CRAYON SKETCHES 
 
 Hint* 
 
 P ;UISHEi< 3MEN, ORATORS, 
 
 VYISTS, EDITORS, POETS, AND PHILANTHROPISTS. < 
 
 GEORGE W. BUNGAY. 
 
 And s> 
 
 -I'EABE. 
 
 B S T N v : 
 PUBLISH r AND "RICHAEDSON, 
 
 1852
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES 
 
 DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN STATESMEN, ORATORS, 
 DIVINES, ESSAYISTS, EDITORS, POETS, 
 AND PHILANTHROPISTSj 
 
 GEORGE W. BUNGAY. 
 
 Some are born great, some achieve greatness, 
 And some have greatness thrust upon them. 
 
 SHAKSPBAKB. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY STACY AND RICHARDSON, 
 ~S o . 11 MILK STKKKT. 
 
 1852.
 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Two, 
 
 BY GEORGE W. BUIfGAY, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 anto 8trjjarti2<m, printers, 
 No. 11 Milk Street.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT was in the Spring of 1850 that the author of the following 
 Sketches called, one day, into the office of the New-Engkmder, in 
 Boston, (whither he was then much accustomed to resort,) and dur 
 ing a conversation which ensued with the editors of that sheet, 
 then somewhat known in this vicinity as a temperance, literary, and 
 family journal, the subject of the preparation of a series of articles 
 on the prominent men of the day was discussed, and favorably enter 
 tained. The author's previous effusions had been marked with a good 
 deal of pith and piquancy, and the conductors of the New-Englander 
 considered that an highly interesting feature would be added to their 
 paper by his regular contributions, written in the free and cordial 
 manner which was his wont. 
 
 Nor were their expectations disappointed. Mr. BUNGAY'S pur 
 suits having, at different periods, brought him in connection with 
 many of the leading men of our country, possessing a mind unu 
 sually well refreshed with the thoughts of our best writers, both in 
 prose and verse, and, withal, being himself a man of earnest and 
 kindly sympathies, he was in every respect qualified for the task he 
 had assumed. It had been previously perceived, in Mr. BUNGAT'S 
 occasional newspaper effusions, that he was gifted more particu 
 larly with the power of terse, graphic, off-hand, sententious remark, 
 than with that of elaborate description, or polished finish and orna-
 
 IV INTKODUCTION. 
 
 ment. This he himself acknowledged ; and thus, by general con 
 sent, he styled his productions in this line, " OFF-HAND TAKINGS," 
 and assumed the art-word of " CKATON," as the most appropriate 
 signature for one whose light and dark shades upon the pictures 
 of his imagination were so agreeably diversified. 
 
 With a heart and a pride in the work, therefore, the author of 
 the following Sketches entered upon his task; and to his credit, it 
 must be said, he immediately won a popularity which many have 
 envied, and but few attained. An increased demand for copies of 
 the paper was quickly perceptible ; contemporaneous journals, it was 
 observed, freely copied his articles ; and, in brief, all the customary 
 indications were had that Mr. BUNGAY had made a successful essay 
 in his projected enterprise, while the editors of the New-Englander 
 became the recipients of many thanks for affording the medium 
 through which he had thus successfully communicated with the public. 
 
 The following work contains nearly all the Sketches which ap 
 peared in the New Englander, a few others written more lately for 
 different journals, and a still less number prepared expressly for this 
 edition. Each has been carefully revised, all redundancy of language 
 or thought omitted, any previous accidental misinformation corrected, 
 and, in point of accuracy and applicability to their subjects, made 
 pertinent to their present pursuits and the current hour. It will be 
 found, it is trusted, that a recognizable delineation of many of the 
 public characters of the nation, the " representative men " of their 
 respective classes, has been faithfully and impartially given. 
 
 As to the manner in which Mr. BUNGAY has executed the self- 
 assamed trust, as a noter and critic of "men and measures," the 
 work itself is doubtless the best commentator. With a long and 
 successful experience as a popular advocate of the temperance and 
 other reforms, favored with an enlarged comprehension of the true 
 sphere of individual usefulness, and uniting in his person a well- 
 developed poetic temperament and original imagination, with a
 
 INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 hearty interest in all that elevates and adorns human existence, it 
 is not surprising that his Sketches, while they are like none other 
 in readable excellence and vivid portraiture, should be permeated 
 with his warm, generous sympathies, and partake conspicuously of 
 his purest heart-aspirations. Thinking thus, his prefacer commits 
 the little work to the favor of the public. 
 
 C. w. s. 
 
 BOSTON, APRIL, 1852.
 
 CONSENTS. 
 
 GEORGE N. BRIGGS, 
 Jomr P. HALE, 
 B.UFUS CHOATE, 
 HORACE MANN, 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 
 HORACE GREELET, 
 THEODORE PARKER, 
 JOHN G. WHITTIER, 
 NEAL Dow, 
 GERRITT SMITH, 
 ABBOTT LAWRENCE, 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS, 
 PHILIP S. WHITE, 
 JOHN VAN BUREN, 
 WILLIAM A. WHITE, 
 EDWIN H. CHAPIN, 
 CHARLES C. BURLEIGH, 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 CHARLES SUMNER, 
 MOSES GRANT, 
 JOHN B. GOUGH, 
 
 Page. 
 ' 9 
 .13 
 17 
 20 
 24 
 29 
 83 
 38 
 43 
 47 
 52 
 55 
 60 
 65 
 69 
 72 
 76 
 79 
 82 
 86 
 91 
 94
 
 10 CKAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 ranks he has fought many battles and gained many victories. 
 When forgotten as Governor of the glorious old Common 
 wealth of Massachusetts, he will be gratefully remembered 
 as having been a successful champion of the temperance 
 enterprise. 
 
 Gov. Briggs recently manifested a disposition to secure 
 further legislation on the subject of temperance, and he did 
 not handle that question as good old Izaak Walton did the 
 frog he used for a bait, touching it tenderly, as though he 
 would put the hook into his mouth without hurting it. In 
 this way he displeased the publicans and sinners more than 
 he did the friends of the total abstinence cause. He is 
 always right on this question, and deserves great credit for 
 his devotion to the principles of the pledge, and his cour 
 ageous advocacy of its doctrines. It is difficult for a 
 politician to be a philanthropist, but he is more of the latter 
 than the former. He is not a bogus republican, friendly on 
 election days and forgetful at other times. He is not a 
 hypocrite, who spreads palm-leaves in the path of Jesus 
 when he is popular in Jerusalem, and denies him after he 
 is nailed to the cross. He believes men live in the deeds 
 they do, and not in the noise they make ; in the thoughts 
 they have, and not in the breaths they draw; in the 
 beatings of a good heart, and not in the throbbings of a 
 gold repeater. 
 
 When the Hon. Edward Everett delivered the eulogy on 
 the death of the lamented Adams, every little great man in 
 the city, who had an opportunity to make a display, was 
 bedizened with the tinselry, jewelry and regalia of office ; 
 but the Governor, who is a wise man and a good man, wore 
 a plain citizen's dress, marked with a simple badge of 
 mourning. He knows that birth, genius, talent, learning, 
 wealth and personal attractions do not alone make one man
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 11 
 
 better than another. A man may carry a silver-headed 
 cane and wear a wooden head. He may learn the time he 
 squanders from a gold watch, while his heart is as corrupt 
 as a nest of unclean birds. He may have a soft hand at 
 one end of his arm and a softer head at the other. A fool 
 with a fortune is pretty sure to clothe his back more than he 
 cultivates his brains. 
 
 Governor Briggs was apprenticed to the hatting business 
 at an early period of his life, and although he afterwards 
 became a lawyer, he never treated working men with disre 
 spect. He loves to grasp the hand hardened by toil, and 
 whether a man's face be bronzed at the plough or bleached 
 in the mill, whether he be clad in ruffles or in rags, he is 
 sure to meet with a warm and welcome and unostentatious 
 reception when introduced to George N. Briggs. He is not 
 so eminent a lawyer as he is a Governor, although he is 
 considered an Aristides in his profession. He is an attract 
 ive speaker, and is always ready on all suitable occasions 
 to give free utterance to his manly sentiments. He is more 
 fluent than eloquent, more solid than brilliant, more inclined 
 to labor arguments and relate facts than to round periods 
 and polish sentences. When his voice is not hoarse, and 
 his mind is roused, he will occasionally thrill the heart like 
 a blast from a trumpet. 
 
 During his stay in Congress he organized a Congressional 
 Temperance Society, which did a vast amount of good, but, 
 unfortunately, it died out soon after he returned to Massa 
 chusetts. In the Sabbath School this distinguished man is 
 " at home." Let the nobles of the land copy his example 
 in this respect, and make themselves useful in their day and 
 generation. 
 
 Governor Briggs has, among his political opponents, many 
 personal friends. He doubtless has imperfections, but few
 
 12 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 public men have less. It is said that he has exercised too 
 much clemency toward convicts whom he has pardoned ; if 
 this be a fault it bears toward the side of virtue. Some 
 think his course respecting the Mexican war reprehensible, 
 but this is not the time nor the place to investigate that mat 
 ter. Some complain that he has not sufficiently imbibed the 
 spirit of anti-slavery, but as we are not all organized, nor 
 educated, nor situated alike, we must make some allowance 
 for differences of opinion. Whatever may be the opinion 
 of some, he will long be remembered as a consistent Chris 
 tian, and the model Governor of the Old Bay State.
 
 JOHN P. HALE. 
 
 JOHN P. HALE is a free-and-easy, fat-and-social man, 
 who can relish a dish of oysters, or a good joke, as well as 
 any member of the Senate. He has the courage of Crom 
 well, and the fun of Falstaff. He has a strong hand at one 
 end of his arm, and a strong head at the other. When he 
 shakes the former, you feel a heart throbbing hi the palm ; 
 when he shakes the latter, it is the signal of a storm that 
 will hail (Hale) for the space of an hour, and every stone 
 will be the weight of a talent. 
 
 Foote may rave and foam, and threaten to hang Hale, his 
 genial and generous fellow Senator, on the tallest tree in 
 Mississippi ; but there will be a response so apropos, so full 
 of humor, from such a sunshiny countenance, the peppery 
 Mississippian will be ashamed of his impotent imprecations. 
 There is more thunder and lightning in the crack of Hale's 
 joke, than there is punishment in the crack of Foote's pistol. 
 The pungent wit of the former is more destructive than the 
 exploding powder of the latter. The sarcasm and irony of 
 the Northerner is more dreaded than the sulphur and salt 
 petre of the Southerner. The cool man of " Granite " is 
 more than a match for the choleric representative of 
 " Cotton." The small sword of wit cuts deeper than the 
 bowie-knife of wrath. Foote is a middle-aged gentleman, 
 1*
 
 14 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 with a bald head, sear face, shrunken limbs, and restless 
 manners, and so ignitable it is a wonder he had not caught 
 fire and burnt up long ago. Hale is in the prime of life, 
 broad shouldered, broad chested, and stout limbed, and he has 
 such control over his temper he never forgets to be courte 
 ous, even to those who permit passion to rule reason, while 
 they sink the glorious dignity of the statesman to the glad 
 iatorial level of the blackguard and the bully. Hale can 
 flog the powdery Senator in debate, and fling him out of the 
 window of the Capitol afterwards, as Commodus threw 
 Oleander out of the Roman palace. 
 
 Foote has the most finished education, Hale the most 
 practical sense ; Foote has read history and is familiar with 
 the past, Hale has associated Avith the people and knows the 
 necessities of the present ; Foote understands parliamentary 
 usages, Hale observes the rules of the Senate ; Foote is 
 nervous, furious and vituperative, Hale is pleasant, manly 
 and earnest ; Foote has the rasping severity of Randolph, 
 without his glowing eloquence ; the brilliancy of Lee, with 
 out his chaste dignity ; Hale has the self-reliance of Benton, 
 without, perhaps, his general information. The former is a 
 Cavalier, the latter a Roundhead. One would have fought 
 to the death for King Charles, the other would have united 
 with republican Oliver ; one is of the South so extreme as 
 to be tropical, the other of the North so distant as to be 
 frigid. When that great Nebuchadnezzar, the Compromise 
 Bill, with its head of gold, (without brains,) its breast of 
 brass, (without a heart,) its legs of iron, (without stability,) 
 its feet of Clay, (without a foothold,) was set up, Mr. Hale 
 refused to bow before it ; consequently, he was bound hand 
 and feet, and cast into the heated furnace, but he came out 
 without the smell of fire upon his garments. During the
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 15 
 
 last session of the Senate he was like Daniel (not the 
 Webster) in the lion's den, but he remained uninjured, 
 although there was no angel present to keep the mouths of 
 the animals closed. 
 
 Mr. Hale is a man whose telescopic discernment enables 
 him to discover danger at a distance, and when unwise or 
 reckless statesmen plot the ruin of the nation, he sends up 
 a rocket so that its shower of sparks, sheet of fire, and 
 startling report, may attract the attention of the people. 
 When that infamous Compromise Bill was before the Senate, 
 he frequently fired an alarm gun, to warn his constituents 
 and his countrymen. Although he is constitutionally indo 
 lent, when his mercury is made to rise to the blood heat of 
 excitement he is a giant, and ordinary men are like grass 
 hoppers in his hands. He has not genius to originate, 
 neither does he display much oratorical skill ; but his words 
 drop at the right time and in the right place, as the seed 
 falls from the hands of the sower into the furrow. He puts 
 new wine into old bottles, and bursts them. He is a man for 
 the times, and speaks the language as well as the sentiments 
 of the masses. The man bleached in the factory, and the 
 man bronzed in the foundry, understand him without the 
 aid of an interpreter. 
 
 Mr. Hale is sociable and affable in his manners, hearty 
 and pleasant in his address. He has the courage to patron 
 ize and defend whatever is designed to promote the welfare 
 of the human race, and the firmness to remain the unfalter 
 ing friend to humanity. He speaks fluently and feelingly, 
 and his style and sentiment are both forcible and persuasive. 
 He is a man of foresight and sagacity, and keeps pace with 
 the march of progress. He speaks in behalf of the African 
 race, and pleads for the Abstinence cause.
 
 16 CEATON SKETCHES. 
 
 In personal appearance, Mr. Hale is a large, stout man, 
 somewhat inclined to corpulency ; has a full, healthy, rosy 
 face ; dark hair, touched with frost ; blue eyes, beaming 
 with mirthfulness ; an ample chest swelling with a generous 
 heart, and shoulders strong enough to bear the cross of 
 his party.
 
 RUFUS CHOATE. 
 
 RUFUS CHOATE is the Brougham of the "Western World. 
 He is not so profound a metaphysician or so great a philoso 
 pher as the English Lord ; but he is equally eloquent, and 
 there is more lightning in his thunder. When he speaks, 
 his black eyes glow with electricity, his hair stands erect as 
 though his head were a galvanic battery, charging each 
 individual hair with the subtile fluid. He is furious as a 
 madman in his gestures, and not unfrequently tears his coat 
 from the collar to the waist, when he becomes intensely 
 excited. He walks from one end of the platform to the 
 other, and swings his arms backwards and forwards as 
 though he intended to take a leap into the middle of the 
 room and land upon the heads of his hearers. If he ever 
 should take a hop-step and jump, in the midst of one of his 
 orations, there would be danger of his tumbling down the 
 throats of some of the gaping multitude, whose mouths are 
 ever open to swallow every syllable he utters. No wonder 
 the people gape and gaze with such astonishment and admi 
 ration, for he has such a beautiful gallery, of pictures in the 
 chambers of his imagination such an affluence of lan 
 guage so retentive a memory such varied learning 
 such luminous eloquence and eccentric a manner of deliv 
 ery. Often, when he finishes a period in his most energetic 
 style, the listener involuntarily looks up to see if the fiery
 
 18 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 bolt just launched from his lips, has not raised the roof, or 
 at least gone through the ceiling. It is as difficult to report 
 his speeches, as it would be to report the trumpetings of the 
 storm, with the moaning wind, the pattering rain, the vivid 
 lightnings and the crashing of the thunders. He begins 
 like an eagle soaring from his eyrie, and continues his 
 upward flight over the mountain tops, up higher and still 
 higher, andJiigher still, with the clouds under his feet and a 
 crown of stars about his head ; and when he descends, he 
 shines like Moses coming down from the mountain, and like 
 him, he breaks the Commandments when he finds the peo 
 ple worshipping the idol of another party. You may talk 
 about torrents of eloquence he is the very Niagara of 
 eloquence, with the silver spray, the effulgent bow, and the 
 wasteless waters foaming and flashing through a narrow 
 channel of rocks. His speeches are brilliant with un 
 measured poetry, and abound in attic wit, biting invective, 
 glowing rhetoric, and logic on fire. " He can hew out a 
 Colossus from a rock, or carve heads on cherry stones." He 
 is not a glancing, dancing stream, fettered with ice half the 
 year ; but a magnificent and mighty river, running South ; 
 and as he sweeps on, he swallows up allusions, quotations, 
 figures, from Hesiod, and Homer, and Virgil, and Voltaire, 
 and Shakspeare, and Milton, and Washington and Webster, 
 still flowing on, 
 
 " Like to the Pontlc Sea, 
 Whose current and compulsive course 
 Never feels retiring ebb, but keeps right on 
 To the Propontic and the Hellespont." 
 
 To drop the figure and take up the fact, he has intensity of 
 purpose, and often allows his impulsiveness to control his 
 judgment. Every great effort he makes at the Bar or on 
 the rostrum, so excites his nervous system that he cannot
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 19 
 
 sleep sufficiently to satisfy the wants of his physical nature. 
 But he is fond of fame and of money, and seems determined 
 to keep up his reputation and his revenue ; consequently his 
 services are available when fair opportunities are afforded 
 for the improvement of either. His speeches sound better 
 than they read. Indeed, it would not be gratifying to the 
 vanity of himself or his numerous friends to pass his extem 
 poraneous speeches through the crucible of criticism. He 
 skips from one topic to another with the agility of a squirrel, 
 a fact unnoticed amid the blaze of his surpassing eloquence, 
 until the storm has passed by and the fever is over, and then 
 we behold the best a reporter can do in the columns of the 
 newspaper. 
 
 Mr. Choate is a dark complexioned, thin, cadaverous look 
 ing man, with keen black eyes, and a profusion of unkempt 
 hair of a glossy black hue. He is between forty and fifty 
 years of age, and of a nervous billious temperament. He 
 is a conservative Whig of the Webster school, and has made 
 eloquent speeches recently upon the leading political ques 
 tions of the day. As the Scotch orator once said, I have 
 " neither time nor space " to amplify this hastily written 
 sketch, and will conclude with the remark that Mr. Choate 
 is one of the most popular orators of modern times. We 
 have abler lawyers in America, but the Bar has not a more 
 brilliant and successful advocate. We have more ex 
 perienced statesmen, but few serve their country with more 
 fervid zeal. It is indeed a rich treat to listen to the gor 
 geous words which drop from his lips like apples of gold in 
 pictures of silver.
 
 HORACE MANN. 
 
 THE name and fame of the distinguished subject of this 
 sketch are world-wide. He is known, honored and appre 
 ciated as the promoter of education and the defender of the 
 oppressed. The mantle dropped by the lamented Adams 
 sits gracefully upon his shoulders. He is eminent as a 
 writer, a speaker, a scholar and a statesman. His essays 
 and his speeches command the attention and win the admi 
 ration of all who read or hear them. He never fails to get 
 the eyes and ears, if not the hearts, of his hearers, whether 
 they belittle children in a common school, or larger ones in 
 Congress. He is a prophet who hath honor in his own and 
 other countries. The first time the writer saw him, was at 
 the opening of a primary school in Boston. Several prom 
 inent men had spoken to the children present, in unintelligi 
 ble language ; in fact, they spoke to the youths as they were 
 accustomed to speak to adults. By-and-by, a tall, thin, 
 graceful man, with a high forehead and silvery hair, arose 
 in one corner of the room, and in a familiar manner asked 
 the children to let him see their red lips and bright eyes. 
 In a moment a sea of sunny faces was turned toward him. 
 He told them to persevere in the acquisition of knowledge, 
 and asked them if they ever saw a honey-bee go out from 
 its hive on a May morning in pursuit of its sweets. They 
 said they had seen the bee on his tour among the flowers.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 21 
 
 " Now," continued the speaker, " when he comes from the 
 leaves he does not bring a whole hive on his back, but he 
 flies home with a little at a time." The children were 
 intensely interested in his stories, comparisons, allusions and 
 admonitions. 
 
 The next time I saw this prominent and popular MANN, 
 was at the dedication of a grammar school in Boston. 
 Many of the first citizens were present, and listened with 
 delight to his extemporaneous and appropriate speech. His 
 tongue is like the pen of a ready writer. It costs him little 
 or no effort to round a period handsomely, or polish a sen 
 tence until it becomes transparent with beauty, and as for 
 grammatical inaccuracies, even in his impromptu efforts, 
 they are out of the question. Last Winter he delivered the 
 introductory lecture before the Mercantile Library Associa 
 tion. Tremont Temple was packed, from the orchestra to 
 the entrance. Many persons were obliged to leave the 
 crowded doors for want of accommodation. After the usual 
 preliminaries, the orator appeared on the platform and was 
 warmly greeted by the vast audience. He commenced at 
 once by leaping, at a single bound, into the middle of his 
 thesis, and he addressed the young merchants in a strain of 
 surpassing power and eloquence. The last survivor of 
 that large assembly cannot outlive the impression that 
 masterly effort made on every appreciating mind. He 
 spoke forcibly, rapidly, emphatically. Wit, humor, pathos, 
 irony, argument, flowed from his lips as freely as water 
 from an unfailing fountain. Those who carry their souls in 
 the sacs of their stomachs, and those who carry their hearts 
 in their breeches-pockets, were shown up as Marshal Tukey 
 exhibits the light-fingered gentlemen who sometimes visit 
 the City of Notions. He did not spare the wine-bottle nor 
 the tobacco-box, the coffee-pot nor the tea-kettle. He pro- 
 2
 
 22 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 nounced woes against those who will not breathe pure air, 
 and drink cold water, and eat plain food, and sleep on hard 
 beds in ventilated rooms. He has a stout heart and a strong 
 hand, and the whip he holds over the backs of gluttons and 
 imbibers has a silver lash and a golden handle, and although 
 every blow reaches the red, the wounded and the whipped 
 save their lamentations for the secret chamber where they 
 sit upon the stool of repentance. 
 
 If it be true that New England is further from perdition 
 and nearer paradise than any other portion of America, it is 
 owing to the superiority of her public schools. Horace 
 Mann has done more than any other person to elevate the 
 educational advantages of New England. His praise is in 
 all the schools. His system of instruction is almost univer 
 sally adopted. The moral atmosphere of Washington is 
 sure to spoil the principles of some men whom the multi 
 tude delight to honor. Not so with Horace Mann. He 
 does not wear a double face. He does not blow hot and 
 cold in the same breath. He does not amend, abridge or 
 alter his speeches to suit the latitude in which he lives. 
 Even the Hercules of the Senate, the mighty Expounder of 
 the Constitution, has felt the weight of his arm and stag 
 gered under the force of his blow. Horace Mann not only 
 goes for free soil and free men, but for free air and the free 
 use of cold water. He is liberal-minded, generous-hearted, 
 dignified in his deportment, genteel in his address, and 
 his character is like Caesar's wife, above suspicion. He is 
 not only admired, but really beloved, by his friends, acquaint 
 ances and constituents. 
 
 Phrenologically speaking, he has a classical face and 
 forehead. The organ of benevolence is prominently devel 
 oped, as are the organs of causality, comparison, ideality 
 and sublimity. He is a poet, although he may not have
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 23 
 
 exhibited any symptoms of that sort in rhyme. In his hap 
 piest efforts before an audience, he often leads them high up 
 the mountain so that they may see the promised land where 
 the nations shall dwell in the good time coming. 
 
 Mr. Mann is a cogent reasoner, a deep thinker, a ready 
 debater, an elegant writer, a splendid speaker. There is a 
 little lisping impediment on his tongue until he becomes ex 
 cited. Anti-progress men cannot bribe him, nor scare him, 
 nor gag him, nor cope with him at the press or in the forum. 
 He is remarkable for his originality, and his ideas are like 
 pictures painted on glass by those ancients who had the art, 
 now lost, of making the colors penetrate the surface so that 
 the object appeared as vividly on one side as the other. He 
 may be called a " proverbial philosopher," a prose poet, a 
 sayer as well as a doer of good things. Some of the " old 
 liners " in literature and theology, do not approve his liberal 
 sentiments. They have not the courage to assail him 
 openly, but they damn him with faint praise in private 
 circles. He is apt to indulge a taste for alliteration. It is 
 almost the only blemish in his essays and speeches. There 
 is no man in New England so well qualified in every 
 respect to occupy the post of honor and duty rendered 
 vacant by the death of John Quincy Adams, as he.
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON is one of the most erratic and 
 capricious men in America. Some of the wiseacres who at 
 first declared him a will-o'-the-wisp, have long since made 
 the discovery that he is a fiery comet of the first magnitude, 
 sweeping through the heavens, and eclipsing the glory of 
 some of the fixed stars in our literary firmament. He is 
 emphatically a democrat of the world, and believes that what 
 Plato thought another man may think, what Paul felt 
 another man may feel, what Shakspeare sang others may 
 know to be true. As for popes, emperors, kings, queens, 
 princes, and presidents, he looks upon them as grown-up 
 children in masquerade, uncrown them, disrobe them, and 
 bring them on a fair level with their fellow beings, and their 
 superiors may be found among their subjects. In his essay 
 on Self-Reliance, he says : " Our reading is mendicant 
 and sycophantic in history, our imagination makes fools of 
 us, plays us false. Kingdom and lordship, power and estate, 
 are a gaudier vocabulary than private John or Edward in a 
 small house and common days' works, but the things of life 
 are the same to both. Why all this deference to Alfred and 
 Scanderberg and Gustavus ? Suppose they were virtuous, 
 did they wear out virtue ? " He has no patience with the 
 chicken-hearted who have to refer to mouldy records and old
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 25 
 
 almanacks to ascertain if they may say their souls are their 
 own. We overlook present good in our insane attempts to 
 pry into the mysteries of the dark past. "We put the past 
 in front of our faces, instead of keeping it behind our backs, 
 where it legitimately belongs. Hear him : " He dare not 
 say I think I am, but quotes some saint or sage. He is 
 ashamed before the blade of grass or blowing rose. These 
 roses under my window make no reference to former roses, 
 or to better ones ; they are for what they are ; they exist 
 with God to day." " But man postpones or remembers ; he 
 does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments 
 the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands 
 on tip-toe to foresee the future." 
 
