil ashamed, nor proud of wealth, But train'd in habits simple and sincere, From whence republics draw their vital health. To every kind affection gently true, The husband and the father and the friend, Thy children's children still delighted drew Around the lionor'd grandsire's chair to bend. But now thy mansion hath its master lost, Wrapp'd in its pleasant green, with trees o'erspread And we, a patriot sire, who knew the cost Of blood-bought freedom, in the day of dread. We mourn thee, Father 1 On thy staff, no more Thy cheerful smile shall greet us, day by day, Nor the far memories of thy treasured lore, Withhold the joyous listeners from their play. Where stood that ancient race we fear to stand, In foremost watch on life's beleagner'd wall, To bide the battle with a feebler hand. Perchance to falter, and perchance to fall. O God of Strength ! who takest from our head, Oar white-hair'd patriarchs, firm in faith and truth. Grant us thy grace, to follow where they led, A pure example to observant youth ; That though the sea of time should fiercely roll, We so its billows and its waves may stem, As not to lose the sunshine of the soul, Nor our eternal rest in Heaven, with them. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 413 gentleman, of lively mind and cheerful manners. There was always sunshine in his bosom and wit upon his lip. He turned his hand to various things, though chiefly to the newspaper, which was his pet. His heaven was the upper loft in the composition room ; setting type had for him the sedative charms of knitting-work to a country dame. I have often seen him, cheerfully swinging back and forth, as is the wont of compositors, and tossing the type merrily over his thumb into the stick, as if he were at work by the thousand ems, and had a wife and nine small children dependent upon his labors ! George Sheldon, then, was the favored clerk of this ancient and honored firm. He was happily moulded by nature, and not unkindly treated by fortune. He was short of stature, but of a bearing at once modest and manly. His large understanding and vivid im agination were duly balanced the first being always the master, the latter always the servant. He had been well educated in the schools of the city, even to the acquisition of the common Latin and Greek classics. He had read extensively, for one of his age, and with profit. When I met him, he was twenty ; I but eighteen. It is not easy to conceive of two persons more un like than we were at that time. Why we coalesced, can only be accounted for from the affinity of oppo sition a phenomenon not unknown in the chemistry of the mind and the affections. Tall men seek short 414: LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, wives ; large women favor little husbands. The blonde is smitten with black eyes and raven hair ; the brunette falls in love with flaxen locks and azure looks. All nature's contradictions make all nature's peace. And so a friendship, which was only termi nated by the grave, grew up between myself a raw adventurer from the country and George Sheldon, the educated, disciplined, well-balanced graduate of the city. I must again apologize for, or perhaps rather ex plain, the introduction of these commonplace details. Were I writing for the popular favor, and sought success only through the current taste of the day, I should choose for the exercise of my pen a sub ject very different from that which gives birth to these pages. I know that the public crave high-sea soned meats. Eomance must be thrilling ; biogra phy startling. History must be garnished with the lights and shadows of vivid dramatic representation. Who, then, of the great excited public would conde scend to these simple memorials of apprentice boys in the middle ranks of life ? I might indeed cite as example for these passages, the autobiography of Franklin the printer, were it not that I fear this would be deemed too ambitious, as x if I suggested a comparison in respect to the end as well as the beginning. Nevertheless, it is Frank lin's history, as a boy of the middle class, successfully but laboriously working his way upward, that has HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 4:15 made it at once the most attractive and most useful biography of modern times. All over Christendom, it has met with the sympathy of the working classes, and it has done more than any volume within my knowledge, to give courage and heart to the sons of labor, as it has shown that the paths of ambition are open to them as to others, provided they be followed with Franklin's virtues honesty, frugality, perseve rance, and patriotism. What a contrast between the influence of such a biography as this, and that of a man whose life is only remarkable for success in bloodshed, or even in the more vulgar paths of vice, knavery, or crime ! What a debt of gratitude does the world owe to Franklin ! What a weight of con demnation should rest upon him who degrades and debases those who come within the sphere of his influence, by exciting and seductive narratives of the little or the great rascals who are sent as scourges and warnings to our race ! One of the most grateful things in my experiencb among the middle classes in England, France, and Germany, is, that I have been there recognized as the countryman of Franklin, and by virtue of this, have been often received as a friend. There is no part of Europe that I have visited, where the name of Franklin is not known and honored except, per haps, in Italy. There the atmosphere is not of a nature to permit such a history as his, to shed its beneficent light upon the hearts of the people. The 4: 1 6 LKTTER8 BIOGRAPHICAL, mythologies of the Virgin and the saints are deemed safer reading safer, because they darken rather than enlighten the mind than the history of a Boston printer, whose whole life is a lecture in behalf of the elevating power of liberty of thought and action. With this exception, Franklin's story of his early life, his humble apprenticeship, his patient struggles, his plodding industry, his rise, step by step, from poverty to independence, and all this within the possible and probable sphere of common life seems actually to have been a gospel of good tidings to the European masses of modern times. Let me go on, then, my dear C...., countenanced, if not encour aged, by this example. Be it well understood, how ever, that if you are disheartened at the specimens I have furnished, I give you leave to depart, and with no offence to me. Good-by, my friend if it must be so and peace be with thee ! H1STOKICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 417 LETTER XXVI. My Situation under my new Hasten- Discontent Humiliating Discov eries Desire to quit Trade and go to College Undertake to Re educate myself A Long Struggle Partial Success Infidelity The World without a God Existence, Nature, Life, all contradiction*, with out Revealed Religion Return after long Wanderings. MY DEAR C ****** I have received your kind letter, giving your adhesion to what I have done, though counseling me to be less discursive in my narrative hereafter. Taking this in good part, and promising amendment, I proceed in my story. I was, then, eighteen years of age, installed in a dry-goods store at Hartford, under a respectable and reasonable master. I had been sufficiently educated for my station. My parents had now removed from Ridgefield to Berlin, a distance of but eleven miles from my present residence, so that I had easy and frequent communication with them. My uncle, Chauncey Goodrich, then a Senator of the United States, lived in an almost contiguous street, and while in the city, always treated me with the kind ness and consideration which my relation to him nat urally dictated. In general, then, my situation was eligible enough ; and yet I was unhappy. The truih is, I had now been able to sit in judg ment upon myself to review my acquirements, to 18* 418 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, analyze my capacities, to estimate my character to compare myself with others, and see a little into the future. The decision was painful to the ambi tion which lurked within me. I had all along, un consciously, cherished a vague idea of some sort of eminence, and this unhappily had nothing to do with selling goods or making money. I had lived in the midst of relations, friends, and alliances, all of which had cultivated in me trains of thought alien to my present employment. My connections were re spectable : some of them eminent, but none of them rich ; all had acquired their positions without wealth, and I think it was rather their habit to speak of it as a very secondary affair. Brought up under such influences, how could I give my heart to trade? It was clear, indeed, that I had missed my vocation. Full of this conviction, I besought my parents to allow me to quit the store, and attempt to make my way through college.* Whether for good or ill, ! * When I wrote this letter, I was living at Conrbevoie, near Paris. About that time, a gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Gilmau), whom I lin J accidentally met in Paris, and of whom I had made some inquiries re specting certain eminent men of that State, came to visit me, and brought me several pamphlets, -and among them a catalogue of Yale College, inti- ninting that he supposed I mast take an interest in the latter, as I was one of its graduates. I told him this must be a mistake, but he took tin-, book and showed me that I was made an honorary A. M. by that institution in 1848 ! This, however, was the first time I ever heard of it. Thus, after all, though I never went to college, I got into the cata- l.ijrue, but nearly forty years after these my youthful aspirations. [ was a long time in passing my examination, and getting my degree ; itii'l if the learned gentlemen, who bestowed upon me this act of grace, luul known how little of their sort of learning! really possessed, I doubt if t!;ey h:id evergrantedto me so high a rank. Several years before, some- HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAI., KTC. 4:11) know not, but they decided against the change, and certainly on substantial grounds. Their circum stances did not permit them to offer me any consid erable aid, and without it they feared that I should meet with insuperable difficulties. I returned to the store, disheartened at first, but after a time my cour age revived, and I resolved to re-educate myself. I borrowed some Latin books, and with the aid of George Sheldon, I passed through the Latin Gram mar, and penetrated a little way into Virgil. This was done at night, for during the day I was fully o-i- cupied. At the same time, I began with such light and strength as I possessed to train my mind to disci pline my thoughts, then as untamed as the birds of the wilderness. I sought to think to think steadily, to acquire the power of forcing my understanding up to a point, and make it stand there and do its work. I attempted to gain the habit of speaking methodi cally, logically, and with accumulating power, direct ed to a particular object. I did all this as well by study as practice. I read Locke on the Understanding and Watts on the Mind. I attempted composition, and aided myself by Blair's Rhetoric. This was a task, for not only was my time chiefly occupied by my daily duties, but it was a contest body addressed me an official letter, informing me that a similar honor had been bestowed upon me by the college at Williamstown, but I never liked to inquire about it, for fear it should turn out to be a joke. What, indeed, have my attainments to do with college honors I i20 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, against habit it was myself against myself and in this I was almost unaided and alone. I believe few have this experience, for most persons have progress ive, methodical education. Their advance up the steep ascent of knowledge is gradual, measured step by step ; and this process is performed in youth, and with the assistance of instructors, and all so gently, as to pass by without the consciousness of any great or painful effort, even by the subject of it. A person who has acquired an education in the usual way under the steady training of teachers, from childhood to the period of graduation does not appreciate in his feelings the amount of labor heaped rfp in this protracted struggle. If we consider, however, the momentum at last accumulated in the simple act of reading, for instance the eye with electric celerity compassing every letter in a line, and the mind as quickly seizing upon every thought, mastering it, and passing on, the soul meanwhile giving to each conception its due feeling and emotion we shall have a measure by which we may form some esti mate of the magnitude of that structure in the mind, called education. It was a work of this sort, with the habits acquired in its formation, that I was to undo and do over again. It was my fortune to find that I had gone wrong, and must retrace my steps. I was to tear to pieces the labor, the practices, the associations of years, and at the same time I was to reconstruct the broken and shattered fragments HISTOKICAL, ANEODOTICAL, ETC. 4li I into a new and symmetrical edifice. I was to lay aside the slip-shod practice of satisfying myself with impressions, feelings, guesses ; in short, of dodging mental labor by jumping at conclusions. I was to teach myself the art, and to train myself to the habit, of accumulating materials ; of assorting them according to their several kinds ; of weighing them in a just and scrutinizing balance ; of rearranging them on principles of logic, and finally, of deducing from them a safe and reliable judgment. I was, in deed, to learn the greatest of all arts, that of reason-' ing, of discovering the truth, and I was to do this alone, and in the face of difficulties, partly founded in my mental constitution, and partly also in my training. I did not at first comprehend the extent of my un dertaking. By degrees I began to appreciate it : I saw and felt, at last, that it was an enormous tasK, and even after I had resolved upon it, again and again, my courage gave out, and I ceased my ef forts in despair. Still, I returned to the work by spasms. I found, for instance, that my geography was all wrong : Asia stood up edgewise, in my imagination, just as I had seen it on an old smoky map in Lieutenant Smith's study : Africa was in the southeast corner of creation, and Europe was somewhere in the northeast. In fact, my map of the world was very Chinese in its projection. I knew better, but still I had thus conceived it. and 422 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, the obstinate bump of locality insisted upon pre senting its outlines to my mind, according to this ar rangement. I bad similar jumbles of conception and habit, as to other things. This would not do : so I relearned the elements of geography ; I revised my history, my chronology, my natural history in all of which I had caught casual glimpses of knowledge. Finding my memory bad for dates, I made a list of chronological eras, from the Creation down, and riv eted them by repetition, in my memory. What I read, I read .earnestly. I determined to pass no word without ascertaining its meaning, and I persevered ill this, doggedly, for five and twenty years. Now, after all these my efforts, I only skimmed the surface of knowledge : I did not even reach the depths of a thorough college education. In some degree, I cleared up the wilderness of my mind ; in some de gree methodized my habits of thought ; in some de gree made myself the master of my faculties and my knowledge. I learned to think more clearly, to speak more logically, and to write more methodically within the range of my acquisitions. Still, I only reached the precincts of what may be called educa tion, in a just sense of the term. In after years, when I have been called upon to write upon a partic ular subject, I have generally been first obliged to sit down and study it, or at least to refresh my mind by reviewing it. With this inadequate preparation, however, I rash- HISTORICAL, ANEODOTICAL, ETC. 423 ly began to form my own opinions the most daring action of the mind. I ventured to question dogmas moral, political, and religious. I passed through the several stages of curiosity, doubt, infidelity, as many others have done before rne. I resolved to take nothing upon trust ; I must examine and decide for myself. Beginning with things familiar and secular, I came at last to things remote, doctrinal, theological. I approached the sacred edifice of religion, and in a moment of presumption, tumbled it into a heap of ruins ! And then ? Ah, how impossible to paint the dark, drear horizon of the mind when it has put out the light of faith : extinguished even the star of hope ! The world from that moment became to me a fearful enigma : all its harmony was gone : existence was a nightmare, heaven a fathomless abyss, earth an incom prehensible mystery. And Man, of all the creatures upon earth, was the most mysterious above all things, and yet below all things. The bird had organs adapted to its wants feet for the land and wings for the air. The fishes had fins suited to their element ; the quad rupeds were all provided with the means of securing happiness according to their several tastes and facul ties. Wherever there was a want, the means of sat isfying it were bestowed. Every thing was con sistent with itself. Nothing was made in vain : in the whole range of nature, there was no absurdity, no contradiction, no mistake. Every thing attained its end, everv thing fulfilled its design savo M;m 424 LKTTKKS IUOGKAPHICAL, alone ! He had wants for which there was no pro vision : he had hunger and thirst of the soul, yet there was nothing to feed the one, or quench the other! He had the gift of hope, but was hopeless ; the fac ulty of faith, with nothing on which faith could set its foot. He had anticipation a looking forward into the future wafting him thither like a trade-wind, and breathing of the tropic air of immortality. He yearn ed for something higher than earth, but was without wings to fly, or an object amid the prevailing waters the universal deluge of doubt upon which he could find repose ! The dove of hope was sent forth, but came back with no olive-branch of peace, no promise of a shore to this bleak sea of nothingness! The veriest insect, the worm, the reptile, each and all, had every thing needful to perfect its being. Man alone seemed created to live in doubt, and to perish in disappointment. The inferior things of earth were perfect ; the conscious lord of creation was a stu pendous blunder ! Thus seemed the universe ; thus seemed man, without God without religion. " I had a dream, which was not all a dream The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless and pathless, and the icy earth Swung, blind and black'ning, in the moonless air. * * * * * The crowd was famish'd by degrees ; but two Of an enormous city did survive, And they were enemies : they met beside HISTORICAL, ANEODOTICAL, KTC. 425 The (lying embers of an altar-place, "Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things, For an unholy usage : they raked up, And shivering, scraped with their cold, skeleton hands, The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath Blew for a little life, and made a flame, Which was a mockery : then they lifted up Their eyes, as it grew brighter, and beheld Each other's aspects saw and shriek'd and died E'en of their mutual hideousness, they died!" Such is the fearful, overwhelming picture of the Earth, if you pluck the sun from the heavens : bring back that glorious orb, and all its light and harmony and beauty are restored. In this, the Natural World is but an image of the Moral World. This Earth without a Sun to give it light, Would roll a wintry planet robed in night. All that we see of beauty trees and flowers All that we hear of music in their bowers, Live on the bounty of that Orb above Nature's exhaustless source of life and love. And Man, if not illumed of Heaven's light, Renew'd each morn and stealing through the night, Dark as a planet exiled from the sun, His savage course of crime and shame would run. As blushing flowers with spreading odors rise As balmy zephyrs steal from southern skies As rills unchain'd with gladdening murmurs play As birds return and pour the rapturous lay As nature rises from its wintry night All at the bidding of the Source of Light So every virtue blooming in the soul, Is warm'd to life by Heaven's kind control ! 