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THE LIFE OF 
 DAVID DUDLEY FIELD 
 
i 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 DAVID DUDLEY FIELD 
 
 HENRY M. FIELD 
 
 It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome of brick and left it 
 of marble. But how much nobler shall be the sovereign's boast, when he 
 shall have it to say, that he found law dear and left it cheap ; found it a 
 sealed book, left it a living letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, 
 left it the inheritance of the poor ; found it the two-edged sword of craft 
 and oppression, left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence. 
 
 — Lord Brougham. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1898 
 
E4I5 
 
 ^■^^'?-yi■' 
 
 Copyright, 1898 
 By henry M. field 
 
 ■\V0 COP! !-:s RECEIVED. 
 
 i69C. 
 
TO STEPHEN J. FIELD 
 
 JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OP THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 We are all that are left ! One by one, father, mother, 
 brothers, sisters, have passed on till we are standing 
 alone ! When, last of all, our eldest brother left us, 
 it would have fallen to you to write the story of his 
 busy life, but that you were so engrossed with your 
 duties on the bench as to forbid any other labor.* 
 Hence the task has fallen to me, who can only write as 
 a layman. But if the picture be wanting in some pro- 
 fessional details, it will at least be drawn by a loving 
 hand. And yet it is not from mere personal regard that 
 we cherish the memory of our beloved dead, but that he 
 was a great figure in his generation. We who were 
 nearest to him felt the inspiration most, and now that 
 he is gone, we recognize more than ever what we owe 
 to him, as next to what we owe to those who gave us 
 being, and it is our highest ambition to be not unworthy 
 of such a brother, and of such a father and mother. 
 
 /67 
 
 *The preparation of this volume was begun soon after the 
 death of Mr. Field, and has occupied all the time that the writer 
 could give to it for three years. It is a singular coincidence that 
 as he closes his work upon it, his brother retires from the 
 Supreme Court of the United States after a service of thirty- 
 four years and six months — a longer time than that of any 
 other man who ever sat upon the bench since the foundation of 
 the Government, not excepting the great Chief Justice Marshall. 
 
 I c 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 " For at least a third of a century," said the late Mr. 
 Austin Abbott, ' ' David Dudley Field was the most 
 commanding figure at the American bar." This alone 
 would justify, if it did not demand, some record of his 
 long and splendid career, while the traditions of his great 
 arguments still linger in the memories of the survivors 
 of his generation. But he was not merely "a figure at 
 the bar," however "commanding" ; he was a reformer 
 and reconstructor of the law itself ; in which the work 
 that he did cannot be appreciated without some knowl- 
 edge of the unsatisfactory state of the law when he 
 entered upon the practice of his profession. 
 
 In the colonial period of American history, our law 
 was the common law of England, that dates back to 
 the time of Alfred the Great, and was overlaid with the 
 accumulations of a thousand years. The Acts of Par- 
 liament were scattered through hundreds of volumes. 
 There were whole libraries of decisions of the courts — 
 decisions that were often so contradictory as to create 
 hopeless confusion. And even more confusing than the 
 law itself, was the administration of the law, as there 
 were two Forms of Procedure : in Law and in Equity ; 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 whereby what was decided in one might be reversed in 
 the other. Was there any necessity for this roundabout 
 way to secure simple justice? Was it not possible to 
 reduce somewhat the enormous bulk of the English 
 law ; to gather up the mighty fragments that were 
 scattered all along the centuries, and frame them into 
 fixed codes? Such were the questions that a young 
 lawyer asked himself more than fifty years ago. He 
 believed that, even where chaos reigned, it was within 
 the power of man to restore order : to cut a passage 
 through the jungle, and "cast up an highway" that 
 should lead straight to the Temple of Justice. But the 
 very suggestion was so presumptuous as to seem to 
 be almost sacrilege. It was a want of respect to the 
 traditions of the most conservative of professions. The 
 Reform and the Reformer were attacked with argu- 
 ment and ridicule : by lawyers and judges ; in courts 
 and legislatures. But he was in that stage of early 
 manhood when one is inspired by high ideals. The 
 very idea of justice was sacred to him. God was the 
 Great Lawgiver, and human justice should be framed 
 as far as possible on the foundation of eternal justice. 
 That was the only thing that could hold the world 
 together. If, as Mr. Webster tells us, "Justice is the 
 great interest of man upon earth," there can be no 
 greater service to humanity than to establish justice by 
 law. The union of Justice and Power is the only solid 
 foundation for human society. Inspired by such a con- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 viction, the Reform of the Law was to its projector a 
 holy crusade. ' Brought up in the old Puritan faith that 
 the law of God was not only for the wise but for the 
 simple, he would have the law of man brought down tc 
 the intelligence of all who were under it. No for- 
 eign phrases should obscure its meaning. Every word 
 should be in the dear old English tongue wherein we 
 were born. If all men could not understand the intri- 
 cacies of the law, they could at least understand justice, 
 as they felt the stings and wrongs of injustice. He 
 would have the pressure of the law like the pressure of 
 the atmosphere, resting alike upon all, yet not as a 
 burden, but as the very breath of life, the inspiration of 
 freedom as well as of justice, that makes men strong 
 and nations great. Thus the law should be "of the 
 people, by the people, and for the people." 
 
 Such was the dream of the young Reformer. But 
 how far did he achieve what he undertook ? A Lord 
 Chancellor of England, the late Lord Cairns, said that 
 he ' ' had done more for the reform of the law than any 
 other man living ; " and expressed his amazement that 
 he could vmdertake the enormous labor it involved, 
 while at the same time carrying on a large professional 
 practice. This was indeed the wonder of all who knew 
 him. The work of the student and the codifier alone 
 was more than enough to absorb the undivided labor of 
 the longest life. But the Reformer was not a recluse, 
 shut up within the walls of libraries, which no sound 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 from the outer world could invade. He was a soldier 
 who was always in the thick of the fight, as must be 
 one who was a "commanding figure at the bar." Nor 
 was this all. No man was more deeply interested in 
 the political questions of the day. A Democrat by 
 principle, he was one of the first to break with his party 
 on the point of the extension of slavery, which he fought 
 in conventions, when he stood almost alone — a move- 
 ment that took form in the old Free Soil party, which 
 was the nucleus of the Republican party, that at last 
 won its victory in the election of Lincoln, and kept pos- 
 session of the government for a whole generation after 
 the war. 
 
 But above all professional or political ambitions was 
 the Reform which he undertook in his early manhood, 
 and which filled up the measure of his days till he 
 breathed his last in his ninetieth year, a purpose thus 
 briefly recorded on his tomb : 
 
 HE DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO THE REFORM OF THE LAW: 
 
 TO CODIFY THE COMMON LAW ; 
 
 TO SIMPLIFY LEGAL PROCEDURE; 
 
 TO SUBSTITUTE ARBITRATION FOR WAR ; 
 
 TO BRING JUSTICE WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL MEN. 
 
 Did any man, living or dead, ever aim higher than 
 this ? Is it possible to conceive of anything more noble 
 than "to bring justice within the reach of all men"? 
 How far he succeeded is another question, which the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 writer, after telling the story in a simple narrative, 
 leaves to the reader, asking only that his opinion, what- 
 ever it may be, should be formed entirely apart from 
 personal considerations. The character here portrayed 
 was a very positive one, and roused strong antagonisms. 
 The Reformer — like other Reformers — was a man of 
 war from his youth, and gave, as well as received, 
 tremendous blows. But all this is over now. He has 
 gone to the grave, and in that grave should be buried 
 all the passions of the hour. But though he is gone, 
 his work remains, an inheritance to future generations, 
 and may safely be left to the verdict of posterity. His 
 name has passed into history, and by history let it be 
 judged. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 From the Stock of the Pilgrim Fathers. ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Birth and Boyhood. Removal to Stockbridge. . . 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The New Home. Going to College. . . . .26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Studies Law and Enters Practice in New York. Mar- 
 riage : Death of his Wife : A Year Abroad. . 84 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Reform of the Law. The Codes of Civil and Crim- 
 inal Procedure. 42 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A Domestic Episode. The Golden Wedding. . . .57 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Codification of the Common Law 68 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Adoption of the Codes at Home and Abroad. . . 84 
 
 xiii 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 "The Commanding Figure at the Bar." . . . .97 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Position in Politics. A Democrat, but opposed to the 
 Extension of Slavery. Annexation of Texas. Rise 
 of the Free Soil Party 107 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Nomination of Lincoln. A Chapter of unwritten 
 History 121 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The last Effort for Peace 141 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 The War that had to come 1G3 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Re-establishment of the Reign of Law. . . . 183 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Work and Play. How he "Warmed both hands at the 
 fire of life." 208 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 An International Code. Arbitration Instead of War. 219 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 The long Vacation : Going round the World. . . 243 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 A NEW Chapter in Politics. A Disputed Presidential 
 Election. Two Months in Congress. . . . 263 
 
 xiv 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Joy anu Sorrow. The Death of his Son. Visit to his 
 daughter in jamaica 277 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Afternoon of Life. The Queen's Jubilee. Death 
 OF Sib Anthony Musurave 295 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 The Peace Conuress in London. 308 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 Visit from his daughter and her sons. The Death of his 
 brother Cyrus 323 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 The last summer among the Hills 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Homeward bound. The going down of the Sun. . . 337 
 
PORTRAITS 
 
 DAVID DUDLEY FIELD 
 THE FATHER AND MOTHER 
 THE FIGURE AT THE BAR 
 JUSTICE STEPHEN J. FIELD 
 JUSTICE DAVID J. BREWER 
 CYRUS W. FIELD . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fronlisjnece 
 Facing 64 
 100 
 196 
 306 
 328 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 The liistory of New England dates from Plymouth 
 Eock. But the Mayflower was from the beginnmg a 
 sort of forlorn hope. Of the hundred pilgrims that it 
 had on board, the greater part were so worn out with the 
 three months' voyage, and the winter's cold, that when 
 the spring came one half were in their graves ; so that 
 the brave little ship is but a picturesque figurehead in 
 the great drama of American history, and has its place 
 of honor chiefly as the pioneer of larger emigrations 
 that had in them more of the seeds of empire. Ten 
 years later came John Winthrop with an expedition a 
 thousand strong, and founded the Colony of Massachu- 
 setts Bay. About the same time another pilgrim ship 
 had among its passengers a gi-andson of John Field, 
 the astronomer, who, a hundred years before Isaac 
 Newton, introduced into England the Copernican 
 Astronomy. That he was a Puritan of the Puritans 
 may be inferred from his very name, the good old 
 Scriptural name of Zachariah. But Puritan as he was, 
 he was none the less a man of affairs, of the energy 
 
3 FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 and enterprise that are needed in the making of a new 
 country. 
 
 Some historical critics, to whom nothing is sacred, 
 would take from us the heroism of our Pilgrim fathers, 
 by telling us that they were not seeking ' ' freedom to 
 worship God " so much as to better their worldly for- 
 tunes. But the two things were not inconsistent in the 
 Puritan any more than in the "canny Scot," whose 
 psalm-singing and long prayers did not prevent his 
 being thrifty at a bargain, or a tremendous fighter on the 
 field of battle. The men who landed on the rock-bound 
 coast of New England, had first of all to fight for exist- 
 ence ; to find homes for their wives and children. But 
 wherever they went in the wilderness, they carried the 
 ark of God with them, and 
 
 "The sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
 To the anthem of the free. " 
 
 Full of the hfe of the New World, Zachariah Field 
 remained but a few years near Boston, when he pushed 
 into the interior over a hundred miles to the valley of 
 the Connecticut. The old records of Hartford show 
 that he was one of the original proprietors, who bought 
 the land from the Indians, part of which was held 
 as the property of the town, and part was assigned to 
 individuals in proportion to the amount contributed to 
 the purchase. As he was still in the vigor of man- 
 hood he was one of the forty-two men furnished by 
 
FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 3 
 
 Hartford to take part in the Pequot war. He was 
 afterwards one of a company that bought from the 
 Indians nine miles square of land lying north of 
 Mount Holyoke, and moved up the valley of the Con- 
 necticut, hving first in Northampton, and then in Hat- 
 field, where he died in 1666. 
 
 In venturing thus far towards the frontier he exposed 
 his family to great dangers from the savages that were 
 lurking near the settlements. A few years later King 
 Philip's war stirred up the Indians from one end of 
 Massachusetts to the other. The massacre of Bloody 
 Brook (a part of Deerfield), in which a whole company 
 of soldiers were killed, sent a thrill of horror through 
 the new settlements, that were soon deserted, the peo- 
 ple fleeing to Northampton for safety. But a few 
 months later the whites turned the tide in the battle of 
 Turner's Falls, which gave them rest for some years, 
 till the Indians were stirred up again by the French, and 
 attacking Deerfield at night, set fire to the town, and 
 massacred part of the inhabitants, and made prisoners 
 of the rest. In all these terrible scenes few famihes 
 suffered more than the Fields, of whom some were 
 killed and others, including women, were carried off as 
 captives to Canada. 
 
 But in spite of all dangers the brave settlers held 
 the fort, or rather held the frontier, and became the 
 ancestors of families who have kept the name in honor 
 in Northwestern Massachusetts for six generations. 
 
4 FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 Among their descendants are not only ministers and 
 lawyers and judges, but men of business, whose vast 
 interests require as much financial ability as to be Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury of the United States ; so that we 
 may be pardoned if we claim it as another proof that 
 blood will tell, that Mr. Marshall Field, of Chicago, is 
 a direct descendant of the old Puritan, Zachariah Field. 
 But, though this tribe of Israel was of a fighting 
 race, the bravest of men do not care to be wakened too 
 often by the war-whoop of the savage : and a grandson 
 of Zachariah, " Ebenezer," signifying "Thus far hath 
 the Lord helped us," thought it more for his peace of 
 mind to go back to the land from which his forefather 
 came out, and returned to Connecticut. Nor did he 
 stop at Hartford, but went on to the shore of Long 
 Island Sound and took up his home in Guilford, in the 
 eastern part of the town, now called Madison, where 
 he married Mary Dudley, (a descendant of two govern- 
 ors of the Colony of New Haven) through whom the 
 name of Dudley came into the family. Here he and 
 those that came after him abode for more than a hun- 
 dred years. In the old burying ground where 
 
 " The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 
 
 may still be seen side by side three low headstones 
 which mark the heads of three generations: for after 
 Ebenezer came his eldest son, David, who settled in 
 the north part of Madison, probably as early as 1720, 
 
FROM THE STOCK OP THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 5 
 
 in a district which, as it was yet uncleared, was called 
 ' ' The "Woods, " where he soon after erected a frame 
 house of two stories, that was literally founded on a 
 rock, and is standing to this day. 
 
 After David came Timothy, who lived on the old 
 homestead, which he inherited from his father. He 
 was a man of great vigor and resolution, which led his 
 fellow-townsmen to look to him as a leader in troublous 
 times. When he was m the prime of manhood — a little 
 over thirty years of age — the War of the Revolution 
 broke out, and he entered the army. In 1776 he joined 
 the seventh regiment raised in Connecticut for the 
 defence of the State, and served under Washington, 
 when the great leader, rallying his forces after the dis- 
 astrous defeat on Long Island, took a position of defence 
 on the upper part of New York Island, between Fort 
 Washington and the East River, to watch the British 
 troops which then held the city, and took part in the 
 battle of White Plains. He was afterward in command 
 of a coast guard organized for protection against expe- 
 ditions that might attack towns along the shore of Long 
 Island Sound, in which he once saved Guilford from 
 a raid of Tories who landed June 17th, 1781, and had 
 begun to burn the town, when, mustering the farmers 
 with their muskets, he attacked them with such spirit 
 that he drove them to their boats, leaving their dead* 
 and wounded behind them. 
 
 Captain Field lived many years after the war, and 
 
6 FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 was a fine specimen of the old "Continentals," who 
 united the character of the farmer and the soldier. The 
 older inhabitants of the town still remember his striking 
 figure. One who says " he can see him now," describes 
 him as "a large, broad-breasted, well-built man." 
 Even while engaged in peaceful pursuits he kept up the 
 mihtary style of dress of other days. ' 'He always wore 
 a cocked hat, short breeches, long stockings, and bright, 
 silver shoe-buckles ; and I never saw Mm, either on the 
 farm or abroad, that he was not dressed in this manner." 
 
 This revolutionary veteran had eight children, of 
 whom six were daughters. The sons were both minis- 
 ters. The elder, who bore his father's name of Timothy, 
 was one of the early pioneers of Western New York, 
 and was settled in Canandaigua, where are still many 
 of his kindred. He afterward returned to New Eng- 
 land, and became a pastor in Westminster, Vermont, 
 where he died in 1844, leaving a name that is held by 
 the old residents in loving remembrance. The other 
 son was the Rev. David Dudley Field, the father of the 
 subject of this biography. 
 
 It would be a very imperfect narrative that did not 
 pause before the figure of the venerable patriarch who 
 forms the link between past generations and the present, 
 and whom all who survive hold in tenderest love and 
 reverence. He was descended, as we have seen, from a 
 race of brave and God-fearing men, who in times of 
 danger defended the frontier settlements against the 
 
FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 7 
 
 savages, and fought for their country's independence. 
 But it was a small world into which he came. Yet 
 not so small as it seemed. Those days had their 
 excitements as well as ours. It was just after the Rev- 
 olutionary war. Indeed he was born before the contest 
 was decided. The last gun was fired while he was in 
 his cradle. Such great events left their impression far 
 beliind them. The agitation remained long after the 
 conflict was over, and the mind of the country was still 
 rocked and tossed, like the ocean after a storm. Every 
 hamlet in New England was full of tales of the great 
 struggle. The actors in those scenes were still upon the 
 stage. There were men who had fought behind the 
 entrenchments on Bunker Hill; who had followed 
 Washington in all the vicissitudes of the long conflict ; 
 who had camped with him at VaUey Forge ; who had 
 witnessed the surrender at Yorktown. From a child 
 he was familiar with these heroic traditions, for at his 
 father's fireside he heard stories of the camp and the 
 field. Nor were such things altogether of the past, for 
 now and then, like distant thunder, came the sound of 
 wars and revolutions beyond the sea. 
 
 With all this, there was an intellectual life in New 
 England at the close of the last century and the begin- 
 ning of this, perhaps as great as at the present day. In 
 every town there were men of education and learning. 
 Yale College exerted a powerful influence in Connecti- 
 cut, as Harvard did in Massachusetts. It raised up a 
 
8 FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 body of educated men — ministers, physicians, lawyers, 
 and judges — who were sca,ttered through the State, 
 filhng positions of influence, and forming an educated 
 class. The town of Guilford had as its minister Rev. 
 John Elliott, a man of high classical attainments, whose 
 discourses — a few of which are still preserved — show 
 him to have possessed uncommon ability and eloquence. 
 
 Like his older brother, this son of Captain Field chose 
 the profession of the ministry, for which indeed he had 
 such a natural taste, as might be interpreted as a Divine 
 call. A schoolmate used afterwards to relate how, 
 when boys, they would go off into the woods, where 
 "David" would mount a rock, and "preach" at him 
 as l^ng as his youthful listener would hear. As he 
 walked on the sea-shore, he shouted to the waves, which 
 seemed like answering voices, as they came rolling up 
 the beach. The late Dr. John Todd, who spent a part 
 of his early life in Madison, said : "In my boyhood I 
 used to hear about ' Mr. Field,' the young man who had 
 gone to college. I walked on the hard sands of the 
 beach where he had walked, I stood on the same fishing- 
 rocks on which he had stood, and I listened to the same 
 surf -roar of the sea to which he had listened." 
 
 Bent on an education, he applied to his minister, who 
 had the pleasure of a scholar in reviewing his old studies, 
 and fitted him for college along with two of his class- 
 mates, Erastus Scranton and Jeremiah Evarts, the 
 father of William M. Evarts, the late Secretary of 
 
FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 9 
 
 State. They entered Yale together m 1798. Field and 
 Evarts were room-mates durmg their college course, 
 and always entertained for each other the warmest 
 affection. The class of 1803 numbered among its mem- 
 bers others whose names became honorably distinguished 
 in after life — Isaac C. Bates, Senator from Massachu- 
 setts ; Judge Hubbard of Boston, William Maxwell of 
 Virginia, Governors Tomlinson and Pond of Connecti- 
 cut, Junius Smith, who has been called the father of 
 ocean steam navigation, and Pelatiah Perit, an eminent 
 merchant of New York. But perhaps the best that 
 Yale College gave to its students then, came from the 
 personal influence of President Dwight, a man of such 
 noble presence, combined with such intellect and such 
 eloquence, as gave him a great ascendancy over the 
 minds of his pupils, who looked up to him as a king of 
 men. No one felt his influence more than Field, and 
 the impression remained to the end of his life. While 
 in college, and for some time after, the intervals of 
 study were occupied in teaching school, by which he 
 obtained means to complete his education. - 
 
 Graduating with high honors in 1802, he had next to 
 prepare for his profession. • At that time there were no 
 theological seminaries in the country, and students of 
 divinity pursued a course of study with some eminent 
 minister. Among these was Dr. Charles Backus of 
 Somers, to whom the young graduate went, and found 
 something better than theology in his future wife, a 
 
10 FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 young lady who bore the name of Dickinson, the daugh- 
 ter of Captain Noah Dickinson, who had served as an 
 ofl&cer under General Putnam in the old French war, 
 and afterwards was in the army in the war of the 
 Revolution, and at the return of peace settled down 
 to the quiet life of a farmer. One who knew him only 
 in the last years of his life describes him as a man of 
 commanding appearance, nearly, if not quite, six feet 
 high, with an intellectual head and face, that made 
 him a fine type of "the gentleman of the Old School." 
 The daughter of this old soldier was long remem- 
 bered by those who knew her in her youth as having 
 great personal beauty, a light graceful figure, and a 
 very animated countenance. It was the fashion of 
 those times to give to daughters the names of the 
 Christian graces, which of course they were expected to 
 exemplify, such as Faith, Hope, Patience, and Charity. 
 One of her sisters was named Love, and upon this 
 daughter of the Puritans was bestowed the meek name 
 of Submit. In after years her children sometimes play- 
 fully told her that the appellation was not the most 
 appropriate, since she had a due share (but not a whit 
 too much) of true womanly spirit. As she was born on 
 the first day of October, 1782, she had but just reached 
 the age of twenty-one when she was married in 1803. 
 And truly, if a good wife is from the Lord, no one ever 
 had more reason to recognize a special Providence in the 
 gift than this young minister. From that day she was 
 
FROM THE STOCK OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 11 
 
 for nearly fifty-eight years the hght and joy of his 
 home. Whoever in all those years shared her hospi- 
 tahty, "vvill not forget what brightness and sunshine she 
 shed around her. Whatever of success or prosperity 
 has attended the family, has been due in a great measure 
 to her unselfish spirit, which made every sacrifice for the 
 education of her children — to her perpetual buoyancy of 
 temper, to her womanly patience, courage, and hope. 
 
 These are tender memories that stand out in touch- 
 ing relief against the dark background of those early 
 times of struggle and of war, while the figures of 
 grandsires who perilled their lives for their country is 
 not only a matter of pride for the past, but an inspira- 
 tion for the future. Nobody felt this more than the 
 Law-Reformer, whose life was one long battle. In the 
 days when he had to stand almost alone against a host 
 of opponents, he was always able to strengthen his 
 courage by remembering that he had the blood of these 
 old soldiers in his veins. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. REMOVAL TO STOCKBRIDGE. 
 
 It is hard to transport ourselves back nearly a hun- 
 dred years, so as to enter into the life in New England 
 at the beginning of this century. It was very primitive 
 as compared with the life of to-day. There were no 
 railroads and no steamboats. Locomotion was slow 
 and difficult. If a country minister wished to visit his 
 brother in the next town to discusss the hard points 
 of Calvinism, he could not be whirled to the spot in 
 an electric car, but had to jog over the hills in his 
 " one-hoss shay." But after all the slower gait fur- 
 nished the more time to think and ' ' ruminate " by the 
 way, and many a minister has preached a sermon to 
 his horse before he preached it to his people. Perhaps 
 there was as much general intelligence, as much true 
 manhness and womanliness, and as much real happi- 
 ness, in those simple daj^s of our fathers as in these 
 eager and rushing days of ours. Happiness belongs to 
 no place or time. Love brings heaven down to earth, 
 and makes all things new, and no painter or poet could 
 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 13 
 
 have pictured a sweeter idyll than that of the home- 
 coming of the young minister with his young bride, as 
 they rode over the hills that autumn day, when the 
 woods were aflame with purple and gold, and down the 
 valley of the Connecticut to the village that was to be 
 their home for many years to come. Every step of the 
 way brought him nearer to the home of his childhood, to 
 the place where he was born, and to the College where 
 he was educated. What a joy it would be to drive 
 down to the seaside, where he used to walk upon the 
 beach, or to the City of Elms, to meet his old classmates 
 on Commencement day, when they would exchange their 
 experiences, their hopes and fears, as they ventured out 
 upon the scenes of active life. Apart from these imag- 
 ings the new parish might not have seemed quite so 
 inviting, for Haddam is a rough and rocky town, its 
 chief source of wealth being its quarries of granite. 
 Nor was there any beauty in the long, straggling vil- 
 lage. The old meeting house was a huge barn-like 
 structure, which answered not only for a place of wor- 
 ship, but for town meetings, and now and then for the 
 court, if some poor wretch was to be tried for murder, 
 when the eagerness "to be in at the death " was such 
 that no other roof could cover the multitude. But after 
 all nature had been kindly to the old town, which was 
 framed in between the rocky hills and the majestic river 
 that wound its way among them on its course to the sea. 
 The parsonage was not after the pattern of an Eng- 
 
14 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 lish rectory, with its Gothic doors and windows cov- 
 ered with vines, nor of any modern architecture. No 
 Quaker dwelhng could be plainer than the two-story 
 frame house, that stood so close upon the street as to 
 leave but a few feet for a bit of green grass. Nor was 
 the salary oppressive. If he was not, like the preacher 
 in Goldsmith's Deserted Village, ' ' passing rich on forty 
 pounds a year, " his stipend amounted to but httle more, 
 though nominally it was more than twice as much — a 
 hundred pounds, or five hundred dollars ! This was 
 riches indeed had it all been paid in money, but in those 
 days there was very little money in the country. There 
 was no question between gold and silver as legal tender, 
 for it was not often that the people saw the glitter of 
 either coin, and those who could not pay in cash paid 
 "in kind." A farmer brought a load of wood, and 
 received credit for so much toward the minister's sal- 
 ary. * I have heard him say that in all these years he 
 never had at one time so much as a hundred dollars ! 
 But what cared the young minister and his wife so long 
 as they had health, and heart, and hope ? If their 
 dwelling was plain without, it was bright within, as 
 the young mistress filled it with the sunshine of her 
 presence ; and never was it so warm and bright as on 
 
 * When Jonathan Edwards was settled in Stockbridge in 1750, the town 
 voted him a salary of six pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence, law- 
 ful money, and a hundred sleigh-loads of fire-wood— of which twenty 
 were furnished by the white settlers and eighty by the Indians 1 
 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 15 
 
 a winter daj^, February 13tli, 1805, when they welcomed 
 into the world their first-born son, to whom they gave 
 his father's name of David Dudley Field. 
 
 Hardly was the little creature out of his cradle before 
 he began to show signs of a wall of his own. An old 
 dame who was employed in the family, and in after 
 years used to boast that she had administered to him 
 necessary domestic discipline, gave as a reason for it 
 that "he was a most determined little fellow." She 
 found it hard to break his will. In this the child was 
 father of the man. Many found the same difficulty in 
 the later stages of his career. 
 
 A boy so full of life could not but be fond of sports, 
 though under a little restraint, as he was the min- 
 ister's son ! But outdoor exercise of any kind exhil- 
 arated him, whether it was skating on the ice-bound 
 river, or being whirled at full speed over the crisp and 
 glittering snow. 
 
 Still keener was the enjoyment to sit on a winter 
 night before a blazing fire, and hear old men tell tales 
 of old times ! Their next-door neighbor had been a sea- 
 faring man. On a winter evening he and his boys were 
 commonly occupied in knitting nets for the shad fishery. 
 Then was the time for the old seaman's yarns, to which 
 young David would hsten with infinite delight. 
 
 As soon as he was old enough he had been sent to 
 school. But from all his schooling he gathered only 
 the rudiments of knowledge, for while he was still a 
 
16 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 mere boy, his father took him in hand, to teach him 
 sometliing better than learning by rote, to think for 
 himself, as he would study out his sums in arithmetic. 
 If in after years he showed a remarkable power of rea- 
 soning, he owed it largely to the mental discipline that 
 he had in liis father's study. 
 
 Then came a passion for reading. But where to find 
 the books ! In those days there were no circulating 
 libraries. Indeed there was not a library of any kind 
 in the town except his father's, and that was composed 
 chiefly of books of divinity ! "Of tales and romances 
 there were none ; of the English classics little ; and of 
 poetry just three books — Milton's Paradise Lost, Young's 
 Night Thoughts, and Watts' Psalms and Hymns ! " 
 The Night Thoughts suggested doleful meditations, and 
 Watts' Psalms and Hymns were meant to be sung, 
 and as he was not a singer, he would not presume to 
 devote himself to them ; but the sonorous lines of Milton 
 caught his ear. He committed pages of them to mem- 
 ory, and was constantly repeating them to himself as 
 he was wandering about among the rocks and hills. 
 
 With this love of poetry and of nature, nothing 
 so captivated him as the broad bosom of the Con- 
 necticut, divided by a long and narrow island, which he 
 in his youthful enthusiasm thought ' ' one of the prettiest 
 spots in the world." Of all things in nature that speak 
 not and hear not, there is not one that can become 
 so real a companion as a river. Soft and still may 
 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 17 
 
 be its flow, yet in its gentle murmurs it whispers to 
 the heart, if it does not speak loudly, while it lulls the 
 too sensitive nature. It is not a dead thing, like yon- 
 der cliffs of granite, that change not with the pass- 
 ing centuries. It is alive, and the very image and 
 reflection of our own life, as it is ever in motion and 
 always in one direction, never turning back, but flow- 
 ing on and on, forever and forever ! Those who in 
 after years were accustomed to see the great advocate 
 at the bar, in the contests of professional life, could 
 not imagine how fuU his mind was of poetry and of the 
 love of nature. But those who knew him intimately 
 can see him in his boyhood, sitting for hours at the 
 window of his father's house, or in the summer time on 
 the grassy slope, or under the trees, in that silent com- 
 munion ^vith nature, which to him was one of the most 
 exquisite dehghts to the last hour of his life. 
 
 And now, as he looks at the river, there go the ships ! 
 Even in those early days there was a considerable 
 inland commerce on the Connecticut as on the Hudson. 
 Sloops and schooners went down the river, bound to 
 New York, or it might be to the West Indies, and now 
 and then came a full-rigged ship, ^vith broad wings 
 outspread to fly across the sea ! AU this excited the 
 boy's imagination, till he was seized with a passion for 
 the life that thus passed before him, and went to his 
 father and begged him to let him go to sea ! — a passion 
 that grew stronger when there was a prospect of some- 
 
18 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 thing more exciting than a seaman's hfe, however full 
 it might be of novelty and adventure, as all along the 
 coast was heard the sound of war, for among the recol- 
 lections of his boyhood, he recalled distinctly the break- 
 ing out of the war of 1812. Once, talking of the old 
 times, he said : "I remember when a boy seven years 
 of age, as I was riding with father over the hills to 
 Killingworth, a man met us on the road, and told us 
 that war was declared with England ! My father was 
 startled by the news. The country had been expecting 
 it, and yet it caused a shock when it came. It was a 
 strange coincidence, that at that moment there came 
 up a thunder storm. The sky grew black, the light- 
 nings flashed, and the thunder rolled from one end of 
 the heavens to the other, as if the elements were in 
 sympathy with the storm of war that was to burst 
 upon the country. I remember two privateers going 
 down the Connecticut river ; and once at New Haven 
 I saw English ships-of-war sailing up the Sound. I 
 remember also a playmate running up the liill behind 
 the village to tell us the great news that Bonaparte had 
 been beaten at Waterloo." 
 
 Life in a country village in those days was not very 
 eventful. There was not even the sensation of evil, as 
 it was a very peaceable community, where every man 
 dwelt in safety, with none to molest or make him afraid. 
 The farmers did not lock their doors at night, for there 
 was nothing to tempt a thief or a robber. The very 
 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 19 
 
 infrequency of crime made it more startling when it 
 came, an illustration of which may show the gravity 
 and the solemnity with which the people of New Eng- 
 land administered justice as under the authority, not 
 only of the State, but of God, who had commanded 
 that they should not bear the sword in vain. 
 
 In 1815 a man by the name of Peter Lung, living 
 in Middletown, of violent temper, and maddened by 
 intoxication, murdered his wife. He was arrested, and 
 taken to Haddam, the county seat, and confined in jail. 
 When the time for trial came, such was the excitement 
 of the people, and the eagerness to witness it, that the 
 court house did not suffice, and the trial was transferred 
 to the meeting house, whose wide floor and deep gal- 
 leries held a crowd, that looked on the scene with awe 
 and wonder. The venerable Judge Trumbull presided, 
 taking his seat in front of the pulpit, in his ruffled shirt 
 sleeves and bosom, and his short-clothes. The trial was 
 conducted with due deliberation, but the case was .clear, 
 and could have but one issue. 
 
 After receiving sentence the prisoner was taken back 
 to liis place of confinement, where the village pastor was 
 constant in his ministrations till the day of his execu- 
 tion, which was to be accompanied by a service such 
 as we know not if it could be found anywhere else in 
 Christendom, though it once existed in Scotland, and 
 is described by Scott in The Heart of Midlothian. It 
 was that a sermon should be preached at the execution : 
 
20 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 and this not only to the spectators of the scene, that 
 they might profit by the lesson which it conveyed, but 
 in presence of the condemned, who was brought into 
 the church, and sat in the aisle in front of the pulpit, 
 and whom the preacher addressed in person. As the 
 prisoner had become attached to his spiritual adviser, 
 he desired him to be with him on Ins last day, to 
 strengthen him for the moment that he was to suffer, 
 and to preach the sermon ! The execution took place 
 in Middletown, and drew an immense concourse of 
 people from all the surrounding country. Mr. Field 
 took with him his son, but ten years old, whose eyes 
 were ready to burst when the soldiers brought in the 
 prisoner, and fifty years after he said : "I can see 
 them now, and hear the clang as they grounded their 
 arms ! " The sermon, as was fitting in view of the cause 
 of the crime, was a warning against drunkenness, from 
 Luke xxi. 34 : " Take heed to yourselves, lest at any 
 time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and 
 drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day 
 come upon you unawares ; " from which the preacher 
 denounced that which is the cause of so many acts of vio- 
 lence and blood. As he drew near the close, he turned 
 to the unhappy man before him, who rose and stood (as 
 he had done when receiving sentence from the judge), 
 to hear these last words before he was launched into 
 eternity. The preacher then addressed him as follows : 
 ' ' Peter Lung : By your confessions, intemperate 
 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 21 
 
 drinking has been the cause of the calamities which 
 have come upon you. This inflamed your passions, 
 naturally \aolent and impetuous; filled your tongue 
 with prof aneness and threatening, and your hands with 
 frequent acts of violence, even upon her who was the 
 wife of your covenant. In a fit of intoxication you 
 inflicted upon her wounds, marks of which she carried 
 to the grave. What you have done, as it has been 
 judged by the proper tribunals, subjects you to an 
 ignominious execution. From this there is no escape. 
 But men who forfeit their fives to the laws of their 
 country, may upon repentance receive a pardon from 
 God. During your long confinement, as your life has 
 drawn nigh unto the grave ; as you have been counted 
 with them that go down into the pit; have you cried 
 day and night before God ? . , Pray God to search 
 your heart, to see if there be any wicked way in you, 
 and to lead you in the way everlasting. Whatever you 
 do, you must do speedily : for this day thou shalt die. 
 Before yonder sun shall set in the west, your proba- 
 tionary state will be closed forever. If in any doubt 
 about your preparation, you may yet find mercy. He 
 who pardoned the penitent thief on the cross, may 
 pardon you in the place of execution. Pray God, then, 
 if perhaps your sins may be forgiven you. Cry to Him, 
 God be merciful to me, a sinner ! and continue those 
 cries till death shall remove you hence. May the 
 Lord Almighty support you in the trjHng scene before 
 
22 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 you, and through infinite grace have mercy on your 
 soul ! " 
 
 When this solemn service was over, the mourn- 
 ful procession took up its line of march, the soldiers 
 leading the way to the place of execution. Young 
 David, who followed in the throng, remembered how 
 the wretched man, dressed in a long white robe, that 
 was to be his winding-sheet, stood upon the scaffold, 
 which was guarded by a body of troopers, who closed 
 up around it, and cut the fatal cord with their swords. 
 When this last act was over, all turned away, and as 
 the people from the country round rode back over the 
 hills, they talked together of a scene the like of which, 
 at least in the feature here described, has perhaps not 
 since been witnessed in New England. 
 
 While these years passed on, the parsonage was 
 being filled with a little group of children. Seven were 
 born in Haddam, of whom one died in infancy, and 
 six were living, with ages from two to thirteen j-ears. 
 There were so many little mouths to be fed, little bodies 
 to be clothed, and the older ones to be sent to school. 
 How this problem was solved, is the secret of the mys- 
 terious power that lies in a woman's heart and hand. 
 With a salary of five hundred dollars, and six children, 
 there was no time for idleness. In those days there 
 were no Irish servants, and indeed hardly servants of 
 any kind, except a few colored people kept in old fami- 
 lies. Almost every woman in the country did her own 
 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 23 
 
 work with such "help" as she could now and then 
 find from the assistance of a farmer's daughter. Yet 
 such tasks did not daunt this gentle mother with her 
 delicate and slender frame. She did not count it hard- 
 ship or self-denial, for the passion of her life was 
 devotion to her husband and her children, and she 
 moved about the house with a light step, singing as she 
 went. All day long was the parsonage kept alive by 
 her busy hands and feet. But now she was to be left 
 alone for five months together, which was their first, 
 and — except a visit to Europe thirty years later — their 
 last separation. 
 
 This was an episode in his ministerial life that at 
 once separated and linked together his two places of 
 settlement. The people of New England had begun to 
 wake up to the idea of the Great West, which then 
 included Western New York, a large part of which was 
 still covered by the primeval forest. He read about the 
 emigrants from Connecticut and Massachusetts going 
 out into the wilderness. Why should he not go and 
 preach to them ? He was just in his prime, but thirty- 
 seven years old ! Who could endure hardship better 
 than he ? Whereupon he resigned his quiet parish on 
 the river side, and accepted an appointment under the 
 old Missionary Society of Connecticut, to the new settle- 
 ments on the southern shore of Lake Ontario and on 
 the banks of the Oswego River. The country was then 
 a wilderness, through which he rode on horseback, 
 
24 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 preaching in log-houses and under the shade of trees. 
 This frontier had been the scene of constant fighting 
 during the then recent war, and as he rode along he 
 visited several of the fields of battle. Buffalo had been 
 burnt by the British, and was still bvit a small strag- 
 gling village, in which there was not a single church, 
 and he preached in the court house ! 
 
 This absence continued for five months, during which 
 the young mother was left alone with her little flock, to 
 watch over them, and keep them safely within the fold. 
 In after years she often told us of the anxieties of those 
 days : how at night, when the little ones were in their 
 nests, she would go round the house to see that all was 
 quiet, and then lie down and sleep beside her children, 
 feeling that they were safe under the eye of God. 
 
 During this period she had a great comfort in her 
 oldest boy, who, though he was but thirteen years of 
 age, at once took in the situation, and felt that a certain 
 responsibility rested upon him to be in the place of the 
 absent father, as the protector of his young mother, and 
 of his only sister, and the four little boys, the youngest 
 of whom was but just out of his cradle. This feeling 
 of an older brother, as being the natural guardian of 
 the younger, remained through life : a care that was 
 rewarded in after years, when he lived to see the young- 
 est of those little brothers, and a son of that sister, 
 meet on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. 
 
REMOVAL, TO STOCKBRIDGE. 25 
 
 But at last the father was coming home ! On his 
 return he passed through Stockbridge, Mass., where 
 the old minister, Dr. Stephen West, past his eightieth 
 year, was no longer able to preach, and Mr. Field was 
 asked to supply the pulpit for several weeks, and soon 
 after was called to be the pastor, and settled the follow- 
 ing year, August 25, 1819, then beginning a ministry 
 that was to continue nearly eighteen years. 
 
 The removal was no small affair. Teams were sent 
 to Connecticut to bring the furniture — a week's journey 
 to go and return. There were beds and bureaus, tables 
 and chairs, and most weighty of all, boxes piled with 
 books, for the minister had accumulated a large hbrary. 
 Nearly fifty years after, the subject of this biography 
 and the writer of it, both of whom lived in New York, 
 had their summer homes in Stockbridge, and took their 
 exercise on horseback together. One morning as thej^ 
 were riding over the hills, they passed bv a farmer's 
 door, who told them that he had in his possession one 
 of the teamster's waggons that had done service in this 
 memorable exodus, and they rode into the yard to see 
 it. There it was, looking like an old army waggon, 
 that had been through the wars. It required but little 
 imagination to picture it piled with aU the treasures 
 of the household, while on the top, riding high in air, 
 were perched half a dozen children ; and thus bearing 
 "Cfesar and his fortunes," it rumbled over the moun- 
 tains to the new home among; the Berksliire Hills. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE NEW HOME. GOING TO COLLEGE. 
 
 The removal of the family to Stockbridge was an 
 event to all concerned, and a turnhig-point m their his- 
 tory. It is with men as with trees, that the best of 
 them inay be improved by transplanting. True, the 
 Housatonic was not as large as the Connecticut, but it 
 has a beauty all its own as it winds its way through 
 the Berksliire Hills. At this point the valley widens, 
 stretching away in meadows, that rise gently into hills 
 covered with forests, till the horizon is shut in by an 
 amphitheatre of mountains. The village is on a plateau 
 near the river, and is laid out in one long street, arched 
 with elms, underneath which were the residences of 
 families some of which bore the names, as they retained 
 the manners, of the old Colonial aristocracy. 
 
 The town had a history, which, if not more notable 
 than that of many other New England towns, gave it 
 a local distinction. The fertility of the valley had 
 attracted a tribe of Indians, who gave their name of 
 Housatonic to the river, and it Avas to plant a mission 
 
THE NEW HOME. 27 
 
 among them that the first white men came from East- 
 ern Massachusetts. What John Eliot had been a hun- 
 dred years before, John Sergeant was now, an apostle to 
 the Indians, by whom he was so beloved that when he 
 was laid to rest, they wished to be buried beside liim 
 that they might rise with him in the resurrection. 
 After him appeared the stately form of Jonathan 
 Edwards, who found the quiet of the wilderness a fit 
 seclusion in which to revolve the ever vexed questions of 
 
 "Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute." 
 
 Then came one who was pastor of the church for sixtj- 
 years, that spanned the whole period from the time of 
 the old French war through the Revolution and the sec- 
 ond war mth Great Britain. This Was Stephen West, 
 who, though a man of small stature, was full of patri- 
 otic fire, as he showed when the tidings came of the 
 battle of Lexington, and the minute men were mustered 
 on the village green, and he addressed them, telling 
 them to do their duty to God and their country ! He 
 lived to a good old age, and was always a notable figure 
 in the town when he Avalked abroad arrayed in his three- 
 cornered hat, his silver knee buckles, and his gold- 
 headed cane, and all stood aside and uncovered their 
 heads with a deference that is too much forgotten in 
 these democratic, not to say degenerate, days. 
 
 In the Hne of this apostolic succession came the 
 new minister in the autumn of 1819. Among the spe- 
 
28 GOING TO COLLEGE. 
 
 cial attractions for the young student was an excellent 
 Academy under the instruction of a famous teacher, 
 Mr. Jared Curtis, who had a reputation for turning out 
 thorough scholars. - And what was even more impor- 
 tant than the ' ' head-master, " he met here for the first 
 time three young men of similar tastes, with whom he 
 formed an intimacy that ripened into the closest friend- 
 ship, that continued to the end of their hves. These 
 were the brothers Mark and Albert HojDkins, the first 
 of whom afterwards became the President of Wilhams 
 College, and the other Professor of Astronomy ; while 
 the third was John Morgan, who became a Professor at 
 Oberlin, Ohio, where his name is held in honor, as are 
 the two others in the heart of every man who has been 
 a student at Williams within the past generation.* - 
 
 From the Academy the next step was to the College. 
 Had his father continued to reside in Connecticut, the 
 son would have gone, as his father did, to Yale. But 
 Western Massachusetts had a College of its own, which 
 bore the name of a gallant soldier. Colonel Ephraim 
 Williams, who went from Stockbridge, and fell in the 
 old French war. And so to Williams he went with the 
 other students from Stockbridge. Those were among the 
 
 * Mr. Field survived them all. It was while he was in Europe, in 
 the summer of 1887, that President Hopkins died; but on Ms return he 
 prepared, at the request of the Trustees of the College, a fitting tribute to 
 the memory of his life-long friend. It was delivered at the following 
 Commencement, and is published in Volume III of his Miscellaneous 
 Addresses. 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 39 
 
 happiest days of his life. He loved study, and the harder 
 the subject the more he loved it for the very fact that 
 it taxed his intellectual ability. No matter what the 
 study was, Latin or Greek, or the problems of geom- 
 etry, he attacked them all with a fierce determination. 
 In those days scientific explorers in Europe and America 
 were beginning to make their discoveries, and his eager 
 mind was greatly excited by the mysteries which they 
 revealed. Long years after he said : "I remember, as 
 of yesterday, my feeling at my first lesson in chemistry. 
 The world had changed. Instead of a cold, inanimate 
 nature, I saw that everytliing was alive. The trees 
 seemed nodding to me as I passed ; the air whispered in 
 my ears ; every blade of grass, every green leaf, opened 
 its wonderful structure. The ground moved beneath 
 my feet; the rain, the light, and the clouds brought 
 messages ; and even the solid rocks stood full of affini- 
 ties, ready to dissolve and form again in new combi- 
 nations of their elements." But what fascinated him 
 more than aU was the starry heavens, even though it 
 was before the modest Observatory had arisen, with 
 its dome and its telescope. It was his interest in this 
 study, together with his personal regard for Albert 
 Hopkins, which led him in after years to give $25,000 
 to endow the professorship of astronomy. 
 
 How he ranked as a scholar compared with his class- 
 mates, I cannot speak from personal knowledge, as I 
 did not enter College for many years after : but even 
 
30 WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 
 
 then there was a tradition of a race of giants that had 
 gone before us: among whom stood the four Stock- 
 bridge boys. I heard a great deal about them from an 
 " Old Mortahty, " the "Professor of Dust and Ashes," 
 who was the collector and purveyor of all the Col- 
 lege gossip, and as such the most copious, if not the 
 most credible, chronicler of his time. He used to say 
 to me, perhaps to exalt my family pride, " They all said 
 that Field was the best scholar that they had had in the 
 College in ten years ! " 
 
 And yet, though his standing was so high, he did 
 not graduate. ' ' The reason why I cannot tell. " Some- 
 thing had given offence to the President, Dr. Griffin, 
 who was somewhat tenacious of his dignity, and so the 
 young man left the College a year before the end of his 
 course, without waiting for the valedictory, that his class- 
 mates said was sure to be his. But whatever the petty 
 irritation, it was soon after removed, and from that time 
 to the hour of his death, Williams College had no more 
 loyal son than he. The very ground on which it stood 
 was sacred. How he loved tliis " Mother," he showed 
 by coming back almost every year to the old home, to 
 meet his classmates, the companions of other days, and 
 recall their common associations. At the Commence- 
 ment in 1875 — fifty years after the graduation of Ms 
 class — he delivered the Address before the Literary 
 Societies, in which he christened Ms Alma Mater 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 31 
 
 "Williams the Beautiful." A few passages wiU show 
 the spirit of the whole : 
 
 "We, who have returned to this beloved teacher of our youth, 
 have come to recall and commemorate the past. We are think- 
 ing less of the new than of the old. We lay aside for the day 
 whatever thoughts of the busy world outside might disturb the 
 place or the time, while we revisit the scenes of college life, call 
 up again the memories of those early years, take one another 
 by the hand, look into one another's faces, listen to one another's 
 voices, and rekindle sympathies dormant or forgotten. How- 
 ever long or short be the time since we went forth from the 
 gates of this valley, however divergent our paths of life, we 
 stand here as brethren. The youngest among us is the comrade 
 of the oldest, as the recruit of to-day in a regiment that bears 
 upon its colors the names of a hundred fights, looks upon the 
 veteran as his comrade, and himself as one of a line of soldiers, 
 inheritor and partaker of their fame. Here as there the files 
 are continuous despite the changes in the ranks. Once a year 
 we have our muster, and though each roll-call, like that of the 
 morning after battle, bears many a name to which there is no 
 answer, our lines, however thinned, are never broken. 
 
 "The sight of these faces, of these old roofs and halls, of these 
 meadows and streams, and of these encircling hills, so quickens 
 the inward sense that it sees forms that have vanished and hears 
 voices that are silent forever. I behold my classmates as I 
 beheld them then filing into the chapel, or gathered at recita- 
 tions, or sauntering along the walks, or resting beneath the 
 trees. I naark their gait; I hear their earnest debate, their 
 hearty laugh, and I recall the strifes, the friendships, the greet- 
 ings and the partings of those far-off days. I look into the sky 
 — it is the sky of my boyhood ; the stars clear and silent shine 
 upon me as they shone fifty years ago. 
 
