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Wntten by Elbert Hubbard
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East Aurora, New York, mcmxi
Copyright, 1911
By Elbert Hubbard
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LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA BARBARA
CONTENTS
GEORGE WASHINGTON
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
SAMUEL ADAMS
JOHN HANCOCK
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
9
37
59
91
in
139
GEORGE WASHINGTON
HE left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human
character. . . . Midst all the sorrowings that are
mingled on this melancholy occasion I venture to assert
that none could have felt his death with more regret than
I, because no one had higher opinions of his worth.
. . . There is this consolation, though, to be drawn,
that while living no man could be more esteemed, and
since dead none is more lamented.
Washington, on the death of Tilghman.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
'BAN STANLEY has said that all the gods
of ancient mythology were once men, and
he traces for us the evolution of a man
into a hero, the hero into a demigod, and
the demigod into a divinity. By a slow
process, the natural man is divested of
all our common faults and frailties; he
is clothed with superhuman attributes and
declared a being separate and apart, and
is lost to us in the clouds.
When Greenough carved that statue of
Washington that sits facing the Capitol,
he unwittingly showed how a man may
be transformed into a Jove.
But the world has reached a point when
to be human is no longer a cause for
apology; we recognize that the human,
in degree, comprehends the divine.
Jove inspires fear, but to Washington we
pay the tribute of affection <> Beings
hopelessly separated from us are not ours :
a god we can not love, a man we may.
We know Washington as well as it is
possible to know any man. We know
him better, far better, than the people
who lived in the very household with
him. We have his diary showing "how
and where I spent my time"; we have
his journal, his account-books (and no
10
man was ever a more painstaking accountant) ; we have
hundreds of his letters, and his own copies and first drafts
of hundreds of others, the originals of which have been
lost or destroyed.
From these, with contemporary history, we are able to
make up a close estimate of the man; and we find him
human splendidly human. By his books of accounts we
find that he was often imposed upon, that he loaned thou
sands of dollars to people who had no expectation of paying ;
and hi his last will, written with his own hand, we find him
canceling these debts, and making bequests to scores of
relatives; giving freedom to his slaves, and acknowledging
his obligation to servants and various other obscure persons.
He was a man in very sooth. He was a man in that he had
in him the appetites, the ambitions, the desires of a man.
Stewart, the artist, has said, "All of his features were
indications of the strongest and most ungovernable pas
sions, and had he been born in the forest, he would have
been the fiercest man among savage tribes."
But over the sleeping volcano of his temper he kept watch
and ward, until his habit became one of gentleness, generosity
and shining, simple truth; and, behind all, we behold his
unswerving purpose and steadfast strength.
And so the object of this sketch will be, not to show the
superhuman Washington, the Washington set apart, but to
give a glimpse of the man Washington who aspired, feared,
hoped, loved and bravely died.
GEORGE WASHINGTON 11
rHE first biographer of George Washington was the
Reverend Mason L. Weems. If you have a copy of
Weems' "Life of Washington," you had better wrap
it in chamois and place it away for your heirs, for some
time it will command a price. Fifty editions of Weems'
book were printed, and in its day no other volume approached
it in point of popularity. In American literature, Weems
stood first. To Weems are we indebted for the hatchet tale,
the story of the colt that was broken and killed in the process,
and all those other fine romances of Washington's youth.
Weems' literary style reveals the very acme of that vicious
quality of untruth to be found in the old-time Sunday-school
books. Weems mustered all the "Little Willie" stories he
could find, and attached to them Washington's name,
claiming to write for "the Betterment of the Young," as
if in dealing with the young we should carefully conceal
the truth. Possibly Washington could not tell a lie, but
Weems was not thus handicapped.
Under a mass of silly moralizing, he nearly buried the real
Washington, giving us instead a priggish, punk youth,
and a Madame Tussaud, full-dress general, with a wax
works manner and a wooden dignity.
Happily, we have now come to a time when such authors
as Mason L. Weems and John S. C. Abbott are no longer
accepted as final authorities. We do not discard them,
but, like Samuel Pepys, they are retained that they may
contribute to the gaiety of nations.
Various violent efforts have been made in days agone to
show that Washington was of "a noble line" as if the
12
GEORGE WASHINGTON
natural nobility of the man needed a reason forgetful that
we are all sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be. But Burke's "Peerage" lends no light, and the
careful, unprejudiced, patient search of recent years finds
only the blue blood of the common people.
Washington himself said that in his opinion the history
of his ancestors "was of small moment and a subject to
which, I confess, I have paid little attention."
He had a bookplate and he had also a coat of arms on his
carriage-door. The Reverend Mr. Weems has described
Washington's bookplate thus: "Argent, two bars gules in
chief, three mullets of the second. Crest, a raven with
wings, indorsed proper, issuing out of a ducal coronet, or."
GEORGE WASHINGTON 13
>ARY BALL was the second wife of Augustine Wash
ington. In his will the good man describes this
marriage, evidently with a wink, as "my second
Venture." And it is sad to remember that he did not live
to know that his "Venture" made America his debtor. The
success of the union seems pretty good argument in favor
of widowers marrying. There were four children in the
family, the oldest nearly full grown, when Mary Ball came
to take charge of the household. She was twenty-seven,
her husband ten years older. They were married March
Sixth, Seventeen Hundred Thirty-one, and on February
Twenty-second of the following year was born a man child
and they named him George.
The Washingtons were plain, hard-working people land-
poor. They lived in a small house that had three rooms
downstairs and an attic, where the children slept, and
bumped their heads against the rafters if they sat up quickly
in bed jt jt
Washington got his sterling qualities from the Ball family,
and not from the tribe of Washington. George was endowed
by his mother with her own splendid health and with all
the sturdy Spartan virtues of her mind. In features and in
mental characteristics, he resembled her very closely. There
were six children born to her in all, but the five have been
nearly lost sight of in the splendid success of the firstborn.
<JI have used the word "Spartan" advisedly. Upon her
children, the mother of Washington lavished no soft senti
mentality. A woman who cooked, weaved, spun, washed,
made the clothes, and looked after a big family in pioneer
,4 GEORGE WASHINGTON
times had her work cut out for her. The children of Mary
Washington obeyed her, and when told to do a thing never
stopped to ask why and the same fact may be said of the
father ,jt jft
The girls wore linsey-woolsey dresses, and the boys tow
suits that consisted of two pieces, which in Winter were
further added to by hat and boots. If the weather was very
cold, the suits were simply duplicated a boy wearing two
or three pairs of trousers instead of one.
The mother was the first one up in the morning, the last
one to go to rest at night. If a youngster kicked off the
covers in his sleep and had a coughing spell, she arose
and looked after him. Were any sick, she not only ministered
to them, but often watched away the long dragging hours
of the night.
And I have noticed that these sturdy mothers in Israel who
so willingly give their lives that others may live, often find
vent for overwrought feelings by scolding; and I, for one,
cheerfully grant them the privilege. Washington's mother
scolded and grumbled to the day of her death. She also
sought solace by smoking a pipe. And this reminds me that
a noted specialist in neurotics has recently said that if
women would use the weed moderately, tired nerves would
find repose and nervous prostration would be a luxury
unknown. Not being much of a smoker myself, and knowing
nothing about the subject, I give the item for what it is
worth jft &
All the sterling, classic virtues of industry, frugality and
truth-telling were inculcated by this excellent mother, and
GEORGE WASHINGTON 15
her strong commonsense made its indelible impress upon
the mind of her son.
Mary Washington always regarded George's judgment with
a little suspicion ; she never came to think of him as a full-
grown man ; to her he was only a big boy. Hence, she would
chide him and criticize his actions in a way that often made
him very uncomfortable. During the Revolutionary War
she followed his record closely ; when he succeeded she only
smiled, said something that sounded like "I told you so,"
and calmly filled her pipe; when he was repulsed she was
never cast down. She foresaw that he would be made Presi
dent, and thought "he would do as well as anybody."
Once, she complained to him of her house in Fredericksburg ;
he wrote in answer, gently but plainly, that her habits of
life were not such as would be acceptable at Mount Vernon.
And to this she replied that she had never expected or
intended to go to Mount Vernon, and moreover would not,
no matter how much urged a declination without an
invitation that must have caused the son a grim smile.
In her nature was a goodly trace of savage stoicism that
took a satisfaction in concealing the joy she felt in her
son's achievement; for that her life was all bound up in
his we have good evidence. Washington looked after her
wants and supplied her with everything she needed, and,
as these things often came through third parties, it is pretty
certain she did not know the source ; at any rate she accepted
everything quite as her due, and shows a half-comic ingrati
tude that is very fine.
When Washington started for New York to be inaugurated
!6 GEORGE WASHINGTON
President, he stopped to see her. She donned a new white
cap and a clean apron in honor of the visit, remarking to
a neighbor woman who dropped in that she supposed "these
great folks expected something a little extra." It was the
last meeting of mother and son. She was eighty-three at
that time and "her boy" fifty-five. She died not long after.
J Samuel Washington, the brother two years younger than
George, has been described as "small, sandy-whiskered,
shrewd and glib." Samuel was married five times. Some of
the wives he deserted and others deserted him, and two of
them died, thus leaving him twice a sad, lorn widower,
from which condition he quickly extricated himself. He
was always in financial straits and often appealed to his
brother George for loans. In Seventeen Hundred Eighty-one,
we find George Washington writing to his brother John,
"In God's name! how has Samuel managed to get himself
so enormously in debt? " The remark sounds a little like
that of Samuel Johnson, who on hearing that Goldsmith
was owing four hundred pounds exclaimed, "Was ever
poet so trusted before? "
Washington's ledger shows that he advanced his brother
Samuel two thousand dollars, "to be paid back without
interest." But Samuel's ship never came in, and in Wash
ington's will we find the debt graciously and gracefully
discharged & jt
Thornton Washington, a son of Samuel, was given a place
in the English army at George Washington's request ; and
two other sons of Samuel were sent to school at his expense.
One of the boys once ran away and was followed by his
GEORGE WASHINGTON 17
uncle George, who carried a goodly birch with intent to
"give him what he deserved"; but after catching the lad
the uncle's heart melted, and he took the runaway back
into favor. An entry in Washington's journal shows that
the children of his brother Samuel cost him fully five thou
sand dollars.
Harriot, one of the daughters of Samuel, lived in the house
hold at Mount Vernon and evidently was a great cross,
for we find Washington pleading as an excuse for her frivolity
that "she was not brung up right, she has no disposition,
and takes no care of her clothes, which are dabbed about
in every corner, and the best are always in use. She costs
me enough ! "
And this was about as near a complaint as the Father of
his Country, and the father of all his poor relations, ever
made. In his ledger we find this item: "By Miss Harriot
Washington, gave her to buy wedding-clothes, $100.00."
It supplied the great man joy to write that line, for it was
the last of Harriot. He furnished a fine wedding for her,
and all the servants had a holiday, and Harriot and her
unknown lover were happy ever afterwards so far as we
know jfc jt
From Seventeen Hundred Fifty to Seventeen Hundred
Fifty-nine, Washington was a soldier on the frontier, leaving
Mount Vernon and all his business in charge of his brother
John & Between these two there was a genuine bond of
affection. To George this brother was always, "Dear Jack,"
and when John married, George sends "respectful greetings
to your Lady," and afterwards "love to the little ones from
,8 GEORGE WASHINGTON
their Uncle." And in one of the dark hours of the Revolution,
George writes from New Jersey to this brother: "God grant
you health and happiness. Nothing in this world would add
so to mine as to be near you." John died in Seventeen Hun
dred Eighty-seven, and the President of the United States
writes in simple, undisguised grief of "the death of my
beloved brother."
John's eldest son, Bushrod, was Washington's favorite
nephew. He took a lively interest in the boy's career, and
taking him to Philadelphia placed him in the law-office
of Judge James Wilson. He supplied Bushrod with funds,
and wrote him many affectionate letters of advice, and
several times made him a companion on journeys. The
boy proved worthy of it all, and developed into a strong
and manly man quite the best of all Washington's kinsfolk.
In later years, we find Washington asking his advice in
legal matters and excusing himself for being such a "trouble
some, non-paying client." In his will the "Honorable Bush-
rod Washington " is named as one of the executors, and to
him Washington left his library and all his private papers,
besides a share in the estate. Such confidence was a fitting
good-by from the great and loving heart of a father to a
son full worthy of the highest trust.
Of Washington's relations with his brother Charles, we know
but little. Charles was a plain, simple man who worked hard
and raised a big family. In his will Washington remembers
them all, and one of the sons of Charles we know was
appointed to a position upon Lafayette's staff on Wash
ington's request.
GEORGE WASHINGTON 19
The only one of Washington's family that resembled him
closely was his sister Betty. The contour of her face was
almost identical with his, and she was so proud of it that
she often wore her hair in a queue and donned his hat and
sword for the amusement of visitors. Betty married Fielding
Lewis, and two of her sons acted as private secretaries to
Washington while he was President. One of these sons
Lawrence Lewis married Nellie Custis, the adopted daugh
ter of Washington and granddaughter of Mrs. Washington,
and the couple, by Washington's will, became part-owners
of Mount Vernon. The man who can figure out the exact
relationship of Nellie Custis' children to Washington deserves
a medal jt &
We do not know much of Washington's father : if he exerted
any special influence on his children we do not know it. He
died when George was eleven years old, and the boy then
went to live at the "Hunting Creek Place" with his half-
brother Lawrence, that he might attend school. Lawrence
had served in the English navy under Admiral Vernon, and,
in honor of his chief, changed the name of his home and
called it Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon then consisted of
twenty-five hundred acres, mostly a tangle of forest, with
a small house and log stables. The tract had descended to
Lawrence from his father, with provision that it should fall
to George if Lawrence died without issue. Lawrence married,
and when he died, aged thirty-two, he left a daughter,
Mildred, who died two years later. Mount Vernon then
passed to George Washington, aged twenty-one, but not
without a protest from the widow of Lawrence, who evidently
2O
GEORGE WASHINGTON
was paid not to take the matter into the courts. Washington
owned Mount Vernon for forty-six years, just one-half of
which time was given to the service of his country. It was
the only place he ever called "home," and there he sleeps.
GEORGE WASHINGTON 21
m
'HEN Washington was fourteen, his schooldays
were over. Of his youth we know but little. He
was not precocious, although physically he devel
oped early; but there was no reason why the neighbors
should keep tab on him and record anecdotes. They had
boys of their own just as promising. He was tall and slender,
long-armed, with large, bony hands and feet, very strong,
a daring horseman, a good wrestler, and, living on the banks
of a river, he became, as all healthy boys must, a good
swimmer <& jt
His mission among the Indians in his twenty-first year
was largely successful through the personal admiration he
excited among the savages. In poise, he was equal to their
best, and ever being a bit proud, even if not vain, he dressed
for the occasion in full Indian regalia, minus only the war
paint jt The Indians at once recognized his nobility, and
named him "Conotancarius " Plunderer of Villages and
suggested that he take to wife an Indian maiden, and remain
with them as chief.
When he returned home, he wrote to the Indian agent,
announcing his safe arrival and sending greetings to the
Indians. "Tell them," he says, "how happy it would make
Conotancarius to see them, and take them by the hand."
C His wish was gratified, for the Indians took him at his
word, and fifty of them came to him, saying, "Since you
could not come and live with us, we have come to live with
you." They camped on the green in front of the residence,
and proceeded to inspect every room in the house, tested
all the whisky they could find, appropriated eatables, and
22 GEORGE WASHINGTON
were only induced to depart after all the bedclothes had
been dyed red, and a blanket or a quilt presented to each.
<J Throughout his life Washington had a very tender spot
in his heart for women. At sixteen, he writes with all a
youth's solemnity of "a hurt of the heart uncurable." And
from that time forward there is ever some "Faire Mayde"
to be seen in the shadow. In fact, Washington got along
with women much better than with men ; with men he was
often diffident and awkward, illy concealing his uneasiness
behind a forced dignity ; but he knew that women admired
him, and with them he was at ease. When he made that
first Western trip, carrying a message to the French, he
turns aside to call on the Indian princess, Aliguippa. In
his journal, he says, "presented her a Blanket and a Bottle
of Rum, which latter was thought the much best Present
of the 2."
In his expense-account we find items like these: "Treat
ing the ladys 2 shillings." "Present for Polly 5 shillings."
"My share for Music at the Dance 3 shillings." "Lost at
Loo 5 shillings." In fact, like most Episcopalians, Washing
ton danced and played cards. His favorite game seems to
have been "Loo " ; and he generally played for small stakes,
and when playing with "the Ladys" usually lost, whether
purposely or because otherwise absorbed, we know not Jt
<J In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-six, he made a horseback
journey on military business to Boston, stopping a week
going and on the way back at New York. He spent the time
at the house of a former Virginian, Beverly Robinson, who
had married Susannah Philipse, daughter of Frederick
GEORGE WASHINGTON 23
Philipse, one of the rich men of Manhattan. In the household
was a young woman, Mary Philipse, sister of the hostess.
She was older than Washington, educated, and had seen
much more of polite life than he. The tall, young Virginian,
fresh from the frontier, where he had had horses shot under
him, excited the interest of Mary Philipse, and Washington,
innocent but ardent, mistook this natural curiosity for a
softer sentiment and proposed on the spot. As soon as the
lady got her breath he was let down very gently.
Two years afterwards Mary Philipse married Colonel Roger
Morris, in the king's service, and cards were duly sent to
Mount Vernon. But the whirligig of time equalizes all things,
and, in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six, General Washing
ton, Commander of the Continental Army, occupied the
mansion of Colonel Morris, the Colonel and his lady being
fugitive Tories jfc In his diary, Washington records this
significant item: "Dined at the house lately Colonel Roger
Morris confiscated and the occupation of a common
Farmer." jt Jk
Washington always attributed his defeat at the hands of
Mary Philipse to being too precipitate and "not waiting until
ye ladye was in ye mood." But two years later we find him
being even more hasty and this time with success, which
proves that all signs fail in dry weather, and some things
are possible as well as others. He was on his way to Williams-
burg to consult physicians and stopped at the residence of
Mrs. Daniel Parke Custis to make a short call was pressed
to remain to tea, did so, proposed marriage, and was gra
ciously accepted. We have a beautiful steel engraving that
24 GEORGE WASHINGTON
immortalizes this visit, showing Washington's horse impa
tiently waiting at the door.
Mrs. Custis was a widow with two children. She was twenty-
six, and the same age as Washington within three months.
Her husband had died seven months before. In Washington's
cash account for May, Seventeen Hundred Fifty-eight, is
an item, "one Engagement Ring 2.16.0."
The happy couple were married eight months later, and
we find Mrs. Washington explaining to a friend that her
reason for the somewhat hasty union was that her estate
was getting in a bad way and a man was needed to look
after it. Our actions are usually right, but the reasons we
give seldom are; but in this case no doubt "a man was
needed," for the widow had much property, and we can not
but congratulate Martha Custis on her choice of "a man."
She owned fifteen thousand acres of land, many lots in the
city of Williamsburg, two hundred negroes, and some money
on bond; all the property being worth over one hundred
thousand dollars a very large amount for those days <
Directly after the wedding, the couple moved to Mount
Vernon, taking a good many of the slaves with them. Shortly
after, arrangements were under way to rebuild the house,
and the plans that finally developed into the present mansion
were begun & jt
Washington's letters and diary contain very few references
to his wife, and none of the many visitors to Mount Vernon
took pains to testify either to her wit or to her intellect. We
know that the housekeeping at Mount Vernon proved too
much for her ability, and that a woman was hired to oversee
GEORGE WASHINGTON 25
the household. And hi this reference a complaint is found
from the General that "housekeeper has done gone and
left things in confusion." He had his troubles.