4:26 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Indeed, take religion from man, and you dethrone God from the sky : you banish the light from the soul, you convert its highest faculties into elements of fear, terror, and despair. Love, that seems to breathe of heaven, to lift us on its wing toward a better and happier and holier clime, sinks into lust : affection into selfishness ; friendship into an illusive dream. In this view, man is only a superior sort of beast, to live, despair, and perish. Bring back religion, and the light returns to the mind : under its influences, the warm pulses of affection and friend- snip and piety and poetry once more beat in the bosom : the winter of desolation gives way to the spring-tide of hope. Man is no longer a beast, ex istence no longer a riddle, creation no more a contra diction. Nature, before a stupendous lie, is now a glorious truth ! To this conclusion I came at last, though after a long and painful struggle. God was as much reveal ed to man as the earth, the sky, the sun : that was now settled in my mind, but it was not enough. What was our relation to Him ? What was human destiny ? What meant this inward faith that makes of the Creator an object of worship, of love, of hope, of confidence ? What means the heart of prayer in every human breast? Is it only an instinct, telling us to pray, and then leaving us to perish ? Is that the way of God ? Does He tell us to hope, that He may cheat us of his promises ? Has God made man HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 427 to bear through life the burden of doubt, and to carry- it with him to the grave ? Is there, in short, no rev elation for man beyond the simple fact that there is a God told us by our common sense, by our in stinct, by the voice of nature and of creation ? In these things His woric is complete ; in that it is evi dently imperfect. Man has in him desires, wants, anticipations, exigencies, which are not satisfied by this mere light of nature. Without a further revela tion, he is like the bird, made to fly, yet without wings ; like the fish, formed to swim, yet without fins. He is an anomaly in the universe : the only thing that walks erect in God's image, is the only thing that God has made in vain, and worse than in vain ! There is, then, another revelation, for we must not charge the Omnipotent with incompetence, the Omni scient with ignorance, the Omnipresent with forget ful ness. We must not, in his greatest work, discover a negation of all his perfections, conspicuous in all other things. What, then, is this revelation ? It was given to Adam face to face, by the Almighty ; it has since descended in various ways, and at different eras, upon mankind ; it has existed, and still exists, in all nations, though it may be seen by many races as through a glass darkly. But the whole force of God's highest revelations to man, is accumulated in the Bible, and especially in the Gospel the life, char acter, and redemption of Christ. The unenlightened may be led by duller light : this is adapted to civil- 4:28 LETTERS BIOGKAPIflOAL, ized nations. Those may find their hunger and thirst of soul appeased by what nature yields ; but the in structed man needs the full effulgence of such a reve lation as this. And thus, after many wanderings, like one long lest in the wilderness like one wearied and worn with struggling in a marsh, I came back to the con viction of my fathers that the Bible is the revealed will of God; as much adapted to us, as necessary for us, as the light to the eye, the air to the lungs ; as indispensable to the life of the soul, as food and drink to the body, in which the soul is enshrined. This work was not performed at once, or by one continuous effort ; it was a long internal struggle, coming upon me in spasms sometimes by day and sometimes by night. Often it subsided into settled doubt or desponding apathy ; often it returned like a tempest to agitate and overwhelm me. It was, in deed, prolonged through several years, and even after I had seemed to come to the dry land, like the ark amid the subsiding deluge, difficulties and doubts sometimes haunted me. I was, in fact, not yet a be liever. Infidelity is a long, dark voyage, and offers no secure haven of rest or repose. I have been ac quainted with several professed deists and atheists some of the very first order of mind yet I have never found one who was not, in fact, afloat on a sea of un certainty, tossed with doubt and racked with anxiety. My stumbling-blocks, at this period, were chiefly HISTORICAL, ANECDOT1CAL, ETC. of that class called metaphysical, yet they were to me real, earnest, operative. The existence of evil in a world made and governed by God ; the free agency of man, deriving from the Almighty his being and his breath ; the moral responsibility of creatures, de pendent for all things upon the Creator ; the seeming predestination flowing from Omnipotence, with the consciousness of liberty of thought and action plant ed in every bosom : these and other rocks in this voyage of the immortal mind strewn with the wrecks of millions were still anxious mysteries to me. And then, that dreadful incompatibility upon which audacious human reason drives us that every thing must have a beginning, and yet just as cer tainly, that all things spring from the Eternal ! What a stunning blow, leveled at the pride of logic, is this ? How is the mind humbled, admitting as it must, that all we see and know of time and eternity, is but the vibration of a pendulum, whose spring is hidden from our sight ! Long, often and anxiously, did I return to these questions, thundering sometimes almost in frenzy at the sullen, silent, impenetrable door, which holds their solution from the view. I learned at last that I was only doing what had been done by thou sands before that I was attempting what the wisest and strongest had given up in despair. I saw that the mind was bounded in its powers as well as the body ; that as the latter could not defy the laws of gravitation, so the former could not rend the curtain 430 LKTTEKS BIOGKAPillCAL, that God had hung between the creature and the Creator. I bowed at last ; I ceased to agonize upon things beyond my reach. I turned to my actual du ties ; I cultivated the gifts of nature and Providence vouchsafed to me ; I cherished the lights and not the shadows of existence. And once more I was upon the land ! I was again at home ; I had indeed wandered, yet not perhaps unprofitably, for I had learned to find peace and contentment in what God had be stowed upon me, without seeking that forbidden fruit of knowledge, of which He has said, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die." During the dark and cloudy period which I have just sketched, George Sheldon was my constant com panion. I had made other acquaintances, and had other friends, but he was first, if not in my affections, at least in my confidence. He had a far more com manding intellect, more knowledge, more depth of reflection, more range of thought and experience, than myself. I consulted him in my studies ; I submitted my progress to his examination ; I showed him my compositions, and invited his criticisms. Some persons seem to write with a certain matu rity of thought and expression, almost upon their first attempts ; others only attain the art of composition by long and patient labor. As for myself, I came to what I possess by reiterated trials. I do not know of a decent thing not even a letter that I wrote before I was twenty. How my monitorial guide did HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIGAL, ETC. 4:31 laugh at some of my first attempts at composition, and especially at my tilts and tournaments upon Par nassus ! As I have said, we were unlike, and in nothing so much as in our mental constitution. His taste was mature, mine crude and fantastic; his mind was lo gical, mine irregular and discursive ; his was circum spect, modest, prudent mine daring, rash, audacious. In our discussions, he constantly said to me, " Stick to the point !" In regard to my writings, he often remarked, " You have more illustrations than ideas." In an argument, he would observe, " Stop a moment: do you know what we are talking about ?" When we approached some metaphysical gulf, he would say, " Come, come, I have looked over there, and I can assure you there is nothing to be gained by it." Above and beyond all this, my friend aided me in the more serious business of settling my religious opinions. He had thought long and profoundly upon the agitating questions which I have mentioned, and in considering them I had the benefit of his clear in telligence and just judgment. That I escaped ship wreck, was doubtless owing in some degree to him : I certainly reached the shore sooner than I could have done alone. The importance of such counsel, at this period, can not be estimated without considering that I had been brought up under the impression that an infidel nay, a doubter, a questioner, even was a monster, 432 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, who challenged riot only the reprobation of man, but the instant wrath of God. The preaching I heard, the tone of society around me, confirmed this feeling. I dared not ask advice, especially of the devout, for I dreaded to confess myself that fearful thing an unbeliever ! At that time I slept in an upper room of a large block of brick buildings, without another hu man being in them, and never have I known the nights so black, so long, so dismal, as during the pe riods when I awoke from sleep, and in the solitude of my chamber, wrestled with the tormenting questions already alluded to, which came like Inquisitors, to put me upon the rack of anxiety and doubt. The friendly sympathy and judicious guidance of my sturdy and steadfast friend, saved me, perhaps, from despair. I have since this period often thought, with a feel ing of self-reproach, of the moral and mental obli quity involved in infidelity, especially on the part of one brought up as I had been. What is infidelity here in a Christian land ? An assumption that God has left to the world no authenticated testimony of his Will. Revelation is a fable : religion a bugbear. What, then, is the condition of man ? History recent, reliable, unmistakable has given the answer. He who runs may and must read. During the first French Revolution, the government abolished reli gion, and the people sanctioned the decree. Let us draw nigh and contemplate the spectacle of a HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 433 nation without a God, without a faith without hope, and without fear. Look at Paris, at that period the world's metropolis of art, taste, fashion, and refine ment, rejoicing in its deliverance from the nightmare of religion ! Look, and you will see that marriage was a farce, and that truth had sunk into contempt. The streets were filled with indecency, and the saloons were no better than garnished brothels. Death was divested of its solemnity, and the grave of its sanctity. Even kindred could not spare time from their levities and debaucheries to bury their deceased relatives. And why should they ? They had gone to their eternal sleep, and it was illogical to care for the manes of those who had ceased to be. Nothingness annihi lation of the soul left no sympathy for its worn- out and cast-off vestment, the body. There was no hereafter, no heaven, no elevating hope, no salutary fear. There was no reality but the present. No hymn of praise, no prayer, no rising incense, lifted the soul above this dreadful revelry. Man was left to cherish his baser propensities, without a wish or a thought, which could drag him out of the miry clay and the horrible pit ! This spectacle is as revolting to the moral taste of man, as is a mass of filth reeking with corruption to his senses. And yet this is the condition to which infidelity inevitably tends. It is religion alone revealed religion which saves the world from this state of degradation. Paris has written that fact in VOL. I. iy 434 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, fire and in blood. Is this religion, then, a lie ? Is rev elation, which thus works man's redemption here on earth to say nothing of the future a fraud ? What then is God the infidel's God ? A being who made man to live and die and perish, only as an ingenious and gifted brute ! He is not the author of that reli gion which ennobles man, exalts his faculties, his tastes, his aspirations, and constantly seeks to make him but little lower than the angels. He is not the God of good, but of Evil not the Author of Light, but of Darkness not the King of Heaven, but ol Hell. This is the infidel's God. Where, in Nature, is this fearful thing written ? Not in the sun or the sky or the seasons, for these tell us that God is good. Not in the human heart, for this feels that God is true. Not in .the eye that loves beauty, nor the ear that loves music. Every sense whispers that God is Love. It is indeed a dreadful obliquity, which leads the mind to refuse to see God in the Bible Revelation, and to refuse to ac cept Christianity as his gospel of good and glorious tidings to man. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 435 LETTER XXVII. Hartford forty years ago The Hartford Wits Hartford at the present time The Declaration of War in 1812 Baltimore Riots Feeling in New England Embargo Non-intercourse, &c. Democratic Doctrine that Opposition is Treason. MY DEAR C ****** The city of Hartford, ever noted for its fine sit uation, in one of the fertile and beautiful vales of the Connecticut, is now distinguished for its wealth the fruit of extraordinary sagacity and enterprise on the part of its inhabitants as well as for its interesting institutions literary, charitable, and philanthropic. It presented, however, a different aspect at the time of which I am speaking. It had, indeed, formerly enjoyed some reputation as a sort of literary focus it being the residence of Trumbull, the author of McFingal, of Hopkins, the bludgeon satirist, author of the " Hypocrite's Hope," of Theodore Dwight, and some others, known in their day as the " Hartford Wits." This distinction was well deserved, for it ia rare indeed that three satirical poets, of so much vig or, are found working together. It is especially rare to find them, as in this instance, united in an amica ble as well as a literary brotherhood. In my time Hopkins was dead ; Trumbull had left off poetry for a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court, and Dwight was devoted to the Connecticut LKTTKKS BIOGRAPHICAL, Mirror a newspaper distinguished all over the coun try for its vigilant and spicy vindication of federal ism. His New- Year's verses were always looked for with eagerness, for they usually contained a review of events, with dashes at the times, in which the doings of democracy were painted in the unsparing colors of Hudibrastic ridicule. Many passages of these are now worthy of being read, as well on account of their illustration of the spirit of the time, as their keen and cutting satire. On the whole, however, Hartford was then a small commercial town, of four thousand inhabitants, deal ing in lumber, and smelling of molasses and Old Ja maica for it had still some trade with the West In dies. Though the semi-capital of the State the yearly sessions of the legislature being held there and at New Haven, alternately it was strongly impressed with a plodding, mercantile, and mechanical character. There was a high tone of general intelligence and so cial respectability about the place, but it had not a single institution, a single monument, that marked it as even a provincial metropolis of taste, in literature, art, or refinement. The leading men were thrifty mechanics, with a few merchants, and many shop keepers, society of course taking its hue from these dominant classes. There were lawyers, judges, and public functionaries men of mark but their spirit lot govern the town. There were a few dain- itricians, who held themselves aloof, secure of HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 437 that amiable worship which in all ages is rendered to rank. But where are they now? The answer would be a lesson and a warning to those who build their claims to homage on pretense. Such was the state of things, at the time I arrived in this city. Some time after, a new era began to dawn, the light of which is still visible in the very air and aspect of the place. Let me give you a few measures of this striking progress. In 1810, the population of Hart ford was three thousand nine hundred and fifty-five : in 1856, it is about twenty -five thousand. The American i Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, Trinity College, the Ketreat for the Insane, the Wadsworth Atheneurn all excellent institutions have been founded since my arrival in the town. The churches then four in number have increased to twenty- five, and by their towering and tasteful spires, give the place, as you approach it, the aspect of a Holy City. Every creed and shade of creed is represented, from Puritan orthodoxy up and down, to Roman Catholic, Second Advent, and Synagogue worshipers. There were three weekly journals, five and forty years ago ; now there are two dailies, eight weeklies, and two monthlies. The manufacture of books, machines, carpets, pianos, hardware, hats, rifles, pistols all es tablished within forty years now employ a capital of five millions of dollars. Colt's pistol-factory, with its accessories, is a marvelous example of ingenious art and liberal enterprise. The aggregate Bank Capital 438 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, is about six millions. The various Insurance Compa nies spread their protection against fire, far and wide reaching into almost every State in the Union. Is not this progress ? I could find gratifying themes in pursuing this general train of events, especially as the prosperity of Hartford marks the general progress of society in Connecticut. But chronological propriety impels me, for the present, in a different direction. Leaving the humble path of autobiographical gossip, I must now, hackneyed as the subject may seem, take you within the wide and sweeping vortex of national history. Here, indeed, my own story leads, and here you are bound to follow. I must tell you of the war of 1812, for in this I was a soldier, and took my turn in the tented field ! And besides though we have plenty of histories on the subject, we have, so far as I know, very few pictures of the living and moving panorama of town and village life, during those three years of national anxiety and humiliation. About midsummer in the year 1812, the news came that Congress, with the sanction of the Pres ident, had declared war* against Great Britain. * The Declaration of War was ratified by the President on the 18th of June, and the proclamation was issued the next day. The prin cipal grounds, assigned by the President for this act, were the impress ment of seamen by Great Britain, her paper blockades, unsupported by an adequate force, and various Orders in Council. Let it be remem- ber-ed that peace was made by our government in 1814, without saying a word about impressment the main ground of the war and that the Or ders in Council were repealed within four days after our declaration oj HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 439 Sagacious men, no doubt, had foreseen this, but it came upon the mass of the people here, at the North, like a thunderbolt. I remember perfectly well the dark and boding cloud that gathered over the public mind upon the reception of the news, and this was deepened into anxiety and alarm by the tragic story of the Baltimore riot, which speedily followed. The doctrine had been announced, as well in Congress as elsewhere, by the democratic leaders, that when war was declared, opposition must cease a doctrine which is more fit for the liveried slaves of despotism than a free people but which democracy has since maintained to the bitter end. I invite your particu lar attention to this historical fact, for here is the key not only to the slanders heaped up against New Eng land at the time, for her opposition to the war, but to the pertinacity with which they have since been urged. Even to this day, the "Hartford Conven tion," " Connecticut Blue Lights," &c., are the grizzly monsters with which the nursing fathers and moth ers of democracy frighten their children into obe dience just before the elections! It is well to remember another fact as explaining not only events which followed the declaration of war, but some others in our history. Jefferson de mocracy, from the beginning, made hatred of Eng land its chief stock in .trade. This feeling, from a tear, and be/ore a gun had been fired in the conflict ! For what, then did we spend ouj hundred millions of dollars and thirty thousand lives ? 440 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, variety of causes, is indigenous to the masses of our people. It is greatly increased, as well in amount . us in vehemence, by the large foreign element in our population, it being a curious fact that emigrants and refugees of all nations, come hither with an active dislike of England. Democracy at the beginning, and democracy still, avails itself of this sentiment native as well as foreign. The main cause of the overthrow of the federalists, was, that they had to bear the burden of alleged friendship to England. The war party perfectly well understood, and of course used, this hostility to England ; and the British government, as if to make the conflict inevitable, added to the inherent fuel of popular prejudice, the flame of indignation arising from repeated insult and injury. In this state of things, the foreign popula tion, already very numerous, exercised a powerful influence, not only in bringing on and sustaining the war, but in imparting something of their own violence to the discussions of the time. It is no torious that at this period, a large number of for eigners, with feelings lacerated by exile, and all turned into channels of hostility to Great Britain,* held influential positions, either as members of Con- * John Randolph complained that almost every leading press in favo' of the war, was conducted by men who had but recently escaped from the tyranny or the justice of the British government. He gave as in stances the Aurora and the Democratic Press, of Philadelphia, one edit ed by Duane and the other by Binns ; the Whig at Baltimore, edited by Baptiste Irving ; and the Intelligencer at Washington, by Gales. Fos ter, the British Minister at Washington when the war was declared. HISTORICAL, ANRCDOTICAL, KTC. 441 gress or editors of papers, and these co-operating with the democrats infused into the war partisan ship, a spirit of intolerance and rancor, perhaps with out example in our history. It was not surprising, therefore, that riot and bloodshed should come at the beginning, or that inveterate prejudice should be per petuated to the end. In the city of Baltimore there was a paper called the Federal Republican, edited by a highly respect able and talented young gentleman, named Alexan der Hanson. In announcing the declaration of war, this journal also announced, in terms moderate but firm, a determination to continue to speak with the same freedom as before. This was heresy, which democratic papacy deemed worthy of fire and fagot. The decree had gone forth that independence was conspiracy, and opposition was treason. The mob at Baltimore, largely composed of foreigners, in the spirit of their leaders, deemed the conduct of the editor of the Republican worthy of instant punish ment. Two days after his offense that is, on the evening of the 22d of June an infuriated rabble, headed by a French apothecary, proceeded to his printing-office, demolished the building, and laid the stated soon after in the British House of Commons, that, among: the mem bers of Congress who voted for the war, there were no less than sis late members of the Society of United Irishmen ! Randolph, in allusion to the spirit of menace and intolerance which was manifested in Congress by the war party, sarcastically suggested, more than once, that he felt himself in danger of being tarred and feathered, for expressing his hon est convictions. Sec IL'illrtlk'x Ifittiiry. second series, vol. iii. 317. 