 This idealistic philosopher and Titian thinker is not san 
 guine in his hopes of progress. He has the impression that 
 men say " go," and stand still ; that radicals shout " reform," 
 and do not improve themselves ; that many Christians go to 
 church for the same reason that the multitude went into the 
 wilderness. If society improves here, it retrogrades there ; 
 when the tide of prosperity flows in one place, it ebbs in 
 another. We have maps, charts, books and globes, but 
 neglect to study the beautiful earth and the bright heavens. 
 We go fast, (even by steam,) but what we have gained in 
 speed we have lost in strength ; we have acquired a knowl 
 edge of science and sacrificed our health ; the telegraph is 
 our " errand-boy," and we die for the lack of exercise ; we 
 lose our roses in our teens, and grow grey in the morning of 
 life. If we are wiser, we are also older than our fathers 
 were at twice our age. We gape and gaze at every novelty 
 that comes before us. A quack with his nostrums, a priest 
 with his nonsense say to us, " Shut your eyes, open your 
 mouth, and swallow ; " and we, like boa-constrictors, swallow 
 2*
 
 26 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 the whole, and then mistake an undigested stomach-full for 
 a heart-full. 
 
 Mr. Emerson is a terse, vivid and graphic writer. Some 
 times there is a glow of poetry behind a veil of mist in his 
 essays. It is difficult to tell at what he is driving. He is 
 often like the sun in a fog ; we know there is light and heat, 
 but the vapor hangs like a thin curtain between us and the 
 luminary, as though the monarch of the skies was trying to 
 hide his spots. He now and then deals in unintelligible 
 inversions, inexplicable mysticisms, and seems to shake up 
 his disjointed and unsorted ideas in ollapodiana style, as 
 though he designed to give us the " clippings, parings and 
 shreds of his thoughts." If Swedenborg be the Shakspeare 
 of theology, Emerson is the Swedenborg of philosophy. 
 Even his incongruous agglomerations are brilliant as they 
 are incomprehensible. Read the following as a specimen of 
 that style : " The Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in 
 stone, subdued by the insatiable demand of harmony in man. 
 The mountain of granite blooms into an eternal flower, with 
 the lightness and delicate finish as well as the serial propor 
 tions and perspective of vegetable beauty. In like manner 
 all public facts are to be individualized, all private facts are 
 to be generalized. Then at once history becomes fluid and 
 true, and biography deep and sublime." 
 
 Mr. Emerson is a poetical as well as a prose writer, but 
 there is more poetry in his prose than in his poems. In 
 Europe he is regarded as the essayist of America. During 
 his tour through Great Britain, he met with a cordial recep 
 tion, and his lectures were numerously attended. He is by 
 some entitled the " Carlyle of America," but he is evidently 
 a better and a greater man than Carlyle. The pupil is 
 wiser than the teacher. The chip is larger than the block.
 
 CRATON SKETCHES. 27 
 
 He has a more opulent intellect, much better taste, and 
 higher and holier aims, than the snarling, cynical philosopher 
 of the Old World. 
 
 The only time the writer had an opportunity to hear Mr. 
 Emerson, was at a mass meeting in Worcester. He was 
 invited to speak, and responded with great reluctance, and 
 then made a failure. He stammered, halted, blundered, 
 hesitated, through a five minutes' speech. The people were 
 astonished at his awkwardness. He cannot make an extem 
 poraneous speech. He would not have appeared to such 
 great disadvantage, perhaps, had he not followed directly in 
 the wake of Wendell Phillips. Mr. Emerson is in the 
 prune of life, and is an intellectual-looking man ; has dark 
 brown hair, blue eyes, a pale, thoughtful face, not a great 
 development of forehead, and is between forty and fifty 
 years of age. He is a sociable, accessible, republican sort 
 of a man, and a great admirer of nature. Had he been a 
 Persian he would have worshipped the sun. He is cele 
 brated the world over as a lyceum lecturer. He is in inde 
 pendent circumstances. He is a strange compound of con 
 tradictions always right in practice, often right in theory. 
 He is a sun, rising in the East and setting in the West, but 
 occasionally he alarms and astonishes us by rising and shin 
 ing at midnight. 
 
 The literary Lilliputians who have endeavored to pin 
 Emerson to the earth, find that he is in good standing with 
 the gods ; of course, their labors, not of love but of jealousy, 
 are lost. He loves his brother man, whether he belongs to 
 the green-jacket tribe or the royal family. He looks upon 
 the flowers as his friends. 
 
 ' The spendthrift crocus, bursting from the mould, 
 Naked and shivering with Its cup of gold,"
 
 28 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 has honey and fragrance for him. The birds are his com 
 panions, and he interprets their warblings. Pie reads the 
 lessons that are stereotyped on the rocks, in a word, to 
 him the world is a book and the sky its blue cover ; deserts 
 and oceans are its fly-leaves, and the busy nations the illus 
 trations of the volume.
 
 HORACE GREELEY. 
 
 THE subject of tliis sketch is the prince of paragraphists 
 the Napoleon of Essayists. For years he has employed 
 his talents in winding and unwinding the " tangled yarn " of 
 human affairs in Church and State in Philosophy and 
 Politics in Art and Literature. He is the great recording 
 secretary of this Continent, employed by the masses to take 
 notes and print them. His business is to " hold the mirror 
 up to Nature, and show the very age and body of the time, 
 its form and pressure." He has the pluck to say as an 
 editor what he feels as a man when he forgets that he is 
 a politician. It is then that we find truth without conceal 
 ment, and genuine open-heartedness without wire-working 
 behind the curtain. It is then he 
 
 4 ' Pours out all as plain 
 
 As downright Shippen, or as old Montaigne." 
 
 Notwithstanding his wayward whims his eccentric man 
 ners his love of the intangible ideal his faith in Four- 
 rierism his responses to spirit rappers his man- worship 
 when Henry Clay is the human god he is still the model 
 Editor and the leader of the " press gang;" and the columns 
 of The Tribune afford a panoramic view of the American 
 world as it is. Greeley is a pen pugilist, (but never a bully,)
 
 30 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 and woe betide the unlucky wight that begins the assault. 
 Is he a clergyman ? then duodecimos, octavos and quartos 
 of ecclesiastical history will be hurled at his head, and he 
 cannot dodge them though he makes a coward's castle of the 
 pulpit. Is he a political man ? then he must be right, or 
 he will be flaggellated, if he ventures to measure lances with 
 one who is a walking register and familiar with every impor 
 tant political event that has transpired for the last twenty 
 years. He has more than a usual knowledge of the past. 
 His writings embrace every variety of style, classic beauty, 
 exquisite poetry, graphic description, vapid commonplace, 
 the full sun-blaze of originality, the moon in the mist, and 
 the ignis fatuus light of whimsical nonsense. It is but 
 just, however, to say, that he rarely troubles his readers with 
 verbiage or pedantry. He gives us his immediate impres 
 sions of things, and his style depends somewhat upon the 
 state of his health and the leisure at his disposal. He does 
 not stop to tack on syllables to make a sentence even, nor 
 measure periods so that they will be as mathematically cor 
 rect as the vibrations of a pendulum ; but he dashes on, 
 heedless of consequences. His widely circulated journal 
 contains good specimens of acute wit, critical reasoning, solid 
 argument, brilliant invective, profound philosophy, beautiful 
 poetry, and moving eloquence, mixed with the opposites of 
 these. 
 
 Mr. Greeley is entirely free from heartless bigotry or 
 hypocritical obstinacy. He is benevolent in his disposition, 
 affable and sociable in his manners, often speaks in pub 
 lic, and owing to his fame as a writer, attracts considera 
 ble attention ; but he is always sure to disappoint his hear 
 ers, for he has not sufficient eloquence as an orator, to buoy 
 up the reputation he has won, as a writer. His manner is 
 uncouth, his matter often dry, and his person by no means
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 31 
 
 prepossessing. Here permit me to say, that his careless, slip 
 shod, slovenly way of dressing his person, has rendered him 
 a man of mark and remark. His white hat and white coat 
 have been immortalized, because they are ever worn and 
 ever lasting. If this Whig prophet had more dignity and 
 more dandyism, he would be less popular with the masses, 
 but a great favorite with uppercrustdom. 
 
 Mr. Greeley is a practical printer, and has risen to his 
 present eminence by his untiring industry, his unconquerable 
 perseverance and extraordinary talents. No man in this 
 nation controls public opinion more than he. He is a 
 Grand Marshal in the great army of reformers, not afraid 
 or ashamed to speak to commit himself, save when his 
 party may suffer by the act. He is a patriot Whig, a phi 
 lanthropic Whig, a temperance Whig, an anti-slavery Whig, 
 a Whig writer, a Whig speaker, the editor of a Whig paper, 
 and that paper one of the very best in the United States. 
 
 No wonder Mr. Greeley knows so well how to meet the 
 wants and wishes of his patrons, for he has been in the world 
 ever since he was born> and has been hi various situations in 
 life canal driver* and member of Congress. Mr. Greeley 
 is about forty years of age, of nervous temperament, has a 
 large head too large for his vital organs a pale complex 
 ion, small eyes sunk under a dumpling forehead, a very 
 scanty supply of very soft, white hair, (not grey,) which 
 will not grow in front, but makes up the deficiency by a 
 patriarchal overgrowth behind. 
 
 When the reader beholds a man with an old white hat 
 stuck on the back of the cranium, and leaving the forehead 
 bare, a shirt-collar neckerchiefless and unbuttoned, a vest 
 which looks as though it had been put on with a pitch-fork, 
 
 * I have been so informed.
 
 82 CBAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 a pair of trowsers with one leg stuck in a coarse boot and 
 the other striving in vain to reach the ancle ; a coat that 
 seems to have been blown upon his back, and pockets filled 
 with exchange papers he may be sure he sees Horace 
 Greeley. This gentleman is a dietarian ; eats coarse, plain 
 food, drinks nothing but cold water, bathes daily, and sleeps 
 upon a hard bed. 
 
 In conclusion, permit me to say, that Mr. Greeley is a 
 man whose virtuous life, abstemious habits, generous deeds 
 and magnificent talents, entitle him to the admiration of his 
 fellow men.
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 " This, like a public inn, provides a treat 
 Where each promiscuous guest sits down to eat; 
 And such this mental food as we may call 
 Something to all men, and to some men all." 
 
 CBABBS. 
 
 LET the reader imagine it is Sunday morning. The bells 
 are tolling, and the good church-going people of Boston are 
 wending their way to the various places of worship which 
 are open for religious services. Suppose we spend an hour 
 this forenoon at the Melodeon, and hear the celebrated 
 philanthropist who usually preaches there. 
 
 Mr. Parker is seated in an arm-chair on the platform. 
 A Bible and a bunch of flowers are on the desk in front of 
 him, and it is difficult to say before-hand from which of the 
 two he will select his text. He will doubtless glorify the 
 fragrant and beautiful blossoms, and condemn some parts of 
 the inspired volume, before he concludes his address. See 
 him rise slowly and walk gently toward the desk. He now 
 leans upon it, closes his eyes, clasps his hands, and commen 
 ces prayer, in an inaudible voice. Now the hoarse whisper 
 becomes a low, murmuring sound. Now you hear words 
 and a whole sentence occasionally, and wish you had come 
 earlier so as to have obtained a seat nearer the preacher. 
 Now, by opening your ears and watching his lips attentively, 
 you can hear his prayer ; but if God is not present, there is 
 no one there who understands it. It abounds with smart 
 3
 
 34 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 maxims, deep philosophical reflections, pious acknowledg 
 ments, earnest invocations, and reverential promises. 
 
 He has taken his text and commenced reading his manu 
 script. His voice is rather husky, and his thick lips seem 
 unwilling to part. He now speaks louder and more dis 
 tinctly ; his lead-like eyes begin to glow with genius, and his 
 bald head seems to shine transparently with thought, while 
 he utters, in choice and classical English, sentiments so new, 
 so strange, so mighty, and so mad with radicalism, incorrigi 
 ble conservatives are offended. He is a moral Columbus, 
 who discovers whole continents of thought, and is sure to 
 cause mutiny in the ship he sails in, because he ventures so 
 far from the dry land on which most men build their hopep. 
 Indeed, he is regarded as a theological corsair, and most of 
 our great guns have been levelled at him, but he sails on 
 uninjured, amid the roar of their opposition, although he 
 frequently endangers his own immortal life by mistaking a 
 whale's back for a green island. His philosophy and his 
 divinity do not agree, for his philosophy is more divine than 
 his divinity. He has but little faith in any part of Scripture 
 that is not apparently susceptible of interpretations favora 
 ble to his peculiar views of religious duty, and does not 
 hesitate to ridicule those passages which come in collision 
 with his " Utopian " doctrines. In this way he unintention 
 ally destroys, in the minds of many, all reverence for 
 religion, and obliterates the sense of moral obligation. If 
 his hearers were all learned philosophers, his lectures would 
 be invaluable to them ; but they consist of all classes. The 
 wise, who sift the wheat from the chaff, may live under his 
 teaching, but the mass, who swallow every thing he offers, 
 are in danger of suffering all the pangs of spiritual starva 
 tion. 
 
 He is a true and thorough reformer, and advocates with
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 35 
 
 great zeal and greater ability the peace reform, the temper 
 ance reform, the anti-slavery and anti-hanging reforms. In 
 the course of his sermon he is sure to apply the rod to 
 "Uncle Sam's prize-fighters," the Army and the Navy. 
 The old autocrat Alcohol will be flagellated the South will 
 receive a blow here the church will get a whack there 
 and the gallows will be kicked over yonder. He reminds 
 one of the school-masters of ancient times, but he serves 
 great men as they did little boys. Statesmen, clergymen, 
 aristocrats, are called up and publicly chastised, if they do 
 not say their lessons correctly. A few days ago, Daniel 
 Webster had to hold out his hand and feel the ferule Gen. 
 Cass is frequently compelled to stand on the dunce-block at 
 the Melodeon Foote has to wear the cap and bells every 
 time he threatens to hang or shoot his fellow Senators he 
 pats Benton on the shoulders by way of encouragement, 
 when he speaks for freedom John P. Hale he thinks is a 
 precocious child of great promise Ralph Waldo Emerson 
 is so far advanced in knowledge, he would employ him as 
 usher in his school. 
 
 Mr. Parker's matter is more fascinating than his manner. 
 Indeed, he is often awkward in his gestures and indistinct in 
 his utterance, but he has the happy faculty of compressing 
 a volume of meaning in a few simple words. He never 
 appears before an audience without giving his hearers at 
 least one drop of fragrance which contains the concentrated 
 essence of a whole garden of roses. 
 
 He is the poor man's friend, although he regards poverty 
 as an unmitigated curse, and would never be like the 
 hypocrites who pass by on the other side when humanity is 
 prostrate, bleeding, and beseeching help. He has an extra 
 ordinary share of moral courage, and wages war like a hero, 
 against the kingdom of scoundreldom. He is fond of the
 
 36 CKATON SKETCHES. 
 
 company of the gods, and talks about Mars, Jupiter, Nep 
 tune, as though they had been his school-mates ; is a mod 
 ern among the ancients, an ancient amongst the moderns ; 
 will tell you with perfect coolness, that Paul was not so 
 good a writer as Socrates ; that Jesus was a perfect man, 
 that by-and-by there will be other men as perfect as Jesus ; 
 and that the statutes of Moses are not equal to those of 
 Massachusetts. He seems to spurn what he cannot fathom, 
 and condemn what he cannot comprehend. He doubts 
 whether Christ could perform miracles because he cannot 
 perform miracles himself; thinks inspiration is reason mag 
 netized, the Bible an interesting, but not always relia 
 ble history of the Jews, the popular religion of the times 
 a delusive sham ; loves to trace human progress from 
 the barbarous ages to the present time, and then look for 
 ward to a golden future. Were he to manifest more rever 
 ence for the truths of revelation, and show that he placed as 
 much faith in God as he does in man, he would, with his 
 varied learning and great talents, accomplish an immeasura 
 ble amount of good ; and many young men who have more 
 faith in a newspaper than they have in the New Testament, 
 would endorse its sentiments and follow the precepts of that 
 heavenly guide. 
 
 Mr. Parker is a chaste and elegant writer, his works are 
 widely circulated and read by scholars on both continents. 
 Although he is denounced as an infidel by his opponents, he 
 certainly behaves like a Christian in his private intercourse 
 with his fellow men. He thinks there is nothing in the 
 world so sacred as man, which accounts for the fact that he 
 hates flogging in the Navy, and is opposed to hanging, and 
 oppression, and intemperance, and the butchery of the 
 battle-field. 
 
 He is upwards of forty years of age, rather under the
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 37 
 
 medium stature, head large and bald, and his face dull, until 
 he becomes animated before an audience ; is quite popular 
 as a lyceum lecturer, and is in great demand during the 
 lecturing season. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, though wrong in theory, is 
 right in practice, and has courage enough to seize the social 
 and public evils by the throat. We, as a community, are 
 deeply indebted to him for his efforts to improve the condi 
 tion of the unfortunate. He " goes " for baths, ventilators, 
 hard beds, coarse food, cold water, and cheerfulness, and 
 "goes" against tobabco, hot slops, quack medicines, thin shoes, 
 and tight lacing; hates bigotry, gluttony, drunkenness, 
 poverty, war, and slavery, and loves purity, fidelity, liberty, 
 equality, fraternity. He is one of the most learned and 
 gifted men in America, and is a better Christian than some 
 of his bigoted detractors, who say he is like Noah's carpen 
 ters, who built a ship for other folks to sail in, and yet were 
 drowned themselves. 
 
 3*
 
 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 
 
 " THERE," said our driver, " is the birth-place of John G. 
 Whittier," when he pointed to a plain farm-house on the 
 edge of the town of Haverhill, situated a short walk from 
 the roadside, or, as the poet himself describes the old 
 homestead, " Our farm house was situated in a lonely 
 valley, half surrounded with woods, with no neighbors in 
 sight." 
 
 Soon after my arrival at the busy and beautiful village of 
 Amesbury, where the great poet of humanity now lives, I 
 ascertained his whereabouts, and gave him a letter of intro 
 duction, written by our mutual friend, W. A. "W , an 
 
 untiring co-laborer in the work-field of reform. I found 
 him at home, in his modest little Quaker cottage, where his 
 friends and visitors are sure to meet with a kind reception. 
 On the adjoining lot is another nest in the bushes, where a 
 family of singers give vocal utterance to the poetry Whittier 
 writes. Mr. W. responded to the rap at the door, and invi 
 ted me to take a chair in a plain, neat room, which com 
 mands a view of a large and beautiful garden, where he 
 spends a share of his leisure time, when his health will per 
 mit him to work there. He gave me an introduction to his 
 excellent mother, and, after a little chat on the common 
 topics of conversation, politely invited me to remain and 
 take tea with him.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 39 
 
 I knew quite well that I was in the presence of one of 
 the purest-minded and most gifted men in America ; a man 
 whose name and fame are world- wide, and "as familiar as 
 household words ; " a man whose mighty thoughts are winged 
 with words of fire ; but he was so unassuming, so accessible, 
 so frank, and so well " posted up " on all matters of news, 
 that, whatever subject is broached, one feels at home in the 
 presence of a friend, while conversing with him. This 
 eminent poet of the slave is about forty years of age. 
 His temperament is nervous-bilious ; is tall, slender, and 
 straight as an Indian ; has a superb head ; his brow looks 
 like a white cloud, under his raven hair ; eyes large, black 
 as sloes, and glowing with expression. He belongs to the 
 society of Friends, and in matters of dress and address, he 
 is a Quaker of " the strictest sort." Should a stranger meet 
 him in the street, with his collarless coat and broad-brimmed 
 hat, he would not discover anything remarkable in his ap 
 pearance, certainly would not dream that he had seen the 
 Elliott of America. But, let him uncover that head, and see 
 those star-like eyes flashing under such a magnificent fore 
 head, and he would know, at a glance, that a great heart, a 
 great soul, and a great intellect, must light up such a radiant 
 frontispiece. His fellow townsmen are proud of his fame, 
 and well they may be, for Amesbury will be known all over 
 the world, to the end of time, as the residence of John G. 
 Whittier, " the poet of the poor." 
 
 Wherever he discovers the talisman of intellect he recog 
 nizes a brother ; " though his skin and bones were of the 
 color of night, they are transparent, and the everlasting 
 stars shine through them with attractive beams." He knows 
 that complexion is not a crime, crisped hair is not a sin, 
 thick lips are not a transgression, and he has bared his arms 
 to avert the blow that would plough the quivering flesh of
 
 40 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 the toil-worn slave. He has heard the wail of the distracted 
 mother, who, like Rachel, refuses to be comforted because 
 her child has been torn from her bosom and sold into hope 
 less servitude, where her eye cannot pity its sorrows, where 
 her hand cannot alleviate its distress ; and he has denounced 
 such fiendish cruelty with an eloquence and pathos approxi 
 mating to inspiration. He has seen hollow-hearted states 
 men tear the stripes from our flag and put them on the 
 backs of our countrymen, and he has spiced sheets that will 
 preserve such mummies in the amber and pitch of infamy 
 forever. He has seen the fugitive flying from the house of 
 bondage, with hunters and blood-hounds on his track in hot 
 pursuit, and he has shouted, " God speed the slave ! " until 
 lungless echo has repeated the cry on every hill-top of the 
 free North. He has seen where the red-hot branding-iron 
 has been pressed on the shrinking flesh of a freeman's 
 hand, until the sizzling blood spouted from the wound, 
 and the angel of his muse touched his lips with a 
 burning coal from the altar of God, whilst he immortalized 
 the patient hero, and annihilated everything but the damna 
 ble infamy of the heartless, soulless persecutors. 
 
 Mr. Whittier is a sincere lover of truth and right, and his 
 language is, " In vain and long, enduring wrong, the weak 
 may strive against the strong, but the day shall yet appear, 
 when the might with the right and the truth shall be, and 
 come what there may to stand in the way, that day the 
 world shall see." (Pardon my drawing the lines into 
 prose. I quote from memory, and fear I might do still 
 greater injustice to the author by measuring the sentiment 
 off into verse.) Such men as he, are excluded from the 
 South, but slaveholders can no more keep out his sentiments 
 than the fool could keep the wind out of the barn-yard by 
 closing the gate. Judging by the emotions excited by his
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 41 
 
 writings, we are led to the conclusion that he usually writes 
 with tears in his eyes, but a certain magazine publisher, 
 whose likeness accompanied one of the numbers of his mag 
 azine, can testify that his satire punishes like the sting of a 
 scorpion. Read the following lines : 
 
 " A moony breadth of virgin face, 
 
 By thought unviolated, 
 A patient mouth to take from scorn 
 
 The hook with bank-notes baited, 
 Its self-complacent sleekness shows 
 
 How thrift goes with the fawner, 
 An unctuous unconcern for all, 
 
 Which nice folks call dishonor." 
 
 An eminent statesman will find it difficult to outlive the 
 following lines : 
 
 " So fallen, so lost ! the light withdrawn 
 
 Which once he wore ! 
 The glory from his grey hairs gone 
 Forever more. 
 
 Let not the land once proud of him 
 
 Insult him now, 
 Nor brand with deeper shame his dim, 
 
 Dishonored brow. 
 
 But let its humbled sons instead, 
 
 From sea to lake, 
 A long lament as for the dead, 
 
 In sadness make. 
 
 Then pay the reverence of old days 
 
 To his dead fame ; 
 Walk backward with averted gaze, 
 
 And hide the shame." 
 
 Whittier's poetry is eloquence measured with a golden 
 reed, logic on fire, pathos crying in the notes of the nightin 
 gale, philosophy playing on the harp, humor laughing in 
 numbers, wit rained down from heaven in a shower of stars. 
 His writings are not free from imperfections of style and
 
 42 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 sentiment; but men seldom notice pebbles while they look at 
 the lights in the cerulean arch above. He is the author of 
 several volumes of prose, which are widely circulated. His 
 verses are full of philosophy, beauty, and sublimity. He 
 sympathizes with the unfortunate, and chastises the oppressor 
 with a whip of adders. In some of his patriotic appeals 
 he reminds us of the old prophets. Had Isaiah lived in these 
 times, he might have written the following lines without 
 impairing his reputation : 
 
 " Now, by our fathers' ashes ! Where's the spirit 
 
 Of the true-hearted and the unshackled gone ? 
 Sons of the old freemen, do we but inherit 
 Their names alone ? 
 
 Is the old Pilgrim spirit quenched within us ? 
 
 Stoops the proud manhood of our souls so low 
 That mammon's lure or party's wile can win us 
 To silence now ? 
 
 No ! When our land to ruin's brink is verging, 
 
 In God's name let us speak while there is time ! 
 Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging, 
 SILENCE id CBIME! " 
 
 Some of his best poems have been published in beautiful 
 style in Boston lately, but the work is so expensive the 
 masses are not able to buy it. His writings do not need 
 such costly embellishments to be appreciated, any more than 
 the sun needs a stained window through which to shine. 
 The lark and the nightingale need not the costume of the 
 peacock to ensure admiration. Mr. Whittier is one of the 
 editors of the National Era, and I may say, in whisper, to 
 the ladies, he is a bachelor.
 
 NEAL DOW. 
 
 THE man who has the talent to frame and the courage to 
 execute the Maine Law, deserves to be honored and remem 
 bered by every patriot and philanthropist in our broad free 
 land. Neal Dow is the Kossuth of the temperance revolu 
 tion, and his name is already registered in the book of fame, 
 "among the few, the immortal names not born to die." 
 Poets sing his praise, painters put his shadow on their can 
 vass historians record his deeds, and multitudes of appre 
 ciating mothers will call their children by his name. 
 
 We wrote pledges, made speeches, obtained signatures, 
 formed societies, and framed laws, to suppress intemperance ; 
 we tried moral, magnetic, Bible, and ballot-box suasion ; we 
 plead, and prayed, and promised, and did incalculable good, 
 but failed to accomplish the entire extinction of the rum 
 traffic, the object so devoutly desired. We were brought to 
 a moral Panama, with a gulf of billows rolling between us, 
 and a golden California beyond, without bridge or boat to 
 carry us safely over to the land of promise, when Neal 
 Dow, who understood every rope in the ship, took the helm 
 and piloted our storm-beaten vessel into the harbor of 
 safety. 
 
 Yes, a private citizen of Maine, possessing the stern will 
 and Puritan zeal " of the earlier and better day," arose in 
 the dignity of conscious strength, and with the sweep of his
 
 44 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 strong arm wiped away the stain of black intemperance from 
 the State. Without the aid of the Army or the Navy, he 
 routed the most formidable and dangerous enemy that could 
 assail the Commonwealth. 
 