Martha's education was not equal to writing a presentable
letter, for we find that her husband wrote the first draft of
all important missives that it was necessary for her to send,
and she copied them even to his mistakes in spelling. Very
patient was he about this, and even when he was President
and harried constantly we find him stopping to acknowledge
for her "an invitation to take some Tea," and at the bottom
of the sheet adding a pious bit of finesse, thus : "The Presi
dent requests me to send his compliments and only regrets
that the pressure of affairs compels him to forego the
Pleasure of seeing you."
After Washington's death, his wife destroyed the letters he had
written her many hundred in number an offense the world
is not yet quite willing to forget, even though it has forgiven.
26 GEORGE WASHINGTON
we have been told that when Washington
was six years old he could not tell a lie, yet he after-
wards partially overcame the disability jfc On one
occasion he writes to a friend that the mosquitoes of New
Jersey "can bite through the thickest boot," and though
a contemporary clergyman, greatly flurried, explains that
he meant "stocking," we insist that the statement shall
stand as the Father of his Country expressed it. Washington
also records without a blush, "I announced that I would
leave at 8 and then immediately gave private Orders to
go at 5, so to avoid the Throng." Another time when he
discharged an overseer for incompetency he lessened the
pain of parting by writing for the fellow "a Character."
When he went to Boston and was named as Commander
of the Army, his chief concern seemed to be how he would
make peace with Martha. Ho! ye married men! do you
understand the situation? He was to be away for a year,
two, or possibly three, and his wife did not have an inkling
of it. Now, he must break the news to her.
As plainly shown by Cabot Lodge and other historians,
there was much rivalry for the office, and it was only
allotted to the South as a political deal after much bickering.
Washington had been a passive but very willing candidate,
and after a struggle his friends secured him the prize and
now what to do with Martha ! Writing to her, among other
things he says, "You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when
I assure you in the most solemn manner that so far from
seeking the appointment I have done all in my power to
avoid it." The man who will not fabricate a bit in order to
GEORGE WASHINGTON 27
keep peace with the wife of his bosom is not much of a man.
But "Patsy's" objections were overcome, and beyond a
few chidings and sundry complainings, she did nothing to
block the great game of war.
At Princeton, Washington ordered campfires to be built
along the brow of a hill for a mile, and when the fires were
well lighted, he withdrew his army, marched around to
the other side, and surprised the enemy at daylight. At
Brooklyn, he used masked batteries, and presented a fierce
row of round, black spots painted on canvas that, from the
city, looked like the mouths of cannon at which men seek
the bauble reputation. It is said he also sent a note threatening
to fire these sham cannon, on receiving which the enemy
hastily moved beyond range. Perceiving afterwards that
they had been imposed upon, the brave English sent word
to "shoot and be damned." Evidently, Washington con
sidered that all things are fair in love and war.
Washington talked but little, and his usual air was one of
melancholy that stopped just short of sadness. All this,
with the firmness of his features and the dignity of his
carriage, gave the impression of sternness and severity.
And these things gave rise to the popular conception that
he had small sense of humor ; yet he surely was fond of a
quiet smile.
At one time, Congress insisted that a standing army of five
thousand men was too large; Washington replied that if
England would agree never to invade this country with
more than three thousand men, he would be perfectly
willing that our army should be reduced to four thousand.
28 GEORGE WASHINGTON
IJWhen the King of Spain, knowing he was a farmer,
thoughtfully sent him a present of a jackass, Washington
proposed naming the animal in honor of the donor; and
in writing to friends about the present, draws invidious
comparisons between the gift and the giver. Evidently,
the joke pleased him, for he repeats it in different letters ;
thus showing how, when he sat down to clear his desk of
correspondence, he economized energy by following a form.
So, we now find letters that are almost identical, even to
jokes, sent to persons in South Carolina and in Massachu
setts. Doubtless the good man thought they would never
be compared, for how could he foresee that an autograph-
dealer in New York would eventually catalog them at
twenty-two dollars fifty cents each, or that a very proper
but half-affectionate missive of his to a Faire Ladye would
be sold by her great-granddaughter for fifty dollars?
In Seventeen Hundred Ninety-three there were on the
Mount Vernon plantation three hundred seventy head of
cattle, and Washington appends to the report a sad regret
that, with all this number of horned beasts, he yet has to
buy butter. There is also a fine, grim humor shown in the
incident of a flag of truce coming in at New York, bearing
a message from General Howe, addressed to "Mr. Washing
ton." The General took the letter from the hand of the
redcoat, glanced at the superscription, and said: "Why,
this letter is not for me ! It is directed to a planter in Virginia.
I '11 keep it and give it to him at the end of the war." Then,
cramming the letter into his pocket, he ordered the flag of
truce out of the lines and directed the gunners to stand by.
GEORGE WASHINGTON 29
In an hour, another letter came back addressed to "His
Excellency, General Washington."
It was not long after this that a soldier brought to Washing
ton a dog that had been found wearing a collar with the
name of General Howe engraved on it. Washington returned
the dog by a special messenger with a note reading, "General
Washington sends his compliments to General Howe, and
begs to return one dog that evidently belongs to him." In
this instance, I am inclined to think that Washington acted
in sober good faith, but was the victim of a practical joke
on the part of one of his aides.
Another remark that sounds like a joke, but perhaps was
not one, was when, on taking command of the army at
Boston, the General writes to his lifelong friend, Doctor
Craik, asking what he can do for him, and adding a sentiment
still in the air: "But these Massachusetts people suffer
nothing to go by them that they can lay their hands on."
In another letter he pays his compliments to Connecticut
thus: "Their impecunious meanness surpasses belief. "j*
When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Washington
refused to humiliate him and his officers by accepting their
swords. He treated Cornwallis as his guest, and even "gave
a dinner in his honor." At this dinner, Rochambeau being
asked for a toast gave "The United States." Washington
proposed "The King of France." Cornwallis merely gave
"The King," and Washington, putting the toast, expressed
it as Cornwallis intended, "The King of England," and
added a sentiment of his own that made even Cornwallis
laugh "May he stay there! " Washington's treatment of
30 GEORGE WASHINGTON
Cornwallis made him a lifelong friend. Many years after, when
Cornwallis was Governor-General of India, he sent a message
to his old antagonist, wishing him " prosperity and enjoy
ment," adding, "As for myself, I am yet in troubled waters."
GEORGE WASHINGTON 31
NCE in a century, possibly, a being is born who
possesses a transcendent insight, and him we call
a "genius." Shakespeare, for instance, to whom all
knowledge lay open ; Joan of Arc ; the artist Turner ; Sweden-
borg, the mystic these are the men who know a royal road
to geometry ; but we may safely leave them out of account
when we deal with the builders of a State, for among states
men there are no geniuses.
Nobody knows just what a genius is or what he may do next ;
he boils at an unknown temperature, and often explodes
at a touch. He is uncertain and therefore unsafe. His best
results are conjured forth, but no man has yet conjured
forth a Nation it is all slow, patient, painstaking work
along mathematical lines. Washington was a mathematician
and therefore not a genius. We call him a great man, but his
greatness was of that sort in which we all can share; his
virtues were of a kind that, in degree, we too may possess.
Any man who succeeds in a legitimate business works with
the same tools that Washington used. Washington was
human. We know the man ; we understand him ; we com
prehend how he succeeded, for with him there were no tricks,
no legerdemain, no secrets. He is very near to us.
Washington is indeed first in the hearts of his countrymen.
Washington has no detractors. There may come a time when
another will take first place in the affections of the people,
but that time is not yet ripe. Lincoln stood between men
who now live and the prizes they coveted; thousands still
tread the earth whom he benefited, and neither class can
forgive, for they are of clay. But all those who lived when
32 GEORGE WASHINGTON
Washington lived are gone; not one survives; even the
last body-servant, who confused memory with hearsay,
has departed babbling to his rest.
We know all of Washington we will ever know; there are
no more documents to present, no partisan witnesses to
examine, no prejudices to remove. His purity of purpose
stands unimpeached ; his steadfast earnestness and sterling
honesty are our priceless examples.
We love the man.
We call him Father.
BENJAMIN PRANK I
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
I WILL speak ill of no man, not even in matter of truth ;
but rather excuse the faults I hear charged upon others,
and upon proper occasion speak all the good I know of
everybody. Franklin's Journal.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
lENJAMIN FRANKLIN was twelve years
old. He was large and strong and fat and
good-natured, and had a full-moon face
and red cheeks that made him look like
a country bumpkin. He was born in Boston
within twenty yards of the church called
"Old South," but the Franklins now lived
at the corner of Congress and Hanover
Streets, where to this day there swings in
the breeze a gilded ball, and on it the
legend, "Josiah Franklin, Soap-Boiler."
CJ Benjamin was the fifteenth child in the
family; and several having grown to
maturity and flown, there were thirteen
at the table when little Ben first sat in the
high chair. But the Franklins were not
superstitious, and if little Ben ever prayed
that another would be born, just for luck,
we know nothing of it. His mother loved
him very much and indulged him in many
ways, for he was always her baby boy,
but the father thought that because he
was good-natured he was also lazy and
should be disciplined.
Once upon a time the father was packing
a barrel of beef in the cellar, and Ben
was helping him, and as the father always
said grace at table, the boy suggested he
ask a blessing, once for all, on the barrel
38 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
of beef and thus economize breath. But economics along
that line did not appeal to Josiah Franklin, for this was
early in Seventeen Hundred Eighteen, and Josiah was a
Presbyterian and lived in Boston.
The boy was not religious, for he never "went forward,"
and only went to church because he had to, and read "Plu
tarch's Lives" with much more relish than he did "Saint's
Rest." But he had great curiosity and asked questions until
his mother would say, "Goodness gracious, go and play! "
CJ And as the boy was n't very religious or very fond of work,
his father and mother decided that there were only two
careers open for him : the mother proposed that he be made
a preacher, but his father said, send him to sea. To go to
sea under a good strict captain would discipline him, and
to send him off and put him under the care of the Reverend
Doctor Thirdly would answer the same purpose which
course should be pursued? But Pallas Athene, who was
to watch over this lad's destinies all through life, preserved
him from either.
His parents' aspirations extended even to his becoming
captain of a schooner or pastor of the First Church at
Roxbury. And no doubt he could have sailed the schooner
around the globe in safety, or filled the pulpit with a degree
of power that would have caused consternation to reign in
the heart of every other preacher in town ; but Fate saved
him that he might take the Ship of State, when she threatened
to strand on the rocks of adversity, and pilot her into peaceful
waters, and to preach such sermons to America that their
eloquence still moves us to better things.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 39
Parents think that what they say about their children goes,
and once in an awfully long time it does, but the men who
become great and learned usually do so in spite of their
parents which remark was first made by Martin Luther,
but need not be discredited on that account.
Ben's oldest brother was James. Now, James was nearly
forty ; he was tall and slender, stooped a little, and had sandy
whiskers, and a nervous cough, and positive ideas on many
subjects one of which was that he was a printer jt His
apprentice, or "devil," had left him, because the devil did
not like to be cuffed whenever the compositor shuffled his
fonts. James needed another apprentice, and proposed to
take his younger brother and make a man of him if the
old folks were willing. The old folks were willing and Ben
was duly bound by law to his brother, agreeing to serve
him faithfully as Jacob served Laban for seven years and
two years more.
Science has explained many things, but it has not yet told
why it sometimes happens that when seventeen eggs are
hatched, the brood will consist of sixteen barnyard fowls
and one eagle.
James Franklin was a man of small capacity, whimsical,
jealous and arbitrary. But if he cuffed his apprentice Benja
min when the compositor blundered, and when he did n't,
it was his legal right ; and the master who did not occasionally
kick his apprentices was considered derelict to duty. The
boy ran errands, cleaned the presses, swept the shop, tied
up bundles, did the tasks that no one else would do; and
incidentally "learned the case." Then he set type, and after
40 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
a while ran a press jt And in those days a printer ranked
above a common mechanic. A man who was a printer was
a literary man, as were the master printers of London and
Venice. A printer was a man of taste jt All editors were
printers, and usually composed the matter as they set it
up in type. Thus we now have a room called a "composing-
room," a "composing-stick," etc. People once addressed
"Mr. Printer," not Mr. Editor, and when they met "Mr.
Printer" on the street removed their hats but not in
Philadelphia.
Young Franklin felt a proper degree of pride in his work,
if not vanity. In fact, he himself has said that vanity is a
good thing, and whenever he saw it come flaunting down
the street, always made way, knowing that there was virtue
somewhere back of it out of sight perhaps, but still there.
James, being a brother, had no confidence in Ben's intellect,
so when Ben wrote short articles on this and that, he tucked
them under the door so that James would find them in the
morning. James showed these articles to his friends, and
they all voted them very fine, and concluded they must
have been written by Doctor So-and-So, Ph. D., who, like
Lord Bacon, was a very modest man and did not care to
see his name in print.
Yet, by and by, it came out who it was that wrote the anony
mous "hot stuff," and then James did not think it was quite
so good as he at first thought, and moreover, declared he
knew whose it was all the time. Ben was eighteen and had
read Montaigne, and Collins, and Shaftesbury, and Hume.
When he wrote he expressed thoughts that then were con-
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 41
sidered very dreadful, but that can now be heard proclaimed
even in good orthodox churches. But Ben had wit and to
spare, and he leveled it at government officials and preachers,
and these gentlemen did not relish the jokes people seldom
relish jokes at their own expense and they sought to sup
press the newspaper that the Franklin brothers published.
<! The blame for all the trouble James heaped upon Ben
jamin, and all the credit for success he took to himself Jt
James declared that Ben had the big head and he probably
was right ; but he forgot that the big head, like mumps and
measles and everything else in life, is self -limiting and good
in its way. So, to teach Ben his proper place, James reminded
him that he was only an apprentice, with three years yet
to serve, and that he should be seen seldom and not heard
all the time, and that if he ran away he would send a con
stable after him and fetch him back.
Ben evidently had a mind open to suggestive influences,
for the remark about running away prompted him to do so.
He sold some of his books and got himself secreted on board
a ship about to sail for New York.
Arriving at New York, in three days he found the broad-
beamed Dutch had small use for printers and no special
admiration for the art preservative; and he started for
Philadelphia.
Every one knows how he landed in a small boat at the foot
of Market Street with only a few coppers in his pocket,
and made his way to a bakeshop and asked for a threepenny
loaf of bread, and being told they had no threepenny loaves,
then asked for threepenny 's worth of any kind of bread, and
42 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
was given three loaves. Where is the man who in a strange
land has not suffered rather than reveal his ignorance before
a shopkeeper? When I was first in England and could not
compute readily in shillings and pence, I would toss out a
gold piece when I made a purchase and assume a 'igh and
'aughty mien. And that Philadelphia baker probably died
in blissful ignorance of the fact that the youth who was
to be America's pride bought from him three loaves of bread
when he wanted only one.
The runaway Ben had a downy beard all over his face,
and as he took his three loaves and walked up Market Street,
with a loaf under each arm, munching on the third, he was
smiled upon in merry mirth by the buxom Deborah Read, as
she stood in the doorway of her father's house. Yet Franklin
got even with her, for some months after, he went back that
way and courted her, and she grew to love him, and they
"exchanged promises," he says. After some months of work
and love-making, Franklin sailed away to England on a wild-
goose chase. He promised to return soon and make Deborah
his wife. But he wrote only one solitary letter to the broken
hearted girl and did not come back for nearly two years.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 43
rIME is the great avenger as well as educator; only
the education is usually deferred until it no longer
avails in this incarnation, and is valuable only for
advice and nobody wants advice. Deathbed repentances
may be legal-tender for salvation in another world, but
for this they are below par, and regeneration that is post
poned until the man has no further capacity to sin is little
better. For sin is only perverted power, and the man without
capacity to sin neither has ability to do good is n't that so?
His soul is a Dead Sea that supports neither amoeba nor fish,
neither noxious bacilli nor useful life. Happy is the man
who conserves his God-given power until wisdom and not
passion shall direct it. So, the younger in life a man makes
the resolve to turn and live, the better for that man and the
better for the world.
Once upon a time Carlyle took Milburn, the blind preacher,
out on to Chelsea embankment and showed the sightless
man where Franklin plunged into the Thames and swam
to Blackfriars Bridge. "He might have stayed here," said
Thomas Carlyle, "and become a swimming-teacher, but
God had other work for him ! " Franklin had many oppor
tunities to stop and become a victim of arrested development,
but he never embraced the occasion. He could have stayed
in Boston and been a humdrum preacher, or a thrifty sea-
captain, or an ordinary printer ; or he could have remained
in London, and been, like his friend Ralph, a clever writer
of doggerel, and a supporter of the political party that would
pay the most.
Benjamin Franklin was twenty years old when he returned
44 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
from England. The ship was beaten back by headwinds
and blown out of her course by blizzards, and becalmed
at times, so it took eighty-two days to make the voyage.
A worthy old clergyman tells me this was so ordained and
ordered that Benjamin might have time to meditate on the
follies of youth and shape his course for the future, and I
do not argue the case, for I am quite willing to admit that
my friend, the clergyman, has the facts.
Yes, we must be "converted," u born again," "regenerated,"
or whatever you may be pleased to call it. Sometimes
very often it is love that reforms a man, sometimes sick
ness, sometimes sore bereavement. Doctor Talmage says
that with Saint Paul it was a sunstroke, and this may be so,
for surely Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus to persecute
Christians was not in love. Love forgives to seventy times
seven and persecutes nobody.
We do not know just what it was that turned Franklin;
he had tried folly we know that and he just seems to
have anticipated Browning and concluded:
It 's wiser being good than bad ;
It 's safer being meek than fierce ;
It 's better being sane than mad.
On this voyage the young printer was thrust down into
the depths and made to wrestle with the powers of darkness ;
and in the remorse of soul that came over him, he made a
liturgy to be repeated night and morning, and at midday.
There were many items in this ritual all of which were
corrected and amended from time to time in after-years.
Here are a few paragraphs that represent the longings and
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 45
trend of the lad's heart. His prayer was : "That I may have
tenderness for the meek ; that I may be kind to my neighbors,
good-natured to my companions and hospitable to strangers.
Help me, O God !
"That I may be averse to craft and overreaching, abhor
extortion and every kind of weakness and wickedness. Help
me, God !
"That I may have constant regard to honor and probity;
that I may possess an innocent and good conscience, and
at length become truly virtuous and magnanimous. Help
me, O God!
"That I may refrain from calumny and detraction; that I
may abhor deceit, and avoid lying, envy and fraud, flattery,
hatred, malice and ingratitude. Help me, God ! "
Then, in addition, he formed rules of conduct and wrote
them out and committed them to memory. The maxims
he adopted are old as thought, yet can never become anti
quated, for in morals there is nothing either new or old,
neither can there be.
On that return voyage from England, he inwardly vowed
that his first act on getting ashore would be to find Deborah
Read and make peace with her and his conscience. And
true to his vow, he found her, but she was the wife of another.
Her mother believed that Franklin had run away simply to
get rid of her, and the poor girl, dazed and forlorn, bereft
of will, had been induced to marry a man by the name of
Rogers, who was a potter and also a potterer, but who
Franklin says was "a very good potter."