443 i. K-iTEks moo KAPHICAL, whole establishment in ruins. Hanson, fortunately, was in the country, and his partner, though pursued, and hunted from house to house, finally escaped. The magistrates offered no opposition, and the mob, thus encouraged by tolerance and success, proceeded to wreak their patriotic vengeance in various direc tions, and upon a variety of objects. A suggestive specimen of their fury was manifested in burning down the house of a free negro, who had spoken in friendly terms of the British nation ! The Federal Republican was temporarily re-estab lished at Georgetown, in the District of Columbia : after a time, however, it was removed to Baltimore, Hanson and his friends deeming it their duty to vin dicate the independence of the press, thus violently assailed. They expected a struggle, and prepared for it. They applied to the authorities for protec tion, but the mayor refused to interfere, and left town, doubtless for the purpose of permitting the mob to have its way. As evening approached, they gath ered around the printing-office, and began the attack. Hanson was attended by Gen. Henry Lee and Gen. Lingan, both revolutionary officers, and some twenty other friends. These received the attack, the doors and windows being first strongly barricaded. Noth ing, however, could resist the assailants : they burst in, and were fired upon by the defenders, one man being killed, and several wounded. The authorities now interfered, and upon an express stipulation of HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC AL, ETC. 443 protection, Hanson and his party surrendered arid were conducted to prison. On their way, they were crowded upon, insulted, and threatened by the rab ble. The promise of the authorities was not kept : the prison was left unguarded, the licensed mob broke in. In the confusion which followed, six or seven of the prisoners escaped : two were saved by the human ity and presence of mind of a prisoner confined for crime, and who diverted the pursuit by some ingenious fiction. The fate of the rest was horrible indeed. They were thrown down the steps of the jail, where they lay in a bleeding and mangled heap for three hours, being tortured by kicks, penknives stuck into their flesh, and hot candle-grease dropped into their eyes. This revelry was embellished with cries of " Jefferson ! Jefferson !" " Madison ! Madison !" and other demo cratic watchwords. General Lingan expired amid these tortures ; Gen eral Lee survived, but was made a cripple for life. Hanson was sent out of the city, concealed in a hay cart. One poor fellow was tarred and feathered, and carted through the city ; when he fell back as if dead, the feathers were set on fire to revive him. Having committed various other similar outrages, the mob at last ceased its labors. The city authorities examined the case, and laid the blame at the door of the con tumacious editor, while a Baltimore jury, without hesitation, acquitted the rioters ! The leaders of the war party, as well in their pa- 444 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, pers as in their speech, took the side of the rioters, and put the responsibility upon their victims. The example thus set and thus countenanced, was fol lowed in various places, and especially at Norfolk and Buffalo. A spirit of menace spread over the whole country, and even at Hartford there was a fer ment among the advocates of the war, which threat ened to break out into open violence, against those who dared to condemn it. This rose to such a point that the authorities deemed it necessary to exercise vigilance and be prepared to meet any such contin gency. Such was the first chapter in the war of 1812 ; and it is, I repeat, important to be remembered, for it ex hibits at once the principle and the practice of the dominant party in relation to that contest. It as sumed then, as I have already stated, and it has ever maintained since, that opposition was treason. On this principle it is that democracy and its disciples have since written the history of New England at this period, and upon this have consigned her to un mitigated reproach. But partisan history is not a final judgment: truth and justice survive, and al ready this high court of appeal is, if I mistake not, rendering a very different verdict. If thus the first news of the coming conflict caused a general gloom in the public mind at the North, reflec tion only served to deepen it. The remembrances of the war of the Revolution had not wholly passed away. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL. ETC. 445 Connecticut had especially suffered by the inroads of the enemy : her towns and villages New Haven, Dan- bury, Nor-walk, Fairfield, New London, and others having experienced all the horrors of massacre, con flagration, and violence. It was natural that an event which suggested a renewal of the conflict, and with the same proud and powerful enemy, should have struck deep into the hearts of the people. And be sides, two-thirds of the inhabitants throughout New England, were politically opposed to the Administra tion which now conducted the affairs of the country, and this opposition was rendered intense by a convic tion that, for a considerable period, the course of the government had been ruinous, if not hostile, to the interests of this section of the country. They were still federalists, and of the Washington type. They were for the good old way in politics, religion, and morals. They had, as I have before stated, a special dread of democracy, which had originated with Jef ferson, and which catching something of the spirit of the French Revolution, and being violently prop agated in the United States by foreigners, drunk with the fanaticism of that day was deemed by the sober people of the North as tainted with infidelity and licentiousness, threatening alike to the peace of society and the stability of our institutions. This party, thus formed, had triumphed in the country at large, and now for twelve years had acl- ministered the government. During that period, a 446 LKTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, series of acts the Embargo, Non-importation,* &c. had been adopted, which seemed like blows aimed at New England, where the interests of the people were specially involved in commerce. In every point of view, these were deemed as having proved disastrous : not a single national object, professed to be aimed at, * The series of acts here alluded to, and called the "Restrictive Measures,' 1 '' originated in the various decrees of France and England, then engaged in deadly hostilities with each other. These decrees con sisted of the British Orders in Council, 16th May, 1806, declaring the ports and rivers of France, from Brest to the Elbe, in a state of block ade, and condemning to seizure and confiscation such vessels as viola ted this decree. November 21, following, Bonaparte issued his famous Berlin Decree, declaring the British Islands in a state of blockade. January 6, 1807, the British government retaliated, prohibiting the entire Coasting trade with France. November 11, following, came the British Orders in Council, prohibiting all neutral nations from trading With France or her allies, except upon the payment of tribute. December 17, Bonaparte retaliated by his Milan Decree, confiscating every vessel found in any of his ports which had allowed herself to be searched, or had paid the tribute demanded by England. Thus American commerce, between these two wrestling giants, was seriously embarrassed, though, as it appears, it was not greatly dimin ished. The carrying trade was extensive, and our country grew rich and prosperous. Our exports were a hundred millions of dollars : our shipping a million and a half of tons. (See Lloyd's Speech in the Senate of the United States, November 21, 1808.) In this state of things, Mr. Jef ferson astounded the country by proposing an embargo upon all ship ping within the United States the avowed object being to protect our commerce from the European belligerents. No measure could have been more objectionable to the ship-owners, in whose behalf it was osten sibly proposed. It passed into a law December 22d, 1807. This was hailed as a " magnanimous measure" by France ; at first it was re ceived with alarm by England, against whom it was really leveled. Mr. Jefferson believed that it would withhold from England our produce, and starve her into submission ; at the same time, he no doubt desired to benefit France, by thus inflicting a heavy blow upon her adversary. That nnch was one design of the embargo was proved by supplemen tary acts, forbidding intercourse between the United States and the con ligii'nis British Provinces. ' tlo\v," it was asked, "can a law which HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 447 had been attained by these measures. The sincerity of the government was, indeed, deeply questioned, for there seemed to be evidences that in professing one thing, it really sought to attain others. Despite the long indictment set forth in the Declaration of War against Great Britain, it was extensively be- forbids a Vermont farmer from going into Canada to sell potash, protect our shipping from being seized by the European belligerents ?" There was, perhaps, never an act of greater despotism than that of the embargo. It was not limited in time or space : it seemed universal and perpetual. It consigned to ruin and bankruptcy thousands of our citizens ; it spread gloom and despair in our seaports ; it left our ships rotting at the wharves ; it drove our seamen into foreign service. It not only inflicted these evils upon our own country, but in some respects it benefited Great Britain, against whom it was leveled. It stimulated the British West Indians to vary their crops, and make themselves inde pendent of our products; it enriched Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick by turning into their hands the supplying of bread-stuffs and naval stores ; it built up their navigation at the expense of ours ; it gave to other nations the rich carrying trade of the world. Thus this measure proved to be, in practice, as destructive as it was erroneous in principle. What would the world think of a universal and perpetual embargo on our shipping now ? And it was almost as absurd in 1807 as it would be in 1856. It was, in fact, sinister as to its origin, absurd as a measure of policy, wrong in principle, and abor tive in its effects. It was, nevertheless, continued in force until March, 1809, a period of nearly fifteen months, having spread poverty and ruin over great part of New England. As a substitute for this measure, a non-importation act was passed, prohibiting, for one year, all commer cial intercourse with both France and England. On the 1st of May, 1810, Congress passed an act excluding all British and French armed vessels from entering the waters of the United States ; but providing, also, that if either of these nations should modify its decrees before the 3d of March, 1811, intercourse with it should bo renewed. This condition was apparently complied with by France (though it afterward appeared to be otherwise), and in November it was announced by the President's proclamation. The difficulties with Great Britain, as to her blockade and Orders in Council, however, continued, and constituted one of the principal grounds of the war, ;u set fort 1 1 in the Declaration. A few days after this declaration, however. ifws arrived that these acts hud buen repealed, on the 22d of Juno, '148 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL. lieved that this measure had its true origin in an in trigue for the presidency.* The people did not be lieve the war necessary : they did not feel that it was declared for patriotic purposes. Above all, they held that the country was in no state of preparation for such a struggle ; and they doubted the fitness and capacity of the administration to carry it on with vigor and success. These were the views of the mass of the people in New England. Nor were they alone. Many of the leaders of the democratic party were adverse to this measure ; Mr. Madison, the President, believed it to be rash, and was only persuaded into it by the impe rious exigency of following the war-cry of young and vaulting democracy, in order to secure his sec ond election. Gallatin yielded to it, from a feeling of party necessity. Randolph openly and strenu ously opposed it from the beginning to the end. Stephen Howe Bradley, sixteen years a senator from Vermont, and the ablest democratic member of the Senate from New England, earnestly counseled find hence it was urged that the war should cease, as one of its princi pal causes was withdrawn. Such, however, was not the view of our government. * " That domination over public opinion which the war party so long manifested, &c., have conspired to shield Madison from the obloquy which must ever rest upon this part of his conduct that of having been driven by intimidation, and seduced by personal interest and ambition, into a course of public conduct, in his own judgment improvident, if ubt highly dangerous." " The same convictions were fully shared by Gallatin, and probably also by Monroe, the President's two principal cabinet officers." HU- dretk'e United States, second series, vol. iii. p. 334. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTIC A L, ETC. 449 Madison against it.* Fifteen democratic members of Congress voted against the Declaration of War. There was, in fact, a large body of reflecting demo crats in the country who did not approve of the war, though the vehemence of those who supported it kept them in silence, or perhaps forced them to ac quiescence. While such was the fact as to many leading democrats, the federalists, with one voice, united in its condemnation. If such were the objections of New England to the war, there were others of equal force to the pro posed method of carrying it on. The plan of the government was to invade Canada, conquer it, and hold it as a pledge of peace. In New England, there were objections of principle, founded as well in the Constitution, as in policy and morals, against aggres sive war, especially for avowed purposes of conquest. And besides, they held that the ocean, and not the land, was the true theater upon which we were best qualified to cope with the enemy. These, I repeat, were the views of New England, by which I mean the people of New England not of a few politicians and party leaders, but of the great body of the citizens that is, the entire federal party, constituting a large majority of the voters. It is a well-known characteristic of this part of our country, that all classes read, reflect, and form opinions. These * General Bradley "was so dissatisfied with the war, that soon after, he withdrew altogether from public life. 450 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, give direction to politicians, not politicians to them. It is important to keep this in view ; it is indispensable to the formation of a just judgment upon questions which immediately ensued, and which are matters of dispute to the present day. It will be seen that even the Hartford Convention originated -with the people, and was a measure of necessity, dictated by the state of public feeling and opinion, arising from'the condi tion of the country at large, and New England in particular. I thus present this picture of the actual state of things at the commencement of the war, not to arraign either party as wholly wrong, or to vindi cate either as wholly right. It was an era of high party excitement, and in the shock, all were doubt less forced into false positions. Yet, making due allowance for these natural and pardonable obliqui ties, on one side and the other, and instructed by subsequent events as recorded by history, I do not hesitate to say that these opinions of the New Eng land people had a serious and just foundation. Op position to the war was, therefore, not only their right, but, with these convictions, it was their duty. To have submitted to the doctrine that opposition is treason, would have made them unworthy of the name and privileges of freemen. That their opposition was, on the whole, as moderate in spirit and wise in form, as it was just in principle, is also my firm convic tion. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 451 LETTER XXVIII Specks of War in (he Atmosphere The FirstYear Operations on the Land and on the Sea The Wickedness of the Federalists The Second Tear The Connecticut Militia Decatur driven into the Thames Connecticut in trouble I become a Soldier My First and Last Campaign,. MY DEAR 0****** I am not about to write the " History of the War of 1812" though that has not yet been done. We have abundance of books under that title, but a so ber and just account, rising above the party fire and smoke of that day, and above the sinister influences of this, is yet to be written.* It is, however, a task I shall not undertake either in these pages or else where. I am writing my own recollections, and it is only as these afford glimpses of the period alluded to, that I shall notice it. I pass over a variety of things, still in my mem ory : the gradual deepening of the gloom that spread over society as the events of the war drew on ; the bankruptcies of merchants ; the suspension of specie payments by the banks ; the difficulty of getting money ; the gradual withering of the resources of the people ; the scarcity of a multitude of articles, alike * Hildreth's History of the United States is a strong book vigorous in its style and manly in its spirit. Its sketch of the war of 1812 is a mere outline, but so far as it goes it seems to me calculated to satisfy the reader who wishes to obtain an impartial and true view of events, and of the men that participated in them 452 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL. of luxury, convenience, and necessity ; the stagnation of trade ; the impoverishment and depression of the laboring classes; the crushing of the hopes and prospects of the young, about entering upon the the ater of active and independent life : in short, that gen eral sense of anxiety, poverty, and disappointment which clouded nearly every brow and .nearly every heart. I pass over those hells of drinking, deception, and degradation, called recruiting rendezvous. I pass over the scream of fife and tuck of drum daily exhibited in the streets by a miserable set of young men, for the most part seduced into the army, either by artifice or liquor. I pass over the patriotic pul sations of the democracy, and the lowering disgust of federalism, as the glorious army of patriots some times ten or a dozen men led by a puffy sergeant, choking with martial ardor or a close-fitting stock, passed through our city on their way to the Conquest of Canada. I pass by Col. C a sample of a large part of the new army officers of that period a raw river boatman, suddenly converted into a colonel, and strutting, with his martial cloak around him, like a new-fledged Shanghai cock. I pass by the arrival in our town of Dearborn " Major-general Dearborn Commander-in-chief of the American army" a great man, and causing a great sensation, then but " Granny Dearborn" a very short time after. Leaving these and similar incidents entirely out of view, and taking a long leap to the close of the year HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 453 what saitb the record ? General Hull had surren dered in August less than sixty days after the dec laration of war to the British at Detroit, giving up his whole army of two thousand men, with all our forts, garrisons, and territories in that quarter. This, the direct result of mismanagement on the part of the Administration, as well in planning the campaign as in giving an important command to an imbecile of ficer was the substance of the first year's operations against Canada. We just caught a Tartar that is, the Tartar took us and our territory, instead of our taking him ! General Dearborn had indeed three armies afoot some ten thousand men, stretching along the Canada line, from Plattsburg to Michigan ; and there was some fighting, but nothing effectual was done. Never was a country in a situation more humiliating than ours a great nation, having boast ed of overrunning Canada in two months seeing its own armies beaten, baffled, and retiring ingloriously into winter quarters, before an enemy which we had covered with epithets of ridicule and contempt ! The federalists were very wicked people, and put ting finger to nose, as they met the democrats, they said" We told you so !" Now, " I told you so !" is not only a very provoking, but, in general, a very mean argument. The federalists were very wrong indeed positively unchristian. Charity tells us to comfort the unfortunate, and to pour balm into the wounded heart. The federalists did no such thing. LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Oh, how the Connecticut Mirror, in the hands of Theodore Dwight, did cast its arrows, right and left, at the war audits authors! Poor "Jim Madison:" poor " Granny Dearborn !" It was indeed very, very provoking, very improper. While thus failure and disgrace attended our op erations upon the land, light broke in upon us from the ocean. On the 19th of August, three days after Hull's surrender, another Hull the gallant Commo dore met the Guerriere, and it was ours. Again the wicked federalists said " We told you so ! that's our thunder." This was true enough. The federal ists had built up the navy : Jefferson and his party had opposed it. The federalists had urged that if we must go to war the strength of the country should be put into ships, and that we should meet the enemy upon the sea. " Not so" said democra cy " we will take Canada !" It was very provoking of Commodore Hull to capture the Guerriere, for it gave aid and comfort to the enemy these black hearted federalists ! However, other commanders fol lowed Hull's example. On the 18th of October, Capt. Jones, in the Wasp, took the British sloop-of- war Frolic ; and on the 25th of the same month, the fierce and fiery Decatur, in the frigate United States, captured the British frigate Macedonian. In Decem ber, Bainbridge conquered the Java, after a fearful conflict. " Hurra for the navy i we told you so !" said the black-hearted federalists. HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTJCAL, ETC. 455 Such was the first year of the war : the campaign of 1813 opened upon a wider and more varied field. Among its incidents upon the land, were the disas trous operations of Winchester, at Frenchtown which clothed all Kentucky in mourning for its gal lant sons, fallen in battle ; our capture of York, in Canada, costing the life of the lamented Pike ; Har rison's effective resistance at the siege of Fort Meigs ; the battle of the Thames, and the death of the great Indian chief, Tecumseh important events, leading finally to the recovery of Detroit. To these were add ed the retirement of General Dearborn the President insisting he was sick, while the general, not taking or not relishing the joke, insisted that he was never better in his life ; the succession of Wilkinson as commander-in-chief soon, however, to be superseded and tried by court-martial for his blunders and fail ures ; the magnificent attempt to take Montreal, and its equally magnificent abortion ; and finally, late in the year, the bloody and desolating ravages by the British, of Buffalo, Black Bock, Lewiston, &c., &c., in revenge for our burning the Canadian village of Newark, by which we turned four hundred helpless people out of doors in midwinter. Thus the year, which had presented some brilliant instances of cour age and conduct, closed in general disappointment and humiliation, so far as our land operations were concerned. " We told you so !" said the wicked fed eralists, and many a democratic ear tingled at the gibe. 456 LKTTKKS BIOGRAPHICAL, Yet light again with some sad and disheartening hadows came from the sea. On the 21st of Feb ruary, Captain Lawrence took the Peacock, but on the 4th of June following, gave up his life on the deck of the Chesapeake captured by the Shannon be queathing, however, to his country the glorious motto, worthy of all great occasions " Don't give up the ship !" On the 14th of August the American Argus quailed to the British Pelican ; in September, the British Boxer became the prize of the American Enterprise. A greater triumph was at hand. On the 10th of this month. Perry met the enemy on Lake Erie, and " they were ours !" It was indeed a glorious victory ; the entire British fleet two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop falling into our hands. "We told you so: that's our thunder!" said the exultant but provoking federalists. " It is our