 Lean and pallid avarice, haggard appetite, stupid igno 
 rance, bloated bigotry, devilish demagogueism, stood in his 
 way, clad to the teeth in armor, but he feared them no more 
 than Bunyan's Christian feared the beasts he met on his 
 way to the Celestial city. He extinguished the fires of the 
 only distillery in the State, and wrote tekd on the walls of 
 every wine palace in Maine. Who is this modern Moses 
 who smote the RED SEA with the rod of the law, so that the 
 people can travel dry-shod ? He is a man who has a head 
 to think, a heart to feel, a tongue to explain, and a hand to 
 execute ; is respectably educated, not learned, comfort 
 ably independent, not a millionaire ; speaks conversation 
 ally, not eloquently ; is a plain, practical man, with a 
 strong mind and an iron will. Had he lived in the days of 
 Cromwell, he would have been a leader in the battered band 
 that fought side by side with the " Usurper." He speaks as 
 one having authority, and looks like one born to command. 
 He is in the meridian of life about five feet seven inches 
 in height, and well proportioned ; has dark hair, a square 
 forehead, which does not at first glance indicate more 
 than a mediocrity of mind ; eye-brows are rather ponderous, 
 cheek bones somewhat prominent, complexion dark. The 
 peculiar form of the mouth and chin pronounce him a man 
 of obstinate firmness. There is a sort of come on, I am 
 ready for you, look about his face, which affords unmistake- 
 able evidence that he will not countenance the liquor trade. 
 He looks as though he could chase a thousand rum sellers, 
 and with the aid of the Maine Law, put ten thousand to 
 flight.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 45 
 
 Neal Dow is the son of a Quaker, and surely he fights 
 valiantly for one who has been trained to observe the prin 
 ciples of peace. He does not claim religious relationship 
 with any sect, but is a firm believer in the truths of Divine 
 Revelation, and observes devotional duties in his family. 
 For many years he has been identified with the temperance 
 movement in Maine, (his native State,) where he has 
 labored and lectured gratuitously, for the welfare of his 
 fellow citizens. Frequently has he appeared before the 
 Legislature with petitions praying for laws so stringent as to 
 prohibit the liquor trade, and finally he succeeded in cutting 
 out some work for his country. 
 
 He is a tanner by trade, and although he has (I may be 
 misinformed) retired from business, he has left the hides of 
 many rumsellers on the fence. "Wonder if they would not 
 make good shoes, since they are water proof ! There is not 
 a lawyer in the land who could have drafted a better bill 
 than that which has so effectually excommunicated intemper 
 ance from the glorious State which is the nearest to the 
 golden gates of sunrise. The Law declares that intox 
 icating drinks shall not be made and sold, to be used as a 
 beverage, in Maine that an agent shall be appointed in 
 each city or town to sell spirits for mechanical and medicinal 
 purposes only that common sellers shall be heavily fined 
 and imprisoned for persisting in violating the law that no 
 lawless rum seller shall be allowed to sit as a juror on a 
 rum suit that liquors may be searched for, seized and de 
 stroyed that in case of appeal, bonds must be given that 
 the case will be prosecuted, and if the judgment goes against 
 the defendant, he must pay double the fine and suffer double 
 the imprisonment, &c., &c. Read the law, it is a good one. 
 It has not been pared down by abridgment, or patched up 
 with amendments. It is the people's law, and not the law 
 4
 
 46 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 of politicians. It is a terror to those who do ill, and a 
 praise to those who do well. It is a fire annihilator, and 
 works well out doors or in, and the effect is the same 
 whether the building be a small one or a large one. Suc 
 cess to the MAIN LAW, which is the Law of Maine.
 
 GERRIT SMITH. 
 
 ON my return from the West, I called to see that gener 
 ous philanthropist, eminent orator, and impracticable radical, 
 Gerrit Smith. I found him in his office, pen in hand, at his 
 writing-desk. When he read my note of introduction, he 
 remarked that he was familiar with my name, and supposed 
 I was a much older man. He politely invited me to avail 
 myself of his hospitality. I did so, and had an opportunity 
 of seeing him at home. 
 
 Mr. Smith lives in a small white house, about two miles 
 distant from the village of Peterboro'. It is plainly and 
 sparingly furnished. There are no luxurious sofas upon 
 which to lounge, no costly carpets upon which to tread, no 
 costly mirrors at which to gaze. Everything about his resi 
 dence partakes of the useful rather than the ornamental. I 
 found him an accessible, sociable, pleasant man, thoroughly 
 familiar with the history of the reformers and the reforma 
 tory movements of the present day. 
 
 It is well known that this distinguished man stands at the 
 head of the most radical class of reformers. Indeed he stands 
 out so far in front of his age that slow-moving conservatives 
 cannot appreciate the man nor his motives. He denounces
 
 48 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 rum-patronising and pro-slavery churches ; consequently all 
 the anathema maranathas of unsympathizing and unsancti- 
 fied professors of religion are hurled at his head, and he is 
 condemned as an infidel, whereas he evidently is an humble 
 and devoted follower of Christ. " By their fruits ye shall 
 know them." He asks a blessing at his table. Night and 
 morning he lays the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart 
 on the altar of family devotion. Every day he carefully 
 studies the Scriptures ; and manifests his love to God whom 
 he has not seen, by his love toward his brother-man whom 
 he has seen. 
 
 Few men have done more than Mr. Smith to assist the 
 poor, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, reform the 
 drunkard and liberate the bondman. The hotels owned by 
 him in different towns and cities in this country, are invari 
 ably rented for half the sum liquor-landlords would pay for 
 the same premises. In this way, he has cheerfully sacrificed 
 thousands of dollars to promote the temperance cause. I 
 have not mentioned his munificent donations and eloquent 
 lectures directed to the same object. This model man gave 
 three thousand farms to the same number of black persons, 
 and now he offers a thousand farms and ten thousand dollars 
 to a thousand white persons in the State of New York. 
 Mr. Smith's father was in partnership with John Jacob 
 Astor, at one period of his life. When he died, he be 
 queathed to the subject of this sketch three quarters of a 
 million acres of land. 
 
 In point of intellect, Mr. Smith ranks with such men as 
 Clay and Benton. His mind is comprehensive and well 
 cultivated. His temperament volcanic, but usually control 
 led by an acute judgment. As an orator he has but few 
 superiors. His manner is deliberate and dignified his 
 matter choice and classical his personal appearance noble
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 49 
 
 and attractive. He is about six feet tall, and of perfect 
 proportions ; forehead high and broad ; eyes large, dark, and 
 expressive ; hair brown, and cropped close to his head. At 
 the time I saw him he wore a suit of bottle-green, and his 
 broad shirt-color lay down like a large snow-flake over a 
 black neckerchief. He never decorates his person with the 
 tinselry and jewelry of fashion. He eats plain food, sleeps 
 on a hard bed, bathes every day, drinks nothing but cold 
 water, walks from four to ten miles a day, writes from fifty 
 to two hundred letters per week, furnishes long and labored 
 communications for the press, speaks frequently at public 
 meetings. 
 
 It is not often we find a man with such immense wealth 
 at his command, sympathizing as he does with his less fortu 
 nate fellow men. He believes that man is as much entitled 
 to the earth as he is to air and water, and desires to see 
 every man own a house and lot ; is opposed to tariffs, 
 and advocates with great zeal and eloquence the doctrine 
 of free trade ; believes there is " a good time coming " 
 when the clarion of war shall cease, and the olive-trees shall 
 grow above mouldering bones on battle-fields ; when degrad 
 ing poverty shall hide its diminished head, and smiling com 
 petence shall find all men sitting under their own vines and 
 fig-trees, none daring to molest or make them afraid ; when 
 slavery shall no longer bind on heavy burdens ; when intem 
 perance shall be among the things that were, and abstinence 
 principles shall universally prevail. With such views, it 
 may not be expected that he always travels on a smooth 
 road and sleeps on a bed of roses. He stirs up the old 
 hornet-nests of hunkerism and awakens the slumbering dog- 
 kennels of conservatism, so that he frequently hears the 
 buzzing of insects and the baying of hounds. 
 
 Unimprovable, incorrigible conservatives, who cling to 
 4*
 
 50 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 grey old customs and straight roads, who hate an uneven 
 pathway although it may be the safest and the nearest, re 
 mind one of the rats of Norway, that travel in millions from 
 the hills toward the the ocean.* They turn neither to the 
 right nor the left, but gnaw their way through barns and 
 corn-fields, swimming or sailing over rivers, climbing walls 
 and mountains, sweeping through crowded thoroughfares, 
 tumbling from the roofs of houses. On, on, rolls the wave 
 of rats, leaving behind nothing but dead carcases and a foul 
 atmosphere. Man is a progressive animal, and the more 
 conservative he is, the nearer he approximates to the unin- 
 tellectual brute, and the further he recedes from established 
 laws. God made man upright, and furnished him with a 
 capital of bones and brains with which to commence life. 
 Experience, observation and reflection taught him that 
 Winter would freeze him, Summer scorch him, fire burn him, 
 water drown him, the wild beast devour him, and the ava 
 lanche crush him. He robed himself in garments to protect 
 him from the cold of the North and the heat of the South. 
 He built a house for his comfort and protection. He domes 
 ticated the dog, the cow and the horse, for his own accommo 
 dation. He dried venison and fish, sowed seed and reaped 
 harvests, and continued his progressive movements until the 
 rude hut became a stately palace, the bark canoe a mighty 
 ship with sails and masts, the clumsy cart a city on wheels 
 drawn by steam-steeds over iron roads. Steam is our horse, 
 lightning our herald, water our servant, and the sun our 
 portrait-painter. 
 
 Reform tunnels our mountains, levels the hills, lifts up the 
 valleys, and flings its floating bridges of steel and steam and 
 flame and smoke over the oceans. Our railroads are iron 
 
 * Carlyle.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 51 
 
 bands binding us in the bonds of universal brotherhood. 
 Our electric wires are so many nerves of sensation, reaching 
 from the body politic to the brains of society. 
 
 Mr. Smith is one of the few who keeps pace with the 
 march of improvement, and he heartily employs his purse, 
 pen and tongue in behalf of free trade, free soil, free types, 
 free lips, and free men. He believes the Constitution is an 
 " anti-slavery document ; " so do the free-soil abolitionists, yet 
 is not a " free-soiler." He believes the church is pro-slavery, 
 and on that question agrees with the Garrisonians, but he does 
 not belong to that party. He is at the head of the " Liberty 
 party," and his creed embraces every degree of reform, from 
 the use of cold water as a beverage and in the bath, to the 
 emancipation of three millions of men.
 
 ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 
 
 THE first time the writer saw ABBOTT LAWRENCE, the 
 great cotton-lord, was in Brattle Square church. He was 
 standing in the broad aisle, conversing with a negro, Avho is 
 a brother member of the same religious society to which the 
 subject of this sketch belongs. While the beauty and fash 
 ion, the wealth and wisdom, the virtue and piety of that 
 church were pressing homewards, the distinguished man who 
 is now at the Court of St. James, was holding a brief tete-a- 
 tete with his black brother, and I had a fine opportunity to 
 take his portrait. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence is a tall, portly, noble and dignified-looking 
 man, about sixty years of age. His head is bald, and shines 
 as though it came fresh from the hands of a skilful var- 
 nisher and polisher ; and it is quite evident that the shining 
 qualities of the head are not confined to the exterior of the 
 skull, but seem rather to result from something brilliant 
 within. He has a calm, pleasant face, indicating, to the 
 minutest line, that he is not afraid to see the sheriff or the 
 clamorous creditor. He wore, on this occasion, a thin cravat, 
 light vest, and a dress coat (I think) of olive green. 
 
 I saw him again at a " mass meeting " in Faneuil Hall, 
 the very time when he said his breeches-pocket contained 
 the evidence that Gen. Taylor was a Whig! The old
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 53 
 
 " Cradle of Liberty " was packed with people. It was no 
 easy task for those who came late to gain admittance, but, 
 being accustomed to crowds, and determined to see and hear 
 the speakers, I pushed my way through to the front gallery, 
 where I obtained a seat and a view of the platform. Our 
 subject was in the chair, and in more senses than one he 
 filled it well. He was surrounded by men well known to 
 fame. Some of them were acquainted with him when he 
 was a poor, awkward boy, employed as a clerk in a store in 
 the city of Boston. One of them told the writer that when 
 Mr. Lawrence left his native town of Groton, he came to 
 the capital of Massachusetts with a pair of buckskin gloves 
 on his hands. It was during the Summer season, and some 
 of the city gents, laughed at the verdancy of the country 
 lad. That he afterwards pulled off" his gloves, the " cities 
 of spindles" he has erected bear the most unequivocal 
 testimony. 
 
 At the proper time he arose and made a speech. It con 
 tained humor, pathos, and logic enough to be interesting. 
 He is more of a business than a literary man ; a better 
 financier than statesman, and would never have been more 
 than a moderate statesman if he had not been a first-rate 
 financier. He is indebted to his brains for his money, and 
 to his money for his honors. He went through the mill first, 
 then graduated at the counting-house, and recently journeyed 
 to London as minister-plenipotentiary. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence is a magnificent man. He does everything 
 by wholesale and nothing in the retail line. Not satisfied 
 with the murmuring of a single mill, he must make every 
 idle stream turn a crank for him. Look at Lowell and 
 Lawrence, the cities erected by his enterprise ! He would 
 not be Mayor of Boston, but he would like to be President 
 of the United States ; is liberal to the poor, though he
 
 54 CBATON SKETCHES. 
 
 will not allow his funds to filter through his own hands to 
 the needy. He prefers giving a large sum when he gives 
 anything, but it must be distributed by those who are willing 
 to come in contact with the sorrowing and distressed. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence is a practical business man, of pleasing 
 manners and polite address. Although he has devoted a 
 large portion of his life to business, he is familiar with the 
 modern history of nations, and knows enough respecting the 
 etiquette of courts and the usages of diplomacy to fill the 
 station he occupies with credit to himself and honor to his 
 country.
 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS. 
 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS is the Patrick Henry of New-Eng 
 land. If he has less natural eloquence, less thrilling pathos, 
 than the orator of the Revolution, he has more polish and as 
 much power of origination. He is a ripe scholar, a lawyer 
 of no ordinary calibre, a magazine writer of considerable 
 note, and a reformer of the most radical school. He is the 
 pet speaker of the East. He has great power of perception, 
 sincere sympathy for the oppressed, and wonderful command 
 over the stores of varied knowledge treasured up in his 
 retentive memory. He has the "gifts that universities cannot 
 bestow," the current com that cannot be counterfeited, " the 
 prophet's vision," the poet's fancy, the light of genius. He 
 is at home on the mountain-top, and when he soars skyward 
 he is not lost among the clouds ; has all the sagacity of the 
 man of business united with the enthusiasm of the Utopian, 
 and seems to be equally related to Maia the eloquent, and 
 Jupiter the thunderer. He admires the eternal, the infinite, 
 the heaven-like, the God-approximating in the nature of 
 man, whatever may be the color of the envelope that con 
 tains these attributes. 
 
 Mr. Phillips' speeches have in them the breath of life 
 hence they live long to swell the bosom and make the heart 
 throb. " He does not go to the lamp of the old schools to
 
 56 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 light his torch, but dips it into the sun, which accounts for 
 its gorgeous effulgence." He is something of a metaphysi 
 cian, but is too much absorbed in the work of revolution 
 izing public sentiment to devote his attention to subtle 
 research and profound analysis. He makes but little 
 preparation, and always speaks extemporaneously ; conse 
 quently some of his addresses are like a beautiful damsel in 
 dishabille ; then his quotations are ringlets rolled up in 
 papers, and the main part of the lecture like a loose gown 
 which now and then reveals a neck of pearl and a voluptu 
 ous bust of snowy whiteness and beautiful proportions. He 
 is often brilliant, never tediotfs. Sometimes his scholarship 
 is seen conspicuously, but it is never pompously displayed. 
 
 It is a rich treat to hear Wendell Phillips speak to a large 
 and appreciative audience. Let the reader fancy he is at a 
 mass meeting in some forest temple. The sun shines as 
 though delighted with the gathering ; the shy birds perch in 
 silence on the neighboring trees, as though they were aston 
 ished at the proceedings ; a song makes the welkin ring. 
 The chairman announces the name of a favorite speaker. 
 A genteel man steps gracefully upon the platform. He is 
 neatly, not foppishly, dressed. A pleasant smile illuminates 
 his noble face. He leaps, at a single bound, into the middle 
 of the subject. He reasons, and his logic is on fire ; he des 
 cribes, and the subject is daguerreotyped on the retina of 
 memory ; he quotes from some classic author, and the ex 
 cerpt is like an apple of gold in a picture of silver ; he tells 
 a story, and the impression it gives is indelible ; he makes 
 an appeal, and tears flow freely ; he declaims, and the people 
 are intensely excited ; he soars, and his lips are touched 
 with a live coal from the altar of inspiration. Mr. Phillips 
 believes in a " higher law," so he appeals to the sense of the 
 everlasting hi man. " He plays the Titanic game of rocks,
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 57 
 
 and not a game of tennis-balls," and yet he "floods the 
 heart with singular and thrilling pleasure." " He is the 
 primed mouth-piece of an eloquent discharge, who presents,, 
 applies the linstock, and fires off;" and the conservatives who 
 stand with their fingers in their ears, are startled by the 
 report. Is there a mob? his words are like oil on the 
 troubled billows of the chafed sea ; he rebukes the winds of 
 strife and the waves of faction, and there is a great calm. 
 The serene face of his bosom-friend, the leader of the league, 
 is radiant with smiles ; the severe front of a turncoat or a 
 tyrant present begins to relax ; the doughface is ashamed of 
 himself, and determines that hereafter he will be " a doer 
 and not dough ; " the stiff-limbed finds a binge in his joints, 
 and his supple knees bow in homage to the speaker. 
 
 But I must find some fault, or I shall be deemed a 
 flatterer. Let me see what shall I say ? " Oh, he is an 
 impracticable radical; he goes for the dissolution of the 
 Union, the dismemberment of the church, the destruction of 
 the political^ parties." In this he is partly right and partly 
 wrong. The Christian should do for Christ's sake what 
 the worldling does for the sake of humanity, then there will 
 be no necessity for such a reproof. The body politic should 
 sever the leprous limb of slavery, and then America would 
 not limp so as to become a laughing-stock and a by-word to 
 the nations of the earth. The political parties at the North 
 are leavened with anti-slavery doctrines, and it is hoped they 
 will soon rise to the level of that benevolence which will 
 render such rebukes unnecessary. I declare it is difficult 
 for me to find any fault in him. ( Reader, you may be 
 Herod, but I cannot be Pilate, and consent to his crucifixion. 
 I must confess that I love the man, although I cannot en 
 dorse all his creed. It is a pity that he limits his usefulness 
 5
 
 58 
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 by his fierce warfare against men and measures that are too 
 long or too short for his iron bedstead. 
 
 Mr. Phillips is a man of fortune, and one of the distin 
 guished few who contributes to support the enterprise in 
 which he feels an interest as much as he expends in sustain 
 ing himself and family. Physically he is a noble specimen 
 of a man. His head is sparingly covered with reddish 
 hair, 
 
 " The golden treasure nature showers down 
 On those foredoomed to wear Fame's golden crown." 
 
 A phrenologist would pronounce his head worth more 
 than the South would be willing or able to give for it. He 
 has large ideality and sublimity, hence he soars ; large com 
 parison and causality, so he reasons by analogy ; large hope 
 and benevolence, and the genial sunshine of good-nature 
 irradiates his countenance ; large firmness and adhesiveness^ 
 and he abides by his friends through evil and through good 
 report. His face is pleasant, and indicates exquisite taste, 
 pure generosity, and Roman firmness. He is now in the 
 full vigor of manhood, and ever ready at a moment's warn 
 ing to battle for what he deems the right. "Woe be unto the 
 man who enters the arena with him, for he wields a two- 
 edged sword of Damascus steel. Many strong men have 
 been slain by him ; yea, many mighty men have fallen 
 before him. \ Had he united with either of the great politi 
 cal parties, he would have been chosen as a champion, for 
 he is brilliant as Choate, without his bedlamitish idiosyncra 
 sies ; clear as Clay, without his accommodating, compromis 
 ing disposition ; learned as Winthrop, without his bookish- 
 ness and drawing-room mannerism ; genial as Cass, without 
 his dulness ; fiery as Benton, without his unapproachable 
 self-sufficiency. He would entertain a promiscuous audience
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 59 
 
 better than either of the above-named men. He is not so 
 logical as Webster ; not so luminous as the ever-consistent 
 Calhoun ; not so learned as the second Adams ; not so thril 
 ling as Kentucky's favorite ; and yet he is a more instructive 
 and a more interesting speaker than either of those distin 
 guished men ever were, even in their palmiest days. 
 
 Wendell Phillips is universally esteemed and beloved. 
 Even those who hate his creed, and dread his power, admire 
 his disinterested kindness and irresistible eloquence.
 
 PHILIP S. WHITE. 
 
 EYERTBODY said, " Let us go to the great meeting at 
 Tremont Temple, this evening, and hear Philip S. White, 
 the distinguished champion of the temperance reform." At 
 the appointed hour, that magnificent forum was filled with 
 the wealth, beauty, talent, and moral worth of Boston. The 
 immense building was brilliantly illuminated, as though the 
 sun had risen behind the orchestra and concentrated its rays 
 within the walls of the Temple. On the platform were some 
 of the elite and literati of society, authors, orators, and 
 philanthropists. After the usual preliminaries, at the com 
 mencement of the exercises, skilful fingers touched the 
 magic keys of the mammoth organ, and we were pleasantly 
 entertained with sweet strains of delightful melody. Some 
 times it seemed as if a choir of soft- voiced maidens was 
 enclosed behind those golden columns, singing such rich, 
 lute-like airs that angels, on their mission of mercy, might 
 have mistaken that place for the gate of heaven. Then the 
 heavy bass would roll like a wave of thunder through the 
 large hall, startling the charmed hearers to a sense of the 
 fact that they were still under the clouds. 
 
 As the music subsided, a tall, portly man, on the mellow 
 side of fifty, arose to address the audience. " Is that the 
 man who stood at the head of the Order of the Sons of
 
 CKAYON SKETCHES. 61 
 
 Temperance ? " is the general inquiry. " It is," was the 
 response. The "observed of all observers," on this occasion, 
 is a person of good mould, somewhat bald, but makes up 
 that deficiency by a luxurious growth of whiskers, which 
 become his face as feathers do an eagle. He has a large, 
 aquiline, Bardolphian nose, dark eyes, and a wide mouth, 
 indicative of eloquence and good nature. He commences in 
 a conversational pitch of voice ; face dull and passionless as 
 marble ; has spoken ten minutes without saying any thing, 
 and the sanguine expectations of the people are sadly disap 
 pointed. The hearers bow their heads like bulrushes, and 
 some would leave the meeting but that they hope for better 
 things. He is not quite so prosy now as he was fifteen 
 minutes ago. His voice is deeper and clearer, his utterance 
 more rapid and distinct, and his face shines as though it had 
 been freshly oiled. There is a resurrection now among the 
 bowed heads ; he has just made a thrilling appeal, which 
 moved the audience like a shock from an electric battery. 
 Now he relates a tale of pity, which is drawing tears from 
 eyes "unused to weep." Now he surprises his attentive 
 hearers with an unanticipated stroke of humor, which makes 
 them laugh until they shake the tear-drops from their 
 cheeks. All are glad they came now, for the orator is in 
 his happiest mood, his blood is up, and his tongue as free as 
 the pen of a ready writer. He throws light on the question 
 by the corruscations of his attic wit ; drives home a truth 
 by solid argument, and clinches it by a quotation from 
 Scripture ; convulses the auditory by using a ludicrous com 
 parison ; convinces them by presenting sober-faced statistics ; 
 entertains them by relating an appropriate anecdote, and 
 fires their indignation against the traffic, while the rum- 
 dealers present shake in their shoes. He warns the drinkers 
 with a voice which arouses them like a clap of thunder 
 5*
 
 02 CEAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 through a speaking-trumpet. In a word, his sparkling 
 satire, keen wit, eloquent declamation, happy comparisons, 
 classical allusions, rib-cracking fun, and heart-melting pathos, 
 render him one of the most efficient public speakers in 
 America. 
 
 Mr. White can labor a syllogism, or tell a story, with the 
 same ease that Talleyrand could turn a coffee-mill or a king 
 dom. He goes for moral, legal, bible, pocket, and ballot-box 
 suasion. His inimitable histrionic powers enable him to tell 
 a story admirably. He has almost omnipotent power in 
 swaying the minds and hearts of his hearers, when he is 
 fairly engaged and has a sea of crystal faces before him. 
 He speaks without notes, and is so careless, withal, that he 
 preserves no minutes of his speeches ; consequently, when 
 he responds to a second invitation to visit a place, he is apt 
 to repeat the same stories, although he has an inexhaustible 
 supply of unused material always on hand. He has studied 
 human nature so thoroughly he knows how to reach the 
 hearts of the masses. If the people will but listen to his 
 lectures, they will open their mouths so earnestly he could 
 almost reach their hearts by the way of the resophagus. Mr. 
 White is personally known on the green mountains of Ver 
 mont, on the granite hills of New Hampshire, in the pleasant 
 valley of the Connecticut, on the banks of the Mississippi ; 
 has hosts of friends at the sunny South, at the stormy North, 
 and the far-off West. Years ago he made the tour of 
 Europe. At that time he was fond of luxurious living and 
 unweaned from the wine-cup ; he was a good judge of 
 Otard and Madeira, and can speak from personal experience 
 on matters pertaining to fashionable drinking. 
 
 Mr. White is a good specimen of a Kentucky gentle 
 man gallant, generous and urbane. Indeed, he can 
 accommodate himself to any company, and would be a wel-
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 63 
 
 come guest at the table of a duke, or feel perfectly at home 
 in the cottage of a peasant. He must have been a studious 
 man in his day, but he has bravely overcome that habit 
 now; for he would rather hold a man by the button all 
 day, entertaining him by telling stories, than to read a page 
 or write a "stick-full" of matter for a newspaper. When he 
 has a report to make, he will throw the burden, if he can 
 possibly do so, on shoulders not so able to bear it as his own, 
 and he will put off the unwelcome task to the last hour, then 
 dash off an impromptu report, and beauty will break out of 
 statistics and facts, like flowers on the rod of Aaron. Some 
 times he visits Subordinate Divisions of his favorite 
 Order, as well as Sections of the juvenile Cadets, to fire 
 the zeal, strengthen the faith, and encourage the hopes 
 of the " Sons " and their sons. I once heard him address 
 one of the latter societies on the evils arising from the use 
 of tobacco, but, unfortunately, he had that evening quite a 
 gathering in his own mouth, which somewhat choked his 
 utterance. The not altogether unusual swelling somewhat 
 disappeared before the meeting adjourned, and it is hoped 
 that by this time he has got entirely rid of the swelling. 
 
 Mr. White is good company, a good story-teller, and a 
 terror to all hypochondriacism and dyspepsia. Blessed are 
 they who hear his voice and see his face, for they shall 
 laugh and grow fat. I am no stickler for empty dignity, 
 but remain under the impression that Mr. W. is not so dig 
 nified at the fireside as he is in the forum. There are vul 
 gar persons who call him the Hon. Philip S. White when 
 they speak of his public efforts, and yet abbreviate the title 
 to Phil, in their personal intercourse with him. He is no 
 favorite with those who will not " give up a ' pint ' of doc 
 trine nor a pint of rum," for as the bottle-imp of Asmodeus 
 unroofed the houses of Madrid, for the gratification of Le
 
 64 CKATON SKETCHES. 
 
 Sage's servant, so he uncovers the hearts of those whose 
 bigotry or appetite or interest oppose the temperance refor 
 mation. Mr. White is by profession a lawyer, and, if I am 
 correctly informed, was at one period of his life Attorney 
 General of one of the Western Territories. He is proud of 
 his lineage, and is not backward in speaking about his for 
 mer position in society, which is in bad taste, since he is 
 now in a loftier position than any Baronet of England. 
 