After some months, Deborah left the potter, because she
46 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
did not like to be reproved with a strap, and went home to
her mother.
Franklin was now well in the way of prosperity, aged twenty-
four, with a little printing business, plans plus, and ambitions
to spare. He had had his little fling in life, and had done
various things of which he was ashamed; and the foolish
things that Deborah had done were no worse than those
of which he had been guilty. So he called on her, and they
talked it over and made honest confessions that are good
for the soul. The potter disappeared no one knew where
some said he was dead, but Benjamin and Deborah did not
wear mourning. They took rumor's word for it, and thanked
God, and went to a church and were married.
Deborah brought to the firm a very small dowry ; and Ben
jamin contributed a bright baby boy, aged two years,
captured no one knows just where. This boy was William
Franklin, who grew up into a very excellent man, and the
worst that can be said of him is that he became Governor
of New Jersey. He loved and respected his father, and called
Deborah mother, and loved her very much. And she was
worthy of all love, and ever treated him with tenderness
and gentlest considerate care. Possibly a blot on the 'scutch
eon may, in the working of God's providence, not always
be a dire misfortune, for it sometimes has the effect of
binding broken hearts as nothing else can, as a cicatrice
toughens the fiber.
Deborah had not much education, but she had good, sturdy
commonsense, which is better if you are forced to make
choice. She set herself to help her husband in every way
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
47
possible, and so far as I know, never sighed for one of those
things you call "a career." She even worked in the printing-
office, folding, stitching, and doing up bundles.
Long years afterward, when Franklin was Ambassador
of the American Colonies in France, he told with pride
that the clothes he wore were spun, woven, cut out, and
made into garments all by his wife's own hands. Franklin's
love for Deborah was very steadfast. Together they became
rich and respected, won worldwide fame, and honors came
that way such as no American before or since has ever
received Jt, jt,
And when I say, "God bless all good women who help
men do their work," I simply repeat the words once used
by Benjamin Franklin when he had Deborah in mind.
4 8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
m
'HEN Franklin was forty-two, he had accumulated
a fortune of seventy-five thousand dollars. It gave
him an income of about four thousand dollars a
year, which he said was all he wanted ; so he sold out his
business, intending to devote his entire energies to the study
of science and languages. He had lived just one-half his
days ; and had he then passed out, his life could have been
summed up as one of the most useful that ever has been
lived. He had founded and been the life of the Junto Club
the most sensible and beneficent club of which I ever heard.
<JThe series of questions asked at every meeting of the Junto,
so mirror the life and habit of thought of Franklin that we
had better glance at a few of them:
1. Have you read over these queries this morning, in order
to consider what you might have to offer the Junto, touching
any one of them?
2. Have you met with anything in the author you last read,
remarkable, or suitable to be communicated to the Junto ;
particularly in history, morality, poetry, physics, travels,
mechanical arts, or other parts of knowledge?
3. Do you know of a fellow-citizen, who has lately done
a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation; or who
has lately committed an error, proper for us to be warned
against and avoid?
4. What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately
observed or heard; of imprudence, of passion, or of any
other vice or folly?
5. What happy effects of temperance, of prudence, of
moderation, or of any other virtue?
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 49
6. Do you think of anything at present in which the members
of the Junto may be serviceable to mankind, to their country,
to their friends, or to themselves?
7. Hath any deserving stranger arrived hi town since last
meeting that you have heard of? And what have you heard
or observed of his character or merits? And whether, think
you, it lies in the power of the Junto to oblige him, or
encourage him as he deserves?
8. Do you know of any deserving young beginner, lately
set up, whom it lies hi the power of the Junto in any way
to encourage?
9. Have you lately observed any defect in the laws of your
country, of which it would be proper to move the legislature
for an amendment? Or do you know of any beneficial law
that is wanting?
10. Have you lately observed any encroachment on the
just liberties of the people?
11. In what manner can the Junto, or any of its members,
assist you in any of your honorable designs?
12. Have you any weighty affair on hand in which you
think the advice of the Junto may be of service?
13. What benefits have you lately received from any man
not present?
14. Is there any difficulty in matters of opinion, of justice
and injustice, which you would gladly have discussed at
this time?
The Junto led to the establishment, by Franklin, of the
Philadelphia Public Library, which became the parent of
all public libraries in America jt He also organized and
50 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
equipped a fire-company; paved and lighted the streets of
Philadelphia; established a high school and an academy
for the study of English branches ; founded the Philadelphia
Public Hospital; invented the toggle-joint printing-press,
the Franklin stove, and various other useful mechanical
devices jf> &
After his retirement from business, Franklin enjoyed seven
years of what he called leisure, but they were years of study
and application ; years of happiness and sweet content, but
years of aspiration and an earnest looking into the future.
His experiments with kite and key had made his name
known hi all the scientific circles of Europe, and his sug
gestive writings on the subject of electricity had caused
Goethe to lay down his pen and go to rubbing amber for
the edification of all Weimar. Franklin was in correspondence
with the greatest minds of Europe, and what his "Poor
Richard Almanac " had done for the plain people of America,
his pamphlets were now doing for the philosophers of the
Old World jt jt
In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-four, he wrote a treatise showing
the Colonies that they must be united, and this was the first
public word that was to grow and crystallize and become
the United States of America. Before that, the Colonies
were simply single, independent, jealous and bickering
overgrown clans. Franklin showed for the first time that
they must unite hi mutual aims,
In Seventeen Hundred Fifty-seven, matters were getting
a little strained between the Province of Pennsylvania and
England. "The lawmakers of England do not understand
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 51
us some one should go there as an authorized agent to
plead our cause," and Franklin was at once chosen as the
man of strongest personality and soundest sense. So Franklin
went to England and remained there for five years as agent
for the Colonies.
He then returned home, but after two years the Stamp Act
had stirred up the public temper to a degree that made
revolution imminent, and Franklin again went to England
to plead for justice. The record of the ten years he now spent
in London is told by Bancroft in a hundred pages. Bancroft
is very good, and I have no desire to rival him, so suffice it
to say that Franklin did all that any man could have done
to avert the coming War of the Revolution. Burke has said
that when he appeared before Parliament to be examined
as to the condition of things in America, it was like a lot
of schoolboys interrogating the master.
With the voice and tongue of a prophet, Franklin foretold
the English people what the outcome of their treatment of
America would be. Pitt and a few others knew the greatness
of Franklin, and saw that he was right, but the rest smiled
in derision jfc jt
He sailed for home in Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five,
and urged the Continental Congress to issue the Declaration
of Independence, of which he became a signer. Then the
war came, and had not Franklin gone to Paris and made
an ally of France, and borrowed money, the Continental
Army could not have been maintained in the field jt He
remained in France for nine years, and was the pride and
pet of the people. His sound sense, his good humor, his
52 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
distinguished personality, gave him the freedom of society
everywhere. He had the ability to adapt himself to conditions,
and was everywhere at home.
Once, he attended a memorable banquet in Paris shortly
after the close of the Revolutionary War. Among the speakers
was the English Ambassador, who responded to the toast,
"Great Britain." & The Ambassador dwelt at length on
England's greatness, and likened her to the sun that sheds
its beneficent rays on all. The next toast was "America,"
and Franklin was called upon to respond. He began very
modestly by saying : "The Republic is too young to be spoken
of in terms of praise; her career is yet to come, and so,
instead of America, I will name you a man, George Washing
ton the Joshua who successfully commanded the sun to
stand still." The Frenchmen at the board forgot the courtesy
due their English guest, and laughed needlessly loud.
Franklin was regarded in Paris as the man who had both
planned the War of the Revolution, and fought it. They said,
"He despoiled the thunderbolt of its danger, and snatched
sovereignty out of the hand of King George of England."
No doubt that his ovation was largely owing to the fact that
he was supposed to have plucked whole handfuls of feathers
from England's glory, and surely they were pretty nearly right.
<J In point of all-round development, Franklin must stand as
the foremost American. The one intent of his mind was to
purify his own spirit, to develop his intellect on every side,
and make his body the servant of his soul. His passion was
to acquire knowledge, and the desire of his heart was to
communicate it.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 53
We know of no man who ever lived a fuller life, a happier
life, a life more useful to other men, than Benjamin Franklin.
For forty-two years he gave the constant efforts of his life
to his country, and during all that time no taint of a selfish
action can be laid to his charge. Almost his last public act
was to petition Congress to pass an act for the abolition of
slavery. He died in Seventeen Hundred Ninety, and as you
walk up Arch Street, Philadelphia, only a few squares from
the spot where stood his printing-shop, you can see the
place where he sleeps.
The following epitaph, written by himself, however, does
not appear on the simple monument that marks his grave :
The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin, Printer,
(Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stripped of its lettering and gilding,)
Lies here food for worms.
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believes) appear once
more
In a new
And more beautiful Edition
Corrected and Amended
By
The Author.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
THE objects to be attained are : To justify and preserve
the confidence of the most enlightened friends of good
government; to promote the increasing respectability of
the American name; to answer the calls of justice; to
restore landed property to its due value; to furnish new
sources both to agriculture and to commerce; to cement
more closely the union of the States ; to add to their secur
ity against foreign attack ; to establish public order on the
basis of an upright and liberal policy: these are the great
and invaluable ends to be secured by a proper and adequate
provision, at the present period, for the support of public
credit. Report to Congress.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
i do not know the name of the mother of
Alexander Hamilton : we do not know the
given name of his father. But from letters,
a diary and pieced-out reports, allowing
fancy to bridge from fact to fact, we get
a patchwork history of the events preceding
the birth of this wonderful man.
Every strong man has had a splendid
mother. Hamilton's mother was a woman
of wit, beauty and education. While very
young, through the machinations of her
elders, she had been married to a man
much older than herself rich, wilful and
dissipated. The man's name was Lavine,
but his first name we do not know, so
hidden were the times in a maze of obscu
rity. The young wife very soon discovered
the depravity of this man whom she had
vowed to love and obey; divorce was
impossible; and rather than endure a
lifelong existence of legalized shame, she
packed up her scanty effects and sought
to hide herself from society and kinsmen
by going to the West Indies.
There she hoped to find employment as
a governess in the family of one of the
rich planters; or if this plan were not
successful she would start a school on
her own account, and thus benefit her
60 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
kind and make for herself an honorable living. Arriving
at the island of Nevis, she found that the natives did not
especially desire education, certainly not enough to pay for
it, and there was no family requiring a governess. But a
certain Scotch planter by the name of Hamilton, who was
consulted, thought in time that a school could be built up,
and he offered to meet the expense of it until such a time
as it could be put on a paying basis. Unmarried women who
accept friendly loans from men stand in dangerous places.
With all good women, heart-whole gratitude and a friendship
that seems unselfish ripen easily into love. They did so here.
Perhaps, in a warm, ardent temperament, sore grief and
biting disappointment and crouching want obscure the
judgment and give a show of reason to actions that a colder
intellect would disapprove.
On the frontiers of civilization man is greater than law
all ceremonies are looked upon lightly. In a few months
Mrs. Lavine was called by the little world of Nevis, Mrs.
Hamilton, and Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton regarded themselves
as man and wife.
The planter Hamilton was a hard-headed, busy individual,
who was quite unable to sympathize with his wife's finer
aspirations. Her first husband had been clever and dissipated ;
this one was worthy and dull. And thus deprived of congenial
friendships, without books or art or that social home life
which goes to make up a woman's world, and longing for
the safety of close sympathy and tender love, with no one
on whom her intellect could strike a spark, she keenly felt
the bitterness of exile.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 61
In a city where society ebbs and flows, an intellectual woman
married to a commerce-grubbing man is not especially to
be pitied. She can find intellectual affinities that will ease
the irksomeness of her situation. But to be cast on a desert
isle with a being, no matter how good, who is incapable of
feeling with you the eternal mystery of the encircling tides ;
who can only stare when you speak of the moaning lullaby
of the restless sea ; who knows not the glory of the sunrise,
and feels no thrill when the breakers dash themselves into
foam, or the moonlight dances on the phosphorescent waves
ah, that is indeed exile ! Loneliness is not in being alone,
for then ministering spirits come to soothe and bless loneli
ness is to endure the presence of one who does not under
stand jt jt
And so this finely organized, receptive, aspiring woman,
through the exercise of a will that seemed masculine in
its strength, found her feet mired in quicksand. She struggled
to free herself, and every effort only sank her deeper. The
relentless environment only held her with firmer clutch.
tj She thirsted for knowledge, for sweet music, for beauty,
for sympathy, for attainment. She had a heart-hunger that
none about her understood. She strove for better things.
She prayed to God, but the heavens were as brass ; she cried
aloud, and the only answer was the throbbing of her restless
heart Jt jt
In this condition, a son was born to her. They called his
name Alexander Hamilton. This child was heir to all his
mother's splendid ambitions. Her lack of opportunity was
his blessing; for the stifled aspirations of her soul charged
62 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
his being with a strong man's desires, and all the mother's
silken, unswerving will was woven through his nature. He
was to surmount obstacles that she could not overcome,
and to tread under his feet difficulties that to her were
invincible jt &
The prayer of her heart was answered, but not in the way
she expected. God listened to her after all ; for every earnest
prayer has its answer, and not a sincere desire of the heart
but somewhere will find its gratification.
But earth's buffets were too severe for the brave young
woman; the forces in league against her were more than
she could withstand, and before her boy was out of baby
dresses she gave up the struggle, and went to her long rest,
soothed only by the thought that, although she had sorely
blundered, she yet had done her work as best she could.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 63
KT his mother's death, we find Alexander Hamilton
taken in charge by certain mystical kinsmen. Evidently
he was well cared for, as he grew into a handsome,
strong lad small, to be sure, but finely formed. Where he
learned to read, write and cipher we know not ; he seems to
have had one of those active, alert minds that can acquire
knowledge on a barren island.
When nine years old, he signed his name as witness to a
deed. The signature is needlessly large and bold, and written
with careful schoolboy pains, but the writing shows the
same characteristics that mark the thousand and one dis
patches which we have, signed at bottom, "G. Washington."
<] At twelve years of age, he was clerk in a general store
one of those country stores where everything is kept, from
ribbon to whisky. There were other helpers in the store,
full grown; but when the proprietor went away for a few
days into the interior, the dark, slim youngster took charge
of the bookkeeping and the cash; and made such shrewd
exchanges of merchandise for produce that when the "Old
Man" returned, the lad was rewarded by two pats on the
head and a raise in salary of one shilling a week.
About this time, the boy was also showing signs of literary
skill by writing sundry poems and "compositions," and one
of his efforts in this line describing a tropical hurricane was
published in a London paper. This opened the eyes of the
mystical kinsmen to the fact that they had a genius among
them, and the elder Hamilton was importuned for money
to send the boy to Boston that he might receive a proper
education and come back and own the store and be a magis-
64 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
trate and a great man. No doubt the lad pressed the issue,
too, for his ambition had already begun to ferment, as we
find him writing to a friend, "I '11 risk my life, though not
my character, to exalt my station."
Most great things in America have to take their rise in
Boston; so it seems meet that Alexander Hamilton, aged
fifteen, a British subject, should first set foot on American
soil at Long Wharf, Boston. He took a ferry over to Cam-
bridgeport and walked through the woods three miles to
Harvard College. Possibly he did not remain because his
training in a bookish way had not been sufficient for him
to enter, and possibly he did not like the Puritanic visage
of the old professor who greeted him on the threshold of
Massachusetts Hall ; at any rate, he soon made his way to
New Haven. Yale suited him no better, and he took a boat
for New York.
He had letters to several good clergymen in New York, and
they proved wise and good counselors. The boy was advised
to take a course at the Grammar School at Elizabethtown,
New Jersey.
There he remained a year, applying himself most vigorously,
and the next Fall he knocked at the gate of King's College.
It is called Columbia now, because kings in America went
out of fashion, and all honors formerly paid to the king
were turned over to Miss Columbia, Goddess of Freedom jt
King's College swung wide its doors for the swarthy little
West Indian. He was allowed to choose his own course, and
every advantage of the university was offered him. In a
university, you get just all you are able to hold it depends
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 65
upon yourself and at the last all men who are made at
all are self-made.
Hamilton improved each passing moment as it flew; with
the help of a tutor he threw himself into his work, gathering
up knowledge with the quick perception and eager alertness
of one from whom the good things of earth have been with
held Jt, ji,
Yet he lived well and spent his money as if there were plenty
more where it came from ; but he was never dissipated nor
wasteful jt jfc
This was in the year Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, and
the Colonies were in a state of political excitement. Young
Hamilton's sympathies were all with the mother country.
He looked upon the Americans, for the most part, as a rude,
crude and barbaric people, who should be very grateful for
the protection of such an all-powerful country as Eng
land jt At his boarding-house and at school, he argued
the question hotly, defending England's right to tax her
dependencies.
One fine day, one of his schoolmates put the question to
him flatly : "In case of war on which side will you fight? "
Hamilton answered, "On the side of England."
But by the next day he had reasoned it out that if England
succeeded in suppressing the rising insurrection she would
take all credit to herself ; and if the Colonies succeeded there
would be honors for those who did the work. Suddenly it
came over him that there was such a thing as "the divine
right of insurrection," and that there was no reason why
men living in America should be taxed to support a govern-
66 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
ment across the sea. The wealth produced in America should
be used to develop America.
He was young, and burning with a lofty ambition. He knew,
and had known all along, that he would some day be great
and famous and powerful here was the opportunity.
And so, next day, he announced at the boarding-house
that the eloquence and logic of his messmates were too
powerful to resist he believed the Colonies and the mess
mates were in the right. Then several bottles were brought
in, and success was drunk to all men who strove for liberty.
Cj Patriotic sentiment is at the last self-interest ; in fact,
Herbert Spencer declares that there is no sane thought or
rational act but has its root in egoism.
Shortly after the young man's conversion, there was a
mass-meeting held in "The Fields," which meant the wilds
of what is now the region of Twenty-third Street. Young
Hamilton stood in the crowd and heard the various speakers
plead the cause of the Colonies, and urge that New York
should stand firm with Massachusetts against the further
encroachments and persecutions of England. There were
many Tories in the crowd, for New York was with King
George as against Massachusetts, and these Tories asked
the speakers embarrassing questions that the speakers failed
to answer. And all the time young Hamilton found himself
nearer and nearer the platform. Finally, he undertook to
reply to a talkative Tory, and some one shouted, "Give him
the platform the platform 1 " and in a moment this seven
teen-year-old boy found himself facing two thousand people.
There was hesitation and embarrassment, but the shouts of
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 67
one of his college chums, "Give it to 'em! Give it to 'eml "
filled in an awkward instant, and he began to speak. There
was logic and lucidity of expression, and as he talked the
air became charged with reasons, and all he had to do was
to reach up and seize them.
His strong and passionate nature gave gravity to his sen
tences, and every quibbling objector found himself answered,
and more than answered, and the speakers who were to
present the case found this stripling doing the work so much
better than they could, that they urged him on with applause
and loud cries of "Bravo ! Bravo I "
Immediately at the close of Hamilton's speech, the chairman
had the good sense to declare the meeting adjourned thus
shutting off all reply, as well as closing the mouths of the
minnow orators who usually pop up to neutralize the
impression that the strong man has made.