33 WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 
 
 "We came as boys; we studied and contended with one 
 another. No doubt of the future gave us disquietude. The 
 hereafter was the land of promise, bright with the dew of morn- 
 ing. The collegian is a dreamer, and, for the most part, a 
 dreaming boy. He comes full of energy, incited by hope. He 
 lays his hand upon the book of knowledge and opens it. What 
 a revelation ! The curtain is lifted and a new world is spread 
 before him. He finds in every lesson something new ; the past 
 opens its treasures and Natiire reveals herself ; the rocks become 
 histories ; the clods grow instinct with life ; the streams pouring 
 froni the hills have something to tell. 
 
 "Was it not a great thing for us that, while we were shut 
 from the outer world by these mountain barriers, we were shut 
 within this valley ? I shall never cease to congratulate myself 
 that my sense of beauty was trained within the circle of these 
 mountains ; that the morning liglit gilded for my eyes the sides 
 of Greylock ; that I saw the sun at noon standing over this end- 
 less variety of wood, meadow, and stream; that the evening 
 twilight heightened while it softened the beauty of noon ; and 
 that when I looked from my window into the moonlight, it lay 
 like a transparent celestial robe upon the sleeping valley and 
 the watchful hills. 
 
 "So we passed our days. We formed a little community by 
 ourselves. Our cares were few, our hopes many, and our friend- 
 ships eternal. Factitious distinctions take no root in college 
 ground. Nowhere else is character more truly measured; 
 nowhere more than here is a sham found out. The words 
 ' college-mate, class-mate, room-mate ' signify a great deal 
 beyond ordinary fellowship. Two students sitting under the 
 trees at evening, or walking in the moonlight, confide to each 
 other their inmost thoughts. Tlie heart is too fresh to doubt, too 
 young to betray. 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 33 
 
 "College life, though short reckoned by years, is long reck- 
 oned by impressions. These impressions are as ineradicable as 
 the heart, whose pulsations begin and end with life. Go where 
 you will — take the wings of morning and seek the uttermost 
 parts of the earth ; lose yourself in African jimgles or South Sea 
 islands — the memories of college days will go and abide with 
 you. I have strolled along the Meles with a college-mate, and 
 while we talked of Homer, who sang upon its banks, and of 
 many other things, new and old, oiu- thoughts reverted to the 
 walks along the Hoosac, and we laughed as boys laugh over 
 college anecdotes. I have stood on the slopes of Lebanon* by 
 the side of an American missionary, and as we looked over the 
 sea into the West, our thoughts outran our sight, and lighted on 
 'Williams the Beautiful,' its historic Haystack and its Mission 
 Park." 
 
 This feeling continued as long as he lived. Seldom 
 did a Commencement pass that, if he was this side the 
 Atlantic, he did not return to the old beloved spot, which 
 had to him a peculiar fascination. The mountains about 
 it were like the mountains roundabout Jerusalem to the 
 pious Jew. Every walk along the riverside or among 
 the hills had its associations, so that he went about as in 
 a happy dream, recalling times long past, with lo\'ing 
 memories of the living and the d^ad. On the College 
 grounds no figure was more familiar than liis, nor in 
 the meetings of the Alumni, where he will long be 
 remembered with sorrow that they shall see his face 
 no more. 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 STUDIES LAW AND ENTERS PRACTICE IN NEW YORK. 
 
 MARRIAGE : DEATH OF HIS WIFE : 
 
 A YEAR ABROAD. 
 
 The young student had now come to the parting of 
 the ways. He had finished his College course, and was 
 to choose his profession. On that depended his futvire. 
 The character of his mind, his habit of questioning, and 
 his ardor in debate — -what some would call his combat- 
 iveness — drew him to the profession in which there were 
 great battles to be fought and victories to be won, and 
 he decided in favor of the law. 
 
 But where and how was he to get his education? 
 There were no law schools in those days, and a student 
 was fortunate who was so favored as to have a chair in the 
 office of some lawyer of repute, where, in the intervals 
 of such services as he could render, he had the freedom 
 of the meagre library, from which, as well as from 
 observing the practice in the courts, he could pick up 
 the rudiments of his profession. 
 
 Such an opportunity came to him through a family 
 resident in Stockbridge, but that might have been said 
 
THE FAMILY OP JUDGE SEDGWICK. 35 
 
 to belong to the country, that of Judge Sedgwick, a 
 veteran of Revohitionary times : who had been a mem- 
 ber of the old Continental Congress; and, after the 
 adoption of the Constitution, a member of the House of 
 Representatives; from which Washington invited him 
 to enter his Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury ; but 
 who seems to have felt himself more at home in Con- 
 gress, where he served in both houses, being three years 
 in the Senate, and again in the House, where he was 
 Speaker of the Sixth Congress. After these long years 
 of service to his country, he retired from political life, 
 and returned to the law as Judge of the Supreme Court 
 of Massachusetts. When he passed off the stage he left 
 three sons as the inheritors of his profession, as well as 
 of his honored name. The eldest of these, Mr. Theodore 
 Sedgwick, had long practised law in Albany, where he 
 was the contemporary and friend of Martin Van Buren 
 and of others second only to him. On retiring from 
 practice he returned to Stockbridge and lived in the old 
 ancestral home. But his former partner, a gentleman 
 of Dutch descent, Mr. Harmanus Bleecker, still contin- 
 ued in Albany, to whom he gave Mr. Field an intro- 
 duction, that at once opened his door to the new can- 
 didate for the bar. '' 
 
 The day was fixed for his departure. His mother's 
 heart was very full, and yet with the courage that is 
 combined with the tenderness of woman, she would 
 have bid him go, if duty called him, like the Roman 
 
36 LEAVING HOME. STUDY OF THE LAW. 
 
 mother, if it were to return upon his sliield ! His father 
 always found strength for any crisis in his rehgious 
 faith, and taking his son into his study, he knelt down 
 and commended his first-born son to the protection of 
 Almighty God, and then gave him for his only capital, 
 ten dollars and a little Bible, which he kept to his dying 
 day. Thus he went forth from under the paternal roof 
 with ten dollars, a Bible, and his father's prayers ! As 
 they came out of the door, the old-fashioned stage- 
 coach rolled up and took liim awa3^ His home was 
 behind him and the world was before him ! 
 
 It was a long drive across the countr}', and the day 
 was far spent when he came in sight of Albany, and 
 crossing the river in a ferryboat, walked up the hill 
 that was crowned by the Capitol in which he was in 
 the future to make so many arguments before Courts 
 and Legislatures. If "the heart of the stranger " was 
 at first very lonelj', the feeling was soon removed by 
 the kindness of Mr. Bleecker, who, with true Dutch 
 cordiality, made him welcome, not only to his office, but 
 to his home, so that he wrote to his father : ' ' My situa- 
 tion is quite pleasant. Mr. Bleecker is very pohte and 
 very kind. I have every facility for study wliich I can 
 wish, and I endeavor to improve them. I feel in good 
 spirits. Stockbridge is indeed pleasanter, but when 
 our situation is not the best, it may be the next to it " 
 — a bit of practical philosophy, to make the best of 
 everything, that he carried through life. 
 
REMOVES TO NEW YORK. 37 
 
 It was not long before he began to feel at home 
 in the dear old Dutch city, for which he had a kindly 
 feeling ever after ; but still his thoughts would turn 
 to New York as offering a larger field for his activ- 
 ity. And then what prizes there were in the line of his 
 profession ! He knew of a young man ^v^ho realized 
 from it five hundred dollars a year ! ' ' Could he ever 
 attain to such greatness as that ! " 
 
 Here again the way was o^Dened for him by the 
 Sedgwicks, for while the eldest of the family had been 
 in the practice of law at Albany, his two brothers, 
 Henry and Robert, were in the front rank of their 
 profession in New York, and showed the same readi- 
 ness to forward the interests of one who came from dear 
 old Stockbridge, who, thus invited, transferred his place 
 of study to the city that was to be his home for more 
 than sixty years. 
 
 V, While referring to this act of kindness, I cannot 
 refrain from mentioning another instance of the same 
 wliich was told me by the person concerned, the late 
 William C. Bryant, who, like Mr. Field, had studied at 
 Williams College, and afterwards entered on the prac- 
 tice of law in Great Barrington. But as the shy tem- 
 perament of the poet did not promise great success 
 at the bar, Mr. Henry D. Sedg-wick invited hun to 
 come to New York, with the kind assurance that he 
 ' ' would see what he could do for him, " and showed his 
 friendship by introducing him to literary occupation 
 
38 HIS MARRIAGE. 
 
 that ended in his connection with the Evening Post, 
 which brought both fame and fortune, an obhgation 
 that he was always ready to acknowledge, even when 
 he had risen to such eminence that there was no man 
 in all the city who was held in higher respect. Mr. 
 Bryant and Mr. Field came to New York about the 
 same time, and boarded in the same house, and thus 
 began an intimacy and friendship which continued 
 through life. -^ 
 
 The change to New York was altogether to his taste, 
 as he was more in the current of life, with everything 
 to stimulate his ardor in his profession. His first busi- 
 ness was to make himself master of the law, to which 
 he applied his mind with such intensity as excluded 
 everything beside. Day and night he thought of noth- 
 ing else. By this devotion he so approved himself to 
 the Messrs. Sedgwick, that when the elder brother, 
 Henry, was obliged by ill health to retire from practice, 
 the younger, Robert, invited Mr. Field to become his 
 partner, a promotion which not only gratified his youth- 
 ful ambition, but enabled him to take another step that 
 was needed to complete his happiness. In the year 1829 
 (October 26th), when he was but twenty-four years old, 
 he was married to Jane Lucinda Hopkins, a cousin of 
 Mark Hopkins, who united such grace of person with 
 such refinement of manner, so much sweetness with so 
 much character, that he was the happiest of men in the 
 thought that he should always have that gentle figure 
 
DEATH OF HIS WIFE. 39 
 
 at his side ; and when a year later he took in his arms 
 his first-born, a son, it seemed as if there was notliing 
 more that he could ask of God. And yet there was one 
 thing more — a daughter, as a companion to the little 
 brother, which was also his three years later. 
 
 But all this brightness was too much to last. After 
 but little more than six years, the bride of his youth 
 was taken from him, to be followed a few months later 
 by a last child, not a year old, who, even in the grave, 
 was laid to sleep on her mother's breast. Thus in a 
 few months all of joy that the world had given hun, 
 had vanished out of sight, and sick of heart, he left — 
 not his home, for home he had none — but his city and 
 his country, and crossed the sea. 
 
 In after years Mr. Field repeated the voyage so often 
 that Europe became almost as familiar to him as his 
 own country. And yet there is never but one first 
 view, when all impressions are fresh and new. A few 
 dates recall his first glimpses of England and the Con- 
 tinent : 
 
 " On the 3d of May, 1836, I took passage in the packet West- 
 minster for London. There were no steamers on the Atlantic in 
 those days. Among the passengers were Horace Binney, Pro- 
 fessor Hare, and John Hare Powell. On the 28th of May we 
 arrived off the coast of Cornwall where the ship was becalmed, 
 and most of the passengers, inchiding myself, went ashore at 
 Falmouth. The beauty of England at that season was enchant- 
 ing. The hawthorn hedges were in blossom. I took the mail 
 coach for Exeter, and from there posted to Bath, and from Bath 
 
40 A YEAR ABROAD, 
 
 rode on the outside of a coach, the most delightful way of seeing 
 the country, to London. I remember well my sensations at see- 
 ing Windsor Castle, with the royal standard flying, as we drove 
 past in the valley below. The sights of London were of course 
 very attractive to me, as I had read of them all my life. My 
 eyes devoured Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, Temple 
 Bar, the Tower, and the other historical jilaces. I witnessed the 
 parade in Hyde Park on the anniversary of Waterloo, when the 
 Duke of Wellington received the salute of the troops, and I 
 remember the people going in and out of Apsley House, to see 
 the tables set for the Waterloo Banquet. In the House of Lords 
 I heard the Duke of Wellington, Lord Holland, Earl Gray, and 
 the Lord Chancellor. I remember the Dvike presenting a peti- 
 tion in which the petitioners asked that the Lords should not 
 yield to intimidation, 'That, my Lords,' said the Duke, as he 
 laid down the petition, in the tone of one accustomed to give 
 orders, ' is also my opinion. ' In the House of Commons I heard 
 O'Connell, who in the course of his speech, referring to the 
 upholders of Irish grievances, said ' They are men of blood ! ' 
 at which there was a loud cry of ' No ! No I ' and the Speaker 
 drawled out, ' Order 1 Order 1 ' 
 
 "After a few days' stay in London I went to Paris by the 
 Malle-Post, taking a seat in the coupe. From Paris, where I 
 spent a week or two, I returned to London through Belgium, 
 and soon set out for a tour on the Continent, visiting Holland, 
 Germany, Demnark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Poland, Bohe- 
 mia, Austria, and Italy." 
 
 Of this first year in Europe lie wrote on liis return a 
 number of sketches full of the hf e and spirit of a young 
 American abroad for the first time, under the title of 
 " Sketches over the Sea," that appeared in the Demo- 
 cratic Review. 
 
RETURN TO AMERICA. 41 
 
 This absence from his country was for more than a 
 year and at a very critical time. "When he returned in 
 July, 1837, it was to find the country in a financial col- 
 lapse. A panic had swept all the cities, and there was 
 a frightful state of alarm in all directions. But such 
 was the very time when men needed the counsel of 
 the ablest and most trusted legal advisers. Mr. Field 
 entered at once on the duties of his profession, and soon 
 found his practice larger than ever. If success at the 
 bar had been his sole ambition, he had as much of it 
 as any man of his age in the country. But there was 
 something connected with the law that attracted him 
 still more : not the law as it Avas, but as it should be — 
 an ideal of the law, which now rose like a star above 
 the horizon, towards which he was to direct his course 
 during the remainder of his long and eventful career. 
 
CHAPTER y. 
 
 THE REFORM OF THE LAW. THE CODES OF CIVIL 
 AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. 
 
 When David Dudley Field began the study of law, 
 it was with a f eehng of reverence amounting almost to 
 awe. The libraries were filled with books giving the 
 laws of England and of all European states, illustrated 
 by thousands of cases, which showed how the law was 
 applied, not only in the familiar relations of life, but in 
 almost every case that was possible or conceivable in 
 human society. These mighty tomes, dark with age, 
 embodied the wisdom of past generations — the wisdom 
 of all countries and all times — the priceless inheritance 
 from all the past to the present and to the future in 
 secula seculoruni — an inheritance which it was almost 
 sacrilege to touch. 
 
 Such was the feeling with which this seeker after 
 knowledge and wisdom entered upon the study of the 
 law. Nor was it a feeling that he ever fully got over. 
 He was never, as some have supposed, an iconoclast 
 who would break down all ancient traditions. On the 
 contrary, he would conserve, not only "with judicious 
 
DEFECTS OF THE LAW. 43 
 
 care," but wath religious care, all the treasures of wis- 
 dom and of learning that have come down from the 
 past. Beginning the study of the law with this feeling, 
 the first thing which he attempted was to make himself 
 master of the practice, and so hard did he work that he 
 had reason to say that "if ever there was anything 
 which he understood, it was the practice at common 
 law and in equity as then estabhshed in the Courts 
 of New York." But he had not gone very far in his 
 studies before he began to have misgivings as to whe- 
 ther the law as ' ' received from the fathers " was abso- 
 lutely ideal in its perfection. The more he studied it, 
 the more did it seem to him a very artificial structure — ■ 
 comphcated by a multitude of legal technicahties that 
 made of it almost an occult science, to be understood 
 only by the initiated. In this opinion he was confirmed 
 by Mr. Henry D. Sedgmck, who had begun the prac- 
 tice of law in Massachusetts, and found it much less 
 embarrassed by these technical details than in New 
 York, where an excess of forms made the progress of 
 a case through the courts very slow. This might serve 
 the purpose of legal practitioners, as it made their ser- 
 vices the more necessary, or indeed indispensable, but 
 did it serve the purpose of those who appealed to the 
 law for protection ? Was there no way to hasten the 
 laggard steps of justice ? 
 
 While he was thus groping towards the light, he 
 was confirmed in his doubts by a couple of opinions 
 
44 A DREAM OF REFORM. 
 
 from high authorities. One was Livingston's Report 
 of a Code for Louisiana; the other a Discourse on 
 the History and Nature of the Common Law, dehvered 
 before the New York Historical Society by Wilham 
 Sampson in 1823, and repubhshed with other papers 
 under the title ' ' On Codes and Common Law. " 
 
 Out of all this reading and thinking came into the 
 mind of the young student at law a vague and misty 
 dream of something better, which slowly crystallized 
 into a conception of a Reform, and then into a purpose 
 of attempting it, even if he should have to undertake it 
 single-handed and alone. But what could he do ? As 
 long as he was but the junior partner of an eminent 
 lawyer, it was not his business to make the law, but to 
 practise it. But afterward, when he opened an office 
 for himself, he was more free to indulge his dreams. 
 Now that he was his own master, was there anything 
 that he could do ? The ideal was plain enough : it could 
 be stated in a sentence, for it had but two elements : 
 first, that the law, as enacted by human governments, 
 should be founded in natural justice ; and second, that 
 it should be set forth in the simplest and clearest lan- 
 guage, so that it should be ' ' understanded of the people. " 
 These two points comprised the whole vast question of 
 law reform. 
 
 Reform of the Law ! It was a high-sounding 
 phrase, that must carry in it something that is vital to 
 the State: something which goes down to the very 
 
LAW AND EQUITY. 45 
 
 foundations of government — to the granite base on 
 wliich rests the mighty fabric of human society. That 
 the reform might be complete, it must combine the sub- 
 stance of the law with the modes of procedure in the 
 courts whereby justice is adininistered. In the natural 
 order of division we should begin with the substance of 
 the law. But in taking down a mighty structure which 
 has been the work of ages, to rebuild it, it is more con- 
 venient to begin at the top, and dismantle it by degrees, 
 taking away stone by stone, and replacing the old by 
 the new. Following this toilsome but solid method of 
 reconstruction, the first step in Law Reform was in the 
 Codes of Procedure. 
 
 Mr. Field had long felt that the great impediment to 
 justice was that the way was made wearisome by the 
 double mode of Procedure in Law and Equity, wliich 
 was a sort of double-tracked road, on which a man 
 travelled the distance twice over — first being ushered 
 into a luxurious carriage, where he reclined on soft 
 cushions, and was carried swiftly and smoothly over 
 the ground for a hundred miles ; at the end of which he 
 was received most graciously, and assisted across the 
 track to another drawing-room car fitted up in the same 
 gorgeous style, and in a few hours was whirled back to 
 the place from which he started ! On alighting, his im- 
 pressions were somewhat divided. It was certainly the 
 poetry of motion, but as to progress toward his final des- 
 tination, reaUy he might as weU have stayed at home ! 
 
46 SYSTEM OF LEGAL PROCEDURE. 
 
 Such was the system of procedure in the Courts 
 when he returned to this country in the summer of 
 1837, and he began to consider what he could do for its 
 improvement. His first pubhc effort was a Letter to 
 GuHan C. Verplanck, pubHshed in 1839, on the Reform 
 of our Judicial System. After this he went to Albany, 
 and addressed a Committee of the Legislature on the 
 subject. - Two years later, at the general election in 
 November, 1841, he sought and obtained a nomina- 
 tion from the Democratic party for the Assembly of 
 New York, with the view of introducing law reform 
 measures into the Legislature. Being defeated through 
 the interference of Bishop Hughes in his opposition to 
 the Public School system, then prevailing in New York, 
 which he wished to subvert, he contented himself with 
 preparing the draft of three Bills to be introduced by 
 Mr. O'Sullivan, his colleague in the candidacy, accom- 
 panied by a long Letter in explanation of their provis- 
 ions. ./These Bills were introduced; but the Judiciary 
 Committee, to which they were referred, did not adopt 
 or recommend them. They were printed, however, 
 with the Letter, in the Journal of the Assembly. 
 
 The calling of the Constitutional Convention, pur- 
 suant to an act of the Legislature of 1845, gave him a 
 new opportunity. Before the delegates were elected, 
 and in January, 1846, he wrote and published in the 
 Evening Post a series of articles on * ' The Reorgan- 
 ization of the Judiciary," which were collected in a 
 
REFORM OP PRACTICE OP THE COURTS. 47 
 
 pamphlet and ^viclely cii-culated. He wished to obtain 
 a seat in the Convention, with a view to promoting law 
 reform ; but the unpopularity to wliich he had subjected 
 himself by his hostility to the aimexation of Texas and 
 the extension of slavery, made it impossible for him to 
 obtain a nomination from the Democratic party, then 
 the only one from wliich he could expect an election. 
 But if he was not permitted to influence the Convention 
 by his voice witliin its walls, he could influence it from 
 without, and he did so to the utmost of his power, by 
 conversation and correspondence with the members, and 
 by articles in the newspapers. The Convention met on 
 the first of June, and during the whole summer he kept 
 at work. The Evening Post alone had nine or ten 
 articles from him, relating to different parts of the 
 Constitution. The instrument which the Convention 
 offered to the people was adopted at the general election 
 in November. It contained two law reforming provis- 
 ions — one in the first article, aiming at a general Code ; 
 and the other in the sixth article, aiming at the Reform 
 of the Practice; both to be set in motion by appoint- 
 ments of the Legislature. Both of these provisions 
 owed their existence very much to his voice and pen. 
 
 In anticipation of the action of the Legislature, he 
 published on the first of Januar}^, 1847, a little treat- 
 ise of thirty-five pages, entitled "What shall be done 
 with the Practice of the Courts ? Shall it be wholly 
 reformed? Questions addressed to lawyers." This he 
 
48 MEMORIAL TO THE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 followed up by a Memorial to the Legislature before the 
 passage of any act by that body, to which he pro- 
 cured the signatures of Vice Chancellor McCoun, 
 Charles O'Conor, E. P. Hurlbut, F. B. Cutting, Theo- 
 dore Sedgwick, James J. Roosevelt, Joseph S. Bos- 
 worth, Erastus C. Benedict, and forty-three other law- 
 yers of New York. It was in these words : 
 
 " To the Senate and Assembly of the State of Netf York : 
 
 ' ' The memorial of tlie undersigned members of the Bar in 
 the City of New York respectfully represents that they look with 
 great solicitude for the action of your honorable bodies in respect 
 to the revision, reform, simplification and abridgment of the 
 rules and j)ractice, pleadings, forms and proceedings of the 
 covirts of record. They are persuaded that a radical reform of 
 legal i^rocedure in all its departments is demanded by the inter- 
 ests of justice and by the voice of the people; that a uniform 
 course of proceeding in all cases legal and equitable is entirely 
 practicable, and no less expedient ; and that a radical reform 
 should aim at such uniformity, and at the abolition of all useless 
 forms and proceedings. 
 
 ' ' Your memorialists, therefore, pray your honorable bodies 
 to declare by the Act appointing Commissioners, that it shall be 
 theu- duty to provide for the abolition of the present forms of 
 action and pleadings in cases at common law, for a uniform 
 course of proceeding in all cases, whether of legal or equitable 
 cognizance, and for the abandonment of every form or pro- 
 ceeding not necessary to ascertain or preserve the rights of the 
 parties." * 
 
 * This was presented to the Legislature, and a section introduced Into 
 the pending Bill in accordance with the Memorial, except that the word 
 which Mr. Field wrote '• every " was by mistake made to read " any." 
 
CODES OF PROCEDURE. 49 
 
 Mr. Field's name was naturally brought forward in 
 connection with the appointment of Commissioner ; but 
 the conservative feehng was too strong, he was too rad- 
 ical, and Mr. Nicholas Hill was appointed in his stead. 
 The Commission, consisting of Mr. Hill, Mr. David 
 Graham, and Mr. Arphaxad Loomis, was estabhshed 
 by a law passed April 8th, 1847. The Commissioners 
 could not agree, however, in carrying out this pro- 
 vision, and Mr. Hill resigned in September. Bj^ that 
 time the feehng in favor of radical reform had been 
 strengthened, and Mr. Field was appointed in Mr. Hill's 
 place by a resolution of the two Houses passed on 
 the 29th of that month. Meantime he had published 
 "Some suggessions respecting the rules to be estab- 
 lished by the Supreme Court," designed to effect a con- 
 siderable reform in the pleadings and practice. Upon 
 the reorganization of the Commission, it went to work 
 in earnest, and on the 29th of February, 1848, reported 
 to the Legislature the first instahnent of the Code of 
 Civil Procedure. This was enacted on the 12th of 
 April following, with very little change, and went into 
 effect on the first of July. It was, however, but an 
 instalment of the whole work contemplated, and the 
 residue was reported from time to time in four different 
 "Reports, until the first of January, 1850, when com- 
 pleted Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure were sub- 
 mitted to the Legislature. These two works covered 
 the whole ground of remedial law. 
 
50 THE WORK OF TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. 
 
 "The whole ground of remedial law !" Only six 
 words ! Yet it is not easy to take in the vast terri- 
 tory they cover, and the labor they involve ! This fell 
 most upon Mr. Field, for though he had two associates 
 on the Commission, they recognized the movement for 
 reform as begun by him, and to him, as the gallant leader, 
 they left the chief burden, which he in his eagerness 
 for the cause was not unwiUing to bear. The labor 
 involved was almost incredible. Of this I can speak 
 from personal observation. In the year 1847 I went 
 abroad, and spent the following winter in Paris, where I 
 was a witness of the Revolution of 1848, which upturned 
 all Europe. Returning in the autumn, I passed the 
 winter of 1848-9 in New York, and under Mr. Field's 
 roof. He was then in the inidst of his work on the 
 Commission, and I looked on with amazement at the 
 amount of labor that he did in every twenty-four hours, 
 for he was at the same time carrying on a profes- 
 sional practice which had grown to be one of the 
 largest in the city. No man stood higher at the bar, or 
 was engaged in more important cases both in the State 
 and the Federal Courts. It was at such a time, when 
 he was already doing the work of half a dozen men, 
 that this additional burden was put upon his shoulders. 
 
 But he did not shrink from the double duty, though he 
 could not have borne it but by the most careful economy 
 of his strength. As he was " called to be a soldier," he 
 
HOW HE DIVIDED THE DAY. 51 
 
 divided the hours of the day with military precision. He 
 rose early, and, taking a cup of tea, mounted his horse, 
 which was standing at the door, unless it was a bitter 
 winter day, and rode up one of the avenues towards 
 what is now the Central Park. This morning ride was 
 never intermitted except in the severest weather. After 
 breakfast, if he was not required to be at the opening 
 of the courts, he shut himself up for two or three hours 
 in his library on the work of the Commission, and 
 then walked rapidly down town. Everybody knew 
 him, for he was tall and straight as a grenadier, and he 
 passed down Broadway with rapid strides, like a sol- 
 dier marching to battle. From his office he went to the 
 courts, where he remained till a late hour of the after- 
 noon, when he walked home again. The hour of dinner 
 was one of perfect abandon, into which no word of 
 business was allowed to intrude : the hour belonged to 
 his family, and he gave himself up to the enjoyment 
 of their society. When the last good story was told, 
 and the last laugh went round the table, he threw him- 
 self upon a sofa for a half hour's rest, from which he 
 rose hke a giant refreshed with wine, and ready for his 
 magnum opus ! Now the deck was cleared, and he 
 gave himself to that which was at once the task and 
 the joy of his life, the reconstruction of the Codes, the 
 fascination of which often kept him at his work till long 
 after midnight. 
 
 A life like this, kept up month after month, year 
 
52 VISIT TO ENGLAND. 
 
 in and year out, would kill most men: it would have 
 killed him, but for the one " saving clause " that nature 
 had put into his iron frame. After the day's ' ' fitful 
 fever " he slept well. He had not only the power of 
 continuous labor such as I never saw in any other 
 man, but when the work was done, he could put his 
 hand on the macliine and stop it in an instant. He would 
 work all day and all night, and for days and nights to- 
 gether, with only the briefest snatches of sleep ; but when 
 all was over, he could lie down and fall asleep hke a child. 
 By this heroic discipline, and the alternation of work 
 and rest, he kept the fire in his bones, and the blood in 
 his veins, till he breathed his last in his ninetieth year. 
 There was also another restorative that he found in 
 his voyages to Europe. He loved the sea. He was a 
 good sailor, never yielding to the roughest storm, and 
 so in his later life he went abroad almost every year. 
 The fame of his codes went before him, so that his 
 reputation was as great in England as in America, 
 perhaps greater, as he had not been there, as here, in 
 such fierce antagonism with his opponents. In August, 
 1850, he went abroad with his family and left them in 
 Rome, returning to New York in December. In Eng- 
 land he found a small but determined party of reform 
 grappling with the double-headed monster of Law and 
 Equity. At a meeting of the Law Amendment Soci- 
 ety, at which he was present by invitation, Sir Rich- 
 ard Bethel, afterward Lord Chancellor Westbury, 
 
MOVEMENT FOR LAW REFORM. 53 
 
 made a speech in which he said that he thought it "a 
 burning shame that a party could recover a judgment 
 on one side of Westminster Hall, and on the other side 
 be branded as a fraudulent rogue for having recovered 
 it!" And yet in presence of this monstrous absurdity 
 all the legal wisdom of England seemed insufficient to 
 devise a remedy. Even Lord Brougham, who had 
 taken up the cause of Law Reform with his accustomed 
 energy, while he commended the efforts for the fusion 
 of Law and Equity in America, doubted if it could be 
 effected in England. Perhaps, however, the long inter- 
 view that he had with Mr. Field may have removed 
 his doubts, for only a few months after he wrote from 
 Cannes that sooner or later it was sure to be adopted. 
 
 How new life was put into the movement for LaAV 
 Reform appears from the following in the London 
 Spectator : 
 
 "The visit of Mr. Dudley Field to England, and his interest- 
 ing statements to the members of our Law Amendment Society 
 this week, are real events in the progress of law reform in this 
 country. The injustice which the English people submit to in 
 the revered name of Law, and in the sacred, but in their case 
 profaned, name of Equity, is more enormovis than the future 
 historian will be able remotely to conceive. The keystone of 
 the barbarous Gothic portal to Justice in our common-law pro- 
 cedure was struck out some twenty years ago, when the logical 
 forms of legal contest were reduced to their now moderate num- 
 ber; other heavy blows have further undermined the ruin, and 
 almost cleared away whatever was feudal in that portion of 
 
54 LAW REFORM IN ENGLAND. 
 
 their edifice ; and then came the raising of the new and noble 
 portal of the County Courts. Still, in all but the most trivial 
 litigation the delay and expense are such that justice can only 
 be had at a per centage utterly disgraceful to a nation either 
 honest or merely clear-handed and commercial. We still pre- 
 serve a diversity of tribunals, to administer laws that ought not 
 to be inharmonious; and we are prevented from making the 
 laws harmonious by the difficulties of finding tribunals able to 
 rule the concord and administer the whole field of law as a sin- 
 gle empire. In this case, as in a multitude of others, our young 
 relations across the Atlantic have done that which we only 
 longed to do. In this rivalry of nations, so far above all other 
 rivalries, they have pushed development of institutions which 
 they received from forefathers common to us both, to a more 
 rapid perfection than we. Mr. Dudley Field is one of three men 
 who framed a constitutional law for the State of New York, 
 under which the courts of legal and equitable jurisdiction have 
 been successfully merged ; the enactment has succeeded in prac- 
 tical working ; and the spectacle of ' Equity swallowing up Law ' 
 has been so edifying to the citizens of his State that three other 
 States of the Union have resolved to enact, and four further 
 States have appointed conferences to deliberate uj)on, a similar 
 procedure. It is imj)ossible — however narrow-minded lawyers 
 may object — that what Americans find practicable and bene- 
 ficial should be either impracticable or disadvantageous to Eng- 
 lishmen." 
 
 Returning to New York in December, Mr. Field 
 published in the Evening Post five articles on "The 
 Completion of the Code," designed to secure the imme- 
 diate adoption by the Legislature of the two Codes of 
 Procedure which had been reported complete. But 
 
SPEECH OF LORD SHERBROOKE. 55 
 
 they had still several years to wait. In May, 1851, he 
 rejoined his family in Europe, and travelled with them 
 over a great portion of the Continent, and into Egypt 
 and Palestine. While in England, on his return home, 
 a dinner was given him at the London Tavern by the 
 members of the Law Amendment Society, an account 
 of which was published in the Morning Chronicle of the 
 next day, December 22, 1851. Among the speakers was 
 Robert Lowe, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke, who was 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer under Mr. Gladstone. He 
 had lived for some years in Australia, and knew how 
 wise laws, whether framed in England or America, 
 affected legislation at the very extremities of the British 
 empire. In his speech he paid a tribute to Mr. Field 
 such as has seldom been paid to any legislator, living 
 or dead. He said : 
 
 "He trusted that his honorable friend, Mr. Field, 
 would go down to posterity with this glory — that he 
 had not only essentially served one of the greatest coun- 
 tries in the States of America, but that he had also pro- 
 vided a cheap and satisfactory code of law for every 
 colony that bore the English name. Mr. Field, indeed, 
 had not squared the circle ; he had not found out any 
 solid which answered to more than three denominations ; 
 he had not discovered any power more subtle than elec- 
 tricit}^ nor one that would bow with more docility to 
 the service of man than steam. But he had done 
 
56 TRIBUTE TO MR. FIELD. 
 
 greater things : lie had laid the foundations of peace, 
 happiness, and tranquillity, in the establishment of a 
 system which would make law a blessing instead of a 
 scourge to manldnd. He believed that no acquisition 
 of modern times — if he rightly understood what had 
 been done in the State of New York — he believed that 
 no achievement of the intellect was to be compared to 
 that by which Mr. Field had removed the absurdities 
 and the technicalities under which New York, in com- 
 mon with this country and the colonies, had so long 
 groaned." And again: "As to the colonies, he could 
 only repeat that he trusted the example of New York 
 would not be lost upon them. While England was 
 debating upon the propriety of some small and paltry 
 reforms in the administration of law, a great master in 
 the art of administrative reform had risen there in the 
 person of his distinguished friend, Mr. Field, and had 
 solved the problem which they in England were timidly 
 debating. America had a great future before her, in 
 the establishment and diffusion of the arts of peace. 
 Let them leave to others — to absolute governments — to 
 have their subjects shot down in the street, rather than 
 wait even for the headlong injustice of a court-martial ; 
 but let it be the lot of England, hand in hand with 
 America, to lead the way in the arts of Jurisprudence 
 as well as in other arts — let them aim at being the legis- 
 lators and the pacificators of the world. " 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 A DOMESTIC EPISODE. THE GOLDEN WEDDING. 
 
 When a man has fought a long and hard battle — or 
 rather a three j^ears' campaign — with the prospect of 
 another trial of strength still longer and harder — he 
 maj' be excused if now and then he should retire from 
 the scene of action to enjoy a brief interval of rest. 
 Amid all the contests of the bar Mr. Field never forgot 
 the old home, nor the dear Father and Mother, whose 
 gray hairs gave them an added beauty, and whose 
 faces, filled vnth a sweet serenity, seemed to reflect the 
 peace of that better world which they were approaching. 
 
 Not that there had been anything very notable in 
 the years that had passed beyond the ordinary life in a 
 country parsonage. In the earlier daj^s of New England 
 the minister did not migrate from church to church so 
 often as now. Not infrequently a young man was 
 settled over a parish, and there remained for life, while 
 children and grandchildren grew up around him. 
 
 Not so with the Stockbridge pastor, whose experi- 
 ence was peculiar, in that, while he had but two par- 
 ishes, he had one of them twice over, swinging as it 
 
58 THE SUMMIT OF LIFE AT SEVENTY. 
 
 were, like a pendulum, between the old and the new. 
 The people of Haddam, who in 1819 had let him go, 
 afterwards got into a divided state, which it seemed as 
 if no one but their old minister could heal, and called 
 him back again ; and he, the good man that he was, 
 who always thought more of others than of himself, 
 accepted, and for seven years preached in the old bar- 
 rack as before, though to another congregation, for the 
 sons had come in the place of the fathers, after which 
 the long and straggling parish was cut in twain, and 
 he took the Northern division of Higganum, where he 
 preached for seven years more. It was during tliis 
 period, in 1848, the year of the Revolutions in Europe, 
 that he went abroad with his son Stephen, and spent 
 several months in England and on the Continent. 
 
 In 1851 he completed his seventieth year ; when his 
 children, who had grown to manhood and womanhood, 
 felt that he had served his generation so faithfully that 
 his working days should come to an end ; and asking 
 the privilege of providing for his wants, they begged 
 him to return to Stockbridge, the dearest spot on earth, 
 and there abide till the going down of the sun. This 
 loving request could not be refused, and so he made his 
 last pilgrimage across the mountains, to the sweet home 
 in which he was to spend the remnant of his days. 
 
 Here it was that the autumn of 1853 recalled an 
 anniversary that was of interest to us all, as it com- 
 pleted fifty years since our father and mother had begun 
 
AN UNITED FAMILY. 59 
 
 the journey of life together ; and now, as they had come 
 back to the old home, what more fitting than that chil- 
 dren and grandchildren should gather round the patri- 
 arch and his faithful companion for half a century, and 
 celebrate their Golden Wedding ! 
 
 The family was not only a large one, but a very 
 united one : both from affection, and from the necessity 
 that was upon them to help one another. This mutual 
 helpfulness comes out most under an humble roof. 
 Love flourishes in a small interior. The arena is not 
 large enough for combats. It is the great and princely 
 halls that resound with fratricidal war. Where parents 
 and children sit round one table, or one fireplace, the 
 instinct of nature draws them together. If for once 
 I sketch a domestic scene, it is not so much to show the 
 beautiful family life in the old home, as to throw a 
 strong side-light on the central figure which it is my 
 purpose to portray. Thanks to our dear parents, who 
 never had an idle day in their lives, we were all edu- 
 cated to the habit of taking care of ourselves, and then 
 of one another. In this, as in many other things, the 
 eldest of us set an example which we all recognized 
 with grateful affection: and never did the heart of 
 the son and the brother come out more strongly than 
 at this family reunion. There was a light in his face, 
 that never shone so brightly as on this happy day. 
 
 Every man has two lives: the outward and the 
 inward; which may exist quite apart, even if they be 
 
60 THE "other man." 
 
 not contrary one to the other. A man's pubhc hfe is 
 not his whole hfe, but only half of it, and perhaps not 
 the more interesting or attractive half, which may be 
 hidden out of sight by his public career. It is a deli- 
 cate matter to draw aside the veil that hides that inte- 
 rior hfe, but in the case of a strong personality, it may 
 be necessary in order to understand the real character 
 of the man. The soldier who is bravest in battle may 
 be the gentlest when he returns to his little cottage 
 under the hill; and he who is by his very profession 
 placed in antagonism to other men, and has to strike 
 heavy blows, may be quite another man when he returns 
 to the relations of domestic life. It is this "other man" 
 that I desire to disclose to those who thought they knew 
 him, but are just beginning to find out his true charac- 
 ter now that he is gone to the grave. 
 
 Few men in our great commercial city were better 
 known in one sense and less known in another. He 
 lived in New York for more than sixty years : no figure 
 was more familiar to the public eye ; and yet no man 
 was so little understood. Of those who knew him in 
 professional life, probably nine out of ten thought him 
 to be a man of iron, cold, stern and severe, all of which 
 he may have been in those contests of the bar which 
 were a part of his daily life. But at the same time 
 he was a man of the strongest personal attachments. 
 True, the circle of those whom he loved was not large ; 
 it was composed cliiefly of those of his own family. 
 
THE GENEROUS ELDER BROTHER. 61 
 
 But the narrower the circle, the more concentrated and 
 intensified was the affection. Never was there, or could 
 there be, a more generous elder brother, one more anx- 
 ious to promote the interests of all the younger members 
 of his family. He had seen what a struggle it cost 
 his parents to give him a college education, and denied 
 himself every needless expense. In looking over his 
 letters from College, it is easy to see with what reluc- 
 tance he writes home for so much as twenty dollars, 
 and he wished that the other children should not require 
 similar sacrifices. On the day that he was twenty-one, 
 although he was but a lawyer's clerk, he wrote to his 
 father that his first desire was to lighten the burden 
 that rested upon him by helping his brothers and sisters 
 to get an education ; and the very first money that he 
 saved from his meagre income he sent to his sister 
 Emilia (afterwards Mrs. Brewer), then at a school for 
 young ladies in Hartford. 
 
 Three of his brothers went to Williams College, all 
 of whom were indebted to liim for assistance to carry 
 them through ; Jonathan and Stephen studied law in 
 his office in New York, as did in later years a nephew 
 whom we then knew as "Young David," but who is 
 now Mr. Justice Brewer, sitting beside his uncle on the 
 bench in the well known Court Room in the Capitol in 
 Washington. It was because he could be under the 
 protection of his older brother, that Cyrus was allowed 
 to go to the city at the age of fifteen, when he entered 
 
62 THE GOLDEN WEDDING. 
 
 a great mercantile house as an errand boy, and thus 
 put his feet on the first round of the ladder, on which 
 he was to climb so high. Hence in the place of honor 
 in the family, next to the Father and Mother, was this 
 elder brother, to whom we all owed so much. 
 
 The Golden Wedding was on the last day of Octo- 
 ber, 1853. It was a beautiful day in the most beautiful 
 season of the year, when 
 
 ' ' The woods of autumn all around oiir vale 
 Had put their glory on." 
 
 As we came together under the old roof -tree, our first 
 thoughts were of the absent and the dead. One child 
 had died in infancy. Another had been lost at sea, 
 though not till he had given promise of a brilliant 
 career. This was the second son, Timothy, who entered 
 the navy as a midshipman, and of whom his comrades 
 spoke as the life of the ship when they went up the 
 Mediterranean, and as foremost in pursviit of the pirates 
 who infested the Greek Archipelago. Stephen was on 
 the Pacific Coast. He had returned from Europe in 
 1849, when the country was wild with excitement over 
 the discoveries of gold in California, and had gone to 
 the land of promise, where his dreams were fulfilled in 
 his notable career at the bar and in the Convention to 
 form the Constitution of the State ; and on the bench, 
 where he was Chief Justice when called by Lincoln to 
 Washington. Cahfornia was not then so near to the 
 
THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 63 
 
 East as now, and he could not be spared for a voyage 
 of many weeks to go and return. Cyrus too had gone 
 to South America, but arrived home the day before the 
 Golden Wedding. Matthew had been an engineer at 
 the South before the war, and built a number of sus- 
 pension bridges in Kentucky and Tennessee, one of 
 which spanned the Cumberland at Nashville, but was 
 destroyed in the retreat of the Confederate Army to 
 prevent its being crossed by the army of General Buell. 
 At that time he had returned North and lived in South- 
 wick, his wife's home, and once represented Hampden 
 County in the Senate. Jonathan had settled down in 
 Stockbridge, and was one of the leaders of the bar 
 in Western Massachusetts. So popular was he that, 
 though a Democrat in politics, he was elected by the 
 Republicans to the Senate three times in succession ; 
 and each time chosen to be its President — an honor 
 never before conferred on any member of that body. 
 With these brothers we had our two sisters, Emilia and 
 Mary. The latter, as the youngest of the group, was 
 the pet of the family, and yet was the first to be taken 
 from us [only three years later in Paris] ; and because 
 of her gentleness and that she died so young, she lives 
 in our memories as the sweetest of us all. 
 
 And now the dear old couple stood up side by side, as 
 they had stood fifty years before, to receive the congrat- 
 ulations of their children, in which I know not whether 
 there were more smiles or tears. How happy we all were 
 
64 THE THANKSGIVING FEAST. 
 
 on that wedding day — a day that could never return ! 
 Together we sat round the long table that had been 
 stretched to furnish seats for some forty guests. And 
 then we gathered, as of old, for morning and evening 
 prayers, when the Patriarch, who never looked so beau- 
 tiful as with that crown of white hair, commended us, 
 with a voice that was still strong, to the God of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and Jacob, praying that we might all be 
 the "cliildren of the Highest," "sons and daughters 
 of the Lord Almighty." Such prayers brought their 
 own answer, and as we went forth from the door of the 
 old home, we felt that we carried a blessing with us 
 that would abide through all the coming years, till we 
 too should be ' ' gathered to our fathers. " * 
 
 If any apology be needed for the introduction of this 
 domestic episode into a narrative that has to do with 
 grave matters of the law, I answer that my object is to 
 tell the truth, and the whole truth, of a remarkable life 
 
 * It was not long before our ranks were broken. Of the 
 group that stood round our Father and Mother on that day, 
 every one of my generation, except myself, has gone to the 
 grave. Mary died in 1856; the dear Mother in '61, and the eld- 
 er sister, Emilia (Mrs. Brewer), the same year; Father in '67; 
 Jonathan in '68, and Matthew in '70; which left but Four 
 Brothers to represent the family for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
 tury; and of these, two — Dudley and Cyrus — are gone. Stephen 
 still lives, but he was not at the Golden Wedding. Soon the 
 generation to which we belong will have passed away, but only, 
 as we hope and believe, that we all may meet on a happier shore. 
 
THE FATHER 
 
liPi pW^ 
 
THE MOTHER 
 
/^v, X. 
 
 omL- 
 
AFFECTION FOR HIS FAMILY. 65 
 
 and character. It is not enough that I hear men speak 
 of Mm as the honored dead, when to me he is the 
 beloved dead. I wish them to know him as I knew 
 him ; to know the sweetness of his nature, as well as 
 the force of his will ; and most of all, of the affection 
 that he bore towards those who were of the same father 
 and mother. I could go still farther and tell how 
 intense was his love for his children, and for the 
 grandchildren who were the idols of his heart. But 
 it is enough to speak of the generation to which I 
 belong. As one of the family, I can testify that, next 
 to those who gave us being, we owe what we are to one 
 than whom there was never a more dutiful son, or a 
 more kind and thoughtful brother. 
 
 But this family affection is often but a form of fam- 
 ily pride or ambition, a clannish feeling, that makes 
 one stand by his own kin against the world. But such 
 an interpretation would do great injustice to one who 
 was not only a lover of his clan, but of his race. I 
 never knew a man who was more quickly touched by 
 sorrow. How often have I heard him, as he came 
 home from the business of the day, tell of some poor 
 woman who had come to him with a pitiful tale of 
 poverty and want, whom he always received with the 
 utmost kindness, and listened patiently to her story, 
 too happy if he could relieve her distress, or put new 
 courage into her sad heart. Or as he walked home in 
 the evening, the gaslight flashed in the face of a poor 
 
66 SYMPATHY FOR THE POOR. 
 
 girl on the street corner, who was trying to earn her 
 bread by seUing papers. As he caught sight of the pale 
 wan face, he would stop, making an excuse of buying 
 the evening papers, to say a few words that might cheer 
 her in her loneliness. 
 
 This tenderness of nature showed itself even in his 
 Codes, where he always leaned to mercy's side. Rigid 
 as were his ideas of absolute equality before the law, 
 yet he thought it not incompatible with justice that the 
 law should extend its shield most over those who needed 
 it most, and never was it in the more legitimate exer- 
 cise of its power than when it stretched out its long and 
 mighty arm to protect the poor and the helpless, the 
 widow and the child. 
 
 One more picture may close this domestic episode. 
 Among the many charities that have sprung up in 
 our country, none is more beautiful than that of the 
 Children's Aid Society, which takes the little waifs of 
 our cities, and transports them far away from the foul 
 and noisome streets to the green fields and waving 
 prairies of the West, where they can breathe the pure 
 air, and learn the ways of industry and virtue. 
 
 Kindred to that, though of more recent date, is the 
 Fresh Air Fund, which takes the same class of children 
 to the country, though for a shorter time, only for a 
 few weeks, that they may romp and play, and fill their 
 little mouths with good things, and get pure air in their 
 lungs and warm blood in their veins. One of these 
 
ST. HELEN'S HOME. 67 
 
 delightful retreats is in Curtisville, a part of Stock- 
 bridge, where Mr. John E. Parsons of New York has 
 provided what he calls St. Helen's Home, in memory 
 of a beloved daughter. Here he has laid out some 
 acres, with buildings, clean and sweet, where in the sum- 
 mer hundreds are let loose, and run about the grounds 
 and climb the trees like so many squirrels, and the 
 passer-by may hear their laugh and glee, as a score 
 of little naked legs wade into the clear pebbled stream 
 that rushes under the bridge. They breathe the fresh 
 air all day long, to he down at night in clean beds and 
 sleep the sleep of innocence and peace. The place had 
 a fascination for Mr. Field, and he often took it in his 
 afternoon drive. Sometimes he would pile a dozen 
 children into a large carriage for a ride. They all 
 knew him so well that they looked for his coming. As 
 he sat on the veranda the tiny little creatures would 
 climb up on his knees two or three at once. I can see 
 him now as he took them in liis arms, and tossed them 
 into the air in a grandfatherly way ; while the "good 
 gray head " caught the last rays of the sun going down 
 in the West — fit type of the peaceful ending of his own 
 long day. Never was there a more beautiful picture of 
 the two extremes of life than this of sportive childhood 
 in the lap of age, wliich no stranger could look upon 
 without feeling that, if the "grand old man" had been a 
 man of war from his youth, he had always carried under 
 his martial cloak a warm, tender and loving heart. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CODIFICATION OF THE COMMON LAW. 
 