 The fraternity, I think, manifested forecast worthy of 
 their trust when they selected him to be their leader, for 
 his abundant self-sacrificing and faithful labors in this coun 
 try and in the neighboring Provinces, have accomplished 
 incalculable good to the cause in general, and won unfading 
 laurels for him in particular. He is the author of a work 
 entitled the " War of Four Thousand Years," and a tract 
 entitled " Vindication of the Order." It is a pity that he 
 did not give a more Christian name to the first, and a matter 
 of regret that he went into partnership with others in writ 
 ing either. His admirers would like to see a book from his 
 own pen and know that he wrote it. His idea of a national 
 newspaper organ, to be managed by some master-mind of 
 the National Division, does not meet with general approval, 
 because it would be unwise to put such power into the hands 
 of one man ; because it would narrow the circulation of the 
 local papers to the starving point ; because one sheet would 
 not suit every meridian ; because the temperance press now 
 in operation is not properly sustained ; because there is a 
 much editorial tact and talent connected with the local 
 press as can be found in the National Division ; because 
 monopolies are monsters not favorable to the growth of 
 Love, Purity or Fidelity, the characteristics of our Order.
 
 JOHN VAN BUREN. 
 
 PRINCE JOHN is the Duke of York, the distinguished son 
 of King Martin the First ; is the Jupiter Tonans of his 
 party, the Jove of jolly fellows, a royal roystering republi 
 can, a genius and a good fellow, admired and adored by the 
 masses. He can accommodate himself to the society of the 
 voters in the " Sixth Ward," or the company of peers with 
 laced gauntlets, knights in golden mantles, or presidents at 
 the "White House," without losing his identity. He is 
 John Van Buren, and nobody else, whether he be sitting 
 cheek-by-jowl with Tom, Dick and Harry at the corner 
 grocery, or debating with the Cokes and Littletons of the 
 law in chancery, or hugging and kissing Queen Victoria in 
 her palace. When the obese, wheezing, antediluvian Hun 
 kers met him in the arena of combat, he attacked them vig 
 orously and repulsed them with great (slaughter. 
 
 This apostle of the " young democracy " bids fair to 
 occupy an important niche in the Pantheon of the present 
 time. He has a philosophical and penetrating mind, which 
 has had the advantages and disadvantages of every degree 
 of cultivation in the palace of the President and in the pot 
 house of the demagogue. He knows there are zealots, bigots, 
 and earnest Christians in our churches, true patriots and 
 truckling sycophants in our political parties, devoted philan-
 
 66 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 thropists and hollow-hearted pretenders in our benevolent 
 associations, and he governs himself accordingly. He knows 
 the man-about-town, and permits him to be on sociable 
 terms, for that comports with his idea of republicanism. 
 He allows the hackman, the bar-tender, the wood-sawyer 
 and the butcher-boy to call him Jack, and slap him on the 
 shoulder, for the same reason the sportsman plays with his 
 dogs at the commencement of the chase. 
 
 John Van Buren is fond of the chase, and he will hunt 
 the rats to the barn, and then set the buildings on fire, for 
 he is truly a " barnburner." Sometimes he has to contend 
 with eloquent reasoners and men of imperious talent. On 
 such occasions he displays great versatility of mind, search 
 ing analysis, nice taste, sound judgment, vivid fancy, polished 
 scorn and convincing logic. He can be comic, dramatic, 
 energetic, picturesque, sedate, seductive, inductive, and de 
 ductive. He punished Croswell (a political editor) over the 
 remains of Silas "Wright, as Marc Antony did Brutus over 
 the dead body of Cassar ; and when the man of " mighty 
 pens " attempted to retreat, he got his " foot in the grating." 
 
 At a mass meeting when Prince John was the mouth 
 piece of his party, one of the " unterrified " proposed three 
 cheers for Cass. " Oh, do n't," said the waggish orator, with 
 a look of mock gravity ; " it will be like whistling at a 
 funeral." His speeches are often enlivened with caustic wit 
 and unmistakable homethrusts. Sometimes he leads his 
 hearers through a dead level of political history, without 
 either song or story to change the dull monotony and cheer 
 the impatient hearer. He writes clearly and forcibly, re 
 gardless of finish or ornament ; has as much shrewdness, 
 adroitness, and world-wisdom as his father, but less secret- 
 iveness, less suavity and less dignity ; can excel his father 
 at stump speaking, but cannot equal him in writing a mes-
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 67 
 
 sage. John annihilates his enemies by the simoon of his 
 sarcasm ; his father catches them in the trap of stratagem, 
 and compliments them into bosom friendship. Indeed, he is 
 an unconverted Paul, pursuing (not persecuting) hunkers 
 (not Christians) to strange cities, while his father is Abso- 
 lom, (without the locks,) winning the hearts of the people. 
 
 Prince John is a favorite among the ladies. It is cur 
 rently reported that when Queen Victoria presented her 
 lily-white hand for him to kiss, according to court etiquette, 
 he, in the face of such usages, with republican gallantry 
 folded his arms around her neck and gave her a hearty 
 smack upon her cheek. It is also said that during his wid 
 ower-hood he paid some attention to a lady of fortune in 
 Western New York, and once upon a time, when they were 
 riding on horseback, he ventured to pop the question. The 
 lady changed the subject by asking him to overtake her, at 
 the same time giving the horse a hint which caused him to 
 bound forward with the speed of the wind. John was 
 astride a livery stable hack, and was soon distanced, and not 
 a little mortified at seeing the lady's glove upon the road ! 
 If it be true that this distinguished " son of York " has 
 refrained from the use of wine, there is a brilliant future 
 before him. He is so frank, so generous, and so gifted, he 
 is the man the people will delight to honor ; but he must not, 
 like Alcibiades, deface the images of the gods and expect to 
 be pardoned on the score of eccentricity. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren is one of the first men in the " Empire 
 State." He sustains the same relationship to the Demo 
 cratic party that Seward holds to the Whig party. In per 
 sonal appearance, he is a tall, spare man, with a " locofoco- 
 ish" look, somewhat round-shouldered, and stoops a little 
 when he walks, as though he had to bear upon his back the 
 responsibility of the party he lately rejuvinated. His head
 
 68 CBATONSKETCHES. 
 
 is prematurely bald, and the scanty supply of hair that is 
 left is soft, thin, and of a foxy color, and has that phosphor 
 escent appearance which indicates a readiness to blaze the 
 moment there is any friction of brain hence his flashes of 
 wit when he is rubbed. He is about forty years of age, has 
 an ample forehead, expressive eyes, and a countenance 
 denoting a high order of intellect. 
 
 He is an eminent lawyer, a great statesman, a progress 
 politician. There is a sort of do n't-care-a-copper-ativeness 
 about him, a reckless spirit of dare-anything-ism, which is 
 repulsive to the amiable, though delightful to the disciples 
 of rowdyism. In his happiest moods, when speaking from 
 the tribune, he is chaste, classical, philosophical, and the 
 illuminati become his enthusiastic admirers. He only needs 
 the graceful polish, the serene dignity of his father, added 
 to his other best attributes, to render him one of the most 
 useful, honorable and distinguished men of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 That he is destined, if his life is spared, to hold an 
 important relation to the politics of this country, is the sin 
 cere belief of CKAYON.
 
 WILLIAM A. WHITE. 
 
 So long as the writer of these sketches does not belong 
 to the Mutual Admiration Society, and since it has become 
 fashionable for magazine and newspaper publishers to 
 furnish their readers with their own portraits, I can see no 
 earthly nor heavenly reason, why a contributor to the 
 columns of the New-Englander may not give to the public 
 a likeness of one of its editors. The readers of this paper 
 have a right to see a pen-and-ink daguerreotype of one who 
 talks to them with types so frequently, so plainly, and so 
 eloquently. 
 
 WILLIAM A. WHITE is thirty-three years of age, of 
 medium stature and good mould. His temperament is 
 sanguine-nervous, and his development of brain indicates 
 the propelling power he brings to bear upon the reforma 
 tory movements to which he is devoted. He has brown 
 hair, which is parted in the middle, leaving a furrow from 
 benevolence to approbativeness. His eyes are blue, com 
 plexion fair, face round, fat and plump, indicative of good 
 digestion. The ladies say he would be decidedly handsome, 
 were it not that he disfigures himself by allowing such an 
 overgrowth of moustache, imperial and goatee. I cannot 
 account for his antipathy to razors, for he loves everything 
 else that is sharp, and dislikes whatever is flat, which, by- 
 6
 
 70 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 the-way, may be the reason he cut some of the grandees of 
 his favorite Order the other day. If he makes them smart, 
 he will do more for them than their parents or their school 
 masters have done. 
 
 Although Mr. "White is a young man, he has been an un 
 tiring and unyielding soldier in the ranks of reform, for many 
 years. He is a spontaneous speaker, who can rise in the 
 presence of a regiment of critics, and utter his sentiments 
 unembarrassed, though all the reporters of the press were 
 driving their quills before him. If the Southern " Sons " 
 had not beforehand fitted that gag for the free mouths of the 
 North, they would have found in him a formidable opponent 
 to the obnoxious measure which meets with such unqualified 
 and universal disapprobation wherever humanity is regarded. 
 The magnanimous chivalry of the mighty South, which 
 appears so captivating in history, and so splendid in 
 romance, disappeared on this occasion and looked like 
 Falstaff great, swaggering and afraid of nothing but dan 
 ger. There was not a man from the slave side of Mason 
 and Dixon's line, who could have stood before our subject in 
 debate. It is strange that men who have whipped so many 
 blacks were afraid to face one White. 
 
 As I have intimated, the senior editor of the New- 
 Englander is a fluent and forcible speaker. He speaks 
 better than he writes. He is an enthusiast in reform, and 
 manifests but little patience with wooden-head conservatives, 
 who will not comprehend what they cannot count with their 
 fingers, nor measure anything that is longer than a yard 
 stick. With such men, and with the oppressors of our race, 
 whether they use rum or the raw-hide, liquor or the lash, the 
 cat or the can, he has no fellowship. When he writes about 
 them, his pen foams at the nib ; when he speaks about them,
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 71 
 
 his speeches " remind us of some rivers that are sweet in 
 their source, but bitter at the mouth." 
 
 Mr. White lacks concentrativeness. He is apt to fly from 
 one subject to another. He needs a balance-wheel. What 
 Kleber said of Napoleon may be said of him : "He had 
 two faults, that of advancing without considering how he 
 should retreat, and of seizing without considering how he 
 should retain." When convinced that he is right, he has a 
 sort of dare-demon energy, and, like Luther, would go to 
 the Diet of Worms to-day were he sure the worms would 
 diet on him to-morrow. He is impulsive, but his heart is so 
 near his head that his intuition is often a better guide than 
 the matured judgment of some men of greater pretensions. 
 A flash of lightning is sometimes of more service in the 
 dark, than the slow moon which may not rise from behind 
 the cloud in time to avert the danger. 
 
 Mr. White has had the advantages of a classical educa 
 tion, and his distinguished brother-in-law, James Russell 
 Lowell, the great poet, was one of his classmates in college. 
 He studied law but practiced the gospel, and, of course, re 
 linquished that profession. Although connected, like Wen 
 dell Phillips and Edmund Quincy, with some of the first 
 families in New England, he cheerfully and modestly iden 
 tifies himself with the progress parties, whom the Pharisees 
 and Sadducees of this generation do not delight to honor. 
 Doubtless he is fond of fame, but he will not sacrifice his 
 sentiments to obtain it ; like Cato, he would rather have 
 posterity inquire why no statues were erected to him than 
 why they were.
 
 EDWIN H. CHAPIN. 
 
 EDWIN H. CHAPIN is one of the ablest and most eloquent 
 expounders and defenders of the doctrine of unlimited sal 
 vation. He has no faith in the old black fellow who keeps 
 the fire-office. He imagines that poets and divines give him 
 more credit for sagacity and potency than he deserves, and 
 that if he ever was a genius he is now in his dotage, and 
 furthermore, that he has not goodness enough to be entitled 
 to our respect, nor influence sufficient over our future 
 destiny to alarm our fears. To him a devil by any other 
 name is just as dreadful, and the Satan he endeavors to sub 
 due he calls Evil, Sin, Crime, Vice, Error. He thinks the 
 distillery, where the worm dieth not and the fires are un- 
 quenched, is a hell on earth which causes weeping, wailing 
 and gnashing of teeth. 
 
 Mr. Chapin is an independent, straight-forward man, who 
 has a will and a way of his own, and he is willing to allow 
 others the same freedom he assumes himself. He does not 
 expect his church to cough when he takes cold, nor to 
 acquiesce in silent submission to every proposition that he 
 makes. He is not a theological tyrant, threatening ven 
 geance, and outer-darkness, and eternal fire, to all the mem 
 bers of his flock who will not uncomplainingly and unhesi 
 tatingly yield to his spiritual supervisorship. His lessons
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 73 
 
 and lectures may sometimes smell of the lamp, but they 
 never smell of brimstone. His education, his temperament, 
 his organization of brain, his natural benevolence, and the 
 society in which he has lived, moved, and had his being, 
 have contributed to make him a preacher of the gospel. He 
 advocates with heroic courage and untiring zeal the doctrines 
 of his faith, but is universally respected by all denomina 
 tions of professing Christians. 
 
 Mr. Chapin is happily constituted. The animal and the 
 angel of his nature are so nicely balanced, and his poetical 
 temperament is so admirably controlled by his practical 
 knowledge, that his intellectual efforts are invariably stamped 
 with the mint-mark of true currency. There is harmoni 
 ous blending of the poetical and the practical, a pleasant 
 union of the material with the spiritual, an arm-in-arm 
 connection of the ornamental and useful, a body and soul 
 joined together in his discourses. He avoids two extremes, 
 and is not so material as to be clodish, of the earth earthy, 
 nor so serial as to be vapory or of the clouds cloudy. There 
 is something tangible, solid, nutritious and enduring, in his 
 sermons. He is not profound in the learning of the schools. 
 Many of his inferiors could master him on doctrinal ques 
 tions. The outbursting and overwhelming effusions of his 
 natural eloquence, the striking originality of his conceptions, 
 the irresistible power of his captivating voice, the vivid and 
 copious display of illustration, thrill and charm the appre 
 ciative hearer. He presents his arguments and appeals with 
 an articulation as distinct and understandable as his gesticu 
 lation is awkward. He is sometimes abrupt, rapid and 
 vehement, but never "tears a passion to tatters." " His tena 
 cious memory enables him to quote with great promptitude, 
 and he has that delicate, sensitive taste which enables him 
 6*
 
 74 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 to select, with unerring precision, whatever is truly sublime 
 and beautiful." 
 
 Mr. Chapin declaims splendidly, in spite of his hands, 
 which are always in his way. The stiff and technical 
 restraints of style, which disfigure the pulpit efforts of some 
 divines, never appear in his sermons, but seem rather to 
 pinion his elbows and cramp his fingers. He has a fervid 
 imagination, great facility of expression, is scrupulously 
 correct in his pronunciation ; never indulges in hypocritical 
 cant. There is no theatrical uplifting of the hands and 
 uprolling of the eyes, so frequently witnessed in the hysteric 
 raptures of mahogany orators. He seems to have a 
 thorough knowledge of his subject, and commands your 
 admiration by the kingly majesty and sublime beauty of his 
 thought. Now he flings a page of meaning into a single 
 aphorism, now he electrifies his spell-bound hearers with a 
 spontaneous burst of eloquence, now he dissolves their 
 eyes to tears by a wizard stroke of pathos, now he controls 
 their hearts with the sovereign power of a monarch who rules 
 the mind-realm. " He infuses his soul into his voice, and 
 both into the nerves and heart of the hearer." 
 
 In person, he is stout, fleshy and well-proportioned. He 
 has a full, florid face, which indicates good health and happy 
 contentment ; countenance mild, benignant and thoughtful, 
 with an expresion of integrity, denoting his inability to per 
 form a mean action ; is near-sighted, and this defect is no 
 small disadvantage to him when he reads, and may account 
 for his ungraceful action in the pulpit, since it compels him 
 to face his manuscript so closely he almost eats his own words 
 and salutes his own rich figures and glowing sentiments, and 
 fulfils literally the scripture maxim, " He shall kiss his own 
 lips who giveth a correct answer." As I have just intimated, 
 he usually reads his discourses, although he is an easy extern-
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 75 
 
 poraneous speaker ; but he is apt to become so intensely ex 
 cited he rarely trusts to his impulses. He commands a very- 
 ready pen, and is the author of two or three small volumes, 
 which are widely circulated. His hair is dark brown. He 
 wears glasses, so I cannot tell the color of his eyes ; has 
 a broad, high forehead, indicating the intellectual strength of 
 its owner ; is about forty-five years of age, and has la 
 bored with honor and success for many years, in Richmond, 
 Va., Charlestown, Mass., as well as Boston, but is now 
 preaching in the city of New York, Avhere he is very popu 
 lar and useful. 
 
 I must be pardoned the mention of one fault. He is care 
 less, sometimes slovenly, in his dress, which is not owing to 
 a lack of taste, but to the fact that his studies absorb his 
 time and attention. Since he has possessed a " better-half," 
 there has been less manifestation of this disagreeable trait.
 
 CHARLES C. BURLEIGH. 
 
 CHARLES C. BURLEIGH, the eccentric and eloquent abo 
 litionist, is brother to William H. and George Burleigh, 
 the celebrated poets. He is an out and out "come-outer " 
 a non-compromising radical a splendid scholar an off 
 hand orator. He is not so genial as Garrison but has 
 more force not so bitter as Pillsbury, but his severity has 
 a keener edge and cuts deeper less eloquent than Phillips 
 but more logical than he not so blunt as Foster, but like 
 him, he is a plain-dealer. His best thoughts are struck out 
 at a heat, and come to the heart winged with words of fire. 
 There is thunder and lightning in his logic and the con 
 cussion, as well as the conclusion, are irresistible. His argu 
 ments are not betinselled with gauze and silver spangles ; 
 it is pure gold that glitters in his speeches. You look in 
 vain for the double refined essence of nonsense and affecta 
 tion with which literary dandies perfume their productions. 
 There is a smell of gunpowder in the atmosphere, and a 
 mighty fluttering of game, when he levels his gun at a mul 
 titude. His arguments are forcible his appeals pathetic 
 his language classical. When he follows an opponent in 
 debate, he begins at the beginning, pursues his meander-
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 77 
 
 ings, and sweeps away his sophistry as gossamer is swept 
 by the wind. He may be seen selling books at the door of 
 the building where the convention is held, one minute, and 
 the next minute he may be seen on the platform, addressing 
 an audience unmoved by the cat-calls in the gallery, or 
 the scribbling of the reporters at his elbow. He speaks right 
 on, as though, like the prophet Ezekiel, he had swallowed 
 the parchment roll. There is no flaw in his unpremeditated 
 addresses you cannot discover any welding marks. I do 
 not set him up " too steep," when I venture the assertion 
 that his addresses found in the abolition papers, will compare 
 favorably with the best speeches made in the Senate Cham 
 ber at Washington. Notwithstanding his superior talents 
 and his surpassing power of language, he is a wild man, who 
 ought to be caught and shaved, for his beard stands, or rather 
 hangs, in the way of his usefulness. Unlike Samson, his 
 weakness is in his hair, and he could better slay the Philis 
 tines and shake the pillars of the temple, if he would permit 
 some one to crop off his locks. The first time the writer saw 
 him, he looked like a madman just out of Bedlam but 
 he spoke like an Apostle whose lips had been touched 
 with a live coal from the altar of Inspiration. I have seen 
 him frequently since that time, and think that he looks bet 
 ter than he formerly did as for his speaking, his last effort 
 is always the best. 
 
 Mr. Burleigh is a tall, thin man, with light eyes that glow 
 and sparkle when he speaks. He wears a golden beard, 
 long enough to please the taste of the most fastidious Naza- 
 rite ; permits his hair on his head to grow long, parts it in 
 the middle, and it rolls in auburn ringlets over his narrow 
 shoulders ; dresses plainly, and gives abundant proof that 
 dame Fashion seldom or never replenishes his wardrobe. 
 Is somewhat inclined to Quakerism although his creed
 
 78 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 does not appear in the brim of his beaver or the cut of his 
 coat. His character is irreproachable. He has labored 
 untiringly for the welfare of humanity since he and Theo 
 dore Weld, and a band of kindred spirits, broke loose from 
 Lane Seminary.
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
 
 SENATOR SEWARD is the Daniel O'Connell of America ; 
 not in stature, for the former is petit the latter was pro 
 digious ; not in wit, for the Yankee seldom perpetrates even 
 a pun, while the Irishman was a " book in breeches," and 
 every page gleaming with wit ; not in eloquence, for Seward 
 requires preparation and speaks without much unction. 
 O'Connell spoke spontaneously, and every word was a throb ; 
 not in faith, for the defender of the " higher law " is almost 
 a Protestant, while the Great Agitator, as all know, was 
 altogether a Catholic. Yet there is a resemblance, notwith 
 standing their dissimilarities. Seward stands at the tip top of 
 his profession as a lawyer, and so did O'Connell. Seward 
 made a sensation in the American Senate ; O'Connell did the 
 same in the House of Commons. Seward identifies him 
 self with the party of Freedom. O'Connell hated slavery, 
 and "oppression made that wise man mad." Seward is 
 charged with demagogueism. O'Connell made himself all 
 things to some men that he might gain some. Seward has 
 won the sympathies of the masses and is the pet of the lib 
 erty-loving people of the North. O'Connell was the idol of 
 Ireland, and his memory will ever live in the hearts of his 
 countrymen. Seward is dreaded as much by the Old Hunk 
 ers of this country, as O'Connell was feared by the tyrant
 
 80 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 Tories of Great Britain. Seward split the Whig party ; so 
 did O' Conn ell. Seward is a practical temperance man ; 
 O'Connell was a pledged tee-totaller. Seward would like to 
 be President of the United States ; O'Connell desired to be 
 King of Ireland. Seward is a great man among great men. 
 He is not so volcanic as Benton, not so logical as Webster, 
 not so eloquent as Clay, not so brittle as Foote, not so 
 jovial as Hale ; but he can write a better letter than any of 
 them. A little from his pen will go a great distance and 
 keep a long time. His classic style, his earnest air, his 
 truthful manner, his uncommon sense, his perfect self-con 
 trol, his thorough knowledge of the leading questions of the 
 day, compel the attention and admiration of the hearer. He 
 is never timid, never tame, never squeamish, never vulgar, 
 never insulting. He is independent without egotism, mod 
 est without subserviency, dignified without pomposity, and 
 sociable without affectation. 
 
 We need look back but a few months to find much to ad 
 mire in the character of Seward. See him rise in the Sen 
 ate Chamber, and hear him defend the rights of humanity in 
 an atmosphere of opposing influences. There sits the impe 
 rious Clay, with flushed face and flashing eyes and the 
 Great Expounder, with pouting lip and brow of thunder ; and 
 fiery Foote, phosphorescent with excitement ; and philosophi 
 cal Cass, as placid as though the Union was not in danger. He 
 (Seward) drops a word in defence of the higher law, and 
 forthwith there is " ground and lofty tumbling." The en 
 raged Senators appear to think that regard for the Command 
 ments is an insult to the Constitution that reverence for 
 the Deity is " renegadism " from duty. So they examine the 
 elements of nature, analyze the facts in history, and pervert 
 the truths of the Bible, to prove that we ought to obey men 
 rather that to obey God. Had Seward been an ordinary
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 81 
 
 man, he would have been swamped amid the storm ; but he 
 remained firm as a rock in the midst of that stormy sea, 
 and gave proof, that, although minimum in person, he was 
 maximum in power. Their impotent threats could no more 
 shake his resolution, than a pinch of snuff could make him 
 sneeze, (excuse the homely illustration,) for the former went 
 in at his ears almost as frequently as the latter does into his 
 nostrils. 
 
 Governor Seward, as he is called, is a little past the prime 
 of life, somewhat under the common stature, has a very large 
 head, with a few grey hairs playing hide and seek amid the 
 mass of light brown ; he has blue eyes, a small forehead, a 
 long nose, and a patrician mouth. He is well to do in the 
 world, happy in his domestic relations, enjoys a glorious rep 
 utation, and his star is still in the ascendant.
 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 AMERICA is the greatest continent, and embraces within its 
 limits the grandest mountains, the broadest lakes, the longest 
 rivers, the largest prairies, and with all these, the mightiest 
 intellect. Its mountains stand up like pillars supporting the 
 azure arch in the temple of nature; its lakes are inland 
 seas ; its rivers could swallow the waters of Europe without 
 overflowing their banks ; and its mind is correlative with the 
 magnificence of its scenery. There is but one Niagara, and 
 that is in America ; there is but one Webster, and he is in 
 America. The cataract flows now, as it did when God first 
 smote the rock in this Western wilderness, and He has woven 
 a rainbow about its silver forehead, and crowned it with a 
 fountain of diamonds. It shouts the same song of liberty it 
 did when the world was in its infancy. It is free and mighty ? 
 and cannot be hushed into silence, nor flattered into subser 
 viency. So with Webster, when he lifts up his voice for 
 freedom, it is like " deep calling unto deep ; " and the light 
 of Heaven illuminates his magnetic eyes and beams on his 
 mighty forehead. 
 
 Geologists have discovered the colossal bones of the 
 Mastodon, and hence we infer that there were larger animals 
 in ages gone by, than we have living at present ; so, future 
 historians will find, in their mutilated and mouldy libraries,
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 83 
 
 the remains of Webster's greatness. In the glory of his 
 manhood he represented Massachusetts; defended liberty; 
 sympathized with humanity, and won the approbation of all 
 good men. In the arena of debate he usually came off more 
 than conqueror. He was regarded as the Senator of the 
 United States. When he rose in his place, in the Council 
 Chamber of the nation, with a voice of thunder and eyes on 
 fire, every face was turned toward him, every tongue was 
 silent, for he was clad to the teeth in armor, had a spear like 
 a weaver's beam, and had been trained to battle. He has 
 great self-possession, coolness, adroitness and tact; never 
 was remarkable for sunshiny gaiety of imagination ; rarely 
 strayed to select bright flowers in the garden of literature ; 
 his attempts at wit were like the antics of the elephant that 
 tried to mimic the lap-dog ; but he was emphatically great. 
 He was the defender of the Constitution, and could present 
 arguments in its defence with irrestible force and eloquence 
 His words were full of marrow, his logic unctuous with 
 fatness. He defeated his opponents, not by the " delicacy of 
 his tact, but by the prodigious power of his reason." There 
 "was no honied paste of poetic diction" encrusting his 
 speeches, " like the candied coat of the auricula," but there 
 was tremendous weight in his arguments. 
 