Hamilton's speech was the talk of the town. The leading
Whigs sought him out and begged that he would write down
his address so that they could print it as a pamphlet in reply
to the Tory pamphleteers who were vigorously circulating
their wares. The pens of ready writers were scarce in those
days: men could argue, but to present a forcible written
brief was another thing. So young Hamilton put his reasons
on paper, and their success surprised the boys at the boarding-
house, and the college chums and the professors, and proba
bly himself as well. His name was on the lips of all Whigdom,
and the Tories sent messengers to buy him off.
But Congress was willing to pay its defenders, and money
came from somewhere not much, but all the young man
68 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
needed. College was dropped; the political pot boiled; and
the study of history, economics and statecraft filled the
daylight hours to the brim and often ran over into the night.
<I The winter of Seventeen Hundred Seventy-five passed
away; the plot thickened. New York had reluctantly con
sented to be represented in Congress and agreed grumpily
to join hands with the Colonies. The redcoats had marched
out to Concord and back ; and the embattled farmers had
stood and fired the shot "heard 'round the world."
Hamilton was working hard to bring New York over to an
understanding that she must stand firm against English
rule. He organized meetings, gave addresses, wrote letters,
newspaper articles and pamphlets. Then he joined a military
company and was perfecting himself in the science of war.
t| There were frequent outbreaks between Tory mobs and
Whigs, and the breaking up of your opponents' meeting
was looked upon as a pleasant pastime.
Then came the British ship "Asia" and opened fire on the
town. This no doubt made Whigs of a good many Tories.
Whig sentiment was on the increase ; gangs of men marched
through the streets and the king's stores were broken into,
and prominent Royalists found their houses being threatened.
q Doctor Cooper, President of King's College, had been very
pronounced in his rebukes to Congress and the Colonies, and
a mob made its way to his house. Arriving there, Hamilton
and his chum Troup were found on the steps, determined
to protect the place. Hamilton stepped forward, and in a
strong speech urged that Doctor Cooper had merely expressed
his own private views, which he had a right to do, and the
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 69
house must not on any account be molested. While the parley
was in progress, old Doctor Cooper himself appeared at one
of the upper windows and excitedly cautioned the crowd
not to listen to that blatant young rapscallion Hamilton,
as he was a rogue and a varlet and a vagrom. The good
Doctor then slammed the window and escaped by the back
way & jt
His remarks raised a laugh in which even young Hamilton
joined, but his mistake was very natural in view of the fact
that he only knew that Hamilton had deserted the college
and espoused the devil's cause; and not having heard his
remarks, but seeing him standing on his steps haranguing
a crowd, thought surely he was endeavoring to work up
mischief against his old preceptor, who had once plucked
him in Greek.
It seems to have been the intention of his guardians that
the limit of young Hamilton's stay in America was to be
two years, and by that time his education would be "com
plete," and he would return to the West Indies and surprise
the natives.
But his father, who supplied the money, and the mystical
kinsmen who supplied advice, and the kind friends who
had given him letters to the Presbyterian clergymen at
New York and Princeton, had figured without their host.
Young Hamilton knew all that Nevis had in store for him :
he knew its littleness, its contumely and disgrace, and in
the secret recesses of his own strong heart he had slipped the
cable that held him to the past. No more remittances from
home; no more solicitous advice; no more kindly, loving
TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON
letters the past was dead. For England he once had had
an idolatrous regard ; to him she had once been the protector
of his native land, the empress of the seas, the enlightener
of mankind; but henceforth he was an American.
He was to fight America's battles, to share in her victory,
to help make of her a great Nation, and to weave his name
into the web of her history so that as long as the United
States of America shall be remembered, so long also
shall be remembered the name of Alexander Hamilton.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 71
m
'HAT General Washington called his "family"
usually consisted of sixteen men. These were his
aides, and more than that, his counselors and
friends. In Washington's frequent use of that expression,
"my family," there is a touch of affection that we do not
expect to find in the tents of war. In rank, the staff ran the
gamut from captain to general. Each man had his appointed
work and made a daily report to his chief. When not in actual
action, the family dined together daily, and the affair was
conducted with considerable ceremony. Washington sat at
the head of the table, large, handsome and dignified. At
his right hand was seated the guest of honor, and there
were usually several invited friends. At his left sat Alexander
Hamilton, ready with quick pen to record the orders of his
chief jt jt
And methinks it would have been quite worth while to have
had a place at that board, and looked down the table at
"the strong, fine face, tinged with melancholy," of Wash
ington ; and the cheery, youthful faces of Lawrence, Tilgh-
man, Lee, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and the others
of that brave and handsome company. Well might they
have called Washington father, for this he was in spirit to
them all grave, gentle, courteous and magnanimous, yet
exacting strict and instant obedience from all; and well,
too, may we imagine that this obedience was freely and
cheerfully given.
Hamilton became one of Washington's family on March
First, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-seven, with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel. He was barely twenty years of age;
72 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
Washington was forty-seven, and the average age of the
family, omitting its head, was twenty-five. All had been
selected on account of superior intelligence and a record
of dashing courage. When Hamilton took his place at the
board, he was the youngest member, save one. In point of
literary talent, he stood among the very foremost in the
country, for then there was no literature in America save
the literature of politics; and as an officer, he had shown
rare skill and bravery.
And yet, such was Hamilton's ambition and confidence in
himself, that he hesitated to accept the position, and con
sidered it an act of sacrifice to do so Jt But having once
accepted, he threw himself into the work and became Wash
ington's most intimate and valued assistant. Washington's
correspondence with his generals, with Congress, and the
written decisions demanded daily on hundreds of minor
questions, mostly devolved on Hamilton, for work gravitates
to him who can do it best. A simple "Yes," "No " or "Per
haps " from the chief must be elaborated into a diplomatic
letter, conveying just the right shade of meaning, all with
its proper emphasis and show of dignity and respect. Thou
sands of these dispatches can now be seen at the Capitol;
and the ease, grace, directness and insight shown in them
are remarkable. There is no muddy rhetoric or befuddled
clauses. They were written by one with a clear understanding,
who was intent that the person addressed should understand,
too. Many of these dispatches and proclamations were merely
signed by Washington, but a few reveal interlined sentences
and an occasional word changed in Washington's hand,
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 73
thus showing that all was closely scrutinized and digested.
Cj As a member of Washington's staff, Hamilton did not
have the independent command that he so much desired;
but he endured that heroic Winter at Valley Forge, was
present at all the important battles, took an active part in
most of them, and always gained honor and distinction.
Cl As an aide to Washington, Hamilton's most important
mission was when he was sent to General Gates to secure
reinforcements for the Southern army. Gates had defeated
Burgoyne and won a full dozen stern victories in the North.
In the meantime, Washington had done nothing but make
a few brave retreats. Gates' army was made up of hardy
and seasoned soldiers, who had met the enemy and defeated
him over and over again. The flush of success was on their
banners; and Washington knew that if a few thousand of
those rugged veterans could be secured to reinforce his own
well-nigh discouraged troops, victory would also perch upon
the banners of the South.
As a superior officer he had the right to demand these troops ;
but to reduce the force of a general who is making an excel
lent success is not the common rule of war. The country
looked upon Gates as its savior, and Gates was feeling a
little that way himself. Gates had but to demand it, and the
position of Commander-in-Chief would go to him. Wash
ington thoroughly realized this, and therefore hesitated about
issuing an order requesting a part of Gates' force. To secure
these troops as if the suggestion came from Gates was a
most delicate commission. Alexander Hamilton was dis
patched to Gates' headquarters, armed, as a last resort,
74 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
with a curt military order to the effect that he should turn
over a portion of his army to Washington. Hamilton's orders
were : "Bring the troops, but do not deliver this order unless
you are obliged to." CJ Hamilton brought the troops, and
returned the order with seal intact.
The act of his sudden breaking with Washington has been
much exaggerated. In fact, it was not a sudden act at all,
for it had been premeditated for some months. There was
a woman in the case. Hamilton had done more than conquer
General Gates on that Northern trip : at Albany, he had met
Elizabeth, daughter of General Schuyler, and won her after
what has been spoken of as "a short and sharp skirmish."
Both Alexander and Elizabeth regarded "a clerkship" as
quite too limited a career for one so gifted; they felt that
nothing less than commander of a division would answer.
How to break loose that was the question.
And when Washington met him at the head of the stairs
of the New Windsor Hotel and sharply chided him for being
late, the young man embraced the opportunity and said,
"Sir, since you think I have been remiss, we part."
It was the act of a boy ; and the figure of this boy, five feet
five inches high, weight one hundred twenty, aged twenty-
four, talking back to his chief, six feet three, weight two
hundred, aged fifty, has its comic side. Military rule demands
that every one shall be on time, and Washington's rebuke
was proper and right. Further than this, one feels that if
he had followed up his rebuke by boxing the young man's
ears for "sassing back," he would still not have been outside
the lines of duty.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
75
But an hour afterwards we find Washington sending for
the youth and endeavoring to mend the break. And although
Hamilton proudly repelled his advances, Washington forgave
all and generously did all he could to advance the young
man's interests. Washington's magnanimity was absolutely
without flaw, but bis attitude towards Hamilton has a more
suggestive meaning when we consider that it was a testi
monial of the high estimate he placed on Hamilton's ability.
Cj[ At Yorktown, Washington gave Hamilton the perilous
privilege of leading the assault. Hamilton did his work well,
rushing with fiery impetuosity upon the fort carried all
before him, and in ten minutes had planted the Stars and
Stripes on the ramparts of the enemy.
It was a fine and fitting close to his glorious military career.
76 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
Washington became President, the most
important office to be filled was that of manager
of the exchequer. In fact, all there was of it was
the office there was no treasury, no mint, no fixed revenue,
no credit; but there were debts foreign and domestic
and clamoring creditors by the thousand. The debts consisted
of what was then the vast sum of eighty million dollars. The
treasury was empty. Washington had many advisers who
argued that the Nation could never live under such a weight
of debt the only way was flatly and frankly to repudiate
wipe the slate clean and begin afresh.
This was what the country expected would be done ; and so
low was the hope of payment that creditors could be found
who were willing to compromise their claims for ten cents
on the dollar. Robert Morris, who had managed the finances
during the period of the Confederation, utterly refused to
attempt the task again, but he named a man who, he said,
could bring order out of chaos, if any living man could. That
man was Alexander Hamilton. Washington appealed to
Hamilton, offering him the position of Secretary of the
Treasury. Hamilton, aged thirty-two, gave up his law
practise, which was yielding him ten thousand a year, to
accept this office which paid three thousand five hundred.
Before the British cannon, Washington did not lose heart,
but to face the angry mob of creditors waving white paper
claims made him quake ; but with Hamilton's presence his
courage came back.
The first thing that Hamilton decided upon was that there
should be no repudiation no offer of compromise would
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 77
be considered every man should be paid in full. And further
than this, the general government would assume the entire
war debt of each individual State. Washington concurred
with Hamilton on these points, but he could make neither
oral nor written argument in a way that would convince
others ; so this task was left to Hamilton. Hamilton appeared
before Congress and explained his plans explained them so
lucidly and with such force and precision that he made an
indelible impression. There were grumblers and complainers,
but these did not and could not reply to Hamilton, for he
saw all over and around the subject, and they saw it only at
an angle. Hamilton had studied the history of finance, and
knew the financial schemes of every country. No question
of statecraft could be asked him for which he did not have
a reply ready. He knew the science of government as no
other man in America then did, and recognizing this, Con
gress asked him to prepare reports on the collection of
revenue, the coasting trade, the effects of a tariff, ship
building, post-office extension, and also a scheme for a
judicial system. When in doubt they asked Hamilton.
And all the time Hamilton was working at this bewildering
maze of detail, he was evolving that financial policy, broad,
comprehensive and minute, which endures even to this day,
even to the various forms of accounts that are now kept
at the Treasury Department at Washington.
His insistence that to preserve the credit of a nation every
debt must be paid, is an idea that no statesman now dare
question. The entire aim and intent of his policy was high,
open and frank honesty. The people should be made to feel
78 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
an absolute security in their government, and this being so,
all forms of industry would prosper, "and the prosperity
of the people is the prosperity of the Nation." To such a
degree of confidence did Hamilton raise the public credit
that in a very short tune the government found no trouble in
borrowing all the money it needed at four per cent ; and yet
this was done hi face of the fact that its debt had increased.
CJ Just here was where his policy invited its strongest and
most bitter attack. For there are men today who can not
comprehend that a public debt is a public blessing, and that
all liabilities have a strict and undivorceable relationship
to assets. Alexander Hamilton was a leader of men. He could
do the thinking of his time and map out a policy, ' 'arranging
every detail for a kingdom." He has been likened to Napoleon
in his ability to plan and execute with rapid and marvelous
precision, and surely the similarity is striking.
But he was not an adept in the difficult and delicate art of
diplomacy he could not wait. He demanded instant obedi
ence, and lacked all of that large, patient, calm magnanimity
so splendidly shown forth since by Abraham Lincoln. Unlike
Jefferson, his great rival, he could not calmly and silently
bide his time. But I will not quarrel with a man because he
is not some one else.
He saw things clearly at a glance; he knew because he
knew ; and if others would not follow, he had the audacity
to push on alone. This recklessness to the opinion of the
slow and plodding, this indifference to the dull, gradually
drew upon him the hatred of a class.
They said he was a monarchist at heart and "such men are
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
79
dangerous." The country became divided into those who
were with Hamilton and those who were against him. The
very transcendent quality of his genius wove the net that
eventually was to catch his feet and accomplish his ruin.
8o ALEXANDER HAMILTON
has been the usual practise for narly a hundred years
to refer to Aaron Burr as a roue, a rogue and a thorough
villain, who took the life of a gentle and innocent man.
I have no apologies to make for Colonel Burr ; the record
of his life lies open in many books, and I would neither
conceal nor explain away.
If I should attempt to describe the man and liken him to
another, that man would be Alexander Hamilton.
They were the same age within ten months ; they were the
same height within an inch; their weight was the same
within five pounds, and in temperament and disposition
they resembled each other as brothers seldom do. Each
was passionate, ambitious, proud.
In the drawing-room where one of these men chanced to
be, there was room for no one else such was the vivacity,
the wit, and the generous, glowing good-nature shown.
With women, the manner of these men was most gentle
and courtly ; and the low, alluring voice of each was music's
honeyed flattery set to words.
Both were much under the average height, yet the carriage
of each was so proud and imposing that everywhere they
went men made way, and women turned and stared.
Both were public speakers and lawyers of such eminence
that they took their pick of clients and charged all the fee
that policy would allow jt In debate, there was a wilful
aggressiveness, a fiery sureness, a lofty certainty, that moved
judges and juries to do their bidding. Henry Cabot Lodge
says that so great was Hamilton's renown as a lawyer that
clients flocked to him because the belief was abroad that no
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 81
judge dare decide against him. With Burr it was the same.
CJ Both made large sums, and both spent them all as fast as
made jt &
In point of classic education, Burr had the advantage.
He was the grandson of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards.
In his strong personal magnetism, and keen, many-sided
intellect, Aaron Burr strongly resembled the gifted Presby
terian divine who wrote "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God." His father was the Reverend Aaron Burr, President
of Princeton College. He was a graduate of Princeton, and,
like Hamilton, always had the ability to focus his mind on
the subject hi hand, and wring from it its very core. Burr's
reputation as to his susceptibility to women's charms is
the world's common very common property jt He was
unhappily married; his wife died before he was thirty;
he was a man of ardent nature and stalked through the
world a conquering Don Juan. A historian, however, records
that "his alliances were only with women who were deemed
by society to be respectable. Married women, unhappily
mated, knowing his reputation, very often placed themselves
in his way, going to him for advice, as moths court the flame.
Young, tender and innocent girls had no charm for him."
CJ Hamilton was happily married to a woman of aristocratic
family; rich, educated, intellectual, gentle, and worthy of
him at his best. They had a family of eight children. Hamilton
was a favorite of women everywhere, and was mixed up in
various scandalous intrigues. He was an easy mark for a
designing woman. In one instance, the affair was seized
upon by his political foes, and made capital of to his sore
82 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
disadvantage. Hamilton met the issue by writing a pamphlet,
laying bare the entire shameless affair, to the horror of his
family and friends. Copies of this pamphlet may be seen in
the rooms of the American Historical Society at New York.
Cf Burr had been Attorney-General of New York State and
also United States Senator. Each man had served on Wash
ington's staff; each had a brilliant military record; each
had acted as second in a duel; each recognized the honor
of the code.
Stern political differences arose, not so much through
matters of opinion and conscience, as through ambitious
rivalry. Neither was willing the other should rise, yet both
thirsted for place and power. Burr ran for the Presidency,
and was sternly, strongly, bitterly opposed as "a dangerous
man", by Hamilton.
At the election one more electoral vote would have given
the highest office of the people to Aaron Burr ; as it was he
tied with Jefferson. The matter was thrown into the House
of Representatives, and Jefferson was given the office, with
Burr as Vice-President. Burr considered, and perhaps rightly,
that were it not for Hamilton's assertive influence he would
have been President of the United States.
While still Vice-President, Burr sought to become Governor
of New York, thinking this the surest road to receiving the
nomination for the Presidency at the next election.
Hamilton openly and bitterly opposed him, and the office
went to another.
Burr considered, and rightly, that were it not for Hamilton's
influence he would have been Governor of New York.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 83
Burr, smarting under the sting of this continual opposition
by a man who himself was shelved politically through his
own too fiery ambition, sent a note by his friend Van Ness
to Hamilton, asking whether the language he had used
concerning him ("a dangerous man") referred to him
politically or personally.
Hamilton replied evasively, saying he could not recall all
that he might have said during fifteen years of public life.
"Especially," he said in his letter, "it can not be reasonably
expected that I shall enter into any explanation upon a basis
so vague as you have adopted. I trust on more reflection you
will see the matter in the same light. If not, however, I only
regret the circumstances, and must abide the consequences."
Cf When fighting men use fighting language they invite a
challenge. Hamilton's excessively polite regret that "he
must abide the consequences" simply meant fight, as his
language had for a space of five years.
A challenge was sent by the hand of Pendleton. Hamilton
accepted. Being the challenged man (for duelists are always
polite), he was given the choice of weapons. He chose pistols
at ten paces.
At seven o'clock on the morning of July Eleventh, Eighteen
Hundred Four, the participants met on the heights of Wee-
hawken, overlooking New York Bay. On a toss Hamilton
won the choice of position and his second also won the right
of giving the word to fire.
Each man removed his coat and cravat; the pistols were
loaded in their presence. As Pendleton handed his pistol to
Hamilton he asked, "Shall I set the hair-trigger?" "Not
84 ALEXANDER HAMILTON
this time," replied Hamilton. With pistols primed and cocked,
the men were stationed facing each other, thirty feet apart.
<I Both were pale, but free from any visible nervousness or
excitement. Neither had partaken of stimulants. Each was
asked if he had anything to say, or if he knew of any way
by which the affair could be terminated there and then.
Each answered quietly in the negative. Pendleton, standing
fifteen feet to the right of his principal, said: "One two
three present I " and as the last final sounding of the letter
"t" escaped his teeth, Burr fired, followed almost instantly
by the other.
Hamilton arose convulsively on his toes, reeled, and Burr,
dropping his smoking pistol, sprang towards him to support
him, a look of regret on his face.
Van Ness raised an umbrella over the fallen man, and
motioned Burr to be gone.
The ball passed through Hamilton's body, breaking a rib,
and lodging in the second lumbar vertebra.
The bullet from Hamilton's pistol cut a twig four feet above
Burr's head.