 The happiest scenes must come to an end ; meetings 
 must be followed by partings ; and so, after we had 
 gathered in the old home under the elms, and paid our 
 tribute to those to whom we owed everything, and 
 received their blessing ; we had to come back to the 
 scenes of common life, and take up again the work 
 that we had to do in the world. And here I resume 
 the thread of my story. 
 
 "A prophet is not without honor save in his own 
 country." It was all very well for Mr. Field to be 
 cheered to the echo by English barristers and members 
 of Parliament ; but here in America, where the practice 
 of the law was in a process of revolution, there was 
 quite another feeling. There were many lawyers and 
 judges who were not at all disposed to applaud the 
 Reformer ; who indeed would have been quite content 
 to have him spend the rest of his days in the mother 
 country, and practise at the English bar, if he would 
 only let his own country, and especially his own pro- 
 fession, alone. They were perhaps in a more critical 
 
A SET-BACK TO REFORM. 69 
 
 mood from the fact that a fragmentary Code of Proce- 
 dure had been adopted m 1848, and made a part of the 
 law of the State of New York, and they were trjdng 
 to adjust themselves to the new conditions. But there 
 they wished the Reform to end. An Act had indeed 
 been passed by the Legislature appointing a Commis- 
 sion, consisting of Chancellor Walworth and two other 
 eminent lawyers, to codify the whole substantive law. 
 But the slowness of their work was in striking contrast 
 with the celerity of Mr. Field's. After two years' med- 
 itation, they reported only a small fragment of law, 
 which they did not recommend for adoption ; and their 
 final report was in substance one of grave doubt as to 
 whether the work assigned to them could or ought to 
 be done at all. Not unnaturally, the Legislature, in 
 April, 1850, repealed the Act itself ! This seemed to be 
 a fatal blow. To resuscitate the Commission would be 
 like raising the dead, and this was not an age of mira- 
 cles. In fact it was seven years before the miracle was 
 accomplished — years that were to Mr. Field like the 
 seven years that Jacob served for Rachel. But, like the 
 ancient lover, he never lost heart or hope. He pleaded 
 his cause in a series of Law Reform Tracts on "The 
 Administration of the Code" ; "Evidence as to its 
 Operation," showing that it had worked well ; "A Short 
 Manual of Pleading under the Code " ; and a discussion 
 of ' ' The Competency of Parties as Witnesses for Them- 
 selves," in support of which he drew up a memorial to 
 
70 WHAT IS THE COMMON LAW? 
 
 the Legislature for the passage of a law to admit their 
 testimony. 
 
 But all this was only preliminary to a still more 
 sweeping Reform, which he proposed in another Tract 
 on "The Codification of the Common Law" — a change 
 that would be almost revolutionary, and which can- 
 not be understood without a brief explanation of this 
 "Common Law" which had not only ruled England 
 for so many generations, but had extended its rule over 
 the greater family of the descendants of Englishmen on 
 this side of the Atlantic. 
 
 What was the Common Law ? I am but a layman, 
 as unfamiliar with the mysteries of the law as of medi- 
 cine. But there is sometimes an advantage in looking 
 at a structure from the outside. It gives the spectator 
 a point of view from which he can take in the Avhole. 
 Looking on therefore, as we laymen do, from a rea- 
 sonable distance, what are we to understand by the 
 Common Law ? The phrase has a certain inajesty, 
 as if it were in Law what the Common Faith is in 
 Religion, a symbol of that which, though it be somewhat 
 dim and distant, is still too sacred to be lightly spoken 
 of. Perchance it stands as a synonym for universal 
 justice, and is called common — not because it is in 
 any sense low or commonplace, but because it is for all 
 men. If that were indeed its significance, it would be 
 a noble title for a noble thing. But when we discover 
 that the Common Law is only Common Usage, and is 
 
HOW THE COMMON LAW IS MADE. 71 
 
 backed by no great legal authority, our reverence begins 
 to abate. 
 
 Yet such is the Common Law of England, from which 
 our own is taken. It is not a compilation of the laws 
 of the realm, of acts of Parliament, for with the greater 
 part of them Parliament had nothing to do. It is made 
 up for the most part, not of statutes, but of precedents, 
 of the decisions of judges, of whom some were learned 
 and some unlearned ; some ^vise and great ; some weak 
 and wicked. Derived from England as it has been, 
 nobody has spoken of it so contemptuously as Enghsh- 
 men themselves. "Do you know," said the great Jer- 
 emy Bentham, "how judges make the Common Law? 
 Just as a man makes laws for liis dog. When your 
 dog does anything you want to break him of, you wait 
 till he does it, and then beat him for it. And this is 
 the way the judges make law for you and me ! " To 
 make the best of it, we cannot help seeing that it is a 
 compound of good and bad ; that the stream of time, 
 which has brought down to us the wisdom of the past, 
 has also swept along on its mighty bosom other and 
 meaner things, the mere drift of the ages, with which 
 the present generation ought not to be burdened. 
 
 "But imperfect as it is, you cannot get rid of it," 
 was the cry ; " it is here, and here to stay forever ! " 
 And as for Codification, that was impossible ! As well 
 might you attempt to imprison the vast and wandering 
 air, or set bounds to the waves of the immeasurable sea. 
 
72 "walk in the old ways !" 
 
 Even if it were possible, such " narrowing" of the law 
 into a small compass would do more harm than good. 
 Some even thought its vagueness and uncertainty a 
 good feature, as it made it more "elastic," and left 
 more scope to the expansive genius of Young America ! 
 But other objections were less fanciful. When we 
 are told that the great body of lawyers and judges in 
 the State of New York were opposed to it, we are not 
 to infer that it was from merely frivolous considera- 
 tions. Least of all would we impute to them unworthy 
 motives. A cause quite sufficient to explain it all is 
 found in the simple power of inertia, that weighs upon 
 us all like the power of gravitation. There is in every 
 man a reluctance to change old habits and usages. Nor 
 is this a bad trait. On the contrary, it may be all that 
 saves us from mistakes that might prove our ruin. It 
 may be our only protection from the consequences of 
 our own rashness and folly. Hence it is that we are 
 warned in holy writ to ' ' walk in the old ways. " Any 
 departure from this rule must first show that the new 
 way is better than the old. This Mr. Field endeavored 
 to prove by insisting on the absolute necessity of some 
 relief from a burden that had grown to such enormous 
 proportions. The law was so covered up by the deposits 
 of successive generations, that it lay scattered about as 
 if among dead men's bones, so that one might almost as 
 well seek for it in the catacombs. The richer it was in 
 its accumulations, the more unwieldy it became. The 
 
CODIFICATION THE ONLY RELIEF. 73 
 
 greater the number of precedents to be quoted, the 
 greater the perplexity, for in running back to the decis- 
 ions of the courts for generations, it seemed as if every 
 possible case had been decided in every possible way. So 
 slowly moved the wheels of justice, that in some cases 
 a man could hardly hope for a verdict in his life-time. 
 An appeal to the Court of Chancery, for example, was 
 almost a mockery, as an English judge confessed, when 
 he inquired after a particular case and was told that it 
 had been referred to that Court, at wliich he asked in 
 a melancholy tone, "Have you the heart to send a 
 fellow- creature there?" This was a paralysis of jus- 
 tice from too much law — a result that is not an infre- 
 quent accompaniment of too many refinements in the 
 statutes or in the modes of procedure. 
 
 For all this confusion and delay there must be some 
 relief, if there was to be any virtue in the law or the 
 tribunals of England or America. And this could only 
 be by some process of condensation and simplification, 
 both of which were combined in "Codification," whereby 
 the whole of the Common Law could be framed into 
 distinct Codes, which should be so plain and simple that 
 the}' could be read and " understanded of the people." 
 
 Such was the aim of Mr. Field, his one great and 
 overpowering ambition. It was not to be a breaker 
 of the precious traditions of the past. He had no pur- 
 pose or desire to destroy the Common Law, but to pre- 
 serve it and exalt it by cutting off its excrescences, 
 
74 CODE COMMISSION REVIVED. 
 
 and by translating it into the language of the people, 
 so as to make it worthy, not only of the free States of 
 America, but of all English-speaking peoples on the 
 habitable globe. 
 
 But the stronger the argument for the Code, the 
 more violent was the opposition. It was a case of an 
 irresistible force striking against an immovable body. 
 And so the battle raged, with constant alternations of 
 advance and repulse. In 1855 a bill was introduced into 
 the Legislature to reorganize the Code Commission, 
 making him one of the Commissioners, but its enemies 
 were alert and fought it at every step and defeated it. 
 The chief opposition came from the older members of 
 the bar, who seemed to have a power in the Legis- 
 lature to obstruct and defeat any action to which they 
 were opposed. Nor were they always very reserved 
 in boasting of their power, to which the only answer 
 of the Reformer was, "All things come to him who 
 waits ! " He did not have to wait much longer before 
 the old conservatism gave way. In 1857, on the 6th 
 of April — a day that was to be forever memorable in 
 the history of Law Reform — an Act which he had him- 
 self drawn up with the greatest care, was passed by 
 the Legislature, that a new Commission be appointed 
 "to reduce into a written and systematic Code the 
 whole body of the law of this State, or so much and 
 such parts thereof as shall seem to them practicable 
 and expedient, excepting always such portions of the 
 
THE OPPORTUNITY OF HIS LIFE. 75 
 
 law as have been already reported upon by the Com- 
 missioners of Practice and Pleadings, or are embraced 
 within the scope of their reports." 
 
 Very simple words are these to "lay readers," who 
 do not take in all their meaning. But to the legal 
 mind that one sentence, " to reduce into a written a7id 
 systematic Code the whole body of the law," was 
 the foretokening of a Revolution. With this came to 
 Mr. Field the opportunity of his life. From the time 
 that he entered on the practice of law, he had been 
 possessed with the idea of Reform : it had been his 
 one thought by day and his dream by night. A part of 
 his scheme had been realized in the Codes of Procedure, 
 but the greater task of reconstructing and codifying 
 the substance of the Law itself, yet remained. It was 
 the same work of Reform — only in a higher and broader 
 sphere. 
 
 The nearer he came to the task, the larger it grew, 
 till the cloud that was like a man's hand expanded till 
 it covered all the horizon. No bounds could be put 
 to its circumference. "Law," says Hooker, "hasher 
 seat in the bosom of God, and her voice is the har- 
 mony of the world : all things in heaven and earth do 
 her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the 
 greatest as not exempted from her power." But even 
 this magnificent sentence, one of the most splendid in 
 the English language, does not exhaust the extent of 
 its illimitable reign, for the law of which it speaks is 
 
76 LAW NOT MADE BY ARBITRARY WILL. 
 
 only that of the material universe : but in law that is 
 to rule and govern mankind, there must be more than 
 blind force — more than power, even though it be the 
 power of God ; something that appeals to the moral 
 sense — to reason and to conscience. 
 
 Even the law of God liimself is not merely the edict 
 of Almighty Power, with no recognition of the wants 
 or weaknesses of men. That would make Him to be 
 like Shiva the Destroyer in the Hindoo theology, whose 
 tremendous power rolled over men like the Car of 
 Juggernaut, crushing all that came in its way. Not so 
 could any one tliink who had been brought up in a 
 New England home, where from a child he had been 
 taught that the Creator of mankind is the Father of all. 
 
 Nor could a Divine authority be claimed for any 
 human decrees. There was no sacredness in law that 
 was simply the creation of arbitrary will — of King, or 
 Kaiser, or Czar — it was only law that was founded in 
 absolute justice that partook of the character of God 
 himself, and had somewhat of His authority. 
 
 Approaching the law with such careful steps, it took 
 on a sacred character, as if it were a part of religion, 
 as it well might be, if it were conformed to the high- 
 est standard of rectitude. The work of the legislator 
 was not merely to apply the laws of nature to human 
 conduct. Nor was it merely the recognition of a bhnd 
 force, acting in one fixed and unalterable way, like 
 the law of gravitation. The law for communities 
 
JUSTICE THE FOUNDATION OP LAW. 77 
 
 and states was for moral beings, and must have in it 
 a moral element — an element of justice so clear and 
 plain as to approve itself to him who was under it, so 
 that obedience should not be a matter of compulsion, 
 but of free choice and will. Justice, in the eye of the 
 Reformer, was the rock, the corner-stone, on which to 
 buUd the structure of human society. I never knew a 
 man who had a stronger sense of justice. In framing a 
 law it never occurred to him to modify it in the interest 
 of this or that individual, or of this or that class. The 
 first question that he asked — and the only question — 
 was. Is it right ? Is it just ? Of course, in the work 
 of codification, it was not his business to make the law ; 
 but in recasting thousands of statutes, there was bound- 
 less scope for improving the language by rejecting all 
 outlandish phrases, and reducing each statute to its sim- 
 plest form by putting it in plain old Saxon words, which 
 were most familiar to the common ear, and most suited to 
 "the roundabout common sense " of the common people. 
 With these two conditions, the law so plain that every 
 man could understand it, and so obviously just that 
 all should approve it, it would be a moral education 
 of the people, who, in learning at once their rights and 
 their duties, would be better fitted to be citizens of a 
 great and free Commonwealth. 
 
 Such was the task. How was it to be done ? 
 Though Mr. Field was at the head of the Commission, 
 the work was not left to him alone, for it was too enor- 
 
78 THE lion's share OF LABOR. 
 
 mous for any one man ; associated with him were two 
 of the most eminent members of the bar, Mr. Wilham 
 Curtis Noyes and Mr. Alexander W. Bradford, and the 
 three were to divide the work between them. They were 
 to report at the next session of the Legislature a general 
 Analysis of the projected Codes, as preliminary to the 
 larger task that remained in the future. To this they 
 gave their first attention, Mr. Noyes undertaking to 
 prepare the Analysis for the Penal Code, and Mr. Field 
 the Analysis for the Political and Civil Codes. 
 
 After this they went to work on the Codes them- 
 selves, reporting at every session of the Legislature the 
 progress made up to that time. As fast as any part of 
 the Draft was prepared it was to be distributed among 
 the Judges and others for examination, and afterwards 
 to be reexamined, with the suggestions made, and finally 
 submitted to the Legislature. No compensation what- 
 ever was to be allowed to the Commissioners. 
 
 In this division of labor it will be seen that Mr. Field 
 had the lion's share of the work thrown upon him in 
 having assigned to him both the Civil and the Political 
 Codes. Was it not too much for a man who was no 
 longer young ? It was a work for a lifetime, and he 
 was already fifty-two years old. But he was still in 
 the full vigor of his splendid manhood, and the task 
 itself gave him a fresh inspiration. Enthusiasm took 
 the place of young blood, and supplied the vital force 
 to bear the tremendous strain. 
 
THE CORPS OF ASSISTANTS. 79 
 
 Of course an undertaking so vast could not be car- 
 ried out in detail by any one man, even though he 
 should give to it the undivided labor of the longest life. 
 In his choice of assistants he preferred young men to old 
 men. They might not be so learned in the law, but that 
 was in one view of it a qualification, as they were more 
 free from the paralyzing influence of old traditions ; 
 more alert in mind as well as in body ; more quick 
 to receive new ideas ; and last, but not least, had more 
 power of continued labor. It was no light task to 
 be a co-worker with Mr. Field, for as he never con- 
 fessed fatigue himself, he made little account of fatigue 
 in others. So long as he was in command, those who 
 followed him must keep up with his tremendous pace. 
 And yet he was not a hard master, for exacting as he 
 was, and imperious in the carrying out of his plans, he 
 appreciated talent in others, and was very proud when 
 one of his adjutants showed uncommon ability. For 
 them it was an admirable training for professional Hfe. 
 In the preparation of the Political Code his assistant 
 was Mr. Austin Abbott, for whom it was a stepping 
 stone to his subsequent distinguished career.* 
 
 With a lieutenant so energetic the work did not 
 drag, and on the 10th of March, 1859, Mr. Field was 
 
 * The recent death of Mr. Abbott was a great loss to the bar 
 of New York. Had he lived, it was hoped that he would fur- 
 nish important contributions to this biography of one under 
 whom he had served for several years in the preparation of the 
 
80 THE CIVIL CODE. 
 
 able to send out the first Draft of the Pohtical Code to 
 the parties to whom it was to be submitted, by whom it 
 was carefully examined, and returned to him for a final 
 revision, which took another year, so that it was not till 
 thirteen months later, April 10th, 18G0, that he was able 
 to offer this Political Code complete. At the same time 
 he suggested the importance of a "Book of Forms," 
 which was provided for by a special statute directing 
 the Commissioners to prepare it. This too was assigned 
 to Mr. Field, under whose supervision it was prepared 
 by Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, in the same manner as 
 the three Codes : first a Draft, or, as in this case, two 
 successive Drafts were circulated, and the revised work 
 was reported to the Legislature on the 30th of March, 
 1861. 
 
 Then came the greatest labor of all in preparing the 
 Civil Code, in which Mr. Field had the invaluable assist- 
 ance of Mr. Shearman and of Mr. Austin Abbott, by 
 whose combined labors, under his constant oversight, 
 directing, inspiring and pushing on the great work, the 
 first Draft of the Civil Code was sent out on April 5th, 
 1862. The Draft of the Penal Code, which had been 
 
 Codes, and for whom he had the greatest admiration. Of all 
 the tributes to Mr. Field, none was more discriminating, or car- 
 ried more weight, than that of one who was not only in the front 
 rank of practitioners at the bar, but was also eminent as a 
 Teacher of Law, being the Dean of that Department in the 
 University of the City of New York. 
 
COMPLETION OF THE CODES. 81 
 
 assigned to Mr. Noyes, was not presented till two years 
 later. It had been prepared with the assistance of Mr. 
 B. V. Abbott, and was then read over at meetings of all 
 the Commissioners, and amended by them. 
 
 The Political and Civil Codes were left entirely to 
 Mr. Field, except that Mr. Bradford prepared a first 
 Draft of that portion of the latter which relates to the 
 estates of deceased persons. After eight Reports to the 
 Legislature, the Commission submitted their Ninth and 
 last Report on the 13th of February, 1865 (Mr. Field's 
 birthday, on which he completed his sixtieth year), lay- 
 ing the full Penal Code upon the tables of the members. 
 The Civil Code was already in the hands of the printer, 
 but was not issued until the autumn. The revision 
 of the Civil Code involved as much labor as its original 
 draft. In this work, in addition to the gentlemen 
 already mentioned, Mr. Charles F. Stone rendered some 
 valuable assistance on the law of real estate. 
 
 These law-reform labors of Mr. Field occupied a 
 large portion of liis time for eighteen years, during 
 all of which, except the first two years, he not only 
 received no compensation, but had to pay the expense of 
 his assistants, amounting to many thousands of dollars. 
 
 The Codes for New York were written and rewritten 
 several times : every part of the Civil Code at least 
 three times and many parts eighteen times ! These 
 Codes, as completed, are contained in five octavo vol- 
 umes. Three of them— the Civil Code, the Penal Code, 
 
82 THE RECOGNIZED AUTHOR OF THE CODES. 
 
 and the Political Code — give the substantive law. Two 
 of them — the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of 
 Criminal Procedure — prescribe the practice of the courts, 
 and define their jurisdiction. In the preparation of the 
 Codes of Procedure, Mr. Field was associated with 
 Mr. Loomis and Mr. Graham ; and in the other Codes 
 with Mr. Noyes and Mr. Bradford ; all of whom were 
 able and distinguished men in the profession ; but they 
 gave to it far less time than he did, and wrought upon 
 it with far less intensity. Of his habits of working, 
 in the early morning hours and late at night, I have 
 spoken elsewhere, a strain that was kept up, not for a 
 few weeks or months, but for eighteen long years. 
 Thus he gave to it more time than all the others 
 combined, indeed all the time which could be spared 
 from the labors of an engrossing profession. With 
 liim it was the passion of his life — the work which 
 he was the first to propose, and was the most deter- 
 mined to carry through, and he wrought upon it with 
 all the ardor of personal ambition, so that he is univer- 
 sally recognized, at home and abroad, as the chief 
 author of the Codes. 
 
 "-^ In a letter to his brother Stephen — Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States — he speaks thus 
 of the opposition he had to encounter : 
 
 ' ' Now that my work is finished, as I look back upon 
 it, I am amazed at the difficulties I had to overcome, 
 and the little encouragement and assistance I received. 
 
JUDGMENT LEFT TO POSTERITY. 83 
 
 It seemed as if every step I took was to be impeded by 
 something laid across my path. I was opposed in 
 everything. My hfe was a continual warfare. Not 
 only was every obstacle thrown in the way of my work, 
 but I was attacked personally as an agitator and a vis- 
 ionary, in seeking to disturb long settled usage, and 
 thinking to reform the law, in which was embodied the 
 wisdom of ages. This was perhaps to be expected when 
 I undertook such radical changes in the face of the most 
 conservative of professions. But he has little reason to 
 complain of the number or violence of his adversaries 
 who finds himself victorious in the end. As to any real 
 service which I may have rendered to American law, 
 and so to the cause of universal justice, of human prog- 
 ress and civilization, in short, as to any claim I may 
 have to the title of lawgiver and reformer, I am willing 
 to be judged by the wise and good after I have passed 
 away. 
 
 ' ' One lesson, which I might perhaps have learned 
 by reading, has been taught me by experience, and that 
 is, that he who attempts reform must rely upon him- 
 self, and that all such enterprises have received their 
 start and impetus from one, or at most a very few 
 persons." , 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ADOPTION OF THE CODES AT HOME AND ABROAD. 
 
 It is one thing to frame an ideal Code, on the strict- 
 est Hnes of justice, and quite another thing to have it 
 enacted into law by the law-making power, - ' I once 
 saw a Revolution, that taught me a good many things, 
 and chief of all, the vanity of human expectations. 
 When I stood in front of the Tuilleries and saw the 
 Royal Palace sacked by a mob, while he who but an 
 hour before was a king, was fleeing in disguise for his 
 life, it seemed as if the bottom was knocked out of 
 everything ; that there was nothing on earth that was 
 secure from being overturned and destroyed. \. 'But the 
 next lesson was not less a surprise : it was the marvel- 
 lous genius of the French people in the creation of a 
 new government. It was not many days before Paris 
 was flooded with constitutions, each of which was 
 believed by its projector to be almost inspired, and 
 that, if adopted, it would cure all the evils of human 
 society. Few of them were ever heard of again. One 
 or two were tried as experiments, but soon broke down 
 
REFORMS SUBJECT TO CRITICISM. 85 
 
 for want of some needed balance in the political machine ; 
 till, four months after the Revolution, all these wild 
 dreams were exploded in a four daj-s' battle in the 
 streets between the people and the army supporting the 
 government, when the attempt to restore the golden 
 age was finally drowned in blood ! 
 . - Since then I have not been so sanguine of seeing 
 great reforms carried by coups d'etat, whether by rulers 
 or by people. The march of mankind is slow, and it is 
 enough for any generation to help it a httle on its way. 
 We in America are not likely to see such a tragic end- 
 ing of our schemes for the improvement of human 
 society. Happily for us our reforms do not imply revo- 
 lutions. But for all that, a Reformer is a man who 
 pulls down as well as builds up, and must not be sur- 
 prised if he meets with criticism, for the mere suggestion 
 of reform is a reflection upon the old state of things 
 as needing to be reformed — an assumption which is 
 resented by those who are satisfied with things as they 
 are. The old ways are good enough for them : and it 
 seems to be almost an impertinence when a man comes 
 along who thinks that he is ^viser than his generation ; 
 and that he can teach them a better way, whether it be 
 in law, in politics, or in religion. '-^The Codifier there- 
 fore had no reason to complain if his new Codes, how- 
 ever skilfully "framed and put together," should not 
 be at once accepted by the public, or by those of his 
 own profession, who were content with the old tradi- 
 
86 ADOPTION OF THE CODES SLOW. 
 
 tions and usages, which, if not ideally perfect, were 
 practically safe. 
 
 On his part he faced the situation squarely, and 
 found no fault with the closest scrutiny. He knew 
 very well that when the Legislature of New York 
 authorized the Commission to prepare the new Codes, 
 it had exhausted its power — that its action could not 
 bind any future Legislature (which might not be chosen 
 until some years later) to adopt the Codes so prepared. 
 When they appeared they must stand on their own 
 merits, and thereby be justified or be condemned. As 
 every Legislature was made up largely from the legal 
 profession, he took for granted that, while some might 
 be in favor of law reform, others would be opposed 
 to it ; and perhaps the greater number be simply 
 indifferent, looking upon it as merely an experiment. 
 The report bound no one. To the last moment the 
 Legislature held the power in its own hands ; and 
 though the country lawyers were quite willing, as a 
 matter of professional curiosity, that Mr. Field and his 
 associates should amuse themselves with their beautiful 
 Codes, it would be quite another thing to ask the whole 
 bar of the State to put their necks under the yoke ; and 
 when it came to that point, the "Reformers" might 
 hear from the back districts ! 
 
 With such natural repugnance to change, it was not 
 surprising that the adoption of the Codes was slow. 
 Even the Codes of Procedure, though they concerned 
 
OPPOSITION IN THE LEGISLATURE. 87 
 
 but the outward forms of administration of justice, 
 instead of the substance of the law, met with opposi- 
 tion both within and without the Legislature. Although 
 they had been submitted complete on the first of Jan- 
 uary, 1850, they had to wait long for recognition, and 
 even as yet are only adopted in part. The Code of 
 Civil Procedure was once passed by the Assembly, 
 but defeated in the Senate ; and a different Code, pre- 
 pared by M. H. Throop, though mainly founded upon 
 Mr. Field, was adopted between 1876 and 1880. The 
 Code of Criminal Procedure was not adopted until 1882. 
 Thus the progress of reform was slow : it was only 
 the outer walls of Conservatism that had been carried, 
 the fortress itself was still to be stormed and taken. 
 The revision of the Codes had taken the Commissioners, 
 with all their assistants, eight years of the hardest labor. 
 Not only had they been outlined with the utmost care, 
 but every chapter and article had been revised and 
 re-revised, till some portions were changed no less than 
 eighteen times. But all this was not enough to insure 
 its adoption. There was not a meeting of the Legisla- 
 ture that Mr. Field had not to make a pilgrimage to 
 Albany, to appear before the Committee of the Senate 
 or of the Assembly, where he was always sure to meet 
 the determined opposition of some of the ablest mem- 
 bers of the Bar in the State, in which they were sup- 
 ported by a large number of the legislators, who, from 
 professional instinct, were opposed to innovations which 
 
88 DEFEAT OF CIVIL AND POLITICAL CODES. 
 
 would oblige them to re-learn, at least to some extent, 
 both the substance and the practice of the law. 
 
 These were heavy odds, against which the Reformer 
 had to stand almost alone, using all his power of argu- 
 ment and of persuasion, with only partial success. The 
 Penal Code was indeed enacted in 1881, and has been 
 the law of the great State of New York for fifteen 
 years ; but the Civil and the Political Codes have not 
 been adopted to this day ! The Civil Code, wliich he 
 looked upon as the most important of all, has passed 
 one of the houses, the Senate or the Assembly, again 
 and again ; twice it has passed both by large majori- 
 ties ; but failed in either case of receiving the signature 
 of the Governor, who shrank from the responsibility 
 of putting his name to a Reform which reconstructed 
 the very substance of the Law. 
 
 These repeated defeats were of course a sore disap- 
 pointment to the Reformer, but after all they ought not 
 to have surprised him. In any great movement for 
 reform, allowance must be made for the natural con- 
 servatism of old institutions, what in mechanics would 
 be called the power of greatest resistance. It could not 
 be an easy thing to move an old Commonwealth, like 
 New York, wedded to old laws, some of which dated 
 from the time w^hen the Dutch held Manhattan Island. 
 
 But there was another and broader field in the new 
 States and Territories, where the ground had not been 
 preoccupied, and so "westward the star" of reform, as 
 
INTRODUCED IN STATES AND TERRITORIES. 89 
 
 well as of empire, "took its way." Whenever a 
 government was to be formed, its framers saw the 
 advantage it would be to begin its pohtical hfe with 
 the very best methods of securing justice. While some 
 of the older States, like Ohio and the Carolinas, adopted 
 only the Code of Civil Procedure, sixteen other States 
 and Territories — Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Arkan- 
 sas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, 
 Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, 
 and Washington — adopted in substance both the Civil 
 and the Criminal Codes of Procedure ; and to outdo 
 them all, Cahfornia, the Queen of the Pacific, led the 
 way in adopting, not only the Codes of Civil and Crim- 
 inal Procedure, but also the three Codes, Civil, Penal, 
 and Political ; and Dakota, which was the first of the 
 States or Territories to adopt the Civil Code, has in due 
 time taken all the rest, a fitting crown to the great 
 State of the Mid- Continent. 
 
 And not Dakota alone ! Beyond the Dakotas lies 
 another State three times as large as New York, a 
 Highland region, with valleys between the mountain 
 ranges, rich as the valley of the Nile. But its first 
 occupants were of the lawless character that often 
 hang on the border, so that when the stalwart sons 
 of the West marched acro&s the plains with their rifles 
 on their shoulders, they found that the first thing was 
 to put down lawlessness with a strong hand, after which 
 they proceeded to lay the foundations of a great Com- 
 
90 ADOPTED IN FULL IN MONTANA. 
 
 monwealth worthy of its position in the very heart of 
 the Continent. In this no man was more conspicuous 
 than Colonel Sanders, who was the first to represent 
 Montana in the Senate of the United States. But that 
 he owed anything — or that Montana owed anything — 
 to the Reform in New York, was first disclosed in the 
 following letter : 
 
 Helena, Montana, January 24th, 1896. 
 
 My dear Dr. Field : I learn that you are to write a biography 
 of your eldest brother, Mr. David Dudley Field, and I am very 
 much pleased to know that so active and useful a life is to be 
 described by so faithful and entertaining an author. The State 
 of Montana will feel a personal interest in this book of yours, as 
 to his labors, more than to those of any other man, is she 
 indebted for the very excellent system of statutory law now 
 in force within her limits. 
 
 It was my good fortune to know him for a number of years, 
 and his lively interest in the codification of our laws not only 
 intensified my own interest in it, but gave to it an intelligent 
 direction. For a considerable period we sought to secure legis- 
 lative action here, and your brother, although he lived remote 
 from Montana, and was always busied with very large affairs, 
 was never so busy but that he took a lively interest in our prog- 
 ress, and by his advice assisted us in the consummation of this 
 great legislation. Although advanced in years, he surprised 
 me by his earnestness and activity in this matter, and compre- 
 hended, and seemed to carry in his mind, the smallest details 
 which appertained to the accomplishment of this work. Enter- 
 taining a very high opinion of the beneficence of codification, it 
 was my good fortune during the last years of his life to meet 
 him frequently, and to receive from him information and sug- 
 
LETTER OF SENATOR SANDERS. 91 
 
 gestions, which he frequently gave also by letter, not only to 
 myself, but to members of the Commission who had this codifi- 
 cation in charge. During these years, while the work pro- 
 gressed, and while we were waiting the passage of the enact- 
 ment, his lively interest in it and assistance induced me to 
 resolve to furnish him a copy of the statute as it should be 
 finally passed ; but the inevitable end came to him before that 
 event. 
 
 And so I turn to you with some expression of the thanks 
 which the people of Montana feel, and which I certainly feel, 
 for the labor which he performed, and of which we have been 
 able to avail ourselves in the passage of a system of laiv which, 
 for comprehensiveness, coherence and perspicuity, stands without 
 a parallel in the history of legislation.* If our local needs 
 
 * To an inquiry whether this included all the Codes, the 
 writer replies in a second letter that the legislation came to 
 Montana by the way of California, which had adopted it from 
 New York, and that, though there were some slight changes in 
 the transmission, they do not affect the substantial fact that the 
 laws which rule Montana to-day are the work of Mr. Field, to 
 whom he gives the honor, and to him alone. I quote his very 
 words : ' ' There were thrust into the Codes, as passed in Cali- 
 fornia, certain pre-existing statutes of this State pertaining to 
 the same subject matter, and local as to our conditions and 
 needs ; but we have the Political Code of your brother, the Civil 
 Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Proce 
 dure, and the Penal Code. These last two, however, are con- 
 solidated, and are known in our statutes as the Penal Code, and 
 pertain to crimes, and the methods of their punishment. In a 
 few instances, possibly, our code commission, instead of taking 
 the statutes from California, may have preferred a .substantial 
 form of the same statutes taken from Colorado, South Dakota, 
 
92 TEIBUTE TO MR. FIELD. 
 
 and infirmities have thrust into his codification some legislation 
 not projected on the high plane of his code, it is our fault, not 
 his ; and it does not impair the great task which he performed, 
 not only for Montana, but for all other States availing them- 
 selves of his noble work. At a period of life when other 
 men would have considered their labors to be over, he was as 
 keenly alive to the adoption of these laws by the various States 
 as any person I have ever known. 
 
 He was not acquainted in Slontana, nor do I know that 
 he ever visited this State, but he took as lively an interest in 
 improving its legislation as if he had founded it, and was wholly 
 identified with its history. Having edited these statutes and 
 published them, it seemed to me appropriate that some recogni- 
 tion of his services in behalf of improved legislation and codifi- 
 cation should be had ; and, in the preface, I took occasion to 
 
 or some other State ; but these instances are very few, and I 
 consider the Montana codes substantially the legislation pre^iared 
 by your brother. Departures from the form as prepared by him 
 are so insignificant that in generalizing upon the laws they need 
 not be referred to." 
 
 To this it should be added that so thorough and complete has 
 been the process of "boiling down" the myriads of enactments 
 and of precedents scattered through libraries in England as well 
 as in America, that the several Codes of Law, Civil, Penal and 
 Political, with the Codes of Procedure, are all compressed into 
 a single volume much smaller than the Revised Statutes of the 
 United States ; so that a citizen of Montana, who has but little 
 money to spend on books, needs to have lying on his table but 
 three : an English Dictionary to teach the knowledge of his own 
 mother tongue ; this Book of the Law, to show him his rights as 
 a member of civilized society ; and the good old Family Bible 
 to teach him his duties to God and to man. 
 
CODIFICATION THE BOON OF THE POOR. 93 
 
 mention his name, regretting only that the opportunity was not 
 afforded me to say more. If the courts whose quandaries he 
 has settled ; the lawyers whose doubts he has resolved ; and the 
 citizens whose legal rights in simple and concise words he has 
 defined ; could speak in your volume, his name and memory 
 wovild certainly be blessed. His was a great life to look back 
 upon, and I doubt not your volume, which I bespeak, will set it 
 forth in alluring sentences with such detail and generalization 
 as shall make it coveted by all intelligent young men of our 
 country. 
 
 The profession to which I belong will appreciate, but cannot 
 exaggerate, the great services rendered by your brother, not 
 merely to it and the coui'ts, but to the humblest citizen of the 
 land, in simplifying the law and bringing it home to their 
 hearthstones. Indeed codification is peculiarly the boon and 
 benediction of the poor, and it furnishes some facilities whereby 
 the ignorant may become icise. 
 
 His services in endeavoring to secure the settlement of all 
 international differences by arbitration bespoke a noble nature, 
 humane in purpose and enlightened in comprehension ; and in 
 these days, when careless speech seems fraught with so much 
 peril, and the spii-it of frivolity pervades so many high places, 
 his words of truth and soberness, born of sanity and prudence, 
 raise him in the esteem of philanthropists throughout the world. 
 It was my fortune to know something of him personally, and 
 these great services which he rendered to mankind in no way 
 oppressed him. He rose superior to the weariness of the daily 
 toil, and was as cheerful and active in social life as any person 
 I ever knew. With my wife I recall a journey with him down 
 the Hudson River one summer day, a stream with which I flat- 
 tered myself I was somewhat familiar, not merely from i^ersonal 
 observation of it, but from the works of Irving and Lossing and 
 Bryant, and others who had exhausted their genius in painting 
 
94 THE VICTORIES OF PEACE. 
 
 its beauties and describing its history ; but your brother pointed 
 out new places of interest along that historic stream, and related 
 the events which have made it immortal, until from Albany to 
 Manhattan Island it was all aglow with history and romance. 
 
 The dullness of appreciation of the legislative improvements 
 with which he was identified, I cannot wholly comprehend, but 
 I am satisfied that the States which have availed themselves of 
 his services count these enactments as among their most pre- 
 cious possessions. To fitly describe such a life as he led is an 
 inspiring task, and I do not doubt but that affection and duty 
 will lift you to the occasion, and give us a biography not only 
 worthy of his own renown, but also worthy of your own pen. 
 Such men never die. 
 
 I trust confidently your book will occupy a shelf along with 
 the biographies of Sumner and Garrison and the autobiography 
 of Mr. Sherman, an example and inspiration to the youth of the 
 land, who may learn therefrom the rewards of courageous, intel- 
 ligent and patient toil. To those of us who knew him and can 
 bear witness to his great service for mankind through so many 
 years, it will seem fitting justice that his name be handed down 
 by dutiful affection to the gratitude and admiration of future 
 
 ages. Very truly yours, 
 
 W. F. Sanders. 
 
 These are the victories of peace, which are indeed 
 no less renowned than the victories of war. As a mes- 
 senger of peace Law is next to Rehgion, and most of 
 all laws adopted by the people themselves from a sense 
 of justice, and for their own protection. No army 
 crossing the Continent could carry in its mailed hand 
 such a pledge of peace to future generations. 
 
 Nor was the effect of this legal reform limited to our 
 
LAW REFORM IN ENGLAND. 95 
 
 own country : the movement was soon felt by our kins- 
 men across the sea. As we had derived our laws from 
 England, she was equall}" interested with us in any 
 improvement in that which was our common heritage. 
 This need was felt by her greatest statesmen. In the 
 year 1867 I was in London, and saw a good deal of 
 John Bright, who was full of congratulations on the 
 issue of our civil war, which gave him unbounded hope 
 not only for our country, but for the reaction upon his 
 own. He thovight it would be no harm to England to 
 learn a lesson from America. Among other things, he 
 said very earnestly : "I ^vish we had a man in England 
 to do for us in the way of the reform of the law what 
 your brother has done for America ! " But where to find 
 the man was the difficulty. So far as he knew the man 
 did not exist. But there were some of his countrymen 
 who were not above profiting by our example. What 
 America had done England could do. The interest 
 thus excited led to the appointment of a Parliamentary 
 Committee, and a Crown Commission, to consider the 
 whole subject of Law Reform ; and t\\ace when in 
 England— in 1851 and in 18G7— Mr. Field was invited 
 to meet \vith them, and explain the methods and extent 
 of codification in New York. On the latter occasion 
 there were present the most eminent legal authorities of 
 the Kingdom, including five Lord Chancellors— Lord 
 Westbury and Lord Cranworth ; Sir Page Wood, after- 
 Avards Lord Hatherlev ; Sir Hugh Cairns, afterwards 
 
96 ADOPTED IN THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 Lord Cairns ; and Sir Roundell Palmer, afterwards Lord 
 Selborne. They sat to a late hour of the night, and 
 when they rose Lord Hatherley took their visitor by the 
 hand and said, "Mr. Field, the State of New York 
 ought to build you a monument of gold ! " 
 
 It was not long before the American Codes of Pro- 
 cedure were adopted in substance in Great Britain and 
 the Colonies. A few years later (in 1874) Mr. Field 
 went round the world, and found to his surprise his sys- 
 tem of practice in use in the courts in India ! He could 
 hardly believe his eyes when he was confronted by the 
 rules that he had prescribed, word for word as he had 
 written them in his library in New York ; and saw 
 justice administered according to them in those far-off 
 ends of the earth, Singapore and Hong Kong ! 
 
 This was not ' ' the drum beat, which, following the 
 sun, and keeping company with the hours, encircles the 
 globe with the martial airs of England," but it was 
 something better than the sound of war — the whisper 
 of peace, soft as the murmurs of the sea, yet touching 
 every shore — peace founded upon justice to subject 
 races — the Hindoo, the Malay, and the Chinaman — 
 whose rights are not only guaranteed by England, but 
 may we not add (this, I am sure, will not offend the 
 majesty of England) still further guarded and protected 
 by some wise provisions, that have been adopted from 
 American law. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 "the commanding figure at the bar." 
 
 A man may frame the laws of a country, and never 
 practice in the courts. The two things are distinct, and 
 yet they may be united. Mr. Field was a lawyer be- 
 fore he became a reformer, and one grew out of the 
 other. It was in the daily practice of the law, that he 
 saw its defects, and the need — even the necessity — of its 
 being cleared of all drift wood, and being brought into 
 a compact and orderly form. But who would begin a 
 contest that would continue for a great part of his life ; 
 and in which he might sacrifice himself for the pubhc 
 good ? As there was no one else who had the boldness 
 — some would call it the rashness — to undertake it, he 
 was forced to the front. Even then his life might have 
 been made easy if he had abandoned the practice of his 
 profession, when he might have shut himself up in his 
 librarj^, and devoted his days and nights to the study of 
 all the Codes from Justinian to Napoleon, from which 
 to construct a more perfect body of law for his country. 
 But to continue at the bar, he would be brought into 
 daily contact and antagonism with those who were bit- 
 
98 IN THE COURT ROOM. 
 
 terly opposed to his reform. Yet, disagreeable as it 
 might be, it had its advantages, as this constant alterna- 
 tion kept him in touch with the practice in the courts, 
 so that he saw at once its excellences and its defects — a 
 knowledge that was indispensable to any system of 
 reform. Here were two lives — the life of the ideal and 
 the life of hard reality — going on at the same time side 
 by side, yet when it came to writing the stor}^, it was 
 necessary to separate them, and treat of each apart in 
 order to keep the unity of the subject, and having struck 
 upon the trail of Reform, it seemed better to follow it 
 to the end, even though it should be anticipating in the 
 order of time, after which we could resume the course 
 of the professional career. 
 
 The first part being closed, we now change the scene 
 from the stillness of the library to the excitement of 
 public halls. There is nothing in our American life — 
 not even a popular election, or the meeting of Congress 
 — that stirs the blood more than a trial, on the issue of 
 which may depend men's fortunes, or even their lives. 
 Then the court room becomes an arena of combat, 
 where lawyers are the gladiators, with judges and 
 juries for spectators, and a crowd filling every niche 
 and corner, hanging on the words of the speakers, and 
 waiting, it may be in breathless anxiety, for the issue. 
 In such an arena the subject of our story takes his place. 
 How did he bear himself with the leaders of his day ? 
 and what will be his fame with posterity ? 
 
GREAT LAWYERS OP THE PAST. 99 
 
 No man can speak for posterity, but one who was 
 familiar with all his contemporaries, the late Mr, Austin 
 Abbott, did not hesitate to speak of Mr. Field as ' ' the 
 most commanding figure at the American bar ! " This 
 may be taken as the impulsive utterance of a generous 
 friend, whose sense of loss was quickened by the sudden 
 death of the object of his admiration. The bar of New 
 York counts many illustrious names from the days 
 of Alexander Hamilton, whose leadership no man would 
 dispute, unless it were his rival, Aaron Burr. After 
 him came Thomas Addis Emmet, who was living when 
 the young student of law first came to New York. I 
 remember well the picture he gave me of that truly 
 great man, around whom there lingered the sad memo- 
 ries of all that he had done and suffered for ' ' his own 
 loved island of sorrow." Judge Story has described a 
 scene in the Supreme Court of the United States when 
 Emmet was pitted against Pinckney, of Baltimore, a 
 combat of giants, which left on the judges and specta- 
 tors the highest estimate of the abilities of both. A 
 few years later stood at the bar of that high court 
 Daniel Webster, for whom the admiration of the 
 American people amounted almost to awe. But he too 
 belongs to a former generation. 
 
 After these "three mighties," it would be presuming 
 to speak of any one of half a dozen great lawyers of our 
 time as above all others. They are too near us to be 
 rightly judged. There are many stars in our American 
 
100 CHARLES O'CONOR AND WILLIAM C. NOYES. 
 
 firmament, and it is only when they have receded into 
 the distance that future astronomers will determine 
 which was the star of greatest magnitude. The writer 
 would think it a very poor tribute to one whom he 
 holds in reverent as well as loving memory, if he were 
 to exalt him by depreciating others. So far is he from 
 this that it is a pleasure to recognize those who upheld 
 the name and fame of the bar of New York. To old 
 citizens whose memories carry them back as far as 
 Thomas Addis Emmet, it may seem as if his greatness 
 were equalled, if not surpassed, by one whose father 
 emigrated from Ireland just before his birth, the late 
 Mr. Charles O'Conor. Mr. William Curtis Noyes also 
 stood in the front rank of his. profession. But he died 
 in 1864 — thirty years before Mr. Field, who had the 
 mournful duty of pronouncing his eulogy. Had he 
 lived to as great an age, he might have had as great a 
 reputation at home and abroad. 
 
 Of this small group of leaders of the bar only one 
 remains, Mr. William M. Evarts, who has had a long 
 life of distinction both in his profession and in the ser- 
 vice of his country, as United States Senator and Sec- 
 retary of State. In legal contests he and Mr. Field 
 were often pitted against each other. One such I 
 remember, in which the famous Thurlow Weed was 
 prosecuted for libel upon Mr. Opdyke, the Mayor of 
 New York, growing out of some transactions in the 
 
WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 101 
 
 war.* It was a study to watch the two combatants. 
 No men could be more unHke. Mr. Field, like a pow- 
 erful athlete, went straight to the mark. No flights of 
 fancy turned him aside from the object he had in view. 
 To this Mr, Evarts was a perfect contrast. Though of 
 slender figure, he had an alertness of mind, a quickness 
 of perception, that made him a very dangerous antag- 
 onist. He was famous for his long sentences,! that 
 stretched on and on till sometimes the meaning seemed 
 to be "in wandering mazes lost." And yet it was 
 delightful to hear him, (even though the current of his 
 thoughts was like that of a beautiful river winding 
 hither and thither,) and listeners sat breathless to catch 
 the last word. Such was the great advocate and 
 lawyer who is with us still. Long may he be spared 
 in the city of which he has been a resident for half a 
 century, and in which he is looked up to with universal 
 respect and veneration, for his own great qualities, and 
 as one of a small group of ' ' commanding figures at the 
 bar," of whom he is the last survivor. 
 
 It is therefore without raising any question of pre- 
 eminence, that the biographer gives the outline of another 
 figure that could not but attract attention at any bar or 
 
 * I saw them again pitted against each other in the arguments 
 before the Electoral Commission in Washington. 
 
 + When he was criticized for this, he answered with his pleas- 
 ant humor that "he did not know that anybody had reason to 
 complain of long sentences except the criminal classes." 
 
102 KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW. 
 
 in any public assembly, at home or abroad, in Congress 
 or in Parliament, the figure of one whose very presence 
 was "commanding," and served at least as a favorable 
 introduction, when he rose to address any body to which 
 he was a stranger. 
 
 As to the standing of a lawyer, how he ' ' ranks, " (if 
 we may use a military word,) that probably depends, at 
 least among his professional brethren, quite as much on 
 his knowledge of the law given to his client, it may be 
 in the privacy of his office, or in a brief statement before 
 the court in which there is no attempt at eloquence, as 
 in his most labored efforts at the bar. In this knowl- 
 edge of the law even those who differed most from Mr. 
 Field would hardly claim that he had any superior. 
 All who call themselves lawyers are supposed to under- 
 stand its general principles. But few men kept up the 
 study as he did from the very necessity that was upon 
 him in the reconstruction of the law, which compelled 
 him to be familiar, not only with the Common Law of 
 England and America, but with the jurisprudence of 
 other countries, running back to the Roman law, which 
 was the foundation of them all. This vast learning 
 could not but be of service in his professional practice. 
 
 Being thus master of the law, it did not take him 
 long to make himself master of a case. No man was 
 quicker to ' ' see through " an involved legal question. 
 But that did not supersede the most careful study 
 to the minutest detail. To those who knew how 
 
CLEARNESS IN STATING A CASE. 103 
 
 he was absorbed in his Codes at all hours, early 
 and late ; at morning and midnight ; the wonder was 
 that he could find time for anything beside. But no 
 trial ever came on and found him unprepared. His 
 power of abstraction was such that he could, if need 
 were, forget everything else, and concentrate his mind 
 upon the special case, analyzing it as a chemist analj'zes 
 a compound substance. Under the blaze of this search- 
 light, he took it, as it were, to pieces, separating the 
 immaterial from the material, the essentials, on which 
 the whole question turned, and, like a skilful general, 
 massed his forces on the vital point. 
 
 When he had thus made himself master both of the 
 law and the case, he had no difficulty in making others 
 see it. He had a singular precision of language, that 
 came in part from his training in the higher mathe- 
 matics, so that when he put a proposition in words, 
 it was with a sort of mathematical exactness, until it 
 might be said of him, as was said of Webster, that 
 " when he had stated a case he had argued it." 
 
 But an argument, however logical, may fall flat from 
 the coldness of him who presents it. Of this indiffer- 
 ence he was never guilty. When he undertook a case, 
 he put his own personality into it, and as he had great 
 confidence in his own judgment, his opinions, when 
 once formed, were very positive. And tliis was one 
 element of his power — that he believed in himself ! It 
 may seem like making a virtue of egotism and self- 
 
104 THE EXTENT OF HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 
 
 confidence to say that a man must believe in himself in 
 order to have power over others, but no man ever did 
 much in the world who did not believe in himself. 
 