 Webster, in earlier days, was sublime as Chatham, classi 
 cal as Burke, terse as Macintosh, forcible as Tully. En 
 dowed, by nature, with a noble and commanding person, he 
 never failed to attract attention. When excited in debate, 
 his granite face glowed with intellect ; " the terrors of his 
 beak, the lightnings of his eye, were insufferable." He was 
 the king of the Senate, for nature had stamped him with the 
 unmistakable mark of sovereignty, regardless of the repub 
 licanism of his country. There was grace in his gesture, 
 dignity in his deportment, and humanity as well as patriotism
 
 84 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 in his speeches. His voice was rich, full, and clear ; now 
 thrilling like the blast of a trumpet, now intimidating by 
 the awful solemnity of its tone, now animating by its soul- 
 stirring notes. Abroad, he was the lion of London, his 
 noble exterior making him " a man of mark." He has coal- 
 black hair, (now thickly sprinkled with grey,) a lofty brow, 
 " the forge of thought ;" magnificent eyes ; an ample chest ; 
 a patrician hand ; a face broad and dark as some of the 
 fugitives he would return to bondage. See him in the 
 zenith of his manhood, standing on the battle-ground at 
 Bunker Hill, with kingly dignity, utteiing sentiments that 
 will be fresh in the memories of millions, when the shaft of 
 granite now standing there shall have crumbled to dust! 
 Apparently as impregnable as the granite hills of his own 
 New Hampshire, who supposed that he, so great and gifted, 
 towering above ordinary men, was as the mountain which 
 wraps the cloud-cloak about its shoulders, while a vest of 
 eternal snow keeps the sunshine forever from its heart ! 
 The mountain is great, sublime and lofty, but cold, barren 
 and unapproachable ; it points toward Heaven, but remains 
 fixed to earth. 
 
 Daniel Webster has accomplished noble feats, for which 
 he merits the gratitude of good men. Since the days of 
 Washington, there has been no man so well qualified, in 
 many points, for the presidency, as he. His impatience and 
 irritability, in consequence of his disappointment, have been 
 frequently exhibited. As a last resort, he has tried to con 
 ciliate the South at the expense of the North. As a public 
 speaker, he seldom enlivens his arguments with flashes of 
 wit, but he has said some keen things, which have become 
 as common as " household words." At a public meeting, a 
 young aspirant for poetical and political honors attempted to 
 drink a toast to the honor of the immortal John Q. Adams,
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 85 
 
 who was present. "Mr. Adams," said the toaster, "may he 
 
 perplex his enemies as " here the speaker hesitated, 
 
 and Webster thundered out, "as he has his friends." Foote 
 made a fulsome speech in praise of Mr. Webster, at one 
 time, in the Senate, but the " god-like " cut him short by 
 shouting " Git eout." The Yankee twang he gave the sen 
 tence convulsed the Senate with irrepressible laughter. 
 
 For superior specimens of pure style, lofty reasoning and 
 eloquent declamation, read Mr. Webster's arguments before 
 the Supreme Court, his speeches delivered in Faneuil Hall, 
 his best efforts in the Senate Chamber, his unstudied respon 
 ses at public dinners and conventions, his lectures before the 
 lyceums, his remarks on the great political and constitu 
 tional questions of the past and present times. Indeed, all 
 are familiar with these efforts of a master mind. The pro 
 fessional skill and the parliamentary talent of Mr. Webster 
 are appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic. He has con 
 tended with the ablest intellects, stout competitors, keen 
 opponents, and always came off with flying colors, when 
 he was in the right. Even his rivals give him the credit of 
 being the most forcible debater in America. 
 
 At the age of thirty he appeared in the Congress of 1812, 
 and Mr. Lowndes then said of him, that the North had not 
 his equal, nor the South his superior. That he has been a 
 sagacious statesman, a skillful diplomatist, a profound inves 
 tigator, and the greatest thinker in America, is the opinion 
 of millions of his countrymen. 
 
 7*
 
 CHARLES SUMNER. 
 
 NEW YORK is the head-quarters of commerce, a great 
 wilderness of marble and mortar, the abode of merchant 
 princes and millionaires. Its harbor is crowded with ships 
 from every nation, its mammoth mercantile establishments 
 contain every variety of fabric and produce, its streets are 
 busy as a broken ant-heap, its spires point, like fingers of 
 pilgrims, to the land of the beautiful above, and its grog 
 shops are plentiful as carbuncles on the face of the toper. 
 It has the best editors, and the poorest speakers, of any city 
 in the Union. Philadelphia is noted for handsome buildings 
 erected on straight lines. It is the metropolis of magazine- 
 dom, where Graham and Godey make gold and win golden 
 honors. It is famed for the brotherly love of its inhabitants, 
 which trait is beautifully displayed in the manner in which 
 they get up rows and send their fellow-citizens to Heaven. 
 Boston is the bank of New England, the beacon-light of 
 reform, the seat of science and learning, the forum of chaste, 
 classical, thrilling, heart-quaking, soul-stirring eloquence. 
 There is no city in the United States that contains so much 
 speaking talent as Boston. Baltimore is choleric, noisy, and 
 patriotic ; Philadelphia is fastidious, lymphatic, and meta 
 physical ; Washington is like Babel, where there is a confu 
 sion of languages, or like a vineyard of lazy laborers, where
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 87 
 
 there is a winey atmosphere ; New York is energetic, bom 
 bastic, and original ; Cincinnati is slow of speech, but sound 
 at the heart. Boston is radical, forcible, eloquent. 
 
 Among the most eminent speakers in the modern Athens, 
 Charles Sumner stands preeminently conspicuous, for the 
 classic elegance of his style, the Protean power of his 
 thought, and the finished beauty of his illustrations. He is 
 one of the most remarkable men of this remarkable age, 
 and favorable circumstances have rendered him the darling 
 favorite of good fortune. He was cradled in Faneuil Hall, 
 Judge Story was his teacher, and Harvard University the 
 school in which he was taught. When he had availed him 
 self of the advantages afforded by this institution of learning, 
 he made the tour of Europe. England, France and Ger 
 many contributed liberally to his store of knowledge. If he 
 has not an ample competence, he has what is better an 
 army of friends and a thorough education. 
 
 Charles Sumner is a stockholder in the bank of original 
 thought. We may know he has considerable bullion there, 
 for his drafts are honored at sight, and our first men are his 
 endorsers. He has great power of condensation, without 
 the wearisome monotony which often accompanies the writ 
 ings and sayings of close thinkers and rigid reasoners. 
 There is a vigorous and graceful stateliness, an easy felicity, 
 a fastidious accuracy and an imperial dignity in his style, 
 which is both commanding and fascinating. There is a vast 
 breadth of comprehension and a vast depth of meaning in 
 his matter. There is also a luminous beauty, a Gothic gran 
 deur, a sublime gorgeousness, in his labored and polished 
 essays, which entitle them to the appellation of prose poems. 
 He sometimes invests his ideas in such lively, such attractive, 
 such speaking, such magic language, and displays so much 
 philosophical sagacity, so much poetical sensibility, so much
 
 88 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 profound knowledge of ecclesiastical and political history, 
 the reader and the listener are carried away on the current, 
 while they are admiring, almost adoring, the man whose 
 kindling words have set their imaginations on fire. 
 
 Mr. Sumner's orations are written with great care. They 
 abound with allusions to the sayings and doings of the 
 ancients, and manifest deep research and profound thought. 
 His brilliant arguments at the bar have elicited unbounded 
 admiration, and his model manner of delivery enhances the 
 value of his eloquent appeals. The dreary desert of a 
 common case is sure to bloom with garden beauty under his 
 management. The forum, however, is his forte. He has 
 the dignity of Pitt, without his pompous declamation ; the 
 sublimity of Burke, without his tedious uniformity; the 
 vigor of Fox, without his roughness. He is not so fluent as 
 the first, not so classical as the second, not so ready and 
 original as the third. He has more solidity but less elo 
 quence than Phillips ; more energy but less originality than 
 Mann ; more poetry and as much polish as Everett. His 
 heart is not an island, separated from his head, but a penin 
 sula, uniting one with the other. There is a relationship 
 between the throb of the former and the thought of the lat 
 ter. There is a joining of impulse and intellect. The 
 affections and the reflections are brothers and sisters. The 
 heart thinks and feels, the head feels and thinks. 
 
 In this respect Mr. Sumner differs from not a few distin 
 guished men. Sumner believes in Christian law, and throws 
 the weight of his influence, the force of his example, and 
 the skill of his profession, in the scale of the right and true. 
 He is a preacher of peace, a lover of freedom, a worker for 
 prison amelioration in short, a noble soldier in the ranks 
 of reform. "With a generous, impulsive nature, he feels the 
 woes and sufferings of every portion of the human family.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 89 
 
 Charles Sumner is a popular man. The masses admire him 
 because there is no " dough " in his face, no demagogueism 
 in his politics. The turncoats, flunkeys, time-servers, office- 
 seekers, and political hypocrites of every party, fear him 
 as the enemies of Greece did the Athenian orator, but they 
 cannot despise him, they cannot ostracise him, they cannot 
 make him false to his convictions. Hence he is the man the 
 people delight to honor, though he seeks no popular ap 
 plause. He is now in the prime of manhood, and the star 
 of his fame is in the ascendant. In person, he is tall, well- 
 proportioned, with a low but broad forehead, light magnetic 
 eyes, and a luxuriant growth of dark brown hair. He has 
 a long, uneven face, which is marked with the manly traits 
 for which he is distinguished. His smile is very sunny and 
 infectious, and his greeting very cordial ; walks with firm 
 ness, and swings his arms (especially when upon the plat 
 form) as though he designed to knock down the obstacles in 
 his way ; has a full, rich bass voice, which becomes very 
 seductive as he proceeds in his speech, enlisting irresistibly 
 the attention, and appealing warmly to the feelings. When 
 he is intensely excited, the tones of his voice move one like 
 the blast of a bugle. As an orator, he has but few 
 superiors. 
 
 Mr. Sumner would excel as a diplomatist, for he has that 
 peculiar ingenuity and intuitive skill which would enable 
 him to disentangle the complicated questions that would 
 come before him for arbitrament. When his party desire 
 to move the political world they are apt to shift it upon his 
 Atlantean shoulders. Is there a great gulf between Dives 
 the demagogue, and Lazarus of his own league ? He will 
 bridge over the chasm, if it can be done, and unite them in 
 mutual friendship, without sacrificing truth and right on the 
 altar of compromise. But some say Mr. Sumner is not
 
 90 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 sufficiently practical. He hopes to see the dawn of a golden 
 future, and mistakes the scintillating lights of the Northern 
 skies for the sunrise of the millennial day. Although he is 
 ambitious in worthy causes, he is wise, and patiently bides 
 his tune, without egotistically thrusting himself before the 
 people ; is fond of fame, but when he is crowned with 
 honors his modesty is equal to his gratitude. Has a Fan- 
 euil-Hall-full of affectionate admirers in his own city, and 
 multitudes of them elsewhere. 
 
 As might be expected from his heart-sympathies, Mr. 
 Sumner early connected himself with the Free Soil party ; 
 indeed, was one of its originators, and without question is 
 one of the ablest men in it and politicians of all shades of 
 opinion will agree that that party embodies a large share of 
 intellectual, moral and personal strength. Recent events in 
 the political affairs of Massachusetts have placed Mr. Sum 
 ner conspicuously before the community as a candidate for 
 the United States Senate.* If he should receive the honor 
 of that post, he would be more of a statesman than a parti 
 san, more of a sound, humane, political economist than the 
 mouth-piece of a faction and I need not say, would do 
 honor to the State he represents. His benevolence of char 
 acter never will allow him to be a party demagogue, but for 
 all that gives dignity to manhood or exalts true political 
 science, he has every requisite. 
 
 * Written before Mr. Sumner's election.
 
 MOSES GRANT, 
 
 MOSES GRANT has obtained a world-wide celebrity, by 
 his untiring efforts to ameliorate the condition of the unfor 
 tunate children of poverty and sorrow. The widow and the 
 orphan have reason to rise up and call him blessed. The 
 drunkard and the prisoner have abundant cause to remem 
 ber him gratefully, for his labors of love. Although 
 advanced in years, he has the vigor, forecast and decision of 
 the prune of life. Between the hours of eight and one, in 
 the morning, he may be found every working-day in his 
 office, serving the poor. Groups of men, women and chil 
 dren, of every complexion, from every country, may be seen 
 at his office every forenoon, soliciting aid and advice. The 
 dusky African, the mercurial Celt, the stolid Englishman, 
 the chattering Frenchman, the lymphatic German, and the 
 exiled Hungarian. One sits on a bench at the window, eat 
 ing a bowl of soup another stoops down to fit a pair of 
 shoes to his feet another strips the rags from his back 
 and puts on a warm jacket. Look at the procession passing 
 through the gate. Here is a boy with a bag of rice, there is 
 a girl with a loaf of bread, yonder is a woman with a basket 
 of provisions. See that red-faced young man, his home is 
 in the country, but he last night fell among thieves, between 
 Broad and Beacon streets, and he has just borrowed a sum
 
 92 CBAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 sufficient to take him to his parents. That modest woman, so 
 plainly yet so neatly dressed, suffered uncomplainingly until 
 pinching hunger compelled her to solicit charity her im 
 mediate wants are supplied, and employment will be procured 
 for her. The man with a slouched hat and seedy coat has 
 signed the pledge, and left his brandy bottle among the 
 curiosities in the Deacon's temperance museum. There 
 comes the porter with a stack of letters and papers from the 
 post-office the former will be answered and the latter 
 examined, before the rising of to-morrow's sun. 
 
 It is now noon. The sad faced, broken-hearted, and 
 down-trodden procession, has passed away from the beautiful 
 residence, and the owner and occupant of the mansion hur 
 ries down to his place of business, from that to the bank, and 
 then home again, in time to dine. After dinner he calls for 
 his carriage and takes a poor boy to the Farm School 
 dropping in at South Boston to see the juvenile offenders, and 
 calling, on his return, to see a sick woman, and administer 
 such consolation and assistance as he can render. Her lips 
 are white as the wild white rose, but she calls for blessings 
 to descend upon kind friends whose visits are better than 
 medicine to her aching frame and her breaking heart. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is never idle. Now presiding 
 at a Mass Meeting on the Common, or in Faneuil Hall, or 
 in Tremont Temple then making a speech to the convicts 
 in Charlestown Prison, or visiting the paupers at Deer Is 
 land or attending to his official business at the Board of 
 Aldermen or his duties as an office bearer in the Brattle 
 Street Church, where his father served before him, in the 
 same capacity of Deacon. 
 
 His father was one of the brave men who threw the tea 
 overboard in Boston harbor. Mr. Grant is the senior part 
 ner in a large paper establishment, Overseer of the Poor,
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 93 
 
 Almoner for the benevolent who choose to contribute of 
 their abundance for the relief of the distressed ; President 
 of the Boston Temperance Society, and a Director in many 
 other institutions. He is a man of fortune, has a good edu 
 cation, and has visited Europe. He writes a sensible letter, 
 and makes a practical speech ; is peculiarly happy in his 
 remarks to children, and always a welcome visitor at all 
 juvenile demonstrations. For many years he has been iden 
 tified with the temperance cause. His house, and purse, 
 and heart, are ever open for the advancement of his favorite 
 enterprise. He is the unfaltering friend and patron of that 
 eminent orator, J. B. Gough, and stood by his side in the 
 hour of trial, when summer friends forsook him. 
 
 It is rather difficult to describe his person. The portrait 
 in the American Temperance Magazine is a pretty fair 
 resemblance, although not a perfect likeness. He has 
 brown hair sprinkled with lines of silver blue eyes, thin 
 face, cheeks somewhat sunken, is rather under the medium 
 size. He is of the nervous-sanguine temperament ; has 
 a singular habit of twitching the muscles of his face and 
 shrugging his shoulders when excited ; often speaks abruptly, 
 when pressed with business, and does not always appear to 
 the best advantage at first sight, but wears well and " im 
 proves on acquaintance." In a word, he is a man of sound 
 judgment, superior business talents, a practical philan 
 thropist, and a sincere Christian. For many years he has 
 been a hero in the battle-field of life, and many would be 
 willing to give a dukedom to possess such green laurels 
 and golden honors as he has won. 
 til jiemwwj 1 aWmai! m> JL-yiqiraso ban ^gtterraqavd&i vh-^traft 
 
 8
 
 JOHN B. GOUGH. 
 
 THE snow-storm last Sunday prevented many from 
 attending meetings of worship. Even the saloons were not 
 so well patronized as usual. The descending snow covered 
 the footsteps of the unfortunate victims of appetite, as though 
 the flakes had been angels of mercy spreading out their 
 white wings to obliterate the way to ruin. Notwithstanding 
 the inclemency of the weather, and the untravellable condi 
 tion of the streets, multitudes of men, women and children 
 are wending their way to the Tremont Temple. Who is 
 the magnet of attraction ? What is his theme ? Is it the 
 novelty of a new comer that brings out the masses on such 
 a night ? No ; the orator J. B. Gough, has spoken more than 
 twelve dozen times on that same subject in the same place. 
 Is it his profound learning that enables him to invest such a 
 question with so much interest ? No ; he is an uneducated 
 man. Is he the originator or leader of a clique or party, or 
 does he occupy an elevated position in the political world, 
 that he commands so much influence ? No ; he does not 
 publicly indentify himself with any political party. He was 
 formerly intemperate, and occupied an humble position in 
 the ranks of the lowly poor. See him, and hear him, and 
 you will then know why he fills the Temple, and, like Sam 
 son, shakes it afterwards. He is not a reasoner. He is not
 
 CBATON SKETCHES. 95 
 
 a philosopher. He" is not a scholar. Look at his magnetic 
 eyes and the light beaming on his pale forehead. Hear 
 the silvery tones of his thrilling voice. See how off-handish 
 he is. He rises from his seat as though he supposed nobody 
 was looking at him. With his hands folded behind him, he 
 walks to the front of the platform, and announces the num 
 ber of times he has spoken in the city. Speaks lowly and 
 slowly at first, but the color that comes like a flash over his 
 face, now and then advertises the uprush of blood to the 
 brain. Now he has cut loose from his moorings, and is fairly 
 out at sea. Every sail is set ; the wind is fair ; the ocean 
 is smooth or rough, as he may choose to make it, for God has 
 given him power to raise the storm, and power to bid 
 the waves be still. Every hearer is attentive. The great 
 flood of faces, up-turned and side-turned, indicate the 
 interest. No one leaves, unless it is some unappreciating 
 dull-head or some one whose business or indisposition 
 demands him to absent himself. The orator stops not to 
 round his periods, or polish his sentences. He is an actor, 
 as well as an orator, and could excel as a pantomime 
 player. 
 
 I know of no man living who can tell a story better than 
 he. All who hear him once are anxious to hear him again. 
 What a graphic description he has just given of Felix 
 McConnell ! We see the plague-spot on his face the blood 
 oozing from the ends of his bursting fingers, and gushing 
 from the gaping wound, out of which his soul has fled. Now 
 he tells a tale of pity, and women weep like children ; and 
 strong men, "albeit unused to the melting mood," brush 
 away the tears shyly, as though it were a sin to shed them. 
 Now he relates a ludicrous story, and laughter shakes the 
 tear-drops from fair faces, as the Summer wind sweeps the 
 dew from flowers. He has been with his brethren and sis-
 
 96 CEATON SKETCHES. 
 
 ters around the communion table, to-day, and he came here 
 with a heart full of love to God and good will to man. His 
 white-haired and venerable father sits behind, on the plat 
 form, and seems deeply interested in the address. Deacon 
 Grant, his unfaltering friend, is also present. It is a stormy 
 night the lights burn dimly and the meeting would be 
 a dull affair, were it not for the electric eloquence of the 
 speaker. 
 
 This is his farewell speech, and it is one of his happiest 
 efforts. What a thrilling description he has just given, of a 
 man in a boat, going over the Falls of Niagara ! We see 
 the bed of the river, above the rapids, as smooth as molten 
 silver. The boat glides on ; hands beckon and voices call, 
 from the shore, for the man to stop but he laughs, and 
 replies that he will " hard up " the helm and pull on his 
 oars in time. The birds sing, the flowers bloom a rainbow 
 is woven on the forehead of the water yonder, and a shower 
 of liquid diamonds descend in the sun-light. Now the 
 boat approaches the rapids ! The unhappy man grasps the 
 oars the veins on his forehead stand out like whip 
 cords the beaded sweat rolls like rain down his face. 
 Now the boat and the man are swallowed by one wave 
 and disgorged by another! Now all is lost, for ever 
 lost! 
 
 Mr. Gough bids his hearers farewell again, alluding to 
 the time when he was an actor, in the same building (then 
 the Tremont Theatre) where he now advocates the cause of 
 temperance. 
 
 Some who read this may like to know something about 
 the personal appearance of Mr. Gough. He is thirty-five 
 years of age, of slender build and of medium stature. His 
 temperament is nervous-bilious ; hair dark, with here and 
 there a line of silver in it; and his long, pale, thin face
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 97 
 
 is lit up with a pair of large electric eyes. Hard 
 drinking, before his reform, and hard work since, have 
 creased his brow with furrows, and left the print of 
 the " crows'-feet," at the corners of his eyes. He dresses 
 neatly, in plain black. The writer knows, from perso 
 nal and intimate acquaintance, that he is not only a 
 gifted man, but, to use a common-place expression a 
 good fellow. 
 
 The writer heard him on another occasion, when he com 
 plained of being tired and travel-worn, and appeared dull 
 and sleepy. When his name was announced, he rose rather 
 awkwardly and walked leisurely toward the foot-lights, with 
 his hands folded behind him, and commenced speaking 
 slowly, in a low tone of voice. In a few moments, however, 
 the lightning began to flash from his eyes, and the thunder 
 of eloquence to peal from his tongue, while his face shone 
 with the inspiration of his genius. He treated his hearers 
 to outbursts of pathos, inimitable humor, pungent wit, and 
 thrilling facts. It was one of his mightest efforts, and was 
 driven home to the heart with such force as to make a life- 
 lasting impression. 
 
 Mr. Gough's speeches are disjointed, and lack that so 
 lidity which characterizes the speeches of some of the great 
 pioneers in the temperance cause ; but he is emphatically 
 the man for the million. Since the day of the lamented 
 Summerfield, no man has attracted so much attention and 
 won so much admiration as he. Gough is generous, frank, 
 and sociable, fond of sport, and enjoys a rough-and-tumble 
 game of innocent fun, as well as any one. 
 
 Altogether, he is a remarkable man, and has been instru 
 mental in accomplishing incalculable good. His eloquence 
 reminds one of the onward flow of sweeping waters. The 
 silver thread unwinding from a hidden spring in the moun- 
 8*
 
 98 CEAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 tain falls lightly at first, but gathers volume and voice as 
 it proceeds, until it murmurs in the brooklet, shouts in the 
 torrent, thunders in the cataract, and rolls on in beauty, 
 glory, majesty and sublimity in the river, and finally swells 
 the waves of the mighty ocean.
 
 
 LEWIS CASS. 
 
 HON. LEWIS CASS is a gallant General, a good citizen, 
 an eminent statesman, who has served his country at home 
 and abroad, for many years, with honor to himself and 
 credit to his country. He is a man of unimpeachable 
 purity of character, and his abstemious habits (unless he 
 has met with a recent change) deserve the commendation 
 of all good men. He is pugnacious, and often shakes his 
 fist in the face of John Bull ; is ambitious, and has made 
 high bids for the presidency. In his efforts to provoke the 
 former and secure the latter, he has displayed his weakest 
 points. 
 
 Lewis Cass is a great man physically and intellect 
 ually. There is nothing trashy or inane in his speeches ; 
 he is not subject to poetical hysterics, and there is not much 
 of the majestic or the sublime in his speeches. It is sel 
 dom that great and mighty thoughts leap from his mouth, 
 as "Minerva sprang from the brain of Jove;" but he is 
 plain, practical, philosophical, argumentative, correct, and 
 classical. He does not soar like an angel, but he stands 
 erect like a man. He has a well-balanced, ratiocinative 
 m ind deeply experienced, and thoroughly cultivated. He 
 cannot, like Webster, " heap Pelion upon Ossa," until his 
 opponent is overwhelmed and crushed to the dust, but he
 
 100 CEAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 digs deeply, until the victim is first undermined, and finally 
 buried under his own premises. 
 
 He is corpulent almost gross and has a dull face ; is 
 a perfect gentleman in his address, excellent company, when 
 he is sufficiently acquainted to " unbend the brow," and in 
 the convivial circle he can contribute his share of merri 
 ment. He speaks French fluently, and is familiar with 
 other languages. He is a man whom his party delights to 
 honor, and has been governor, representative, foreign 
 minister, is now senator, and several times he has been 
 almost President of the United States. He lives in a large, 
 plain, democratic-looking house, in the beautiful city of 
 Detroit. He is now ill with the ague* the only thing that 
 can shake him. Senator Douglass has recently employed 
 an artist to take his portrait. Perhaps he designs to hang 
 the shadow on the wall, and take the place of the substance 
 himself. He is highly esteemed in Michigan, and has more 
 influence there than any other man in the State. Permit 
 me to record a joke, which has been exposed to the sun and 
 air so long it has become dry, if not stale. " Tell Hale," 
 said Cass, "that he is a Granite goose." "Tell Cass," 
 replied Hale, " that he is a Michi-^rcmrfer / " 
 
 * Since recovered.
 
 .85: ; 
 
 FRANCIS TUKEY. 
 
 'lit- 1 ': y/it ''.-- r l'/t f-hf I"7fo_'ii sVsHvV <M\V 
 
 FRANCIS TUKEY is the Napoleon of City Marshals. 
 Lynx-eyed and lion-hearted, keen as a sharper, and brave as 
 a soldier, he displays remarkable skill, tact, force and fore 
 sight, when he pursues a criminal, or subdues a mob, or 
 storms a gambling hell. The sight of a dirk or the snap of 
 a pistol never make him absent in body, nor scare away his 
 presence of mind. He is not like the giant of Rabelais, 
 who could swallow windmills one day, and yet choke at the 
 sight of a pat of fresh butter the next, for he never loses 
 that calm, cool self-possession, so requisite in a rogue-catcher. 
 The mantle of Jacob Hays must have fallen upon his should 
 ers, for when he is in pursuit of the violators of the law, 
 thick walls are transparent, deep schemes are unriddled, 
 and bold villains are brought to justice. 
 
 The police force under his management has been so well 
 trained that it can be employed to the best advantage. This 
 civil army can be brought into service on any emergency, 
 at short notice, with all the uniformity and efficiency of a 
 disciplined army. 
 
 In our large cities, rascality is reduced to a science. Pock 
 ets are picked by rule merchants are swindled by accom 
 plished financiers banks are entered by the most uncivil 
 engineers gamblers go dressed like gentlemen burglars
 
 102 CEAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 are armed with false keys, bowie-knives and revolvers. 
 Consequently, a Marshal must have the courage of Crom 
 well, the zeal of Luther, if he would be a terror to such evil 
 doers, and a praise to those who do well. He must not only 
 have a head to contrive, but a heart to feel, also. He must 
 not be like the man who, because he had passed through 
 the Custom-House, supposed the Government had taken off 
 the duties he owed his fellow-citizens. While the guilty 
 must be punished the innocent must be protected. 
 