thun der, too !" said the democrats. " Hurra for the navy I" said both parties. " Here's to Hull and Decatur and Jones and Biddle and Bainbridge, and all the rest !" said everybody. There was one point of union at last, and so it was to the end of the war. The little navy had conquered democratic prejudice, and fought itself into national favor. It was indeed a glorious thing saving the honor of the country, tarnished by imbecil ity and disaster upon the land, and teaching a wise lesson as to the true policy to be pursued, in case of future conflict with any European enemy : let us meet upon the sea! HISTORICAL, AMECDOT'ICAL. ETC. 4.,, I must not omit an episode of the war at this pe riod, in which I was concerned. On the first of June, 1813, Commodore Decatur, in the United States, at tended by the Macedonian and the sloop-of-war Hor net, having passed from New York through the Sound, attempted to get out to sea by way of Mon- tauk Point. Here they were met by the British fleet, under Commodore Hardy, and driven into the Thames at New London. The enemy's force was soon in creased by the arrival of other ships of war, and these, anchoring off Gull Island so as to block up the port, seemed to threaten a speedy attack. Great panic immediately ensued, as well at New London as along the borders of the Sound. The specie of the banks in that city was removed to Norwich, and the wo men and children dispersed themselves among the interior towns and villages. No adequate means of defense existed along the line of the New England coast seven hundred miles in extent. The regu lar troops had nearly all been marched off to invade Canada. The general government had, furthermore, called upon the New England States to place a por tion of the militia at their disposal for this object. This had been refused on several grounds : one was, that the Constitution provided only three contingen cies, in which the militia could be lawfully placed under the command of the President, and these were, to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, and execute the laws. Neither of these emergencies existed in the VOL. I. 20 4-58 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, present case. Another ground of refusal was, that the coasts, being left defenceless, the retaining of the mili tia was a measure dictated by every consideration of prudence. Still another objection was, that the general government had so organized and distributed the na tional forces, as to make the militia fall under the command of the army officers a principle always resisted by the country, in every period of its national history. On the whole, the government scheme, in respect to the militia, was regarded, and very justly, as analogous to the systems of conscription in the military despotisms of Europe, and if once tolerated and passed into practice as alike hostile to our prin ciples and threatening to our liberties. The fear of seeing our freedom fall before some ambitious mili tary leader, had prevailed in the convention which framed our Constitution, and it was this which had induced that far-seeing body to circumscribe the power of the President, in regard to the militia, with in the clear and narrow limits already mentioned.' Prudence and patriotism alike dictated, in the present instance, that this great bulwark of liberty should be maintained. These, fortunately for the country, were the views of the New England States at this period, and upon these they acted. There was then and has been since, much clamor by the war party against their conduct in this instance, but every lover of his country should render homage to the wisdom and patriotism of those HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC. 459 leaders who guided the councils of New England, at this crisis. The question was then settled, and doubt less settled forever, that by no artifice can the system of conscription, giving unlimited command over the militia to the President, be consummated. The rule of the Constitution, in this respect, has been con firmed, as not only a principle in theory, but as a rule of practice. I remember the discussions on this subject which took place at the North, during this period. Besides the objections already mentioned against placing the militia at the disposal of the President and besides the general hostility of the people to sending their sons forth for the avowed purpose of conquest there was another motive, and a very active one, tending in the same direction. The new army officers, with some honorable exceptions, were held in very light esteem, as well personally as professionally. Al most without exception, the appointments were bestowed upon partisans of the President. Many of the officers were notoriously unfit for the places given to them.* * This was certainly the case ill New England, and I know of no cir cumstance in the whole conduct of the war, that operated so powerfully as this, to destroy the confidence of the people in the government, and to exasperate them against it. Many of the officers, especially those of the lower grade, had no qualifications for the places they filled but their democracy. This was pointed out to the President : he was advised that if he would commission certain persons of the federal party, who were conspicuous for their military qualifications, and who were also willing to receive commissions, that it would do more than any thing else to break the opposition to the war. This he declined, saying that the offices belonged of right to those who supported his administration, and besides, that he should disgust his own party by such a course. 460 L OTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Dearborn especially was well known in New Eng land, and was regarded as wholly incompetent to the responsible command devolved upon him. Hull's surrender, Dearborn's failures, and Wilkinson's abor tions, justified and increased this general want of con fidence in the new army appointments. Even if other objections had not existed, the people would have revolted at the idea of sending their sons to perish ingloriously along the Canadian borders, under the direction of incompetent commanders, appointed on merely partisan principles. But now a new state of things had arisen in Connec ticut : our own territory was threatened. For this, the State government had made wise preparation, and on their part there was no hesitation.* It was midsummer a period when the husbandmen could * Party vehemence has represented that the New England States, at this period, not only opposed the war by words but by deeds ; that in fact they were prepared to go over to the enemy. Nothing could be more untrue. Whatever might be the political opinions of the feder alists, when the war was declared, Great Britain was regarded as an en emy. I can affirm, that, although I was in the very midst of the " old federalists" of Connecticut, I never heard a word fall from the lips of any one of them, expressive of an opposite sentiment. I no doubt caught the feelings of those around me, and I am conscious of having always felt, through the war, that the British were our national ene mies. The records of Connecticut prove, conclusively, that this idea was as strongly entertained by the government of that State as by the general government itself. The following are extracts from the doings of the legislature, in their extra session, called in August, 1818, in con sequence of the declaration of war ; and the conduct of the State was ia accordance with these views. " War, always calamitous, in this case portentous of great evils, enact ed against a nation powerful in her armies, and without a rival on the - ocean, can not be viewed by us but with the deepest regret. A nation HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 41 ( ill afford to leave their farms : so orders were sent by Governor Smith* to dispatch at once the companiea of militia from the larger towns to the defense of New London, and the neighboring country. At that tirm I belonged to an artillery company, and this was among' those ordered to the coast. I received a summons at four o'clock in the afternoon, to be ready to march the next day at sunrise. I went at once to consult without fleets, without armies, with an impoverished treasury, with a frontier by sea and land extending many hundred miles, feebly defend ed waging a war, hath, not first ' counted the cost.' " By the Constitution of the United States, the power of declaring war is vested in Congress. They have declared war against Great Brit ain. However much this measure is regretted, the General Assembly, ever regardful of their duty to the general government, will perform all those obligations resulting from this act. With this view, they have at this session provided for the more effectual organization of the mil itary force of the State, and a supply of the munitions of war. These will be employed, should the public exigencies require it, in defense of this State, and of our sister States, in compliance with the Constitution ; and it is not to be doubted, but that the citizens of this State will be found, at the constitutional call of their country, among the foremost in its defense." * Eoger Griswold was Governor at the time the war was declared, but in October, 1812, during the session of the legislature, he died at his residence in Norwich. John Cotton Smith, then Lieutenant-governor, became acting governor, and the next April was elected Governor of the State. Eoger Griswold was born at Lyme in 1762 : having graduated at Yale College, he devoted himself to the law, and soon ro e to emi nence. In 1794 he was elected to Congress, where he continued for many years, being a leader of the federal party. Mr. Webster once told me that he considered him one of the most accomplished parliamentary debaters our country has produced. During his time there wa an Irish man in. Congress from Vermont, named Matthew Lyon, of whom tho poet Honeywood thus sings : " I'm rugged Mat, The Democrat Berate me as you please, sir : True Paddy-whack, Ne'er turn'd his back, Nor bow'd his head to Caesar." 402 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, my uncle who, by the way, was at that time not only mayor of the city, but Lieutenant-governor of the State. He had a short time before promised to make me one of his aids, and perhaps thought I should expect him now to fulfill his engagement. He soon set that matter at rest. " You must of course go," said he. " We old fed eralists can not shelter our nephews, when there is a question of defending our own territory." " Ought I not to consult my parents ?" said I. I will go down and see them to-morrow " he re plied. " Certainly then I shall go : I wish to go : my only feeling is that my mother may have some anxiety." " I will see her to-morrow : you may be at ease on that subject. Be ready to march at sunrise, ac cording to your orders. I will come and see you before you start." The next morning, while it was yet dark, he came, gave me letters of introduction to Judge Brainard, father of the poet, Judge Perkins, and General Wil liams. He also supplied me with ten dollars, a wel come addition to my light purse. After a little ad vice, he said " I have only one thing to add if you come to a fight, don't run away till the rest do. Good-by!" This man, one day, spit in Griswold's i'ace in the Representatives' Hall, and as the democratic miijority refused to punish him, Griswold jrave him a severe beating with his cane. Thia was the first of those indecent brawls which have disgraced onr national assembly. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 463 The next morning June 7, 1813 about sunrise, the whole company, nearly sixty in number, mount ed in wagons, departed. At sunset, we were on the heights, two miles back of New London. No provi sion had been made for us, and so we went supper- less to bed, in a large empty barn. I scarcely closed my eyes, partly because it was my first experiment in sleeping on the floor, and partly because of the terrific snoring of a fellow-soldier, by the name of C . . . ., who chanced to be at my side. Never have I heard such a succession of choking, suffocating, stran gling sounds as issued from his throat. I expected that he would die, and indeed once or twice I thought he was dead. Strange to say, he got up the next morning in excellent condition, and seemed, indeed, to feel better for the exercise. This man became quite a character before the campaign was over : he got the title of ^Eolus, and as he could not be tolerated in the barracks, he was provided with a tent, at a good distance, where he blew his blast without restraint. I need only add, that, at the close of the campaign, lie was the fattest man in the company. I was glad to see the daylight. The weather was fine, and as the sun came up, we saw the British fleet some half dozen large ships of war lying off the mouth of the Thames. They seemed very near at hand, and for the first time I realized my situation that of a soldier, who was likely soon to be engaged in battle. I said nothing of my emotions : indeed, 4-61 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, v/ords were unnecessary. I watched the counte nances of my companions as they first caught a view of the black and portentous squadron, and I read in. almost every bosom a reflection of my own feelings. We were, however, not all sentimentalists. There were among us, as -doubtless in all such companies, a supply of witty, reckless Gallios, who gave a cheerful turn to our thoughts. We soon dispersed among the inhabitants, scattered over the neighboring hills and valleys, for breakfast. Like hungry wolves, we fell upon the lean larders, and left famine behind. CM course every one offered to pay, but not one person would accept a farthing : we were, indeed, received as protectors and deliverers. It was something, after all, to be soldiers ! With our stomachs fortified, and our consciousness flattered, we came cheerfully to gether. At ten o'clock, we were mustered, and began our march, all in our best trim : cocked hats, long-tailed blue coats, with red facings, white pantaloons, and shining cutlasses at our sides. Oar glittering cannon moved along with the solemnity of elephants. It was, in fact, a fine company all young men, and many from the best families in Hartford. Our captain, John son, was an eminent lawyer, of martial appearance, and" great taste for military affairs. He afterward rose to the rank of general. Mosely, the first-lieu tenant, was six feet four inches high a young law yer, nephew of Oliver Wolcott and of high social HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 465 nnd professional standing. Screamed the fife, rolled the drum as we entered New London ! The streets presented some confusion, for still the people were removing back into the country, as an attack was daily expected. A few military companies were also gathering into the town. We were, however, not wholly overlooked : women put their heads out of the windows, and smiled their gratitude as we passed along. Men stopped, and surveyed us with evident signs of approbation. Louder screamed our fife, deeper rolled our drum, and the glorious music echoed and re-echoed bounded and rebounded from the reverberating walls of the streets. It was a glorious thing to belong to such a company ! At last we came to a halt in one of the public squares. Then there was racing and chasing of aid-de-camps, in buff and feathers, for four mortal hours, during which our martial pride wilted a little in the broil ing sun. At four o'clock in the afternoon, we were transported across the Thames, to the village of Gro- ton, and took up our quarters in a large house, on the bank of the river, vacated for our use. Two immense kettles the one filled with junks of salt beef and the other with unwashed potatoes were swung upon the kitchen trammels, and at six o'clock in the evening we were permitted each to fish out his dinner from the seething mass. That was my first soldier's supper ; and after all, it was a welcome and relishing meal. 20* LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, LETTER XXIX. Description of Neiv Tendon Fort TrumbullFort Grixwold The Brit ish Fleet Decatur and his Ships in the Thames Commodore Ifardy Letters from Home Performances of the Hartford Company Fishing A few British Broad/fides Apprehensions of an Attack Great Prep arations Sober Second Thoughts On Guard A Suspicious Customer Alarm, alarm ! Company called out Expectations of instant Battle Corporal TSs Nightmare Consequences'- Influence of Camp Life Return to Hartford Land Warrants Blue Lights Decatur, Biddle, and Jones. MY DEAR C****** I must attempt to give you an idea of our posi tion, as now established in our barracks. New Lon don, as you doubtless know, is situated on the west ern bank of the River Thames, three miles from its mouth. It has now ten or twelve thousand inhabit ants, but at the time I am speaking of, there were not more than four thousand. The entrance to the river is broad, and affords a fine harbor. This is defended by Fort Trumbull on the western side of the river, half a mile below the city. It was commanded, at two several periods, by my grandfather, Colonel Ely,* during the Revolutionary war, but was then a place of little strength. It fell into disrepair, but had been * " Dr. John Ely, of Lynic (1776), performed a tour of duty here na captain and major, and also as physician and surgeon. In July he was sent to visit the northern army, and employ his skill in arresting tins small-pox, which was then raging in the camp with great virulence." CauVffMs History of New London, p. 521. Colonels Latitner, Ely, &c., performed tours of duty, with their respective regiments, at New Lon don and Groton, 1777. Ibid. p. 526. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. -467 rebuilt, and contained a garrison of six or seven hun dred soldiers during the war of 1812. It has recently been reconstructed on an ample scale, and is at pres ent one of the most complete of our fortifications, mounting eighty heavy guns, and having accomrno dations for eight hundred men. Opposite to New London is the village of Groton, the main street running along the river bank ; on an eminence some hundred rods from the river, and com manding a view of the surrounding country, inclu ding the harbor and the islands which lie scattered near it in the Sound, is the site of Fort Griswold the scene of one of the saddest tragedies in our revo lutionary annals. Here is now a monument one hun dred and thirty feet in height, erected by the State, in commemoration of this event. The old fort is, however, in ruins, though a small attached battery, lower down, and more suited to effective defense of the harbor, has been rebuilt. In my time, Fort Gris wold was in tolerable repair. Our company, as well as other portions of the militia, labored upon it, and strengthened it, as well by completing its works as by erecting a small redoubt upon the southeastern side. To the defense of the latter, in case of attack, the Hartford company was assigned. About a week after our arrival, over a thousand militia, gathered from various parts of the State, were stationed along the river, chiefly on the eastern bank. Di-catur had drawn his three ships up the stream as I.KTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL far as possible, some twelve miles from its mouth, and near the city of Norwich. Here the river is re duced to three hundred feet in width, and flows be tween high rocky banks. On one of these, called Allyn's Mountain commanding a wide view even as far south as the harbor light intrenchments were thrown up, being deemed an effectual defense against any attack likely to be made by the enemy. The British squadron had been for some time on the coast. As early as April, Commodore Hardy, in the flag-ship Kamiles, with the Orpheus and other vessels, having erected their standard on Block Isl and, cruised in this quarter. The people of New London, who had hitherto remained sheltered from the war, were now suddenly reminded of the British fleet which came hither under the vindictive Arnold* * Long Island Sound, and its shores on both sides, were the scenes of active and stirring events during the Revolutionary war. This shoot of water, as well as Long Island itself, and the city of New York at it* western extremity, were for a long time in the possession of the enemy. Litrge British fleets were often seen sweeping through the Sound, nnd always carried terror into the towns and villages of Connecticut along the northern shore. On the 5th of September, 1781, a fleet of thirty- two vessels, of all classes, conveyed to New London a force of about two thousand men. These were landed the next day, and marched upon the town. All was panic and confusion among the inhabitants. Colonel Ledyard, with such means as could be mustered, took his station at Fort Griswold. A force of twenty-three men at Fort Trumbull which was only a battery for defense toward the water, and open behind on the approach of the enemy, fired a volley, and crossed the river to Fort Griswold. Arnold, amid random shots which did some execution, en tered the town. The work of destruction then commenced. The torch was applied, and a long line of fire soon enveloped the place. Shops, htores, housos, vessels, wharves, boats, rigging, were enveloped in smoke and flame. Hogsheads of sugar and rum, and tubs of butter wero knocked in, and the flumes, seizing upon the alcohol and grease, me HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 469 thirty years before, and left behind him an imr^rish able remembrance of outrage and infamy. The British commander, Hardy, conducted with the utmost courtesy and humanity, but still there was a feeling of uneasiness along the shore. This was deepened into anxiety and alarm, on the arrival of Decatur and his ships, and the consequent gathering of the British forces around the harbor, as if for at- in rivers of fire along the gutters of the streets. Arnold was born near this place, and was well acquainted with it. He used his informa tion to effect the destruction of the best parts of the city, nnd nearly nil its stores of merchandise, &c. On the other side of the river a deeper tragedy was being enacted. Colonel Eyre had been dispatched against Fort Griswold with two Brit ish regiments. The fort itself was an oblong square, with bastions at opposite angles its long side fronting the river. Its defenders, under Colonel Ledyard, were but one hundred and fifty men. About noon the enemy made their attack in solid column. They were at first re ceived with a few deadly volleys, and then by a quick, steady, destruc tive fire. Both attack and defense were firm and determined. The men within seemed each a hero. The two British commanders fell. But the enemy at last conquered by numbers. They marched in, and Col. Ledyard ordered his men to throw down their arms. A few, however, in one of the bastions still resisted. This irritated the British, and they continued their deadly fire from the parapets, even upon the sur rendered Americans. At last, the British .major, Bromfield, on whom the command had devolved, entered, and demanded, " Who