 Of course, as with all lawyers of large practice, the 
 number of his cases in sixty years was beyond counting. 
 At one time his law practice was said to be larger than* 
 that of any other member of the New York bar. Some 
 idea of the innumerable litigations in which he was 
 engaged may be formed from a glance at the fifty vol- 
 umes of ' ' Cases and Points, " in which briefs and records 
 are bound together in the order of time. Of course, all 
 such documents were but fragments, huge but unshapen 
 masses of rock that were to be framed into the building 
 of some great argument, but, even as they are strown 
 over the field of legal controversy, they show an almost 
 preternatural activity. * 
 
 ' ' But where was the place for Law Reform to come 
 in?" was the question that everybody asked ; to which 
 he replied that it was a wonder to himself, but added 
 with his usual philosophy, "In one way this outside 
 work was a benefit to me, for the intensity of my pro- 
 fessional life required some relief from the incessant 
 
 * These volumes were sent to his brother, Mr. Justice Field, 
 to be kept by him during his life, and at his death to be given 
 to the New York State Law Library in Albany. They are sup- 
 plemented by a dozen Scrap-books, containing slips from news- 
 papers concerning the same litigations and other points of jjer- 
 sonal history, that may furnish materials to some future historian. 
 
THE LAW AS A BUSINESS. 105 
 
 mental strain, to which the pursuit of an ideal, like that 
 of Law Reform, was a healthful diversion" : ["health- 
 ful diversion ! " — that is good for a work that occupied 
 him for eighteen years ! ] " and may thus have kept 
 me from breaking down." 
 
 As to the mere ' ' business " of the law, it is for the 
 most part, like any other business, very prosaic, requir- 
 ing no labored argument or eloquence, but only a clear 
 head, a good intelligence in ascertaining the facts of a 
 case, and what relief or redress may be furnished by 
 the law. This is the every-day round of the profession, 
 in which there is no opportunity for a great advocate 
 to show any superiority to his brethren, all of whom 
 are supposed to be to that extent learned in the law. 
 If anybody were to go to court to hear Mr. Field, and 
 the case were one of some commercial transaction — 
 perchance a question of damages, which might be a 
 matter of figures — he would probably hear only a simple 
 statement of the case, which would be all that it required. 
 But give him a great cause, in which great principles 
 were involved, and he rose to the occasion with a min- 
 gling of argument and of eloquence, in which there 
 was a moral as well as intellectual power. When 
 he had such a cause to defend, it was with an ear- 
 nestness which I always thought he inherited from his 
 father, who, as a preacher of the Gospel, was wont 
 to speak "with authority," because he spoke from the 
 infallible "Word," which no man could question. The 
 
106 CLOSING AN ARGUMENT. 
 
 same positiveness appeared in his eldest son, whom I 
 have heard laying down the law as founded in eternal 
 justice, in a tone of solemnity that seemed to be an echo 
 of the old Puritan when he read the Ten Commandments 
 with a hushed awe, as if he had been with Moses in 
 the Mount, and had heard the very voice of God ! 
 
 Then it was, as he drew near to the close of an argu- 
 ment, that the great advocate appeared in his fullest 
 power. It was not that his personal presence, however 
 "commanding," overawed the court, but there was 
 something in his voice which no judicial bench could 
 choose but hear. It was not the soft, persuasive tone 
 of one who pleads for mercy for his client. There 
 was nothing of the abject or even of the humble peti- 
 tioner ; but straightening himself up to his full height, 
 he demanded a just verdict ! At that instant there rose 
 before him a sense of the majesty of justice as some- 
 thing greater even than mercy — as the world is ' ' estab- 
 lished in righteousness," which is only another name for 
 justice — and that justice he demanded, not only in the 
 name of the law of his country, but in the name of a 
 just as well as an almighty Lawgiver in heaven. 
 
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD 
 
 THE FIGURE AT THE BAR 
 
 [From the painting by Hardie in the Capitol at Albany] 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 POSITION IN POLITICS. A DEMOCRAT, BUT OPPOSED 
 
 TO THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. ANNEXATION 
 
 OF TEXAS. RISE OF THE FREE SOIL PARTY. 
 
 ' Much as Mr. Field loved his profession, he loved his 
 country more. Absorbed as he was in the practice of 
 the law and in his legal reforms, at the same time he 
 kept watch of public affairs, though at first he only 
 looked on from without, as an interested spectator. In 
 his political creed he formed his own opinions from the 
 beginning in a way that was rather surprising in one 
 who was born in Connecticut, a State that when he 
 was a boy was the seat of the rankest "Federalism," 
 and had welcomed in its Capitol the Hartford Con- 
 vention, which protested against the war of 1812, as 
 threatening to destroy the commerce of New England, 
 and in which there were mutterings of disunion not 
 unlike those that half a century later burst forth in the 
 civil war. That out of an atmosphere thus surcharged 
 with anti-democracy should come one so free from it, 
 would seem to indicate a complete mental evolution. It 
 
108 HIS THEORY OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 may have been owing in part to his legal associations 
 in Albany and New York, but most of all was it due to 
 an independence which asserted itself in early manhood. 
 He thought for himself, and studied the questions of 
 political economy, as applied to all governments, and 
 then specially to his own. In general he held that most 
 countries are over-governed, though he would not go 
 quite so far as to adopt the extreme maxim of democ- 
 racy, ' ' The best government is that which governs least, " 
 for that would seem to imply that the ideal state of 
 society was no government at all ! But he did believe 
 that the tendency in all governments was toward over- 
 legislation. Sixty years later he wrote an article for 
 the North American Review on the Theory of our 
 Government, in which he says : ' ' There are two theo- 
 ries of government, the liberal and the meddlesome," 
 meaning by the latter that which ' ' dabbles " in all the 
 pursuits and occupations of men, and of necessity grows 
 into a system of favoritism, which leads every kind of 
 industry to hang on the central power, and thus demor- 
 alizes the manliness of all who live under it. He would 
 not object to the protection of new industries in time 
 of war, or in the infancy of the Republic, till they were 
 able to stand alone ; but the habit of appljang to the 
 Government for protection grew to an enormous abuse, 
 that was not at all in harmony with the simplicity 
 of our government. That was what he called a 
 "meddlesome," and he would have added, a "mischief 
 
NOT MADE FOR A POLITICIAN. 109 
 
 making" government. Instead of this "paternalism," 
 in which the government was to play the part of a 
 " nursing father " to certain interests, whereb}^ the many 
 were taxed for the benefit of a few, he would adopt the 
 wider rule : "Protection to all and favor to none ! " 
 
 - With such principles, between the two parties that 
 divided the country — the Wliigs and the Democrats — 
 he sided with the latter, and the first pohtical speech 
 he ever made [in 1842] was in Tammany Hall ! a 
 strange beginning for one who was to spend a large 
 part of his hfe in fighting against it ! [The par- 
 ticular occasion, however, was not one of great impor- 
 tance, as it only concerned the nomination of Robert 
 H. Morris for Mayor.] But while thus sincere and 
 outspoken in his convictions, he was not made for a 
 pohtician. He was too rigid and unbending in his 
 principles, and would not be bound by caucuses or con- 
 ventions. As the natural consequence, he never held 
 an office in his life, except for two months in Congress, 
 to which he was sent for a special purpose, to prevent 
 what he thought to be a great public wrong. He was 
 once offered the appointment of Judge of the Supreme 
 Court of New York, wliich he declined, feeHng that his 
 place was at the bar rather than on the bench. His 
 only public position was that of Commissioner of the 
 Code, which could hardly be called an office, for, 
 although it involved enormous labor, it was all work 
 and no pay. " But if he was hedged about with no 
 
110 HIS ABSOLUTE INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 official dignity, lie had what was far hetter — absolute 
 independence, freedom to think, and to speak what he 
 thought. The very fact that he asked nothing for 
 himself gave him the more weight, so that few men in 
 public life had a greater influence than he, though he 
 stood apart and alone, determined to follow only what 
 was dictated by his own sense of public justice and 
 public honor. 
 
 Here beginneth a chapter of political history that has 
 never been fully written, but which ought to be, as it 
 takes us back half a century, to a period when old issues 
 were gone, and old parties were broken up, and all 
 tilings became new. In that long conflict, which lasted 
 for a whole generation, there was no bolder or braver 
 combatant for liberty than Mr. Field. Though he was 
 a Democrat, he would not be in bondage to the name, 
 and the moment that he saw that the party was to be 
 used as a means of extending slavery, he spurned its 
 authority, and led the way for others to follow. 
 
 The first thing which aroused the alarm of the more 
 independent men in both parties was the movement for 
 the annexation of Texas, then almost a terra incognita, 
 so unoccupied as to invite the floating population that 
 always hangs on the border of civilization, who had but 
 to cross the Rio Grande to roam over the land at will, 
 recognizing no authority but their own. When this 
 had gone on for a few years, and the settlers had 
 come to number a few thousand, they declared their 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. Ill 
 
 independence of Mexico ! This was their own affair, 
 with which we had no concern, till it was proposed to 
 annex it to the United States ! The motive of this was 
 clear. It was not merely to add to our domain, but to 
 give a preponderance of territory and of representation 
 in Congress to the slave-holding States. The line had 
 been drawn in 1820 by the Missouri Compromise : — 
 that slavery should not extend North of a certain par- 
 allel of latitude ! But there was no obstacle to its 
 expansion Southward. New territory would bring 
 increased population, that would enable the South to 
 maintain its control of the government. 
 
 The proposal to annex a territory large enough for 
 an empire, Mr. Field looked upon as a gigantic rob- 
 bery, which was all the worse if Mexico was too weak 
 to prevent it. As for title, we had no more right to 
 Texas than to Canada. In April, 1844, there was a 
 great demonstration at the Broadway Tabernacle at 
 which he spoke with the utmost vehemence against 
 what he regarded as a national crime. Thus he began : 
 
 " Fellow Citizens : The President has sent to the Senate a 
 treaty to annex to the territories of this Union a tract of country 
 six times as large as the State of New York — a country which 
 till lately was a part of the neighboring and friendly Republic 
 of Mexico, and which even now is engaged in open war for its 
 independent existence. This treaty has been negotiated with 
 a suddenness, a secrecy and haste unparalleled in our annals — 
 a suddenness, secrecy, and haste which have no excuse in the 
 nature of the act itself or in the circumstances of the country. 
 
112 DENOUNCED AS A CRIME. 
 
 We are in profound peace with all the world, and tranquil at 
 home. What then can justify the President in entering upon 
 and consummating, so far as depends on him, a treaty of such 
 importance, almost before the country was aware it was con- 
 templated ? This annexation was ofifered to the Administration 
 six or seven years ago, and rejected on grounds in which the 
 whole country seemed to acquiesce. We were, therefore, unpre- 
 pared for this movement, till it came upon us like thunder in a 
 clear sky. But I trust we have, nevertheless, warning enough 
 to prepare for the storm. The President was not elected with 
 reference to any such question, nor was the Senate, nor the 
 House of Rei^resentatives. It is of all questions one in which 
 the people should be consulted, and their will ascertained before- 
 hand. We appeal from the President to the Senate, from the 
 Senate to the States of the Union, from the States to the sov- 
 ereign people. If they determine that this measure shall be 
 accomplished, let it be ; if they do not, let no secret cabal, no 
 set of men in power, effect it. . . . 
 
 "Admit that the cause of quarrel between Texas and Mexico 
 was just ; yet the strviggle was one in which we had no right to 
 interfere ; and, if we had followed the advice of the fathers of 
 our country, we should not have interfered. 
 
 ' ' How was the revolution accomplished and made successful ? 
 By aid from this country ; without aid from us, Texan indepen- 
 dence coiild not have been established. It was well known that 
 bands of hunters were organized in the Western States to hunt 
 in Texas, though there was nothing for them to hunt but Mexi- 
 can soldiers. The aid our people sent them in men, in money, 
 in munitions of war, accomplished the revolution. Mexico com- 
 plained, and how was she answered by our Government? It 
 said, We mean in good faith to fulfil our treaty stipulations, 
 but it is impossible to prevent our men from going over ovir 
 
ANNEXATION MEANS WAR. 113 
 
 immense frontier ; we cannot maintain a cordon of troops for 
 a thousand miles, in an uninhabited country ; but we will pre- 
 vent all aid from this country as far as we can. 
 
 "That answer absolved the Government ; but, if it were not 
 able to prevent the wrong which om- citizens perpetrated, let 
 it not profit by it. Let us not proclaim our weakness as our 
 excuse, and then take advantage of the spoliation which our 
 weakness permitted. The state of the case is simply this : Mex- 
 ico has been despoiled of one of her finest pi-o\dnces ; the spoilers 
 went out from among you, because you could not prevent them. 
 Then take not back to your bosom the spoilers and the spoil. 
 If you receive them, the whole world will pronounce you faith- 
 less. . . . 
 
 ' ' The annexation of Texas is war with Mexico I We have 
 the authority of our venerable President [Tyler] that it is not 
 merely the provocative of war, but war itself. War, moreover, 
 declared by the President and Senate, when the Constitution 
 confided the war-making power to Congress. Consider what 
 must follow such an act. You extend your frontier from the 
 Sabine to the Rio Grande. Your troops must occupy the fort- 
 resses of Texas. Your troops instead of Texan troops must 
 defend them against Mexico. Are you prepared for war ? If 
 you are, in the name of justice, in the name of honor, let it be 
 fairly and manfully waged 1 I am for war too, when necessary, 
 in defence of the rights and liberties of our country. But I 
 am not for an aggressive war against a weak and unoffending 
 neighbor. The people of this republic are the best judges of 
 that question ; let them decide it. If we are to have war, let it 
 be such a war as our forefathers waged, in self-defence, for the 
 maintenance of our rights and honor." 
 
 But in spite of all warnings, it seemed that the 
 Democratic party was to be given up to blindness in 
 
114 THE WAR WITH MEXICO. 
 
 taking this step. At the Baltimore Convention a few 
 weeks after, Mr. Van Buren was thrown overboard, 
 simply because he had written a letter against the annex- 
 ation of Texas, and James K. Polk was nominated on 
 a platform committing the party to it. Polk was elected 
 and Texas was brought into the Union. Then came 
 the war that Mr. Field had predicted, which, though 
 we were victorious, was looked upon by the best people 
 of the North with a repugnance that no tidings of vic- 
 tory could remove : as I once heard Rufus Choate say 
 with his inimitable touch of beautj- and tenderness : 
 * ' The wail of the daughters of Mexico is no music to 
 our ears ! " 
 
 But when the cruel war was over, it appeared that 
 the South had a larger purpose still, for it ended not only 
 with the annexation of Texas, but of California also, 
 which, however, was obtained, not by conquest, but by 
 purchase ; and with this further acquisition came the 
 demand that it should be admitted as a slave State ! 
 Anticipating this, Mr. Wilmot, a Democrat in Congress 
 from Pennsylvania, had introduced as an amendment 
 to a bill for purchasing Mexican territory, his famous 
 proviso : ' ' That as an express and fundamental con- 
 dition to the acquisition of any territory from the 
 Republic of Mexico, neither slavery nor involuntary 
 servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said ter- 
 ritory," which was adopted in the House, but rejected 
 in the Senate. Soon it became a battle-cry for the 
 
NO MORE SLAVE TERRITORY. 115 
 
 North. At the same time Mr. Field wrote the famous 
 "Secret Circular" and "Joint Letter," designed to 
 rally the anti-slavery portion of the Democratic party. 
 In 1847 he was a delegate to the Syracuse Convention, 
 where the Democratic party was split in two over the 
 question of the extension of slavery, and on that occa- 
 sion he introduced the famous resolution, long after- 
 ward known as "The Corner- Stone," which was for 
 years displayed at the head of the leading column 
 of the Albany Atlas, as the rallying cry of the Free 
 Democracy. It was in these words : 
 
 ' ' Resolved, That while the Democracy of New York, repre- 
 sented in this convention, will faithfully adhere to all the com- 
 promises of the Constitution, and maintain all the reserved 
 rights of the States, they declare, since the crisis has arrived 
 when that question must be met, their uncompromising hostility 
 to the extension of slavery into territory now free, or which 
 may be hereafter acquired by any action of the Government of 
 the United States." 
 
 ^ Matters came to a head in 1848 with the nomination 
 of General Cass. When the Democrats of New York 
 assembled in mass meeting to hear the report of their 
 delegates to Baltimore, they were very much excited. 
 Mr. Field wrote the address, which declared their strong 
 disapproval. Carrj-ing their feeling into action, a por- 
 tion of the party refused to support General Cass, and 
 nominated Mr. Van Buren for President, and Charles 
 Francis Adams for Vice-President, on the platform of 
 
IIG BEGINNING OF THE FREE SOIL PARTY. 
 
 no more extension of slavery. In support of these 
 principles and candidates, Mr. Field spoke at a large 
 meeting in the city, and wrote the address of the 
 Democratic- Repubhcan Committee to the electors of 
 the State. Nor did he confine himself to New York ; 
 he carried the war into New England, into Faneuil Hall, 
 where he was introduced by Charles Sumner, and spoke 
 with a spirit of resistance to the domination of slavery 
 that seemed as if it were an echo of the days of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 Here was the beginning of the Free Soil party, 
 which took the field with increased determination when 
 it was proposed to open Kansas and Nebraska to the 
 introduction of slavery ! - There was a Chinese wall 
 in the way in the Missouri Compromise, which declared 
 that slavery should never cross the line of 36 degrees 
 and 30 minutes ! All above that was holy ground, 
 consecrated to liberty. But what spot on earth was 
 ever sacred to an ambitious politician ? Stephen A. 
 Douglas, of Illinois, was the most popular man in the 
 Northwest, and if he could make himself equally popu- 
 lar at the South, he would have a triumphal march to 
 the Presidential chair. For this it was only necessary 
 to break down the barrier to the extension of slavery, 
 when Southern statesmen would be able to boast : 
 
 " No pent up Utica contracts our powers, 
 But the whole boundless Continent is ours." 
 
ANNULLING THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 117 
 
 But it was a delicate matter to touch the Missouri Com- 
 promise. It could not be done openly and avowedly, but 
 it might be made of no effect by giving it a new inter- 
 pretation, to which Mr. Douglas was competent, pre- 
 paring a bill in which it was declared to be " the true 
 intent and meaning of the act, not to legislate slavery 
 into any state or territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, 
 but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form 
 and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 
 way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
 States." This was not a repeal of the Missouri Com- 
 promise ! Oh no ! Those who voted for it would 
 never lay sacrilegious hands on anything so sacred, 
 which had come down to them from their fathers ! 
 That old fortress of liberty- was left standing in the 
 wilderness, a picturesque ruin, covered with moss, 
 while the sappers and miners had cut a way through 
 the forest, broad enough for the whole South to march 
 round it, 
 
 No sooner had the partition wall been broken down 
 than planters from Kentucky, Tennessee and other States 
 farther South came by boat-loads up the Missouri River, 
 with all the field-hands from their plantations, and 
 swarmed into what was then known as the Platte 
 Country, where the ' ' hot bloods " became the famous, 
 or infamous, "Border Ruffians," that long kept the 
 country in a state of terror. There were also settlers 
 from the East, but "on the side of their oppressors 
 
118 SLAVES BROUGHT INTO KANSAS. 
 
 there was power," for they were supported by the 
 national government, which undertook to put down 
 resistance by law, arresting opposers and throwing 
 them into prison, till the blood of the North, that was 
 supposed to be very cold, began to boil as never before. 
 Indignation meetings were held in the Eastern cities, in 
 which collections were taken up to supply the Northern 
 men with rifles. Nor was this confined to New Eng- 
 land : the city of New York was the focus of a great 
 popular excitement. Never shall I forget a meeting in 
 the old Broadway Tabernacle, that was crowded by 
 men in a state of irritation that could hardly be con- 
 trolled. I was in the ante-room with Henry Ward 
 Beecher, who was pacing up and down, hke a lion in 
 a cage. As I sat near him on the platform, I saw that 
 he was under the power of a great passion, which cul- 
 minated in a dramatic scene when he took up in his 
 hands a chain that had been used to bind the limbs of 
 men in Kansas, and raising it above his head, he dashed 
 it to the floor, and trampled upon it in token of his con- 
 tempt and scorn for a government that could stoop 
 so low. Such was the excitement that, had there been 
 a call for volunteers, many would have been read}' to 
 take their muskets on their shoulders, and set their 
 faces towards the West. It was easy to call this fanat- 
 icism, but it was the kind of fanaticism that soon after 
 flamed out on the field of battle. Mr. Field was the last 
 man to be called a fanatic, but he was stirred to indig- 
 
EXCITEMENT AT THE EAST. 119 
 
 nation by the audacity of the South on the one hand, 
 and the cowardice of the North on the other. Of course 
 there was a great outcry that he had deserted his party, 
 and been false to his Democratic principles, to which he 
 replied in a letter to the Albany Atlas, dated May 22, 
 1856 : 
 
 "Though I have not hitherto acted with the Republican 
 party, my sympathies are of course with the friends of freedom, 
 wherever they may be found. I despise equally the fraud 
 which uses the name of Democracy to cheat men of their rights ; 
 the cowardice which retracts this year what it i^rofessed and 
 advocated the last ; and the falsehood which affects to teach 
 the right of the people of the Territories to govern themselves, 
 while it imposes on them Federal governors and judges, and 
 indicts them for treason against the Union because they make 
 a constitution and laws which they prefer, and collects forces 
 from the neighboring States and the Federal army to compel 
 them to submission." 
 
 This Kansas business gave a tremendous impulse to 
 the Free Soil Party, which grew to such proportions as 
 to give a strong hope that it might elect its candidate 
 for the Presidency, for which it nominated Fremont, 
 whom Mr. Field supported in speeches in New York 
 and Pennsylvania. 
 
 By these successive strokes, the wedge was driven 
 deeper and deeper, by which the old Democratic party, 
 which had so long ruled the country, was cleft asun- 
 der, while the Free Soil Party grew stronger and 
 
120 FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 
 
 stronger with every battle that it fought, until it 
 united with the Anti-slavery portion of the Whigs, 
 and formed the Republican Party, that was in the 
 fullness of time to gain the control of the government 
 in the election of the man for the hour. Here the 
 curtain rises on a great figure, and on a series of events 
 with whose beginning we enter on the most awful, the 
 most tragical, and yet in the end the most triumphant, 
 period in American history. 
 
CHAPTER XI. ♦ 
 
 THE NOMINATION OF LINCOLN. A CHAPTER OF 
 UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 
 
 Man proposes, but God disposes. Ambition over- 
 leaps itself. The political manoeuvering which was to 
 make a popular leader President, ended in his defeat, 
 and the election of his rival. It was one thing for 
 Douglas to carry a measure in Congress, and another 
 to settle with his constituents at hoine. When he 
 returned to Illinois, he found that he had lighted a fire 
 on the prairies that could not be put out. He had to 
 make a campaign through the State, and wherever he 
 went he was confronted by a new antagonist, a tall, 
 lank, ungainly Kentuckian, with not a single grace of 
 manner, but whose long right arm could deal heavy 
 blows. No two men were more unlike even in their 
 personal appearance, for while the new-comer stood six 
 feet four, Douglas was so diminutive in stature that he 
 was nicknamed the Little Giant, a picturesque combi- 
 nation of two such figures on the same stage. But 
 the contrast in the personality of the men was soon 
 forgotten in the earnestness on both sides, which made 
 
122 FIRST APPEARANCE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 it one of the most exciting political contests ever seen 
 in this country. The question was one of supreme 
 importance, that of carrying slavery into the new 
 Territories, and roused each to put forth his utmost 
 strength. Douglas had the advantage of a great repu- 
 tation and the skill acquired in many a hard battle, 
 but with all this he carried the State only by a bare 
 majority, and was reelected to the United States Senate, 
 but the contest for the first time made the name of 
 Abraham Lincoln known to the American people. 
 
 There is nothing that rouses popular enthusiasm 
 like the discovery of an unknown great man. The 
 fame of this debate went beyond the bounds of Illinois, 
 till the echo was heard even in the East, and though 
 the scene of contest was so far away that it was like 
 the voice of one crying in the wilderness, yet the voice 
 was so clear and strong that men pricked up their ears 
 to hear, and asked who it was that spoke, and what 
 manner of man he was ? The next step was to invite 
 him to come to New York and give a lecture on the 
 political situation. How well I remember his first 
 appearance before an Eastern audience ! It was in the 
 Cooper Institute as it was in the old days, when the 
 platform of the great hall was not in the middle, but 
 at the far end, and I can see him now as the door 
 opened, and the tall figure came forward, accompanied 
 by William Cullen Bryant and David Dudley Field. 
 As I sat on the platform close to the speaker, I caught 
 
LECTURE AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE. 123 
 
 every word, and observed every gesture. He spoke in 
 a high-pitched voice, in which there was not a trace of 
 the smooth-tongued orator ; but there was a singular 
 clearness in his stj'le, with a merciless logic which no 
 listener could escape, as he unfolded link after link 
 in the iron chain of his argument. 
 
 But there was more in evidence that night than skill 
 in debate : there was a revelation of the man, as one 
 who loved his party, but loved his country more. The 
 fairness to his opponents was quite unusual in politi- 
 cal combatants. It was not as if he were fighting an 
 enemy, but reasoning with a friend. The lecture closed 
 with an appeal to the South, that was not at all in a 
 tone of threatening, but of pleading with kindred, with 
 those who were our brothers — if brothers estranged, yet 
 brothers still — partakers with us in the great inheritance 
 of liberty. It was this "sweet reasonableness," this 
 "gentleness of wisdom," and above all, the tone of 
 ' ' sad sincerity " that gave me, who heard him then 
 for the first and the last time, an indelible impression of 
 the character of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 But three months passed and this man of the people 
 was a candidate for the Presidency, a step forward 
 which took the country by surprise, and which to this 
 day is enveloped in some degree of mystery. If we 
 were in France we might say that "it is always the 
 unexpected that happens," but among a people that 
 are not so readily carried away by sudden impulse, 
 
124 HOW A PRESIDENT IS NOMINATED. 
 
 events come to pass in a more regular and orderly way. 
 
 Since the campaign of Fremont the Republican party 
 had grown in numbers till it was strong enough to make 
 a bold strike for the possession of the government ; and 
 when the Democrats split into two factions, and nomi- 
 nated two candidates, while a third party, made up of 
 old Whigs and Know-nothings, nominated a third, the 
 Republicans felt, like Cromwell, that "the Lord had 
 delivered the enemy into their hands. " 
 
 The custom had long obtained of nominating candi- 
 dates for the two highest offices of the government — 
 President and Vice-President — by a National Conven- 
 tion made up of representatives from all the States, 
 to double the number of their members of Congress, 
 a fair apportionment, and a good way to get at the will 
 of the people so long as they were left to freedom of 
 choice. The danger came in only when one man under- 
 took to do their choosing for them, in which case the free 
 election became a solemn farce. New York, having 
 two Senators and thirty-three members of the House 
 of Representatives, was entitled to seventy delegates, 
 that were to be designated by a State Convention which 
 met at Syracuse a few weeks before the National Con- 
 vention. One who was a member of the nominating 
 Committee appointed by this Convention tells me that 
 they came together with all due gravity, as if they 
 were a legislative body to enter into high debate on 
 matters of national importance. "But," he added, 
 
THURLOW WEED. 125 
 
 ' ' we might have saved ourselves the trouble, for while 
 we were in the room with closed doors, as if delib- 
 erating in the profound secrecy of a papal conclave, 
 Thurlow Weed sat just outside the door to tell us whom 
 to nominate ! " 
 
 Mr. Weed was an old campaigner, who had fought 
 many battles and won many victories. I once heard 
 the late Mr, Edwards Pierrepont, in a case before the 
 courts, speak of him, as he sat at the bar, as ' ' the man 
 who had made Senators, Governors and Presidents ! " 
 He was now to try his hand again, and laid his schemes 
 with full assurance of victor}^ The first thing was to 
 have well in hand the delegation from New York. He 
 knew the men for his purpose. They must be men of 
 good standing in the party, whose names would have 
 weight with the pubhc, but at the same time he wanted 
 supple, pliant men, not too scrupulous about little mat- 
 ters, who held him in awe, and would defer to his 
 political sagacity. Of course, he had no use for men 
 like Horace Greeley or David Dudley Field, who were 
 too independent and self-willed. When they reached 
 Chicago Mr. Greeley (to Mr. Weed's great disgust) was 
 elected a delegate from Oregon ! Mr. Field was left 
 standing without, but found that an outsider may some- 
 times have an influence as great as an insider, of which 
 he was to give signal proof before the contest was over. 
 
 The Convention met in Chicago May 16th, 1860, in 
 a huge, barn-like structure that had been erected for 
 
126 THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 
 
 the purpose, called " The Wigwam," Here the Repub- 
 licans, as they answered to the roll-call, mustered 
 465 strong ! All went smoothly for the first two days, 
 and seemed to point to one man who among all the 
 candidates stood foremost, as if appointed by heaven 
 to lead them to victory. This was the distinguished 
 Senator from New York, William H. Seward. Nor 
 did there seem a doubt of his nomination. On the 
 eve of the decisive day Thurlow Weed said that he 
 "was sure of success," and Mr. Evarts, that "the vic- 
 tory was certain, and would be rapid ! " Indeed Mr. 
 Greeley, who was strongly opposed to it, gave up the 
 contest, and at midnight telegraphed to the Tribune in 
 New York, that the opposition could not concentrate 
 upon any candidate, and that Governor Seward would 
 be nominated ! 
 
 But when the morning came, and the divisions of 
 the Republican army marched into the Wigwam and 
 grounded their arms for the more peaceful work of 
 the vote, to the amazement of friends and foes, the 
 natural heir to the crown was defeated, and Abraham 
 Lincoln proved to be the man of destiny. As this 
 was a surprise even to the Convention itself, we cannot 
 help asking by what influences, open or secret, it was 
 brought about, for we cannot exaggerate its impor- 
 tance. It was the turning-point in the life of Lin- 
 coln. If he had not been nominated that morning, 
 he would have remained to be, what he was before. 
 
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 127 
 
 a country law5'er in Illinois, making his round with the 
 circuit of the courts. He might still have been a con- 
 spicuous figure in Western politics, (for he was not a 
 man to sink into oblivion,) but for the time at least it is 
 probable that he would have returned to his profession 
 and the even tenor of his hfe would have flowed on as 
 gently as before. 
 
 Nor was the result of less moment to the countr5\ 
 With the defeat of Lincoln the hand on the dial of his- 
 tory would have been turned backward. The mighty 
 succession of events that followed — the secession of the 
 Southern States, the call to arms, the four years' war, 
 and the abolition of slavery — all would have been passed 
 over to another generation. Hence it was a critical 
 moment in our national life. In view of the tremen- 
 dous consequences that followed in peace and war, it is 
 not too much to say that the whole course of American 
 history turned on the decision of that hour ! 
 
 As we come to the how and the why of this sudden 
 revolution, I turn to a "Life of Lincoln," a massive 
 octavo of nearly eight hundred pages, by a distinguished 
 author, Henry J. Raymond, the founder and editor of 
 the New York Times ; who was thoroughly acquainted 
 with the whole history of American politics ; with the 
 rise and fall of parties and of men. He records briefly 
 that "On Thursday, the 17th of May, the Committee on 
 Resolutions reported the Platform, which was enthusi- 
 astically adopted. A motion was made to proceed to 
 
128 Raymond's life op Lincoln. 
 
 the nomination at once, and if that had been done, the 
 result of the Convention might have proved very dif- 
 ferent, as at that time it was thought that Mr. Seward's 
 chances were the best. But an adjournment was taken 
 till the morning, and during the night the combinations 
 were made which resulted in the nomination of Mr. 
 Lincoln. " 
 
 So much and no more ! This is very calmly stated, 
 as if it were in the natural order of the proceedings. 
 But the reason for this subdued tone is apparent in the 
 Preface, in which the author says that the book was 
 " prepared during the Presidential canvass of 1864," 
 and that ' ' its main object was to afford the American 
 people the materials for forming an intelligent judgment 
 as to the wisdom of continuing Mr. Lincoln for four 
 years more in the Presidential office." 
 
 The purpose of the book, then, was to be a campaign 
 document, issued to influence the coming election, a help 
 that was sorely needed at that hour when there was 
 real danger of Lincoln's defeat — a danger that was 
 not removed till after Sherman's capture of Atlanta. 
 While there was any doubt as to the result, it would 
 have been the height of unwisdoin to open old wounds, 
 and revive old antagonisms. For the time it was a 
 duty to forget past "unpleasantness," and unite all 
 hearts to save the Republic. 
 
 But now that the danger is past, that the war is 
 over, and that we are seeking after the truth of his- 
 
A MYSTERY TO BE SOLVED. 129 
 
 tory, we go back to the original documents, and appeal 
 from the Mr. Raymond of 18G4 to the Mr. Raymond 
 of 1860, when he was just from the Chicago Conven- 
 tion, and tells a fuller and a plainer story, letting out 
 the real state of things on that memorable night when, 
 as he mildly puts it, "the combinations were made 
 which resulted in the nomination of Mr. Lincoln." 
 Combinations by whom ? Was there a movement all 
 along the hne ? Or was there a secret Gunpowder Plot 
 to make an end of Mr. Seward's political ambition ? 
 
 Some have found an easy way to explain the result 
 by assuming that there was no plot at all, but only that 
 the delegates, in their calm deliberations in the stillness 
 of the night, had come to the painful conclusion that 
 they must sacrifice their personal preferences to the 
 ' ' pohtical necessity " of having a candidate who could 
 carry the four doubtful States of Illinois, Indiana, Penn- 
 sylvania and New Jersey ! No doubt that had its 
 weight, but it is one thing to say that it was a reason, 
 and another that it was the one and overmastering 
 consideration. The latter ]\Ir. Raymond flatly denies, 
 and even goes so far as to say that, on the contrary, 
 " The nomination finally made was purely an accident, 
 decided far more by the shouts and applause of the vast 
 concourse which dominated the Convention than by the 
 direct labors of any of the delegates." 
 
 Here then we are all at sea. A flippant dismissal 
 of the subject only deepens the mystery. If at mid- 
 
130 PERSONAL RIVALRIES. 
 
 night it was conceded on both sides that the result was 
 inevitable, that Seward would be nominated the next 
 morning ; and at the appointed hour he was defeated ; 
 then between midnight and morning something hap- 
 pened. What was it ? To talk in a general way of 
 ' ' political necessity " is to evade the question : it is an 
 explanation that does not explain. Instead of asking, 
 What did it ? it is more to the point to ask, Who did it ? 
 for it was not abstract considerations, but a living pres- 
 ence that appeared in the darkness of that memorable 
 night. It was not a miracle, wrought by unseen hands. 
 It was the work of men, who were not only in the flesh, 
 but very much alive. To Mr. Raymond, looking on as 
 a spectator — eager, earnest, and knowing all the actors 
 in the foreground — the contest seemed to be not so much 
 a political as a personal one. There was no difference 
 among the candidates as to the platform of principles on 
 which the battle was to be fought : but there came in 
 another element more powerful than all the logic in the 
 world — the personal antagonism, that no man can tame, 
 and that often carries a public body by storm. Whoever 
 has been present at a political convention — especially if 
 it be to choose a President — knows that it is a cyclone of 
 warring ambitions, of which it is not possible to get any 
 adequate impression except from one who was in the 
 storm-centre, and who can truly say, "All of which I 
 saw, and part of which I was." 
 
 If we cannot get such an inside view of the Conven- 
 
A MELANCHOLY TALE. 131 
 
 tion from biographers and historians, perchance we 
 may get it from the newspaper correspondence of the 
 day, where we need no higher authority than Mr. Ray- 
 mond himself, when the final decision reUeved him from 
 all restraint, and he was free to declare the truth, the 
 whole truth, and nothing but the truth. He does not 
 seem to have been in any doubt as to who defeated his 
 candidate. As no one can tell the story so well as 
 himself, it is better to let him tell it in his own words. 
 A few days after the Convention adjourned, there 
 appeared in the New York Times a letter of two col- 
 umns and a half, whose very date is significant, and 
 prepares us for the melancholy tone in which it begins : 
 
 "Auburn, May 22, I860.— I have turned aside from' 
 my direct route homeward, to pay a visit of respect and 
 friendship to Governor Seward. I found him as busily 
 and happily engaged in directing the improvements in 
 his delightful country residence as if no such incidents 
 as treachery and disappointment ever disturbed the 
 tenor of political life. " As to his future, ' ' he regards 
 his public life as definitely closed. You may dismiss 
 all the speculations in which the public journals are just 
 now indulging as to his place in the new RepubHcan 
 administration — if we have one — as idle and useless. 
 Henceforth the only sphere of his labors will be his 
 home, and the society which surrounds it." 
 
 From this mournful picture of fallen greatness, Mr„ 
 Raymond turns to the author of it, and makes a savage 
 
132 THE "treachery" OF GREELEY. 
 
 attack upon Horace Greeley, as the creeping, crafty, 
 and malignant destroyer of the great statesman. How 
 a poor young man, coming from a farm in Vermont to 
 be a type-setter in a printing office in New York, could 
 rise to such influence and power, is shown by a reference 
 to his career. As Mr. Raymond would have it, he owed 
 it all to Mr. Seward. ' ' For twenty years Greeley had 
 been sustaining the political principles and vindicating 
 the political conduct of Mr. Seward through the col- 
 umns of the most influential political newspaper in the 
 country " ; during all wliich " he was proud to have been 
 his personal friend and political supporter," a devotion 
 that continued till he was alienated by the fact that 
 the great Senator did not sufficiently recognize the hard- 
 working Editor, but listened more to the wily influence 
 of Thurlow Weed — a dissatisfaction that grew to such 
 a point that once, in a moment of irritation, he wrote 
 a letter to "the party of the other part," in which he 
 announced that "the firm of Seward, Weed and Greeley 
 was dissolved ! " This ahenation — though it did not 
 come to an open and public rupture — was never healed. 
 For six years the retired member of the firm was 
 
 " Nursing his wrath to keep it warm," 
 
 till the Chicago Convention gave him the opportunity 
 to "wreak upon Mr. Seward the long-hoarded revenge 
 of a disappointed office-seeker " ! 
 
 This was a heavy charge to throw upon Mr. Greeley. 
 
THE PART OF MR. FIELD. 133 
 
 No matter how much he pleaded innocence — or, to put 
 it more gently, wished to divide the responsibility of the 
 nomination — Raymond retorts bitterly : " He awards to 
 others the credit that belongs transcendently to himself," 
 and to sum it all up he says : ' ' The great point aimed 
 at was Mr. Seward's defeat ; and in that Mr. Greeley 
 labored harder, and did tenfold more, than the whole 
 family of Blairs, together with all the gubernatorial 
 candidates to whom he awards the honors of the effec- 
 tive campaign." 
 
 This is sufficiently explicit. But Mr. Raymond has one 
 more indictment to make. The next day he returns to 
 the subject in an editorial in which he brings under the 
 same condemnation ' ' Dudley Field, who labored with 
 equal energy in the common cause," though he does not 
 presume to impute to him the charge of " treachery " to 
 Mr. Seward, to whom he was never under the slight- 
 est obligation. He was a Democrat of the old school, 
 who left his party because it had surrendered to the 
 Slavery power ; and had joined the Republicans, but 
 had no part in their family quarrels. But he did 
 not take kindly to the new creation in American 
 pohtics of a "boss," who, with none of the responsi- 
 bilities and the restraints of office, assumed absolute 
 control, setting up one and putting down another : and 
 his chief objection to Mr. Seward was, that if ' ' This our 
 Caesar" were throned in the Capitol, he would have 
 his proconsuls in the provinces, and as the State of 
 
134 THE TWO MEN WHO WERE RESPONSIBLE. 
 
 New York was the richest "provmce" in our American 
 empire, he saw a famihar figure sitting in the place of 
 custom, receiving tribute, and dividing the spoils, in the 
 fine old Roman way. 
 
 In coupling together the names of Horace Greeley 
 and David Dudley Field — for he does not mention 
 another man — Mr. Raymond brings the matter down 
 to a fine point, to specific and definite personalities, and 
 singles out the two men who in his opinion were above 
 all others responsible for the defeat of Seward, and 
 the nomination of Lincoln. That the result was not 
 due to Mr. Greeley alone, or chiefly, I have his own 
 declaration, for I once spoke to him about it, giving hun 
 credit for the sudden change in what seemed to be the 
 inevitable course of events, which he disclaimed as 
 doing him too much honor. * This at the moment sur- 
 prised me, until I learned that there was reason for his 
 not assuming too much, since at that dark hour when 
 he sent his despatch to New York, he was thoroughly 
 demoralized as to the event of the coming day, and 
 
 * Indeed so far was Mr. Greeley from wishing to pose as the 
 original Lincoln man, that when he went to Chicago he had 
 in view another candidate, Mr. Edward Bates, an eminent law- 
 yer of St. Louis, who, being in a slave State, though only just 
 on the border, would not alarm the timid conservatives, who 
 were frightened by the very name of an abolitionist, and whose 
 nomination might give an impetus to emancipation in Missouri. 
 So fully was he possessed with this idea that, even after 
 
A CRITICAL SITUATION, 135 
 
 would have ' ' thrown up the sponge " if he had not 
 been hterally ' ' held up " by a stronger will than his 
 own, and by more unflinching courage. 
 
 To see how critical was the situation, that not a 
 moment was to be lost, we have to introduce another 
 witness, who will take us farther on in unravelling the 
 mystery of Mr. Seward's defeat and the nomination that 
 followed. It was midnight : in a few hours all would 
 be over : whatever was done must be done quickly. 
 It is on the night before a battle that the battle is 
 planned, though it be not till the morning that it is fought 
 and won. It is of the preceding council of war that our 
 new witness has somewhat to relate — not as a reporter 
 of what somebody else said or did not say, but of what 
 he saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears. 
 
 This is the late Mr. James A. Briggs, a man of the 
 best New England stock, a nephew of Governor Briggs 
 of Massachusetts, a lawyer by profession, who had lived 
 for twenty years in Cleveland, during which time he 
 became an intimate personal and political friend of Mr. 
 Chase. In 1857 he removed to New York, having his 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was nominated, and Mr. Greeley had returned to 
 New York to hear the shouts for "Old Abe," he was not satis- 
 fied till he had put himself on record [in The Tribune of 
 May 21st, 1860] thus: " I think that Judge Bates, to whom I never 
 spoke nor wrote, would have been the wiser choice." This at 
 least frees him from the responsibility of having forced Mr. 
 Lincoln upon the Convention. 
 
136 AN IMPORTANT WITNESS. 
 
 home in Brooklyn, from which, on November 1st, 1859, 
 he wrote to Mr. Lincoln to come and lecture in Plymouth 
 Church. This was the lecture that was finally given 
 in Cooper Institute. Mr. Briggs was an ardent Repub- 
 lican, and went to the Chicago Convention in hope to 
 promote the nomination of his political chief. Here he 
 was in a position to have a full inside view of the move- 
 ments of the several divisions of the party that were 
 strugghng for the ascendency, and afterwards felt it to 
 be his duty to put on record an account of what passed 
 under his own observation. It is brief, but right to 
 the point. He says : 
 
 ' ' I have always thought that Mr. Lincoln was more 
 indebted to Mr. David Dudley Field for his nomination 
 for the Presidency at Chicago in 1860, than to any 
 other one man. I was present at that Convention 
 as the friend of Mr. Chase, but soon found that the 
 nomination was to go either to Mr. Seward or to Mr. 
 Lincoln, and then I was for Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 ' ' I was at the Tremont House, with Mr. Field, Mr. 
 Greeley, Mr. George Opdyke, and Mr. Hiram Barney. 
 The night before the nomination, about midnight, Mr. 
 Greeley came into Mr. Field's room, and threw himself 
 down with a feeling of despair, and said ' All is lost ; 
 we are beaten ! ' " 
 
 [Mr. Greeley was subject to such sudden depression, 
 and the events of the day, and the anticipations of the 
 morrow, had tried him to the utmost. He had been all 
 
COLLAPSE OF GREELEY. 137 
 
 the evening in a state of unnatural excitement, * which 
 ended in his sending his message to New York, from 
 which he came back to Mr. Field's room to throw him- 
 self down in a state of collapse, till a strong man lifted 
 him up and set him on his feet, and breathed new life 
 into him. Who it was that rendered that kindly office, 
 I leave to Mr. Briggs to tell :] "To Mr. Greeley's 
 
 cry 'All is lost ! ' Mr. Field rephed ' No, all is not lost ! 
 Let us up and go to work ! ' His energetic voice and 
 manner seemed to inspire Mr. G-reeley with new life, 
 and both immediately went out to renew the struggle. 
 Mr. Field particularly worked with a determined will 
 
 * When I was looking about for sources of information, Senator 
 Dawes directed me to Mr. Edward R. Tinker, of North Adams, 
 Mass. , who was a member of the Convention, and could speak 
 from his personal knowledge. Mr. Tinker went on to Chicago 
 in the train with some of the delegates from New York, and 
 was with them in their quarters in the Tremont House, in what 
 INIr. Weed called "The Conspirators' Room," and was in and 
 out at all hours of day and night. He says that on the night 
 before the vote Mr. Greeley was in a very irritable mood. As 
 the hours drew on, he became more and more excited over the 
 impending defeat, the blame of which he charged upon others, 
 telling them that they were throwing away their votes, at which 
 he raged and stormed, and finally burst away and rushed to the 
 telegraph office to send a message to New York that Mr. Seward 
 would be nominated in the morning, and then, completely 
 exhausted, returned to Mr. Field's room, where he found a man 
 who was not so easily dismayed. 
 
138 DEFEAT TURNED TO VICTORY. 
 
 and resolute purpose that seemed to know no such word 
 as fail. He went from delegation to delegation, and as 
 he was from New York, Mr. Seward's own State, and 
 yet was opposed to his nomination, he had great influ- 
 ence in turning the tide of feeling in favor of Mr. Lin- 
 coln. Before morning they returned in high spirits, 
 when Mr. Field said : ' The work is done ! Mr. Lincoln 
 will be nominated ! ' Mr. Greeley seemed equally con- 
 fident — a confidence which was justified by the event. 
 But it was in those midnight hours that the work was 
 done. That was the turning-point in that memorable 
 Convention, and therefore a turning-point in the politi- 
 cal history of our country. For the issue then reached, 
 I have always been convinced, from what passed under 
 my own eyes, that more was due to Mr. Field than to 
 any other man." 
 
 Here then at last we seem to have come to the 
 Transformation Scene — to the time, the place and the 
 actors. This is the missing link in the history which 
 connects and explains all the rest. We can well under- 
 stand that the delegations were debating among them- 
 selves the means of making some combination without 
 which there was not, and could not be, any hope of 
 success, wavering this way and that, when the sudden 
 inrush of two determined men put an end to the divis- 
 ions, and led them to form in the ranks that led to vic- 
 tory. I have read many Lives of Lincoln, and have 
 
FURTHER EVIDENCE. 139 
 
 never found any other explanation of what transpired 
 that night that was satisfactory or even plausible. 
 
 This testimony of Mr. Briggs is of the direct and 
 positive kind that cannot be controverted except by 
 impeaching a man's intelligence or his veracity ; and 
 coming right after that of Mr. Raymond, the one con- 
 firms the other, answering to the requirement of the 
 old Mosaic law, that ' ' in the mouth of two witnesses 
 every word shall be established." 
 
 But there is other evidence still, for where brave 
 men lead the way, the hesitating and the doubting 
 follow ; and it was not long before what was going on 
 was whispered from chamber to chamber, from dele- 
 gation to delegation, so that when the morning dawned 
 there was a general premonition of what was to 
 come. As the delegates poured out of the hotels on 
 their way to the Convention, the elder Blair, the most 
 sagacious politician in the country, turned to Mr. Field 
 and asked what he thought would be the result ? and 
 when he said, "Mr. Lincoln will be nominated," the 
 old man answered in a very positive way, " Well, if 
 ive succeed, it will be oiving to you ! ". And so spoke 
 New England in the voice of the gallant Anson Bur- 
 lingame, who, after the decisive vote was taken, came to 
 Mr. Field, as he was sitting on the platform, and said, 
 ' ' You have nominated Mr. Lincoln : now help us to 
 nominate the ' bobbin-bo}' ' " [Governor Banks, of Mas- 
 sachusetts] ' ' for Vice-President ! " 
 
140 A CHAPTER OF UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 
 
 Nor was this the observation of but a few indi- 
 viduals : it was common talk among the delegates, 
 and those who had watched the course of events. 
 In the train that brought home many of the mem- 
 bers of the Convention, and others who had been spec- 
 tators, was Mr. Clarkson N. Potter, of New York, after- 
 wards Member of Congress, who told his friends that 
 he saw and heard one and another pointing to Mr. 
 Field, and whispering, ' ' That is the man who nom- 
 inated Lincoln ! " This general rumor is a sort of 
 presumptive evidence, which, when confirmed by divers 
 witnesses, outweighs any number of negatives, which 
 merely tell what this or that man did not see or hear, 
 and, in the absence of all opposing testimony, must 
 be considered to decide the question. 
 
 If I thus recall a chapter of unwritten history, it is 
 not that I wish to magnify the part of an individual ; 
 nor that he ever made any claim to recognition on 
 account of it, (a brave soldier is more concerned to win 
 the battle than to dispute for the honors of victory) ; but 
 that, since it has fallen to me to write the life of one 
 who had a part in this making of history, I put on 
 record the testimony of others, as but just to the mem- 
 ory of him who has passed beyond the reach of any 
 earthly ambition. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE LAST EFFORT FOR PEACE. 
 