 Marshal Tukey is a native of Maine, by profession a 
 lawyer. He is in the full vigor of manhood, about five feet 
 nine inches in height, of good mould, and his head is phren- 
 ologically well developed ; his hair smooth, and black as the 
 wing of a raven ; eyes large, dark and piercing ; face pale, 
 thin and thoughtful ; forehead quite intellectual ; mouth well 
 cut, and his smile is quite infectious. He has recently con 
 nected himself with the Temple of Honor, in this city. He 
 never was habituated to the inordinate use of intoxicating 
 drink consequently he had no appetite to contend with. 
 He would have united with that noble institution long ago, 
 had it not been for the fact that every disinterested deed 
 performed by a public man is sure to be regarded by the 
 selfish as political manoeuvring for place and power.
 
 WILLIAM R STACY. 
 
 WILLIAM R. STACY is a plain, business man, whose 
 hands and heart and soul are earnestly engaged in the total 
 abstinence reform. In season and out of season, he is the 
 same untiring, uncompromising and unflinching champion of 
 the cause. In Societies, in Sections, in Divisions, in Tents 
 and in Temples, he is known as an efficient worker. Fair- 
 weather friends and summer-fly advocates of abstinence 
 doctrines are constantly rebuked by his unyielding adher 
 ence to the letter and the spirit of the pledge. Temperance 
 thermometers, whose mercury is sure to rise and fall, ac 
 cording to the state of the atmosphere, wonder with open 
 mouths and open eyes, and leathern ears and leaden brains, 
 why Mr. Stacy denies himself the lazy ease which they 
 misname enjoyment. Politicians, who can accommodate 
 themselves to every sect in religion, to every party in poli 
 tics, to every shade of society, and, like chameleons, assume 
 the color of the community in which they move, are aston 
 ished that a man of his tact and influence, and persevering 
 energy, does not attempt to reap laurels and gain gold in 
 the field of political action. Those who need not envy the 
 donkey its redundancy of ear, are surprised that such a 
 sensible man should engage in such " small business." 
 
 Captain Stacy is President of the Parent Washingtonian
 
 104 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 Temperance Society, in this city an institution which has 
 been in successful operation for eight years, during which 
 time hundreds and thousands have been added to its mem 
 bership. This good Samaritan society not only secures 
 names to the pledge, but feeds the hungry, clothes the desti 
 tute, visits the sick. It has been instrumental in healing 
 hearts that were broken, and restoring to society men who 
 had degraded themselves by the use of strong drinks. 
 Through Summer and Winter, Spring and Autumn, fair 
 weather and foul weather, Mr. Stacy has attended the meet 
 ing of this society. 
 
 His friends seem to appreciate his worth by heaping 
 honors upon him. The last two years, he was Most Worthy 
 Associate of the National Division. He is now Most Wor 
 thy Templar of the National Temple. These distinctions 
 have fallen upon a worthy man. There is no poetry, no 
 tinselry about his speeches. His thoughts are clad in a 
 thin covering of scanty words. He works noiselessly and 
 out of sight, but very effectually. Is there a cross to carry, 
 his shoulders are chosen to bear the burden. Is there 
 money to raise, his financiering skill is called into exercise. 
 Is there a mammoth meeting to be held, . he is expected to 
 make the necessary preparations. 
 
 Mr. Stacy is in the prime of life, a man of common stat 
 ure, has dark hair, large light eyes, an honest face, a good 
 development of benevolence, and firmness enough to render 
 him obstinate when opposed providing he has reason to 
 believe he is on the right side of the question. Few men 
 are so well acquainted with the " workings " of the Na 
 tional Temple as he ; few men have more influence in the 
 great national temperance movement then he. It is evident 
 that he accepts office for the purpose of extending the
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 105 
 
 sphere of his usefulness, and not for the gratification of his 
 personal vanity. 
 
 He never occupies much time in his public addresses 
 does not stop to dissect his dictionary for choice language, 
 but speaks out hi manly style the thoughts that are upper 
 most in his mind. He is not a classical scholar, and never 
 tries to pass for more than he is worth, by awkward 
 attempts at rounding periods and polishing sentences. His 
 striking characteristics are generosity, energy, perseverance, 
 courage, and common sense. 
 
 9
 
 ELIZUK WEIGHT. 
 
 For thee, my country, thee, do I perform 
 
 Sternly, the duty of a man born free ; 
 Heedless, though ass, and wolf, and venomous worm 
 
 Shake ears and fangs, with brandished bray at me. 
 
 ELLIOT. 
 
 ELIZUR WRIGHT is the translator of La Fontaine's 
 Fables, and the editor of the Commonwealth. Mr. "Wright 
 is an original and subtle writer, has great power of analysis, 
 and often flings the golden light of a vivid imagination over 
 the productions of his pen. He may be styled the prince of 
 paragraphists, and yet he often is as unidiomatic, angular 
 and jargonic as Carlyle. Common objects and hackneyed 
 subjects, viewed through the kaleidoscope of his fancy, have 
 a charm which attract the attention of persons competent to 
 appreciate his thoughts and illustrations. He usually writes 
 on practical questions and every-day transactions, and in his 
 peculiar way endeavors to remove evils, correct abuses, 
 expose hypocrisy, denounce cant, condemn bigotry, and 
 enforce the principles of universal freedom in church and 
 state. When he assails a public man who has not been 
 faithful in the discharge of his duty, he reminds one of the 
 Rev. Sydney Smith, who had expended a great deal of 
 elaborate censure on an English minister. Said he "I 
 do not attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of 
 utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke, for 
 fear it should flood a province."
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 107 
 
 Few men exhibit more versatility of talent than Mr, 
 Wright. He can translate a French fable, write a popular 
 song, originate a love story, dash off a leader for a news 
 paper, prepare an essay for a review, or rise up and make a 
 speech, at short notice. Examine his spicy and spirited 
 sheet, and you will see that it scolds like a cynic, reasons 
 like a logician, while it glows with eloquence and gleams 
 with poetry, and looks like a pretty woman in a fit of 
 passion on a washing-day scolding and slapping the little 
 " brats " about her. 
 
 Mr. "Wright sympathizes with the spirit of reform, which 
 is now moving on the mighty deep of intellect ; but he is so 
 paradoxical at times, it is difficult to define his position. He 
 looks upon black coats and white neck-cloths with suspicion, 
 and is apt to crow whilst he chronicles defections in the 
 church. He is an ordinary speaker, and never could attract 
 much notice in the forum. His voice is weak, utterance 
 slow, manner unattractive, but his matter is original and 
 startling. He appeals to the people to look beyond their 
 larders and their libraries, their farms and their factories, to 
 gaze up higher than the steeples of their churches. He 
 divides society into mice, owls, eagles, men, angels, and 
 gods. 
 
 Our subject is a domestic man a kind of Utopian utili 
 tarian. Few women can beat him at sweeping the floor, 
 making the bed, or dressing a baby. At home, he is often 
 up to his elbows in the kneading-trough and wash-tub. It 
 is quite common to see him write with one hand and rock 
 the cradle with the other. There are not many families in 
 New England under better management than his. The 
 oldest boy, who is now in his teensj is a famous and skilful 
 teacher of music. 
 
 Mr. Wright has just passed the meridian of life ; is a
 
 108 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 small, thin man, of the nervous-bilious temperament; face 
 strongly marked, indicating unbending endurance, unfalter 
 ing energy, and. transparent honesty of purpose ; head large, 
 especially in the region of the reflective faculties. I should 
 think benevolence, ideality, comparison, causality, combative- 
 ness, and philoprogenitiveness the most prominently devel 
 oped organs. His editorials are quoted extensively in every 
 part of the land. Eloquent extracts might be taken from 
 the -columns of his paper, and made into a saleable book. 
 His sparkling sentiments, comical illustrations, witty con 
 ceits, droll humor and pat quotations are mixed up with 
 theology, philosophy and science. 
 
 In a word, Mr. Wright is a scholar, a poet, a genius ; he 
 is obstinately independent, indignantly in earnest, and un 
 mercifully severe. Notwithstanding all this, he would 
 make a good conductor, if he had not so many cars attached 
 to his engine. 

 
 JOHN M. SPEAR 
 
 THERE are but few of the unfortunate inmates of the 
 houses of correction, the jails and tfie prisons in New-Eng 
 land, who can with propriety say to JOHN M. SPEAK, " I 
 was sick and in prison, and ye visited me not." He devotes 
 himself almost entirely to the welfare of that neglected class 
 of our fellow men, whose accidents and crimes have deprived 
 them of the privileges which are the birthright of a free 
 people. The poor prisoner, clad in the dress of a convict, 
 was doomed to toil at the loom, the crank, the forge, the 
 bench and the wheel, and .pass through the same routine 
 until death or the turnkey came to his relief, and apparently 
 no one cared for his soul or his body. Sometimes the inno 
 cent suffered with the guilty, and often the guilty were pun 
 ished beyond their deserts. But the sun of the nineteenth 
 century now illuminates the moral heavens, and as the natu 
 ral sun shines on the evil and the good, even so do the 
 golden rays of this glorious luminary shine through 4;he 
 grated window of the prisoner's cell, and the true light 
 reveals the fact that the convict stained with sin and har 
 nessed with iron, is our brother. He has been badly educa 
 ted, or temptations that might have overcome the Pharisee 
 that scorns him, have proved his ruin ; or he has inherited 
 from his parents a bad organization of brain ; or he has 
 9*
 
 110 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 voluntarily surrendered himself into the hands of the evil 
 one ; or evil communications have corrupted his good man 
 ners. Although a criminal he is an object of commiseration. 
 
 Mr. Spear not only sympathizes with these violators and 
 victims of the law, but he gives them good moral lessons. 
 When they are arrested, he flies to their assistance, pro 
 cures counsel, or pleads their case himself. If they are 
 found guilty, he labors to mitigate their punishment, petitions 
 for pardons, and obtains employment for them when their 
 term of imprisonment expires. His pen and purse, his 
 tongue and tune are given freely, cheerfully, constantly, to 
 this work of righteousness. Carlyle would call Mr. Spear 
 a rose-water reformer, a pink-and-senna philanthropist, a 
 benevolent Bedlamite, but he is really the Howard of 
 America. He has travelled hundreds of miles, collected 
 thousands of dollars, delivered scores of speeches, and 
 written volumes of pages, to defend the prisoner. He has 
 shielded the innocent from impending punishment, and alle 
 viated and abbreviated the sufferings of the guilty, by bring 
 ing to light palliating circumstances that would have been 
 buried in darkness. During the session of the Police Court, 
 he may be found among the lawyers and reporters, prepared 
 to assist the unfortunate and the guilty. He is an out-and- 
 out reformer, and is not afraid to assail any form of evil, 
 however large its bulk or hideous its horns. He is a sensi 
 ble speaker, but not an attractive one ; a calm reasoner, but 
 not an eloquent one. In a word, he is a plain, practical, 
 every-day sort of a man, whose look and manner convinces 
 one of his sincerity. 
 
 Not unfrequently Mr. Spear starts off from the city into 
 the country, without knowing beforehand where his tour will 
 terminate. He travels under the hallucination that an invis 
 ible and spiritual agency is directing him to a destination
 
 CEAYON SKETCHES. Ill 
 
 where his services are needed. He is a tall, lean, boney 
 man, with a black wig, a sallow skin, and a mouthful of large 
 teeth. He wears a " can-I-help-you ? " sort of a look, and 
 speaks so gently and moderately, the listener, if ever so 
 much excited before, becomes calm and feels at home, as in 
 the presence of a friend and a brother. He is a Universa- 
 list minister, a temperance lecturer, an abolition promoter, 
 an anti-hanging, anti-war advocate. His brother Charles is 
 just like him, and is the editor of the Prisoner's Friend, a 
 magazine, ably conducted. These brothers are as much 
 alike as the Siamese twins.
 
 JOHN AUGUSTUS. 
 
 JOHN AUGUSTUS is the drunkard's friend. Most of his 
 time is spent in the Police Court. When the unhappy dis 
 ciples of Bacchus are brought into court, charged with 
 drunkenness, they are usually fined two dollars and costs 
 the whole sum amounting to five dollars. It seldom hap 
 pens that a common street-drunkard can raise that amount 
 of money immediately after a " spree," and to prevent his 
 being sent to the House of Correction, where he would be 
 divorced from his friends and disgraced in his own estima 
 tion, this noble philanthropist steps forward with the funds 
 in one hand and the pledge in the other, and in many 
 instances succeeds in restoring the man to his family, and 
 restraining him from the use of strong drink during the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 Mr. Augustus is an ordinary looking man. His hair, 
 which is now quite grey, hangs like a mop over his fore 
 head, as though he determined the organ of benevolence, like 
 many of his kind deeds, should remain unseen. When he 
 goes into court, his face looks as though he had died during 
 the night, and had been galvanized into life before he got 
 up in the morning. His saffron-colored skin is covered with 
 wrinkles, from the tip of his chin to the top of his forehead. 
 In that respect he is the most remarkable man I ever saw.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 113 
 
 He is nervous and fidgety, when opposed. His labors of 
 love are appreciated by some of the disinterested philan 
 thropists of Boston, and they contribute magnanimously to 
 sustain him. More than half the sum expended by him, in 
 paying fines for drunkenness, is refunded by the parties who 
 have been benefitted by his generosity. Mr. Augustus 
 makes no pompous display, no noisy parade, about this mat 
 ter ; but day after day, and year after year, he visits the 
 court and spends his time in watching over the welfare of 
 the down-fallen and degraded. 
 
 Mr. Augustus is a good man, whose heart is as large as 
 his head. He is far above mediocrity, in point of " good 
 feeling." The " prisoner's friend " and the " drunkard's 
 friend " are both poor men, but they are the unfaltering 
 defenders of the humble and the despised, and on the great 
 day of account many will rise up and call them blessed !
 
 FATHER TAYLOR. 
 
 Suoh vast Impressions did his sermons make, 
 
 He always kept his flock awake. DK. WOLCOTT. 
 
 I venerate the man whose heart is warm, 
 
 Whose hands are pure, whose doctrines and whose life 
 
 Coincident, exhibit lucid proof 
 
 That he is honest In the sacred cause. COWPKB. 
 
 ONE Sunday morning I went to the Sailors' Chapel in 
 Boston, to see and hear the far-famed mariner's preacher, 
 Father Taylor. He was reading the familiar hymn which 
 commences with the well-known lines, " Come, thou fount of 
 every blessing," when I entered the house of worship. The 
 choir wedded the words to music the Divine blessing was 
 invoked a chapter was read and then the sixteenth 
 verse of the third chapter of Colossians was selected as the 
 basis of the discourse. The striking peculiarities of the 
 eccentric and celebrated preacher cannot fail to attract the 
 attention of the seamen and landsmen who attend his church. 
 He rises clumsily from the sofa in the pulpit, and puts his 
 fore-finger on the text as though he anticipated the danger 
 of losing it, or was determined to stick to it. After reading 
 it distinctly and deliberately, he is pretty sure to raise the 
 spectacles from his eyes and let them rest over the organs 
 of causality. 
 
 Father Taylor does not ape the clerical stiffness which so 
 ill-becomes those who strive to make up in dignity what
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 110 
 
 they lack in devotion and intellect. When he walks the 
 pulpit floor, like a caged lion, or pounds the desk with his 
 fists, there seems to be, and doubtless is, honesty in his zeal. 
 When he distorts his weather-beaten face, and swings his 
 out-stretched arms about him, and shakes his lean fingers in 
 the faces of his hearers, we see that he has in him the ele 
 ments of a good actor. He is an odd genius, and I have no 
 hesitation in affirming that he will utter more wise sayings 
 and more sayings that are otherwise, in a single sermon, 
 than any other man in Massachusetts. Not unfrequently he 
 mixes his pathos and humor so evenly, the listener knows 
 not whether to laugh or weep. One minute he appeals to 
 Heaven, in a strain of sublimity that excites your admiration 
 and astonishment ; and the next moment he appeals to Mr. 
 Foster, or some other member of his congregation, in a style 
 not comporting with the idea most men have, of the dignity 
 of the pulpit. Now, with compressed lips, grating teeth and 
 flashing eyes, he denounces some vice or some heresy, in 
 words steeped in a solution of brimstone ; and then, with a 
 smiling countenance, upturned eyes and outspread hands, he 
 lavishes encomiums on hope, faith, love, virtue, piety. Now 
 he pours out a torrent of adjectives, as though he resolved 
 to exhaust the vocabulary ; then follows a stream of nouns, 
 from his unfailing Cochituate of language. His sermons 
 are ornamented with gems of poetry. 
 
 The following extracts from the sermon I heard a week 
 or two since, will give the reader a tolerable idea of his 
 matter ; his manner is unreportable, for he is the Booth of 
 the Boston pulpit. " Some men," said he, " will lie for a 
 glass of grog, and some women will lie for a cup of tea. If 
 God respects some sinners more than others, there will be a 
 back hole in hell for liars." " Who are so low, vile, mean, 
 hateful, as the wholesale dealers and the retail pedlars in
 
 116 CKAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 lies ? " He prefaced a quotation from Proverbs with these 
 words : " Solomon was a wise old fellow, although he had 
 strange notions about some things." Speaking of back 
 sliders, he observed: "They slide by moonshining and de 
 ceiving themselves." He ridiculed, with bitter severity, the 
 Oratorios of the present day ; said that " profane lips dared 
 to imitate the groans of Christ upon the cross. Infidels, 
 with instruments of music, endeavoring to show the suffer 
 ings of the Saviour in the garden the driving of the nails, 
 the dripping of the blood upon the accursed tree and they 
 mimicked the blast of the angel's trumpet." It was an elo 
 quent and just rebuke to those who trifle with sacred things. 
 Father Taylor is a plain-looking man, and his bronzed 
 face is strongly marked. He is now in the sunset of life, 
 and his head is thickly sprinkled with grey hairs. When 
 excited, his voice is harsh, and conveys the impression to 
 the mind, that the " man behind it " hates the Devil more 
 than he loves Jesus. He is volcanic, and is often guided 
 more by impulse than by intellect. Although he is in the 
 autumn of his years, he can perform more service, endure 
 more hardship, and preach better sermons, than half the 
 young preachers of the present day.
 
 . S H ?> JT 3 X - -XX* T 4 
 
 ELIHU BURKITT. 
 
 ijil .:,-.' i'Lu-.-i; .Jtl lj luu&rofrf r-jfo ni y.'on &i 
 
 " Our country is the world ; our countrymen are all mankind." ANON. 
 
 A SHORT time ago the friends of peace called a meeting 
 at the Park Street Church, for the purpose of appointing 
 delegates to attend the World's Peace Convention, on the 
 banks of the Maine. In consequence of the inclemency of 
 the weather, and the un-business like manner in which the 
 meeting was advertised, there were but few persons present ; 
 but the distinguished gentlemen who were called upon to 
 address that audience might have consoled themselves with 
 the reflection that what their assembly lacked in number it 
 made up in talent, learning, influence, and moral worth. 
 
 The chief object of attraction, at this meeting, was Elihu 
 Burritt, the " learned blacksmith." He sat on the first seat 
 opposite the pulpit, with his back toward the audience, his 
 head resting on his hand, and his eyes closed most of the 
 time, during the delivery of the speeches. Thomas Drew, 
 Jr., immortalized as Burritt's " blower and striker " at the 
 forge and anvil of reform, was busy with pencil and paper, 
 in one of the side pews. The hearers waited peaceably but 
 impatiently for Mr. Burritt to take the rostrum, and when it 
 was announced that he would speak, every countenance 
 became radiant with joyful anticipation. Mr. Burritt arose 
 in a quiet, unpretending manner, and modestly responded to 
 the invitation to speak. He stood on the top stair of the 
 10
 
 118 CEAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 pulpit, and at first seemed to shrink back bashfully from the 
 gaze of the upturned faces before him. Although he is no 
 coward, I have no doubt his heart beat as though it would 
 batter a breach through its tenement when he first unsealed 
 his lips in the presence of that assembly. In fact, the con 
 tour of his face, and the tones of his voice, are the tell-tales 
 which publish his lack of self-conceit. 
 
 Mr. Burritt is now in the meridian of his manhood, but 
 his premature baldness is his apology for wearing a wig. 
 He has a towering forehead, but, owing to the large devel 
 opment of the perceptive faculties, it appears to retreat. I 
 think his eyes are blue, when they do not blaze. His face 
 indicates perseverance that will not falter, and integrity that 
 will not disappoint. He speaks slowly, distinctly, and forci 
 bly, without ever uttering a foolish thing. He has a pecu 
 liarity of tone which is unreportable, but which tells with 
 thrilling effect on the hearts of his hearers, when he enters 
 earnestly into the subject he discusses. All who have heard 
 him must acknowledge that his matter is as full of thought 
 as an egg is of meat. He employs facts and statistics in his 
 speeches and editorials, but they have the varied beauty of 
 the rainbow, and the golden glow of sunlight, when viewed 
 through the prism of his rich imagination. 
 
 The following extract from the London edition of the 
 little volume entitled " Sparks from the Anvil" will give the 
 reader an idea of Mr. Burritt's style of writing. In an 
 article on temperance, he alludes to the history of a distin 
 guished statesman who had been snatched as a brand from 
 the liquid burning : " And he was found, with all the 
 resuscitated vigor of his talents, exhuming, as it were, his 
 fellow beings, who, like him, had been buried before they 
 were dead. Massachusetts welcomed him back to her em 
 brace with emotions of maternal joy, and invited the return-
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 119 
 
 ing pleiad to resume his rank among the stars of her crown. 
 The doors of her halls and churches were thrown open to 
 the newly-returning prodigal, and many were touched to life 
 and salvation, at the burning eloquence which fell from his 
 lips. Sister states heard of this new Luther in temper 
 ance, and he obeyed their call. He stood up in their cities 
 like Paul in the midst of Mars Hill, and, with an eloquence 
 approaching inspiration, set forth the strange doctrine of 
 total abstinence." That man, unfortunately, was led astray 
 by fiends in human form, but a band of Washingtonians 
 persuaded him to sign the pledge once more, and this time 
 it was an unviolated policy of insurance against the fires of 
 destruction. He concluded that graphic sketch in the fol 
 lowing words : " That man is again a giant, and he is 
 abroad ; look out for him ! Like Samson, he is feeling for 
 the pillars of the temple of Bacchus, and he will ere long 
 revenge the loss of his locks by a mighty overthrow of that 
 doomed edifice." 
 
 It affords the writer no small degree of pleasure to lift up 
 the curtain which hangs between the past and the present, 
 and look back to the time when the now eminent champion 
 of peace first put on his paper cap and leather apron, and 
 made the forge blaze and the hammer ring. He did not 
 dream, then, that he one day would " beat swords into 
 plough-shares and spears into pruning-hooks." His friends 
 did not at that time give him credit for any striking mani 
 festations of genius. To use his own words, he was a 
 " plodding, patient, persevering " lad, gathering by " the 
 process of accretion, which builds the ant-heap, particle by 
 particle, thought by thought, fact by fact." In this way he 
 worked and studied, night by night, for years, with " blis 
 tered hands and brightening hope," at lessons which have
 
 120 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 made him shine a star of the first magnitude in the firma 
 ment of fame. 
 
 In the Summer of 1838, Governor Everett, of Massachu 
 setts, in an address to an association of mechanics in Boston, 
 took occasion to mention that a blacksmith of that State 
 had, by his unaided industry, made himself acquainted with 
 fifty languages ! Prior to this announcement, Mr. Burritt 
 had lived in obscurity, and the fame of his acquirements 
 did not extend beyond the smoke of his work-shop. When 
 Mr. Nelson called on Mr. B. at Worcester, he found him at 
 his anvil. When told what the Governor had reported 
 respecting him, he modestly replied that the Governor had 
 done him more than justice. It was true, he said, that he 
 could read about fifty languages, but he had not studied 
 them all critically. Yankee curiosity had induced him to 
 look at the Latin Grammar ; he became interested in it, and 
 persevered, and finally acquired a thorough knowledge of 
 that language. He then studied the Greek with equal care. 
 An acquaintance with these languages had enabled him to 
 read, with equal facility, the Italian, the French, the Span 
 ish, and the Portuguese. The Russian, to which he was 
 then devoting his odd moments, he said, was the most diffi 
 cult of any he had undertaken. He went to Worcester to 
 secure the advantages of an antiquarian library, to which 
 the trustees allowed him free access. He spent eight hours 
 at the forge, eight hours in the library, and the remaining 
 eight hours of each day in recreation and rest. After he 
 had studied Hebrew, and made himself acquainted with its 
 cognate languages the Syraic, Chaldaic, Arabic, Samaritan, 
 Ethiopic, &c., he turned his attention to the languages of 
 Europe, and studied French, Spanish, Italian, and German, 
 under native teachers. He then pursued the Portuguese,
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 121 
 
 Flemish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, "Welsh, 
 Gaelic, Celtic, &c. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that a man who has devoted 
 so much of his time to the acquisition of languages that he 
 is a living portable polyglott, should have such mighty 
 mathematical powers. Figures tumble from his pen like 
 seeds from a sack when the string is untwined from its 
 throat. There are but few men of past or present times, 
 that can excel him in description. Take the following 
 graphic sketch of the iron horse, as a specimen of his skill 
 in that department of literature : 
 
 " I love to see one of these creatures, with sinews of brass 
 and muscles of iron, strut forth from his smoky stable, and 
 saluting the long train of cars with a dozen sonorous puffs 
 from his iron nostrils, fall back gently into his harness. 
 There he stands, champing and foaming upon the iron track, 
 his great heart a furnace of glowing coals, his lymphatic 
 blood is boiling in his veins, the strength of a thousand 
 horses is nerving his sinews he pants to be gone. He 
 would ' snake ' St. Peter's across the desert of Sahara, if he 
 could be fairly hitched to it ; but there is a little, sober-eyed, 
 tobacco-chewing man in the saddle, who holds him in with 
 one finger, and can take away his breath in a moment, 
 should he grow restive or vicious. I am always deeply 
 interested in this man, for, begrimed as he may be with 
 coal, diluted in oil and steam, I regard him as the genius of 
 the whole machinery, as the physical mind of that huge 
 steam-horse." 
 