While he was lying on the ground Hamilton saw his pistol
near and said, "Look out for that pistol, it is loaded
Pendleton knows I did not intend to fire at him ! "
Hamilton died the following day, first declaring that he
bore Colonel Burr no ill-will.
Colonel Burr said he very much regretted the whole affair,
but the language and attitude of Hamilton forced him to
send a challenge or remain quiet and be branded as a
coward. He fully realized before the meeting that if he
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
85
killed Hamilton it would be political death for him, too.
J At the time of the deed Burr had no family ; Hamilton had
a wife and seven children, his oldest son having fallen in
a duel fought three years before on the identical spot where
he, too, fell.
Burr fled the country.
Three years afterwards, he was arrested for treason in trying
to found an independent state within the borders of the
United States. He was tried and found not guilty.
After some years spent abroad he returned and took up the
practise of law in New York. He was fairly successful, lived
a modest, quiet life, and died September Fourteenth, Eighteen
Hundred Thirty-six, aged eighty years.
Hamilton's widow survived him just one-half a century,
dying in her ninety-eighth year.
So passeth away the glory of the world.
SAMUEL ADAMS
SAW B L ADAMS
THE body of the people are now in council. Their opposi
tion grows into a system. They are united and resolute.
And if the British Administration and Government do not
return to the principles of moderation and equity, the evil,
which they profess to aim at preventing by their rigorous
measures, will the sooner be brought to pass, viz., the entire
separation and independence of the Colonies.
Letter to Arthur Lee.
SAMUEL ADAMS
IAMUEL and John Adams were second
cousins, having the same great-grand
father. Between them in many ways there
was a marked contrast, but true to their
New England instincts both were theo
logians jfc jt
John was a conservative in politics, and
at first had little sympathy with "those
small-minded men who refused to pay a
trivial tax on their tea; and who would
plunge the country into war, and ruin all
for a matter of stamps." John was born
and lived at the village of Braintree. He
did not really center his mind on politics
until the British had closed all law-courts
in Boston, thus making his profession
obsolete. He was scholarly, shrewd, dip
lomatic, cautious, good-natured, fat, and
took his religion with a wink. He was
blessed with a wife who was worthy of
being the mother of kings (or presidents) ;
he lived comfortably, acquired property,
and died aged ninety-two. He had been
President and seen his son President of
the United States, and that is an experience
that has never come and probably never
will come to another living man, for there
seems to be an unwritten law that no man
under fifty shall occupy the office of
92 SAMUEL ADAMS
Chief Magistrate of these United States. <J Samuel was
stern, serious and deeply in earnest. He seldom smiled and
never laughed. He was uncompromisingly religious, con
scientious and morally unbending jt In his life there was
no soft sentiment. The fact that he ran a brewery can be
excused when we remember that the best spirit of the times
saw nothing inconsistent in the occupation ; and further than
this we might explain in extenuation that he gave the busi
ness indifferent attention, and the quality of his brew was
said to be very bad.
In religion, he swerved not nor wavered. He was a Calvinist
and clung to the five points with a tenacity at times seemingly
quite unnecessary.
When in that first Congress, Samuel Adams publicly con
sented to the opening of the meeting with religious service
conducted by the Reverend Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergy
man, he gave a violent wrench to his conscience and an
awful shock to his friends. But Mr. Duche met the issue in
the true spirit, and leaving his detested "popery robe" and
prayer-book at home uttered an extemporaneous invocation,
without a trace of intoning, that pleased the Puritans and
caused one of them to remark, "He is surely coming over
to the Lord's side 1 "
But in politics, Samuel Adams was a liberal of the liberals.
In statecraft, the heresy of change had no terrors for him,
and with Hamlet, he might have said, "Oh, reform it alto
gether I"
The limitations set in every character seem to prevent a
man from being generous in more than one direction;
SAMUEL ADAMS
93
the bigot in religion is often a liberal in politics, and vice
versa. For instance, physicians are almost invariably liberal
in religious matters, but are prone to call a man "Mister"
who does not belong to their school ; while orthodox clergy
men, I have noticed, usually employ a homeopathist.
In that most valuable and interesting work, "The Diary
of John Adams," the author refers repeatedly to Samuel
Adams as "Adams"! This simple way of using the word
"Adams" shows a world of appreciation for the man who
blazed the path that others of this illustrious name might
follow. And so with the high precedent in mind, I, too, will
drop prefix and call my subject simply "Adams."
On the authority of King George, General Gage made an
offer of pardon to all save two who had figured in the Boston
uprising jfc jfc
The two men thus honored were John Hancock (whose
signature the King could read without spectacles), and the
other was "one, S. Adams."
Adams, however, was the real offender, and the plea might
have been made for John Hancock that, if it had not been
for accident and Adams, Hancock would probably have
remained loyal to the mother country.
Hancock was aristocratic, cultured and complacent. He
was the richest man in New England. His personal interests
were on the side of peace and the established order. But
circumstances and the combined tact and zeal of Adams
threw him off his guard, and in a moment of dalliance the
seeds of sedition found lodgment in his brain. And the more
he thought about it, the nearer he came to the conclusion
94 SAMUEL ADAMS
that Adams was right. But let the fact further be stated, if
truth demands, that both John Hancock and Samuel Adams,
the first men who clearly and boldly expressed the idea of
American Independence, were moved in the beginning by
personal grievances.
A single motion made before the British Parliament by we
know not whom, and put to vote by the Speaker, bankrupted
the father of Samuel Adams and robbed the youth of his
patrimony jfc j*
The boy was then seventeen ; old enough to know that from
plenty his father was reduced to penury, and this because
England, three thousand miles away, had interfered with
the business arrangements of the Colony, and made unlawful
a private banking scheme.
Then did the boy ask the question, What moral right has
England to govern us, anyway?
From thinking it over he began to formulate reasons. He
discussed the subject at odd times and thought of it con
tinually, and, in Seventeen Hundred Forty-three, when he
prepared his graduation thesis at Harvard College he chose
for his subject, "The Doctrine of the Lawfulness of Resist
ance to the Supreme Magistrate if the Commonwealth Can
Not Otherwise be Preserved."
When Massachusetts admitted that she was under subjection
to the King, yet argued for the right to nullify the Acts of
the English Parliament, she took exactly the same ground
that South Carolina did a hundred years later. The logic of
Samuel Adams and of Hayne was one and the same. Yet
we are glad that Adams carried his point; and we rejoice
SAMUEL ADAMS 95
exceedingly that Hayne failed, so curious are these things
we call "reasons."
The royalists who heard of this youth with a logical mind
denounced him without stint. A few newspapers upheld him
and spoke of the right of free speech and all that, reprinting
the thesis in full. And in the controversy that followed, young
Adams was always a prominent figure. He was not an orator
in the popular sense, but he held the pen of a ready writer,
and through the Boston papers kept up a constant fusillade.
<J The tricks of journalism are no new thing belonging to
the fag-end of this century. Young Adams wrote letters over
the "nom de plume" of Probono Publico, and then replied
to them over the signature of Rex Americus. He did not adopt
as his motto, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doeth," for he wrote with both hands and each hand
was in the secret.
During the years that followed his graduation from college
he was a businessman and a poor one, for a man who looks
after public affairs much can not attend to his own. But he
managed to make shift; and when too closely pressed by
creditors, a loan from Hancock, or John Adams, Hancock's
attorney, relieved the pressure. In fact, when he went to
Philadelphia "on that very important errand," he rode a
horse borrowed from John Adams, and his Sunday coat
was the gift of a thoughtful friend.
In Seventeen Hundred Sixty-three, it became known that
the British Government had on foot a scheme to demand
a tribute from the Colonies. On invitation of a committee,
possibly appointed by Adams, Adams was requested to draw
p6 SAMUEL ADAMS
up instructions to the Representatives in the Colonial Legisla
ture. Adams did so and the document is now in the archives
of the old State House at Boston, in the plain and elegant
penmanship that is so easily recognized. This document
calls itself, "The First Public Denial of the Right of the
British Parliament to tax the Colonies without their Consent,
and the first Public Suggestion of a Union on the part of the
Colonies to Protect themselves against British Aggression."
<J The style of the paper is lucid, firm and logical ; it combines
in itself the suggestion of all there was to be said or could be
said on the matter. Adams saw all over and around his topic
no unpleasant surprise could be sprung on him twenty-
five years had he studied this one theme & He had made
himself familiar with the political history of every nation
so far as such history could be gathered ; he was past master
of his subject.
However, when he was forty years of age his followers were
few and mostly men of small influence. The Caulker's Club
was the home of the sedition, and many of the members
were day-laborers. But the idea of independence gradually
grew, and, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, Adams was
elected a member of the Massachusetts Colonial Legislature.
In honor of his writing ability, he was chosen clerk of the
Assembly, for in all public gatherings orators are chosen
as presidents and newspapermen for secretaries. Thus are
honors distributed, and thus, too, does the public show
which talent it values most.
On November Second, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-two, on
motion of Adams, a committee of several hundred citizens
SAMUEL ADAMS 97
was appointed "to state the Rights of the Colonies and to
communicate and publish them to the World as the sense
of the Town, with the infringements and violations thereof
that have been or may be made from time to time; also
requesting from each Town a free communication of their
sentiments on this Subject."
This was the Committee of Correspondence from which
grew the union of the Colonies and the Congress of the
United States. It is a pretty well attested fact that the first
suggestion of the Philadelphia Congress came from Samuel
Adams, and the chief work of bringing it about was also his.
CI It was well known to the British Government who the
chief agitator was, and when General Gage arrived in Boston
in May, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, his first work
was an attempt to buy off Samuel Adams. With Adams out
of the way, England might have adopted a policy of con
ciliation and kept America for her very own yes, to the
point of moving the home government here and saving the
snug little island as a colony, for both in wealth and in
population America has now far surpassed England.
But Adams was not for sale. His reply to Gage sounds like
a scrap from Cromwell: "I trust I have long since made
my peace with the King of Kings. No personal consideration
shall induce me to abandon the Righteous Cause of my
Country."
Gage having refused to recognize the thirteen Counselors
appointed by the people, the General Court of Massachusetts,
in secret session, appointed five delegates to attend the
Congress of Colonies at Philadelphia. Of course Samuel
98 SAMUEL ADAMS
Adams was one of these delegates; and to John Adams,
another delegate, are we indebted for a minute description
of that most momentous meeting.
A room in the State House had been offered the delegates,
but with commendable modesty they accepted the offer
of the Carpenters' Company to use their hall.
And so there they convened on the fifth day of September,
Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four, having met by appoint
ment, and walked over from the City Tavern in a body jfc
Forty-four men were present not a large gathering, but
they had come hundreds of miles, and several of them had
been months on the journey.
They were a sturdy lot ; and madam ! I think it would have
been worth while to have looked in upon them. There were
several coonskin caps in evidence; also lace and frills and
velvet brought from England but plainness to severity
was the rule. Few of these men had ever been away from
their own Colonies before, few had ever met any members
of the Congress save their own colleagues. They represented
civilizations of very different degrees. Each stood a bit in
awe of all the rest. Several of the Colonies had been in conflict
with the others.
Meeting new men in those days, when even the stagecoach
was a passing show worth going miles to see, was an event.
There was awkwardness and nervousness on the swarthy
faces ; firm mouths twitched, and big, bony hands sought
for places of concealment.
The meeting had been called for September First, but was
postponed for five days awaiting the arrival of belated dele-
SAMUEL ADAMS 99
gates who had been detained by floods. Even then, delegates
from North Carolina had not arrived, and Georgia not having
thought it worth while to send any, eleven Colonies only
were represented. Each delegation naturally kept together,
as men will who have a fighting history and a pioneer
ancestry jt jt
It was a serious, solemn business and these men were not
given to levity in any event. When they were seated, there
was a moment of silence so tense it could be heard. Every
chance movement of a foot on the uncarpeted floor sent an
echo through the room.
The stillness was first broken by Mr. Lynch, of South Caro
lina, who arose and in a low, clear voice said: "There is a
gentleman present who has presided with great dignity
over a very respectable body and greatly to the advantage
of America. Gentlemen, I move that the Honorable Peyton
Randolph, one of the delegates from Virginia, be appointed
to preside over this meeting. I doubt not it will be unani
mous." jt> jl
It was so ; and a large man in powdered wig and scarlet
coat arose, and, carrying his gold-headed cane before him
like a mace, walked to the platform without apology.
The New En glanders in homespun looked at one another with
trepidation on their features. The red coat was not assuring,
but they kept their peace and breathed hard, praying that
the enemy had not captured the convention through strategy.
Mr. Randolph's first suggestion was not revolutionary; it
was that a secretary be appointed.
Again Mr. Lynch arose and named Charles Thomson, "a
100
SAMUEL ADAMS
gentleman of family, fortune and character." This testi
monial of family and fortune was not assuring to the plain
Massachusetts men, but they said nothing and awaited
developments.
All were cautious as woodsmen, and the motion that the
Council be held behind closed doors was adopted. Every
member then held up his right hand and made a solemn
promise to divulge no part of the transactions ; and Galloway,
of Pennsylvania, promised with the rest, and straightway
each night informed the enemy of every move.
Little was done that first day but get acquainted by talking
very cautiously and very politely. The next day a notable
member had arrived, and in a front seat sat Richard Henry
Lee, a man you would turn and look at in any company.
Slender and dark, with a brilliant eye and a profile and
only one man in ten thousand has a profile Lee was a
gracious presence. His voice was gentle and flexible and
luring, and there was a dignity and poise in his manner
that made him easily the foremost orator of his time.
Near him sat William Livingston, of New Jersey, and John
Jay, his son-in-law, the youngest man in the Congress,
with a nose that denoted character, and all his fame in the
future jt jt
The Pennsylvanians were all together, grouped on one side.
Duane, of New York, sat near them, "shy and squint-eyed,
very sensible and very artful," wrote John Adams that
night in his diary.
Then over there sat Christopher Gadsden, of South Carolina,
who had preached independence for full ten years before
SAMUEL ADAMS 101
this, and who, when he heard that the British soldiers had
taken Boston, proposed to raise a troop at once and fight
redcoats wherever found.
"But the British will burn our seaport towns if we antago
nize them," some timid soul explained.
"Our towns are built of brick and wood ; if they are burned
we can rebuild them ; but liberty once gone is gone forever,"
he retorted. And the saying sounds well, even if it will not
stand analysis.
Back near the wall was a man who, when the assembly
stood at morning prayers, showed a half-head above his
neighbors. His face was broad, and he, too, had a profile.
His mouth was tightly closed and during the first fourteen
days of that Congress he never opened it to utter a word,
and after his long quiet he broke the silence by saying, "Mr.
President, I second the motion." Once, in a passionate
speech, Lynch turned to him and pointing his finger said:
' 'There is a man who has not spoken here, but in the Virginia
Assembly he made the most eloquent speech I ever heard.
He said, 'I will raise a thousand men, and arm and subsist
them at my expense and march them to the relief of Boston.' "
And then did the tall man, whose name was George Wash
ington, blush like a schoolgirl.
But in all that company the men most noticed were the five
members from Massachusetts. They were Bowdoin, Samuel
Adams, John Adams, Gushing and Robert Treat Paine.
Massachusetts had thus far taken the lead in the struggle
with England. A British army was encamped upon her
soil, her chief city besieged the port closed. Her sufferings
102 SAMUEL ADAMS
had called this Congress into being, and to her delegates
the members had come to listen. All recognized Samuel
Adams as the chief man of the Convention. His hand wrote
the invitations and earnest requests to come. Galloway,
writing to his friends, the enemy, said: "Samuel Adams
eats little, drinks little, sleeps little and thinks much. He
is most decisive and indefatigable in the pursuit of his object.
He is the man who, by his superior application, manages
at once the faction in Philadelphia and the factions of New
England."
Yet Samuel Adams talked little at the Convention. He
allowed John Adams to state the case, but sat next to him
supplying memoranda, occasionally arising to make remarks
or explanations in a purely conversational tone. But so
earnest and impressive was his manner, so ably did he
answer every argument and reply to every objection, that
he thoroughly convinced a tall, angular, homely man by
the name of Patrick Henry of the righteousness of his cause.
Patrick Henry was pretty thoroughly convinced before, but
the recital of Boston's case fired the Virginian, and he made
the first and only real speech of the Congress. In burning
words he pictured all the Colonies had suffered and endured,
and by his matchless eloquence told in prophetic words of
the glories yet to be. In his speech he paid just tribute to
the genius of Samuel Adams, declaring that the good that
was to come from this "first of an unending succession of
Congresses " was owing to the work of Adams. And in after-
years Adams repaid the compliment by saying that if it had
not been for the cementing power of Patrick Henry's elo-
SAMUEL ADAMS 103
quence. that first Congress probably would have ended in
a futile wrangle.
The South regarded, in great degree, the fight in Boston
as Massachusetts 1 own. To make the entire thirteen Colonies
adopt the quarrel and back the Colonial army in the vicinity
of Boston was the only way to make the issue a success,
and to unite the factions by choosing for a leader a Virginian
aristocrat was a crowning stroke of diplomacy.
John Hancock had succeeded Randolph as president of
the second Congress, and Virginia was inclined to be luke
warm, when John Adams in an impassioned speech nomi
nated Colonel George Washington as Commander-in-Chief
of the Continental Army. The nomination was seconded
very quietly by Samuel Adams. It was a vote, and the South
was committed to the cause of backing up Washington, and,
incidentally, New England. The entire plan was probably
the work of Samuel Adams, yet he gave the credit to John,
while the credit of stoutly opposing it goes to John Hancock,
who, being presiding officer, worked at a disadvantage.
But Adams had a way of reducing opposition to the mini
mum. He kept out of sight and furthered his ends by pushing
this man or that to the front at the right time to make the
plea. He was a master in that fine art of managing men
and never letting them know they are managed. By keeping
behind the arras, he accomplished purposes that a leader
never can who allows his personality to be in continual
evidence, for personality repels as well as attracts, and
the man too much before the public is sure to be undone
eventually. Adams knew that the power of Pericles lay
104 SAMUEL ADAMS
largely in the fact that he was never seen upon but a single
street of Athens, and that but once a year.
The complete writings of Adams have recently been collected
and published. One marvels that such valuable material has
not before been printed and given to the public, for the
literary style and perspicuity shown are most inspiring, and
the value of the data can not be gainsaid.
No one ever accused Adams of being a muddy thinker ; you
grant his premises and you are bound to accept his con
clusions. He leaves no loopholes for escape.
The following words, used by Chatham, refer to documents
in which Adams took a prominent part in preparing : ' 'When
your Lordships look at the papers transmitted us from
America, when you consider their decency, firmness and
wisdom, you can not but respect their cause and wish to
make it your own. For myself, I must avow that, in all
my reading and I have read Thucydides and have studied
and admired the master statesmen of the world for solidity
of reason, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion under
a complication of difficult circumstances, no body of men
can stand in preference to the general Congress of Phila
delphia. The histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing
like it, and all attempts to impress servitude on such a
mighty continental people must be in vain."
In the life of Adams there was no soft sentiment nor romantic
vagaries. "He is a Puritan in all the word implies, and the
unbending fanatic of independence," wrote Gage, and the
description fits.