 It is a brave man who can take the consequences 
 of his own acts. Mr. Field had helped to nominate 
 Lincoln, and to elect him, and he must bear his share 
 of the responsibility. The country was now to face a 
 crisis such as it had never faced before. The clouds 
 began to roll up from the South and gather all round 
 the horizon, till many at the North were frightened at 
 the prospect, and loudly declared that the election of 
 Lincoln was at once a blunder and a crime ! 
 
 Against all such harsh judgments, or fearful por- 
 tents, Mr. Field stood firm, prepared to show that it 
 was neither a blunder nor a crime ; that it was the 
 only course that could bring a peace worth having, and 
 re-establish the Republic on everlasting foundations. 
 
 It was something to have the issue clearly drawn. 
 Mr. Seward had predicted an "irrepressible conflict," but 
 all good men joined in the prayer, ' ' Give peace in our 
 time, O Lord ! " But how could the conflict be kept 
 back much longer ? The country was growing ; the 
 population was increasing by millions, and the South, 
 
142 THE WARNING OF DANGER. 
 
 with its "peculiar institutions," demanded the right of 
 way wherever it would go. Forty years before an 
 effort had been made to divide the country by the line 
 of the Missouri Compromise, but that had been broken 
 down, and now the South claimed the right, not only 
 to march Westward up to a fixed parallel of lati- 
 tude, but beyond it along the mighty courses of the 
 Mississippi and the Missouri, stopped by no barrier of 
 river, or plain, or mountain, till it reached the Western 
 Sea. 
 
 But the election of Lincoln was a danger-signal — a 
 warning not to go too far ! Not that he had any design 
 to encroach upon the South. He had no such aversion 
 to slavery as a New Englander might have, for he was 
 born in a slave State, and looked upon slavery as a con- 
 dition for which the present generation was not responsi- 
 ble, and that was to be tolerated where it existed before. 
 He would observe rehgiously all the compromises of 
 the Constitution. But beyond that he could not, and 
 would not, go : he would not do violence to his com- 
 mon sense in regarding slavery as belonging to an 
 ideal state of society ; nor was he ready to see the Free 
 States of America converted into a great Slave Empire ! 
 But the South was not wilhng to wait to see the new 
 President installed in office : it looked upon his election 
 as a threat, which it must meet in a tone of defiance. 
 It demanded as the price of its remaining in the Union 
 new concessions, new guarantees, for slavery ; that no 
 
"peace at any price !" 143 
 
 bounds should be set to its extension now, or in any- 
 future time. This was putting the pride of the North 
 to the utmost strain. Yet such was the desire for 
 peace — peace at any price — that it was willing to sub- 
 mit to almost any conditions. Even Mr. Seward, 
 opposed in theory to slavery as he was, was ready that 
 we should bind ourselves hand and foot by such an iron 
 chain as this : "No amendment shall be made to the 
 Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress 
 the power to abolish or interfere within any State 
 with the domestic institutions " [a synonym for slavery] 
 "thereof, including that of persons," [how carefully 
 they avoided the word slaves !^ "held to labor or ser- 
 vice by the laws of said State " ! 
 
 And this resolution was adopted in the Senate by a 
 two-thirds vote, 24 to 13, and in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives by a little more than two-thirds, 133 to 65. 
 Could the spirit of concession farther go ? 
 
 But the South would not be pacified ; it would not 
 listen to anything. Scarcely had the result of the elec- 
 tion been declared — to be exact, only six weeks later, 
 December 24th — when South Carolina, which John C. 
 Calhoun had long since familiarized with the idea of 
 separation, took the lead, as if ambitious of the place 
 of honor, in a formal act of its Legislature, by which 
 it seceded from the Union, and the Governor issued 
 his proclamation declaring South Carolina to be a 
 * ' separate, sovereign, and independent State ! " 
 
144 THE SOUTHERN STATES SECEDE. 
 
 This was a revolution, but one for which she had 
 been long preparing. Her public men did not hesitate 
 to say that it was but the culmination of events for a 
 long course of years. Mr. Rhett, an old politician, said, 
 ' ' The secession of South Carolina is not the event of 
 a day. It was not caused by Lincoln's election, nor 
 by the non-execution of the fugitive slave law. It is 
 a matter which has been gathering for thirty years. 
 The election of Lincoln was only the last straw that 
 broke the camel's back. But it was not the only one. 
 The back was nearly broken before ! " 
 
 With such unpleasant memories of the past, it is not 
 surprising that South Carolina felt the step she took to 
 be a happy deliverance. She did not stand upon the 
 order of her going. If she had waited a little longer, 
 with a show of hesitation and reluctance, it would have 
 given a touch of formality and of grace to her good-bye 
 to the sisters with whom she had been so long asso- 
 ciated. But she had no farewells to give, and no tears 
 to shed. So far from this, she was in a happy mood, 
 and danced away with that "gayety of heart" with 
 which France ten years later rushed into war with 
 Germany ! The parallel might be carried still further ! 
 
 The business of secession once begun, the work went 
 on briskly. Two weeks later, with the opening of the 
 new year, 1861, Mississippi followed the example of 
 South Carolina. Two days later Alabama and Florida 
 locked arms and went out together ; to be followed 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 145 
 
 near the close of the month by Louisiana ; and last of 
 all, on the 5th of February, by Texas, the mighty State, 
 for which we had gone to war with Mexico. Georgia, 
 which was kept back by Alexander H. Stephens, came 
 a little later and filled up the procession of States that 
 marched out of the Union before Mr. Lincoln had taken 
 his seat in the Presidential chair ! 
 
 But the procession was not yet full. Virginia, the 
 mother of Presidents, stood on her dignity, not to be run 
 away with by less important States, and chose to act 
 for herself. "With the old memories of the Revolution 
 in her heart, she lingered, and finally decided, before 
 taking the last step, to make one more effort for peace, 
 by way of a friendly Conference in Washington, to 
 see if it were not possible to agree on some method of 
 adjustment. It was a novel proceeding to go outside of 
 Congress, to submit grave questions to a body having 
 no legal authority. But the North did not stand upon 
 formalities, if only it might bring peace, and it responded 
 promptly to the call. As none of the seceded States 
 were parties to it, only twenty-one States were rep- 
 resented, but these sent 133 delegates — a body that was 
 not only respectable in numbers, but one of great dig- 
 nity in the men that composed it, and that was pre- 
 sided over by one who was himself a Virginian, as 
 well as a former President of the United States, Mr. 
 John Tyler. A committee composed of one from each 
 State, twenty-one in all, was appointed "with authority 
 
146 CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 to report what they might deem right, necessary, and 
 proper to restore harmony and preserve the Union." 
 Of this committee Mr. Field was a member, a position 
 to which he was entitled as the chairman of the New 
 York delegation. Thus he was forced into the place of 
 a leader, though the part of the North was not to pro- 
 pose, but to listen. As it had only exercised its right- 
 ful authority in voting for a President, and was satisfied 
 with the result, it had nothing to say except to repeat, 
 with increased emphasis, its readiness and determination 
 to stand by the compromises of the Constitution. 
 
 But that was not enough, for the South had been 
 going through an education in its ideas of slavery, until 
 it came to regard it as so far from being an evil that it 
 was a positive good, an institution that was according 
 to the fitness of things ; ordained by nature itself, as 
 shown in the natural superiority of the white race. 
 Thus exalted by conscious greatness, the men of the 
 South were not at all abashed at the boldness 
 of the undertaking to make radical changes in the 
 Constitution, that had been framed by Washington, 
 Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton. Slavery must be 
 " unconfined " ; it must have full sweep. Into whatever 
 territory a master emigrated, he must have freedom 
 to take his slaves with him ; and if, when the popula- 
 tion was sufficient for statehood, the majority were 
 for slavery, slavery they should have, no power on 
 earth withstanding ! 
 
A NEW FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 147 
 
 And there must be a new Fugitive Slave Law, 
 with all the modern improvements ! If a master 
 wished to go to Boston, he must be free to take his 
 black man-servant with him, and if the latter, snuffing 
 the air of liberty, were to run away, the city police 
 must find him and deliver him up to his master ! He 
 might not be hunted with bloodhounds, but all the min- 
 ions of the law would be on his track ; and if he could 
 not be found, the city or State must pay for his loss ! 
 
 Even this would not satisfy the South. What most 
 galled the Southern people was not the loss of a slave 
 now and then, but the fact that they could not bring 
 the North to see things as they saw them. They must 
 do violence to our consciences, compelling us to accept 
 as right what we believed to be wrong ; to call evil 
 good and good evil. This was asking us to stifle 
 the instincts of humanity. They might as well have 
 demanded that we should stop the beating of our hearts. 
 
 Had it been possible to comply with these conditions, 
 even then the seceding States gave no promise of return 
 to the Union, nor had their sister States any authority to 
 make it for them. All that could be said was that they 
 would (if they saw fit) take it into respectful (or not 
 respectful) consideration. They might come back, or 
 they might not even take notice of the invitation. But 
 if they did return, it would not be by any means as 
 prodigal sons, with penitence for the past, or promise 
 for the future. If they came at all, it would be as mas- 
 
148 HARD CONDITIONS FOR PEACE. 
 
 ters in the old baronial halls. If there was any repent- 
 ing to be done, it must be by those upon whose tame 
 and cowardly spirits they looked down with just con- 
 tempt. 
 
 These were indeed hard conditions of peace, conditions 
 that we cannot read, even at this distance of time, with- 
 out being almost ashamed of our country. And yet to 
 this degree of humiliation a large portion of the North — 
 God forgive them ! — were ready to submit. 
 
 Mr. Field had hstened with as much patience as he 
 could to these extraordinary proposals. But while he 
 listened the fire burned, and he could not keep silence. 
 Time was passing. It was the 20th of February, and 
 in less than two weeks there would be a new govern- 
 ment in the Capitol. He must give warning of the 
 impending danger. With perfect courtesy to his oppo- 
 nents, but with a firmness that could not but command 
 their respect, he set forth the position of the North in a 
 speech which ought to be preserved in every historical 
 library, as it was an historic scene, the last effort for 
 peace before the breaking out of the most terrible 
 civil war of modern times ! As he rose to speak he 
 felt the gravity of the situation. It was not in his 
 nature to be a prophet of evil ; but lightly as some 
 talked of it, he felt that the government, and the coun- 
 try itself, were in danger of going to pieces, and he 
 spoke with a sad sincerity, which those who heard 
 remembered long after. He did not assume to speak 
 
SPEECH OP MR. FIELD. 149 
 
 for others, but his own position he would not have 
 misunderstood, and he ' ' cleared the air " in the very 
 first sentence : ' ' For myself, I state at the outset that 
 I am indisposed to the adoption, at the present time, 
 of any amendment of the Constitution." This was 
 sufficiently explicit. And now he proceeds to give the 
 Reason Why : 
 
 To change the original law of thirty millions of people 
 is a measure of the greatest importance. Such a measure 
 should never be undertaken in any case, or under any circum- 
 stances, without great deliberation and the highest moral cer- 
 tainty that the country will be benefited by the change. In this 
 case, as yet, there has been no deliberation ; certainly not so far 
 as the delegates from New York are concerned. The resolutions 
 of Virginia were passed on the 19th of January. New York 
 ( her Legislature being in session ) appointed her delegates on the 
 5th of February. We came here on the 8th. Our delegation 
 was not full for a week. The amendments proposed were sub- 
 mitted on the 15th. It is now the 20th of the month. We are 
 urged to act at once, without further deliberation or delay. 
 
 To found an Empire, or to make a Constitution for a peo- 
 ple, on which so much of their happiness depends, requires the 
 sublimest effort of the human intellect, the greatest impartiality 
 in weighing opposing interests, the utmost calmness in judg- 
 ment, the highest prudence in decision. It is proposed that we 
 shall proceed to amend in essential particulars a Constitution 
 which, since its adoption by the people of this country, has 
 answered all its needs, with a haste which to my mind is un- 
 necessary, not to say indecent. 
 
 Have any defects been discovered in this Constitution ? I 
 have listened most attentively to hear those defects mentioned. 
 
150 THE CONSTITUTION GOOD ENOUGH AS IT IS. 
 
 if any such have been found to exist. I liave heard none. No 
 change in the judicial department is suggested. The exercise 
 of judicial powers under the Constitution has been satisfactory 
 enough to the South. The judicial department is to be left un- 
 touched, as I think it should be. You propose no change in the 
 form of the executive or legislative departments. These you 
 leave as they were before. What you do propose is : to place 
 certain limitations upon the legislative power ; to prohibit legis- 
 lation upon certain important subjects ; to give new guarantees 
 to slavery ; and this, as you admit, before any person has been 
 injured, before any right has been infringed. 
 
 There is high authority, which ought to be satisfactory to 
 you — that of the President of the United States, now in office ! — 
 for the statement that Congress never undertook to pass an im- 
 constitutional law affecting the interests of slavery except the 
 Missouri Compromise. Well, you have repealed that I You have 
 also every assurance that can be given, that the Administration 
 about coming into power proposes no interference with your in- 
 stitutions within State limits. Can you not be satisfied with 
 that ? No ! You propose these amendments in advance. You 
 insist upon them, and you declare that you must and will have 
 them, or certain consequences must follow. But, gentlemen of 
 the Soutli, what reasons do you give for entering upon this 
 hasty, this precipitate action? You say it is the prevailing 
 sense of insecui'ity, the anxiety, the apprehension you feel lest 
 something awful, something unconstitutional, may be done. 
 Yet the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Seddon) tells us that Vir- 
 ginia is able to protect all who reside within her limits, and that 
 she will do so at all hazards. Why not tell us the truth outright ? 
 It is not action under the Constitution or in Congress that you 
 would prevent. What is it then ? You are determined to pre- 
 vent the agitation of the subject. Let us understand each 
 
ARGUMENT BY QUESTION. 151 
 
 other. You have called us here to prevent future discussion of 
 the subject of slavery. It is that you fear — it is that you 
 would avoid — discussion in Congress, in the State Legislatures, 
 in the newspapers, in popular assemblies. 
 
 [The reader will observe the peculiar style of the 
 speaker, in which he argues by questions, short and 
 sharp, that he rains upon his opponents as if from a 
 battery or a mitrailleuse, to which they can make no 
 reply — a mode of attack upon dangerous sophistry that 
 has been held in honor from the days of Socrates. ] 
 
 But will the plan you propose, the course you have marked 
 out, accomplish your purpose ? Will it stop discussion ? Will 
 it lessen it in the slightest degree ? Can you not profit by the 
 experience of the past ? Can you prevent an agitation of this 
 subject, or any other, by any constitutional provisions ? No ! 
 Look at the details of your scheme. You propose through the 
 Constitution to require payment for fugitive slaves — to make 
 the North pay for them. You are thus throwing a lighted fire- 
 brand not only into Congress, but into every State Legislature, 
 into every county, city, and village in the land. 
 
 This one proposition to pay for fugitive slaves will prove a 
 subject for almost irrepressible agitation. You say to the State 
 Legislatures, ' ' You shall not obstruct the rendition of fugitives 
 from service, but you may legislate in aid of their rendition " — 
 thereby implying that the latter kind of legislation will be their 
 duty. You thus provide a new subject for discussion and agi- 
 tation for all these Legislatures. In the border States especially, 
 such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, you will find this agitation 
 fiercer than any you have hitherto witnessed, of which you 
 complain so much. You will add to the flame until it becomes 
 a consuming fire. 
 
153 YOU CANNOT STOP DISCUSSION. 
 
 You propose to stop the discussion of these questions by the 
 press. Do you really believe that in this age of the world you 
 can accomplish that? You know little of history if such is 
 your belief. Free speech is stronger than constitutions and dy- 
 nasties. You might as well put your hands over the crater of a 
 burning volcano, to extinguish its flames, as to attempt to stop 
 discussion by such an amendment of the Constitution. Stop dis- 
 cussion of great questions affecting the policy, strength, and 
 prosperity of the Government ? You cannot do it I You ought 
 not to attempt to do it ! 
 
 I wish to speak kindly upon this subject. I entertain no un- 
 friendly feelings toward any section. But while you are thus 
 complaining of us in the free States, because we agitate and dis- 
 cuss the question of slavery, are you not, in a great degree, re- 
 sponsible for this agitation yourselves ? Do you not discuss it 
 and agitate it ? Do you not make slavery the subject of your 
 speeches in the South, and in the presence of your slaves ? Do 
 you not make charges against us, which in your cooler moments 
 you know to be unfounded ? Do you not charge us in the hear- 
 ing of your slaves with the design of interfering with slavery in 
 the States, with a design to free them if we succeed ? 
 
 All this yovi have done, and if discontent, anxiety, and mis- 
 trust exist among your people, such discussion has contributed 
 more to produce them than all the agitation of the slavery 
 question at the North. But your amendments are not pointed 
 at your disciissions ! That kind of agitation may go on as 
 before. It is only the discussion on the other side that you 
 would repress ! 
 
 If the condition of affairs among you is as you represent it, 
 have you no duties to perform ? Is there nothing for you to do ? 
 Should you not tell your people what we have assured you upon 
 every proper occasion, that the Republican party has always re- 
 
WE ARE STILL FOR PEACE, IF POSSIBLE. 153 
 
 pudiated the intention of interfering with slavery, or any other 
 Southern institution, within the States ? This you all know. 
 Have you told your people this ? If you would explain it to 
 them now, would they not be quieted ? Do not reply that they 
 believe we have such a purpose. Who is responsible for that be- 
 lief ? Have you not continually asserted before your people, 
 notwithstanding every assurance we could give you to the con- 
 trary, that we are determined to interfere with your rights ? It 
 is thus the responsibility rests with you. 
 
 Although such is my conviction, supported, as I think, by all 
 the evidence, I am still for peace. Show me now any proposi- 
 tion that will secure peace, and I will go for it if I can. We 
 came here to take each other by the hand, to compare views, 
 explain, consult. We meet you in the most reasonable spirit. 
 Anything that honorable men may do, we vnll do. 
 
 We will go back to 1845 when you admitted Texas ; back to 
 the Missouri Compromise of 1820. You certainly can complain 
 of nothing previous to that time. If, since then, there has been 
 any law of Congress passed which is unjust toward you, which 
 infringes upon your rights, which operates unfairly upon your 
 interests, we will join you in securing its repeal. We will go 
 further. If you will point ovit any act of the Republican party 
 which has given you just cause for apprehension, we will give 
 yovi all security against it. We will do anything hut amend the 
 fundamental law of the government. Before we do that we 
 must be convinced of its necessity. 
 
 When you propose essential changes in the Constitution you 
 must expect that they will be subjected to a critical examina- 
 tion; if not here, certainly elsewhere. I object to those pro- 
 posed by the majority of the committee — 
 
 1. For what they contain, and 
 
 2. For what they do not contain. 
 
154 HOW THE FATHERS LOOKED UPON SLAVERY. 
 
 I do not propose to criticise the language used in your propo- 
 sitions of amendment. That would be trifling. I think the 
 language very infelicitous, and, if I supposed those propositions 
 were to become part of the Constitution, I should think many 
 vei'bal changes indispensable ; But I pass by all that, and come 
 at once to the substance. 
 
 I object to the propositions. Sir, because they iv&iild put into 
 the Constitution new expressions relating to slavery, which %oere 
 sedulously kept out of it by the framers of that instrument — left 
 out of it, not accidentally, but because, as Madison said, they 
 did not ivish posterity to linow from the Constitution that the 
 institution existed. 
 
 But I object further, because the propositions contain 
 guarantees for slavery, which our fathers did not and would not 
 give. In 1787 the Convention was held at Philadelphia to estab- 
 lish our form of government. Washington was its presiding 
 officer, whose name was in itself a bond of union. It was soon 
 after the close of a long and bloody war. Shoulder to shoulder 
 — through winter snows and beneath summer suns — through 
 such sufferings and sacrifices as the world had scarcely ever 
 witnessed — the people of these States, under Providence, had 
 fought and achieved their independence. Fresh from the field, 
 their hearts full of patriotism, determined to perpetuate the 
 liberties they had achieved, the people sent their delegates into 
 the Convention to frame a Constitution which would preserve to 
 their posterity the blessings they had won. 
 
 These delegates, under the presidency of "Washington, aided 
 by the counsels of Franklin and Madison, considered the very 
 questions with which we are now dealing, and they refused to put 
 into the Constitution which they were making such guarantees 
 to slavery as you now ask from their descendants. That is my 
 interpretation of their action. Either these guarantees are in 
 
WE WILL GIVE NO NEW GUARANTEES. 155 
 
 the Constitution, oi- they are not. If they are there, let them 
 remain there. If they are not there, I can conceive of no possi- 
 ble circumstances under which I would consent to admit them. 
 
 Mr. MoREHEAD : Not to save the Union ? 
 
 Mr. Field : No, su* — no ! That is my comprehensive answer. 
 
 Mr. MOREHEAD : Then you would let the Union slide ? 
 
 Mr. Field : No, never I I would let slavery slide, and save 
 the Union. Greater things than this have been done. This year 
 has seen slavery abolished in all the Russias. 
 
 Mr. Roman: Do you think it better to have the free and 
 slave States separated, and to have the Union dissolved ? 
 
 Mr. Field : I would sacrifice all I have — lay down my life, 
 for the Union. But I will not give these guarantees to slavery. 
 If the Union cannot be preserved without them, it can not long 
 be preserved with them. Let me ask you if you will recommend 
 to the people of the Southern States, in case these guarantees 
 are conceded, to accept them, and abide by their obligations to 
 the Union ? You answer. Yes ! Do you suppose you can induce 
 the seceded States to return ? You answer. We do not know ! 
 What will you yourselves do if, after all, they refuse ? Your 
 answer is, " We will go with them!" 
 
 Then we are to understand that this is the language of the 
 slave States, which have not seceded, toward the free States : 
 ' ' If you will support our amendments, we will try to induce the 
 seceded States to return to the Union. We rather think we can 
 induce them to return ; but, if we can not, then we will go with 
 them ! " 
 
 What is to be done by the Government of the United States 
 while you are trying this experiment ? The seceded States are 
 organizing a government with all its departments. They are 
 levying taxes, raising military forces, and engaging in commerce 
 with foreign nations, in plain violation of the provisions of the 
 
156 THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND. 
 
 Constitution. If this condition of affairs lasts six months lon- 
 ger, France and England will recognize theirs as a government 
 de facto. Do you suppose we will submit to this, that we can 
 submit to it ? 
 
 I speak only for myself. I undertake to commit no one but 
 myself; but I here declare that an Administration which fails to 
 assert by force its authority over the whole country will be a 
 disgrace to the nation. There is no middle ground; we must 
 keep this country unbroken, or ive give it up to ruin ! 
 
 We are told that one State has a hundred thousand men 
 ready for the field, and if we do not assent to these propositions 
 she will fight us. If I believed this to be true, I would not con- 
 sent to treat on any terms. 
 
 From the ports of these seceded States have sailed all the fili- 
 bustering expeditions which have heretofore disgraced the land. 
 Their new government will enter upon a career of conquest un- 
 less prevented. Even if these propositions of amendment are 
 received and submitted to the people, I see nothing but war in 
 the future, unless those States are quickly brought back to their 
 allegiance. 
 
 I do not propose to use harsh language. I will not stigmatize 
 this Convention as a political body, or assert that this is a move- 
 ment toward a revolution counter to a political revolution just 
 accomplished by the elections. Nor will I speak of personal 
 liberty bills, or of Northern State legislation, about which so 
 much complaint has been made. If I went into those questions, 
 much might be said on both sides. We might ask you whether 
 you had not thrown stones at us I 
 
 [Then, turning to the second part of his argument, 
 Mr. Field wished his Southern brethren to understand 
 that, if they were to enter upon amendments of the 
 
RIGHT OP THE NORTH TO PROTECTION. 157 
 
 Constitution, the North had concessions to ask as well 
 as to give ; that it might at least demand protection 
 for its citizens when they visited the South. At present 
 a man from Massachusetts or Vermont could hardly- 
 cross the line without danger of insult or of violence, 
 unless he professed entire satisfaction with the patriar- 
 chal institution. If he saw slaves sold on the block or 
 flogged on a plantation, he must suppress liis indig- 
 nation, or he would be mobbed ! Mr. Hoar, an emi- 
 nent citizen of Boston, who Avent to Charleston to attend 
 to a legal case invohnng the rights of a Northerner, 
 was driven out of the city, and hardly escaped without 
 a personal attack. With the memory of such treatment 
 in mind, Mr. Field proceeds : ] 
 
 As to what is left out in the plan of reconciliation, the 
 majority report altogether omits those guarantees which, if 
 the Constitution is to be amended, ought to be there before any 
 others that have been suggested. I mean those which will 
 secure protection in the South to the citizens of the free States, 
 and tliose which will protect the Union against futiure attempts 
 at secession ; guarantees which are contained in the propositions 
 that I have submitted as proper to be added to the report of the 
 majority. 
 
 But, Sir, I must insist that, if amendments to the Constitution 
 are required at all, it is better that they should be proposed and 
 considered in a General Convention. Although I do not regard 
 this Conference as exactly unconstitutional, it is certainly a bad 
 precedent. It is a body nominally composed of representatives 
 of the States, and is called to urge upon Congress propositions 
 
158 BETTER TO HAVE A GENERAL CONVENTION. 
 
 of amendment to the Constitution. Its recommendations will 
 have something of force in them ; it will undoubtedly be claimed 
 for them in Congress that they possess such force. I do not like 
 to see an irregular body sitting by the side of a legislative body 
 and attempting to influence its action. 
 
 Again, all the States are not here. Oregon and California — 
 the great Pacific dominions, with all their wealth and power, 
 present and prospective — have not been consulted at all. Will 
 it be replied that all the States can vote upon the amendment ? 
 That is a very different thing from proposing them. California 
 and Oregon may have interests of their own to protect, proposi- 
 tions of their own to make. Is it right for us to act without 
 consulting them ? I will go for a Convention, because I believe 
 it is the best way to avoid civil war. 
 
 Mr. WiCKLiFFE: If a General Convention is held, what 
 amendments will you propose ? 
 
 Mr. Field : I have already said that I have none to propose. 
 I am satisfied with the Constitution as it is. 
 
 Mr. WiCKLlFFE: Then, for God's sake, let us have no Gen- 
 eral Convention ! 
 
 Mr. Field : I think the gentleman's observation is not logi- 
 cal. He wants amendments, I do not. But I say, if we are to 
 have them, let us have them through a General Convention. 
 
 And I say, further, that this is the quickest way to secure 
 them. If a General Convention is to be called, let it be held 
 at once, as soon as possible. If gentlemen from eight of the 
 States in this Conference represent truly the sentiment of their 
 people, as I will assume they do, there is no other alternative. 
 We must have either the arbitrament of reason or the arbitra- 
 ment of the sword. The gloomy future alone can tell whether 
 the latter is to be the one adopted. I greatly fear it is. The 
 conviction presses upon me in my waking and my sleeping 
 
REASON OR THE SWORD. 159 
 
 hours. Only last night I dreamed of marching armies and news 
 from the seat of war 1 [A laugh from the Kentucky and Vir- 
 ginia benches.] 
 
 The gentlemen laugh. I thought they, too, had fears of war. 
 I thought their threats and prophecies were sincere. God grant 
 that I may not hereafter have to say, " I had a dream that was 
 not all a dream ! " 
 
 For my own State and for the North I have only to say that 
 they are devoted to the Union. The love for the Union is the 
 strongest of our political affections. New York will stand by 
 the flag of the country while there is a star left in its folds. If 
 the Union should be reduced to thirteen States — if it should be 
 reduced to three States — if all should fall away but herself, she 
 will stand alone to bear and uphold that honored flag, and 
 recover the Union of which it is the pledge and symbol. God 
 grant that time may never come, but that New York may stand 
 side by side with Kentucky and Virginia to the end ! That we 
 may all stand by the Union, negotiate for it, fight for it, if the 
 necessity comes, is my wish, my hope, my prayer. The Consti- 
 tution made for us by Washington, Franklin, Madison, and 
 Hamilton, and the wise and patriotic men who labored with 
 them, is good enough for us. We stand for the Country, for the 
 Union, for the Constitution. 
 
 Was there ever a more manly appeal to the sense 
 of justice, as well as to the love of country that might 
 linger in the hearts of those whose fathers had fought 
 for American independence ? Did it call for any sacri- 
 fice of interest or of pride on the part of the South ? 
 None whatever. Was there a tone of threatening to 
 inflame the proud Southern spirit ? Not the slightest ! 
 He who pleaded so earnestly for peace spoke more in 
 
160 WHAT DANIEL WEBSTER FORESAW. 
 
 sorrow than in anger — not as to enemies, but as to those 
 who were, or ought to be, friends and brothers. Thirty 
 years before Mr. Webster had a vision of a conflict, but 
 only as it appeared far off on the horizon, and in horror 
 he put it out of his sight, only leaving the impression 
 in these sad but immortal words that now seemed pro- 
 phetic : "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for 
 the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him 
 shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of 
 a once glorious Union ; on States dissevered, discord- 
 ant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or 
 drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! " His prayer 
 was answered, and the black cloud disappeared, but 
 only to reappear in the next generation. Mr. Field 
 was haunted by the vision of a "gloomy future," 
 that would not let him sleep while his country was 
 going to ruin. He dreamed of ' ' marching armies and 
 news from the seat of war" — the very mention of which 
 in the Convention only provoked the representatives of 
 Virginia and Kentucky to laughter. No wonder that 
 such light-hearted men had nothing to propose, or even 
 to consider soberly, when they could not believe that 
 danger was nigh. The mirthful Virginians who could 
 not repress their merriment at Mr. Field's suggestion of 
 a possible conflict, may have recalled it with an altered 
 feeling when the sound of cannon was heard on the other 
 side of the Potomac, and the fair fields of Virginia were 
 "drenched in fraternal blood." 
 
WHY DID THEY FIGHT AT ALL? 161 
 
 Alas for the lessons of human experience ! In the 
 history of nations, as in the lives of individuals, we are 
 constantly reminded of what "might have been." It 
 was the greatest crisis in American history. The coun- 
 tr}^ stood on the brink of civil war. If in that awful 
 hour the South had listened to the warning of one of its 
 truest friends, what might have been ! One moment's 
 pause ! one step backward ! and all might have been 
 saved ! And saved, not by any unmanly concession ; 
 by any humiliating surrender ! It would have been 
 Peace with Honor : with confidence restored and friend- 
 ship made stronger than ever ! True, when the con- 
 flict came, the sons of the South fought bravely, 
 for they had the blood of Revolutionary ancestors in 
 their veins. But why should they have fought at all ? 
 After four years of battle and of blood they had gained 
 nothing and lost everything ! 
 
 Here for the present we will let the curtain fall. It 
 will be more pleasant to find, as we shall in a future 
 chapter, that when the cruel war was over, and was 
 followed by the Period of Reconstruction, Mr. Field 
 was the strongest defender of the rights of the Southern 
 States to be restored to their former place, as parts of 
 ' ' a glorious Union, " that should be henceforth and for- 
 ever ' ' One and Inseparable ! " 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE WAR THAT HAD TO COME. 
 
 The war had come ! We had shut our eyes to it — 
 we could not and would not believe it till the last. 
 Even the secession of the Southern States was looked 
 upon at first as merely ' ' sulking ; " the natural fret- 
 fulness of "wayward sisters," whose pride had been 
 wounded by their defeat in the election, but who needed 
 only a little kindly soothing to be reconciled to the inev- 
 itable. And so the warlike manifesto did not disturb 
 the equanimity of the North, as it proceeded to the 
 inauguration of the new President, trusting that when 
 the thing was done, and could not be undone, the sober 
 second thought of our Southern brethren would bring 
 them back into the fold. But in twelve months we 
 had been making history very fast. Not quite a year 
 before, on almost the last day of winter, a man of giant 
 frame from the West had made his first appearance in 
 New York. And now reappears the same tall figure, 
 though in another guise, standing erect in a carriage, 
 as he rides down Broadway, bowing to the tens of 
 thousands who crowd doors and windows and house- 
 tops — not to see "great Csesar pass," but to see a man 
 
INAUGURATION OF LINCOLN. 163 
 
 of the people, elected by the people, to rule over the 
 people, of the Great Repubhc ! The joy of the occa- 
 sion was a little — or not a little — damped a few days 
 later by the fact that as he came nearer to Washington 
 the cheers were not so unanimous, and that at the last 
 moment he had to make his entrance at an unexpected 
 hour, to escape a plot that had been laid for his assassi- 
 nation ! But at last he was in the Capital, and had 
 taken the oath of office, and was President of the 
 United States. 
 
 For a few weeks there was a lull of excitement — 
 the "silence in heaven" before the thunder-burst — 
 when from far down the Southern coast a dull boom 
 "came rolling on the mnd," and instantly the land 
 rose up at the sound of war. That first shot upon 
 Sumter made an end forever of "Peace Conferences." 
 The South had been warned that it "must have either 
 the arbitrament of reason, or the arbitrament of the 
 sword." It chose the latter, and had to take the conse- 
 quences to the bitter end. 
 
 A body of soldiers on parade is always a gay specta- 
 cle, and Broadway was crowded more than ever when 
 our gallant Seventh Regiment marched down on its 
 way to the front, soon followed by regiments that came 
 from under the shadow of Bunker Hill, all moving 
 towards the Capital, which was for a time cut off from 
 communication with the North, as if it were in a state 
 of siege. 
 
164 NORTHERNERS FLEEING FROM THE SOUTH. 
 
 The unaccustomed and troubled state of things was 
 brought home to me by a Kttle personal experience. 
 One evening a company of gentlemen were gathered 
 round my brother Dudley's table, among whom was 
 Vice-President Hamhn, a very important personage 
 at that moment, when there had been a plot for the 
 assassination of the President. Wishing to send word 
 to Washington by a messenger, I was asked to try to 
 work my way through. I got as far as Perryville, 
 where I found the Seventh Regiment waiting for the 
 means of transport. After some hours the ferryboat 
 from Havre de Grace brought a crowd of refugees, 
 among whom was Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., then a 
 student at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Yir- 
 ginia, where the political atmosphere had become too 
 warm for him, and he started North, but found it not 
 easy to get through Baltimore, as every stranger was 
 an object of suspicion. Seeing the danger, he put on 
 a bold face, as if he were a Southerner to the manner 
 born, and drove to Barnum's Hotel, entered his name 
 and took a room, by which the watchers were thrown 
 off the scent, and then sauntered down the street till he 
 could turn a corner, when he jumped into a cab and 
 drove to the boat, which was just pushing off from the 
 wharf. It was a narrow escape, and he warned me 
 against rvmniug into the same danger, telling me that 
 I could not possibly get through Baltimore, where I 
 might be subjected to very rough treatment. Yielding 
 
THE PLAGUE OF OFFICE-SEEKERS. 1G5 
 
 to his earnest representations, we came back together 
 to New York. To what dangers we might have been 
 exposed we saw a few days after, when the Sixth 
 Massachusetts Regiment, which was the first to respond 
 to the call of the President, was stoned and fired upon 
 in the streets of Baltimore, and had to force its way to 
 the Capital. 
 
 While such clouds were gathering Mr, Field could 
 hardly restrain his impatience at the pettiness of politics 
 that was sometimes forced upon him by the impor- 
 tunity of others. At the outset of a new administra- 
 tion there are always rivalries among the seekers for 
 office. Mr. Lincoln knew how his nomination had 
 been opposed by the supporters of Mr. Seward. But 
 he was the most forgiving of men, and with his native 
 generosity he had put Mr. Seward at the head of his 
 Cabinet, which led some of his followers to push them- 
 selves to the front with a haste that, to say the least, 
 was not quite dignified. For this Mr. Field personally 
 cared nothing ; but he was not willing that his brave 
 companions in arms, the old Free Sellers, who had 
 fought the battle against slavery, and formed the most 
 radical and determined wing of the Repubhcan party, 
 should come in as the rear-guard to a crowd of office- 
 seekers. In justice to them he had a long interview 
 with the President, in the presence of Mr. Seward, 
 Mr, Chase, Mr. Welles, and Mr, Preston King, in 
 which the matter was fully explained, and both parties 
 
166 THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 
 
 were relieved of any further responsibility, Mr. Lincoln 
 took in the situation at once, and with his usual tact 
 settled these family differences, so as to unite all in the 
 one purpose of saving the country — an issue that now 
 extinguished the thought of anything else. As soon 
 as the people of the United States found themselves 
 plunged in a tremendous conflict, all personal interests 
 gave way to the one thought of the common safety, 
 and those who had been divided in their political rela- 
 tions stood side by side in the ranks of war. 
 
 Then events came thick and fast. An army recruited 
 from the North was soon massed in Washington for 
 its defence, while an opposing army mustered on the 
 other side of the Potomac, where on the 21st of July, 
 1861, was fought the battle of Bull Run, which, though 
 not a great battle as compared with those of a later 
 time, has a place in history as the first conflict of four 
 terrible years. 
 
 "When it was thus made evident that we were to 
 have war in earnest, Mr. Field offered his services 
 to Mr. Lincoln, who, recalling perhaps the saying, 
 " Old men for counsel and young men for war," might 
 well think that a man fifty-six years of age could be 
 more useful to his country in sustaining the spirit of 
 the people, than at the head of a regiment or a division. 
 
 This is no place to enter into a history of the mighty 
 events that followed. As I look back upon it, it seems 
 like a horrible dream. Why then should we recall it ? 
 
LOOKING BACK TO THE WAR. 167 
 
 It is more than thirty years since the last shot was 
 fired, and a new generation has come upon the stage, to 
 which it is all ancient historj\ Why should we revive 
 such painful memories ? Not to reopen old wounds, 
 but to heal them. Great historical events are seen 
 best at a distance, when the passions they aroused are 
 gone. That time has come. When the leaders of 
 armies on both sides can meet on their fields of battle 
 and rear monuments alike to friend and foe, we may 
 well say that the old bitterness between the North and 
 the South is past, and that we can now look upon the 
 great struggle in the calm light of history. 
 
 But at the time there was no "calm light of history." 
 Events were all in the future. Was there a hope of 
 success sufficient to justify a conflict so awful ? Some 
 of our best friends abroad thought not. John Bright 
 saw from the first that it was a death-struggle between 
 Freedom and Slavery, and stood firm for the North, 
 But Mr. Gladstone was so shocked by the horrors of 
 the war that he looked upon it as one of the most awful 
 tragedies in history. That a nation like ours — of one 
 race and blood, all speaking the same language, and 
 having the same religion — should go to war among 
 ourselves, and engage in the work of mutual destruc- 
 tion, seemed too horrible for belief, and he would fain 
 shut his eyes from the sight ! Near the close of the 
 second year of the war he wrote a letter to the late 
 Mr. Cyrus W. Field, which is one long and passionate 
 
168 LETTEK OF MR. GLADSTONE. 
 
 outcry, that shows his utter despair. The historical 
 vahie of such a letter from such a source will justify 
 its quotation here : 
 
 11 Carlton House Terrace, November 27, 1863. 
 Mjj dear Sir: I thank you very much for giving me the 
 "Thirteen Months." * Will you think that 1 belie the expression 
 I have used if I tell you candidly the effect this book has pro- 
 duced upon my mind ? I think you will not ; I do not believe 
 that you or your countrymen are among those who desire that 
 any one should ixxrchase your favor by speaking what is false, 
 or by forbearing to speak what is true. The book, then, 
 impresses me even more deeply than I was before impressed, 
 with the heavy responsibility you incur in persevering with this 
 destructive and hopeless war at the cost of such dangers and 
 evils to yourselves, to say nothing of your adversaries, or of an 
 amount of misery inflicted upon Europe such as no other civil 
 war in the history of man has ever brought upon those beyond 
 its immediate range. Your frightful conflict may be regarded 
 from many points of view. The competency of the Southern 
 States to secede ; the rightfulness of their conduct in seceding, 
 (two matters wholly distinct and a great deal too much con- 
 founded) ; the natural reluctance of Northern Americans to 
 acquiesce in the severance of the Union, and the apparent loss 
 of strength and glory to their country ; the bearing of the sep- 
 aration on the real interests and on the moral character of the 
 North ; again, for an Englishman, its bearing with respect to 
 British interests — all these are texts of which any one affords 
 ample matter for reflection. Bvit I will only state, as regards 
 
 * "Thirteen Months in the Rebel Army. By an impressed 
 New Yorker." The letter is taken from the Life of Mr. Field by 
 his daugliter. published by the Harpers. 
 
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SUCCESS. 1G9 
 
 the last of them, that I, for one, have never hesitated to main- 
 tain that, in my opinion, the separate and special interests of 
 England were all on the side of the maintenance of the old 
 Union ; and if I were to look at those interests alone, and had 
 the power of choosing in what way the war should end, I would 
 choose for by the restoration of the old Union this very day. 
 
 But there is an aspect of the war which transcends every 
 other : the possibility of success. The prospect of success will 
 not justify a war in itself unjust, but the impossibility of suc- 
 cess in a war of conquest of itself suffices to make it unjust ; 
 when that impossibility is reasonably proved, all the horror, all 
 the bloodshed, all the evil j)assions. all the dangers to liberty 
 and order with which such a war abounds, come to lie at the 
 door of the party which refuses to hold its hand and let its 
 neighbor be. 
 
 You know that in the opinion of Europe this impossibility 
 has been proved. It is proved by every page of this book, 
 and every copy of this book which circulates will carry the proof 
 wider and stamp it more clearly. Depend upon it, to place the 
 matter upon a single issue, you cannot conquer and keep down 
 a country where the women behave like the women of New 
 Orleans, where, as this author says, they would be ready to form 
 regiments, if such regiments could be of use. And how idle it 
 is to talk, as some of your people do, and some of ours, of the 
 slackness with which the war has been carried on, and of its 
 accounting for the want of success I You have no cause to be 
 ashamed of your military character and efforts. You have 
 proved what wanted no proof — your spirit, hardihood, immense 
 powers, and rapidity and variety of resources. You have spent 
 as much money, and have armed and perhaps have destroyed as 
 many men, taking the two sides together, as all Europe spent 
 in the first years of the Revolutionary war. Is not this enough ? 
 
170 YOU HAVE DONE ALL THAT MEN COULD DO. 
 
 Why have you not more faith in the future of a nation which 
 should lead for ages to come the American continent ; which in 
 five or ten years will make up its apparent loss or first loss of 
 strength and numbers ; and which, with a career unencumbered 
 by the terrible calamity and curse of slavery, will even from the 
 first be liberated from a position morally and incurably false ; 
 and will from the first enjoy a permanent gain in credit and 
 character such as will much more than compensate for its tem- 
 porary material losses ? I am, in short, a follower of General 
 Scott. With him I say, "Wayward sisters, go in peace." 
 Immortal fame be to him for his wise and courageous advice, 
 amounting to a prophecy. 
 
 Finally, you have done what men could do ; you have failed 
 because you resolved to do what men could not do. Laws 
 stronger than human will are on the side of earnest self-defence ; 
 and the aim at the impossible, which in other things may be 
 folly only, when the path of search is dark with misery and red 
 with blood, is not folly only, but guilt to boot. I should not 
 have used so largely in this letter the privileges of free utterance 
 had I not been conscious that I vie with yourselves in my admir- 
 ation of the founders of your republic, and I have no lurking 
 sentiment either of hostility or of indifference to America ; nor, 
 I may add, even then had I not believed that you are lovers of 
 sincerity, and that you can bear even the rudenesss of its tongue. 
 I remain, dear sir. very faithfully yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 Cyrus Field, Esq. 
 
 This was a terrible indictment of our country, the 
 more so as the words were those of a friend. But one 
 assumption, which the writer took for granted — that 
 it was impossible to subdue the Rebellion — has been 
 
WHERE WOULD HE DRAW THE LINE ? 171 
 
 answered by the event. Our country, with the help of 
 God, did achieve the impossible ! 
 
 But the moral question still remains, Was it a just 
 war, or a wicked war ? the answer to which we rest 
 on two points : that the conflict was, sooner or later, 
 inevitable, (as we have shown by the estrangement 
 between the North and the South, that grew year by 
 year, till it culminated in the secession of eight States ; ) 
 and that, at the same time, a separation into two 
 countr'ies was impossible. 
 
 If Mr. Gladstone would divide the United States into 
 two nations, where would he draw the line ? There is 
 no natural boundary between us — no dividing seas, nor 
 chain of mountains. Switzerland is throned upon the 
 Alps, whose snow-clad heights are a barrier against 
 invasion from her more powerful neighbors. India is 
 protected by the Himalayas from the descent of any 
 modern Alexander the Great. But we have no such 
 ramparts to defend us one from the other. Nor are the 
 North and the South divided by great rivers, as Canada 
 is separated from us by the St. Lawrence and the Lakes. 
 We have indeed one mighty river that drains the Con- 
 tinent ; that is to North America what the Amazon is 
 to South America ; but it does not, like the Amazon, 
 run Eastward to empty into the Atlantic, but South- 
 ward to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. Wherefore 
 the line of division that is drawn between our two 
 Republics must be purely an artificial one. Nor could 
 
172 NO NATUEAL BOUNDARY BETWEEN US. 
 
 it be even a straight line, on one parallel of latitude, 
 but, following the borders of the States, it would zigzag 
 across the Continent. These irregular boundaries would 
 not matter so long as the States were all one Country, 
 for this very interlocking of territory would not be 
 driving so many wedges into one another's sides, to split 
 them apart, but so many bolts of iron to hold them 
 together. 
 
 But the situation would be changed utterly if the 
 great expanse of territory were divided into two coun- 
 tries, peopled by two powerful nations. The closer the 
 contact the worse for both when there was one ever- 
 present source of irritation, since on one side would 
 be a Republic built on Freedom ; and on the other a 
 Republic (?) built on Slavery ! The States of Ken- 
 tucky and Ohio are divided only by the Ohio River. 
 What power on earth could keep the slaves on one 
 side from steahng across the water in dark nights to 
 the land of liberty ? There would be no Fugitive Slave 
 Law to bring them back. The movement Northward 
 would be as constant as if it were led by the Polar Star. 
 With such provocation, how long would the fiery Ken- 
 tuckians restrain their anger ? The only protection for 
 the South would be a standing army, a demonstration 
 on one side that would provoke the same on the other, 
 till the zigzag line across the continent would be like 
 chain lightning, flasliing incessantly, and keeping two 
 great nations forever on the verge of war ! Seeing all 
 
TWO NATIONS WOULD MEAN PERPETUAL WAR. 173 
 
 this, the men of the North, who were not "fire-eaters," 
 and had no love of war for its own sake, said, Since 
 the issue is inevitable, we may as well meet it in our 
 day as leave it to our children. If the war must come, 
 let it come now ! Better — a thousand times better — to 
 have a war of four years, than a war, like that of the 
 Spaniard and the Moor, to be handed down from gen- 
 eration to generation ! 
 
 Of all public men in the country, no one saw more 
 clearly the inevitable issue than Mr. Lincoln. Long 
 before he was President he said to himself and to 
 others : "A house divided against itself cannot stand. 
 I believe this government cannot endure permanently 
 half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union 
 to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — 
 but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It wiU 
 become all one tiling, or all the other. Either the oppo- 
 nents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and 
 place it where the public inind shall rest in the belief 
 that it is in the course of ultimate extinction ; or its 
 advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike 
 lawful in all the States — old as well as new, North as 
 well as South." 
 
 What Mr. Lincoln saw from his point of view in 
 the West, Mr. Field had seen even at an earlier date 
 in the East. For years he had been fighting against 
 the slave power, which was steadily advancing to the 
 complete control of the government. At last the 
 
174 MR. CHASE AND MR. STANTON. 
 
 issue had come, to be settled, not by political conven- 
 tions, but on the field of battle ; and if he could not 
 march with the regiments, he could at least support 
 them by keeping up the patriotic spirit at home. "^Again 
 and again he went on to Washington, where he had 
 frequent interviews with Mr. Lincoln and the mem- 
 bers of his Cabinet, of whom he was most attracted to 
 Mr. Chase and Mr. Stanton, as they were old Demo- 
 crats, and as on them fell the chief burdens of the war. * 
 They in turn found support in his unconquerable spirit, 
 
 * Several years after — when the war was over — in an argu- 
 ment before the Supreme Court of the United States on 
 "Military Tribunals for Civilians," Mr. Field thus referred to 
 Mr. Stanton : "It has been my fortune to be with him in some 
 of the darkest hours of the tempest, and I can bear personal 
 witness to his indomitable energy ; to the erect front which he 
 maintained against all disaster ; to his industry, which knew 
 no weariness ; and to his absolute devotion to the public service. 
 Next to the President himself, and to the illustrious man who 
 organized that gigantic system of finance which carried us 
 through without a shock to the public service, to the amaze- 
 ment of the Old World and the admiration of the New ; next, 
 I say, to the President and his Minister of Finance, the country 
 owes more to him than to any other civilian. His services may 
 be for the time lost in the blaze of military glory. His labori- 
 ous days, and the plain building where he passed them, are now 
 eclipsed by the clouds that rolled from the fields of Vicksburg 
 and Shiloh, from Gettysburg and Antietam, from Atlanta and 
 Petersburg, but when history writes the record of this war, we 
 shall find there, in light, the name of Edwin M. Stanton." 
 