commands this fort ?" " I did," said Col. Ledyard, " but you do now." At the same time, he presented his sword, in token of submission. The ferocious command er took the weapon and plunged it in the owner's bosom ! At the same moment the attendants rushed upon the prostrate and bleeding vic tim, and dispatched him with their bayonets. The work of butchery then went on against the survivors. At last the enemy departed, leav ing eighty-five Americans dead, and about thirty-five regarded as mor tally wounded having first stripped them, and then leaving them ex posed to the broiling suii. More than half this butchery took place sifter the surrender A small number, who survived, were taken away as prisoners. Such was the desolating expedition of the traitor, Benedict Arnnlij, 470 I.KTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, tack^ When we arrived, the squadron consisted, 1 think, of two ships-of-the-line, two frigates, and a number of smaller vessels. There was, however, a constant movement among them the force being frequently diminished, and as frequently augmented. These changes were the occasion of constant alarm along the shore, and scarcely a day passed that we had not some rumor of a meditated attack. Such was the state of public affairs on the surface. As to myself, I was soon drilled into the habits of a soldier. I had been permitted to go to New London and deliver my letters of introduction. I received letters from home, and in one of these, from my father, which I have preserved, I find the following passages : ' We hope you will pay very exact attention to your conduct and behavior, while you are a soldier. You have our prayers for your welfare and that of your comrades. Study to ingra tiate yourself with them, by your kindness, and especially with your officers, by your cheerful obedience to their orders. We against New London. It adds to the horror, inspired by such de tails, to know that he was accompanied by a large number of Ameri cans, who, however, had joined the British, and thus came to aid in the work of death, rain, and despair. Such is war. The next day, the ships, having received the troops, departed, leaving a dreadful scene of havoc and desolation behind them. New London was, indeed, little better than a ruin. The memory of this event, and the natural hatred consequently in spired by the British name, still lives here and in the neighborhood. Tie anniversary of the massacre at Groton fort was long celebrated with sad solemnities. A lofty monument now points to heaven, in protect against the crime it records. Such deeds never die, and the world is dotted all over with them too many perpetrated by men who bore the British namo. Is this the explanation of the general dislike of Great I'.ri'.a'n. tlinniirhont the civilized world ? HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC. 4< 1 hear that there is an additional British force arrived within a few days. How Jong they will think it worth while to keep up the blockade at New London, is uncertain : they will not, at any rate, consult our convenience. We are in hopes the British will make no attack upon New London, and that you will not be called into a conflict with them. But we must leave this to the overruling of a merciful God, as also the issue, should he permit such an event. Should you be called to engage with them, I hope and trust that you will do your duty, and defend your country, which is just and right, though it may not be so to engage in offensive war. " I wish to remind you, my dear son, of the necessity of being prepared for death, at all times and by all persons. This is spe cially important to a soldier. This will arm you with courage to meet whatever God shall call you to experience. It is no evidence of courage for persons to rush into danger in a thought less or wicked manner ; it is a better and surer courage which rests upon a deep sense of duty, and which always keeps the soldier ready to die at any moment even at the beat of the drum." There, my dear C . . . ., is a specimen of old Pres byterian, Blue Light, Hartford Convention Federal ism, during the "late war!" It was good doctrine then, and it is good doctrine now : good to live by, and good to die by. At all events, as this letter came from home, and told me of the welfare of m^y friends ; as it came also with a large bundle of tea, sugar, dried beef, and other things, with several pairs of stockings, mended up by my mother, and abun dance of messages and good wishes, and sundry letters and scraps of letters it put me in good heart, wheth er for peace or war. Who would not be a soldier, it 4 i 2 I.K TTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, thereby he becomes the object of such sympathy ? Fortified by this aid and comfort,* I could cheerfully have gone to fight the British, or anybody else " where duty called me." The officers of our company were rigid disciphna rians, and accordingly we were drilled for about four hours each day. We soon gained much reputation for our martial exercises and our tidy appearance. Many people came over from New London to wit ness our performances. Among these were often persons of distinction. On two occasions, Decatur, Biddle, and Jones came to see us, and complimented us very heartily. On Sundays, we marched two miles to church. Being in our best guise, we caused quite a sensation. Men and women, boys and girls, stream ed along at our flanks, often in a broiling sun, yet always with admiring looks. After the morning drill, we were generally at leisure for the rest of the day, taking our turns, how ever, on guard, and in other occasional duties. Most * Among the letters alluded to, was the following : HABTFOKD, June 12, 1313. MY DEAR SAKUKL : I had the pleasure to receive yesterday your letter by Mr. Whiting. I am happy to be informed of your health, and that you have the good fare of a soldier : whatever it may want of the delicacies of the luxu rious table of the citizen, will be made up to you in the zest you will have when you return to it. The principal thing you have to attend to is the care of your health, and that also you will best learn, as we do every thing, by experience. Your father will be here to-day. We are all well. Write by every opportunity. Your affectionate uncle. CHAUNCEY GOODRICH. JTTSTOUTCAI., ANECDOTICAL, KTC. 473 of the soldiers gave up their rations of mess beef and potatoes, and lived on their own resources. We formed ourselves into a general club for a supply of fresh fish. Every day three of us went out fishing, and generally returned with a half-bushel basketful of various kinds, among which the blackfish or ta- taug now so greatly esteemed was always abun dant. I was employed by the captain to keep his journal of our proceedings, and sometimes I was dis patched to New London, or to some one of the officers along the line, with a letter or a parcel. I established a friendly acquaintance with ol 1 Mrs. Avery, who kept a supply of excellent bread and butter, milk and eggs. I visited Fort Trumbull, and the block aded fleet up the river. Frequently I strolled into the country, and now and then went to see " Mrs. Bailey," who even at that early period was a ce lebrity of Groton. I have never seen such fierce de mocracy as in this village, fed, as it doubtless is, upon the remembrance of the British massacre at the fort ; and Mrs. Bailey was filled with its most peppery es sence. The story of the flannel petticoat* was then * When Decatur took refuge in New London harbor, the inhabitants of Groton were thrown into great alarm. At this moment a messenger was sent to Fort Griswold for flannel, to be used for the cannon. Most of the portable goods had been sent away, and the messenger was unsuccessful, until he met Mrs. Anna Bailey, who instantly took oif her flannel petticoat and heartily devoted it to the patriotic cause of defense. It was carried to the fortress, and displayed on a pike. The story being told, the garrison cheered, and the " martial petticoat" became almost && celebrated as Mahomet's breeches. The storv went over the whole 474 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, recent, but it had marked her for immortality. All the soldiers went to see her, and she sang Jefferson and Liberty to them with great spirit. Once a sol dier talked " old federalism" to her, by way of jest : whereupon she got up, and holding out her petticoat, danced and sang Jefferson and Liberty at him, as if that were sufficient to strike him dead. I remember that on one occasion H . . . . A ... , my special companion, and myself, were sent with a letter to a lieutenant, who commanded a small picket on the eastern shore, near the mouth of the river that is, at Point Groton. It was a distance of some three miles. The weather was pleasant, and our route lay along the shore of the stream, which opens into a wide bay, as it meets the Sound. As we approach ed the southern point of the shore, we found our selves quite near to the British squadron. One of the vessels, which we knew as the Acasta* for we had learned all their names was under full sail in a light wind, and coming up toward the shore. She was already so near that we could see the men, and note every movement on the deck. While we were admiring the beautiful appearance of the ship, we suddenly saw several white puffs issue from her sides, country, and when General Jacksou (then President) came to New Lon don, lie visited this lady. She is said to have given him a very demon strative reception. She died January 10, 1851, aged 92 years. * Thia ship was noted for her beauty : she \va8 in tact the belle of the fleet, and was said to have been built for the Duke of Clarence, who served in the navy till he became admiral, and was afterward Kin^ of England, under the title of \ViHinin IV. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 475 and uncoil themselves into volumes of smoke. Then came a deafening roar ; a moment after, and in the very midst of it, there were wild howls in the air, above our heads. At a little distance beyond, the ground was plowed up, scattering the soil around, and the top of one of the forest trees, of which a few were scattered here and there, was cut asunder, and fell almost at our feet. We understood the joke in an instant, and so did the lieutenant who commanded the picket. He was the object of the attack, and the broadside of the Acasta, sending its shot over our heads, had hurled one or two balls crashing through the roof of the little fish-hut, which he and his men occupied. In less than five minutes, they were seen trotting off at a round pace, with their cannon, jerking right and left, over the rough ground behind them. Several other shots were given, but the party escaped in safety. My companion and myself ensconced ourselves behind the rocks, and though it was grave sport, we enjoyed it exceedingly. "We could trace the cannon-balls as they flew by looking like globes of mist, twinkling through the air. Several of them passed close over our heads, and grooved the earth, in long trenches, at our sides. The noise they made, as they rose high in the air, was a strange mixture, between a howl and a scream. After having thus showed her teeth, and made a great noise, the frigate returned to her an chorage, and all was quiet. I hope I shall not de- 476 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, grade myself, as a soldier, in your eyes, by confess ing that this was the only battle in which I was en gaged during this glorious war ! I must, however, mention one circumstance, which tried the souls of our company. Let me premise that, on a certain Saturday, a large accession to the British force arrived in the bay, the whole number of vessels, of all kinds, amounting to fourteen. This looked very much like an attack, and accordingly there was a feverish anxiety among the inhabitants of New London and the vicinity, and a general bustle in the army, from Groton Point to Allyn's Mountain. A large body of militia was set to work upon Fort Griswold. Our company was drilled in the little re doubt which we were to defend, and every prepara tion was made to give the enemy a warm reception. The general idea was, that a landing of British troops would be made on the eastern side, and that we should take the brunt of the first attack. The sun set in clouds, and as the evening advanced, bursts of thunder, attended by flashes of lightning, muttered along the distant horizon. Our company were admonished to sleep on their arms. Every thing wore a rather ominous appearance. There were no signs of cowardice in the men, but they looked thoughtful ; and when Bill W . . . ., the laureate wit of the company, let off some of his best jokes which would ordinarily have set the whole corps in a roar he was answered by a dead silence. It chanced .HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 477 that I was that night on guard. My turn came at ten o'clock. Taking ray gun, I paced the bank of the river, back and forth, in front of our barracks. I had received orders to let nothing pass, by land or water. It was intensely dark, but at frequent inter vals, thin flashes of lightning sprang up against the distant sky, behind dark rolling masses of clouds. Gradually the lights in the streets and windows of New London, stretching in a long line on the oppo site side of the river, were extinguished one by one, a few remaining, however, as sentinels, indicating anxiety and watchfulness. The sounds on all sides were at last hushed, and left the world to darkness and to me. More than half of my two-hours' watch, had passed, when I heard the dip of oars and the flap ping of waves against the prow of a boat. I looked in the direction of the sounds, and at last descried the dusky outline of a small craft, stealing down the river. I cried out " Boat ahoy ! who goes there ?" My voice echoed portentously in the silence, but no answer was given, and the low, black, raking appari tion glided on its way. Again I challenged, but there was still no reply. On went the ghost ! I cocked my gun. The click sounded ominously on the still night air. I began to consider the horror of shooting some fellow-being in the dark. I called a third time, and not without avail. The rudder was turned, the boat whirled on her heel, and a man came ashore. Ac cording to my orders, I marshaled him to the guard- 478 LKTTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL. room, and gave notice of what had happened, to the captain. The man was only a fisherman, going home, but he was detained till morning. So, you see, I can boast that I made one prisoner. My watch was soon over, and returning to my station, I laid down to sleep. All was soon quiet, and I was buried in profound repose, when suddenly there was a cry in the main barrack-room, overhead " Alarm ! alarm !" "Alarm! alarm!" was echoed by twenty voices, attended by quick, shuffling sounds, and followed by a hurried rush of men down the staircase. A moment after, the guard in front discharged his musket, and was answered by a long line of reports, up and down the river, from the various sentinels extending for half a dozen miles. Then came the roll of drums, and the mustering of the men. Several of our company had been out to see what was going on : they came back, saying that the enemy was approaching ! J. M . . . . distinctly heard the roar of cannon, and posi tively saw the flashes of muskets. B. W . . . . found out that the attack had already begun upon our southern pickets. Nobody doubted that our time had come! In a very few minutes our company was drawn up in line, and the roll was called. It was still dark, but the faint flashes gave us now and then a glimpse ol each other's faces. I think we were a ghostly look ing set, but it was perhaps owing to the bluish com plexion of the light. J. S . . . ., of West Hartford, who HISTORICAL, ANKCDOTICAL, ETC. 479 marched at my left shoulder usually the lightest- hearted fellow in the company whispered to me, " Goodrich, I'd give fifty dollars to be at West Divi sion !" For myself, I felt rather serious, and asked a certain anxious feeling in my stomach " What's to be done ?" I thought of my father's letter, and my uncle's injunctions, and having settled it in my mind that I must fight, I closed my thoughts against all consequences, and felt that I was ready for the conflict. I was indeed almost anxious to have it come, as the suspense was painful. I afterward found, on conver sing with several members of the company, that very similar trains of thought had occurred to them. John son, our captain, was a man of nerve and ready speech. When the roll was finished, he said in a clear, hearty tone, " All right, my good fellows ! Every man at his post !" These few words which were, however, more politic than true, for one fellow was taken with sudden colic, and could not be got out were electri cal. We were ready to take our places in the redoubt. Messengers were now sent to the two neighboring posts to inquire into the state of facts. Word was brought that the first alarm came from our barracks ! The matter was inquired into, and it turned out that the whole affair was originated by our Corporal T , who, in a fit of nightmare, jumped up and cried, "Alarm! alarm!" Our martial ardor soon reconciled itself to this rather ludicrous denouement, though several persons, 480 LETTERS BIOGK APH 1C A I ., who had been somewhat chapfallen, became suddenly inflated with courage, which signalized itself with out bursts of" D the British !" " They're a pack of sneaking cowards, after all !" and the like. The next morning was fresh and fair. The skirmishing thun der-gusts of the night had cleared the air, and even distant objects seemed near at hand. Before us lay the whole British fleet, still and harmless, in the glassy bay. My left-hand chum, J. S . . . . , who, in the dark hour, would have given fifty dollars to be at "West Division, was now himself again. " Come on here, you black old Kamiles !" said he dashing the doubled fist of his right hand into the palm of his left : " come on here, you black-hearted British bull-dogs, and we'll do your business for you !" &c. Notwithstanding our military duties, you will read ily comprehend that we had a good deal of leisure. For the most part, this idle time was wasted, or worse than wasted. The atmosphere of a camp presents a fearful ordeal for all, but more especially for the young soldier. The restraints of society being with drawn, the seducing and corrupting influences which naturally spring up and riot in such a soil, too often lead captive the strong as well as the weak. The military spirit is opposed to reflection : it is reckless, banishes thought, and teaches a kind of self-aban donment. Our officers set an excellent example, and there was less of degradation in our company than in others. Still, among us, there was a general reading HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. iSl of bad books, a great deal of petty gambling, and not a little tippling. It was easy to see, week by week, the gradual wearing away of the sense of propriety, of gentlemanly tastes, and general conservatism, in at least one-half the young men of our company. A similar declension was visible throughout the whole body of militia along the line. My own conviction was and is, that military life is exceedingly degra ding, and especially to militia, who are suddenly called away from the usual safeguards of virtue, and exposed to new and 'unexpected seductions. Fortunately our period of service was brief. In about six weeks from the time of our departure, we were dismissed, and returned to our homes. Thus closed my military career, so far as relates to active service. The remembrances of my first and last cam paign are, on the whole, pleasant. There were feel ings of fraternity established between the members of the company which have 'continued to this day, save only in regard to those which the grave has sundered. My country has not been unmindful of my services ; for I have received two land-warrants giving me a title to some hundred and sixty acres with the fresh virgin soil of the Far West upon them. Say not that republics are ungrateful ! A few words more, and this chapter is done. You have doubtless heard about the " Connecticut Blue Lights," and of course conceive the term to imply eome ignominious stain upon the reputation of this, VOL. I. 21 482 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, the "land of steady habits." You will expect me, therefore, to tell you the story of its origin. The preceding pages have shown you that Deca- tur, commanding the American frigate United States, after a brief and glorious career upon the ocean, sub sequent to the declaration of war, had been driven into the Thames with his prize, the Macedonian, and the sloop-of-war Hornet. Here they were all cooped up, like strong men bound hand and foot. You can readily imagine the effect of such a situation upon a person like Decatur. He was as all the world knows of an ardent and impetuous tempera ment impulsive, impatient, irascible. No man was ever less qualified to endure the protracted and in glorious idleness of his present position. He was high-hearted, patriotic, proud of the navy : he was ambitious, and panted for glory. His bleeding coun try needed his services : his fellow-officers of the navy were lighting the face of the ocean in both hem ispheres with their brilliant exploits. He was im prisoned, and with him three noble ships. How then must he have panted to be free ! I have told you that I saw him on several occasions. He was rather below the middle size, but of a remark ably compact and symmetrical form. He was broad- shouldered, full-chested, thin in the flank : his eye was black, piercing, and lit with a spark of fire. His nose was thin, and slightly hooked: his lips were firm, his chin small, but smartly developed. His HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 4:83 whole face was long and bony ; his complexion swarthy ; his hair jet black, and twisted in ropy curls down his forehead and over his ears. Altogether he was a remarkable looking man, and riveted the at tention of every one who saw him. By the side of the quiet, thoughtful Jones, and the dark, handsome, complacent Biddle his fellow-prisoners he seemed like a caged eagle, ready to rend in atoms the bars which restrained him. Decatur did not conceal his impatience : his ill- humor rendered him unjust. He was not chary in his speech, and in fact he made himself many ene mies by the freedom and vehemence with which he expressed his political opinions. Certainly he and the citizens of New London were heartily tired of each other. The latter were indeed most anxious to get rid of him and his squadron, inasmuch as their presence in the Thames brought upon the inhabitants all the dangers, anxieties, and miseries of war. That Decatur should desire to escape, and that he should have the co-operation of all the people of New London, heart and hand, would seem to be matters of course. At last he resolved to make the attempt. In October he began, gently and quietly, to drop down the river, and by the last of November was in the harbor of New London. On the night of the 12th of December all things were prepared, and the vessels were about to depart, in the hope of eluding the blockading squadron in the darkness. 