He was twice married. Our knowledge of his first wife is
SAMUEL ADAMS 105
very slight, but his second wife, Elizabeth Wells, daughter
of an English merchant, was a capable woman of brave
good sense. She adopted her husband's political views and
with true womanly devotion let her old kinsmen slide ; and
during the dark hours of the war bore deprivation without
repining jfc jt
Adams' home life was simple to the verge of hardship. All
through life he was on the ragged edge financially, and in
his latter years he was for the first time relieved from pressing
obligations by an afflicting event the death of his only son,
who was a surgeon in Washington's army. The money paid
to the son by the Government for his services gave the
father the only financial competency he ever knew. Two
daughters survived him, but with him died the name.
John Adams survived Samuel for twenty-three years. He
lived to see "the great American experiment," as Mr. Ruskin
has been pleased to call our country, on a firm basis, con
stantly growing stronger and stronger. He lived to realize
that the sanguine prophecies made by Samuel were working
themselves out in very truth.
The grave of Samuel Adams is viewed by more people than
that of any other American patriot. In the old Granary
Burying-Ground, in the very center of Boston, on Tremont
Street there where travel congests, and two living streams
meet all day long you look through the iron fence, so slender
that it scarce impedes the view, and not twenty feet from
the curb is a simple metal disk set on an iron rod driven
into the ground and on it this inscription: "This marks
the grave of Samuel Adams."
io6
SAMUEL ADAMS
For many years the grave was unmarked, and the disk that
now denotes it was only recently placed in position by the
Sons of the American Revolution. But the place of Samuel
Adams on the pages of history is secure. Upon the times in
which he lived he exercised a profound influence. And he who
influences the times in which he lives has influenced all the
times that come after ; he has left his impress on eternity.
JOHN HANCOCK
JOHN
K
Boston, Sept. 30, 1765.
Gent:
Since my last I have received your favour by Capt Hulme
who is arriv'd here with the most disagreeable Commodity
(say Stamps) that were imported into this Country & what
if carry'd into Execution will entirely Stagnate Trade here,
for it is universally determined here never to Submitt to it
and the principal merchts here will by no means carry on
Business under a Stamp, we are in the utmost Confusion
here and shall be more so after the first of November &
nothing but the repeal of the act will righten, the Conse
quence of its taking place here will be bad, & attended with
many troubles, & I believe may say more fatal to you than
us. I dread the Event. Extract from Hancock's Letter-Book.
JOHN HANCOCK
ONG years ago when society was young,
learning was centered in one man in each
community, and that man was the priest.
It was the priest who was sent for in every
emergency of life. He taught the young,
prescribed for the sick, advised those who
were in trouble, and when human help
was vain and man had done his all, this
priest knelt at the bedside of the dying
and invoked a Power with whom it was
believed he had influence. <J The so-called
learned professions are only another exam
ple of the Division of Labor. We usually say
there are three learned professions: The
ology, Medicine and Law. As to which is
the greater is a much-mooted question and
has caused too many family feuds for me
to attempt to decide it. And so I evade the
issue and say there is a fourth profession,
that is only allowed to be called so by
grace, but which in my mind is greater
than them all the profession of Teacher.
I can conceive of a condition of society
so high and excellent that it has no use
for either doctor, lawyer or preacher, but
the teacher would still be needed. Ignorance
and sin supply the three " learned pro
fessions" their excuse for being, but the
teacher's work is to develop the germ of
ii2 JOHN HANCOCK
wisdom that is in every soul. <JAnd now each of these
professions has divided up, like monads, into many
heads jfc In medicine, we have as many specialists as
there are organs of the body jt The lawyer who advises
you in a copyright or patent cause knows nothing about
admiralty ; and as they tell us a man who pleads his own
case has a fool for a client, so does the insurance lawyer
who is retained to foreclose a mortgage. In all prosperous
city churches, the preacher who attracts the crowd in the
morning allows a 'prentice to preach to the young folks
in the evening; he does not make pastoral calls; and the
curate who reads the service at funerals is never called upon
to perform a marriage ceremony except in a case of charity.
Likewise the teacher's profession has its specialists: the
man who teaches Greek well can not write good English,
and the man who teaches composition is baffled and per
plexed by long division; and the teacher who delights in
trigonometry poohpoohs a kindergartner.
Just where this evolutionary dividing and subdividing of
social cells will land the race no man can say; but that a
specialist is a dangerous man, is sure. He is a buzz-saw
with which wise men never monkey. A surgeon who has
operated for appendicitis five times successfully is above
all to be avoided. I once knew a man with lung trouble
who inadvertently strayed into an oculist's, and was looked
over and sent away with an order on an optician. And should
you through error stray into the office of a nose and throat
specialist, and ask him to treat you for varicose veins, he
would probably do so by nasal douche.
JOHN HANCOCK 113
Even now a specialist in theology will lead us, if he can,
a merry "ignis-fatuus " chase and land us in a morass.
The only thing that saved the priest in days agone was the
fact that he had so many duties to perform that he exercised
all his mental muscles, and thus attained a degree of all-
roundness which is not possible to the specialist. Even then
there were not lacking men who found time to devote to
specialties: Bishop Georgius Ambrosius, for instance, who
in the Fifteenth Century produced a learned work proving
that women have no souls. And a like book was written at
Nashville, Tennessee, in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-nine, by
the Reverend Hubert Parsons of the Methodist Episcopal
Church (South), showing that negroes were in a like
predicament. But a more notable instance of the danger
of a specialty is the Reverend Cotton Mather, who investi
gated the subject of witchcraft and issued a modest brochure
incorporating his views on the subject. He succeeded in
convincing at least one man of its verity, and that man
was himself, and thus immortality was given to the town
of Salem, which, otherwise, would have no claim on us
for remembrance, save that Hawthorne was once a clerk
in its custom-house.
A very slight study of Colonial history will show any student
that, for two centuries, the ministers in New England occu
pied very much the same position in society that the priest
did during the Middle Ages. As the monks kept learning
from dying off the face of earth, so did the ministers of
the New World preserve culture from passing into forget-
fulness. Very seldom, indeed, were books to be found in a
ii4 JOHN HANCOCK
community except at the minister's. And during the Seven
teenth Century, and well into the Eighteenth, he combined
in himself the offices of doctor, lawyer, preacher and teacher.
Mr. Lowell has said: "I can not remember when there was
not one or more students in my father's household, and
others still who came at regular intervals to recite. And
this was the usual custom. It was the minister who fitted
boys for college, and no youth was ever sent away to school
until he had been well drilled by the local clergyman."
And it must further be noted, that genealogical tables show
that very nearly all of the eminent men of New England
were sons of ministers, or of an ancestry where ministers'
names are seen at frequent intervals.
As an intellectual and moral force, the minister has now
but a rudiment of the power he once exercised. The tendency
to specialize all art and all knowledge has to a degree shorn
him of his strength. And to such an extent is this true, that
within forty years it has passed into a common proverb
that the sons of clergymen are rascals, whereas in Colonial
days the highest recommendation a youth could carry was
that he was the son of a minister.
The Reverend John Hancock, grandfather of John Hancock
the patriot, was for more than half a century the minister
of Lexington, Massachusetts. I say "the minister," because
there was only one: the keen competition of sect that
establishes half a dozen preachers in a small community
is a very modern innovation.
John Hancock, "Bishop of Lexington," was a man of pro
nounced personality, as is plainly seen in his portrait in the
JOHN HANCOCK 115
Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They say he ruled the town
with a rod of iron ; and when the young men, who adorned
the front steps of the meetinghouse during service, grew
disorderly, he stopped in his prayer, and going outside
soundly cuffed the ears of the first delinquent he could
lay hands upon. In his clay there was a dash of facetiousness
that saved him from excess, supplying a useful check to his
zeal for zeal uncurbed is very bad. He was a wise and
beneficent dictator; and government under such a one
can not be improved upon. His manner was gracious, frank
and open, and such was the specific gravity of his nature,
that his words carried weight, and his wish was sufficient.
Cf The house where this fine old autocrat lived and reigned
is standing in Lexington now. When you walk out through
Cambridge and Arlington on your way to Concord, following
the road the British took on their way out to Concord, you
will pass by it. It is a good place to stop and rest. You will
know the place by the tablet in front, on which is the legend :
"Here John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping on
the night of the Eighteenth of April, Seventeen Hundred
Seventy-five, when aroused by Paul Revere."
The Reverend Jonas Clark owned the house after the
Reverend John Hancock, and the ministries of those
two men, and their occupancy of the house, cover one
hundred years and five years more. Here the thirteen children
of Jonas Clark were born, and all lived to be old men and
women. When you call there I hope you will be treated
with the same gentle courtesy that I met. If you delay not
your visit too long, you will see a fine, motherly woman,
u6
JOHN HANCOCK
with white "sausage curls " and a high back-comb, wearing
a check dress and felt slippers, and she will tell you that she
is over eighty, and that when her mother was a little girl
she once sat on Governor Hancock's knee and he showed
her the works in his watch.
And then as you go away you will think again of what the
old lady has just told you, and as you look back for a parting
glance at the house, standing firm and solemn in its rusty-
gray dignity, you will doff your hat to it, and mayhap
murmur: The days of man on earth they are but as a
passing shadow!
"Here John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping
when aroused by Paul Revere ! " Merchant-prince and
agitator, horse and rider where are you now? And is
your sleep disturbed by dreams of British redcoats, or hissing
flintlocks? Phantom British warships may lie at their
moorings, swinging wide on the unforgetting tide, lanterns
may hang high in the belfry of the Old North Church
tower, hurried knocks and calls of defiance and hoof-beats
of fast-galloping steed may echo and echo again, borne on
the night-wind of the dim Past, but you heed them not!
JOHN HANCOCK 117
(HE Reverend John Hancock of Lexington had two
sons. John Hancock (Number Two) became pastor of
the church of the North Precinct of the town of
Braintree, which afterwards was to be the town of Quincy.
<J The nearest neighbor to the village preacher was John
Adams, shoemaker and fanner. Each Sunday in the amen
corner of the Reverend John Hancock's meetinghouse, was
mustered the well washed and combed brood of Mr. and
Mrs. Adams. Now, this John Adams had a son whom the
Reverend John Hancock baptized, also named John, two
years older than John the son of the preacher. And young
John Adams and John Hancock (Number Three) used to fish
and swim together, and go nutting, and set traps for squirrels,
and help each other in fractions. And then they would climb
trees, and wrestle, and sometimes fight. In the fights, they
say, John Hancock used to get the better of his antagonist,
but as an exploiter of fractions John Adams was more than
his equal.
The parents of John Adams were industrious and savin' the
little farm prospered, for Boston supplied a goodly market,
and weekly trips were made there in a one-horse cart, often
piloted by young John, with the minister's boy for ballast.
The Adams family had ambitions for their son John he
was to go to Harvard and be educated, and be a minister
and preach at Braintree, or Weymouth, or perhaps even
Boston !
In the meantime the Reverend John Hancock had died,
and the widowed mother was not able to give her boy a
college education times were hard.
ii8 JOHN HANCOCK
But the lad's uncle, Thomas Hancock, a prosperous merchant
of Boston, took quite an interest in young John. And it
occurred to him to adopt the fatherless boy, legally, as his
own. The mother demurred, but after some months decided
that it was best so, for when twenty-one he would be her
boy just as much and as truly as if his uncle had not adopted
him. And so the rich uncle took him, and rigged him out
with a deal finer clothing than he had ever before worn,
and sent him to the Latin School and afterward over to
Cambridge, with silver jingling in his pocket.
Prosperity is a severe handicap to youth; not very many
grown men can stand it; but beyond a needless display of
velvet coats and frilled shirts, the young man stood the test,
and got through Harvard. In point of scholarship he did
not stand so high as John Adams; and between the lads
there grew a small but well-defined gulf, as is but natural
between homespun and broadcloth. Still the gulf was not
impassable, for over it friendly favors were occasionally
passed ^ j&
John Hancock's mother wanted him to be a preacher, but
Uncle Thomas would not listen to it the youth must be
taught to be a merchant, so he could be the ready helper
and then the successor of his foster-father.
Graduating at the early age of seventeen, John Hancock
at once went to work in his uncle's countinghouse in Boston.
He was a fine, tall fellow with dash and spirit, and seemed
to show considerable aptitude for the work. The business
prospered, and Uncle Thomas was very proud of his hand
some ward who was quite in demand at parties and balls
JOHN HANCOCK 119
and in a general social way, while the uncle could not dance
a minuet to save him.
Not needing the young man very badly around the store,
the uncle sent him to Europe to complete his education by
travel. He went with the retiring Governor Pownal, whose
taste for social enjoyment was very much in accord with
his own. In England, he attended the funeral of George
the Second, and saw the coronation of George the Third,
little thinking the while that he would some day make violent
efforts to snatch from that crown its brightest jewel.
When young Hancock was twenty-seven, the uncle died,
and left to him his entire fortune of three hundred fifty
thousand dollars. It made him one of the very richest men
in the Colony for at that time there was not a man in
Massachusetts worth half a million dollars.
The jingling silver in his pocket when sent to Harvard had
severely tested his moral fiber, but this great fortune came
near smothering all his native commonsense. If a man makes
his money himself, he stands a certain chance of growing as
the pile grows. There is a little doubt as to the soundness of
Emerson's epigram, that what you put into his chest you
take out of the man. More than this, when a man gradually
accumulates wealth, it attracts little attention, so the mob
that follows the newly rich never really gets onto the scent.
And besides that, the man who makes his own fortune
always stands ready to repel boarders.
There may be young men of twenty-seven who are men
grown, and no doubt every man of twenty-seven is very
sure that he is one of these; but the thought that man is
120 JOHN HANCOCK
mortal never occurs to either men or women until they
are past thirty. The blood is warm, conquest lies before,
and to seize the world by the tail and snap its head off seems
both easy and desirable.
The promoters, the flatterers and friends until then unknown
flocked to Hancock and condoled with him on the death of
his uncle. Some wanted small loans to tide over temporary
emergencies, others had business ventures in hand whereby
John Hancock could double his wealth very shortly. Still
others spoke of wealth being a trust, and to use money to
help your fellow-men, and thus to secure the gratitude of
many, was the proper thing.
The unselfishness of the latter suggestion appealed to Han
cock. To be the friend of humanity, to assist others this
is the highest ambition to which a man can aspire! And,
of course, if one is pointed out on the street as the good
Mr. Hancock it can not be helped. It is the penalty of well
doing jfc >
So in order to give work to many and to promote the interests
of Boston, a thriving city of fifteen thousand inhabitants,
for all good men wish to build up the place in which they
live, John Hancock was induced to embark in shipbuilding.
He also owned several ships of his own which traded with
London and the West Indies, and was part owner of others.
But he publicly explained that he did not care to make money
for himself his desire was to give employment to the worthy
poor and to enhance the good of Boston.
The aristocratic company of militia, known as the Governor's
Guard, had been fitted out with new uniforms and arms by
JOHN HANCOCK 121
the generous Hancock, and he had been chosen commanding
officer, with rank of Colonel. He drilled with the crack
company and studied the manual much more diligently
than he ever had his Bible.
Hancock lived in the mansion, inherited from his uncle,
on Beacon Street, facing the Common. There was a chariot
and six horses for state occasions, much fine furniture from
over the sea, elegant clothes that the Puritans called "gaudy
apparel," and at the dinners the wine flowed freely, and
cards, dancing and music filled many a night.
The Puritan neighbors were shocked, and held up their
hands in horror to think that the son of a minister should
so affront the staid and sober customs of his ancestors. Still
others said, "Why, that 's what a rich man should do spend
his money, of course ; Hancock is the benefactor of his kind ;
just see how many people he employs 1 "
The town was all agog, and Hancock was easily Boston's
first citizen, but in his time of prosperity he did not forget
his old friends. He sent for them to come and make merry
with him ; and among the first in his good offices was John
Adams, the rising young lawyer of Braintree.
John Adams had found clients scarce, and those he had,
poor pay, but when he became the trusted legal adviser of
John Hancock, things took a turn and prosperity came that
way. The wine and cards and dinners had n't much attraction
for him, but still there were no conscientious scruples in the
way. He patted John Hancock on the back, assured him
that he was the people, looked after his interests loyally,
and extracted goodly fees for services performed.
122 JOHN HANCOCK
At the home of Adams at Braintree, Hancock had met a
quiet, taciturn individual by the name of Samuel Adams.
This man he had long known in a casual way, but had never
been able really to make his acquaintance. He was fifteen
years older than Hancock, and by his quiet dignity and
self-possession made quite an impression on the young man.
*1 So, now that prosperity had smiled, Hancock invited him
to his house, but the quiet man was an ascetic and neither
played cards, drank wine nor danced, and so declined with
thanks jt jt,
But not long after, he requested a small loan from the
merchant-prince, and asked it as though it were his right,
and so he got it. His manner was in such opposition to the
flatterers and those who crawled, and whined, and begged,
that Hancock was pleased with the man. Samuel Adams
had declined Hancock's social favors, and yet, in asking
for a loan, showed his friendliness.
Samuel Adams was a politician, and had long taken an
active part in the town meetings. In fact, to get a measure
through, it was well to have Samuel Adams at your side.
He was clear-headed, astute, and knew the human heart.
Yet he talked but little, and the convivial ways of the small
politician were far from him ; but in the fine art that can
manage men and never let them know they are managed
he was a past-master. Tucked in his sleeve, no doubt, was
a degree of pride in his power, but the stoic quality in his
nature never allowed him to break into laughter when he
considered how he led men by the nose.
In Boston and its vicinity, Samuel Adams was not highly
JOHN HANCOCK 123
regarded, and outside of Boston, at forty years of age, he
was positively unknown. The neighbors regarded him as a
harmless fanatic, sane on most subjects, but possessed of a
buzzing bee in his bonnet to the effect that the Colonies
should be separated from their protector, England. Samuel
Adams neglected his business and kept up a fusillade of
articles in the newspapers, on various political subjects,
and men who do this are regarded everywhere as "queer."
A professional newspaper-writer never takes his calling
seriously it is business. He writes to please his employer,
or if he owns the paper himself, he still writes to please his
employer, that is to say, the public. Journalism, thy name
is pander!
The man who comes up the stairway furtively, with an MS.
he wants printed, is in dead earnest ; and he has excited the
ridicule, wrath or pity of editors for three hundred years.
Such a one was Samuel Adams. His wife did her own work,
and the grocer with bills in his hand often grew red in the
face and knocked in vain.
And yet the keen intellect of Samuel Adams was not a thing
to smile at. Any one who stood before him, face to face,
felt the power of the man, and acknowledged it then and
there, as we always do when we stand in the presence of
a strong individuality. And this inward acknowledgment
of worth was instinctively made by John Hancock, the
biggest man hi all Boston town.
John Hancock, through his genial, glowing personality,
and his lavish spending of money, was very popular. He
was being fed on flattery, and the more a man gets of
124 JOHN HANCOCK
flattery, once the taste is acquired, the more he craves. It
is like the mad thirst for liquor, or the romeike habit.
John Hancock was getting attention, and he wanted more.
He had been chosen selectman to fill the place his uncle
had occupied, and when Samuel Adams incidentally dropped
a remark that good men were needed in the General Court,
John Hancock agreed with him.
He was named for the office and with Samuel Adams' help
was easily elected.
Not long after this, the sloop "Liberty" was seized by the
government officials for violation of the revenue laws. The
craft was owned by John Hancock and had surreptitiously
landed a cargo of wine without paying duty.
When the ship of Boston's chief citizen was seized by the
bumptious, gilt-braided British officials, there was a merry
uproar. All the men in the shipyards quit work, and the
Calkers' Club, of which Samuel Adams was secretary,
passed hot resolutions and revolutionary preambles and
eulogies of John Hancock, who was doing so much for
Boston jt ,jt
In fact, there was a riot, and three regiments of British
troops were ordered to Boston.