INTERVIEWS WITH MR. LINCOLN. 175 
 
 that never gave up even in the darkest hour. After 
 the great defeat of the Second Bull Run, Mr. Stanton 
 telegraphed to him to come to Washington. He went 
 on the same night, and going to his house early the 
 next morning, he found the great War Secretary at 
 breakfast, as calm as a man could be at that terrible 
 moment, when despatches were pouring in with one 
 continued tale of disaster ; that our army was fall- 
 ing back, as if it might be compelled to seek for 
 safety behind the defences of Wasliington ! Together 
 they went over to the War Department, where they 
 found the President, with Mr. Chase and General 
 Halleck. It was no time to exchange compliments, 
 and Mr. Field felt that he must speak plainly as to 
 the anxiety that pervaded the North at the result 
 of the campaign, in which McClellan, after leading 
 a mighty host almost to the gates of Richmond, had 
 been driven from the Peninsula, and Pope had been 
 defeated in the very sight of the Capitol. At this free- 
 dom of speech Mr. Lincoln took no offence, but turn- 
 ing to Mr. Chase, said, "Mr. Field has a right to 
 express himself freely : let us explain the situation to 
 him," and sitting down before a large map that hung 
 upon the wall, he gave a general outline of the plan of 
 the campaign, which showed how perfectly he under- 
 stood it, and how competent he was to give, not only 
 suggestions, but, if need be, commands, as to the con- 
 duct of the war. 
 
176 HIGH ESTIMATE OF HIS ABILITY. 
 
 The same lesson lie had at another tune when he 
 was invited to accompany the President, with Mr. Chase, 
 Mr. Stanton, and Admiral Dahlgren, in a government 
 steamer down the Potomac to Acquia Creek, where 
 General McDowell was then in command, who was 
 sent for to come off to the steamer, and came with one 
 or two of his aides, all bespattered with mud, from 
 riding over the horrible roads. But neither Mr. Lin- 
 coln, nor anybody else, cared for the outward appear- 
 ance of these rough riders, but only for what they 
 knew and could report. To hear this all gathered round 
 the cabin table, where was spread out a map of the 
 country, on which they studied the whole field of the 
 contending armies as if in a council of war. 
 
 These interviews and conversations raised Mr. Field's 
 estimate of Mr. Lincoln's ability, as he saw under that 
 plain exterior a man, not only devoted to his country, 
 but of such quickness of observation and excellent judg- 
 ment, even in a subject so foreign to him as that of 
 war, that he had a better idea of the way to conduct 
 a campaign than many an officer, with his glittering 
 sword and epaulets. This combination of intelligence 
 with frankness won, not only the heart of Mr. Field, 
 but his fullest confidence, as he saw that the govern- 
 ment was not, like a great ship of war in a tempest, 
 drifting to destruction for want of a capable com- 
 mander. However threatening the storm might be, 
 there was a master on the deck, of cool head and brave 
 
IMPARTING COURAGE TO OTHERS. 177 
 
 heart, whom it was the duty of all on board to support 
 till the storm blew itself out, and the ship, though with 
 broken masts and torn sails, floated into the haven 
 where she would be. 
 
 Thus strengthened in heart and hope, Mr. Field 
 came back to impart to others the same confidence, of 
 which at times there was a pressing need. There was 
 no want of courage in the soldiers. The army was 
 always ready to do its part. Nor were the most trying 
 moments those of battle, for then all were strung up 
 to the highest pitch of daring. But for the country at 
 large, for those far away among the Northern hills, 
 the great trial was the long suspense, the slow move- 
 ment of armies, the horrors of the battle-field, from 
 which thousands were borne to the hospitals, where 
 were mingled the dying and the dead. All this made 
 the hearts sick of those whose sons and brothers were 
 in the field, to a degree that at times almost paralyzed 
 the nation. Then the great demand of the country was 
 not so much for more soldiers at the front, as for more 
 supporters in the rear, a mighty reserve of invincibles, 
 who never despaired of the Republic. 
 
 And now, standing off at the distance of thirty years 
 — the lifetime of a generation — we may venture on one 
 or two general reflections upon the Civil War. Leav- 
 ing aside the purely moral considerations, it may not be 
 going beyond the mark to say that, next to the Revolu- 
 tion, it was not only the most stupendous, but the most 
 
178 THE WAR INDISPENSABLE TO THE UNION. 
 
 beneficent event in American history. War is not always 
 a curse : it may be the necessary means of the greatest 
 good. Our country has passed through three wars, 
 each one of which has had a part in the making of the 
 nation. It was by an eight-years' war that the Colo- 
 nies gained their independence ; the War of 1812 raised 
 the United States, if not to a position among the great 
 military powers of the world, yet to one that promised 
 to make it next to Great Britain on the sea ; while this 
 last array of a nation in arms forced upon the world 
 the question : If the States were so terrible when 
 divided and warring against each other, what would 
 they be when united ? 
 
 We may even go a step farther, and say that the 
 war for Disunion was indispensable to the Union itself, 
 since it eliminated the only cause of separation between 
 the North and the South, to the happy issue that they 
 should be One Country thenceforth and forever ! 
 
 At the same time it inspired both with a mutual 
 respect, which is the first step to any closer relations. 
 In this primary discipline war is the greatest of all teach- 
 ers. Nothing subdues the loftiness of an opponent Hke 
 an unexpected show of power. Up to this time the peo- 
 ple of the two great Divisions did not know each other. 
 Separated, not only by distance, but by different social 
 systems, they grew up with a traditional dislike and 
 aversion. The Southern planters formed an aristo- 
 cratic class, made up of landed proprietors, who, living 
 
INTRODUCED ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE. 179 
 
 by the labor of others, were apt to despise those who 
 worked with their own hands. They looked upon the 
 people of the North as a race of canting hypocrites, who 
 worshipped the almighty dollar, and who were so lack- 
 ing in manly spirit that they could be treated with a want 
 of respect bordering on rudeness, and yet not be pro- 
 voked into resistance ! From this impression they had 
 a rude awakening, like that of the French when they 
 rushed into war with the slow, plodding Germans, but 
 soon found themselves engaged in what, to use a mod- 
 ern phrase, might be called "a campaign of education." 
 The North and the South were never really acquainted, 
 till they were introduced to one another on the field 
 of battle. From that time they came to regard one 
 another with profound respect, for both sides dis- 
 played the qualities that compel honor and admiration. 
 "Braver men never to battle rode." And the bravery 
 seems to have been equally divided. If our imagina- 
 tion be taken by what the German poet pictures to the 
 eye as "the battle's splendor," we have it here, for 
 never in the history of war was greater courage shown 
 on both sides, if it be measured by the number of the 
 wounded and the dead. In the Franco-Prussian War 
 the greatest carnage was in the cavalry charges 
 at Mars-le-Tour, when nearly one-half fell killed or 
 wounded, a proportion that was surpassed in many of 
 the regiments on both sides at Chickamauga. The 
 battle of Waterloo began at noon, and continued to the 
 
180 THE GLORY OF REUNION. 
 
 going down of the sun : that of Gettysburg was fought 
 on and on for three days, and ended at last by the 
 repulse of a charge that was more desperate than that 
 of the Old Guard. 
 
 And is all this glory of the battle-field to be put away 
 and forgotten ? On the contrary, we cherish the memory 
 of it as that of which we are justly proud. Our coun- 
 try has passed through the greatest civil war in history 
 — a war that raged over half a continent — and it still 
 lives, and is stronger than ever. And what is more, 
 we of the North are proud of those who fought against 
 us, of their courage and endurance, in the strength of 
 which we both share, as we are no more twain, but one. 
 
 If there was nothing so terrible as Disunion, there 
 has been nothing more glorious than Reunion. For- 
 eigners do not know what to make of it, when they see 
 Northern and Southern Generals meeting at Gettysburg 
 and Chickamauga, raising monuments to those who 
 fought and fell on both sides. But these heroic memo- 
 ries are the proud possession of us all. Nothing in our 
 country reflects more honor upon the generosity of the 
 American people than the vast cemeteries. North and 
 South, in which are gathered the forms of those fallen 
 in battle, with this inscription : 
 
 " On Fame's eternal camping ground 
 Their silent tents are spread, 
 While glory guards with ceaseless round 
 The bivouac of the dead." 
 
ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN. 181 
 
 But this is anticipating the times of reconcihation, 
 while in the order of our chronicle we are but at the 
 close of the war, which, if it had its burst of sunshine, 
 had also its dark cloud that covered the whole heaven. 
 In the midst of our rejoicing at the return of peace, 
 came the assassination of our beloved President, and 
 for the time all our pride was turned into mourning for 
 him who had carried us through the great ordeal of our 
 national existence. Overwhelmed at the country's loss, 
 Mr. Field went to Washington to attend the funeral, and 
 rode from the Capitol in the carriage with Mr. Stan- 
 ton, who told him of the President's dream on the night 
 before the fatal event. As the members of the Cabinet 
 were coming in, Mr. Lincoln said that he had a pre- 
 sentiment that something was going to happen, for he 
 had had a dream like one that he had before the battle 
 of Chickamauga. He was standing by a river where 
 the current was swift, rushing by like a torrent, which 
 seemed to prefigure a course of events that could not 
 be checked or controlled. What could be more signifi- 
 cant of an event that was coming very near, that was 
 to sweep him away from all part in human affairs ? 
 That very night the flood came and bore this emanci- 
 pator of a race out of human sight, leaving behind him 
 as his only memorial a country saved and an immortal 
 name. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REIGN OF LAW. 
 
 The war was over ; but it left wreck and ruin 
 behind. North and South had both suffered immeas- 
 urably ; but the North the less, as its population was 
 double, and its resources were ten times greater, while 
 the South was left almost a desert. Towns and cities 
 had been bombarded, and the cotton fields, for the 
 product of which the looms of England and the Conti- 
 nent were standing still, presented a scene of blackened 
 desolation. 
 
 But even this was less appalling than the sacrifice in 
 tens of thousands of Southern homes, from which some- 
 times father and sons had gone out together, of all whom 
 but one or two returned. The angel of death had been 
 abroad in the land, till it might almost be said, as in 
 the plague of the first-born in Egypt, that there was 
 not an house in which there was not one dead ! 
 
 The North too had the joy of victory dampened by 
 what was harder to bear than the loss of a battle. Our 
 country never witnessed a military pageant so imposing 
 as the return of the army through Washington, where 
 
A LEGACY OF THE WAR. 183 
 
 from morning to night was heard the tramp, tramp of 
 the legions that had been through the fire, carrying 
 proudly the flags that had been torn by shot and shell. 
 But in all the triumph of that day there was one bitter 
 sorrow : that their beloved President was not there to 
 answer to the roll of the drums and the waving of 
 banners. 
 
 The assassination of Lincoln was a national calam- 
 ity. Great as was the blow to the North, it was still 
 greater to the South, which lost in him its best friend. 
 But for that, the sufferings of both, instead of being a 
 source of mutual irritation, might have brought them 
 into a sympathy of sorrow, that would in time have 
 softened into a feeling of tenderness even among those 
 who had fought against one another. But that fearful 
 tragedy tore open the old wounds, so that it was years 
 before they could be healed. 
 
 One of the legacies of the war was martial law, 
 which is the law of barbarism, that must be endured 
 so long as the savagery of war continues, but winch 
 quickly demoralizes those who have been accustomed to 
 the gentler ways of peace. To soldiers in command it 
 very soon becomes the natural course of justice, with 
 the advantage that judgment is quick, and may be fol- 
 lowed by speedy execution. It certainly affords great 
 facihties in judicial proceedings. There is none of the 
 "law's delay," which is so tedious to a man of high 
 spirit, who is invested, not with ' ' a Httle, brief author- 
 
184 MARTIAL LAW STILL ENFORCED. 
 
 ity, " for if it be " brief, " it is not ' ' little, " as it involves 
 the power of life and death. A captain, put at the 
 head of a command in the backwoods, in his small 
 dominion is as absolute as the Czar of Russia. Let 
 him but fix his "glittering eye" on some backwoods- 
 man who does not do him reverence, and he has but 
 to send a troop of horse, and take the man out of his 
 cabin, and bring him before a ' ' drum-head court 
 martial," and he can be tried, sentenced, and shot 
 and buried in an hour I He need not fear the conse- 
 quences, for dead men tell no tales, and can make 
 no appeals. But with all its facilities, this ' 'happy des- 
 patch" may have unexpected issues. In his haste to 
 do justice he may shoot the wrong man ! Such 
 accidents will happen now and then to a soldier who 
 "does not stand on ceremony," and, under the form of 
 military law, he may be guilty of a cold-blooded assas- 
 sination ! 
 
 This was one of the abuses of power on both sides 
 that are almost inevitable in a civil war. But I speak 
 here only of our own sins, not of the sins of others. In 
 the Northern States, and especially in the Border States, 
 there was many a man who was suspected of want of 
 loyalty to the government, of sympathizing with the 
 enemy ; and who for such suspicion was branded as a 
 "copperhead" — which meant a rebel in disguise, and 
 very thin disguise at that — and was liable to be arrested 
 and tried before a court martial, and executed, before 
 
A SENTENCE TO DEATH. 185 
 
 there was an opportunity to appeal to a court that could 
 stay the hand of the executioner. How near one might 
 come to the scaffold, even though he escaped it, appears 
 in a case which is the more notable as it occurred 
 near the end of the war, after the capture of Atlanta, 
 and when Sherman was preparing for his March to 
 the Sea. 
 
 In October, 18G4, a man in Indiana was arrested at 
 his home, and thrown into prison at Indianapolis, and 
 two w^eeks after was brought to trial by a "military 
 commission" upon "charges of conspiracy against the 
 authority of the United States, inciting insurrection, 
 disloyal practices, and violation of the laws of war ! " 
 This was a vague, general charge, that would seem to 
 be barred by the fact that, even if it were true, a mili- 
 tary commission had no business to try it, since Indiana 
 was not the theatre of war, and no more under martial 
 law than Massachusetts. If a man had been disloj-^al 
 to his government, the courts were open, and he was 
 entitled to be tried, not by soldiers, who were not the 
 best men to weigh evidence, but by a judge and jury. 
 There was clearly a "want of jurisdiction." But tliis 
 objection was overruled — the man was brought before a 
 court martial and convicted, and sentenced to be hanged ! 
 The sentence was approved by the President, and he was 
 to be executed on the 19th of May, 18G5 — more than a 
 month after the surrender of Lee — a grim tragedy to be 
 enacted at the close of the war, in the first joy of peace, 
 
186 BROUGHT BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 to send to the gallows a man who had never taken 
 up arms against his country ! But his time was get- 
 ting short. It was but little more than a week to the 
 day appointed for his execution, that a petition was filed 
 in the Circuit Court of the United States for Indiana, 
 showing that a grand jury of that Court had convened 
 after his arrest, but that no indictment had been found 
 against him ; and that he had at no time been in the 
 military, naval, or militia service ; nor within any State 
 engaged in rebellion against the United States at any 
 time during the war. The petition demanded that he 
 be delivered to the proper civil tribunal to be tried, or 
 discharged from custody. 
 
 The defence was that Congress had authorized the 
 President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus during 
 the rebellion ! Yes : but that authority was not unlim- 
 ited either as to time or place : it was not to be con- 
 tinued after the war was over, nor was it to be exer- 
 cised in every part of the United States. Indeed the 
 act expressly excepted ' ' States in which the adminis- 
 tration of law had not been disturbed, wdiere any who 
 were arrested as prisoners should be brought before the 
 Judges of the United States Circuit and District Courts, 
 and if the grand jury did not bring in an indictment 
 against them, they were to be discharged ! " 
 
 Here then was the question — whether martial law 
 could be assumed and enforced in a State that had not 
 been touched by war ; and a private citizen could be 
 
PART OP MR. FIELD IX THE CASE. 187 
 
 seized by military order ; tried by a court martial, and 
 sent to the scaffold ! 
 
 The case was one that appealed very strongly to 
 Mr. Field, and he entered into it, not as a matter of 
 professional business, but from a sense of justice. 
 While the war lasted, no one was more earnest that it 
 should be carried through to the end. But when the 
 war was over, it was time that the Temple of Janus 
 was shut ; and that the people should return to the 
 ways of peace. True, some ardent partisans thought 
 the advocate was deserting his principles ; "going back " 
 on his party. But he knew no party in the Courts of 
 Law. If that was treachery to his party, he had at 
 least good company, for there stood by his side, not 
 only that sturdy old Democrat, Judge Black, of Penn- 
 sylvania, but a distinguished Republican who had 
 fought in the war, and was afterwards President of 
 the United States, General Garfield. But the burden 
 of the argument fell on Mr. Field, who rose to the 
 height of the occasion, in exposing the injustice of car- 
 rying martial law into a State where there had been no 
 Avar. The court listened in fixed attention to the very 
 last word, as he closed in a tone of the deepest solemnity : 
 
 ' ' Thus, may it please the Court, have I performed 
 the part assigned me in the argument of this case. 
 The materials were abundant. I only fear that I may 
 have wearied you with the recital or erred in the selec- 
 tion. I could not look into the pages of English law ; 
 
188 THE CLOSE OF HIS ARGUMENT. 
 
 I could not turn over the leaves of English literature ; 
 I could not listen to the orators and statesmen of Eng- 
 land ; without remarking the uniform protest against 
 martial usurpation, and the assertion of the undoubted 
 right of every man, high or low, to be judged accord- 
 ing to the known and general law, by a jury of his 
 peers, before the judges of the land. And when I 
 turned to the history, legal, political, and literary, of 
 my own country — my own undivided and forever indi- 
 visible country — I found the language of freedom inten- 
 sified. Our fathers brought with them the liberties of 
 Englislimen, Throughout the colonial history we find 
 the colonists clinging, with immovable tenacity, to trial 
 by jury. Magna Charta, the principle of representation, 
 and the Petition of Right. They had won them in 
 the fatherland in many a high debate and on many a 
 bloody field ; and they defended them here against the 
 mercenaries of the crown of England. We, their chil- 
 dren, thought we had superadded to the liberties of 
 Englishmen the greater and better guarded liberties of 
 Americans. 
 
 ' ' These great questions, than which greater never 
 yet came before this most august of human tribunals, 
 are now to receive their authoritative and last solution. 
 Your judgment will live when all of us are dead. The 
 robes which you wear will be worn by others, who will 
 occupy your seats in long succession, through, I trust, 
 innumerable ages ; but it will never fall to the lot of 
 
PUBLIC OPINION THEN AND NOW. 189 
 
 any to pronounce a judgment of greater consequence 
 than this. It mil stand when the statue which with 
 returning peace we have raised above the dome of the 
 Capitol shall have fallen from its pedestal, its sword 
 broken and its shield scattered in pieces ; nay, when 
 the dome itself, which, though uplifted into the air, 
 seems immovable as the mountains, shall have crum- 
 bled ; it will stand as long as that most imperishable 
 thing of all, our mother-tongue, shall be spoken or read 
 among men. 
 
 "That judgment, I hope and I believe, will estab- 
 hsh the liberty of the citizen on foundations never more 
 to be shaken, and ■s\all cause the future historian of our 
 greatest struggle to write that, great as were the vic- 
 tories of our war, they were equalled in renown by the 
 victories of our peace. " 
 
 This was the language, not only of conviction, but 
 of a courage which cannot be fully appreciated at this 
 distance of time. Xoio the case seems so plain that we 
 wonder that any judge on the bench could hesitate a 
 moment as to his decision. But thirty years ago the 
 people of the North were thinking of their dead Ijang 
 on a hundred Southern battle fields. To say a word 
 for those who fought against us, seemed to be false to 
 our country. This feeling was in the air, and could 
 not but invade the bar and the bench. Though 
 it seems now that there could be but one side, then 
 there were two ; and the other side was argued by a 
 
190 THE END OF MARTIAL LAW. 
 
 lawyer of the very highest rank, Mr. Stansbery of Cin- 
 cinnati, then Attorney- General, supported by the ability 
 (which no one could dispute), as well as the bull-dog 
 pugnacity, of General Butler. That their arguments 
 had weight was proved by the fact that the court was 
 divided ; of the nine judges four voted to sustain the 
 decision of the court martial, which would have sent 
 the prisoner to an ignominious execution.* It was a 
 narrow escape, but one of immense significance. When 
 the prison doors were opened for a man who had been 
 standing for weeks and months in the shadow of the 
 scaffold, it was a signal to the nation that martial law 
 was ended ; that the reign of terror was over ; and that 
 the reign of peace and justice was begun ! 
 
 So far, so good ! But that was not the last echo of 
 the Civil War. If disaffection to the government was 
 
 * The opinion in the case was written by Mr. Justice Davis 
 of Illinois, of whom Mr. Lincoln was wont to speak as "the best 
 friend he had in the world." No man knew better the natural 
 sympathy, even to tenderness, of the late President, and how, 
 if he had lived, instead of taking the airs of a conqueror, who 
 would triumpli over the vanquished, he would have been the 
 first to pour oil into their wounds ; to soothe their pride ; and 
 to turn away their thoughts from the sad legacies of war to the 
 brighter hopes of peace. In reading the opinion of tlie Justice, 
 one cannot help thinking that, both in its preparation and deUv- 
 ery, he must have been conscious that he gave expression, not 
 only to his own sense of justice, but to what would have been 
 the first prompting of a great heart that had ceased to beat. 
 
THE TEST OATH CASES. 191 
 
 not a capital crime, it could be punished in other ways. 
 If the law could not take a man's life, it could deprive 
 him of the means of subsistence by imposing conditions 
 that would shut him out from the practice of liis pro- / ^■^'^^ 
 fession. This was effected by the cunning de^dce of a 
 "Test Oath," a form of torture worthy of the Inquisi- 
 tion, as it was expressed in the new Constitution that 
 was framed for the State of Missouri, in which a man 
 who would hold an office, or be a lawyer or a minister 
 of the Gospel, must swear that he had never had any 
 part in the Rebellion, or sympathy icith it, >\dthout 
 wliich oath he could not ' ' hold any office of honor, trust, 
 or profit, or be permitted to practice as an attorney, or 
 counsellor at law ; nor be competent as a bishop, priest, 
 deacon, minister, elder, or other clergj-man of an}- 
 religious persuasion, sect, or denomination ! " The 
 penalty for neglect to take this oath was, not only 
 immediate stopping of the practice of his profession, 
 but a fine of five hundred dollars, and imprisonment 
 from six months to two years ! 
 
 The pro\'ision of the Constitution which lays down 
 these requirements is very long and minute, pointing 
 out the offence %vith such manifold specifications as to 
 show that it was a net carefully woven to catch the 
 smallest offender. Or, to take another illustration, it 
 was Hke the scj-the of Father Time, 
 
 " Which cuts down all, 
 Both great and small." 
 
192 OPINION OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 Monstrous as all this was, it could not be said that 
 it was a new thing under the sun. The passion for 
 vengeance after war is as old as history. Rome made 
 her captives pass under the yoke. Nor was it the first 
 time that it had appeared in American history. At 
 the beginning of the Revolution there were in the colo- 
 nies many who still longed for peace, and who could 
 not see that there was any sufficient reason for rushing 
 into wa,r with the mother country because of some petty 
 impost such as a tax on tea ! But they were branded 
 as Tories, Some moved across the border into Canada ; 
 others emigrated to Nova Scotia. Those who remained 
 kept very quiet. But no sooner was the war over 
 than they were required, as the condition of citizen- 
 ship, to swear, not only to be loyal to the government, 
 but that they had always been so ! Tliis was putting 
 a premium upon falsehood and perjury, against which 
 Alexander Hamilton protested, as a direct violation of 
 our Treaty with Great Britain, as well as of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, so that Mr. Field, in 
 his argument against Test Oaths, was not fighting a 
 new battle, but only against the same injustice that 
 roused the indignation of Alexander Hamilton nearly 
 a hundred years ago. 
 
 But he had no occasion to refer to a treaty with 
 England : it was enough to appeal to our own Con- 
 stitution, as against that of the State of Missouri, 
 which contained such sweeping disqualifications that 
 
THE "crime" of a CATHOLIC PRIEST. 193 
 
 it must be itself put to the test to see whether it did 
 not violate a higher law. To this end it was first 
 brought before the Supreme Court of the State of 
 Missouri, which upheld it, from which it was appealed 
 to the Supreme Court of the United States, where we 
 are now to follow it. As if to show in full relief the 
 ' ' tall heads " that it was to strike down, the test case 
 was that of a priest of the Roman CathoHc Church, 
 who had been convicted by the State courts of Missouri 
 of the "crime" of teaching and preaching without 
 having taken the oath prescribed by the Constitution ! 
 Here again Mr. Field appeared before the Court, and 
 in the very opening of his argument, thus analyzed 
 the new form of Inquisitorial justice : 
 
 ' ' Dividing this oath into all its separable parts, it 
 will be found to contain eighty-six distinct affirmations 
 or tests ! It is both prospective and retrospective ; that 
 is to say, it speaks from the time when it is actually 
 taken by each person, and relates to all that has gone 
 before ; so that, if taken by Mr. Cummings (the priest *) 
 now, it will embrace aU his past life, and, if taken five 
 years hence, it will embrace not only all his life that is 
 now passed, but the five years from this time forward. 
 
 "Altogether, it is a novelty in this country, and I 
 
 * There was also the case of a lawyer the issue of which 
 would depend upon the decision in this, which explains the 
 allusion on the next page to more than one client. 
 
194 THE STATE AGAINST THE NATION. 
 
 believe it is a novelty in the world. I have searched in 
 vain for anything in history so sweeping and severe. 
 
 "The State of Missouri steps between the Christian 
 flock and its pastor. He cannot ascend the pulpit and 
 preach to a devout congregation the resurrection of the 
 dead and the life of the world to come ; he cannot teach 
 the forgiveness of sins at the bedside of a dying peni- 
 tent ; he cannot bless the bride at the altar ; without 
 calling God to witness that he is superior to all these 
 tests. 
 
 ' ' The Supreme Court of Missouri, the highest tribu- 
 nal known to the laws of that great Commonwealth, 
 has affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court, and 
 thereby declared that there is nothing in the political 
 system of that state to forbid the imposition of such a 
 test. It is for you. Supreme Judges of all the land, to 
 declare whether there is anything in the political system 
 of the nation to forbid it." 
 
 The legal argument which follows, though not so 
 long as that in the preceding case, which made an end 
 of martial law, had the same cumulative force, as one 
 proof was piled upon another, till the advocate dis- 
 missed the question in these words : 
 
 ' ' Here I leave the cases of my clients — cases impor- 
 tant not to them only, but to the whole people of Mis- 
 souri. That State was born in conflict. The dispute 
 about her admission into the Union seemed likely to 
 di\nde the Union. Slavery, which she then warmed in 
 
 1 y 
 
THE END OF TEST OATHS. 195 
 
 her bosom, stung her, viper that it was. The poison 
 entered her vitals, and she has been purified from it 
 only by blood and fire. An avenging Nemesis decreed 
 that her deliverance should be effected through suffer- 
 ing proportionate to her error. 
 
 "She is now free. This oath, so vindictive and 
 repulsive, is her last deformity. Let her be rid of that, 
 and she will stand erect as well as free. 
 
 ' ' My clients, defeated at their own firesides, seek 
 protection here. They know that to this chamber they 
 can come for shelter, as fugitives of old sought refuge 
 beside the altar. You stand the ultimate arbiters of 
 constitutional rights ; immovable, however tumultuous 
 passions may surge and beat around you, the one stable 
 and permanent element in the government of the coun- 
 try. Presidents appear and disappear like shadows. 
 Senators and Representatives enter the doors of their 
 chambers, and go out again, no one knows whither. 
 You remain the ornament and defence of the Constitu- 
 tion — decus et tutamen.'" 
 
 The decision of the Court soon sent the Test Oaths 
 in the way of Martial Law, and it was a special pleas- 
 ure to Mr. Field that the opinion was delivered by 
 his brother, who had been appointed to the Bench by 
 President Lincoln in circumstances somewhat peculiar. * 
 
 - * After the war with Mexico the discovery of gold liad 
 caused such an emigration to the Pacific Coast that California 
 soon had a population that justified its admission as a State. 
 
196 THE OPINION BY MR. JUSTICE FIELD. 
 
 These two decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States settled two great questions, and settled 
 them forever. There was no more danger to life or 
 hberty by martial law, or that a man should be deprived 
 of the right to practise his profession, because he could 
 not, or would not, swear that he had taken no part in 
 the Rebellion, or had any sympathy with it. The law- 
 
 But the settlement of titles to land was made very difficult by 
 the fact that large tracts were overlaid by Spanish grants and 
 Mexican grants, and later by the "squatter sovereignty" that 
 seized whatever was unoccupied. This conflict of claims made 
 endless perplexity. Whichever way a case was decided, it was 
 sure to be appealed, till it drifted on to the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, where the Judges themselves were confused by the 
 contradictory opinions. To get some light on these vexed ques- 
 tions, a law was passed by Congress creating another seat on the 
 Supreme Court, to be filled by a Judge from the Pacific Coast, 
 whereupon the Senators and Representatives from California 
 and Oregon went in a body to President Lincoln, to ask for the 
 appointment of Mr. Stephen J. Field, then Chief Justice of Cali- 
 fornia, whose name they presented, not as their first choice, 
 but as their only choice. While the nomination was pending, 
 Mr. John A. C. Gray, a well known citizen of New York, and 
 an old friend of Mr. Lincoln, went to speak to him about it. 
 He found the President agreed entirely in the fitness of Judge 
 Field, and had but one question to ask : "Does David want his 
 brother to have it ? " "Yes," said Mr. Gray. "Then he shall 
 have it," was the instant reply, and the nomination was sent 
 in that afternoon, and confirmed by the Senate unanimously. 
 This was the Justice to whom it fell four years later to write 
 the opinion in the Test Oath cases. '^ 
 
SLAVERY ABOLISHED FOREVER. 197 
 
 yer was free to practise in the courts, and the priest to 
 appear in the pulpit or the confessional, or kneel at the 
 bedside of the dying. So far every man in the South 
 had recovered his freedom, and had all the rights of 
 a citizen of the United States.f But where were the 
 States themselves that had taken part in the Rebellion ? 
 Were they once more equal members of the Union, or 
 were they conquered provinces to be held in a state of 
 vassalage to await the pleasure of the conqueror ? If 
 they were restored at once without conditions, and with 
 their old institutions — slavery and all — they would be 
 left just where they were before, and would need but a 
 few years to recover their strength, when the battle 
 might be renewed. The old State governments, that 
 had been fighting the Union for four years, could not 
 be left in possession. But when they were deposed, 
 who or what should take their place ? There must be 
 some sort of government, or the whole South would 
 relapse into anarchy. The natural suggestion was that 
 a commander who was at the head of a Department 
 should take possession of the State Capital, as a nucleus 
 round which the loyal elements might gather until the 
 time of full reconstruction should come. Meanwhile the 
 first necessity was to get rid of Slavery. Mr. Lincoln 
 had issued his Proclamation as a war measure, but it 
 was all-important that it should be confirmed by an 
 amendment imbedded in the Constitution of the United 
 States, which was accomplished in the Constitutional 
 
198 REIGN OF THE CARPET-BAGGERS. 
 
 way, by being proposed by a vote of Congress, and 
 confirmed by the votes of three-fourths of the States. 
 
 When this was done so that it could not be undone 
 — that the spectre of Slavery and Disunion would never 
 come back to plague us — it would seem as if the Pro- 
 visional Governments in the South had accomplished 
 their mission, and might be allowed to depart, to return 
 no more. But what authority established by force of 
 arms ever willingly resigned its power ? An officer 
 placed in absolute control of a State, felt the dignity 
 of his position, and would make the most of it ; and 
 if a Legislature was refractory, would turn it out of 
 doors, as Cromwell dismissed the Long Parliament. 
 Even four years after the war, when General Grant 
 was President, General Sheridan, who was in com- 
 mand in New Orleans, asked permission to arrest the 
 whole Legislature of Louisiana, but fortunately the 
 cooler head of liis chief restrained the impetuosity of 
 his lieutenant. 
 
 Meanwhile the reign of the carpet-baggers had 
 begun, and men who had hung round the camps dur- 
 ing the war, but never showed their faces in the front 
 of battle, were made Governors, and, supported by a 
 Legislature of negroes just off the plantations, went in 
 for a general spoliation. There was not much left in 
 the South to steal — the freebooters might as well have 
 undertaken to rob the dead — but they could at least 
 
IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 199 
 
 issue bonds, which, though sold at a low rate, would 
 yet accomplish the purpose to gather in the spoils. 
 
 How long this would have continued, and how far 
 it would have gone, it is hard to say if the inroUing tide 
 of corruption had not struck against the breakwater of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, wliich in the 
 memorable ' ' McCardle Case " took in review the whole 
 question of the Constitutionality of the Reconstruction 
 Acts of Congress, which, its opponents claimed, was a 
 flagrant invasion of the liberty and rights, not only of 
 a single individual, but of milhons of our countrymen. 
 
 In this case, as in all the great cases that he under- 
 took, Mr. Field threw his whole soul into it. He was 
 indignant at the continuance of military rule after the 
 war was over : that regiments should be kept in Charles- 
 ton and New Orleans as if they were in a state of siege. 
 When was the reign of peace and of law to begin ? 
 
 This argument has a special interest to me as I hap- 
 pened to be in Washington at the time and heard it in 
 part, when it was interrupted by a singular circum- 
 stance. While Mr. Field was speaking a messenger 
 came to summon the Chief Justice from his place on 
 the bench to a duty to which no Judge had ever been 
 called before — to preside over the Senate sitting as a 
 Court to try an impeachment of the President of 
 the United States ! This postponed the case in the 
 Supreme Court for several weeks, when Mr. Field 
 resumed and concluded his argument. Without under- 
 
200 THE RECONSTRUCTION ACT. 
 
 taking to follow it in detail, it is enough to quote a , 
 single passage to show the vehemence with which he 
 spoke, and how he carried his position by the continued 
 thrust of questions to which there could be but one 
 answer : 
 
 "A point very much urged in the argument, and constantly 
 referred to in public speeches, is Necessity ! These military gov- 
 ernments of the South, they say, are legal because they are 
 necessary. The usual phrase is : ' This government has a right 
 to live, and no other government has a right to contest it ; and 
 whatever Congress determines as necessary to this national life 
 is right.' What necessity do they speak of ? There is no Fed- 
 eral necessity. The Federal courts are open ; the Federal laws 
 are executed ; the mails are run ; the customs are collected. 
 There is no interference with any commissioner or officer of 
 the United States anywhere in the country. There is no neces- 
 sity, therefore, of a Federal kind for an assumption of the gov- 
 ernment of Mississippi. What, then, is the necessity ? Is that 
 the reason why the military government is there ? If you are 
 to wait until you get repentant rebels— or I should perhaps 
 rather say, if you wait until you make rebels repentant by fire 
 and sword— you will have to wait many generations. Of all 
 the arguments, that of necessity has the least force. ' We will 
 not allow the Southern States to govern themselves, because, if 
 we do, the government will fall into the hands of unrepentant 
 rebels 1 ' Well, what is that to you. if they obey the laws— if 
 they submit to your government ? Do you wish to force them 
 to love you ? Is that what you are aiming at ? Of course, it 
 should be the desire and the aim of all governments to make the 
 people love as well as obey ; but as an argument for a military 
 government, it is an extraordinary one. 'Well then,' they say. 
 
THE PLEA OP NECESSITY. 201 
 
 ' we must protect the loyal men at the South, and therefore the 
 military government, which is the only one adequate to the end, 
 must be kept up.' To that I answer, first, that the General of 
 your armies, the person upon whom this extraordinary power 
 has been thrown, himself certified that there was order through- 
 out the South, so far as he could observe. But are tliere no 
 other means than military coercion ? The Union men of the 
 South, we liave been told, were in the majority, and have ever 
 been in the majority, and it was the minority by which the people 
 were driven into secession. Is government by the United States 
 necessary to sustain the majority — a majority, we are told, of 
 the white people ? They say that secession was carried by 
 a minority of the whites against the majority, and that the 
 majority have always been loyal. That is a perfect answer, 
 then, to the objection. ' Necessity ' is the reason given by 
 tyi'anny for misgovernment all the world over. It was the rea- 
 son given by Philip II. for oppressing the Netherlands by the 
 Duke of Alva ; it was the reason given for the misgovernment 
 of Italy by Austria ; it was the reason given for the misgovern- 
 ment of Ireland by England. 
 
 " 'This Nation has a right to live ! ' Certainly it has, and so 
 have the States, and so have the people. Every one of us has 
 the right, and the life of each is bound up with the life of all. 
 For who compose my nation, and what constitutes my country ? 
 It is not so much land and water. They would remain ever the 
 same though an alien race occupied the soil ; there would be the 
 same green hills, and the same sweet valleys, the same ranges 
 of mountains, and the same lakes and rivers ; but all these com- 
 bined do not make up my country. They are the body without 
 the soul. That word, country, comprehends within itself place 
 and people, and all that history, tradition, language, manners, 
 social culture, and civil polity, have associated with them. This 
 wonderful combination of State and nation, which binds me to 
 
202 THE ACT REPEALED BY CONGRESS. 
 
 both by indissoluble ties, enters into the idea of my country. 
 Its name is the United States of America. The States are an 
 essential part of the name and of the thing. They are repre- 
 sented by the starry flag, which their children have borne on so 
 many fields of glory, the ever-shining symbol of one Nation and 
 many States. They are not provinces or countries ; they are 
 not principalities or dukedoms ; but they are fiee republican 
 States, sovereign in their sphere, as the United States are sover- 
 eign in theirs ; and all essential elements of that one, undivided 
 and indissoluble Country, which is dearer than life, and for 
 which so many have died. As the State of New York would 
 not be to me what it is, if, instead of the free, active Common- 
 wealth, it were to subside into a principality or a province, so 
 neither would the United States be to me what they are, if, 
 instead of a union of free States, they were to subside into a 
 consolidated Empire. For such an Empire we have not borne 
 the defeats and won the victories of civil war. 
 
 The case had this further remarkable issue : that it 
 was never decided by the Supreme Court, though pre- 
 vious decisions indicated clearly what the result would 
 be. Having been interrupted while the impeachment 
 of Andrew Johnson was going on, the decision was 
 postponed, perhaps that Congress might be spared the 
 humiliation of having its own act declared null and 
 void. The Court therefore deferred judgment, and 
 the act was speedily repealed, a victory in another 
 form, which emphasized still further the wantonness 
 and wickedness of this cruel legislation. 
 
 After such heavy bombardments the iron gates of 
 military rule seemed to be giving way. If the military 
 
THE ENFORCEMENT ACT. 203 
 
 occupation continued, it was not quite so arrogant. 
 The South no longer felt the pressure of the iron hand. 
 The arguments against Militarj' Tribunals for Civilians, 
 and against Test Oaths, had done their work ; and that 
 in the McArdle case required no judicial decision, inas- 
 much as Congress itself hastened to repeal the act in 
 which it had assumed an authority which it did not 
 possess. But there is nothing that men or governments 
 are so reluctant to abdicate as power, and if it be 
 restrained in one form, it will appear in another. There 
 was still an opportunity for Congress to accomplish by 
 indirection what it did not dare to claim openly. The 
 right of suffrage had been given to the colored people 
 of the South. But how to enforce it was the problem. 
 To that end Congress passed an Enforcement Act, 
 which provided that ' ' if two or more persons should 
 band or conspire together ... to injure, oppress, 
 threaten, or intimidate any citizen with intent to pre- 
 vent or hinder his free exercise and enjoyment of any 
 right or privilege, granted or reserved to him by the 
 Constitution or laws of the United States, said persons 
 should be held guilty of felony ! " Nearly a hundred 
 persons were indicted in Louisiana, eight of whom 
 appeared before the Circuit Court, and three of them 
 were convicted, from which they appealed to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. This was the famous 
 Cruikshank case, in which Mr. Field appeared for the 
 defendants. 
 
204 THE ACCUSATION OF CONSPIRACY. 
 
 The act had been skilfully framed. One word in 
 it was enough to rouse the suspicions of the North — 
 the word "conspire," which suggested that there was 
 a dark and deep-laid conspiracy to defeat the result of 
 the war by secret combinations to spread terror among 
 the colored people, and so to drive them away from the 
 polls, and deprive them of the fruits of their new-born 
 hberty. To this Mr. Field replied : 
 
 ' ' An accusation of conspiracy is of all accusations the most 
 dangerous to meet, and the easiest to make men believe, in an 
 excited community. It is the harshest engine of tyranny ever 
 used under the form of law ; and its frequent use is the strong- 
 est evidence of misgovernment. From the bloody days wlien 
 the compassing or imagining the death of a king was the miser- 
 able pretence upon which tyrants took the lives and confiscated 
 the estates of their victims, to the present hour, no surer proof 
 of good or evil government can be found than the chapter on 
 conspiracies in the statute-book of a country. One has but to 
 compare the statutes of well-governed Connecticut with the 
 statutes of misgoverned Ireland, to learn what an odious engine 
 of oppression is the law of conspiracy." 
 
 But his main argument turned on the relation of 
 the States to the general government. Overstrained 
 as had been the doctrine of State rights by the South 
 to justify secession, yet it would be going too far the 
 other way, if the result of the war should be to destroy 
 the States, uniting them all in one consolidated govern- 
 ment. The States still existed, not to be overrun and 
 trampled down by armies or by undue assumptions of 
 
CONGRESS CANNOT DESTROY A STATE. 205 
 
 the central authority. If Congress could by its action 
 destroy the rights of the States, so that they would be 
 but weak and helpless members of one central power, 
 the Republic would have passed into a Kingdom. 
 And when it undertook to lay down stringent 
 prohibitions as to interference with the ballot in the 
 States, it must go one step farther and consider how it 
 could enforce its prohibitions without running against 
 the buckler of State sovereignty. As Mr. Field put it : 
 "Congress cannot destroy a State. If to-morrow 
 the Legislature of Massachusetts should pass a law 
 denying the right of suffrage to every colored man in 
 the Commonwealth, Congress could not authorize the 
 President to march the garrison of Fort Warren into 
 the State House, and turn the members out of doors. 
 Why could not Congress do tliis ? The answer is that 
 Massachusetts is a self-existing and indestructible mem- 
 ber of the American Union, and neither Congress, nor 
 any other department of the Federal Government, has 
 power to destroy any essential attribute of the sover- 
 eignty of that Commonwealth. In saying this I am 
 justified by recent decisions of this Court. No longer 
 ago than 1868 this Court, speaking by its late Chief 
 Justice (Mr. Chase), uttered these memorable words, 
 which will live in constitutional history as long as the 
 Constitution lives in its vigor : ' Not only can there be 
 no loss of separate and independent autonomy of the 
 States, but it may be not unreasonably said that the 
 
206 AN INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION 
 
 preservation of the States and the maintenance of their 
 governments are as much within the design and care 
 of the Constitution as the preservation of the Union 
 and the maintenance of the National Government. 
 The Constitution in all its provisions looks to an 
 indestructible Union composed of indestructible 
 States.^" The language of an older Judge, the ven- 
 erable Justice Nelson, was not less emphatic. Five 
 years before he had said from that bench : ' ' The Gen- 
 eral Government and the States, although both exist 
 within the same territorial limits, are separate and 
 distinct sovereignties, acting independently of each 
 other within their respective spheres. The former in 
 its appropriate sphere is supreme, but the States within 
 the limits of their powers not granted (or reserved) are 
 as independent of the General Government as that gov- 
 ernment within its sphere is independent of the States. 
 , . . The two governments are upon an equality. 
 In respect to the reserved powers the State is as sover- 
 eign and independent as the General Government." 
 
 Here the differences of opinion were distinctly out- 
 lined. The two positions involved two theories of 
 government. If the General Government were to take 
 to itself all that came within the range of life, Kberty 
 and protection, what was there left for the State Gov- 
 ernments to do? Their occupation was gone. "For 
 what is there in the world," said Mr. Field, "for State 
 legislation, but life, liberty, and the protection of the 
 
OP INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES. 207 
 
 law ? " If the General Government assumed this, it 
 assumed everything, and the States were but the 
 executors of its imperial will. That was a perfectly 
 intelligible form of government, but it was not the 
 government that was established by the fathers of the 
 Republic in the Constitution of the United States. 
 This was the Ark of the Covenant, that must be kept 
 sacred from the touch of any destroying hand. In the 
 previous generation the Constitution had the greatest 
 of American statesmen as its Defender and Expounder. 
 But Mr. Webster never saw the nation under such a 
 strain as that of the Civil War — a convulsion so awful 
 that it seemed to turn back the course of nature, and 
 we had to look round to see if it had not destroyed 
 both Liberty and Law in one tremendous ruin. Then 
 the work had to be done all over again by men of the 
 post-helium period, like Mr. Field, who, seeing how 
 vital was the Constitution to the National existence, 
 "compassed it about on every side," buttressing the 
 ancient walls, till now the Citadel is stronger than ever, 
 standing 
 
 " Four square to all the winds that blow." 
 
CHAPTER XY. 
 
 WORK AND PLAY. HOW HE "WARMED BOTH 
 HANDS AT THE FIRE OF LIFE." 
 
 The greatest service that Mr. Field ever rendered to 
 his country (always excepting his Codes) was the long, 
 stout and stubborn fight for the rights of the South 
 — a contest, not in battle, nor on the floor of Congress, 
 but in the highest Court of the land, where it went on 
 year after year, till justice triumphed at last, but only 
 at the sacrifice to him who led the fight of many old ties 
 and friendships. This was the painful thing about it, 
 that he had to part company from many of his dearest 
 friends, to whom it seemed a kind of treachery to the 
 ^ ' grand old party " that had carried the country through 
 the war, to unloose its iron grasp on the "conquered" 
 States. But Mr. Field's partj^ ties had been long 
 weakening. He was too independent to be a politician. 
 Though he was one of the founders of the Free Soil 
 party, and took all the hard knocks in the days of con- 
 flict, he left to others the spoils of victory ; while his 
 connection with the Republican party may be said to 
 have ended with the death of Lincoln. The day after 
 the funeral he had an interview with Andrew Johnson, 
 
RETIRES FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 209 
 
 in which they discussed the pohtical future. As both 
 had been old Democrats, they were agreed as to the 
 general principles of republican government. In the 
 immediate crisis Mr. Field's most earnest hope was 
 that the new President would carry out the conciliating 
 policy of his predecessor. But Johnson was so wanting 
 in tact, that he was soon at loggerheads with Congress, 
 which threatened him with impeachment. Yet head- 
 strong as he was, Mr. Field always thought that he 
 was right and Congress wrong. But so eager was the 
 latter to crush out whatever stood in its way, that it 
 did not always stop to consider its own constitutional 
 powers. Its assumptions of authority were checked 
 only by the decisions of the Supreme Court, and even 
 then the policy of the Government was to rule the 
 South by force. ^^Seeing this tendency in the Repub- 
 hcan party towards what he looked upon as a great 
 political heresy, the centralizing of all power in the 
 general government ; (a power that had become stiU 
 more odious by giving the vote to millions of negroes, 
 who could neither read nor write ;) this old Free Soiler 
 gradually withdrew from the party which he had done 
 so much to create, hoping for some better leadership 
 from the lesson of sore experience. 
 
 But the administration of Grant was a disappoint- 
 ment almost equal to that of Johnson. He was a great 
 soldier, but he carried too much of military authority 
 into civil life, and thought he could govern the country 
 
210 HIS LARGE LEGAL PRACTICE. 
 
 as he commanded the army. So apparent was this 
 that many of those who had supported him for the first 
 term hoped that his own good sense would lead him 
 to retire with dignity, and that the country would 
 choose some wise statesman to preside over it. But 
 could there be anything more grotesque than the nomi- 
 nation of Horace Greelej^, who, "svith all his talents as 
 an editor, was a man of great weaknesses, of a childish 
 vanity, which those about him would use for their own 
 selfish purposes ? So absurd did the nomination appear, 
 that Mr. Field could not bring himself to take any part 
 in the canvass, nor even to cast his vote. 
 
 Thus relieved from all political ties, he was free 
 to give himself up whollj' to his legal practice, which 
 had grown to immense proportions, v. In looking over 
 his papers, I find huge folios filled with reports of the 
 great cases in which he was the leading counsel, and 
 I am amazed at the multiplicity and variety of the 
 questions raised. The principles of law may be few 
 and simple, but their applications are infinite. And 
 here comes into exercise a penetration which is a sort 
 of genius, as it belongs only to a very high order of 
 mind, a quality which, when united with eloquence of 
 speech, makes the great advocate like Rufus Choate, a 
 combination of talents that is inherited by one who 
 bears that illustrious name. * 
 
 *Mr. Joseph H. Choate, of ^lew York. 
 
THE JOY OP COMBAT. 211 
 
 A practice so large was of course a constant strain 
 upon Mr. Field's intellectual and even physical strength. 
 But did he count it a hardship ? On the contrary, it gave 
 him the keenest enjoyment. No profession is a drudgery 
 to him who is a master of it. An artist loves to paint, 
 if he can paint ivell, and a great advocate is not unwill- 
 ing to show the "hidings of his power." ► The harder 
 the case the better ! The more it tasks his strength, 
 the greater its fascination ! He is attracted by its 
 very difficulties, as the man of science is attracted by 
 a problem that taxes all his powers. The greater 
 the issue, the greater the courage it demands, and 
 the strategy in laying out the field and marshal- 
 ling the evidence. But in all this there is a mental 
 excitement, not unmixed with pleasure, especially by 
 one who is conscious of his strength, and is of that 
 combative temperament, which I must confess was 
 fully developed in Mr. Field. As he was very positive 
 in his opinions, so he was in his likes and dishkes. 
 He was a man after Dr. Johnson's own heart, who 
 "loved a good hater." He did not merely have a mild 
 disapprobation of wrong : he hated it, and hated the 
 man that did the wrong. And hence he looked upon 
 fighting as in many cases not only the natural thing, 
 but the right thing. If this wicked world was ever to 
 be reformed, so he reasoned, it must be turned upside 
 down ; and in order to this there must be fighting and 
 a great deal of it. It was one of his maxims that the 
 
212 NOT A COLD, HARD MAN. 
 
 only men who made any lasting impression on the 
 world were the fighters ! Where would have been the 
 Reformation if Luther had not been a man of war ? 
 And so he reasoned that, in his own profession of the 
 law, "the combat" must "deepen" for years, and per- 
 haps for generations, if there was to be any progress. 
 