4:84 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, Now note the ominous fact : at different times, from eight to ten o'clock in the evening, blue lights were thrown up, apparently from the land, along the shore, and on both sides of the river. Decatur as sumed, at once, that these were signals, sent up by traitorous Americans, announcing to the enemy his intended departure. So positive was the conclusion, that he totally suspended his operations, and from that time made no further efforts to escape. He wrote a letter, giving an account of the affair, and did not scruple to charge the assumed treason upon the peo ple of. New London ! That letter unjust, untrue, and absurd as it was passed into the history of the time, and party rancor, seizing upon the slander, has continued to use it to the present day. Blue. Lights, meaning treason on the part of Connecticut federal ism during the war, is a standard word in the flash dictionary of low democracy. Now, let me make one or two suggestions. Be it remembered, that, from the beginning, Decatur was mainly indebted to the federalists of Connecticut for protection : the general government had no force suf ficient to keep the enemy at bay, when he sought shelter in the Thames. His presence there brought expense, anxiety, gloom, upon the State. It involved the people of New London in every species of vexa tion, disquietude, and danger. How absurd, then how contrary to all logic to accuse them, or any oi them, of attempting to prevent his departure, which, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 4:85 above all things, was what they desired ! Nothing but the obliquity of a mind diseased by disappoint ment, can excuse such a charge, made in the face of such plain and palpable contradiction. But what were these blue lights ? Now you must understand that I had left New London in July, and these events occurred in December. Yet while I was there, blue lights, and indeed lights of various other colors, were often seen, apparently along the shore; and it was generally understood that these were signals thrown up from the British ships, or per haps from parties of the enemy cruising in boats among the islands, or going ashore on the main land. It was impossible, in most cases, to determine whether these came from the land or the water :* at all events, * This fact has recently been recalled to my mind by the venerable Dr. S. H. P. Lee, now in full practice at New York, at the age of eighty- four ! His honse in New London commanded a view of the harbor and the shipping. He frequently saw blue lights all along the shore, and confirms the fact that it could not be determined, in most cases, wheth er they came from the sea or the land. They were always attributed to the British. He conceives that the charge of treason, on the part of De- catur, was entirely untrue and in fact absurd. Dr. Lee informs me, that from their position, the British had no diffi culty in knowing every thing that was going on along the shore. There was no rigid police : the British sailors often went ashore among the fish ermen, as well on the islands as the main land : the officers not unfre- quQntly went in disguise to New York, and even into the interior. After the peace, a ball was given to Admiral Hothain then commander of the station and his officers, at New London. Dr. Lee and his two sons there recognized, among the British officers, two persons, who, during the war, were passing along the street, and at his invitation stepped up into his piazza and took a look at the squadron ! Of coarse every movement of Decatur's was known to the enemy, and as he lay in New London har bor, he was under the eye of their telescopes. They no doubt penetra ted his designs, and seeiug him about to make au effort to escape, sent LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, they were very common. They were always attrib uted to the British, and excited no particular interest They were regarded only as telegraphs of the enemy, which, in general, they and they only could read. Now, there is not one particle of evidence that these blue lights, seen by Decatur, were in any re spect different from the others, familiar to everybody living in New London. They were never traced, even by suspicion, to any individual. There is no proof that they came from the land ; and even if they did, they might still have come from British par ties ashore. Or, if they were the work of traitors Americans these were isolated individuals, and their conduct would have been held in abhorrence by the whole people. To charge it, then, upon the inhabit ants of New London to attempt thus to stain the character of a city, and indirectly a whole State was one of those acts which should have excited the in dignation of every honorable mind. I need only add, that I have never met an indi vidual, living in New London at the time, who did not consider this imputation as absurd in itself, and up their bine-light telegraphs to direct the various ships to he upon the alert. While such an interpretation is probable, to say the least, it is oad logic to impute treason, and at the same time the most absurd acts of contradiction to their own interests, to the people of New London. I give this testimony of Dr. Lee with the more readiness, as he is historically known for his courageous and beneficent professional con duct, in braving, alone, the horrors of the yellow fever at New London in 1799 when every other physician, not prostrated by the disease, had fled from it in terror. Surelv such evidence should be conclusive. HISTORICAL. ANECDOTICAI., ETC. 487 as Having no foundation, except in the warped and excited imagination of Decatur. I believe every member of the Hartford company and the}- had good opportunity to judge of the matter regarded it in this light. It was a wrong act on his part, and those who desire to cherish his fame which after all is one of the glories of our countr}- should ad mit that it was an error, and do what they may to re pair it. Those who seek to make the scandal live, only perpetuate the memory of the injustice which originated it.* * Stephen Decatur was born on the eastern shore of Maryland, Jan. 5, 1779. In 1798, he entered the navy as midshipman : twice he pro ceeded to the Mediterranean, and in February, 1804, he recaptured and burnt the American frig-ate Philadelphia, in the harbor of Tripoli, then in the hands of the enemy. This exploit has always been regarded as one of the most successful acts of skill and daring on record. In an attack on Tripoli, the following August, he captured two of the enemy's -. performing feats of personal courage and strength, the story of which reminds us of the fabled achievements of knight-errantry. His praise was on the tongue of all his countrymen. He superseded Com modore Barren, in the command of the Chesapeake, after the shameful attack of the Leopard upon that vessel ; he then became commander of the frigate United States, and in October. 1812, captured the Macedonian, as elsewhere stated. His squadron remained at New London till the close of the war. but he was appointed to the command of the Presi dent. On attempting to get to sea, in January, 1815, he was captured bv two British vessels, and carried into Bermuda. In February, the war being over, he returned to the United States. Being dispatched with a squadron to the Mediterranean, he soon chastised the AJgerines, and compelled them (June, 1815) to sign a treaty, abandoning their pi racies, and liberating those of our countrymen whom they held in cap tivity. He was made one of the Navy Commissioners in November, and took up his residence at Washington. In 181 9, he had a long correspond ence with Commodore Barren, which issued in a challenge by the latter. The meeting took place at Bladensburgh, March 22, 1820. At the first fire Decatur was wounded, and being carried to his house, died that night in the presence of his distracted wife. Deep emotions of admira- 4:88 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, LETTER XXX. Continuation of the War The Greeks subdued Battles of Chvppewa and Bridgewater Capture of Washington Bladensburg Races Humili ation of the President Defence of Baltimore The Star-spangled Ban- nei Ravages of the Co<.tstbythe British Fleet Downfall of Napoleon Scarcity of Money Rag Money Bankruptcy of the National Treas ury The Specie Bank-note, orMr. Sharp and Mr. Sharper Scarcity and exorbitant Prices of British Goods Depression, of all Kinds of Business My Pocket-book Factory Naval and Land Battle at Plattsburg Universal Gloom State of New England Anxiety of the Administra tion Their Instructions to the Pence Commissioners Battle of New Or leans Peace Illuminations and Rejoicings. MY DEAK C****** I must lay aside, for the present, my own per sonal history, that I may complete this hasty sketch of the war. I now approach the last year that of 1814 which happily closed the inglorious struggle. Merely noticing important events, I remark that the Creek war, conducted on our part by General Jackson, and ending in a complete humiliation of the savages, early in this year however it abounded in striking incidents made little immediate impression upon us at the North, partly because the theater ot operations was remote, and partly because it was over- tion for his character, and horror at the folly of the last act of 1m life, pervaded the whole community. Commodore Jacob Jones was born in Delaware, 1770. After a bril liant professional career, he died at Philadelphia, August, 1850. Commodore James Biddle was born at Philadelphia, 1783. He dis tinguished himself as a commander, and also in some diplomatic services in Turkey and China. He died in 1848. HISTORICAL, ANF.CDOTICAL, ETC. 489 shadowed by the more important struggle with Great Britain. The battles of Chippewa and Bridgewater, in July, displaying gallant deeds on the part of our troops officers as well as men everywhere excited lively demonstrations of sympathy. I think the suc cess of our arms was always cheered, even by the fed eralists the feeling of national pride, and the real hos tility to Great Britain, triumphing over party feeling. When the news came that August 24th the city of Washington had been invaded, captured, desola ted the President and his cabinet having actually fled like a flock of sheep there was a deep, burning sense of indignation and shame : indignation, at the want of forethou'ght, courage, and conduct on the part of the national executive ; and shame, at the humiliating spectacle we presented to the world we who had begun the war in boasting, now seeing our officials disgraced by pusillanimity, and our capital desecrated by the presence and occupation of an en emy ! I shall let this humiliating page in our his tory pass, with the simple remark, that the feeble and cowardly President seems on that occasion to have drunk deep of the bitter cup of humiliation, in rec ompense for having bartered the peace of the coun try for the poor bauble of a second term of office. The future has, doubtless, some instructive light to shed upon this passage of our national history.* * Whoever wishes to see a detail of the facts in this case will find them in Hildreth's United States, second series, page i>o7. There waa 21* 4:90 LKTTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, A few weeks after the capture of "Washington, the British troops, led by General Ross, landed at North Point, fourteen miles from Baltimore, and im mediately commenced their march toward the city. They were met by the American militia, and in a skirmish, the British general was killed. The enemy advanced the next morning as far as the defenses of that place, hastily thrown up by the Americans ; here they made several threatening demonstrations, but such was the firm and formidable front of the Amer icans, that the next morning they silently withdrew, and speedily embarked on board their shipping. While the British were marching on Baltimore, the fleet advanced up the Patapsco, and bombarded Fort McHenry nearly a whole day and night. The gal- 41 . lant and effectual defense of that fortress, gave rise to the beautiful national song of the " Star-spangled Banner."* a feeble attempt at defense, at Bladensburg, five miles from Washing ton ; bat the United States troops as well as oar militia fled npon the first fire of the enemy. The President and bis secretaries dispersed in like manner. This scampering was satirized under the name of the " Bladensborg .Races." Madison and his wife found refuge in a Mary land farm-house, where they spent two days and three nights of morti fication, alarm, and insult from the irritated inhabitants. After a short time the enemy departed : another party of them, however, had made their way to Alexandria, where they compelled the inhabitants to sacri fice all their merchandise and all their shipping to save the city. Mad ison returned to Washington, and in order to hide his disgrace, laid all the blame to Armstrong, the Secretary of War. The latter retaliated, asserting that the President yielded to the " humor of a village mob, stimulated by faction and led by folly." * The author of this admired national lyric was Francis Scott Key, of Maryland, born August 1, 1779. He became a lawyer, and was Dis- HISTORICAL. ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 491 As summer advanced, the clouds seemed to thick en over our country on every side. The coasts of New York and New England were kept in a con stant state of anxiety and alarm, by British squadrons sweeping our shipping from the sea, and occasionally making descents upon the land. The treasury of the United States was exhausted,* and the government trict Attorney of the city of Washington, where he died, January, 1843. lie wrote several songs, though not for publication, as he seems not to have duly appreciated them. To feel the full force of the Star-gpangled Banner, it is necessary to know its origin. A gentleman of Baltimore had gone to the British fleet with a flag of truce, in order to get a friend of his released, who had been captured at Marlborongh. He was not permitted to return, as he might give information of the intended at tack upon Baltimore. While thus on board a British vessel, he wit nessed the attack upon Fort McHenry during the whole day. When night set in, the flag, which still floated, was hidden from his view. The bombardment was kept np, and his heart was agitated with the most anxious fears. As the morning roee, he had the unbounded sat isfaction of seeing the banner of his country still flying aloft, in evi dence of successful defence. The whole story is admirably told in the song. * The state of the treasury, as presented to Congress by Campbell, the Secretary, in Sept. 1814, was deplorable. The last attempt to borrow six millions had only produced offers for half that amount, and these at the rate of eighty per cent. The credit of the government was indeed al most gone : specie had disappeared ; the banks had generally suspend ed specie payments ; the currency consisted of bank notes, at a large depreciation. The treasury was in fact empty, and large debts and ex penses were -accumulating and soon to be met. Every kind of scheme was suggested for supplying the exhausted and discredited treasury new loans, increased taxes, various kinds of government stocks, and finally a national bank. Dallas, Secretary of the Treasury, proposed a non-specie paying bank, and Calhoun a specie-paying bank. Neither ot these two plans succeeded. The Bank of the United States, which had so remarkable a career, and was finally extinguished by Gen. Jackson, was chartered April 10th, 1816, the plan having been framed by Secretary Dallas. It was in fact rather a democratic institution ; the federalists at that time seeming to foresee the evils which followed, strove earnestly to rcdnce the capital of thirty-five millions to twenty millions, but with out avail. 492 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, seemed on the point of bankruptcy. And more than all Napoleon had fallen, and on the 4th of April had departed for his exile at Elba ; the allies had tri umphed Great Britain, the mistress of the sea, the leading power of the world, was now free to turn her whole power against us in America. She was exasperated by the feeling that we had declared war against her, with the design of aiding her great ene my at the very time she was struggling for self-pres ervation against nearly all Europe, which he had combined against her. Already the veterans who had triumphed under Wellington, were collecting in Canada, and the ships, long occupied in the Euro pean war, were crowding hither, like vultures, eager for their prey. Dismay spread along the whole mari time frontier, where the inhabitants, no longer placing any reliance upon the general government, which seemed totally paralyzed, were all up in arms, mus tering and drilling with one hundred and twenty thousand militia in the field. Portland, Boston, Prov idence, New Haven, New York, Baltimore, Eich- mond, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, were busy in throwing up fortifications.* I remember perfectly well, the universal state of anxiety and depression which prevailed in New Eng land at this time. The acts of government, the move ments of fleets and armies, furnish no idea of the con- * Hildreth, second series, vol. iii. p. 524. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 493 ditiou of society in its daily life. Let me give you a few items as indications of the embarrassments, vex ations, and privations which the war had brought unto every man's house and home. Such a thing as silver or gold money was almost unknown. The chief circulation consisted of bills of suspended banks, or what were called "facilities;" that is, bank-notes, au thorized by the legislature of Connecticut, redeemable in three years after the war. These were at fifteen to twenty-five per cent, discount compared with specie. Banks issued notes of fifty, twenty-five, and twelve-and- a-half cents. Barbers put out bills, payable in sha ving, and various institutions adopted a similar course. This whole mass acquired the title of "rag money," " shin-plasters," &c. : a large portion of it was noto riously worthless, either as being counterfeit, or issued by irresponsible parties, yet it generally passed with out scrutiny. I recollect a person at a turnpike-gate offered a five-dollar bank-note, and received in change a large, greasy wad of bills, of various names, hues, and designs. He glanced at it, and said to the keep er " Why, half of this is counterfeit !" " I know it," was the reply ; " but it passes just as well as any other." A specie bank-bill* was almost an object of worship. An anecdote will illustrate this. In our city of H * The New England banks continued to pay specie, but their notes were rare. The bills of suspended banks of the Middle States and "facili ties," constituted the chief money in circulation. LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, there were a shrewd man and a greedy man, who had some dealings with each other about these days, when the following scene occurred : Shrewd Man. Do you recollect giving me a ten- dollar bill in change yesterday, Mr. C . . . . ? Greedy Man. No, I don't : why do you ask ? S. M. Well, I found a specie bill of ten dollars in my purse, and I thought, perhaps, I might have re ceived it of you. You remember I was only entitled to a facility, and not to a specie bill ? Gr. M. Well, I dare say you had it of me : let me see it. & M. There it is ! G. M. Oh yes ; I recollect it perfectly. I'll take it, and give YUU a facility. There ! S. M. Are you sure, Mr. C . . . ., that you gave me that specie bill ? O. M. Certainly, certainly : I recollect it distinctly. S. M. Well, I'm glad you are sure, for they tell me the specie bill is counterfeit I At this period, all kinds of British merchandise had become very scarce, and many had entirely vanished from the market. There was a small supply of certain articles, from time to time, furnished by the vessels captured by our ships and privateers, and some con venient and necessary goods were smuggled in from Canada. There was, in fact, a large amount of money and this was all specie sent to the British Provinces for pins, needles, jewelry, laces, muslins, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 495 cambrics, chintzes, silks, sewing-silk, buttons, &c., &c. These merchandises were so costly that a man would frequently carry the value of a thousand dol lars in a pair of saddlebags, sometimes on his shoul ders, and sometimes on horseback. The life of the smuggler along the line, at this period, was one of langer and adventure. In some instances, persons laid the foundations of future fortune in this illicit traffic. I recollect very well the prices at which we sold some of these articles : calico, now worth twelve and a half cents, readily brought seventy-five cents the yard ; cotton-cambric, now twenty cents, then a dollar ; linen handkerchiefs, now fifty cents, then two dollars ; fine broadcloth, now five dollars, then twelve, or even fifteen dollars. The average prices of British goods, at retail, were about four times what they are now. In point of fact, however, our dry -goods trade was almost destroyed. Domestic products were enor mously dear flour at one time eighteen dollars a bar rel at Boston ! I had personal experience of the universal depression. In the summer of 1814, I was out of my time, and cast about for some employment. I went to New York for this object, but found not the slightest encouragement. After some reflection, I established a manufactory of pocket-books, in connec tion with one of my friends, J. S. S . . . ., who furnished the capital. The greatest difficulty was to find the materials. I made expeditions to Boston, Charles- 496 LKTTER8 BIOGRAPHICAL, ton, Providence, &c., and was not able to obtain over fifty pieces of morocco fit for the purpose. In De cember I went to New York, and was more success ful. I had made a considerable purchase, and dis patched my goods by the wagoner, for you will re member that Long Island Sound was in the occupa tion of the enemy.* Pretty well content with my success, I had gone in the evening to a concert at the City Hotel. While listening to the music, there was a murmur in the streets. Soon the door of the concert-room was thrown open, and in rushed a man all breathless with excitement. He mounted on a table, and swinging a white handkerchief aloft, cried out "Peace! Peace! Peace!" The music ceased : the hall was speedily vacated. I rushed into the street, and oh, what a scene ! But, I beg your pardon, I have not yet done with the war ! Amidst general gloom and despondency, a broad ray of light came suddenly from the north the gen eral scene of disaster and disgrace. In the spring of this year, General Wilkinson was superseded by Gen eral Izard, but while the latter, with the flower ol the American army, was drawn off toward Sackett's Harbor, the British general, Provost, advanced across the country toward Plattsburg, situated on the west ern side of Lake Champlain. Hitherto the enemy's * Freight from New York to Hartford, now fifty cents a hundred, woe then four dollars a hundred. 