 Mr. Burritt believes that God has made of one blood all 
 the nations of the earth, and he aims to unite them by the 
 fraternal chain of brotherhood. He looks upon war as an 
 inexcusable evil, and labors manfully for its extirpation. 
 He would dismantle the arsenal, disband the army, spike 
 10*
 
 122 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 the cannon, and reforge the cutlass ; he would take our ships 
 of war and " lade them down to the water's edge with food 
 and covering for human beings." " The ballast should be 
 round clams, or the real quahaugs, heavy as cast iron, and 
 capital for roasting. Then he would build along up, filling 
 every square inch with well-cured provisions. He would 
 have a hogshead of bacon mounted into every port-hole, 
 each of which should discharge fifty hams a minute, when 
 the ship was brought into action ; and the state-rooms should 
 be filled with well-made garments, and the taut cordage and 
 the long tapering spars should be festooned with boy's jack 
 ets and trousers. Then, when there should be no more 
 room for another cod-fish or herring, or sprig of catnip, he 
 would run up the white flag of peace. He would throw as 
 many hams into the city in twenty-four hours as there were 
 bomb-shells and cannon balls thrown into Keil by the be 
 sieging armies ; he would barricade the low, narrow streets 
 with loaves of bread ; would throw up a breast-work, clear 
 around the market-place, of barrels of flour, pork and beef, 
 and in the middle raise a stack of salmon and cod-fish as 
 large as a small Methodist meeting-house, with a steeple to 
 it, and a bell in the steeple, and the bell should ring to all 
 the city bells, and the city bells should ring to all the people 
 to come to market and buy provisions, without money and 
 without price. And white flags should every where wave 
 in the breeze on the vanes of steeples, on mast-heads, on 
 flag-stones along the embattled walls, on the ends of willow 
 sticks, borne by the romping, laughing, trooping children. 
 All the blood-colored drapery of war should bow and blush 
 before the stainless standard of peace, and generations of 
 Anglo-Saxons should remember, with mutual felicitations, 
 the conquest of the white flag, or the storming of Quebec." 
 Mr. Burritt has made his mark upon this age a mark
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 123 
 
 which time will not erase. His society is .courted by the 
 great men of Europe and America. He quietly suggests 
 a world's convention, and Senators, members of Parliament, 
 Baronets, and crowned heads, hearken to his counsels. He 
 is the same great and good man, whether in the smithy, 
 talking with the hard-handed nailers, or in the magnificent 
 forum, pleading for peace, in presence of the dignitaries of 
 the land. He strives to smite off the clanking manacles 
 from the uplifted hands of the bleeding slave, and to strike 
 down the monster that wades in blood, and to build up the 
 temple of universal peace, and to weld the world in an un 
 broken band of eternal brotherhood. He sees a spirit of 
 selfishness abroad that would rob earth of its flowers and 
 heaven of its lights, disinherit the angels, uncrown the 
 Almighty, and sit upon the throne of the universe. So he 
 has unfurled the white banner, and is now leading the crusa 
 ders of a good cause, to a battle where no blood will be 
 shed, but where that evil, selfish spirit will be subdued, and 
 peace shall triumph ! 
 
 ,miif ewbtl ,JA no a^IA ojlil josou ->b*^J 

 
 
 THURLOW WEED BROWN. 
 
 THDRLOW WEED BROWN is the editor and proprietor of 
 the Cayuga Chief, a spicy and spirited sheet, published at 
 Auburn, New York. Mr. Brown is one of the most notice 
 able men in the Empire State. He is remarkable for indom 
 itable perseverance, steam-engine energy, and unfaltering 
 courage. It is quite evident nature designed him for a 
 leader, and he knows it ; consequently, he not only com 
 mands the white-skins, but is " Chief of the Cayugas " also. 
 
 With no education but such as he picked up in a common 
 school in the country, and no capital but that of brains and 
 bones, he has established on a permanent basis one of the 
 raciest reform journals in the realm of newspaperdom. 
 
 Although obstacles arose, like Alps on Alps before him, 
 he bravely surmounted them, and pursued the uneven tenor 
 of his way bringing the timid time-servers and purse- 
 proud pretenders who opposed him, to their marrow-bones. 
 
 He is rough and brilliant, like a rock abounding with dia 
 monds ; few men living have more power of origination, 
 and I hazard the assertion that he has written and spoken 
 as many queer, witty, pithy, pointed and brilliant sentiments 
 as any man of his age in his native State. It is generally 
 acknowledged, by those who read his paper, that he com 
 mands a fascinating pen. Who ever saw a copy of the
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 125 
 
 Chief, out of his office, unfolded and unread ? It is true 
 that he is not always classically correct, in all he says and 
 writes, and yet he makes fewer mistakes than many of our 
 college-bred literati. The trees, with their branches point 
 ing to the land of living spirits, and their roots pointing to 
 the land of dead bodies, have been his teachers ; and he has 
 read the poetry of God in the country, written in letters of 
 lilies, violets, and roses. Nature has spoken to him from 
 beak and brook, and cloud and cataract, and he hearkened 
 to her voice, and ever worships at her sylvan altar. There 
 is the tinge of an opulent fancy glowing in his speeches and 
 gleaming in his essays. Not long since, he awoke one fine 
 morning and found himself famous, as an orator. His 
 speeches consist of stirring appeals, strong arguments, and 
 appropriate anecdotes tied together with poetical senti 
 ments. " If you disregard our petitions this year," said he, 
 addressing the Legislature at Albany, " next year we will 
 send petitions here with boots on." Did the limits of my 
 book permit, I would furnish some specimens of his style. 
 One thing I wish to notice : he is sometimes careless, and 
 allows his pen to gallop, unbitted, over column after column 
 of editorial matter ; and he rarely, perhaps never, re- writes 
 an article. 
 
 And I may say here, that his speeches are uneven. In 
 one place he will deliver a thrilling speech full of humor, 
 wit, pathos, and argument in another place he will be 
 devoid of unction, and his address will be insipid as the 
 essence of flat-irons. Such is apt to be the case with all 
 men of true genius. Your mediocrity men are always the 
 same ; they never soar above their hats, and never dive 
 below their boots. 
 
 Mr. Brown is now in the prime of life, a man of ordi 
 nary stature and ordinary features. He has a large, well-
 
 126 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 balanced head, a long, rough, honest face, blue eyes, broad, 
 high forehead, brown hair, and plenty of it not only on 
 his head but on his face, in the form of whiskers and goatee. 
 In conversation, he is sociable, pleasant, gentle and modest, 
 almost awkward in consequence of his bashfulness. His 
 pen is pugnacious, and while it pricks like the quill of a 
 porcupine, it now and then drops a blot of egotism on the 
 page it writes. 
 
 Mr. Brown will never die of the consumption, for the en 
 largement of his heart has caused an expansion of the chest. 
 May he long live, to punish the wicked whether they look 
 from the gothic window of a wine-palace, or the grated win 
 dow of a prison. 
 
 
 
 .
 
 EDWARD BEECHER 
 
 "}c 'i'lbtti.- :> .';.} .'si" 'i[ ; >-*r-fff *>nfT"?'fm 'io 
 
 Oh, what Is man, Great Maker of mankind '. 
 
 That Thou to him so great respect dost bear, 
 That Thou adorn'st him with so bright a mind, 
 Makest him a king, and e'en an angel's peer I 
 
 SIB. JOHN DAVIES. 
 
 EDWARD BEECHER is a close thinker, a cogent reasoner, 
 an impassioned speaker. His sermons are not elegant essays, 
 got up for the entertainment of his hearers. They are not 
 blank verse wire-drawn into very blank prose ; not pearls 
 and diamonds and precious stones, all stolen except the 
 string that ties them together. They are true-blue, orthodox 
 sermons, full of Beecher, truth, spirit, and scripture. They 
 are living, breathing, talking sermons famous for great 
 thoughts and simple words. 
 
 Mr. Beecher is a fluent and forcible speaker, and makes 
 use of the simplest (not always the purest) Saxon in his 
 discourses. In his happiest mood his voice is often raised 
 to a high pitch, and he soars with untiring wing higher, and 
 higher still, and still higher, until his head is among the 
 stars, and his face like the countenance of Moses on the 
 mountain reflects the radiance of inspiration. He not 
 unfrequently produces a thrilling effect by reiterated strokes, 
 and by presenting epithet after epithet, figure after figure, 
 fact after fact, argument after argument, appeal after appeal, 
 which flow on like the waves of the sea, exciting the alarm 
 of the unconverted who have spread their sail upon the
 
 128 CBAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 waters of life, without provisions or pilot, and exciting the 
 admiration of those who have, and those who hope they 
 have fair prospects for reaching the haven of rest. 
 
 Mr. Beecher has studied mental philosophy, and is well 
 versed in theology ; has considerable knowledge of the ways 
 of the world, for, unlike many of his cloth, he does not deem 
 it a duty to shut himself up in his study continually, for fear 
 of rendering himself " too common " to excite the wonder of 
 the people on the Sabbath. There are some clergymen who 
 keep themselves as wild as beasts are kept in a menagerie ; 
 you cannot see them without a ticket, and then you must 
 keep at a respectable distance. Why, it is more difficult to 
 obtain an interview with some ministers, than it is to have 
 a tete-a-tete with the Pope of Rome ! If Paul, with his 
 hands hardened at tent-making, or Peter, fresh from his 
 fishing-tackle, were to solicit an opportunity to preach in 
 their pulpits, they would give Peter and Paul such a re 
 sponse as the Pharisees of old gave them. Dr. Beecher is 
 not one of that class of spiritual teachers. You will see 
 him in the streets, and at the exchange, in the reading- 
 rooms, in the police court, at the public meetings in Faneuil 
 Hall and Tremont Temple. He is a sociable, accessible, 
 generous man, and capital company where Iw is sufficiently 
 acquainted to " unbend the monkish brow." It is because 
 he mingles with the people that he is in advance of many 
 of his clerical brethren. 
 
 But Edward Beecher, like the rest of us poor mortals, 
 has faults. He often seems to attempt to work up his feel 
 ings to a pitch of intense excitement. Under such circum 
 stances there will be noise without eloquence, extreme 
 gesture without extreme unction. In that way he exchan 
 ges the sublime for the sledge-hammer style. He has a 
 good share of moral courage. Like his brother, the
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 129 
 
 " Thunderer " in Brooklyn, he assails with tongue and pen, 
 from the pulpit and the press, the tergiversation, the coat- 
 turning, the mouse-ing, the meanness of public men, who, 
 for laurels or lucre, basely betray their country with a 
 kiss. 
 
 The Brooklyn Beecher is almost constantly throwing shot, 
 and shell into the camp and court of the enemy. Some 
 poor fool in his congregation became offended with him, the 
 other day, because he publicly rebuked the recreancy of a 
 prominent politician who recently betrayed his country, and 
 put a crown of thorns on the bleeding brow of humanity. 
 This nervous simpleton put down on paper the unpalatable 
 sentiments he could not swallow, and had them published ; 
 and Sir Oracle, the editor, in all the pomp of pigmy gran 
 deur, undertook to lecture H. W. Beecher on the duties of 
 preachers ! His labors were lost ; for it does not run in the 
 blood of the Beechers to be frightened at pop-guns in the 
 arms of grasshoppers. Dr. Lyman Beecher, speaking of 
 his two distinguished sons, said, Edward fires forty-pounders, 
 and woe betide the man that he hits. Henry fires grape- 
 shot, and kills the most men. 
 
 Edward Beecher is in the zenith of his manhood. He 
 has used his brains more than he has his teeth, consequently 
 his head looks older than his face. His hair is now turning 
 grey ; his forehead is broad and high, and indicates extraor 
 dinary intellectual power ; his eyes are large and expressive, 
 and burn like meteors, when he hides himself behind the 
 cross and pleads earnestly for the welfare of men and the 
 glory of God. He is one of the editors of the Gongrega- 
 tionalist, a religious journal of great merit. He is also 
 pastor of the church in Salem Street. At one period of his 
 life, he was President of one of the Western colleges. He 
 is a man of unimpeachable purity, has a highly cultivated 
 11
 
 130 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 and strong mind, and is esteemed and honored in the walks 
 of private and public life. Go and hear him, and he will 
 prove, beyond doubt, that whatever is lovely in innocence, 
 pure in virtue, good in morality, thrilling in eloquence, sub 
 lime in poetry, or holy in truth, may be found in the 
 Bible.
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER is one of the boldest thinkers 
 and bravest speakers in America. He not only wages war 
 with unpopular vices, but has the courage to seize national 
 evils by the throat ; the mealy-mouthed Janus-faced politi 
 cian, while fishing for votes and catching suckers in the ale 
 house, he holds up to everlasting indignation and contempt ; 
 the gambler, who in the great game of life " stakes his soul 
 and lets the devil win it ; " the lecherous libertine, whose 
 look is lust, whose touch is pollution ; the miser, who cheats 
 the pale sewing girl, and defrauds his apprentice ; the 
 drunkard ; the death-dealer ; the oppressor, are all scourged 
 by him ; and every word he speaks is a blow ; every blow 
 inflicts a wound. Were he more ambitious than religious, 
 he might employ the irreverent language of Pope, and say, 
 
 " Yes, I am proud to sec 
 Men not afraid of God, afraid of me." 
 
 Mr. Beecher has studied the great folio of nature, and he 
 can read men, whether they be bound in boards, sheep, or 
 calf. He seems to be acquainted with the haunts and the 
 habits, the slang and the signs of the great army of sinners. 
 He never was a drunkard, but he speaks like one fresh from 
 the spirit land; he never was a gambler, yet he speaks
 
 132 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 about high, low, jack and the game, as though he had studied 
 the pack as well as THE BOOK ; he never was a dandy, but 
 he knows " how such die of a rose in aromatic pain ; " he 
 never was a demagogue, yet he knows how to unmask the 
 demagogue. Mr. Beecher's invaluable lectures to young 
 men comprise one of the richest galleries of word-painting 
 to be found in the world of literature. Now he shews us 
 an obese, greasy, wheezing, broken-down political hack ; 
 then a ripe, rosy, plump, luscious rascal, "whose spotted 
 hide covers a tiger ; " here we see a lank, lean miser, who 
 would fling his last penny into his chest, sit upon the lid and 
 swallow the key for fear he might lose it ; there we see the 
 drunkard, with his floating eyes and fiery face, &c., &c. 
 
 Mr. Beecher has a style of his own ; it is more figurative 
 than argumentative, more popular than classical. He has a 
 fervid imagination, and although he seldom soars to the sub 
 lime, the beautiful is quite accessible to him ; his humor is 
 like a spirited colt difficult to ride and hard at the mouth, 
 sheering from the road frequently at the sight of its own 
 shadow. He has great power of origination, and the skill to 
 Beecherize what he borrows until it becomes his own. His 
 mind is not a mint where every piece of metal bears the 
 impression of a die, but a mine where gold can be obtained 
 by the ingot ; and he is a fool, and not an alchymist, who 
 rejects it because there is some dross mixed with the 
 precious ore. 
 
 He is a popular, but not an eloquent speaker ; his matter 
 is more entertaining than his manner. He is graphic, 
 thrilling, earnest, forcible, but the burden of his reputation 
 seems to encumber him. Could he drop the load and still 
 retain the fame, as Christian did his bundle while he kept 
 the roll, he would be eloquent as he is famous. When he 
 goes from his closet to his pulpit, he has great power over
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 133 
 
 the minds of his hearers ; his sermons peninsulate the 
 preacher with the congregation. 
 
 The subject of this sketch has more courage than most 
 men of his cloth. While some of his cotemporaries made 
 an auction block of the pulpit, and sold the Saviour in the 
 person of the slave, for a few pieces of silver, or for fear of 
 offending the " silver greys," he uncringingly denounced the 
 damnable deed, and employed his prolific pen and tongue in 
 defending the down-trodden and oppressed. His sermons 
 and editorials are not still-born ; they have open eyes and 
 throbbing hearts, and they will continue to live and speak, 
 when the wicked efforts of those who betray humanity will 
 be forgotten ; or if remembered, remembered with scorn. 
 
 Mr. Beecher is about thirty-five years of age, of common 
 size and stature ; has brown hair, blue eyes, pale complex 
 ion ; a noble head, and thoughtful face. He puts on no 
 awkward airs of assumed dignity, but is sociable, pleasant, 
 and communicative. He is not only admired, but loved by 
 the people of his charge. I will conclude this imperfect 
 and hasty sketch, in the words of Hood, 
 
 " Thrice blessed Is the man with whom 
 The gracious prodigality of nature 
 The balm, the bliss, the beauty, and the bloom, 
 The beauteous Providence in every feature 
 Recall the good Creator to his creature ; 
 Making all earth a fane, all heaven its dome ! " 
 
 11*
 
 MASSACHUSETTS STATE OFFICIALS. 
 
 GEORGE S. BOTJTWELL, Governor of the State, was born 
 in Brookline, in 1818. Opened a shop in Groton, where he 
 sold innumerable articles of domestic use. A real son of 
 the Bay State thrifty, prudent, sensible, shrewd, " knows- 
 a-thing-or-two." Liked very much by his townsmen ; sent 
 to the Legislature, for the first time, in 1842, and soon made 
 an impression. An able debater, skilful tactician, confiden 
 tial leader of his party, (Democratic,) then in a minority. 
 "Was often appointed on some very responsible committees, 
 and, in later years, on some of the most important com 
 missions established by the Legislature. 
 
 In 1851, the Coalition made him Governor, the considera 
 tion being that Mr. Suinner should be the United States 
 Senator. He has discharged his duties admirably. Affects 
 popularity ; seldom refuses to be present where invited, and 
 is fond of military displays, agricultural fairs, educational 
 demonstrations, &c. He is a temperance man ; liberal in 
 politics, though too cautious in speaking out his honest con 
 victions ; looks too much to his own popularity. It is said 
 a portion of his inaugural address was examined by alarmed 
 politicians. Nevertheless he has much merit as a citizen, a 
 magistrate, and a man. He wants to go to the United
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 135 
 
 States Senate for the next six years, (but probably can't,) 
 as he has signified he shall not again be a candidate for 
 Governor. Has a firm reliance in the popular expression. 
 He is hi faith, a Unitarian ; in works, a Utilitarian ; in 
 ideas, a Trinitarian. 
 
 AMASA WALKER, for the last and present year Secre 
 tary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was born in 
 Woodstock, Conn., in 1799. He first entered the Legisla 
 ture in 1849. Now resides in North Brookfield. Was 
 originally a Democrat, but early left that party and united 
 with the Liberty party. In 1848 he was active in establish 
 ing the Free Soilers. Is a large boot manufacturer, in 
 connection with his brother Freeman, and doing an immense 
 business. Has no trouble in getting Southern custom, not 
 withstanding his Free Soilism ; he knows that Southerners 
 won 't go barefoot, (although they do not live in a free coun 
 try,) for the sake of prejudice, and they can 't manufacture 
 boots themselves. 
 
 Mr. Walker was formerly a resident of Boston, and active 
 as a merchant. Deeply interested in all moral enterprises, 
 he was in early life associated with a society of young men, 
 who, by writing articles for the newspapers, public addresses, 
 &c., manufactured public opinion to a degree that removed 
 all booths from the Common, on election and other holidays, 
 redeemed Beacon Hill from its then disgraceful reputation, 
 and otherwise blessed the community. An early temper 
 ance advocate, a strong anti-slavery man, an eloquent peace 
 advocate, in fact, one of Elihu Burritt's life-guards; a 
 friend of the abolition of the gallows all from principle. 
 Clear-headed, forcible, decided; a true republican, a real 
 democrat, of and for the people. In 1849 he was sent as a 
 Delegate to the World's Peace Convention, at Paris. As
 
 136 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 Secretary of the Commonwealth, he never had a superior ; 
 everything is in No. 1 order. As a legislator, he is one of 
 the ablest. He is the father of the Secret Ballot law, and 
 also of many popular measures. In person, tall and thin. 
 
 HENRY WILSON, now President of the Senate, is a native 
 of the Granite State. He has seen life in various phases, 
 having been School Teacher, Shoe Manufacturer, Member 
 of the House of Representatives, Stump Speaker, State 
 Senator, Delegate to the Whig National Convention, Chair 
 man of the Free Soil State Committee, General of the 
 Third Brigade, &c., &c. He is well skilled in Military and 
 Political Tactics. As a speaker he succeeds admirably, 
 because he does not attempt to pass for more than he is 
 worth, and he exhibits that plain, practical common sense, 
 which Massachusetts men never fail to appreciate. He has 
 the faculty of dove-tailing one thought into another, and 
 welding link after link into the chain of argument, with 
 which he binds his opponent, which is quite alarming to 
 political dandies. 
 
 Mr. Wilson is not more than forty years of age, and yet he 
 has risen from humble life to an honored chair in the Senate 
 Chamber ; and this marvellous feat has been accomplished 
 without the assistance of high social position, or lofty educa 
 tional attainments. He has not yet attained his full growth, 
 there is a shining future before him. 
 
 He is a modest man and never forgets an old friend 
 never assumes an aristocratic or patronizing air. There is 
 none of that lack-a-daisical insipidity or miminee piminee 
 style of flash-and-go-out brilliancy, which too frequently 
 characterize men who are suddenly elevated to posts of 
 honor. 
 
 Mr. Wilson is a fresh, hearty man, in the zenith of life.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 137 
 
 He is about five feet nine inches in height, well proportioned, 
 and his frame indicates great vitality, strength, and endur 
 ance. His head is somewhat bald on the crown ; his fore 
 head white and broad ; hair dark ; eyes darker ; cheeks 
 ruddy ; and lips red and full. He converses and presides 
 well and impartially, without any swelling efforts at magis 
 terial dignity. May his shadow never be less ! 
 
 " ; - 
 
 EDWARD L. KEYES, the " rabid " reformer, sits next to 
 Judge Warren. He is the editor of the Dedham Gazette, 
 one of the most spirited weeklies in the United States of 
 America. Mr. Keyes has just risen, to explain and defend 
 the Maine Law bill. He is a tall, thin man, with a pleasant 
 face which is lit up with a pair of dark, dreamy eyes. I 
 discovered a few threads of silver in his dark hair. How 
 he stretches out his arms and shakes his lean fingers in the 
 faces of his fellow Senators ! He gives the Judge slap after 
 slap in the face ; the recipient of the blows not relishing 
 such a flagellation, whirls his chair around and turns his 
 back upon the orator but the lash of adders falls upon 
 the shoulders of the victim, and vitriol is poured upon the 
 red and gaping wounds. 
 
 Keyes is ferociously sarcastic ; he leads the subject of his 
 sarcasm like a lamb to the slaughter, and skins it alive, re 
 gardless of its imploring looks. See the Judge scowl, and 
 twirl his spectacles, and shift his position ; but Keyes keeps 
 on, every word is a wasp buzzing in the ear and stinging to 
 the quick ; there is electricity in his utterance. I am 
 sorry that he now leaves the question before the Senate to 
 defend the " Coalitionists." Such a course is untimely, and 
 uncalled for, and almost unpardonable ; the temperance ques 
 tion need not become a party question. 
 
 Mr. Keyes is a brilliant man violent, vituperative, and
 
 138 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 eloquent. His voice is deep and clear, and has that peculiar 
 intonation which indicates that a man stands behind it. 
 He flings the burning fluid of his indignation in every di 
 rection, and it burns in the hearts and on the faces of Sena 
 tors and spectators, " one half of whom are ready to fight, 
 and the other half ready to hurrah." 
 
 CHARLES H. WARREN the mouth-piece of the million 
 aires of Boston has just arrived and taken his seat, on 
 the left side of the President's chair. If he is a man of 
 common calibre, then there is no truth in physiognomy or 
 phrenology. The firm step, the compressed lip, denote obsti 
 nate energy ; the towering forehead and beaming eyes indi 
 cate extraordinary force of intellect. The Judge is nearly 
 sixty years of age, with a silver-grey head, bald on the 
 crown; blue eyes, patrician mouth; is short, stout, and 
 firmly built, dresses neatly, and looks like a " fine old Eng 
 lish gentleman." He is an irresistible wag, and the fun he 
 makes to match the arguments arrayed against his reprehen 
 sible course on the Liquor Bill, reminds one of the fiddling 
 of Nero while Rome was on fire. 
 
 He brings down the house in roars of laughter, so as to 
 startle the Sergeant-at-Arms, who looks as though he would 
 be after the outsiders with a sharp stick, unless they 
 governed their risible faculties. Still, he trembles while he 
 rattles off his jokes, and looks like a man just taken from 
 the whipping post, who cracks his ban-mots while the blood 
 is streaming from his wounds. Doubtless his object is to 
 divert the attention of the hearers, but it is evident he has 
 no sympathy with the masses. He is elegant in his manner, 
 and eloquent in his utterance brimful and running over 
 with genuine wit dealing out his jokes as Sancho, in
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 139 
 
 Don Quixote, ladled out fat pullets and fat geese from the 
 soup kettles, every time he made a dip. 
 
 MYRON LAWRENCE is the oldest member and the largest 
 man in the Senate. If size of body infallibly indicate equal 
 mental and moral capacity, he is large enough to represent 
 more than one constituency, for he is a man " with Atalan- 
 tean shoulders fit to bear the weight of mightiest monarch 
 ies." His address is bold, frank, full of bon hommie, afford 
 ing unmistakable evidence that his soul is not dispropor- 
 tioned to the magnitude of his physical organization. Speak 
 ing of himself, he says he has a hide like a rhinoceros ; 
 if he really thinks so, he does not properly understand him 
 self, for he is sensitive and loves the approval of his friends, 
 as much as he dreads their displeasure. As a speaker he 
 has but few equals in the Senate ; and his speeches are more 
 remarkable for depth than longitude. He is sociable, gener 
 ous, and get-at-able ; though strictly temperate, he loves the 
 good things of this life. He has dark brown hair, half-shut 
 eyes shaded with fat, a face plump and fair as the full moon, 
 is six feet tall, and weighs not less than three hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 ANSON BURLINGAME is probably not more than thirty 
 years of age, is about five feet eight inches in height, and 
 fairly proportioned ; has dark brown hair, usually brushed 
 smooth as a bird's wing; broad white forehead, indicating 
 strength of intellect ; blue, magnetic eyes, and fair com 
 plexion. It is quite evident that he is fond of fame, and is 
 extremely solicitous to secure the good opinion of his 
 friends. Indeed, he is not reluctant to put himself to great 
 inconvenience to accommodate others ; naturally gentle and 
 generous, with impulse and intellect pretty evenly balanced.
 
 140 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 He possesses the true vivida vis of eloquence, and when he 
 repents in sackcloth and ashes, over the unfortunate speech 
 he made against the Maine Law, he will be a man the people 
 will again delight to honor. His style is what may be 
 termed poetical, and yet he displays a good degree of terse 
 ness and conciseness ; is sparing of uniting particles and 
 introductory phrases, and usually employs the simplest forms 
 of construction. Knowing, as he does, that he is a universal 
 favorite, he has taken the liberty to oppose the wishes and 
 disappoint the expectations of his constituents, on the great 
 question of the present age. Perhaps he and his historical 
 friend may use the language of Hudibras : 
 
 " And have not two saints power to use 
 A greater privilege than three Jews ? " 
 
 SAMUEL E. SEWALL is a descendant of one of the 
 oldest families in Massachusetts. For a long time he has 
 been an out-spoken, non-compromising abolitionist, latterly 
 associated with the Liberty and Free Soil parties. He is a 
 man of upright intentions, generous sympathies, enlarged 
 views, and unimpeachable purity of character. Bred to the 
 profession of the law, and mingling in the busy scenes of 
 life, he has been a close observer of men and measures. 
 Though naturally quiet, modest, and unobtrusive, when 
 aroused he defends himself and his friends with energy and 
 power. 
 