 With this instinct of the warrior, he never counted 
 the odds, though he should be warned that there were 
 many adversaries, nor even though it were added that 
 there were giants among them ! He always preferred 
 "a foeman worthy of his steel." Nothing irritated 
 him more than to have a weak opponent, whose mind 
 was so flabby that there was nothing to take hold of, 
 or to make an impression upon. But give him a pow- 
 erful antagonist, and he was more than willing to take 
 the heaviest blows, as it was with him a point of honor 
 to return them with interest. -^ 
 
 This was one side of the man. But were it all I 
 had to say of liim, it would do him great injustice, as 
 it would give the impression that he was a man of 
 iron (as he was), but that he was nothing more ; that 
 he was a cold, hard man, with few friends and many 
 enemies ; and withal that he was so preoccupied with 
 the duties of his profession, that he had little time for 
 the courtesies, the amenities, and the enjoyments of life. 
 
 Nothing could be more unjust or untrue. He was 
 indeed a many-sided man, engaged in manifold activi- 
 ties, and enjoyed them all ; and was inflamed with 
 
SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY. 213 
 
 the gaudium cei'taminis — "the rapture of the strife" 
 — when he entered into the contests of the bar. 
 
 But the bravest soldier sometimes longs for the quiet 
 of his tent, and no one ever welcomed it more than 
 Mr. Field. Though his professional life was in the 
 city, he loved the country. He was a country bo}", 
 born on the banks of the Connecticut, where he loved to 
 sail on the broad river, or to ramble among the hills — 
 a passion that remained with him till the last hour of 
 his life. When he was fourteen years old, his father 
 removed to Stockbridge, one of the most beautiful vil- 
 lages of New England, where his son, even when grown 
 to manhood, and occupied with large affairs, always 
 spent his vacations, and the happiest day in all the year 
 was that on which he turned his back on the city, and 
 started for his summer home. He Avas particular as 
 to the very day of going, and would take his flight, if 
 possible, on the 20th of May, partly because it was his 
 father's birthday, but also because it was the time of 
 the apple blossoms. The valley of the Housatonic is 
 full of orchards, which are then all aglow with their 
 delicate white blossoms, and the air is laden with 
 their perfume. 
 
 His first home was at Laurel Cottage, near the foot 
 of Laurel Hill, which Miss Sedgwick has made the 
 scene of "a very thrilling passage in "Hope Leslie" ; 
 but a few years later he bought a large farmhouse, 
 perhaps a hundred years old, with two or three hun- 
 
214 HIS MORNING RIDES. 
 
 dred acres of ground, on the top of a hill, that is a 
 background for the village which it looks down upon, 
 taking in the valley of the Housatonic, and having a 
 wide sweep of mountains all round the horizon.* 
 
 About the same tune I bought a more modest farm- 
 house, with a few acres, a little farther to the West, so 
 that we saw each other every day, and almost every 
 hour of the day. He was very regular in his habits, 
 rising early for his morning ride, in which I was often 
 his companion. Nothing could be more exquisite than 
 those rides over the hills, drinking in the dewy fresh- 
 ness of the morning air, with the song of birds, and all 
 the sights and sounds that mark the wakening of 
 nature to a new day's life. If I was detained from 
 going, I kept a lookout for him, and saw him at a dis- 
 tance, as that tall figure came up the road under the 
 willows, and if he caught sight of me, he was sure to 
 turn into our grounds and ride up to the door to give 
 me his morning salutation. He had been accustomed 
 in his boyhood to hear the old divines of New England 
 speak of this world as "a wilderness," which was fit 
 only for a state of probation, and would call out to me, 
 "Well, Henry ! for this 'wilderness world' this is 
 pretty good ! " and then turn with a hearty laugh, and 
 ride away, repeating some fragment of poetry, of which 
 
 * Dean Stanley, who spent several days with Mr. Field, said 
 the view was the most beautiful he had seen in America. 
 
WHEN DAYS WERE DARK AND DREARY. 215 
 
 his head was alwaj^s full. If it was after the summer 
 was past, I could hear faintly the murmur of the famil- 
 iar lines : 
 
 " Ere, in the Northern gale. 
 
 The Summer tresses of the trees are gone, 
 The woods of Autumn, all around our vale, 
 Have put their glory on." * 
 
 Nor was he limited to his morning rides. Such was 
 the exhilaration of being in the country, and living in 
 the open air, that he was always getting up excursions 
 to Monument Mountain, or Mount Everett at one end 
 of the county, or Greylock at the other, from which 
 he now and then rode over the mountains, and came 
 down into the valley of the Connecticut. 
 
 But the climate of New England is variable, and 
 sometimes even in midsummer there was a day that 
 was dark and dreary. But the sudden change did not 
 trouble him. He was but too glad to have the excuse 
 for a blazing fire, where, stretched in an easy chair, his 
 "creature comforts" were complete, and if he had a 
 few friends around him, he asked for nothing more. 
 Then was the time to see him at his best, as he was 
 free from care, and running over with reminiscences of 
 past years and distant lands. 
 
 * Written by Bryant when he was a young lawyer in Great 
 Barrington, and published in the United States Literary Gazette, 
 October 15th, 1824. 
 
216 READING POETRY AND THE BIBLE 
 
 From this animated conversation he would turn to 
 reading. He had but Uttle taste for music or painting. 
 He was not a connoisseur of pictures, and he hardly 
 knew one tune from another. But he devoured books. 
 He was fond of poetry, and had innumerable pieces 
 at his tongue's end. Even the dullest listener could 
 not but be roused by his ringing voice, as he read 
 "The Ride of Paul Revere" and " How they brought 
 the good news to Ghent. " Then turning to Milton, he 
 would quicken his pace to the dancing gait of L' Allegro, 
 and after a pause reduce it to the slow and measured 
 steps of II Penseroso. 
 
 But for subhmity of style there was nothing to 
 him like the Bible. As he had been brought up 
 to read it at morning prayers, he was familiar with 
 it from Genesis to Revelation, and turned to it for 
 its poetry and its eloquence. In this he was like Mr. 
 Webster, of whom the late Chief Justice Chapman, of 
 Massachusetts, once told me that the greatest intellect- 
 ual treat of his life was in hearing him, not in a public 
 lecture, but in private conversation, discourse of the 
 Book of Job, of which he would talk by the hour, and 
 on which he had sometimes wished to write a com- 
 mentary ! Mr. Field had the same enthusiasm for his 
 favorite psalms, such as "The Lord is my shepherd, 
 I shall not want" ; and Luther's psalm, "God is our 
 refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." 
 In certain passages, such as ' ' They that go down to 
 
THE FOUR BROTHERS. 217 
 
 the sea in ships ; that do business in great waters ; 
 these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the 
 deep " ; there was a majestic roll like the roll of the sea, 
 to which there came back a response like the sound of 
 many waters, ' ' Oh that men would praise the Lord 
 for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the 
 children of men ! '' But his enthusiasm did not stop 
 with the poetry of the Bible : he found poetry in its 
 prose : in the stately rhythm of the old Hebrew, as in 
 Solomon's dedication of the Temple, or Jacob's farewell 
 to his sons. I can hear him now reading: "Reuben, 
 thou art my first-born ; my might and the beginning 
 of my strength," and "The sceptre shall not depart 
 from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, 
 till Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of 
 the people be. " 
 
 These are sweet memories of a brother's life, but 
 there was something nearer and sweeter still. While 
 he had good will toward all men, his affection was 
 reserved for an inner circle, into which no stranger 
 could intrude. What he was to his daughter and her 
 children will appear in the next chapter, when we follow 
 him in pursuit of them round the globe. But what he 
 was to his brothers I can tell. Our father's family was 
 a large one — ten children in all — eight sons and two 
 daughters. But one by one they dropped away, till, 
 a full quarter of a century ago, the two sisters and 
 four of the eight brothers were gone, leaving behind 
 
218 HE TOUCHED LIFE AT EVERY POINT. 
 
 Dudley, Stephen, Cyrus, and myself, as the only sur- 
 vivors. As three of us lived in New York, it needed 
 only a visit from the Judge in Washington to bring us 
 all together. Those were our happiest moments, when 
 we could sit round one small table — "we four and no 
 more ! " — and all be boys again. We talked of all 
 things past, present and to come ; of school days and 
 College days ; of our modest ambitions as we looked 
 out from the Berkshire Hills upon the great world at 
 a distance, and began to dream dreams and to see vis- 
 ions ; of our early struggles and disappointments ; and 
 of the varied hfe of the after years. Into all this no 
 one of us entered with more of abandon to the spirit of 
 the hour. As he talked of his youth, his youth came 
 back again ; the old light was in his eyes ; and an 
 inexpressible sweetness (of wliich no man had more for 
 those he loved) flushed in the noble countenance. And 
 now — as I think of the immense vitality that carried 
 him into his ninetieth year ; of the great part that he 
 acted in the world ; and of all that he was to us who 
 knew him best ; whereby he drew to himself love at 
 home and honor abroad — it seems as if he touched life 
 at every point, and got out of it as much as it had to 
 give, or that was worth living for. If it were all to 
 be put in a single line, I know of none more fitting 
 than that which was written of Walter Savage Landor, 
 " He warmed both hands at the fire of life ! " 
 
CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 AN INTERNATIONAL CODE. ARBITRATION INSTEAD 
 OF WAR. 
 
 The year 186 G will be memorable in history as that 
 in which two hemispheres were united, so that it could 
 be said, in a real and true sense, that there was no 
 more sea ! The honor of that great achievement be- 
 longs to an American, as was fully recognized by the 
 best authorities, who knew its whole histor}^ from the 
 beginning to the end, such as Lord Kelvin and the late 
 Sir James Anderson and Sir John Pender. There was 
 nothing in which the Great Commoner of England, John 
 Bright, delighted more than to refer, as he did in his 
 speeches again and again, to "his friend Cyrus Field," 
 as ' ' the Columbus of our time, who, after no less than 
 forty voyages across the Atlantic in pursuit of the great 
 aim of his life, had at length by his cable moored the 
 New World close alongside the Old ! " That magnifi- 
 cent tribute was simple justice. But there was an inside 
 history to the great undertaking. No one outside of his 
 own family will ever know the terrible strain of those 
 twelve long years, and how the spirit of the projector, 
 when cast down by defeat, was ralUed and reanimated 
 
220 HIS LOVE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 by the undaunted courage of his eldest brother, who saw 
 in this iron hnk between the two countries, not only a 
 commercial benefit to both, but a new tie drawing nearer 
 together those who were of the same blood. Now that 
 the work was done, and that the two countries were no 
 more divided by the sea, but were literally within speak- 
 ing distance, why cDuld they not be brought into the 
 closest relations of mutual confidence ? 
 
 This was a dream that Mr. Field had long cherished. 
 Every summer he spent a few days or weeks in England, 
 where he had a large acquaintance with public men — 
 lawyers and judges, and members of Parliament — among 
 whom he found a great liberality of thought on all polit- 
 ical questions. Indeed he often said that, while America 
 was more democratic in her institutions, there was more 
 individual independence in England. We were too much 
 in bondage to parties, or to public opinion, the most 
 despicable tyrant that ever reigned over a high-spirited 
 people. A democracy might be the most galling tyranny 
 in the world. Better have one tyrant than a thousand ! 
 Hence he felt that, in the great lesson of good govern- 
 ment, we had much to learn as well as much to give. 
 So he exchanged experiences with his English friends 
 with the utmost frankness, both assured that, no matter 
 how many defeats the cause of liberty might suffer, 
 right and justice would prevail at the last : that 
 
 " Freedom's battle once begun, 
 Though often lost, is ever won." 
 
A NEW HOLY ALLIANCE. 221 
 
 The first thing was to have a perfect understanding 
 between the two countries. To this end he spoke in 
 England as he spoke in America, with the utmost frank- 
 ness ; aiming to exorcise distrust wherever he found it 
 on either side, and to allay the sensitiveness that made 
 it a matter of pride that each should stand in armed de- 
 fiance of the other. Such an attitude of jealousy and 
 suspicion was unworthy of either. Instead of this he 
 would that there should be a union in the two peoples 
 of all true-hearted men — the good, the wise, and the 
 brave — in a brotherhood that might in time take a legal 
 form by act of Congress and of Parliament. Nor need 
 it stop there, but extend from country to country, till 
 all nations should be bound together in a Holy Alliance, 
 not of despots and tyrants, but of the kindred races of 
 mankind. 
 
 That very year (1866) Mr. Field was present at a 
 meeting of the British Association for the Promotion of 
 Social Science at Manchester, and, perhaps inspired by 
 the great event that had sent an electric thrill through 
 two continents, he proposed the appointment of a com- 
 mittee to prepare the Outlines of an International Code, * 
 
 * Happily this scene is not left entirely to the imagination. 
 At the time an enterprising searcher after situations that prom- 
 ised to be turning points of history, took a photograph of 
 "Mr. Field proposing the preparation of an International Code," 
 in which appear the well-known faces of some of England's most 
 illustrious men. 
 
222 THE COMMUNITY OF NATIONS. 
 
 which it should report for correction and amendment, 
 and that, when thus completed, should be presented 
 to the different countries represented for their adoption. 
 The suggestion was welcomed with enthusiasm, and 
 a committee of eminent jurists appointed on the spot. 
 But when it came to carrying it out, they found an 
 embarrassment from their wide separation, so that each 
 one would have to work as it were " at arm's length," 
 when they needed to be in constant consultation. 
 Mr. Field, however, did not lose heart or hope, but 
 returned to the charge the next year at the meeting 
 of the Association in Belfast, in an address on the 
 Community of Nations ; all of which were one in that 
 their interests were one ; while England and America 
 were so bound together by ties of blood that war 
 between them would be nothing less than fratricide. 
 No matter which was victorious, it would be an 
 unspeakable calamity to both. He said : 
 
 ' ' We may look upon England and America frowning at each 
 other across the Atlantic ; mutually jealous, slow to redress 
 injuries, and ready to offer or receive affronts. Stimulated by 
 bad men, in the passionate madness of the hour, they rush into 
 war for what is foolishly called the supremacy of the seas. Let 
 it become an internecine war. We should fight each other by 
 sea and land. There would be battles in the Atlantic, the 
 Pacific, and the Indian Oceans. Wherever we could strike each 
 other, we should strike. You would batter down some of our 
 towns, and we some of yours. Timid merchantmen flying from 
 pursuing cruisers, burning houses along the coasts, and ships 
 
A FRATRICIDAL WAR. 223 
 
 sunk upon the sea, would bear witness to the madness and f ury 
 of the great contending nations. At the end of all, after each 
 had burned and killed enough, one might be driven from the 
 sea, leaving the other in undisputed supremacy. But would 
 either be better off than when the war began? Would the 
 beaten and humiliated combatant be as useful to the victor as 
 before ? Would the victor be wiser, better, or happier ; to say 
 nothing of that store of hate which would be accumulated and 
 laid aside for the renewed strife of a later generation ? Would 
 the merchants of London and New York, or of Belfast and Bos- 
 ton, have gained by turning rich and useful customers into 
 exasperated and impoverished enemies ? Would the institutions 
 of England or America be improved by the conflict? Would 
 not the wealth and culture of both — all, indeed, w-hich makes 
 man better and happier in each — be lessened in the waste and 
 desolation of the struggle ? " 
 
 This was not the language of fear, deprecating a 
 contest for which one side was unprepared — it was the 
 manlj' utterance of reason and justice, spoken in the 
 name of humanity, and in the name of Almighty God, 
 who is the Father of all the nations of the earth, and 
 would have His children dwell together in unity. 
 
 That this might be our inheritance forever, it should 
 not be left to rest only on sentiment, but be assured by 
 a recognition of the Community of Nations, which were 
 indeed but separate members of one great family. 
 This was a part of modern civilization, of which the 
 ancients knew nothing. Two thousand years ago 
 every state that was conscious of its power stood apart, 
 
224 BROTHERHOOD BORN WITH CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 sovereign and alone, in proud isolation and defiance : 
 " Old empires sat in sullenness and gloom," 
 
 hardly recognizing a common humanity. In the Latin 
 language the very word liostis meant at once stranger 
 and enemy. There was no right but that of the 
 strongest. As Rome and Carthage looked across 
 the Mediterranean, the highest ambition of each was 
 to destroy the other. The Carthaginians claimed the 
 supremacy of the sea, and if any strange sail rose above 
 the horizon, they pursued it as if it were a pirate, and 
 seized its crew and threw them overboard. Nor did a 
 Roman feel that he violated any law, human or divine, 
 if he killed a Carthaginian. That two great powers, 
 looking out upon the same blue sea, could live as 
 friendly neighbors, never occurred to them. The idea 
 of the brotherhood of the whole human race was born 
 with Christianity. 
 
 But century after century had to come and go before 
 this brotherhood was recognized among communities 
 and states. It was not till what are comparatively 
 modern times, less than three hundred years ago, that 
 Grotius gave form to international law in his great 
 work on the Rights of War and Peace [De Jure Belli 
 et Pacis] , which was followed by Puf endorf some fifty 
 years after. But what they wrote then may not serve 
 the purpose now, for this is not the same world as that 
 of Grotius and Pufendorf . The nations do not stand 
 
THE COUNTRIES DRAWING NEARER. 225 
 
 apart as they did three hundred, or one hundred, or even 
 fifty years ago. The ends of the earth are coming 
 together till it may almost be said that there are no 
 more "foreign countries." With our ease of cormnu- 
 nication it is as if we were of one language and of one 
 speech, and international communication leads almost 
 of necessity to international law. But it may be more 
 easy to understand one another's language than their 
 ideas of justice. If those who are brought in contact 
 were homogeneous, their relations would easily adjust 
 themselves. But in many cases their ways and ours 
 are not only different, but antagonistic, as we are of 
 different races and religions. There are in the world 
 a hundred and twenty millions of Moslems, to whom 
 the only law is that of the Koran, so that between 
 Egyptians and Englishmen justice has to be adminis- 
 tered by mixed tribunals composed of representatives 
 of both. With such confusion of ideas, it is not always 
 possible, even with the best intentions, to be just to 
 others, and just to ourselves. 
 
 Who then shall make the law for nations ? Is it not 
 almost inevitable that it will be made by force ; that the 
 %vill of the stronger will be imposed upon the weaker ? 
 
 And where should a reformer begin ? Was it neces- 
 sary to turn upside down the whole fabric of existing 
 law, crude as it might be ? By no means. Mr. Field 
 was no iconoclast to break in pieces the idols of the past. 
 His idea was not to destroy, but to improve. The world 
 
226 WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL LAW? 
 
 would move slowly at best, but it might be kept moving 
 in the right direction. With no visionary dreams of a 
 millennium, or of an ideal state of society, he believed 
 that it was possible for nations to adjust their relations 
 to one another on such a broad plane of fairness and 
 mutual benefit, that they should no longer dream of 
 the glory of conquest as the height of their ambition. 
 
 But the preservation of peace was only one part of 
 International Law, though it might be the most impor- 
 tant part. Yet in its full extent it included all the rela- 
 tions of one country to another. As Mr. Field puts it : 
 
 "International law is that body of rules recognized among 
 nations, defining their rights and duties toward each other, and 
 the rights and duties of their people respectively, as growing out 
 of international relations. The law is vast in extent and infinite 
 in detail. It encircles the earth, holds or assiunes to hold the 
 strongest nations in its grasp, and affects to a greater or less 
 extent the relation of every human being. You may intrench 
 yourself in camps and fortresses, yet its voice will reach you ; 
 you may take the wings of morning, but you cannot escape its 
 presence. Its office is to regulate the conduct of your own 
 nation toward all other nations and all strangers ; and to govern 
 and protect you into whatever part of the world you go. No 
 sovereign is so haughty, no subject so poor, as to be beyond its 
 authority. It knows neither latitude nor longitude, wears the 
 same face under northern and southern skies, and utters one 
 voice to the Caucasian, the African, and the Mongolian." 
 
 So vast was the realm over which International Law 
 had sway. It was a power like gravitation that held 
 
LORD RUSSELL ON THE CODE. 227 
 
 the world together. But to some it seemed to be an 
 indefinite and almost intangible tiling, which it was 
 quite impossible to reduce to any fixed form. It was 
 like one of the forces of nature, which, however power- 
 ful, could not be confined, and, as it were, imprisoned 
 within the iron bars of a Code. So thought Lord 
 Russell, the Lord Chief Justice of England, who is cer- 
 tainly one of the first authorities in the world. In a 
 recent Address before the American Bar Association, 
 he refers to the work of Mr. Field, but thinks he at- 
 tempted the impossible. He says : 
 
 " The rules of international law are not to be traced with the 
 comparative distinctness with which municipal law may be 
 ascertained. I would not advocate the codification of interna- 
 tional law. The attempt has been made, as you know, by Field 
 in this country, and by Professor Bluntschli of Heidelberg, and 
 by some Italian jiu-ists, but has made little way towards success. 
 Indeed, codification has a tendency to an-est progress. It has 
 been so found, even where branches or heads of municipal law 
 have been codified, and it will at once be seen how much less 
 favorable a field for such an enterprise international law pre- 
 sents, where so many questions are still indeterminate. After 
 all it is to be remembered that jural law in its widest sense is as 
 old as society itself ; ubi societas ibi jus est ; but international 
 law, as we know it, is a modern invention. It is in a state of 
 growth and transition. To codify it would be to crystalize it ; 
 uncodified it is more flexible and more easily assimilates new 
 rules. While agreeing, therefore, that indeterminate points 
 should be determined and that we should aim at raising the 
 ethical standard, I do not think we have yet reached the point 
 
228 IS IT AN IMPOSSIBILITY ? 
 
 at which codification is practicable, or if practicable would be 
 a public good." * 
 
 But Mr. Field, with American audacity, saw no 
 such impassable barriers in the way. He had read the 
 prophecy of the last days, that the valleys should be 
 exalted and the hills made low to prepare an highway 
 for the coming of the Prince of Peace, and every strong- 
 armed toiler could help to clear obstructions out of the 
 way. As to the impossibility of framing a 'Code,' he 
 had said long before : 
 
 ' ' There is no more difficulty in framing a Code of Interna- 
 tional Law than of national, or (as it is sometimes, though 
 inaccurately, called,) municipal law. The established rules of 
 International Law have already a written record ; they are con- 
 tained in the treaties entered into between nations, in acts of 
 legislation, in the decision of courts of law, and in treatises of 
 publicists. All that is thus contained can be gathered from its 
 various repositories, condensed, analyzed, and arranged, and 
 stated in distinct propositions." 
 
 * Lord Russell adds in the very next paragraph, ' ' Among the 
 most successful experiments in codification in English commu- 
 nities have been those in Anglo-India, particularly the Penal 
 Code, and the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure." He was 
 probably not aware that this was, in part at least, a contribution 
 from Mr. Field, who, in his journey round the world, spent a 
 few days at Singapore, and inquiring of the Attorney-General, 
 who called to see him, what was the Code of the Straits Settle- 
 ments, was answered, "The Code of New York" ! and indeed, 
 turning to the printed page, he read the very words that he had 
 written in his library on the other side of the globe. 
 
OUTLINES OF A CODE. 229 
 
 Between two such authorities, it would be presum- 
 ing to give an opinion, but for Mr. Field it must be 
 said that he claimed nothing more than to be a pio- 
 neer of reform, leading the way where others would 
 follow. Though for convenience he used the word 
 "Code" * as part of a title, he took good care to define 
 the limits of what he undertook. In the preface he says : 
 " This work should be taken for what its name imports : 
 Draft Outlines of an International Code. It is not put 
 forth as a completed Code, nor yet as the completed 
 Outlines of a Code, but as a Draft of the Outlines." 
 Surely it would not be possible to take a more unpreten- 
 tious title. It was an experiment rather than a finality. 
 He said: "It is intended for suggestion, and is to 
 undergo careful and thorough revision." He was 
 content to labor, and that other men should enter 
 into his labors. In the second edition he makes full 
 acknowledgment of what he has received from others : 
 "I have had the advantage of many suggestions, and 
 have given the work a careful revision." Nor was he 
 disturbed if others should claim all the honor, quite 
 wilhng to leave it to those who should come after him 
 to do him justice. 
 
 * Even the word ' 'Law" itself has to be used in a peculiar sense, 
 for strictly speaking there can be no such thing as law which 
 does not emanate from a lawgiver, who has the authority to 
 make the law, and power to enforce it. both of which are want- 
 ing in the case of International Law. 
 
230 EXISTING STATE OF THE LAW. 
 
 The first step was a study of the existing state of 
 International Law as laid down by writers of authority 
 on the multitudinous subjects which it embraces, and 
 as recognized in treaties between different countries. 
 The treaties made by Great Britain, if not a law to 
 the world, were a law to herself, so far as concerned 
 the countries with which they were made. If other 
 countries were to adopt the same rules, there might 
 grow up a general consensus of opinion and practice, 
 which would have the force, if not the form, of an 
 enactment of law. Another authority was found in 
 the diplomatic correspondence between different gov- 
 ernments ; and another still in the judicial decisions 
 of the higher courts in cases involving contested 
 points. These investigations, spread over a field so 
 vast, were reduced to a general result by drafting 
 into separate articles what were accepted as rules 
 of law, with comments and arguments in their sup- 
 port. The burden of this original examination and 
 analysis of authorities, throughout the greater part of 
 the work, was borne by Mr. Austin Abbott and his 
 partner, Mr. Howard Payson Wilds, and, on certain 
 special subjects, by Mr. Charles Francis Stone, all 
 members of the New York bar. Mr. Wilds was en- 
 gaged in these researches for nearly five years.* 
 
 * President Barnard, of Columbia College, prepared the titles 
 on " Money," " Weights and Measures," " Longitude and Time," 
 and "Sea Signals." 
 
THE WORK OP MANY YEARS. 231 
 
 With such experts ransacking hbraries and explor- 
 ing every source of information, there was accumulated 
 a mass of material that would have dismayed a man of 
 less courage than Mr. Field. But with his tempera- 
 ment, the greatness of the undertaking only stimulated 
 his indomitable energy, and all the hours that he could 
 snatch from his professional engagements — his morn- 
 ings and his midnights — were given to the work of 
 International Law. 
 
 And what came out of all these busy years ? A brand 
 new Code, evolved out of his own brain ? Not at all ! 
 It was the same old law with modern improvements. 
 Was the law the only branch of human knowledge in 
 which there was no such thing as progress ? The 
 world was changing and the law must change with it. 
 If this was taking liberties with the past, it was a lib- 
 erty that must be taken by any generation ^vith the 
 work of its predecessors. 
 
 But modest as were its pretensions, the ' ' Outlines 
 of a Code" grew and grew into a volume that quite 
 appalls the ordinary reader. If I do not attempt a 
 critical analysis of such a work, it is because that is too 
 high for me ; it belongs to one whose life has been 
 given to legal studies, who only can appreciate the vast 
 range of subjects (the table of contents alone covers 
 forty pages ! ), and is competent to analyze each separate 
 part, so as to judge how far it is a real contribution to 
 International Law. 
 
232 WAR SOMETIMES INEVITABLE. 
 
 Without attempting anything so ambitious, it may 
 be permitted to one who is not a lawyer to dwell briefly 
 on the last third of the book, which is given up to War, 
 in which it is apparent that the author has put into it, 
 not only his legal knowledge, but his whole heart, 
 hoping that long after he had passed away it might 
 remain as a plea for peace and good will among men. 
 
 To begin with, he did not deny that a war might 
 be sometimes inevitable — coming like a convulsion of 
 nature, a storm or an earthquake, which man was pow- 
 erless to resist. Nor would he deny that wars had some- 
 times subserved the cause of liberty and of civilization. 
 The gallant fleets of England destroyed the Spanish 
 Armada. By a seven years' war our country won her 
 independence. By a civil war of four years slavery was 
 destroyed. By war Italy was made united and free. 
 No appeal to justice could have persuaded Austria to 
 give up Lombardy and Venice : they had to be wrenched 
 from her on the field of battle. The tyrant Bomba 
 ruled Naples and Sicily till he was driven out by the 
 invasion of Garibaldi. In such cases war was the 
 only relief from a situation that was too terrible to 
 be borne. 
 
 But for the most part wars were precipitated by pride, 
 hatred or ambition. For such a war Mr. Field had a 
 double abhorrence : not only because it was wicked, but 
 because it was insane, in that it did not settle anything 
 but the question of brute force ! It did not prove that 
 
HOW TO STOP A WAR BEFORE IT IS BEGUN. 233 
 
 the victorious power was right ; that its cause was 
 just ; and that the conquered state, which shrank back 
 defeated and almost destroyed, was a sinner above other 
 nations, or indeed above its victorious enemy. Nor did 
 it even settle the question of peace. On the contrary, 
 one war sowed the seed of other wars, that might be 
 continued from generation to generation, till one power 
 or the other was destroyed ; or if permitted to exist, 
 it was only as a subject or a slave ! 
 
 Looking then at the question from before and after, 
 Mr. Field reasoned that the proper moment to stop a 
 war was before it was begun ; before any rash act had 
 put either power where it could not retreat with honor, 
 or at least without a sacrifice of national pride. There- 
 fore he reasoned that in case of differences between 
 two countries, the mode of procedure should be settled 
 beforehand, so that neither should be thrown off its 
 balance by some sudden irritation, but could look at any 
 question in the clear light and tranquil atmosphere of 
 peace and friendship. To this end he suggested three 
 simple provisions, which, if followed, would make war 
 almost impossible : 
 
 "First: that there should be a simultaneous reduc- 
 tion of the enormous armaments which now weigh 
 upon Europe ! " That alone would save millions of 
 dollars a day, and thus lift a burden that presses sorely 
 upon every power on the continent ; while the mere 
 pause would cool the hot blood of the belhgerents. 
 
234 A PEACEFUL WAY OF REDRESS. 
 
 "Second: that if any disagreement or cause of 
 complaint should arise between nations, the one 
 aggrieved should give formal notice to the other, speci- 
 fying in detail the causes of complaint and the redress 
 sought, and that this complaint should be formally 
 answered within a certain period." This would prevent 
 hasty action, and give time for both parties to think it 
 over, and to ask themselves if there were really anything 
 in dispute that was worth fighting about. If such a 
 course had been pursued by France and Germany before 
 the fatal declaration of July, 1870, we should probably 
 have been spared the last Franco- German war ; although 
 it must in truth be said that the French were so mad 
 for war, to show that France, and not Germany, was 
 the great military power of the continent, that it is 
 doubtful whether anything could take the conceit out 
 of them but a few tremendous defeats. Then, indeed, 
 they began to open their eyes, and would have gladly 
 retreated. But it was too late, and they had to drink 
 the cup of humiliation to the very dregs. We on this 
 side of the Atlantic have taken care to avoid any possi- 
 bility of misunderstanding with our neighbors by insert- 
 ing a provision in our treaties with Bolivia, Guatemala, 
 Peru, San Salvador and New Granada, that a blow 
 should never be struck without full notice of any griev- 
 ance that might be peaceably composed. 
 
 ' ' Third and last : If the parties did not agree, 
 they were to appoint a Joint High Commission " ; 
 
THE ALABAMA ARBITRATION. 335 
 
 [representing the two countries] ' ' and if that failed, a 
 Tribunal of Arbitration " [made up of representatives 
 from other nations friendl}'- to both] . 
 
 Could there be anything more simple than this ? 
 Would it involve any sacrifice of dignity on the side of 
 either party ? Was there any humiliation in arguing 
 a question in a tone and temper of mutual respect, as 
 if each had the fullest confidence in the sincerity and 
 fairness of the other ? Such frankness would be a les- 
 son in national manhood. 
 
 We need not theorize about it when we have a case 
 in point, that is the best of all arguments. At the close 
 of our civil war there was a very bitter feeling against 
 England, from whose ports had gone out the ships that 
 had preyed upon our commerce till they had nearly 
 driven it from the ocean. The case hngered for six 
 years till Mr. Gladstone, seeing that the fires were still 
 smouldering, with a frankness that did him infinite 
 honor, made advances towards having the question 
 settled forever ; and, as if to show that England was 
 ready to meet us more than half way, instead of invit- 
 ing the American representatives to come to London, 
 he sent the English representatives to Washington, to 
 deliberate ^vith us under the shadow of the Capitol, where 
 both sides went to work with such earnest purpose, 
 that in a few weeks they had agreed to submit the whole 
 question to a Tribunal of Arbitration, to be composed 
 of five members ; one to be designated by the Queen, 
 
236 PEACE WITH HONOR. 
 
 and anotlier by the President ; with a request to the 
 King of Italy, the President of the Swiss Confederation, 
 and the Emperor of Brazil, each to name an arbitrator, 
 and in case of the failure of either to act, the request 
 was to be transferred to the King of Sweden and Norway. 
 
 When the treaty was duly signed and sealed, the 
 English representatives came on to New York to embark 
 for home, and the night before they sailed, they were 
 entertained by Mr. Cyrus Field at Delmonico's, where 
 they had the opportunity of meeting several hundreds 
 of our most eminent citizens. The feeling on both sides 
 was one of unbounded relief and satisfaction. I can 
 hear now the ringing voice of the Marquis of Ripon 
 saying proudly, ' ' The treaty between the two countries 
 is an honest treaty, of which neither has reason to be 
 ashamed ! " Ashamed indeed ? There is nothing in all 
 our history of which we have more reason to be proud. 
 
 A few months later the Tribunal met in Geneva, 
 and after listening to the arguments of great advo- 
 cates on both sides, gave their decision that England 
 should pay an indemnity of fifteen millions of dollars ! 
 Was it a humiliation of England that the case went 
 against her? Then was it a humiliation for us that 
 another arbitration a year or two later about the fisheries 
 on the coast of Newfoundland went against us ! The 
 only difference was that we had to pay but five millions, 
 while England had to pay fifteen ! Does that seem a 
 great deal of money ? Both together would not have 
 
CASES THAT CANNOT BE ARBITRATED. 237 
 
 paid the cost of war for a week ! But really the ques- 
 tion of money is too paltry to be so much as named 
 when two governments have to decide the policy of two 
 great countries that profess to be civilized and Christian. 
 In closing the address with which he presented the 
 International Code, Mr. Field took good care to guard 
 himself from misrepresentation : 
 
 " I do not mean to say that every claim which one nation 
 may make upon another should be submitted to arbitration. 
 There may be claims which no self-respecting nation would sub- 
 mit to any arbiter, such as those which touch its equality or 
 independence. To put an extreme case : suppose Spain were to 
 claim the sovereignty of Holland, pretending that it had not 
 been lost by Philip II, or by any of his successors, I would not 
 have Holland submit such a claim to the decision of any arbiter 
 or of any human power. It is not difficult to draw the line 
 between questions which can, and those which cannot, be sub- 
 mitted to arbitration." 
 
 But if war is inevitable, or has already come, then 
 how shall it be conducted ? There is such a thing as 
 civilized war. War does not destroy all rights on 
 either side, for even enemies have rights. First of all, 
 war cannot be waged upon women and children, or 
 peaceable citizens going about their lawful occupations. 
 If a city is to be attacked, notice should be given to 
 non-combatants, that they may get out of the way. 
 To bombard a city with a hundred thousand inhabit- 
 ants in their houses, or going about the streets, would 
 
238 CIVILIZED WARFARE. 
 
 be an act of barbarism, as atrocious as to set it on 
 jSre, The people of Moscow indeed put the torch to 
 their own city as a means of self-defence. But if Napo- 
 leon had set fire to it, his name would live in history 
 as that of another Attila, the scourge of God ! 
 
 The first principle of civilized warfare is that it shall 
 be waged only between armed forces on land or sea. 
 This is imperative if we are to preserve the character 
 of civilized nations, and not wage war as savages and 
 barbarians. Against this savagery the proposed revis- 
 ion of International Law sets up every barrier of civil- 
 ization. If nations are seized with such madness that 
 they must have it out on the field of battle, let them 
 fight like men, and not like demons, whose only thought 
 is that of destruction, of the innocent as well as the 
 guilty, of the helpless as well as the strong. There is 
 at least a certain decency to be observed in the way 
 that nations begin and conduct a war. Here are a few 
 of the barriers that must not be broken down. There 
 shall be no wanton destruction of private property. 
 Armies may fight with swords and guns and cannons, 
 but not with poisoned weapons, nor explosive bullets 
 that not only kill, but tear the body in pieces. And 
 the Sisters of Charity and other good angels that hover 
 over the battlefield or watch in the hospitals to relieve 
 the agony of the wounded and the dying, shall be 
 sacred from all rude hands. Nor shall any fierce 
 invader bombard towns and cities that have no defence. 
 
WAR NOT THE GREATEST OF EVILS. 239 
 
 All these ways of making war are relics of an age of 
 barbarism. Then follow chapters with such sugges- 
 tive titles as these : 
 
 " Of those who may icage hostilities; against tvhom hostilities 
 may be tcaged ; the instruments and modes of hostilities ; truce 
 and armistice ; medical and religious service ; prisoners ; hostil- 
 ities against property ; contraband of tear ; visitation, search, 
 and capture ; blockade ; prize ; and the effect of ivar uiion the 
 obligations of nations and their members, upon intercourse and 
 the administration of justice. In respect of neutrals, the abso- 
 lute right of a nation to remain neutral while others are at war 
 is asserted in the strongest terms." 
 
 Here is an array of topics, each of which is enough 
 for a treatise or a volume. But the end to be secured 
 was worthy of all the labor of the greatest and the best 
 of all countries, for it is a combined effort to put an end 
 forever to one of the greatest calamities that can afflict 
 mankind. 
 
 " I do not say," said Mr. Field, "that war is the greatest 
 of all calamities, for I think that national degradation and 
 slavery, or general corruption and the reign of fraud, are 
 evils still greater. An oppressed people may and must rise 
 against its oppressors. A nation attacked may and must defend 
 itself. He who would not fight to the death in defense of his 
 family or his country is not fit for this world. But, in propor- 
 tion as the defense is just, the attack is unjust. There would 
 be no occasion for the rising of an oppressed people if there were 
 no oppression, and no need of defensive war if there were not 
 first an aggressive war. And, of course, in proportion as you 
 diminish the aggression you diminish the defense. In other 
 
240 THE HEROES OF PEACE. 
 
 words, if there were no aggressive and unjust war, there would 
 be no war of defense — that is to say, no war at all. 
 
 "Nor would I detract in the least from the merits of those great 
 captains who, fighting for the rights of their countrymen, have 
 earned renown ; nor would I dispute that there is in war frequent 
 occasion for, as there has often been a display of, high heroic vir- 
 tues. But the great men who displayed these virtues have them- 
 selves deplored the occasion and the evils of the war which they 
 had been obliged to wage. Our own Washington was not only first 
 in war but first in peace, as he was -first in the hearts of his 
 countrymen ; and it was the Duke of Wellington, if I remember 
 right, who said that there was nothing worse than a battle 
 gained except a battle lost. 
 
 " I would not, indeed, discourage the cultivation of the heroic 
 virtues or take away the opportunities of their exercise ; but, 
 assuredly, war is not the only school where they can be culti- 
 vated or exhibited. There will always be suffering enough in 
 the world for the exercise of all the virtues. Does not the ship- 
 master who puts his ship about in a stormy sea at the signal of 
 a shipwrecked brother, and stays by him through the dark and 
 perilous night till the daylight comes, that he may save him 
 at the risk of his own life, exhibit as much heroism as any of 
 those who fought at Waterloo ? Did not the captain of the 
 Northfleet, who the other day calmly accepted death that he 
 might save women and children, exhibit as much heroic virtue 
 as any of the brave six hundred who charged at Balaklava ? 
 Was Howard less a hero than Marlborough ? Would you not as 
 soon deserve the eulogy which Burke pronounced upon the for- 
 mer, as the poem with which Addison celebrated the victory of 
 the latter? Let him who would win renown through labor, 
 endurance, and self-sacrifice, go abroad into the world and make 
 war upon the wrong with which it is filled." 
 
SIGNS OF THE GOOD TIME COMING. 241 
 
 With such devotion to the welfare of our race, the 
 "good time" for which we have been waiting through 
 all the centuries would soon come. Indeed in the vis- 
 ion of the speaker, it was coming now, and with this 
 glimpse of the dawn he brought his words to a close : 
 
 ' ' I am not sanguine enough to suppose that war is in our time 
 to be put an end to altogether, but I do suppose that increased 
 intercourse and the general progress of civilization have more 
 and more inclined men to the ways of peace. The armor that 
 now hangs useless in our baronial halls ; the battlements that 
 now serve for ornament in place of defense ; the walls of cities 
 once formidable but now converted into promenades ; are so 
 many witnesses of successive steps in the progress from contin- 
 ual war to frequent and long-enduring peace. I do suppose, 
 further, that, by judicious international arrangements, the 
 chances of war occurring may be lessened, and that when, 
 unfortunately, it does occur, its evils may be mitigated. Such 
 has been the object of the imperfect work which I now 
 place, with all its defects, in the library of this Association, 
 the closing act of a task undertaken seven years ago, and 
 now fulfilled." 
 
 With this Mr. Field laid down the burden that he had 
 taken upon him seven years before. It was a work in 
 which it was impossible to make rapid progress. He 
 had to advance slowly, revising and re-revising every 
 page and line — only to feel at last that it was still very 
 "imperfect," and to submit it "with all its defects ! " 
 From this self-depreciation we may appeal to the judg- 
 ment of eminent jurists in Europe, and to the fact that 
 
242 ONLY OUTLINES OF WHAT IS YET TO BE. 
 
 it has been translated into French and Itahan. Yet to 
 a work on which he spent years of labor, he gave only 
 the title of ' ' Outlines, " as if it were but the dim fore- 
 shadowing of Avhat he would have it to be. Such 
 indeed it was. This was not an affectation of modesty, 
 but an expression of his sense of how little he, or any 
 one man, could do. He would have been the last to 
 ask others to be satisfied with what did not satisfy him- 
 self, for he looked ujDon International Law as a jjrogres- 
 sive science, which must advance with the progress of 
 manldnd. The utmost he hoped to do was to make his 
 contribution to the "common weal" of the world. 
 Those who came after him would have far greater 
 opportunities, as they would have the wisdom of all the 
 ages. He was but one of the pioneers that went before 
 the grand army of progress to point the way. To the 
 future it belongs to fill up the "Outlines" that have here 
 been sketched on a broad canvas by a master's hand. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE LONG VACATION : GOING ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 In the army of the United States officers of high 
 rank are retired at the age of sixty-four ! Their days 
 of battle are over ; their names are placed on the roll 
 of honor, and they can take their seats, like Roman 
 emperors, in the Coliseum, and look down serenely 
 upon those who are still engaged in the combats of the 
 arena. But in the professions there is no limit of age. 
 There may be veterans, but there are no pensioners, 
 who are provided for by a grateful country. Nor 
 would a man like Mr. Field accept any price, or any 
 honor, that retired him to the rear, which he would 
 have looked upon as a gilded exile from the stormy 
 activities of hfe. To live he must keep in the ranks of 
 war. That inaction would have cut short his days 
 seems probable, when we recall the fact that, after he 
 passed the age of military retirement, he not only sur- 
 vived, but was an actor in the stirring events of his 
 time, for another quarter of a century ! 
 
 But he must have now and then a change of scene, 
 which he found by frequent visits to England and the 
 Continent, where he had so many friends that he was 
 
244 ATTRACTION TO THE ANTIPODES. 
 
 as much at home as in his own country. He had also 
 travelled in the East. But now there was an attrac- 
 tion which drew him farther still. He was nearing the 
 line of seventy when he set out on the longest journey 
 of his life — to go round the world ; and not by the 
 shortest line, straight east along a Northern latitude, 
 but by the longest, that crossed the Equator, and 
 reached far down into the Southern Hemisphere. The 
 distance was great, but the attraction was greater, for 
 there at the Antipodes was the idol of his heart, his 
 only daughter, who was predestined to a life in ' ' lands 
 remote " when she became the wife of a Governor of a 
 British Colony. Sir Anthony Musgrave was the Gov- 
 ernor of Newfoundland at the time of the laying of the 
 Atlantic Telegraph in 1866, and gave a hearty English 
 welcome to Mr. Cyrus Field. This was the beginning 
 of an acquaintance, not only with his familj^, but with 
 that of his brother Dudley, whose only daughter he 
 married in 1870, when Sir Anthony was Governor of 
 British Columbia. From this distant post he was sent 
 half way round the world to Africa, to be Governor of 
 Natal ; and next was promoted to the Governorship of 
 South Australia, where Mr. Field set out to seek his 
 child, literally at the world's end. 
 
 But he could not go anywhere, to an}^ part of the 
 habitable globe, without keeping in mind the great mis- 
 sion of his life, the Reform of the Law. He had fin- 
 ished his New York Codes, and they were fighting their 
 
JUST LAWS BETTER THAN PEACE SOCIETIES. 245 
 
 way across the Continent. When he went abroad, he 
 found a similar movement in other countries, which, if 
 not inspired from America was along the same lines, 
 and working to the same end, so that their reformers 
 and ours could exchange ideas in the most friendly 
 way, as fellow- workers in the same good cause. We 
 could reach out our hands across the sea, not only to 
 the great nation from which we are sprung, but to all 
 the races to which we were more distantly allied. 
 Mr. Field's ideas always had a logical relation one to 
 another ; and in his mind the natural order of progress 
 was that justice should go before, and liberty would 
 follow after ; and that ' ' the fruit of righteousness 
 would be peace," not only in the spiritual life, but in 
 all the relations that are formed among men. 
 
 This would be better than all the Peace Societies, 
 which had attempted much, but accomplished little. 
 There was a Peace Society in this country, which held an 
 anniversary once a year in Tremont Temple, in Boston ; 
 as another society met in Exeter Hall, in London ; at 
 which good men and good women deplored the great 
 armies and great battles, and prayed for universal peace. 
 But so far as stopping war, they did not so much 
 as stir a ripple on the mighty waters of public opinion 
 in Europe or in America. This was brought home to 
 us very clearly one evening in May, 1873, when Mr. 
 Field invited a few friends to his house in Gramercy 
 Park, to hear the report of Dr. James B. Miles, who 
 
246 HOW TO PROMOTE PEACE. 
 
 had been abroad as the agent of the American Peace 
 Society. It was the same old story. Everybody in 
 England was in theory as much for peace as John 
 Bright, and yet that did not prevent constant warlike 
 preparations. Was there not a better way to culti- 
 vate the amenities out of which grow friendly relations 
 by looking into kindly faces, and listening to kindly 
 voices ? This was a large question to be discussed 
 before a small company in a private parlor. But tall 
 oaks from little acorns grow, and that very evening 
 these gentlemen resolved themselves into a modest 
 "Committee" — out of which grew a body more impos- 
 ing in name, as well as in numbers and in power, as it 
 brought together a few months later at Brussels some 
 of the most distinguished publicists of England and the 
 Continent, to form ' 'An Association for the Reform and 
 Codification of the Law of Nations," of which Mr. Field 
 was chosen the first President. 
 
 The movement was a success from the very begin- 
 ning. The peculiar charm of the new organization was 
 its unpretentiousness, its simplicity and its absolute free- 
 dom. It claimed no authority. It was in no sense a 
 political body, composed of delegates from different 
 countries, to advocate some policy that might be more 
 favorable to one than another. It was more like the 
 scientific associations that meet from year to year, now 
 in London or Edinburgh, and now in Paris or Vienna, 
 to record new discoveries in science, and lead the way to 
 
A FREE CONFERENCE. 247 
 
 still greater achievements. Nor was it limited to jurists, 
 but included statesmen and political economists, with 
 perhaps here and there a dreamy philosopher, who had 
 in his brain some social reorganization, that would be a 
 cure for all the ills of the human race. But this only 
 enlivened the discussions, as it showed the wide range 
 of opinion that was allowed, and the contact, or even 
 collision, of such theorists with men who were nothing 
 if not "practical," might enlarge the ideas of both. 
 Naturally an intercourse so free and unrestrained led to 
 the formation of many friendships, as all national prej- 
 udices dissolved in the warm atmosphere of a generous 
 enthusiasm for a great cause, that of universal justice 
 and peace. 
 
 At the close of this first meeting Mr. Field gave 
 a dinner to the members, at which the burgomaster 
 of Brussels and the English Consul at Antwerp were 
 guests. As might be supposed, the occasion was one 
 of mutual congratulation between the representatives 
 of different countries, who felt that it was indeed one 
 step forward in the progress of the world. 
 
 This was sowing the seed that was to bear fruit in 
 many directions. The report of that first Conference in 
 Brussels (which was in its purpose and spirit, if not in 
 name, a Peace Congress,) attracted immediate attention 
 beyond the border of Belgium, so that when Mr. Field 
 arrived in Paris, he was feted by the French as well as 
 by Americans. In passing through Turin, he paid a 
 
248 FROM EGYPT TO THE FAR EAST. 
 
 visit to Count Sclopis, who had been President of the 
 International Tribunal at Geneva, (when they celebrated 
 the event that was uppermost in both their minds in a 
 cup of tea, that was served for the first time from the 
 silver service presented to him by the United States 
 Government ; ) and in Rome he formed a very warm 
 friendship with the Prime Minister, Signor Mancini, 
 and other Italian statesmen. 
 