And this was the very first step on the part of England
to enforce her authority, by arms, in America.
The troops were in the town to preserve order, but the
mob would not disperse. Upon the soldiers, they heaped
every indignity and insult jfc They dared them to shoot,
and with clubs and stones drove the soldiers before them.
At last the troops made a stand and in order to save them-
JOHN HANCOCK 125
selves from absolute rout fired a volley. Five men fell dead
and the mob dispersed.
This was the so-called Boston massacre.
Pinkerton guards would blush at bagging so small a game
with a volley. They have done better again and again at
Pittsburgh, Pottsville and Chicago.
The riot was quelled, and out of the scrimmage various
suits were instigated by the Crown against John Hancock,
in the Court of Admiralty. The claims against him amounted
to over three hundred thousand dollars, and the charge was
that he had long been evading the revenue laws. John Adams
was his attorney, with Samuel Adams as counsel, and
vigorous efforts for prosecution and defense were being made.
<ff If the Crown were successful the suits would confiscate
the entire Hancock estate matters were getting in a serious
way. Witnesses were summoned, but the trial was staved
off from time to time.
Hancock had refused to follow Samuel Adams' lead in the
controversy with Governor Hutchinson as to the right to
convene the General Court. The report was that John Han
cock was growing lukewarm and siding with the Tories.
A year had passed since the massacre had occurred, and
the agitators proposed to commemorate the day.
Colonel Hancock had appeared in many prominent parts,
but never as an orator.
"Why not show the town what you can do ! " some one said.
<J So John Hancock was invited to deliver the oration. He
did so to an immense concourse. The address was read from
the written page. It overflowed with wisdom and patriotism ;
126
JOHN HAN COCK
and the earnestness and eloquence of the well-rounded
periods was the talk of the town.
The knowing ones went around corners and roared with
laughter, but Samuel Adams said not a word. The charge
was everywhere made by the captious and bickering that
the speech was written by another, and that, moreover,
John Hancock had not even a very firm hold on its import.
It was the one speech of his life. Anyway, it so angered
General Gage that he removed Colonel Hancock from his
command of the cadets.
An order was out for Hancock's arrest, and he and Samuel
Adams were in hiding.
The British troops marched out to Lexington to capture
them, but Paul Revere was two hours ahead, and when
the redcoats arrived the birds had flown.
Then came the expulsion of the British, the closing of all
courts, the Admiralty included. The merchant-prince breathed
easier, and that was the last of the Crown vs. John Hancock.
JOHN HANCOCK 127
URING the months that had gone before, when the
Hancock mansion was gay with floral decorations,
and servants in livery stood at the door with silver
trays, and the dancing-hall was bright with mirth and
music, Samuel Adams had quietly been working his Bureau
of Correspondence to the end that the thirteen Colonies of
America should come together in convention. Chief mover
of the plan, and the one man hi Massachusetts who was
giving all his time to it, he dictated whom Massachusetts
should send as delegates jt This delegation, as we know,
included John Hancock, John Adams and Samuel Adams
himself jt <
From the danger of Lexington, Hancock and Adams made
their way to Philadelphia to attend the Second Congress.
Ci At that time the rich men of New England were hurriedly
making their way into the English fold. Some thought that
the mother country had been harsh, but, still, England had
only acted within her right, and she was well able to back
up this authority. She had regiment upon regiment of trained
fighting men, warships, and money to build more. The
Colonies had no army, no ships, no capital.
Only those who have nothing to lose can afford to resist
lawful authority back into the fold they went, penitent
and under their breath cursing the bull-headed men who
insisted on plunging the country into red war.
Out in the cold world stood John Hancock, alone, save for
Bowdoin, among the aristocrats of New England jt The
British would confiscate his property, his splendid house
all would be gone!
128 JOHN HANCOCK
"It will all be gone, anyway," calmly suggested Samuel
Adams. "You know those suits against you in the Admiralty
Court? "
"Yes, yes!"
"And if we can unite these thirteen Colonies an army can
be raised, and we can separate ourselves entire, in which
case there will be glory for somebody."
John Hancock, the rich, the ambitious, the pleasure-loving,
had burned his bridges jt He was in the hands of Samuel
Adams, and his infamy was one with this man who was a
professional agitator, and who had nothing to lose.
General Gage had made an offer of pardon to all all, save
two men Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Back into
the fold tumbled the Tories, but against John Hancock
the gates were barred. John Adams, Attorney of the Hancock
estate, rubbed his chin, and decided to stand by the ship
sink or swim, survive or perish.
Down in his heart Samuel Adams grimly smiled, but on his
cold, pale face there was no sign.
The British held Boston secure, and in the splendid mansion
of Hancock lived the rebel, Lord Percy, England's pet. The
furniture, plate and keeping of the place were quite to his
liking & Jt,
Hancock's ambitions grew as the days went by. The fight
was on. His property was in the hands of the British, and
a price was upon his head. He, too, now had nothing to
lose. If England could be whipped he would get his property
back, and the honors of victory would be his, beside.
Ambition grew apace; he studied the Manual of Arms as
JOHN HANCOCK 129
never before, and made himself familiar with the lives of
Caesar and Alexander. At Harvard, he had read the Anabasis
on compulsion, but now he read it with zest.
The Second Congress was a Congress of action; the first
had been one merely of conference. A presiding officer was
required, and Samuel Adams quietly pushed his man to
the front. He let it be known that Hancock was the richest
man in New England, perhaps hi America, and a power
in every emergency.
John Hancock was given the office of presiding officer,
the place of honor.
The thought never occurred to him that the man on the
floor is the man who acts, and the individual in the chair
is only a referee, an onlooker of the contest. When a man
is chosen to preside he is safely out of the way, and no one
knew this better than that clear-headed man, wise as a
serpent, Samuel Adams.
Hancock was intent on being chosen Commander of the
Continental Army. The war was hi Massachusetts, her
principal port closed, all business at a standstill. Hancock
was a soldier, and the chief citizen of Massachusetts the
command should go to him.
Samuel Adams knew this could never be.
To hold the Southern Colonies and give the cause a show
of reason before the world, an aristocrat with something
to lose, and without a personal grievance, must be chosen,
and the man must be from the South. To get Hancock in
a position where his mouth would be stopped, he was placed
in the chair. It was a master move.
130 JOHN HANCOCK
Colonel George Washington was already a hero; he had
fought valiantly for England. His hands were clean ; while
Hancock was openly called a smuggler. Washington was
nominated by John Adams. The motion was seconded by
Samuel Adams. Hancock turned first red and then deathly
pale. He grasped the arms of his chair with both hands,
and put the question.
It was unanimous.
Hancock's fame seems to rest on the fact that he was pre
siding officer of the Congress that passed the Declaration
of Independence, and therefore its first signer, and, without
consideration for cost of ink and paper, wrote his name in
poster letters. When you look upon the Declaration the
first thing you see is the signature of John Hancock, and
you recall his remark, "I guess King George can read that
without spectacles." The whole action was melodramatic,
and although a bold signature has ever been said to betoken
a bold heart, it has yet to be demonstrated that boys who
whistle going through the woods are indifferent to danger.
"Conscious weakness takes strong attitudes," says Delsarte.
The strength of Hancock's signature was an affectation
quite in keeping with his habit of riding about Boston in
a coach-and-six, with outriders in uniform, and servants
in livery ^t Jt
When Hancock wrote to Washington asking for an appoint
ment in the army, the wise and far-seeing chief replied
with gentle words of praise concerning Colonel Hancock's
record, and wound up by saying that he regretted there
was no place at his disposal worthy of Colonel Hancock's
JOHN HANCOCK 131
qualifications. Well did he know that Hancock was not
quite patriot enough to fill a lowly rank.
The part that Hancock played in the eight years of war
was inconspicuous. However, there was little spirit of
revenge in his character: he sometimes scolded, but
he did not hate. He never allowed personal animosities
to make him waver in his loyalty to independence jt In
fact, with a price upon his head, but one course was open
for him.
Just before Washington was inaugurated President, he
visited Boston, and a curious struggle took place between
him and Hancock, who was Governor. It was all a question
of etiquette which should make the first call. Each side
played a waiting game, and at last Hancock's gout came in
as an excellent excuse and the country was saved.
In one of his letters, Hancock says, "The entire Genteel
portion of the town was invited to my House, while on the
sidewalk I had a cask of Madeira for the Common People."
His repeated re-election as Governor proves his popularity.
Through lavish expenditure, his fortune was much reduced,
and for many years he was sorely pressed for funds, his means
being tied up in unproductive ways.
His last triumph, as Governor, was to send a special message
to the Legislature, informing that body that "a company
of Aliens and Foreigners have entered the State, and the
Metropolis of Government, and under advertisements insult
ing to all Good Men and Ladies have been pleased to invite
them to attend certain Stage-plays, Interludes and Theatrical
Entertainments under the Style and Appellation of Moral
i32 JOHN HANCOCK
Lectures. . . . All of which must be put a stop to to
once and the Rogues and Varlots punished."
A few days after this, "the Aliens and Foreigners" gave a
presentation of Sheridan's "School for Scandal." In the
midst of the performance the sheriff and a posse made a
rush upon the stage and bagged all the offenders.
When their trial came on, the next day, the "varlots and
vagroms" had secured high legal talent to defend them,
one of which counsel was Harrison Gray Otis. The actors
were discharged on the slim technicality that the warrants
of arrest had not been properly verified.
However, the theater was closed, but the "Common People "
made such an unseemly howl about "rights" and all that,
that the Legislature made haste to repeal the law which
provided that play-actors should be flogged.
Hancock defaulted in his stewardship as Treasurer of Har
vard College, and only escaped arrest for embezzlement
through the fact that he was Governor of the State, and no
process could be served upon him. After his death his estate
paid nine years 1 simple interest on his deficit, and ten years
thereafter the principal was paid.
His widow married Captain Scott, who was long in Hancock's
employ as master of a brig ; and we find the worthy captain
proudly exclaiming, "I have embarked on the sea of matri
mony, and am now at the helm of the Hancock mansion ! "
<| No biography of Governor Hancock has ever been written.
The record of his life flutters only in newspaper paragraphs,
letters, and chance mention in various diaries.
Hancock did not live to see John Adams President. Worn
JOHN HANCOCK
133
by worry, and grown old before his time, he died at the early
age of fifty-six, of a combination of gout and that unplebeian
complaint we now term Bright's Disease.
Thirty-three years after, hale old John Adams down at Quincy
spoke of him as "a clever fellow, a bit spoiled by a legacy,
whom I used to know in my younger days." He left no
descendants, and his heirs were too intent on being in at
the death to care for his memory. They neither preserved
the data of his life, nor over his grave placed a headstone.
The monument that now marks his resting-place was recently
erected by the State of Massachusetts. He was buried in the
Old Granary Burying-Ground, on Tremont Street, and only
a step from his grave sleeps his friend Samuel Adams.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
TO the guidance of the legislative councils; to the
assistance of the executive and subordinate depart
ments ; to the friendly co-operation of the respective State
Governments; to the candid and liberal support of the
people, so far as it may be deserved by honest industry
and zeal, I shall look for whatever success may attend my
public service; and knowing that "except the Lord keep
the city, the watchman waketh in vain," with fervent
supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I
commit, with humble but fearless confidence, my own fate
and the future destinies of my country.
u Inaugural Address."
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
UNE miles South of Boston, just a little
back from the escalloped shores of Old
Ocean, lies the village of Braintree. It is on
the Plymouth post-road, being one of that
string of settlements, built a few miles apart
for better protection, that lined the sea.
Boston being crowded, and Plymouth full to
overflowing, the home-seekers spread out
North and South. In Sixteen Hundred
Twenty, when the first cabin was built at
Braintree, land that was not in sight of the
coast had actually no value. Back a mile,
all was a howling wilderness, with trails
made by wild beasts or savage men as wild.
These paths led through tangles of fallen
trees and tumbled rocks, beneath dark, over
hanging pines where Winter's snows melted
not till Midsummer, and the sun's rays were
strange and alien. Men who sought to
traverse these ways had to crouch and
crawl or climb. Through them no horse or
ox or beast of burden had carried its load.
<J But up from the sea the ground rose
gradually for a mile, and along this slope
that faced the tide, wind and storm had
partly cleared the ground, and on the hill
sides our forefathers made their homes.
The houses were built facing either the
East or the South. This persistence to face
i4o JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
either the sun or the sea shows a last, strange rudiment of
paganism, making queer angles now that surveyors have
come with Gunter's chain and transit, laying out streets
and doing their work.
A mile out, North of Braintree, on the Boston road, came,
in Sixteen Hundred Twenty-five, one Captain Wollaston,
a merry wight, and thirty boon companions, all of whom
probably left England for England's good. They were in
search of gold and pelf, and all were agreed on one point :
they were quite too good to do any hard work. Their camp
was called Mount Wollaston, or the Merry Mount. Our
gallant gentlemen cultivated the friendship of the Indians,
in the hope that they would reveal the caves and caverns
where the gold grew lush and nuggets cumbered the way;
and the Indians, liking the drink they offered, brought them
meal and corn and furs.
And so the thirty set up a Maypole, adorned with bucks'
horns, and drank and feasted, and danced like fairies or
furies, the livelong day or night. So scandalously did these
exiled lords behave that good folks made a wide circuit
'round to avoid their camp.
Preaching had been in vain, and prayers for the conversion
of the wretches remained unanswered. So the neighbors
held a convention, and decided to send Captain Miles
Standish with a posse to teach the merry men manners.
*I Standish appeared among the bacchanalians one morning,
perfectly sober, and they were not. He arrested the captain,
and bade the others begone. The leader was shipped back
to England, with compliments and regrets, and the thirty
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 141
scattered. This was the first move in that quarter in favor
of local option.
Six years later, the land thereabouts was granted and
apportioned out to the Reverend John Wilson, William
Coddington, Edward Quinsey, James Penniman, Moses
Payne and Francis Eliot.
And these men and their families built houses and founded
"the North Precinct of the Town of Braintree."
Between the North Precinct and the South Precinct there
was continual rivalry. Boys who were caught over the
dead-line, which was marked by Deacon Penniman's house,
had to fight. Thus things continued until Seventeen Hundred
Ninety-two, when one John Adams was Vice-President of
the United States. Now this John Adams, lawyer, was the
son of John Adams, honest farmer and cordwainer, who
had bought the Penniman homestead, and whose progenitor,
Henry Adams, had moved there in Sixteen Hundred Thirty-
six. John Adams, Vice-President, afterwards President, was
born there in the Penniman house, and was regarded as a
neutral, although he had been thrashed by boys both from
the North and from the South Precinct. But at the last, there
is no such thing as neutrality. John Adams sided with the
boys from the North Precinct, and now that he was in power
it occurred to him, having had a little experience in the
revolutionary line, that for the North Precinct to secede from
the great town of Braintree would be but proper and right.
<J The North Precinct had six stores that sold W. I. goods,
and a tavern that sold W. E. T. goods, and it should have
a post-office of its own.
i42 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
So John Adams suggested the matter to Richard Cranch,
who was his brother-in-law and near neighbor. Cranch
agitated the matter, and the new town, which was the old,
was incorporated. They called it Quincy, probably because
Abigail, John's wife, insisted upon it. She had named her
eldest boy Quincy, in honor of her grandfather, whose
father's name was Quinsey, and who had relatives who
spelled it De Quincey, one of which tribe was an opium-
eater jt jfc
Now, when Abigail made a suggestion, John usually heeded
it. For Abigail was as wise as she was good, and John well
knew that his success in life had come largely from the help,
counsel and inspiration vouchsafed to him by this splendid
woman. And the man who will not let a woman have her
way in all such small matters as naming of babies or towns
is not much of a man.
So the town was named Quincy, and brother-in-law Cranch
was appointed its first postmaster. Shortly after, the Boston
"Centinel" contained a sarcastic article over the signature,
"Old Subscriber," concerning the distribution of official
patronage among kinsmen, and the Eliots and the Everetts
gossiped over back fences.
At this time Abigail lived in the cottage there on the Ply
mouth road, halfway between Braintree and Quincy, but
she got her mail at Quincy.
The Adams cottage is there now, and the next time you
are in Boston you had better go out and see it, just as June
and I did one bright October day.
June has lived within an hour's ride of the Adams' home
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 143
all her blessed thirty-two sunshiny Summers ; she also
boasts a Mayflower ancestry, with, however, a slight infusion
of Castle Garden, like myself, to give firmness of fiber
and yet she had never been to Quincy.
The John and Abigail cottage was built in Seventeen Hundred
Sixteen, so says a truthful brick found in the quaint old
chimney. Deacon Penniman built this house for his son,
and it faces the sea, although the older Penniman house
faces the South. John Adams was born in the older house ;
but when he used to go to Weymouth every Wednesday
and Saturday evening to see Abigail Smith, the minister's
daughter, his father, the worthy shoemaker, told him that
when he got married he could have the other house for
himself jt &
John was a bright young lawyer then, a graduate of Harvard,
where he had been sent in hopes that he would become a
minister, for one-half the students then at Harvard were
embryo preachers. But John did not take to theology.
He had witnessed ecclesiastical tennis and theological pitch
and toss in Braintree that had nearly split the town, and he
decided on the law. One thing sure, he could not work : he
was not strong enough for that everybody said so. And
right here seems a good place to call attention to the fact
that weak men, like those who are threatened, live long.
John Adams' letters to his wife reveal a very frequent
reference to liver complaint, lung trouble, and that tired
feeling, yet he lived to be ninety-two.
The Reverend Mr. Smith did not at first favor the idea of
his daughter Abigail marrying John Adams. The Adams
144 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
family were only farmers (and shoemakers when it rained),
while the Smiths had aristocracy on their side jfc He said
lawyers were men who got bad folks out of trouble and
good folks in. But Abigail said that this lawyer was different ;
and as Mr. Smith saw it was a love-match, and, such things
being difficult to combat successfully, he decided he would
do the next best thing give the young couple his blessing.
Yet the neighbors were quite scandalized to think that their
pastor's daughter should hold converse over the gate with
a lawyer, and they let the clergyman know it as neighbors
then did, and sometimes do now. Then did the Reverend
Mr. Smith announce that he would preach a sermon on
the sin of meddling with other folk's business. As his text
he took the passage from Luke, seventh chapter, thirty-
third verse: "For John came neither eating bread nor
drinking wine; and ye say, he hath a devil."
The neighbors saw the point, for a short time before, when
the eldest daughter, Mary, had married Richard Cranch
(the man who was to achieve a post-office), the community
had entered a protest, and the Reverend Mr. Smith had
preached from Luke, tenth chapter, forty-second verse:
"And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be
taken away from her." So there, now!
And John and Abigail were married one evening at early
candlelight, in the church at Weymouth. The good father
performed the ceremony, and nearly broke down during
it, they say, and then he kissed both bride and groom.
The neighbors had repaired to the parsonage and were eating
and drinking and making merry when John and Abigail
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 145
slipped out by the back gate, and made their way, hand
in hand, in the starlight, down the road that ran through
the woods to Braintree. When near the village they cut
across the pasture-lot and reached their cottage, which for
several weeks they had been putting in order. John unlocked
the front door, and they entered over the big, fiat stone at
the entry, and over which you may enter now, all sunken
and worn by generations of men gone. Some whose feet
have pressed that doorstep we count as the salt of the earth,
for their names are written large on history's page. Washing
ton rode out there on horseback, and while his aide held
his horse, he visited and drank mulled cider and ate dough
nuts within. Hancock came often, and Otis, Samuel Adams
and Loring used to enter without plying the knocker.