7 HISTOUICAI., ANECDOTICAI., ETC. 497 force in this quarter hud been small, but now, replen ished by the veterans who had fought in the Penin sula under "Wellington, and who had seemed invin cible, he mustered twelve thousand men. Macomb, the American commander, left with only three thou sand regular troops, was soon reinforced by three thousand. militia from Vermont and New York. He was strongly intrenched behind the Saranac which flows through Plattsburg to the lake and here the enemy assailed him. The British fleet, under Com modore Downie, came gallantly on to their assistance : Macdonough,* commander of the American squad ron, now closed with them, and then carne such a fight as is seldom seen. It was a deadly action of more than two hours ship to ship, broadside to broad side. At last the enemy was silenced victory was on our side. Nearly the whole British fleet was cap tured. This was decisive of the conflict in this quar ter. Simultaneously with the naval attack, the land forces of the enemy had advanced against the Amer icans under Macomb. But the defeat of the naval * Thomas Macdonough was a native of Delaware, ivnd was born in 1784. When the battle of Lake Champlaiu was fought, he was but twenty- eight years of age. In commemoration of his victory, the citizens of Hartford presented him with a splendid sword. I recollect the occasion, and the appearance of the gallant officer. He was nearly six feet high, very broad-shouldered, with a small head, but finely set, so as to give a look of mingled dignity and elegance to his form. His hair was light, almost flaxen, his eye gray, and his countenance mild, but with an expression of firmness. In his personal character, he was marked with gentleness and dignity. His private life was most blameless. Ho died in 1825. 498 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, force disheartened them, a panic ensued, and under cover of a storm, they hastily retreated, leaving be hind them their sick and wounded, and a part of their baggage and stores. Their whole loss was esti mated at no less than two thousand five hundred men ! This double victory Sept. 11, 1814 was in deed some compensation for the disgrace inflicted upon us a few weeks before at Washington. The clouds of despondency, however, still lowered over our country, in its length and breadth. It is now known that the Administration was deeply alarmed at the perilous condition into which it had brought the country. The humbled and dismayed President, in his message to Congress in September,* evidently thinking no more of conquest, was solely occupied with the means of self-preservation. But however painful the condition of other parts of the United States, New England, beyond all question, was ex posed to peculiar and trying difficulties. Her prep aration for the war had been a series of destructive acts on the part of the government, which had spread general poverty throughout her entire territories. Commerce, which was then her life, had nearly per ished under embargoes and non -intercourse acts, to * " It is not to be disguised," said he, " that the pituatiou of our country calls for its greatest efforts. Our enemy is powerful in men and money, on the land and on the water. Availing himself of fortu itous advantages (the triumph over Napoleon), ho is aiming, with his undivided force, u deadly blow at our growing prosperity, perhaps at our national existence." This is from a President who had declared war, a short time before, with tho expectation of qonquering Canada ! HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 499 which had now been added three years of war.* And in this condition she had been left by the general government without defense, having a coast of seven hundred miles exposed to the enemy. That ene my, in the full triumph of his arms over Napoleon, was gathering his forces along the northern frontier, and spreading his navies over our waters, and in the very sight of our seaports. Already portions of our territory were in his possession, and our towns and villages were not only exposed, but some of them had been actually subjected, to ravage and plunder. There was evidently no hope but in the people themselves. The general government had abandoned them : it is historical, and beyond dispute, that while the policy of the Administration allowed and encour- * It is startling to look back at the financial records of the country at this time : the destructive effects of the embargo are abundantly at tested by documentary evidence. The exports of the United States in 1807 that is, before the embargo were $108,343,558; in 1808, under the embargo, they were $8,417,000 a diminution of a hundred millions in a single year ! The whole loss to the United States in the destruc tion of commerce, alone during the seven years of embargo, non- intercourse, non-importation, and war all forming one system, under Jefferson and Madison democracy, would show a fearful sum amount ing to hundreds of millions. To this is to be added the war expenses, the depreciation of property, the wide-spread devastation of productive enterprise, &c., &c. Let it be understood that New England, from her position, took more than her relative share of this burden ; let it also be understood that she believed all these measures to have had a sinister origin ; let it, furthermore, be held in view, that events, thus far, had fulfilled her predictions as to the destructive tendency of this whole policy ; and then we may be prepared to ask whether she had not a right to call together her Wise Men, as had been her custom from the foundation of the first settlements, to take into consideration the state of public affairs, and recommend the means of averting the evils which impended over her? 500 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, aged the democratic governors of several States to call out the local militia for defense, permitting thorn to have their own officers and paying the expenses thus incurred, a totally different system was adopted in respect to the federal States of New England. Here the general government insisted upon the exclusive control of military movements, and flatly refused pay ing the militia, because they were not placed under the command of United States officers. What was then to be done ? This was the anxious question in city, village, and hamlet, from one end of the country to the other. The people the great body of the peo ple were agitated with a deep sense of injury, of' suffering, of anxiety. In this state of things, a pro ject was suggested, in the good old Puritan county of Hampshire, in Massachusetts, which resulted in the Hartford Convention. It had been the custom, from time immemorial in days of doubt and danger for the inhabitants of the Pilgrim land to call together their wise men, to seek, by counsel and co-operation, the path of duty and deliverance. The history of New England tells us that, on almost every page. Had they not a right to do so now ? Was it not natural for them to take this course to follow the example of their fathers ? Is it fair, is it j ust, is it reasonable, to seek any other motive than this, which lies open and plain upon the face of things, with noth ing to contradict it ? T have a few more words to say on that subject, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, KTC. 501 but I lay them aside for the present, that I may com plete my chronological memoranda of the war. This done, I will give you my recollections of that famous or infamous assembly. It was now evident to the whole country that we had changed positions with the enemy. At the outset, the war was aggressive on our part : we had sought to invade and conquer a portion of his territory : in this we had failed, and now released from his embarrassments, he was threatening us on all sides, thus calling upon us for defense. It ap pears that the Administration now felt the absolute necessity of bringing the war to a close. Great Britain had made an offer to treat for peace, and our government accepted it, appointing J. Q. Adams, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, Albert Gallatin, and J. A. Bayard, as Commissioners for that object. The instructions at first given, required them to insist upon a withdrawal of the pretensions of Great Britain to the right of search and impressment the only substantial object of the war. After the news of the prostration of Napoleon, other instructions were given, direct ing that even this should not be insisted upon. The agents of the two governments met at Ghent, in Bel gium, in August. As we had withdrawn every ma terial obstruction, a treaty of peace was finally agreed upon and signed, at Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814. The news of this event did not reach the United States until the llth of February, 1815 a space of 502 LK'ITERS BIOGRAPHICAL, forty-nine days for then steam navigation had not brought the Old and New World within ten days' sail. While the tidings of peace were thus lagging across the Atlantic, the war still lowered over our country. It was soon apparent that the enemy med itated a blow at some portion of the Southern States. At length, after various movements, and some severe encounters with our forces under General Jackson, the British general, Packenham, advanced against the American intrenchments, four miles below New Orleans, with a force of twelve thousand men. Their design evidently was to capture New Orleans. Be hind their breastworks of bales of cotton, six thou sand Americans, mostly militia, awaited the attack. It came, but our well-aimed cannon and deadly rifles mowed down the enemy like a scythe. The plain was speedily covered with the dead and the dying. General Packenham was killed, and his successor, Gibbs, was mortally wounded. The Brit ish troops most of them veterans, and conquerors in many a bloody field were panic-stricken, and fled. The loss on their side was seven hundred kill ed and one thousand wounded : the loss on ours was seven killed and six wounded ! The Saxon had met the Saxon : the American rifle had triumphed ovei the British bayonet. It was on our part a glorious victory ; but let it be remembered, that it was in defense of our territories our homes and firesides. The moral of the war is well told in its opening and HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 503 closing scenes : in attempting conquest, our flag was humbled at Detroit ; in self-defense, it became im mortal at New Orleans ! This great victory on the part of General Jackson which afterward carried him into the presidential chair took place on the 8th of January, 1815 fifteen days after the signing of the treaty of peace. The rumor of this triumph had reached Washington, and began to raise the drooping spirits of the coun try; but a still more cheering event was at hand. As I have already stated, the news of the treaty of peace arrived in New York on the llth of February, 1815. It was about eight o'clock on Saturday even ing, that the tidings circulated through the city. I have told you that I was there. In half an hour after the news reached the wharf, Broadway was one living sea of shouting, rejoicing people. " Peace ! peace ! peace !" was the deep, harmonious, universal anthem. The whole spectacle was enlivened by a sud den inspiration. Somebody came with a torch : the bright idea passed into a thousand brains. In a few minutes, thousands and tens of thousands of people were marching about with candles, lamps, torches making the jubilant street appear like a gay and gorgeous procession. The whole night Broadway sang its song of peace. "We were all democrats, all federalists ! Old enemies rushed into each other's arms : every house was in a revel : every heart seemed melted by a joy which banished all evil thought 504: LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, and feeling. Nobody asked, that happy night, what were the terms of the treaty : we had got peace that was enough ! I moved about for hours in the ebbing and flowing tide of people, not being aware that I had opened my lips. The next morning I found that I was hoarse from having joined in the exulting cry of peace, peace! The next day, Sunday, all the churches sent up hymns of thanksgiving for the joyous tidings. I set out in the stage-coach on Monday morning for Con necticut. All along the road, the people saluted us with swinging of hats and cries of rejoicing. At one place, in rather a lonesome part of the road, a schoolmaster came out with the whole school at his heels to ask us if the news was true. We told him it was : whereupon he tied his bandanna pocket- handkerchief to a broom, swung it aloft, and the whole school hosannaed " Peace ! peace !" At all our stopping-places, the people were gathered to re joice in the good tidings. At one little tavern, I look ed into a room, by chance, the door being open, and there I saw the good wife, with a chubby boy in her lap both in a perfect gale of merriment the child crying out, " Peath ! peath !" Oh, ye makers of war, reflect upon this heartfelt verdict of the people in behalf of peace I We arrived at New Haven in the evening, and found it illuminated : the next day I reached Hartford, and there was a grand illumination there. The news "PEACE!" "PEACE!" Vol. 1, p. 504. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. ^(>5 spread over the country, carrying with it a wave of shouts and rejoicings. Boston became clamorous with pealing bells ; the schools had a jubilee ; the blockaded shipping, rotting at the dilapidated wharves, got out their dusty buntings, and these ragged and forlorn now flapped merrily in the breeze. At night the city flamed far and wide from Beacon-street down the bay, telling the glorious tale even unto Cape Cod. So spread the news over the country, everywhere carrying joy to every heart with, per haps, a single exception. At Washington, the authors of the war peeped into the dispatches, and found that the treaty had no stipulations against Orders in Council, Paper Blockades, or Impressments! All that could be maintained was, that we had made war, charging the enemy with very gross enormities, and we had made peace, saying not one word about them ! Madison and his party had in fact swal lowed the declaration of war whole, and it naturally caused some uneasy qualms in the regions of diges tion. " Let us, however," said they, " put a good face upon it : we can hide our shame for the mo ment in the smoke of Jackson's victory ; as to the rest, why we can brag the country into a belief that it has been a glorious war !" Madison set the exam ple in a boasting message, and his party organs took up the tune, and have played it bravely till the pres ent day. But what saith history not partisan history, not VOL. 1.-22 506 LETTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, history addressed to Buncombe, not history written in subservient demagogism to national vanity but history, speaking the truth and fearing not ? What saith the record ?* Assuredly this, that the war had its origin in partisan interests, and was carried on in a similar spirit ; that it was the war of the Adminis tration, and not of the nation, and so far was disastrous and disgraceful. It was begun without preparation, it was carried on in weakness ; it was characterized by failure, it was terminated by a treaty which left us where we began save only that a hundred millions of dollars and thirty thousand lives had been expend- * I commend to the reader the following observations from a calm and sober writer : " An inquiry here naturally suggests itself as, after the revocation of the British Orders in Council, Impressment was the only grievance to be redressed by war ; and as that question was subsequently waived by our government in the negotiation, what was gained by the war ? It has been considered as no small point gained, that ample evidence hns been given to Great Britain of our capacity successfully to resist her power, especially upon the ocean, where she had long claimed a vast superiority ; and that a guarantee had thus been furnished against fu ture aggression. It is questionable, however, if the result could have been known, or if the unbiased counsels of our older statesmen had pre vailed, whether war would have been declared. Jefferson, Madison, Gal- latin, Macon, and others, ^cere of a pacific disposition. The leading men of the administration were known to have given a reluctant sanction to the war project ; but they found themselves under a kind of necessity to yield to the impulsive young politicians Calhoun, Clay, and a number of others who, it wan suspected, were striving t-o turn the popular preju dices against Great Britain to their own political advantage. \V hether the nation has ever obtained an equivalent for the thirty thousand lives, and the hundred millions of money expended ; for the loss of prop erty and of several years of prosperous commerce ; for the depravation of the public morals, and the train of other evils inseparable from a state of war, is a question which at least admits of a reasonable doubt." Young's American Statesman, HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 507 ed iii the inglorious struggle. All the lights of this period belong to the people or to the opposition all the shadows to the war-makers. Hull's surrender, Dearborn's blunders, Wilkinson's abortions, were the work of the Administration, attempting the conquest of Canada : the desecration of Washington is wholly chargeable to the personal weakness and pusillanim ity of the President and his cabinet. The glory of the navy belongs to the federalists, who were its fa thers the democrats being its open and avowed enemies and opposers : the victories of Plattsburg, Baltimore, and New Orleans, belong not to the spirit of Madison, who would conquer Canada, but to that spirit which is indigenous to the country, to the people democrats and federalists everywhere who will fight and conquer in defense of our soil, even though the war be brought upon us by a feeble and unpatri otic government. Let us be frank, and confess the truth : the war, in the aspects in which history thus presents it, was dis graceful to the authors of it : it was, in many respects, disastrous to the country ; and yet it has left us some wholesome lessons. It has shown the danger and folly of plunging a great country into a national con flict, for narrow and selfish purposes, because under such circumstances the people will be divided, and it will be a partisan and not a patriotic war ; it has put on record another instance in which war has been declared in boasting, und ended precisely where it be- 508 LETTKRS BIOGRAPHICAL, gan, after years of violence, sorrow, and bloodshed ; it has shown our weakness in a war of conquest, and our strength in a war of defense ; it has shown us that the sea is the true theater upon which we should ever be prepared to attack and repel every European enemy. It has shown us that without preparation, and with divided counsels, we are weak, but that with union of heart and proper precautions, we need not fear any combination the world can bring against us. It has shown, also in connection with subse quent events the superiority of peace to war, even in obtaining the ends of justice, for let it be remem bered, that Daniel "Webster extorted from Great Brit ain by the force of argument, that which the sword could not achieve. His letter to Lord Ashburton* silenced, and doubtless forever, the British preten sions to the " right of search" thus demonstrating the superiority of an old federal quill, to all the gun powder that mere Madison democracy could com mand ! The pen is master of the sword. And now, my dear C . . . ., I ask you in all serious- * This remarkable letter dated Washington, August 8, 1842 will be found in Mr. Webster's Works, vol. vi. p. 818. Mr. Everett says, in his memoir of Mr. Webster, "The reply of Lord Ashburton must be considered as acquiescence on the part of his government ;" that is, acquiescence in the American doctrine of maritime rights that the flag of a country renders the decks of its ships inviolable against visit or search. The London Times, Standard, &c., about this period, -expressed the opinion that this subject was finally put to rest by Mr. Webster's letter. It is understood that Lord Aberdeen said to Mr. Everett, that Its argument was unanswerable : it has been effectively answered, how ever, by quietly yielding to its doctrines. HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 509 ness is it not time for that arrogance to cease which claims for democracy all the patriotism, all the sue cess, all the glory of the war of 1812, and charges upon federalism a uniform course of secret or open treason, with the responsibility of all the failures, disasters, and disgraces which attended the conflict? Let me observe, by the way, that I do not condemn the feelings of the great body of the democrats, in their support of the war. Believing it to be just and proper, their ardor, their patriotism, their perseve rance in the maintenance of the struggle, "were hon orable to them. I do full homage to their spirit, to their patriotism. I can overlook that partisan bigotry which burned in their bosoms at the time, and even embittered the intercourse of society. It was natural for them to feel indignant at the conduct of those who holding opposite opinions pursued an opposite course, in so serious a question as that of war with a foreign enemy. Nor was their example, in this re spect, very different from that of the federalists. Both parties were wrought into a kind of frenzy by the irritation of mutual opposition and mutual hostility. While doing this justice to the democracy, I claim the same candor for the federalists. They acted ac cording to their convictions, as I have before said, and this was not only their right but their duty. The doctrine of the war partisans, holding legal, constitu tional opposition to an administration which has de clared war, to be treason, is alike dangerous and 510 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, despotic. A war may be declared merely to serve a party: the administration may be base, incompetent, treacherous ; yet, if this doctrine be true, the people having lost the greatest of all rights the right to think, speak, and act, according to their convictions are bound to give a blind and slavish support to those who, either by incompetence or corruption, are leading the country to ruin. Let me invite your attention to the principles of New England the federalists of New England as stated by Daniel Webster, in a Fourth of July ora tion, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a few days after the declaration of war : " With respect to the war in which we are now involved, the course which our principles require us to pursue can not be doubtful. It is now the law of the land, and as such we are bound to regard it. Resistance and insurrection form no part of our creed. The disciples of Washington are neither tyrants in power, nor rebels out. If we are taxed to carry on this war, we shall disregard certain distinguished examples,* and shall pay. * This was an allusion to the Whisky Rebellion in Western Penn sylvania, in 1794, which Albert Gallatin one of Madison's cabinet, and a prominent supporter of the war had done much to stimulate. The inhabitants of that quarter were chiefly foreigners. The law which offended them was passed by Congress in 1791, and laid a tax on distilled spirits one of their chief products at that time. A con siderable army was assembled by the malcontents, and the United States revenue officers were resisted, whipped, tarred and feathered. The insurrection was finally put down by a proclamation issued by the President (Washington), and the marching toward the scene of action of a respectable body of militia, under Gov. Lee, of Maryland. This resistance, however, was in some degree pardonable, consider ing the general ignorance and character of those concerned in it, and considering, also, that the general government had just gone into op- HISTORICAL. ANECDOTIC A I., ETC. 511 If our personal services are required, we shall yield them to the precise extent of our constitutional liability. At the same time the world may be assured that AVC know our rights and shall exercise them. We shall express our opinions on this as on every measure of government, I trust without passion, I am cer tain without fear. We have yet to hear that the extravagant progress of pernicious measures abrogates the duty of opposition, or that the interest of our native land is to be abandoned by us in the hour of the thickest danger and most necessity. By the exercise of our constitutional right of suffrage by the peaceful remedy of election we shall seek to restore wisdom to our coun cils, and peace to our country."