 In the late effort to enforce the "infamous Fugitive Slave 
 law," he was a prominent actor on the liberal side. Volun 
 teering to act as counsel for the hunted bondman, on the 
 memorable night Sims was arrested, some of our officials 
 lodged him in the Watch-house for the time, an honor he 
 may bequeath as an heirloom to his children's children. In 
 person he is rather short and slight ; hair quite grey ; eyes
 
 CEATON SKETCHES. 141 
 
 blue ; complexion fair. He wears his snow-white collar 
 rolled over a thin cravat, and looks like a school-boy with 
 his head powdered. As a speaker he is faulty ; he talks in 
 a low, quiet, deferential manner, as though he supposed his 
 hearers knew more about the subject than he did himself, 
 and has a habit of fumbling in his pockets, as though his 
 ideas were in his purse. Notwithstanding all this awkward 
 ness, the attentive listener will discover freshness of thought, 
 soundness of logic, and purity of purpose. He is probably 
 fifty years of age. 
 
 JAMES T. ROBINSON was born in South Adams, Berk 
 shire County, in 1822 ; educated at schools and academies, 
 and graduated at Williams' College, in 1844. He had pre 
 viously studied law in his father's office, (who is one of the 
 ablest lawyers in Berkshire,) and on his graduation was 
 admitted to the Berkshire bar, and went into partnership 
 with his father, where he still remains. In '44, he stumped 
 Berkshire for Henry Clay, in company with Rockwell, 
 since honored by a seat in Congress. In 1848, left the 
 Whigs and joined the Free Soilers, at great risk of business 
 interest, popularity, &c., where he still remains. 
 
 Next to Burlingame, he is the youngest man at the Sen 
 ate Board. Lightish complexion, greyish eyes, acquiline 
 nose, thinnish in build. A graceful, earnest, whole-souled, 
 nervous speaker. Reputed to be one of the most eloquent 
 men in Berkshire, as he certainly is at the Board. A warm 
 advocate of the Temperance and Anti-Slavery causes. He 
 has rendered signal service for the new Liquor Bill, by 
 his exertions it was materially improved. He has rare 
 talents, and is one of the most promising young men in the 
 State, and a worthy follower of the eloquent Sumner. 
 12
 
 142 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 CALEB W. PROUTY is one of that rare class of legisla 
 tors who seldom talk, but always rightly vote. He is a fit 
 representative of the Old Plymouth Rock district stead 
 fast, frank, pure, principled. He is not a " brilliant " man ; 
 does not patter and spatter like many ; but shines with a 
 clear and constant light. Clearly understanding his subject, 
 he lets his action speak louder than his words. Yet he is 
 not reserved or distant, but cordial, fraternal and highly 
 sympathetic. Few men, probably, have a larger number of 
 personal friends among his townsmen and constituents 
 than he. 
 
 Mr. Prouty is a native of Scituate; was born in 1810; 
 has generally been a merchant or trader, yet never before 
 the present year held a seat in the Legislature. He is one 
 of the constants who are always in their seats. He voted, 
 recently, on every proposition affecting the new liquor law, 
 and what cannot be said of all the Senators, never voted 
 wrong, in my judgment. As a member of an important 
 committee, having in charge one of the great interests of the 
 State, he has rendered signal service. 
 
 Mr. P. is of good build ; open, pleasant face, set off with 
 bright blue eyes. His hair is brown, rather thin, and stands 
 up from a well-developed forehead. He dresses like a sub 
 stantial man, rather than as a foppish one. He is active as 
 a temperance man and Free Soil Abolitionist. In faith he 
 is a Unitarian. 
 
 CHARLES T. RUSSELL is an intellectual looking man, of 
 the nervous temperament, has a pale, thin face, wears specta 
 cles, and has made a spectacle of himself, by his hide-and- 
 go-seek course on the Liquor Bill. He professes to be 
 devout ; pretends to be a friend to the cause he stabbed in 
 the house of its friends, speaks freely and frequently,
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 143 
 
 although he does not say much. Walks as though self- 
 esteem had some influence over his heels and his hands. 
 He is occasionally eloquent, and can reason when he takes 
 the trouble to think before he speaks ; has a good mind, a 
 good education and generous impulses, but he lacks the 
 courage to follow his convictions. He has not a very agree 
 able voice, and has the bad habit of emphasizing the most 
 unimportant words ; nevertheless, is urbane, pleasant and 
 sociable ; 
 
 " Tls with our judgment as our watches, none 
 Go just alike, yet each believes his own." 
 
 THOMAS G. GARY is a tall, spare gentleman, of elderly 
 years, with curly, silver hair, long pale face, blue eyes, and 
 a well-developed forehead. He is polite, pleasant, and con 
 ciliatory, squeamishly particular in matters of dress and 
 address. Wishes to suit all people generally, and his own 
 clique in particular. It is evident he has looked at only one 
 side, and that the wrong side, of the subject of temperance. 
 He is a calm, cool, moderate speaker ; seldom soars to the 
 realm of eloquence ; never sinks into the unbridged gulf of 
 vulgar and personal abuse. He never spins out long-winded, 
 flimsy speeches ; never wearies the listener with antithetical 
 sentences ; but generally gives you the point-blank truth, in 
 the plainest and purest Saxon. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER A. CHURCH is a tall, agreeable man, with 
 bright eyes, sharp, thin face ; he is about forty years of age, 
 speaks fluently and distinctly, without wasting words ; he is 
 sound on moral questions, and highly esteemed for his social 
 qualities and amiable disposition. His Maine Law speech 
 proves him to be no common thinker. He is engaged in 
 mercantile pursuits, and much esteemed by his townsmen.
 
 144 CKATON SKETCHES. 
 
 GEORGE H. KTJHN, of the Suffolk delegation, is one of 
 the most useful Senators. As chairman of the important 
 Committee on Mercantile Affairs and Insurance, he is hard 
 working, faithful, and expeditious, yet not slovenly. His 
 labors are most complete. Without exception, I am told, 
 he personally drafts more bills and resolves than any other 
 member. He is a Boston man, by birth and residence ; born 
 in 1795; entered the Legislature in 1846 ; largely interested 
 in the Western Railroad, of which he is one of the Direct 
 ors. A little, sprightly, pleasant, bald, spectacled, polite 
 man, whom every one respects. Does not speak often. 
 
 CHARLES C. HAZEWELL is a Rhode Islander by birth, 
 and a type-setter by profession ; and though entitled to the 
 " Hon." from his position, finds more acceptable homage 
 when addressed as a "jour, printer." He was born in 
 1815, entered the Legislature for the first tune the present 
 year, and resides in the pretty town of Concord. He is of 
 good size, full forehead, bright eyes, white, transparent face, 
 which shows every thought ; wears silver-bowed spectacles. 
 As a reader of history, but more particularly as a remem 
 berer of it, he probably has not his superior. He lends a 
 charm to any debate when he brings this vast knowledge 
 into requisition. A most industrious man and cordial com 
 panion, though quickly excited at a supposed affront. Has 
 edited innumerable papers, and written many of the ablest 
 reviews which have appeared in print. He is a determined 
 opponent of the Maine liquor law, but a frank and honest 
 one. At present he is the political editor of the Boston 
 Times. 
 
 JOHN S. C. KNOWLTON, FREEMAN WALKER, (brother 
 of Amasa,) and MOSES WOOD, of the Worcester delega-
 
 CBAYON SKETCHES. 145 
 
 tion, are substantial, talented, and influential members, 
 though they talk but little. They are fit representatives of 
 the intelligence and worth of the " heart of the Common 
 wealth," prompt in their places, and faithful in their duties. 
 
 WHITING GEISWOLD is the picture of health, ease, and 
 good nature ; yet his full forehead, and bright dark eyes, 
 denote considerable intellectual power. In personal appear 
 ance he makes one think of the well-to-do country landlord, 
 whose cordial welcome guarantees a loaded board, clean bed, 
 and the best of care. He is not far from forty years old, 
 rotund person, wears a blue coat with bright buttons, has 
 a rosy cheek, and the most candid address. He is the sole 
 representative of Franklin County, in the valley of the 
 Connecticut, (of which he is a native,) is now regarded as 
 one of the ablest leaders of the Democratic party hi the 
 State. As a speaker, he is sound, clear, thorough, well- 
 informed, and though not a brilliant, is a very interesting 
 debater. When roused to vindicate himself, or measures, 
 or party, there is no half-way work with him. His digni 
 fied, calm utterance has great power. It needs but few 
 words from him to make all the wit and facetiousness of 
 Judge Warren appear the most contemptible twaddle. Mr. 
 Griswold is a lawyer, and holds the responsible post of 
 Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. 
 
 ZENAS BASSETT, of Barnstable, is a noble son of the 
 sandy Cape. He is a native of the town and county he rep 
 resents ; followed the seas for many years, and settled down 
 at last to receive the respect his many virtues command. 
 He is tall, thick-set, with furrowed brow, grey hair, small, 
 bright, laughing eyes, benevolent features ; is sixty or more 
 years of age ; wears a dark blue frock-coat, and dark dress 
 12*
 
 146 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 generally. Has the air of a substantial, sensible, generous, 
 retired ship-master. One feels as though it would have been 
 pleasant to sail in the same craft with him. An indefatigable 
 worker ; always present ; seldom addresses the Board, but 
 when he does, is plain and practical. Is a Whig of liberal 
 views. 
 
 EDMUND KIMBALL, of the Essex delegation, is a genial, 
 pleasant, faithful legislator, prompt and able. Takes life 
 as easily as he does an occasional pinch of snuff. Loves 
 to crack a quiet joke with his neighbors or the Clerks. Lives 
 up in Bradford, on the Merrimack, and is much esteemed as 
 a citizen. Quite a temperance man, as well as Free Soiler. 
 He is a morocco-dresser by trade, but there is no prunella 
 in his composition. 
 
 CHARLES HUBBARD is an artist of some celebrity. I 
 am told he is a faithful committee-man, and invariably in his 
 seat. He is interested in various public enterprises ; some 
 what, though creditably, particular to have everything under 
 his charge well arranged and complete. He is a prominent 
 citizen of Chelsea, and has served in various honorable 
 capacities, but is as much identified with the interests of 
 Boston as of the place of his residence. 
 
 OLIVER AMES, JR., is a silent member, but a practical 
 worker and an eloquent voter ; a man of middling stature, 
 with small, sharp eyes. In business, he is a shovel maker, 
 doing a large business, and is helping to dig the grave of 
 the autocrat Alcohol. He is a man of liberal views, of 
 Whig politics.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 147 
 
 CHARLES W. SLACK, Assistant Clerk of the Senate, is 
 highly esteemed by members of all parties for his many 
 excellent attributes, and is an universal favorite in the 
 large circle of his acquaintance. As a friend, he is true as 
 steel to the pole ; genial as sunshine ; generous to a fault ; 
 always polite and pleasant, and never fails to give a favor 
 able interpretation to the words and deeds of others. He 
 speaks easily and eloquently, but with too much constrained 
 gesture ; writes readily, forcibly, accurately. His stirring 
 speeches and classical essays show that neither his sympa 
 thies nor attainments are meagre. Although much in pub 
 lic life, he is rather retiring in his nature; distrusts too 
 much his own abilities ; frank and open, and despises shams, 
 whether of manners, measures or men. In person, he is of 
 medium stature ; light complexion ; nervous-sanguine tem 
 perament ; has blue eyes ; light, silky hair ; prominent fore 
 head ; thin, pale face ; wears glasses ; dresses neatly. He 
 is a Boston boy, was brought up in the Journal office, and 
 has been editorially connected with the Excelsior and New- 
 Englander. Has rendered good service as a Temperance 
 and Free Soil lecturer ; and among his other accomplish 
 ments is a creditable phonographic reporter, and when desi 
 rous of it can have an enviable reputation thereby. A great 
 lover of mirth, though he makes little himself. 
 
 NATHANIEL P. BANKS, JR., Speaker of the House, is the 
 man for the position he occupies sharp, shrewd, impartial, 
 polite, and thoroughly familiar with parliamentary usages. 
 He knows every member at a moment's glance, and while he 
 looks at the man (rising to speak) with one eye, he looks 
 through him with the other, and announces his name, imme 
 diately and distinctly. Mr. Banks seldom makes a blunder, 
 and he has tact and talent to conceal or correct many of the
 
 148 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 mistakes made by those whose bad manuscript and worse 
 grammar would be a caution to the ghost of Lindley Mur 
 ray, if read verbatim et literatim et punctuatim, from the 
 Speaker's chair. He usually wears a brown frock-coat, buff 
 vest, black stock. Mr. Banks has dark blue eyes, uncom 
 monly expressive ; a thin, pale, intellectual face ; a plentiful 
 supply of dark hair, (somewhat tinged with frost, although 
 he is not yet forty years of age,) which is brushed so as to 
 leave one temple bare, while it hangs down to the eye-brow 
 on the other side. 
 
 He is a native of TValtham, born in 1816; first entered 
 the Legislature in 1849 ; was elected Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives in 1851, and re-elected in 1852 proba 
 bly one of the youngest presiding officers that ever graced 
 the woolsack. He was brought up as a machinist and toiled 
 with his hands, and exercised his brains by way of pastime. 
 Self-educated. It is said that at one period he was an active 
 fireman, and ran with the " machine," and, on holiday occa 
 sions, donned the red shirt, buff pants and leathern cap, 
 of late so distinguishing a mark of the brave and preemi 
 nently cold-water men. He subsequently left the work-bench 
 for the office and green-bag, and was admitted to the Mid 
 dlesex bar, where he has distinguished himself more by the 
 faithfulness of his services to his clients than the receipt of 
 an immensity of business. He has always been very popu 
 lar in his native town, and could always be elected to repre 
 sent it when every other man failed. Is of Democratic sym 
 pathies, and always has been, but inclines to liberal views. 
 He is entitled to great credit for working his way so high in 
 life, under adverse circumstances. 
 
 JOHN MILTON EARLE is a fair specimen of a Massachu 
 setts legislator, honest, candid, and independent. He is a
 
 CBAYON SKETCHES. 149 
 
 native of Leicester, born in 1794, and first entered the 
 Legislature in 1845. For many years he has been editor 
 of the Massachusetts Spy, the oldest newspaper in the State, 
 and one of the most influential. Mr. Earle is a Friend or 
 Quaker, wearing the broad-brimmed hat, (when not in his 
 seat,) and straight-cut, standing-collared, brown coat, though 
 in many respects not so rigid in his observance of the pecu 
 liarities of the sect as many of his brethren. In 1848, he 
 united with the Free Soil party, and took with him his 
 paper, which has a very large circulation among the farmers 
 and thinking men of Worcester County, and the consequence 
 was, the heart of the Commonwealth became the centre of 
 the new political party, throwing the heaviest majorities for 
 its candidates, which position it retains to this day. 
 
 Mr. Earle is quite tall and spare ; has a sharp, grey eye, 
 though the general character of his face is mild and pleas 
 ant ; his hair is straight, white and thin, as though it had 
 withstood many storms, as indeed it has; his features are 
 well wrinkled. He is clear-headed and sound on general 
 questions. As a speaker, more interesting than brilliant, but 
 his defect is that he talks too much. If his ammunition 
 were saved for occasional battery-discharges, instead of 
 constant pistol-snaps, more execution would be done. As a 
 tactician, he is not the best the truth being, he is too old 
 and too candid for such nice work. Mr. Hopkins, this year, 
 accomplishes in this respect much more successfully what 
 Mr. Earle undertook last year. As a writer, Mr. Earle is 
 terse, pungent, straight-forward, guided solely by principle, 
 and ever alive to the necessities of the suffering. His age, 
 character, and social position fully entitle him to the soubri 
 quet of " Father Earle." 
 
 EBASTUS HOPKINS is considered the leader of the Free 
 Soil wing of the Coalition, in the House. He was bora at
 
 150 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 Hadley, on the Connecticut, in 1810, and first entered the 
 Legislature in 1841. In many particulars he is quite con 
 servative and orthodox, like nearly all the dwellers in the 
 Connecticut valley. By profession he is a clergyman of the 
 Unitarian faith, though of late he has not preached, but 
 obtained his subsistence by a connection with railroad enter 
 prises. He is a man of not very prepossessing appearance, 
 being sallow in complexion, of lightish-red hair and whisk 
 ers, and homely features. But when in conversation or 
 debate, his whole appearance is changed he becomes 
 seemingly inspired. As an orator, he is bold and brilliant, 
 appearing to best advantage, however, when favored with a 
 little previous preparation. He was commissioned by the 
 Governor, recently, to convey to Kossuth the official invita 
 tion to visit Massachusetts, and it is said his speech on the 
 occasion of the interview even transcended in sublimity and 
 grandeur that of the great Hungarian himself. Surely, it 
 reads grandly. He is a ready manager, and nobly conducts 
 the party in its parliamentary duties. His opponents find 
 in him an able, yet courteous antagonist. A noble specimen 
 of a Western Massachusetts man. 
 
 WILLIAM SCHOULER, one of the leaders of the House, is 
 a Scotchman by birth, and entered upon his career as a 
 Legislator in 1844, in the thirtieth year of his age. He is 
 a man of large sympathies, and though wedded to a political 
 life, does not carry his party antipathies into the social or 
 domestic circle. He is the principal editor of the Atlas, 
 the leading Whig paper of New-England, if not of Boston, 
 where Daniel Webster is supremely worshipped. But in 
 this devotion the Atlas was always lukewarm. Mr. S. estab 
 lished his reputation as an editor, among the spindles of 
 Lowell, and when he came to Boston, spit the cotton from his 
 throat, and affected to stand on free ground.
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 151 
 
 He is a tall, thin man, with brown hair, blue eyes, and 
 light complexion. At present noting, he has a rosy, healthy 
 face, beaming with laughter and good nature. As a speaker, 
 he is not very fluent, but generally interesting. His manners 
 are rather awkward, as though he were so long he did not 
 know how to care for his person. A man of great persever 
 ance, but not always so consistent for the right in liberal 
 politics, as some others. He is considered a good tactician, 
 and has successfully carried through the House, heretofore, 
 some important measures, solely by his persistence and skill. 
 Is a great lover of festive gatherings, and presides admirably. 
 He has held a commission in the Artillery service, has the 
 title of Colonel, and is President of the Scots' Charitable 
 Society. Is blessed with a lovely family, and resides in one 
 of the prettiest cottages in East Boston, overlooking the 
 protecting castles of the harbor. 
 
 HORACE E. SMITH is the champion of the Massachusetts 
 Maine Law in the House. His opening speech was a mas 
 terly effort, and deserves to be written in letters of gold. 
 While he sets a proper value on moral suasion, he advocates 
 the use of coercive measures, when appeals and argument 
 are powerless. He has studied the bill critically, and is 
 thoroughly acquainted with all its provisions, and prepared 
 to meet all the objections that may be raised against it. 
 The great service he has rendered the good cause of tem 
 perance, will put a feather in his cap of which he and his 
 descendants will be proud. 
 
 He is a pale, slender, graceful man, in the meridian of 
 life ; has a bold forehead, blue eyes, and brown hair ; wears 
 glasses ; dresses neatly ; speaks earnestly and distinctly, 
 from a wise head and a warm heart. Success to him and 
 his cause !
 
 152 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 JAMES S. WIGGIN is the champion of the anti-temper 
 ance party, the leader of the opposition to the Maine 
 Law, in the House. Although not a profound thinker, and 
 quite an indifferent speaker, his perseverance and earnest 
 ness help to make up such deficiencies. In his recent 
 defence of the rum-traffic, he was quite embarrassed, and 
 acted so awkwardly that not a few of the grave faces pres 
 ent gleamed with fun, at his ludicrous blunders. His manu 
 script and his memory did not tally, for when he made an 
 effort to speak extemporaneously, he soon found himself 
 floundering in the mire, and when he referred to what he 
 had written, he made the discovery that he had taken the 
 wrong sheet ! Then, again, he was uncourteously chocked off, 
 before he had time to wind up his speech. Notwithstanding 
 all those difficulties, he gave one of the best speeches that 
 have been made in either branch of the Legislature on that 
 subject. 
 
 He is a tall, graceful, good-looking man, with sharp eyes, 
 dark hair, and ruddy countenance. He is about thirty-five 
 years of age ; is engaged in mercantile pursuits, and would 
 have to sacrifice what he calls property in the event of the 
 passage of the law which he fights so ferociously. He is a 
 keen man of business, brave and energetic, and will 
 " stick at nothing " to defeat the bill he hates with perfect 
 hatred. 
 
 JAMES SMALL is the oldest member (not the oldest man) 
 in the House. He is a plain, farmer-like looking person, 
 nearly sixty years of age ; has a broad chest, bronzed face, 
 grey head, and bright eyes. Speaks out bluntly and fear 
 lessly, with his spectacles in his hands ; abounds in dry 
 jokes ; commands the respectful attention of the -House. 
 He hails from the " right arm of the Commonwealth."
 
 CBAYON SKETC5ES. 153 
 
 ENSIGN H. KELLOGG may be styled the leader of the 
 Whig section of the House, having occupied formerly the 
 Speaker's chair, and for the last two years, been his party's 
 candidate for the same honor. He is a native of old Berk 
 shire, was born in 1812, educated to the law, and made 
 his debut as a legislator in 1843. In the memorable con 
 test which preceded the election of Charles Sumner to 
 the National Senate, Mr. Kellogg most adroitly man 
 aged the Whig opposition, delaying action, and involving 
 the Chair in a series of parliamentary intricacies, from which 
 a man less skilful than Speaker Banks could hardly hope to 
 be relieved. His former experience as the presiding officer, 
 gives him superior advantages to most of his party for this 
 sort of warfare. 
 
 Mr. Kellogg is an easy, clear, forcible debater, abounding 
 in good humor, and occasionally keen retorts. His hits at 
 opponents are oftentimes exceedingly clever. In person, he 
 is of good stature, well built, with full face, bright grey eyes, 
 dark hair " all up in a heap," wears black-bowed, lawyer- 
 like spectacles, and has an inexpressible look of bon hommie 
 and fun. I should judge he was considerable of a joker, as 
 I know he is extremely sociable. A man of great force of 
 character, and doubtless of high position hereafter, as of 
 influence at present. 
 
 J. THOMAS STEVENSON is a Boston boy, Boston man, 
 Boston merchant in fact, Boston all over. Liberally edu 
 cated, eloquent, able, social, generous, commanding, he truth 
 fully represents the worth, wealth, intelligence and general 
 excellence of the old Pilgrim city. He was born in 1807, 
 received the advantages of the city schools and Harvard 
 College, then entered upon mercantile pursuits, and soon 
 reached the first place hi his profession. In 1839 he first 
 13
 
 154 CEATON SKETCHES. 
 
 entered the Legislature, and more or less since has been 
 identified with the career and fame of the State. 
 
 As a speaker, Mr. Stevenson has few superiors. His 
 early liberal education, deepened and extended by an after 
 life of active business habits, gives him the power to combine 
 poetry and philosophy with great skill. He usually pre 
 pares his speeches beforehand, seldom making a set address 
 without full-written notes in his pocket. His recent effort 
 against the new liquor law, contains passages of portraiture of 
 the evils of intemperance which cannot be exceeded in sub 
 limity and choice expression by any words in our language. 
 He is a Whig in politics, a warm admirer of Mr. Webster, 
 and has a deep devotion to the interests of old Massachusetts. 
 A benevolent, progressive sort of a man, but do n't want to 
 go too fast ; in this last respect his prudential fear too fre 
 quently checks the most worthy impulses. A warm friend, 
 devoted parent, estimable citizen. Many noble enterprises 
 have received his support, and numerous official stations have 
 been honored by his connection with them. 
 
 He is now in the full maturity of manhood. Tall, pre 
 possessing, olive complexion, keen grey eyes, well-turned 
 features, and dark hair considerably frosted by age. He 
 affects a brown or snuff-colored coat for ordinary wear, but 
 otherwise dresses in dark-hued garments. Graceful in atti 
 tude, fluent in speech, and able in argument, he is a marked 
 man in the lower branch. 
 
 THOMAS E. PAYSON, of Rowley, Essex County, is a man 
 of some character in the House. He is a stout, ruddy far 
 mer, of great practical sense and shrewdness, and can break 
 up land or sophistical reasoning with equal facility. He 
 distinguished himself in 1850, by a speech against an agri 
 cultural college for instruction in farming on scientific prin-
 
 CRAYON SKETCHES. 155 
 
 ciples, a hobby some of the Boston amateur agriculturists 
 have ridden nearly to death which was the speech of the 
 session. Clear, forcible, sensible, he upset and utterly routed 
 the theorists, and killed the measure as dead as flies in a 
 poison-dish, in Summer time. He is a native of Rowley, 
 thirty-nine years of age. 
 
 OTIS P. LORD. When I entered the House I heard 
 the familiar voice of a gentleman from Salem, who speaks 
 too frequently for his own fame, and the edification of his 
 colleagues, to say nothing about the welfare of his constitu 
 ents. It is quite evident he has a vast opinion of his own 
 abilities, and if he is not the leader of the party to which he 
 belongs, it is not owing to a superabundance of modesty on 
 his part. He is a cautious man, and never ventures a step 
 beyond the protecting wing of his party a good party 
 enough in the abstract, although it happens just now to be in 
 a minority in Massachusetts. Mr. Lord is a man of respect 
 able talents, and although he stammers and blusters, now 
 and then, he says some very good things. He is in the 
 prime of life, of common height and good build ; dresses 
 neatly, &c. His face is strongly marked, and indicates an 
 arbitrary nature and aristocratic turn of mind. He looks 
 like something between the silver grey and the blue stocking 
 tribe. Has brown hair, blue eyes, broad forehead, and is of 
 the sanguine-nervous temperament. He has in him the 
 material for a good sea captain, or the leader of a legislative 
 body. He is by profession a lawyer ; a native of Ipswich, 
 and made his legislative debut in 1847. 
 
 MOSES KIMBALL is one of the proprietors, and chief man 
 ager of the Boston Museum, a place of unexceptionable 
 amusement. As a caterer for the gratification of the curious
 
 156 CRAYON SKETCHES. 
 
 and wonder-loving public, he has few rivals and no supe 
 riors. He is a shrewd, keen man of business, who knows 
 how to touch the public purse-strings. In politics, he is 
 something of a cross between a Whig and a Native Ameri 
 can ; he is a man of fair talents, with unconquerable deter 
 mination of purpose ; sociable, generous, and good-natured ; 
 loves to see his neighbors prosper, providing their curiosity- 
 shops are not too near his own. In matters of dress he is 
 independent, foreswearing the use of dickeys. He is of 
 medium stature, thick set, of sallow complexion, and has 
 a full, fat face, indicative of good digestion ; hair dark, eyes 
 light, voice feminine. 
 
 It is quite evident he is ambitious of office, and good for 
 tune has smiled propitiously upon him, for he has been a 
 prominent member of the City Government, and is now an 
 active Representative.
 
 3 1205 00418 3842
 
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