Through the earnest work of William G. Spear, the cottage
has now been restored and fully furnished, as near like
it was then as knowledge, fancy and imagination can
devise Jt, jt
When we reached Quincy we saw a benevolent-looking
old Puritan, and June said, "Ask him!"
"Can you tell me where we can find Mr. Spear, the anti
quarian? " I inquired.
"The which? " said the son of Priscilla Mullins.
"Mr. Spear, the antiquarian," I repeated.
"It's not Bill Spear who keeps a secondhand-shop, you
want, mebbe? "
"Yes; I think that is the man."
And so we were directed to the "secondhand-shop," which
proved to be the rooms of the Quincy Historical Society.
146 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
And there we saw such a collection of secondhand stuff
that, as we looked and looked, and Mr. Spear explained,
and gave large slices of Colonial history, June, who is a
Daughter of the American Revolution, gushed a trifle more
than was meet.
Nothing short of a hundred years will set the seal of value
on an article for Mr. Spear, and one hundred fifty is more
like it. On his walls are hats, caps, spurs, boots and accouter-
ments used in the Revolutionary War. Then there are
candlesticks, snuffers, spectacles, butter-molds, bonnets,
dresses, shoes, baby-stockings, cradles, rattles, aprons,
butter-tubs made out of a solid piece, shovels to match,
andirons, pokers, skillets and blue china galore.
"Bill Spear " himself is quite a curiosity. He traces a lineage
to the well-known Lieutenant Seth Spear, of Revolutionary
fame, and back of that to John Alden who spoke for himself.
The bark on the antiquarian is rather rough ; and I regret
to say that he makes use of a few words I can not find in
the "Century Dictionary," but as June was not shocked
I managed to stand it. On further acquaintance I concluded
that Mr. Spear's bruskness was assumed, and that beneath
the tough husk there beats a very tender heart. He is one
of those queer fellows who do good by stealth and abuse
you roundly if accused of it.
For twenty-five years Mr. Spear has been doing little else
but studying Colonial history, and making love to old ladies
who own clocks and skillets given them by their great-
grandmammas. There is no doubt that Spear has dictated
clauses in a hundred wills devising that William 6. Spear,
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 147
Custodian of the Quincy Historical Society, shall have
snuffers and biscuit-molds.
At first, Mr. Spear collected for his own amusement and
benefit, but the trouble grew upon him until it became
chronic, and one fine day he realized that he was not immor
tal and when he should die, all his collection, which had
taken years to accumulate, would be scattered. And so he
founded the Quincy Historical Society, incorporated by a
perpetual charter, with Charles Francis Adams, grandson
of John Quincy Adams, as first president.
Then, the next thing was to secure the cottage where John
and Abigail Adams began housekeeping, and where John
Quincy was born. This house has been in the Adams family
all these years and been rented to the firm of Tom, Dick
and Harry, and any of their tribe who would agree to pay
ten dollars a month for its use and abuse. Just across the
road from the cottage lives a fine old soul by the name of
John Crane. Mr. Crane is somewhere between seventy
and a hundred years old, but he has a young heart, a face
like Gladstone and a memory like a copy-book. Mr. Crane
was on very good terms with John Quincy Adams, knew
him well and had often seen him come here to collect rent.
He told me that during his recollection the Adams place
had been occupied by full forty families. But now, thanks
to "Bill Spear," it is no longer for rent. <HThe house has been
raised from the ground, new sills placed under it, and while
every part scantling, rafter, joist, crossbeam, lath and
weatherboard of the original house has been retained, it has
been put in such order that it is no longer going to ruin.
148 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
CJ From the ample stores of his various antiquarian deposi
tories Mr. Spear has refurnished it ; and with a ripe knowledge
and rare good taste and restraining imagination, the cot
tage is now shown to us as a Colonial farmhouse of the year
Seventeen Hundred Fifty. The wonder to me is that Mr. Spear,
being human, did not move his "secondhand-shop "down here
and make of the place a curiosity-shop. But he has done better.
CJ As you step across the doorsill and pass from the little entry
into the "living-room," you pause and murmur, "Excuse
me." For there is a fire on the hearth, the teapot sings softly,
and on the back of a chair hangs a sunbonnet. And over
there on the table is an open Bible, and on the open page
is a pair of spectacles and a red, crumpled handkerchief.
Yes, the folks are at home : they have just stepped into the
next room perhaps are eating dinner. And so you sit down
in an old hickory chair, or in the high settle that stands
against the wall by the fireplace, and wait, expecting every
moment that the kitchen-door will creak on its wooden
hinges, and Abigail, smiling and gentle, will enter to greet
you. Mr. Spear understands, and, disappearing, leaves you
to your thoughts and June's.
John and Abigail were lovers their lifetime through. Their
published letters show a oneness of thought and sentiment
that, viewed across the years, moves us to tears to think
that such as they should at last feebly totter, and then turn
to dust. But here they came in the joyous Springtime of
their lives; upon this floor you tread the ways their feet
have trod ; these walls have echoed to their singing voices,
listened to their counsels, and seen love's caress.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 149
There is no surplus furniture nor display nor setting forth
of useless things. Every article you see has its use. The little
shelf of books, well-thumbed, displays no "Trilby" nor
"Quest of the Golden Girl " not an anachronism anywhere.
Curtains, chairs, tables, and the one or two pictures all
ring true. In the kitchen are washtubs and butter-ladles
and bowls ; and the lantern hanging by the chimney, with a
dipped candle inside, has a carefully scraped horn face.
It is a lanthorn. In the cupboard across the corner are
blue china and pewter spoons and steel knives, with just a
little polished-brass stuff sent from England. Down in the
cellar, with its dirt walls, are apples, yellow pumpkins and
potatoes each in its proper place, for Abigail was a rare
good housekeeper. Then there is a barrel of cider, with a
hickory spigot and an inviting gourd. All tells of economy,
thrift, industry and the cunning of woman's hands.
In the kitchen is a funny cradle, hooded, and cut out of a
great pine log. The little mattress and the coverlet seem
disturbed, and you would declare the baby had just been
lifted out, and you listen for its cry. The rocker is worn by
the feet of mothers whose hands were busy with needles
or wheel as they rocked and sang. And from the fact that
it is in the kitchen, you know that the servant-girl problem
then had no terrors.
Overhead hang ears of com, bunches of dried catnip, penny
royal and boneset, and festooned across the corner are
strings of dried apples.
Then you go upstairs, with conscience pricking a bit for
thus visiting the house of honest folks when they are away,
iso JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
for you know how all good housewives dislike to have people
prying about, especially in the upper chambers at least
June said so!
The room to the right was Abigail's own. You would know
it was a woman's room. There is a faint odor of lavender
and thyme about it, and the white and blue draperies around
the little mirror, and the little feminine nothings on the
dresser, reveal the lady who would appear well before the
man she loves. <f The bed is a high, draped four-poster, plain
and solid, evidently made by a ship-carpenter who had ambi
tions. The coverlet is light blue, and matches the draperies of
windows, dresser and mirror. On the pillow is a nightcap,
in which even a homely woman would be beautiful. There
is a clothespress in the corner, into which Mr. Spear says
we may look. On the door is a slippery-elm button, and within,
hanging on wooden pegs, are dainty dresses ; stiff, curiously
embroidered gowns they are, that came from across the sea,
sent, perhaps, by John Adams when he went to France, and
left Abigail here to farm and sew and weave and teach the
children jfc jfc
June examined the dresses carefully, and said the embroidery
was handmade, and must have taken months and months
to complete. On a high shelf of the closet are bandboxes,
in which are bonnets, astonishing bonnets, with prodigious
flaring fronts. Mr. Spear insisted that June should try one
on, and when she did we stood off and declared the effect
was a vision of loveliness. Outside the clothespress, on a
peg, hangs a linsey-woolsey, every-day gown that shows
marks of wear. The waist came just under June's arms,
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 151
and the bottom of the dress to her shoe-tops. We asked
Mr. Spear the price of it, but the custodian is not commer
cial. In a corner of the room is a cedar chest containing
hand-woven linen.
By the front window is a little, low desk, with a leaf that
opens out for a writing-shelf. And here you see quill-pens,
fresh nibbed, and ink in a curious well made from horn.
Here it was that Abigail wrote those letters to her lover-
husband when he attended those first and second Congresses
in Philadelphia ; and then when he was in France and Eng
land, those letters in which we see affection, loyalty, tales
of babies with colic, brave, political good sense, and all those
foolish trifles that go to fill up love-letters, and, at the last,
are their divine essence and charm.
Here, she wrote the letter telling of going with their seven-
year-old boy, John Quincy, to Penn's Hill to watch the burn
ing of Charlestown; and saw the flashing of camions and
rising smoke that marked the battle of Bunker Hill. Here
she wrote to her husband when he was minister to England,
"This little cottage has more comfort and satisfaction for
you than the courts of royalty."
But of all the letters written by that brave woman none
reveals her true nobility better than the one written to her
husband the day he became President of the United States.
Here it is entire:
Quincy, 8 February, 1797.
"The sun is dressed in brightest beams,
To give thy honors to the day."
"And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing
i52 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
season. You have this day to declare yourself head of a
Nation. And now, Lord, my God, Thou hast made Thy
servant ruler over the people. Give unto him an understand
ing heart, that he may know how to go out and come in
before this great people ; that he may discern between good
and bad. For who is able to judge this Thy so great a people,
were the words of a royal Sovereign ; and not less applicable
to him who is invested with the Chief Magistracy of a nation,
though he wear not a crown, nor the robes of royalty.
"My thoughts and my meditations are with you, though
personally absent ; and my petitions to Heaven are that the
things which make for peace may not be hidden from your
eyes. My feelings are not those of pride or ostentation upon
the occasion. They are solemnized by a sense of the obli
gations, the important trusts, and numerous duties connected
with it. That you may be enabled to discharge them with
honor to yourself, with justice and impartiality to your
country, and with satisfaction to this great people, shall
be the daily prayer of your
A. A."
It was in this room that Abigail waited while British soldiers
ransacked the rooms below and made bullets of the best
pewter spoons. Here her son who was to be President was
born Jt Jt,
John Quincy Adams was six years old when his father
kissed him good-by and rode away for Philadelphia with
John Hancock and Samuel Adams (who rode a horse loaned
him by John Adams). Abigail stood in the doorway holding
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 153
the baby, and watched them disappear in the curve of the
road. This was in August, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-four.
Most of the rest of that year Abigail was alone with her
babies on the little farm. It was the same next year, and in
Seventeen Hundred Seventy-six, too, when John Adams
wrote home that he had made the formal move for Inde
pendency and also nominated George Washington as
Commander-in-Chief of the army; and he hoped things
would soon be better.
Those were troublous times in which to live in the vicinity
of Boston. There were straggling troops passing up and
down the Plymouth road every day. Sometimes they were
redcoats and sometimes buff and blue, but all seemed to
be very hungry and extremely thirsty, and the Adams
household received a deal more attention than it courted.
The master of the house was away, but all seemed to know
who lived there, and the callers were not always courteous.
CJ In such a feverish atmosphere of unrest, children evolve
quickly into men and women, and their faces take on the
look of thought where should be only careless, happy,
dimpled smiles. Yes, responsibility matures, and that is
the way John Quincy Adams got cheated out of his childhood.
<| When eight years of age, his mother called him the little
man of the house. The next year he was a post-rider, making
a daily trip to Boston with letter-bags across his saddlebows.
<f When eleven years of age, his father came home to say
that some one had to go to France to serve with Jay and
Franklin in making a treaty.
"Go," said Abigail, "and God be with you! " But when it
i54 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
was suggested that John Quincy go too, the parting did not
seem so easy. But it was a fine opportunity for the boy to
see the world of men, and the mother's head appreciated
it even if her heart did not. And yet she had the heroism
that is willing to remain behind.
So father and son sailed away ; and little John Quincy added
postscripts to his father's letters and said, "I send my loving
duty to my mamma."
The boy took kindly to foreign ways, as boys will, and the
French language had no such terrors for him as it had for
his father. The first stay in Europe was only three months,
and back they came on a leaky ship.
But the home-stay was even shorter than the stay abroad,
and John Adams had again to cross the water on his country's
business. Again the boy went with him.
It was five years before the mother saw him. And then he
had gone on alone from Paris to London to meet her. She
did not know him, for he was nearly eighteen and a man
grown. He had visited every country in Europe and been the
helper and companion of statesmen and courtiers, and seen
society in its various phases. He spoke several languages,
and in point of polish and manly dignity was the peer of
many of his elders. Mrs. Adams looked at him and then
began to cry, whether for joy or for sorrow she did not know.
Her boy had gone, escaped her, gone forever, but, instead,
here was a tall young diplomat calling her "mother."
There was a career ahead for John Quincy Adams his
father knew it, his mother was sure of it, and John Quincy
himself was not in doubt. He could then have gone right
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 155
on, but his father was a Harvard man, and the New England
superstition was strong in the Adams heart that success
could only be achieved when based on a Harvard parchment.
<f So back to Massachusetts sailed John Quincy ; and a
two-year course at Harvard secured the much-desired
diploma Jt> j*
From the very time he crawled over this kitchen-floor
and pushed a chair, learning to walk, or tumbled down the
stairs and then made his way bravely up again alone, he knew
that he would arrive. Precocious, proud, firm, and with a
coldness in his nature that was not a heritage from either
his father or his mother, he made his way.
It was a zigzag course, and the way was strewn with the
flotsam and jetsam of wrecked parties and blighted hopes,
but out of the wreckage John Quincy Adams always appeared
calm, poised and serene. When he opposed the purchase of
Louisiana it looks as if he allowed his animosity for Jefferson
to put his judgment in chancery. He made mistakes, but
this was the only blunder of his career. The record of that
life expressed in bold stands thus:
1767 Born May Eleventh.
1776 Post-rider between Boston and Quincy.
! 1778 At school in Paris.
1780 At school in Leyden.
1781 Private Secretary to Minister to Russia.
1787 Graduated at Harvard.
1794 Minister at The Hague.
1797 Married Louise Catherine Johnson, of Maryland.
1797 Minister at Berlin.
i56 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
1802 Member of Massachusetts State Senate.
1803 United States Senator.
1806 Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard.
1809 Minister to Russia.
1811 Nominated and confirmed by Senate as Judge
of Supreme Court of the United States ; declined.
1814 Commissioner at Ghent to treat for peace with
Great Britain.
1815 Minister to Great Britain.
1817 Secretary of State.
1825 Elected President of the United States.
1830 Elected a Member of Congress, and represented
the district for seventeen years.
1848 Stricken with paralysis February Twenty-first in
the Capitol, and died the second day after.
# # # # # * # #'# *
"Are n't we staying in this room a good while? " said June ;
"you have sat there staring out of that window looking at
nothing for just ten minutes, and not a word have you
spoken ! "
Mr. Spear had disappeared into space, and so we made our
way across the little hall to the room that belonged to Mr.
Adams. It was in the disorder that men's rooms are apt
to be. On the table were quill-pens and curious old papers
with seals on them, and on one I saw the date, June Six
teenth, Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight the whole docu
ment written out in the hand of John Adams, beginning
very prim and careful, then moving off into a hurried scrawl
as spirit mastered the letter. There is a little hair-covered
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 157
trunk in the corner, studded with brass nails, and boots
and leggings and canes and a jackknife and a bootjack, and,
on the window-sill, a friendly snuffbox. In the clothespress
were buff trousers and an embroidered coat and shoes with
silver buckles, and several suits of every-day clothes, showing
wear and patches.
On up to the garret we groped, and bumped our heads
against the rafters. The light was dim, but we could make
out more apples on strings, and roots and herbs in bunches
hung from the peak. Here was a three-legged chair and a
broken spinning-wheel, and the junk that is too valuable
to throw away, yet not good enough to keep, but "some
day may be needed."
Down the narrow stairway we went, and in the little kitchen,
Sammy, the artist, and Mr. Spear, the custodian, were busy
at the fireplace preparing dinner. There is no stove in the
house, and none is needed. The crane and brick oven and
long-handled skillets suffice. Sammy is an expert camp-cook,
and swears there is death in the chafing-dish, and grows
profane if you mention one. His skill in turning flapjacks
by a simple manipulation of the long-handled griddle means
more to his true ego than the finest canvas.
June offered to set the table, but Sammy said she could
never do it alone, so together they brought out the blue
china dishes and the pewter plates. Then they drew water
at the stone-curbed well with the great sweep, carrying the
leather-baled bucket between them.
I was feeling quite useless and asked, "Can't I do something
to help? "
i58 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
"There is the lye-leach! you might bring out some ashes
and make some soft-soap," said June pointing to the ancient
leach and soap-kettle in the yard, the joys of Mr. Spear's
heart & &
Sammy stood at the back door and pounded on the dishpan
with a wooden spoon to announce that dinner was ready.
It was quite a sumptuous meal : potatoes baked in the ashes,
beans baked in the brick oven, coffee made on the hearth,
fish cooked in the skillet and pancakes made on a griddle
with a handle three feet long.
Mr. Spear had aspirations toward an apple-pie and had
made violent efforts in that direction, but the product being
dough on top and charcoal on the bottom we declined the
nomination with thanks.
June suggested that pies should be baked in an oven and
not cooked on a pancake griddle. The custodian thought
there might be something in it a suggestion he would have
scorned and scouted had it come from me.
To change the rather painful subject, Mr. Spear began to
talk about John and Abigail Adams, and to quote from
their "Letters," a volume he seems to have by heart.
"Do you know why their love was so very steadfast, and
why they stimulated the mental and spiritual natures of
each other so? " asked June.
"No, why was it? "
"Well, I '11 tell you: it was because they spent one-third of
their married life apart."
"Indeed!"
"Yes, and in this way they lived in an ideal world. In all
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
159
their letters you see they are always counting the days ere
they will meet. Now, people who are together all the time
never write that way because they do not feel that way
I '11 leave it to Mr. Spear ! "
But Mr. Spear, being a bachelor, did not know. Then the
case was referred to Sammy, and Sammy lied and said he
had never considered the subject.
"And would you advise, then, that married couples live
apart one-third of the time, in the interests of domestic
peace? " I asked.
"Certainly!" said June, with her Burne- Jones chin in
the air. "Certainly; but I fear you are the man who does
not understand; and anyway I am sure it will be much
more profitable for us to cultivate the receptive spirit and
listen to Mr. Spear such opportunities do not come very
often. I did not mean to interrupt you, Mr. Spear; go on
please ! " <I And Mr. Spear filled a clay pipe with natural
leaf that he crumbled in his hand, and, deftly picking a
coal from the fireplace with a shovel one hundred fifty
years old, puffed five times silently, and began to talk.
SO HERE ENDETH BOOK ONE OF AMERICAN STATESMEN, THE
SAME BEING ONE OF THE SERIES OF LITTLE JOURNEYS,
AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT HUBBARD: THE BORDERS AND
INITIALS BEING DESIGNED BY ROYCROFT ARTISTS, AND
THE WHOLE DONE INTO A PRINTED VOLUME BY THE
ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR SHOP, WHICH IS IN EAST
AURORA, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, IN THE YEAR MCMXI
-I
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