* That was the federal doctrine, and that the federal practice. Now I put it to your conscience is not eration, and called for unaccustomed sacrifices on the part of the peo ple. It was otherwise in the case of South Carolina, when, in the au tumn of 1832, she made a general movement to resist the tariff laws of Congress, on the ground that they were unconstitutional. This course had been recommended by a convention and various public meetings, and the legislature of the State, meeting soon after, sanctioned these views. The tariff acts were declared null and void, and in order to resist their execution, active measures were adopted to arm the citizens. The city of Charleston became at once a great military depot, and the whole State was bristling with bayonets. Col. Hayne, who, a short time before, in the Senate of the United States, had arraigned the members of the Hart ford Convention as traitors, now became governor of the State, for the express purpose of directing this formidable treason. Mr. Calhoun resigned the vice-presidency, and accepted a seat in the Senate, for the purpose of there vindicating the conduct of his State. This fearful blow, aimed directly at the Constitution and the Union, was averted by what is called the Compromise of Mr. Clay which, in point of fact, con sisted in forcing the general government to yield to a menace of rebel lion. The movement was so far successful, that it cherished the seeds of Nullification, which had been widely sown by Jefferson and his as sociates in the Southern States ; and at the present day, its doctrines may be considered as held by a majority of the democratic party there. Compare all this with the conduct of New England federalism ! * See the New York Evening Post for July 21, 1812 where this is held to be sound federal doctrine. 512 LKTTKRS HIOGKAPHICAI-, this more manly, more American, more in the spirit of true liberty, than the slavish doctrine which holds every man to be a traitor who does not support the administration good or bad, wise or unwise even against his honest convictions?* If, then, the people of New England had a right to follow their convictions, what was their actual conduct? Look closely into the history of the times peruse the acts of legislatures, the doings of authorized public assemblies and you will find a uniform, unswerving loyalty to the Constitution, the country, and the laws. The federalists of New England did not like Albert Gal latin and other democrats, afterward supporters of the war, and believers in the doctrine that opposition is treason rise in rebellion, and seek to overthrow the government. They did not like Calhoun, another democrat, and one of the chief authors of the war, as well as one of the promoters of this gag-law of con science array the States in arms, and cry out for a dissolution of the Union ! They did not as is now the fashion, even with certain democrats in full com munion with the party claim that the Union shall be * If we admit this doctrine, that opposition to an administration in time of war is treason, then Chatham, who advocated the cause of America in the British Parliament, during the Revolution, was a trai tor ; Lamartine, Cavaignac, and Victor Hugo, who opposed Louis Napo leon's war for the suppression of the Roman Republic, were traitors ; all the friends of liberty, who, from time immemorial, have opposed the wars of their respective governments for the perpetuation of tyran ny, are to be inscribed in the list of traitors. Certainly democracy errs in employing despotism and injustice, under the pretense of propagating liberty. There is no surer way to make liberty itself feared and hated HISTORICAL, ANECDOTICAL, ETC. 513 torn asunder, whenever the administration of the gov ernment does not altogether please them. No : their standard of duty was higher than that resistance and insurrection formed no part of their creed or their conduct : they were taxed, and they paid ; their per sonal services were required, and they rendered them to the extent of their constitutional liability ; they defended the country, and even the property of the United States, when the general government was powerless to protect them ; they stood by the Con stitution, as a thing too sacred to be violated, even under the extremest oppression of what they deemed an unwise and unpatriotic government ! Who, then, has a right to accuse them of treason ? Not the Nullifier, nor the Disunionist, nor the Seces sionist all clamorous for the destruction of the Union, whenever, in their opinion, the government is not properly administered ; surely no member of a party, which holds in its bosom, and cherishes as in full fellowship, individuals who are chiefly distin guished for bearing these names, and for asserting arid propagating these doctrines ! Strange is it passing strange that from the beginning in peace or war New England Federalism should have fur nished a steady example of loyalty to the Constitu tion, and that springing from her bosom, and ex pressive of her spirit she should have given to this country the acknowledged Champion of the Consti tution and the Union; that at the same time, South- oo* 514 LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, ETC. ern Democracy should have been the breeder of se~ cession and disunion ; that it should have furnished to the country the Arch Nullifier himself; and yet that this same Democracy presumes to point its finger at New England, and cry " Treason, treason to the Union!" Certainly a democrat may steal a horse, but a federalist may not look over a hedge ! Let us, my dear C , be just just in the sight of God and man ; let us render homage to the patri otism of the great body of the people of the United States democrats and federalists during the war of 1812-14. We may sincerely admire that cheerful, gallant, devoted spirit, which sustained the struggle without inquiring as to its justice or its prudence ; at the same time, we are bound equally to respect that calmness and equanimity with which a people, deeply conscious of injury and injustice, observed the laws, and, within their limits, defied alike the aggressions of a partisan government and a foreign enemy. Doing this justice to the people, on both sides and of both parties, let history hold to a stern reckoning the selfishness of those men who declared or promoted the war, merely or mainly to subserve the interests of party ' APPENDIX. NOTE I. Town of Ridgefield. THIS town lies about sixty miles northeast of New York, and forty northwest of New Haven. There is, as I have elsewhere stated, in the Library of the Atheneura at Hartford, Conn., a manuscript work, entitled " A Statistical Account of Ridgelield, in the county of Fair field, drawn up by Rev. Samuel Goodrich, from minutes furnished by a number of his parishioners, A. D. 1800." From this account I give the following extracts: " Ridgefield was located to twenty-nine of the inhabitants of tho towny of Mil ford and Norwich, by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, on the 13th of May, 1708. Various patents were grant ed, and the soil rights of these were purchased of the Indians at differ ent times. The first was made of Catoonali, the sachem, and others, the condition being one hundred pounds. The boundaries of the town, fixed about the year 1733, left it of an oblong shape, about fifteen miles long and three to five miles wide : including the two parishes ot'Ridge- bnry and Ridtrefield proper. " There is the appearance of several Indian graves at a place called Norron's Ridge ; and one elevation retains its Indian name of Arproono high or lofty. Several ponds also retain their Indian designations, as Urnpewauge, Mammemusqtiah, Nisopach,&c. There is but one Indian man in the town. One died here tvo years ago, aged about 96. In 1799, there were ten common schools and four hundred and thirty- three scholars. There are three foreigners all paupers: Jagger, an English man, ninety-five years old, who served under the Duke of Cumberland in the battle of Cullodeu, 1746, and was in Flanders, in the same regi ment, previous to this battle. " The general form of the land is in gently swelling ridges, extend ing from north to south. High Ridge, in the central part, called Can- dito by the Indians, is very elevated ; from this the mountains west of 510 A PPENDIX -NOTES. the Hudson, and West Rock, near New Haven a view eighty miles i-n diameter are to be seen in fair weather; Long Island Sound also, from fifty to sixty miles, is visible. The waters flowing from this hill, flow some southeasterly into the Sound, and some southwesterly into the Hudson, by the rivers Titicus and Croton. The latter, in fact, has its source here. "The soil is generally fertile, though many parts are stony; the cli mate, owing to the elevation of the place, is somewhat severe, but it is salubrious. Formerly there were bear, deer, and wolves, but these have disappeared. Eacoons, various kinds of squirrels, rabbits, &c., are plentiful, as also quails, partridges, &c. The flocks of wild-pigeons, formerly very abundant, now make their migrations more to the west than formerly." Partly from this document, and partly from notes furnished me by Mr. A. Ressequie, of Ridgefield, I take the following memoranda : Ministers of the First Congregational Church in Ridgefield. Rev. Thomas Hawley, of 2s orthampton, the first minister, and one of the first settler?, installed in 1714, and died 1739. Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll, installed 1740, died 1778. Rev. Samuel Goodrich, ordained 1786, dismissed 1811, Rev. S. M. Phelps, " 1817, " 1829. Rev. C. G. Silleck, " 1831, M 1837. Rev. Joseph Fuller, " 1838, " 1842. llev. James A. Hawley, " , " . Rev. Clinton Clark, " , the present pastor Some of the Inhabitants of Ridgefield, noticed in the preceding pages. REV. JONATHAN INGERSOLL was a native of Milford, graduated at Yale College in 1736, and died 1778, while in the ministry at Ridge field. He joined the colonial troops as chaplain, on Lake Champlain, in 1758 ; he was much respected in the army, and exerted an ex cellent influence on the soldiers. He left behind him a name hon ored for purity, learning, eloquence, and devotion to his duty, in the village where the greater part of his life was spent. From an elec tion sermon, which I find in the Library of the Hartford Atheneum, it would appear that he was master of a very felicitous style of writing.* * The following letter, addressed to liis brother, noted in the history of Connecti cut lor accepting thit oBiov of -lamp-master under the olmoxions stamp-act of 17G4, APPENDIX, NOTES. 517 Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll died Oct.. 2, 1778, in the 65th year of his age. Dorcas Moss, his wife, died Sept. 29, 1811, in the 86th year of her age. They had ten children, as follows : Sarah, born Oct. 28, 1741 married Lee. Dorcas, born Oct. 15, 1743 married Andrews. Jonathan, born April 16, 1747 married Miss Isaacs. Mary, born Dec. 20, 1748 married Hooker. Abigail, born May 7, 1751 married Col. D. Olmstead. Joseph, born Aug. 11, 1753 deaf and dumb not married. Hannah, born April 9, 1756 married Raymond. Esther, born Aug. 10, 1760 married Lieut. Olmstead. Moss, born June 9, 1763 deaf and dumb married Miss Smith. Anne, born April 5, 1765 married Gen. Joshua King, died 1838. GEN. JOSHUA KING was born at Braintree, Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 24th of November, 1758. He entered the army of the Revo lution, a mere boy, at the commencement of hostilities between the colonies and the mother country. On the formation of Sheldon's and furnished to me by Hon. E. I Ingersoll, of New Haven, will be read with interest: " EIDOKFIELD, June 9th, A. D. 1758. "DEAR BROTHER: Yours from Hartford, the 1st instant, caine safe to hund by Mr. Olmstead, for which I am heartily obliged to you. I remarked in particular your observing something of heaviness in my countenance at parting with you a*. New Haven upon which I would observe that this bidding farewell is a difficul , thing, and tends greatly to move the passions This sin being a natural infirmity, you will easily overlook. Blessed be God. I am neither disheartened nor elevated, but enjoy a good temper of mind, and can, I think, put my life in the hands of G<>d and go forth freely and cheerfully, in so important though dangerous an enterprise. I have this day received a line from Col. Wooster, by which I am informed that I must be at Norwalk to-morrow, in order to embark for Albany. I am ready, and rejoice at the news. He also informs me that you are appointed agent, and have accepted, at which I greatly rejoice, and hope your courage will hold out, and de sire that you will be made a blessing to your country and government in this im portant undertaking. The office is very honorable, and I hope will be profitable to you and the government By no means refuse, but look upon it as a favor of Providence. To love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves, is the rreat gospel command. And to be impressed in sucli an important affair, must bo looked upon as a favor from Heaven ; for the voice of the people (to judge ratio i al y) is the voice of God, when they look to him for his influence and direction. "Your family reed you and desire yon, and so does mine me; but private mat ters must submit to the public good. Sister, I hope, will quietly acquiesce from * view of your usefulness, though it be a piece of great self-denial. I could \vish you had had the, small-pox a terror to the world ; and perhaps it would be best to go to Doctor Munson. on Long Islan.1. and inoculate and was I not u'in$ abroad 518 APPENDIX NOTK*. regiment of dragoons, he was made a cornet, and afterward a lieu tenant, in which capacity he continued during the war, ever sus taining the character of a brave officer. Being stationed on the lines of Connecticut and Westchester county, New York, he became attached to this part of the country, and after the peace of 1783, ho settled in Ridgetield, in the mercantile business, commencing in company with Lieut. Jarnes Dole of the same regiment, and after ward marrying the youngest daughter of the late Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll, April 18th, 1784. He was several years a member of the Assembly, and was a member of the Convention in 1818, which framed the State Constitution. He died August 13, 1839.* as I ain, I wouM go and be with you. With respect to cautions and advice you give, I accept them well, and would give the same to you. And so, my brother, go in the fear of God be true to your trust, and farewell. Whether we see each other in this life or not, let us labor to meet in glory. "I remain your affectionate brother, "JONATHAN INGERSOLL. "P. 8. We are all well. Send our compliments, particularly our love to Boreas, and tell her to live in the fear of God. " JAEBD INGERSOLL, ESQ., New Haven." * The following portion of a letter, written to a friend by Gen. King, dated June 19th, 181T, in which he speaks of the capture of Andr6. will be found interesting: " I was the first and only officer who hp.d charge of him whilst at the head quarters of the second regiment light dragoons, which was then at Esq. Gilbert's, South Salem, Westchester county, N. T. He was brought up by an adjutant and four men belonging to the Connecticut militia, under command of Lieutenant- colonel Jameson. He was on the lines in a character under the disguised name of John Anderson; he looked somewhat like a reduced gentleman; his small clothes were nankeen, with handsome white-top boots; in part his dress was military, his coat purple, with gold' lace, worn somewhat threadbare ; he wore a sinall-brimmed, tarnished beaver on his head; he wore his hair in a queue with a long black band, and his clothes were somewhat dusty. In this garb I took charge of him to breakfast. My barber came in to dress me, after which, I requested him to undergo the same oj>eration, which he did. When the ribbon was taken from his hair, I observed a fall of powder ; this circumstance, with others that occurred, induced me to believe I had no ordinary person in charge. He requested permis sion to take to the bed while his shirt and small-clothes could be washed ; I told him it was needless, for a change was at his service, which he accepted. We were close pent up in a bedroom, with a sentinel at the door and window ; there was a spacious yard before the door, which he desired he might be permitted to walk in with rue. I accordingly disposed of my guard in such manner as to prevent an escape, and while walking together he observed that he must make a confidant of Homebody, and he knew not a more proper person than myself, as I had offered to befriend a stranger in distress. After settling the point between ourselves, he told me who he was, and gave me a short account of himself from the time he ws taken at St. Johns, in 1775, to that time. He requested pen and ink, and wrote immediately to Gen. Washington, declaring who he wa. About midnight th APVKNDIX NOTES. 519 General King's children were as follows : Catherine, married to William Hawley, of Ridgefield. Frances, married to Rev. Wm. Neill, D. D., of Philadelphia; died October, 1832. Sophia, married to William McHarg, of Albany; died March, 1838. John Francis, not married ; died 1838. Once State Senator. Charles Clark, not married; died Jan, 1854. Rufus H., married to Miss Laverty, of New York, and settled at Albany. Joshua Ingersoll, not married. Once State Senator ; resides in the family mansion at Ridgefield. Anne Maria, married to Elisha W. Skinner, of Albany. Mary Ann; died November, 1828. Grace. DEACON ELISHA HAWLEY was born March 14, 1759. He was the son of Thomas Hawley. Jr., and grandson of the Rev. Thomas Haw- ley, first pastor in that place, and one of those who settled it, and who removed from Northampton, where the family had been located since their emigration from England. Elisha Hawley lost his father at the age of fourteen, and four years afterward was drafted for ser vice in the struggle with Great Britain, and was sent to New York fur the defense of that city. His regiment was stationed at Cor- laer's Hook, and the British sent up a part of their fleet to cut off its retreat. The colonel, however, refused to quit his post without orders from his superior officer. When they were received, their retreat was so hasty, as to oblige the men to throw away their muskets and knapsacks. The vigor of our young soldier, with an appreciative sense of their use, allowed him to retain his, which the colonel was glad to share with him, when at night, on the North River, without blankets, they were exposed to the peltings of a vio lent storm. At daybruak next morning, they took up their march for Harlem Heights, out of reach of the enemy. Here they made their first meal on flour cakes baked on the stones in the sun. Young Hawley was next engaged in cutting off the retreat of the enemy from Danbury, where they had been to destroy stores, &c. express returned, with orders from Gen. Washington to Col. Sheldon, to send Major Andre immediately to head-quarters. I started with him, and before I got to North Salem meeting-house, met another expre s, with a letter to the officer rommanttiltf the party who had Major Andre in charge: this letter directed a cir cuitous route to head-quarters, fur fear of a recapture which order was oomplifd with." 520 APPENDIX NOTK8. In 1786, at the age of twenty-seven, lie was married to Charity Judson, of Stratford. They had six sons, two only of whom are living. Shortly after their matrimonial nlliance, he and his partner joined the Presbyterian church : he was afterward elected to the office of deacon, which ho held during life. Being a man of very temperate and regular life, he enjoyed uninterrupted health, which, with his habits of industry, contributed to give him that vigor of body and mind which made him so remarkable in the later years of his life. In the summer prior to his death, at the age of ninety-one, he would work nearly all day with his men in the field. It was the desire ol keeping himself employed that led to the exposure which caused his death. On a chill October day he accompanied his men to his woods, to direct the cutting of timber, taking with him his afternoon meal, and remaining until the day was far advanced. Here he caught cold from the inclemency of the weather, which resulted in his decease in the following April, 1850. Not only was Mr. Hawley active in promoting his own interests, but he showed equal zeal in assisting his neighbors, visiting the sick, and working for the interests of the community in which he lived. His faculties were unimpaired to the last : his retention of memory was such that he would quote passages from scripture, chapter and verse, and would delight his grand-children by singing to them the songs and hymns of his youth. On the celebration of the Fourth of July, 1839, in his native village, he was called upon to address the people, which he did, directing his conversation mostly to the young telling them of their responsibilities to God and their country, and that upon them depended its future welfare ; winding up with the kindly hint contained in that little verse "A little farm well tilled, A little wife well willed, A little house well filled," Ac. and closing with singing, in an audible voice, " Hail Columbia," A T C. One of the leading characteristics of his life was his endeavor to follow strictly the golden rule of " Doing unto others,"