 But now he was to leave Europe behind, and the 
 long journey began when he embarked with his wife 
 from Brindisi for Alexandria. He had been in Egypt 
 nearly a quarter of a century before, in 1850, but had 
 only gone as far as Cairo, to get a sight of the Pyra- 
 mids ; but now he went up the Nile in a steamer to 
 the First Cataract, nearly six hundred miles. 
 
 But it was not till they returned to Cairo, and 
 crossed to Suez and took the steamer for Bombay, that 
 they felt that they were indeed bound to the Far East. 
 The voyage down the Red Sea, with Asia on one side 
 and Africa on the other, is full of historic interest. 
 Walking on the deck, when the sun is setting over the 
 Dark Continent, one can see on the other side his last 
 rays fall on the cliffs of Mount Sinai. Had my brother 
 been landed on that barren Arabian coast, as I was nine 
 years later (in 1882), he too might have been mounted 
 on his camel, measuring off the long stretches of the 
 Desert, "the great and terrible wilderness," on his way 
 to the Holy Land. But he kept down the Red Sea, 
 
INDIA AND CEYLON, 249 
 
 and at Aden sailed out into the Indian Ocean ; and in 
 another week came in sight of the great wall of moun- 
 tains that are known as the Ghauts of Western India. 
 
 To the traveller there is no country in the world 
 more fascinating than India, which Mr. Field took in 
 to the full, as he went up the country to Allahabad, 
 where the two sacred rivers, the Jumna and the Ganges, 
 mingle their waters, and millions of pilgrims come to 
 wash away their sins ; and thence to Agra, with its 
 wondrous Taj, the most exquisite tomb in the world in 
 architectural beauty and grace ; to Delhi, the capital of 
 the great Mogul Empire ; to Cawnpore, where the blood 
 of the great massacre still cries from the ground ; to 
 Lucknow, that will always have a place in history for 
 its heroic defence in the terrible siege ; to Benares, the 
 holy city ; and last of all came down to Calcutta, the 
 capital of British India. 
 
 From Calcutta they sailed for Ceylon. While wait- 
 ing at Point de Galle for the steamer that was to take 
 them to Australia, Mr. Field went up to Colombo and 
 thence to Kandy, which is to Buddhists what Jeru- 
 salem is to Christians, or Mecca to Mohammedans ; 
 where is a shrine which they visit with the utmost 
 veneration, as it contains a sacred relic in a tooth of 
 Buddha ! Here are the two High Priests of that faith, 
 to whom he was introduced by the English official, 
 who said, to give him an idea of their exalted dignity, 
 *'This is the Buddhist Archbishop of Canterbur}', and 
 
250 ON THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 
 
 this the Archbishop of York ! " He asked them about 
 their doctrine of Nirvana, which they said "was not 
 that the souls of the departed sank into annihilation, but 
 found rest in a place of eternal and conscious repose." 
 Returning to Point de Galle, they embarked in a 
 Peninsular and Oriental steamer and bore away into 
 the vast Southern Ocean, to which all other oceans are 
 but seas. Never before had Mr. Field such an impres- 
 sion of the waters that girdle the earth. Day after day, 
 and week after week, they sailed on, and saw nothing 
 but the heavens above and the waters below, till, as 
 with the Ancient Mariner, 
 
 • • So lonely 'twas that even God 
 Seemed not there to be." 
 
 But there was a fascination in this very silence and 
 immensity. The sea was calm, and as he sat on deck 
 at night, above him shone the Southern Cross and all 
 the constellations that revolve round the Antarctic pole. 
 But of land there was not a sign, not even an island 
 thrown up by an earthquake, like the Peak of Teneriffe. 
 Nor was there a sign of human life, not even a sail on 
 the horizon, save once, when an Italian barque rose up 
 like a phantom ship, as it came out of the East and 
 sailed into the West, "looking," said Mr. Field, "as it 
 passed over the water, like a great white flying eagle." 
 But all voyages must have an end, and after three 
 weeks they had their first sight of Australia in the port 
 
WITH HIS DAUGHTER IN ADELAIDE. 251 
 
 of New Albany, where they hailed their country's flag, 
 flying from the peak of two American whalers, which 
 had gone thus far from home in search of a cargo. 
 One of the captains was from New Bedford, Massa- 
 chusetts. His wife had accompanied him in his long 
 voyage, and made a little flower garden out of a box 
 on the deck, where were growing her native flowers 
 to remind her of her New England home. 
 
 Passing along to South Australia, they reached 
 Kangaroo Island, off Adelaide, on a bright moonlight 
 night. Never was a scene more striking. The ship 
 w^as moving on without a sail, every rope of her cord- 
 age distinctly traced on the background of the clear 
 sky, the shore visible along the island and up the bay, 
 while the revolving lights told them that they had reen- 
 tered the regions of civilized life. 
 
 The next morning the Governor's secretary came on 
 board to greet them and tell them the glad news that 
 Lady Musgrave had that morning, March 10th, 1874, 
 borne another son, for whom the bells were ringing out 
 a welcome as they drove into Adelaide from the port of 
 Glenelg. The little fellow for whom the bells rang, is 
 now Lieutenant Arthur Musgrave in the English army. 
 
 Although Mr. Field had been led to undertake this 
 long A'oyage to the Antipodes by the yearning of his 
 heart to see one who was inexpressibly dear to him, yet 
 he never visited any foreign country without making a 
 careful study of its natural features and resources ; of 
 
252 MELBOURNE. 
 
 its towns and cities ; and above all, of its population. 
 In every place to which he came he had his eyes open, 
 observing and reflecting as to the future of the new 
 world which was rising in the Southern Hemisphere. 
 Though Australia was no longer to be drawn on the 
 map, and spoken of in geographies, as an island, but 
 as a Continent, it had many disadvantages in the vast 
 wastes of the interior, that were as desolate as the 
 steppes of Siberia, or the Desert of Sahara. Yet it 
 had many compensating advantages in its coast line of 
 thousands of miles, indented with bays and ports for 
 commerce, and above all in being settled by the mighty 
 English race, who have been the colonizers and civil- 
 izers of so large a part of the world. 
 
 Thus delightfully occupied in observations of every- 
 thing round him, and above all in the charming domestic 
 scene in the Government House, the weeks in Adelaide 
 flew quickly. But at last he had to tear himself away, 
 and they took a coast steamer for Melbourne, where 
 he was surprised to find a city not forty years old, 
 (it was first settled in 1835,) with over two hundred 
 thousand inhabitants ; with streets as wide as our New 
 York avenues ; with stately Parliament Houses ; an 
 University and a Cathedral ; libraries and museums ; 
 a Royal Park and other public gardens ; with courts 
 of law and banking houses, representing the great firms 
 of London ; and clubs and theatres and all the signs 
 of European civilization. Best of all, were the private 
 
SYDNEY AND BRISBANE. 253 
 
 residences, whose architecture and tasteful surround- 
 ings showed that they were the abodes, not only of 
 wealth, but of English culture and refinement. 
 
 Another sail along the coast brought them to Sydney, 
 the old Botany Bay, to which at the beginning of the 
 century England transported its criminals, but that had 
 proved itself worthy of another population, which gave 
 it a character befitting the capital of New South Wales, 
 whose schools and colleges and churches showed that it 
 too, like Melbourne, was modelled after dear old England. 
 
 Continuing northward, the steamer stopped for a day 
 at Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, where Mr. Field 
 went up to the city and dined with the Governor, Lord 
 Normanby, little dreaming that his son-in-law. Sir 
 Anthony Musgrave (after being five years Governor of 
 Jamaica), would be Governor of Queensland, and there 
 die and be buried far from his native England ! 
 
 And now they were no longer on the open sea, as 
 they passed inside of the Great Barrier Reef, the most 
 extensive range of coral reefs in the world, which forms 
 a mighty breakwater within which they had as com- 
 plete inland navigation as if they were on the coast of 
 Norway or the voyage to Alaska. 
 
 The last persons they saw in Australia were two 
 American missionaries, husband and wife, standing on 
 the high bank of Cape Torrens, and waving them a 
 farewell, a benediction which they heartily returned, 
 for one result of Mr. Field's journey round the world 
 
254 CROSSING THE EQUATOR. 
 
 was to exalt his opinion of the character of the mission- 
 aries, and of the work they were doing, and he was 
 often heard to say that, if he had to choose between 
 them and our consuls, or even many of our ministers, 
 he would take the former as the best representatives 
 of his country. 
 
 As they approached the Equator, the sun was more 
 directly over their head, and the heat was so oppressive, 
 though relieved somewhat by the trade-winds, that they 
 were more than willing to take a long siesta in the mid- 
 day hours, and keep watch bj- night. It is commonly 
 supposed that the constellations of the Northern Hemi- 
 sphere are more brilliant than those of the Southern, 
 but in those midnights it seemed as if the stars came 
 nearer to the earth, and the heavens glowed with 
 immeasurable splendor. 
 
 The culmination of their long A'oyage was in the 
 Arafura Sea, where, between the islands of Bali and 
 Lombok, they were so near the shore that they saw the 
 natives about their cabins, while above them rose the 
 Peak of Bali, twelve thousand feet high — just the 
 height of the Peak of Teneriffe — which was girdled 
 with three zones : one from the sea upwards to the 
 clouds ; the second a robe of clouds, where a storm 
 with lightning was playing ; and the third the clear 
 top, shining in the sky. 
 
 And now they were sweeping along the shores of 
 Java, one of the richest islands in the world, with its 
 
JAVA AND SUMATRA. 255 
 
 background of lofty mountains, and its foreground of 
 rich tropical vegetation, over which towered its majestic 
 palms ; an island that supports a population of thirty 
 millions, ten times that of the whole continent of Aus- 
 tralia ! It was night before they anchored off Batavia, 
 but so eager was Mr. Field to go on shore, that he went 
 at once, and at daybreak was exploring a city which, by 
 its innumerable canals, showed that it was in many fea- 
 tures a reproduction of its ancestral Holland. 
 
 Turning Northward from Java, they had in view 
 for two days the island of Sumatra, a thousand miles 
 long, and larger than all Great Britain. In this last 
 stretch they crossed the Equator, and were once more 
 in the Northern Hemisphere, as they landed at Singa- 
 pore, the Southern point of Asia ! 
 
 Here they were still under English dominion. The 
 Governor was Sir Andrew Clarke, who invited Mr. 
 Field to dinner, at which he met the Maharajah of 
 Johore, who came in Oriental dress, and brought 
 his cook with him, that he might not eat forbid- 
 den meats. The Attorney-General also called on Mr. 
 Field, and when asked what was the judicial procedure 
 of the Straits Settlements, answered that they had the 
 New York Code, which, of course, was very gratifj-ing 
 to one who had the chief part in framing that Code on 
 the other side of the world. It seemed to say that 
 justice is of no country ; that it is the same in all lati- 
 
256 SINGAPORE -AND HONG KONG. 
 
 tudes and longitudes ; the rightful inheritance of all 
 climes and of all the races of men. 
 
 From Singapore it is a week's sail to Hong Kong, 
 but here too he did not coine as a stranger, for his 
 Codes had gone before him, and the Governor, Sir 
 Arthur Kennedy and Chief Justice Smale joined to 
 do him honor ; while Messrs. Burroughs and Russell, 
 American merchants, received them with that generous 
 hospitality which the great mercantile houses in the East 
 are always so ready to show to distinguished visitors. 
 
 From Hong Kong it is but a few hours' sail across 
 the strait and up the Canton River to the great city 
 of that name, where Mr. and Mrs. Field were received 
 by Mr. Cunningham, agent of the firm of Russell 
 and Company, whose ample establishment was put at 
 their disposal, and partly fitted up to receive them. 
 Here they were treated with great hospitality ; every 
 day English or American residents were invited to 
 meet them at dinner. Archdeacon Graj^ of the English 
 Church accompanied them in their excursions ; the most 
 remarkable of which were a visit to the place of behead- 
 ing, a real Potter's Field, (where they were shown the 
 cleaver with which heads were struck off, and a bag 
 containing heads that were waiting to be sent to the 
 homes of those who had suffered death ; ) and a visit 
 to the Courts, where the accused were brought in with 
 chains about their necks ; one end of wliich was passed 
 through a hole in a heavy stone, that the poor wretch had 
 
CHINESE JUSTICE. 257 
 
 to carry when he moved. As he came before the Judge, 
 he laid the stone on the floor and prostrated himself, 
 when the charge of crime was read to him, and he was 
 sternly interrogated about it, and his answers writ- 
 ten down. One of the accused denied his guilt and 
 stoutly protested his innocence, at which the Judge 
 ordered him to be put to the torture, not by the rack, 
 or by the touch of red-hot iron, but by hanging him 
 up by the thumbs and toes, which was agony enough. 
 The man stood it for about ten minutes, when he con- 
 fessed and was let down — a short way to extort a con- 
 fession, not always from the guilty, for it might be 
 from the most innocent, who would confess any crime 
 rather than suffer an agony that was worse than death 
 itself. This Chinese justice showed that China had 
 hardly emerged from barbarism. Instead of being a 
 sign of ci\alization, it was but a ghastly token of man's 
 inhumanity to man. 
 
 They returned by Macao, wliich is a little peninsula 
 long ago granted to the Portuguese, and once a place 
 of some commercial importance. It is now as quiet 
 as a country village, but the beauty of nature still 
 remains, enhanced by an interesting historical associa- 
 tion, as the visitor is taken into a pretty garden in 
 wliich Camoens, the Portuguese poet, wrote the Lusiad. 
 
 From Hong Kong the travellers took passage by the 
 French steamer to Shanghai, where they had a hearty 
 welcome from our Consul, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Wil- 
 
258 AN OFFICIAL VISIT. 
 
 liam H. Fogg, a merchant from New York. As Mr. 
 Seward had an official visit to make to the Tao-tai, the 
 head man of Shanghai, answering to a French Prefect, 
 he asked Mr. Field to accompany him. So one morning 
 they set ont in their sedan chairs, winding through the 
 narrow streets till, as they approached the official resi- 
 dence, they were saluted with fireworks like Roman 
 candles. The Tao-tai came forward to meet them, and 
 took them into a room with benches on three sides, 
 where he waved them to the right and left, and took his 
 seat between them. Tea was then brought in, which 
 is always preliminary to any official discussion, and 
 when the latter was ended, they retired with the same 
 courteous formality. 
 
 But still more interesting to Mr. Field was it to see 
 the administration of justice, which had also its peculiar 
 features. As Shanghai had quite a large foreign pop- 
 ulation, there were mixed tribunals, in which foreign 
 Consuls sat wdth the Chinese authorities to watch the 
 proceedings. Mr. Field was present one morning when 
 Mr. Seward sat with a Chinese judge who despatched 
 business without much ceremony, as in a case where 
 there was a contest over a pile of silver dollars, which 
 were laid on the table. He made short work of it by 
 reaching out his hand, and taking a part and passing 
 it over to one man, and the remainder to the other. 
 
 The next case was a criminal one. The culprit was 
 found guilty and sentenced to be flogged, which was 
 
THE INLAND SEA AND JAPAN. 259 
 
 done at once. He was laid upon his face on the ground, 
 while the executioner took a bundle of rods and began 
 to whip his bared legs. The man cried lustily, and when 
 he got up was further punished by the cagne, which is 
 made of two pieces of board, each with a half circle 
 cut in it, to be put together round the neck, so that the 
 man could not lay his head on a pillow or on the ground, 
 nor reach his face with his hands. A more cruel j)un- 
 ishment it would be difficult to imagine. Is it that the 
 enormous population of China makes them indifferent 
 to human life or human suffering ? 
 
 Leaving Shanghai in one of the Pacific Company's 
 steamers for Japan, they passed through the Inland Sea, 
 which, with its thousands of islands, is the most beau- 
 tiful Archipelago in the world. The American passen- 
 gers were reminded that they were nearing home as 
 one evening they heard voices on the upper deck sing- 
 ing ' ' Marching through Georgia ! " 
 
 From Yokohama Mr. Field made a visit to Tokio, 
 and an excursion to Inoshima and to the great statue of 
 Buddha at Dai-Butz. The evening before he left he 
 dined with Iwakura, the Prime Minister of Japan, at 
 his palace, in company with Mr. Bingham, the Amer- 
 ican Minister, Except for the swarthy figures and 
 Oriental costumes, the dinner might have been given 
 in Paris, as the service was in the French style, even 
 to the champagne. 
 
 In Yokohama he met Sir Harry Parkes, the British 
 
260 GOOD BYE TO THE OLD WORLD. 
 
 Minister, who had been long in the East, and had a 
 hfe of incident, not unmixed with danger. One eve- 
 ning, as they were talking of the old times, he told of 
 an attack made upon him and his party by fanatics in 
 Osaka some years before. They were passing through 
 the streets escorted by English soldiers, when some 
 Japanese fanatics rushed upon them with sharp drawn 
 swords and began cutting at the soldiers. They did 
 bloody work, and one was bleeding freely, when Sir 
 Harry rushed up to him and bade him stand his ground, 
 saying, "Remember that you are an English soldier !" 
 
 He had come as near losing his head in Cliina as 
 in Japan. Dean Stanley told Mr. Field that Sir 
 Harry once described his conversation with a fellow- 
 prisoner, who with him was condemned by the Chinese 
 authorities to be executed the next morning ! They 
 passed a part of the night in comparing the sensations 
 they expected to feel when led out to execution ! 
 A gruesome subject indeed for their midnight hours ! 
 But by some happy intervention the morning brought 
 light into the prison cell, and the execution was indefin- 
 itely postponed. 
 
 When our travellers left Japan, they said good bye 
 to the Old World. As they steamed out of the harbor 
 of Yokohama the crews of the American ships of war 
 gave them three cheers. That was their last recogni- 
 tion, for once on the Pacific they saw not a sign of life 
 for seventeen days as they bore away to the East, over 
 
HOME AGAIN. 261 
 
 a sea as calm as that of the Southern Ocean, and which 
 gave them the same sense of the infinite. Day after 
 day they saw nothing but the blue sky above and the 
 blue waters below, with the long swell, that never broke 
 into a ripple, over which the great ship moved as if 
 conscious of her strength. On the last day, as the}* 
 approached the coast, they ran into a heavy fog, which 
 compelled them to slow up for two or three hours, when 
 all at once it lifted and disclosed the bright top of a 
 mountain ten miles below San Francisco. At this the 
 good ship seemed to lift up her head, and dasliing on 
 with the speed of a race-horse, passed the Golden Gate 
 into the great harbor of the West, and stood still. 
 
 Their arrival was not unexpected, as Mr. Field's 
 brother, the Justice, who was here from Washington, 
 was waiting for him, and with other kinsfolk, the Ash- 
 burners, made the wanderers feel that they were once 
 more at home, and in a few days they were rested 
 from their voyage. A special car was put at their dis- 
 posal as far as Salt Lake, where they halted and visited 
 the Mormon City, and had an interview with Brigham 
 Young, who generously offered to introduce Mrs. Field 
 to his seventeen wives — an honor which she politely 
 dechned ! The next day they continued their journey, 
 and reached their Stockbridge home in July, 1874, 
 where, looking down from the hill top, they felt that in 
 all the world there was no spot quite so restful as this 
 "Happy Valley" nestled in the Berkshire HiUs. 
 
CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 A NEW CHAPTER IN POLITICS. A DISPUTED PRESI- 
 DENTIAL ELECTION. TWO MONTHS IN CONGRESS. 
 
 When a man has just returned from a voyage to the 
 Antipodes, he might be excused if he should take at 
 least a breathing spell before he starts off on a new 
 expedition. But Mr. Field was not as other men are. 
 He was still in his prime, in his seventieth year, and it 
 was not in him to rest while there were new worlds to 
 conquer. The year before, when he helped to form the 
 Association in Brussels, he promised to be present at 
 the next meeting, though meanwhile he had to make 
 the circuit of the globe, and the very next month after 
 he reached home, he was again on the sea. 
 
 This time the meeting was at Geneva in Switzerland, 
 where he found that the good seed had taken root, and 
 was bearing fruit in the Old World as well as the New. 
 It received a new impulse from the very place of its 
 meeting, in the "Salle d' Alabama," so called from the 
 fact that in it had met the representatives of different 
 nations to arbitrate between England and America as 
 to the claims of the latter for the ships destroyed by 
 the Alabama in our civil war, for which the arbitrators 
 
MEETING IX GENEVA. 263 
 
 awarded to our country an indemnity of fifteen millions 
 of dollars. This had made the hall historic, in memory 
 of which it was ornamented with agricultural imple- 
 ments, which had been moulded out of cannon, to sig- 
 nify that the reign of peace was approaching, when the 
 nations should learn war no more. 
 
 During the year past the Association had become 
 known even in the Far East. When Mr, Field was 
 in Japan he dined with the Prime Minister Iwakura, 
 and in the course of conversation mentioned that on his 
 return to America he was again to cross the sea to 
 attend the meeting of the Association for the Reform 
 and Codification of the Law of Nations, which was to 
 be held in October at Geneva, and suggested that Japan 
 should send a delegate ! The Minister was at once 
 interested, but did not know whether the Council, or 
 some official body mentioned by him, would approve of 
 it in the time required. But when the time came and 
 Mr. Field was on his way to his destination, he saw in 
 the papers that the Japanese envoy to Rome was also 
 en route to Geneva to attend the meeting. There he 
 was indeed, with his wife, and two very intelligent and 
 interesting persons they were, and added much to the 
 pleasure of the European delegates. 
 
 These annual meetings were getting to be great 
 events in the life of Mr. Field. As he was a good 
 sailor, he thought nothing of the week's voyage. The 
 change from life on shore was grateful to him, and he 
 
264 JUDGES IN THE " ROBES OF OFFICE." 
 
 could sit on deck in any weather, and drink in the salt 
 sea air with a feeling of exhilaration. 
 
 The next year the Association met at The Hague, 
 where it was received with great distinction, not only 
 by the notables of the bench and the bar, but by the 
 court. As the King of the Netherlands was absent, the 
 Queen and the Ministers, and the two Chambers, hon- 
 ored them with all manner of attentions, ending with a 
 reception by the Queen at the "Palace in the Wood." 
 In two weeks he was again on the ocean on his return. 
 
 At home he took life more easily, going up to Albany 
 now and then to argue a case before the Court of Appeals, 
 where he was a little — or not a little — shocked at the 
 free and easy way of conducting the proceedings, and 
 finally persuaded both judges and advocates to adopt a 
 little more of ceremony : the judges to wear gowns, like 
 the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 which seemed to be the fitting "robes of justice" ; and 
 the bar to rise as the judges entered, and stand till they 
 had taken their seats. A little of this observance of the 
 stately forms of the past, he thought, by adding to the 
 outward dignity, added also to the respect due to the 
 highest courts of justice. 
 
 From Albany it was an easy change to Washing- 
 ton, where he was still more at home, not only in the 
 Supreme Court, but among the old habitues of the 
 National Capital, some of whom seemed to belong to 
 another generation. Thus he writes March 1, 1875 : 
 
A NEW YEAR OPENS IN PEACE. 265 
 
 ' ' Being in Washington, I paid a visit to the elder 
 Mr. and Mrs. Blair, both of whom are more than eighty 
 years old, and yet vigorous in mind, and (except that 
 he is a little weak in the legs) strong enough in body to 
 ride on horseback ! What a picture from the days of 
 our fathers it must be to see this aged couple riding 
 together over the hills, as we may suppose that Martha 
 Washington rode beside her husband a hundred years 
 ago ! " 
 
 The greatest satisfaction to him was to find that 
 "the war was over," not only on the battle-field, but 
 in personal relations, as well as in political life. After 
 four years of war, it had taken ten years of peace before 
 the angry waves were lulled to rest. But that happy 
 time had come at last. On the same date he wrote : 
 
 ' ' I think the revolution in our politics is over, and 
 that hereafter we shall see things moving in their usual 
 channels. A Democratic House of Representatives 
 comes into power on Friday, the 4th of March, and w^e 
 shall have no more Enforcement Acts, Force Bills, Civil 
 Rights Bills or suspension of the Habeas Corpus." 
 
 This blissful state of mind continued through the 
 year, and on the next first of January (1876) he wrote : 
 
 " At midnight the bells rung out their chimes to salute both 
 the parting and the incoming year. I listened till they died 
 away at half-past twelve. This morning the flags are flying on 
 every flag-staff in the city, to greet the centennial year. This 
 patriotic fervor is a beautiful thing. With it no nation can fall ; 
 
266 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 
 
 without it no nation can stand long. We have many faults, but 
 there is at bottom a fund of good sense, energy, love of right and 
 love of country, that will, I believe, carry us through all perils. 
 Every man, hewever, must do his duty to the public. The 
 trouble with us has been that each has been too much absorbed 
 in seeking his own prosperity. As if in sympathy with the time, 
 the weather has become perfect. The air is like May and the 
 sun warm." 
 
 Little did he think that a new storm was impending, 
 that would try the strength of our institutions almost 
 as much as the war itself, and bring him quite unex- 
 pectedly into public life. The crisis was one unknown 
 in our history, and which the fathers of the Republic 
 never dreamed of, even as a possibility — a disputed 
 Presidential election ! Through the ordeal of an elec- 
 tion the country had to pass in every four years, and 
 the time came round in the Centennial year of 1876, as 
 that completed a hundred years from the date of the 
 Declaration of Independence. But of the course of 
 events that year I knew little, as I had been for more 
 than a year following my brother round the globe, 
 and I remember well that, as we entered the harbor of 
 San Francisco, and the custom house officers came on 
 board, in my eagerness for news, my first question was, 
 ' ' Who has been nominated for President at the Con- 
 vention in Cincinnati ? ", fully expecting to hear the 
 name of James G. Blaine, when to my surprise the 
 answer was "Rutherford B. Hayes," then Governor of 
 Ohio, a name that, however honorable in peace and in 
 
TILDEN ELECTED. 267 
 
 vrar, (for he had been in the army, and borne a brave 
 and a manly part in fighting for his country,) I had 
 never happened to hear before ; while on the other side 
 had been nominated Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, the Gov- 
 ernor of New York, whom I had known for twenty 
 years, as he was not only a resident of the city, but 
 lived on Gramercy Park, a few doors from my brothers, 
 so that I knew all his goings out and comings in. 
 Between these two candidates, I thought we were sure 
 to have a good man, who, if not a great President, like 
 Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln, would be at least 
 a figure-head of the Great Republic, of whom we should 
 have no reason to be ashamed. 
 
 The election took place on the 6th day of November, 
 and the next morning it was announced all over the 
 country, without a dissenting voice, that Mr. Tilden had 
 received 203 votes in the Electoral College, while Mr. 
 Hayes had received but 166. It was a very simple sum 
 in arithmetic for any school-boy to subtract the one from 
 the other, which gave Mr. Tilden the handsome majority 
 of 37 electoral votes, so that he was duly elected Presi- 
 dent of the United States ! The Repubhcans gave it up. 
 The New York Tribune admitted it without a question, 
 explaining it in the only simple and natural way, that 
 it was all because "Mr. Tilden had too many votes ! " 
 
 But those were the days of the "carpet-baggers," 
 when the Southern States were still in the hands of 
 Northern men, many of them worthless adventurers, 
 
268 A PLOT TO CHANGE THE RESULT. 
 
 who had gone South after the war to spoil the Egyp- 
 tians, and who had the votes in their hands, and the 
 battle was not lost until they had made out the official 
 returns, and if perchance the majority happened to be 
 on the wrong side, what more easy than to throw out 
 a sufficient number, on the plea of fraud, to turn 
 the scales the other way ? The Democrats might do 
 the voting, but as long as the Republican ' ' returning 
 boards" did the counting, they could laugh at any 
 Democratic majorities. 
 
 This was a line of operation of infinite possibili- 
 ties, and a certain ' ' managing editor " figured it out 
 that if the returns from Louisiana, which had eight 
 electoral votes, and from South Carolina, which had 
 seven, and from Florida, which had four, making nine- 
 teen in all, could be taken from the column of Tilden, 
 and put to the credit of Hayes, it would give the latter 
 a majority of one ! This was a scheme fitly hatched in 
 the dark hours of night, which had been no sooner con- 
 ceived than the plotter, eager to set it in motion, has- 
 tened up town, to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and waked 
 a Western Senator, who was one of the war horses of 
 the Republican party, and who believed that in politics, 
 as in war, anything was lawful to beat the enemy ! To 
 him was communicated the Gunpowder Plot to blow the 
 Democrats sky high ! "But the election was over ! " 
 ' ' Oh yes, but it was not too late to change the result, for 
 the whole business was not settled till the official returns 
 
HOW TO ALTER THE RETURNS. 269 
 
 were made ! " The policy was to keep these back till it 
 should be seen just what change of votes would be neces- 
 sary to make a majority on the other side ! To help 
 them in their plot, the conspirators had a private code by 
 which they could communicate with the boards at the 
 South, telling them not to make their returns to Wash- 
 ington till they had received the fullest information and 
 instruction from the North ! 
 
 Never was a plot more skilfully laid, nor one in 
 which the engineers were more completely masters of 
 the situation. The wicked partners at the South were 
 ready to swear to anything ! If the Democrats had 
 carried Louisiana by a few hundred, or a few thousand 
 majority, the Republican managers would take their 
 solemn oath that there had been much more than that 
 number of fraudulent votes, for it was always wise to 
 have a liberal margin ! 
 
 But was it possible that such a made-up majority 
 reversing the actual vote would be accepted by Con- 
 gress ? That was the question. As if to complicate 
 the case still more, the two houses were divided — for 
 while the House of Representatives, which had been 
 more recently elected by the people, was largely Demo- 
 cratic (so that if there were no election by the Electoral 
 College, and the choice were thrown into the House, 
 it would immediately elect Mr. Tilden), yet the Senate, 
 which held over, was still strongly Republican. Between 
 the two there was a strife that agitated the whole coun- 
 
270 EXCITEMENT THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. 
 
 try to such a degree that there were fears that it might 
 culminate in another civil war. Some bold hunters of 
 Kentucky threatened to march on Washington with a 
 hundred thousand men ! ' ' And they will soon see what 
 we shall do -with them ! " was Grant's quick reply. But 
 the uneasiness was universal. Congress met on the 4th 
 of December, but business was paralyzed by this all- 
 engrossing question. 
 
 Mr. Tilden had the good fortune to be represented 
 in the House by his most intimate personal friend, Mr. 
 Abram S. Hewitt, afterwards Maj^or of New York ; 
 but it was important to have also a legal representative 
 to meet the constitutional questions that might arise, 
 and as there was a vacancy in the delegation from 
 the city by the resignation of Smith Ely, who had 
 been chosen Mayor, Mr. Tilden wished Mr. Field to 
 take the vacant place, and he was accordingly nomi- 
 nated and elected, and served to the end of the term.* 
 
 No sooner had he entered the House of Representa- 
 tives than he became a very conspicuous figure by his 
 attacks upon what he regarded as the brazen infamy 
 of the false returns. One of the side scenes was the 
 examination of the Boards of Louisiana and Florida, 
 for which the House had appointed a special committee. 
 
 * Strange to say, Mr. Field had voted for Hayes, but so con- 
 vinced was he that Tilden was elected, that his sense of justice 
 revolted from an intrigue to rob him of the high office to which 
 he had been chosen by the American people. 
 
MR. FIELD IN CONGRESS. 271 
 
 At one or two of these examinations I was present, and 
 it was truly pitiful to see how the perjurers writhed 
 under the questions of their merciless interrogator. It 
 was onl}^ necessary to look in their hang-dog faces to 
 see that they were well aware that they did not, and 
 could not, deceive their inquisitors ! And yet one could 
 only look at them with a sort of contemptuous pity for 
 the poor creatures who were throwing away their honor, 
 if they had any to lose, for the benefit of outsiders who 
 took good care not to expose themselves to the just 
 punishment of the law. 
 
 But the work to be done was not confined to the 
 exposure of false witnesses. There were legal questions 
 to be settled by the highest authorities. As a supe- 
 riority to the House was assumed by the Senate, as the 
 body that was to receive the returns, to open the cer- 
 tificates, and declare the result, it became necessary 
 that the House should assert itself, and Mr. Field drew 
 five resolutions on the power of the House in respect 
 to the electoral count, which were reported from the 
 special committee by Proctor Knott and Randolph 
 Tucker. He drew also the objections to counting the 
 votes of Louisiana and Florida ; and further, as some 
 timid folk were afraid that the country would go to 
 pieces if it should be without a President for twenty- 
 four hours, he drew a bill, which passed the House, 
 to provide for the administration of the Presidency 
 in case of a failure to elect ! One step farther was 
 
272 THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION. 
 
 the drawing of a bill for the legal procedure called 
 quo ivai'ranto, which the Democratic caucus voted to 
 have brought in, and which Mr. Field did bring in, but 
 which did not pass the House. Here he thought his own 
 party flinched from their guns, for he was very confident 
 that if he could once get the case before the courts, 
 Mr. Tilden would have established his title within six 
 months, imless indeed all law was trampled down by 
 the violence of party spirit. 
 
 But now all these dreams and warlike preparations 
 were laid aside by a new proposal. As there was a 
 dead-lock between the two Houses, wisdom finally pre- 
 vailed to this extent, that their difference of opinion 
 should be submitted to an impartial tribunal composed 
 of five Senators, five Representatives, and five members 
 of the Supreme Court, fifteen in all, which sat for sev- 
 eral days in the court room, where Mr. Field and Mr. 
 Charles O'Conor were on one side, and Mr, Evarts on 
 the other. The argument of the latter it was my privi- 
 lege to hear, and it was a great forensic display, although 
 his opponents might say that it showed more ability 
 than fairness. His whole argument revolved round one 
 point : that the Commission had no power — as Con- 
 gress had no poiver — to go behind the returns. Even 
 though they believed them, or even knew them, to be 
 false, there was no remedy ! The constitutional pro- 
 vision was simply that ' ' The President of the Senate 
 shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Repre- 
 
CANNOT GO BEHIND THE RETURNS ! 273 
 
 sentatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall 
 then be counted." But tvhat votes? The real votes 
 deposited by lawful voters, or the result of stuffed 
 ballot boxes, or a false count ? No matter for that ! 
 Right or M'-rong, just or unjust, it must stand ! I can 
 hear him now saying, and repeating, that there was no 
 power that could go behind the Returning Boards ; that 
 the work was put into their hands "to be done, and 
 so done that it could not be undone ! " 
 
 This was the argument used in the Electoral Commis- 
 sion, when they sat by themselves to render their decision. 
 In vain did Mr. Justice Field put an imaginary case : 
 
 "Suppose the canvassers had made a mistake in 
 footing up the returns, that changed the result of the 
 election — a mistake that they discovered before the vote 
 was counted: was there no remedy?" "No !" was 
 the answer. "Then," said the Justice, "a mistake in 
 arithmetic, in the adding up of figures, may elect a 
 President of the United States, and Congress is power- 
 less to prevent it ! " Again he asked : 
 
 "Suppose the canvassers were bribed; or had entered 
 into a conspiracy to commit a fraud ; and in pursuance 
 of the bribery or conspiracy, altered the returns, declar- 
 ing elected persons not chosen by the voters, and had 
 transmitted their vote to the President of the Senate, 
 but that before the vote was counted the fraud was 
 detected and exposed : was there no remedy ? " 
 
 Again the same answer, ' ' No ! whatever fraud there 
 
274 A WRONG FOR WHICH THERE WAS NO REMEDY. 
 
 may have been must be discovered and protested against 
 before the Boards made their returns " [an impossibihty 
 when the Boards were themselves the conspirators to 
 defraud ! ] ; to which the Judge answered : 
 
 " If this be sound doctrine, it is the only instance in 
 the world where fraud becomes enshrined and sanctified 
 behind a certificate of its authors. It is elementary 
 knowledge that fraud vitiates all proceedings, even the 
 most solemn ; that no form of words, no amount of 
 ceremony, and no solemnity of procedure, can shield it 
 from exposure or punishment." 
 
 Once more he put the question in this form : 
 
 ' ' Suppose the canvassers were coerced by force ; by 
 men putting pistols at their heads, and threatening to 
 blow out their brains if they did not perjure themselves, 
 and swear to a lie : was there no remedy ? " 
 
 Again ' ' No ! No ! " an answer which not only con- 
 doned clerical errors and mistakes, but in giving the 
 highest reward to perjury, held out a bribe to every 
 degree of villainy and crime ! 
 
 "But," said one of the leaders of the Republicans, 
 "if you had the trump card, wouldn't you play it ? " 
 "the trump card" being the perjured returns ! This 
 was a taunt worthy of the gamblers of Monte Carlo, 
 but hardly to be thrown in the face of the august 
 Electoral Commission ! But weak and wicked as it 
 was, it prevailed before that great Tribunal when they 
 disclaimed all power to discriminate between lawful 
 
MR. HAYES INAUGURATED. 275 
 
 votes and returns that they knew, or might know, to 
 be fraudulent, and thus enthroned in the place of power 
 one who had not been elected by the American people ! 
 So the deed was done, and on the ith of March, 1877, 
 Mr. Hayes was inaugurated President of the United 
 States ! His administration was in some respects a 
 marked improvement on that of his predecessor, who, 
 being a soldier, naturally leaned upon the army for sup- 
 port, and kept large garrisons in the Southern cities, as 
 if they were conquered provinces. To withdraw these 
 was one of the first acts of the new administration — 
 a step taken by the advice of the Secretary of State, 
 Mr, Evarts ; while the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
 John Sherman, bj^ a wise financial policy, restored the 
 public credit, resumed specie payments, and began to 
 pay off the enormous debt incurred by the war at the 
 rate of a hundred millions a year ! In all these signs 
 of returning prosperity no one rejoiced more than Mr. 
 Field. But even this might be too dearly paid for by 
 the sacrifice of the national honor. As he looked over 
 the country, and saw the cities alive with the activity of 
 business, and the fields waving with abundance, there 
 was one bhght on the smiling landscape — that we were 
 under a government, or at least an administration, that 
 had no right to exist ; that there was in the chair of 
 President one who was not placed there by the people's 
 will. As to personal qualifications half the country 
 might prefer Mr. Hayes to Mr. Tilden. But that had 
 
276 NO PROSPERITY CAN BLOT OUT THE WRONG. 
 
 nothing to do with the case. The question was not 
 which was the better man, but ivhom did the people 
 elect f He was the Lord's anointed, and no one 
 else could take the crown without sacrilege. The 
 assumption of authority by another was as flagrant an 
 usurpation as if General Grant had surrounded the 
 Capitol with troops, and declared that he would hold 
 possession. The right of the people to choose their own 
 rulers was the highest token of sovereignty, and it had 
 never been disputed. The country had just celebrated 
 the centenary of its independence, and in all that hun- 
 dred years there was never a question of right to the 
 succession. Were we to begin now, and follow after 
 the South American republics, where power can be 
 grasped by any pretender, if he has the army behind 
 him ? So reasoned Mr. Field, in whose view this seizure 
 of the Presidency was the greatest of crimes ; even 
 though the country, with its immense vitahty, might 
 survive the shock, and still flourish under it, or in spite 
 of it. No glittering prosperity could ever blot out the 
 memory of this stupendous wrong. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 JOY AND SORROW. THE DEATH OF HIS SON. VISIT 
 TO HIS DAUGHTER IN JAMAICA. 
 
 Even the most intrepid traveller is not likely to make 
 more than one gi-and tour around the world. Mr. Field 
 had gone to the ends of the earth to see his child, and 
 now it seemed as if the ends of the earth were coming 
 to him, when, in the regular course of promotion in the 
 Enghsh service. Sir Anthony Musgrave, after five years 
 in South Australia, was transferred in 1877 to the island 
 of Jamaica, of which he was Governor for five years. 
 This was within a week's sail from New York, and 
 brought those dearest to the father and grandfather 
 very near home. As he sat alone on the night of 
 February 12th, 1878, he wrote: "The last hours of 
 seventy- two years are nearly run out. I have had in 
 the main a happy and a prosperous year. My vigor, 
 bodily and mental, is unimpaired. The great event 
 of the past year in my domestic life has been the 
 visit of my daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, 
 which gave me unspeakable happiness " ; to which he 
 adds, as if it were from the overflow of a heart too full 
 
278 MIDNIGHT REFLECTIONS. 
 
 to be restrained, that he had decided to build a church 
 tower in Stockbridge, with a peal of bells, in the name 
 of his grandchildren, living and dead, to be called the 
 Children's Chimes. "It will be a memorial of those 
 who are enshrined in my heart, while the ringing of 
 the chimes at sunset I trust will give pleasure to all 
 whose good fortune it is to live in this peaceful valley." 
 The generous purpose was carried out that very year. 
 The modest campanile was erected on the green in front 
 of the church, and bears an inscription which tells us that 
 
 THIS MEMORIAL TOWER 
 
 MARKS THE SPOT WHERE STOOD 
 
 THE LITTLE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS 
 
 IN WHICH JOHN SERGEANT 
 
 PREACHED TO THE STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS 
 
 IN 1739. 
 
 But Sergeant was not the only missionary in the wil- 
 derness. In his footsteps came Jonathan Edwards, 
 who, though he was the philosopher of his age, preached 
 not only to the handful of white settlers, but, by an 
 interpreter, to the Indians, till in 1758 he was called to 
 be President of the College at Princeton, where he died ; 
 after whom Stephen West was the pastor for sixty years. 
 The associations of three such saintly men may well 
 make the place holy ground. 
 
 The autumn of that year (1878) brought Mr. Field's 
 usual pilgrimage abroad, where he spent his time chiefly 
 on the Continent, going directl}'' from Liverpool to 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main to attend a meeting of the Inter- 
 
A FEW WEEKS ABROAD. 279 
 
 national Association, which was made dehghtful by the 
 hospitahty of the warm-hearted Germans, who gave 
 them a pubhc dinner and an excursion to Homburg, 
 courtesies which certainly contributed to the cause of 
 peace and good will. 
 
 After the meeting he went on to Munich, and thence 
 through Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart and Carlsbad to 
 Strasburg and Metz, from which he visited the field of 
 Gravelotte, where (as he thought) the French ought 
 to have been victorious, and apparently would have 
 been but for the incompetence of Bazaine. From Metz 
 he went to Luxemburg, and drove about the town, 
 through the park built on the site of the old fortifica- 
 tions and along the deep ravines, which form a moat 
 round the beautiful city. If this did not rouse in him 
 the war spirit, it did the historical spirit, and so he must 
 needs make a pilgrimage to Sedan, and go over the 
 battle field, and visit the house where Napoleon the Third 
 surrendered to King Wilham of Prussia ! From these 
 warlike memories he came to Paris on a more peaceful 
 errand, to attend the meeting of the Institute of Inter- 
 national Law, where he met an old friend, Mr, Groes- 
 beck, of Cincinnati, and the representatives, not only 
 of different countries of Europe, but also of Asia, in the 
 Chinese and Japanese Ministers. One evening that he 
 dined with the former, it was amusing to observe the 
 diversity of languages. Neither of these Ministers 
 spoke any language but his own, but each had a secre- 
 
280 VISIT OF DEAN STANLEY. 
 
 tary who could speak French, so that when the Chinese 
 Minister gave a toast, his secretary translated it into 
 French to the Japanese secretary, who translated it 
 into Japanese to the Japanese Minister ! It was well 
 that the sentiment that was to pass through three lan- 
 guages was one of peace and prosperity to all. 
 
 These visits to Europe were not unf requently returned 
 in America. The same autumn Dean Stanley crossed 
 the sea, accompanied by his friend Mr. (now Sir) 
 George Grove and Dr. Harper, who were all guests 
 of Mr. Cyrus Field in New York and at his place 
 on the Hudson. Then, wishing to show them a little 
 of the scenery of New England, he brought them up to 
 the Berkshire Hills, and after taking them to Williams 
 College, came with them to Stockbridge, where they 
 were for several days the guests of our oldest brother. 
 It was delightful to see the enthusiasm of the Dean as 
 he looked down from the hill top into the valley, through 
 which the Housatonic winds its way, and exclaimed 
 in surprise, "Why did you not tell me of all this?" 
 As we drove him to Lenox, the Stockbridge Bowl, 
 set in the bosom of the hills, reminded him of the lake 
 scenery of England. On Sunday he preached in the 
 Episcopal church, and (recalling the historical associa- 
 tions which he had learned only the previous day, how 
 Ephraim Williams of Stockbridge, as he was to go out 
 to the field in the old French war, made the bequest that 
 was the foundation of the College which bears his name,) 
 
IN THE PULPIT AND BY THE FIRESIDE. 281 
 
 thus alluded to the young hero who had fallen in battle 
 a hundred and twenty-three years before : ' ' Had the 
 forefathers of this great nation not struggled to reclaim 
 the wilderness, and convert the savage, and build up 
 the Church of God by river and by forest ; had there 
 not been men like the gallant soldiers who guarded these 
 frontiers, to catch, in the intervals of war and blood- 
 shed, visions of a happy and peaceful future, and lay 
 the foundations on which learning and religion might 
 freely flourish and abound — this nation would never 
 have been born, this empire would never have arisen." 
 From the church he came to our cottage on the hill 
 and spent the afternoon. My brother had told me that 
 his delight was, not to see our cities, so much as the 
 interior of American homes. I can see him now as he 
 sat upon a low chair before the open fire, (for which 
 there was an excuse in a touch of frostiness in the 
 October air,) more interested to ask questions about 
 the country and its local history, than to speak of aught 
 which concerned himself or England. When at last we 
 walked across the lawn as the sun was going down in 
 the West, his gentle face seemed to reflect the peace and 
 calm of the day, as he said, ' ' I would not have missed 
 this for anything." In return for our little courtesy 
 he hoped to welcome us to Westminster Abbey, where 
 he could have the pleasure of going with us over the 
 ancient pile, pointing out the historic names of many 
 generations ; but alas ! before we crossed the sea again, 
 
282 A YEAR MARKED WITH A CROSS. 
 
 he too was laid to rest in the shadow of tlie great Abbey 
 which he had done so much to make known to the world. 
 
 Thus in the midst of life we are in death, a warn- 
 ing that was soon to come home to us nearer still. 
 
 The year 1880 should be marked with a cross, in 
 token of a great sorrow, the death of Mr. Field's only 
 son, which came without a warning. It was midsum- 
 mer, and the city was deserted, as all who could get 
 away had fled to the seashore or the mountains. Our 
 family was divided in its country homes, Cyrus having 
 a place at Dobbs Ferry, and "Young Dudley" (as we 
 sometimes called him to distinguish him from his father) 
 at Hastings — both on the Hudson. But wherever we 
 were, Stockbridge was the paternal home, where our 
 father and mother had lived and died, and were buried, 
 and where the eldest and the youngest of the brothers 
 spent their summers, and here we had planned our 
 family meeting. Mr. Field, who was at the moment at 
 Long Branch, was to come up to welcome his brother the 
 Justice and his wife from Washington. His daughter- 
 in-law had come in advance, while his son, who was 
 very fond of coaching, would drive four-in-hand across 
 the country. A more beautiful excursion could hardly 
 be found in Old England itself than that from the Hud- 
 son to the Housatonic. It is all hill and valley, with 
 roads winding hither and thither through the woods or 
 along the course of streams, and when he took his seat on 
 the box, with no companion but the faithful " Michael," 
 
A FAMILY GATHERING. 283 
 
 and cracked his whip, they started at full speed, and 
 went up hill and down dale. Not the slightest incident 
 marred the dehght of the journey, till, as the sun was 
 setting over the Western hills, he drove up to his father's 
 door. Here were all the conditions of a deHghtful fam- 
 ily union, when in a few hours all was changed. After 
 the long drive of the day he slept soundly, but woke in 
 the morning and spoke to his attendant in liis usual 
 cheerful tone, when suddenly the heart stopped beating, 
 the golden bowl was broken, and life came to an end. 
 It Avas but a few minutes before we, who were near 
 neighbors, were on the spot. But one glance at the 
 marble face was enough, and all that could be done 
 was to soothe the distracted wife. A message was sent 
 immediately to his uncle Cyrus to be communicated to 
 his father, and the next morning brought both to the 
 home that was now turned into a house of mourning. 
 On the afternoon of the same day, August 10, 1880, 
 The Evening Post announced the sad event : 
 
 "Mr. Dudley Field, the only son and the partner of the emi- 
 nent lawyer David Dudley Field, died suddenly this morning. 
 He left Hastings-on-the-Hudson last Friday morning to drive 
 to Stockbridge, Mass., and was at that time in excellent health. 
 He had made arrangements to meet all his uncles at Stockbridge 
 this week, and Judge Field and the Rev. Dr. Field had already 
 joined him and were with him at six o'clock this morning, when 
 he died very suddenly of disease of the heart. 
 
 " Mr. Field was forty-nine years old, and was very well known 
 in this city both as counsel and advocate, although his profes- 
 
284 DEATH IN THE MIDST OF LIFE. 
 
 sional reputation was necessarily overshadowed by that of his 
 father. He was very popular in the profession, being a man of 
 pleasing address and genial temperament, and his death will 
 be sincerely mourned by a very large circle of acquaintances." 
 
 The shock was all the greater because it was wholly 
 unexpected. It was the sudden close of a life that was 
 still in the prime of vigorous manhood, and that prom- 
 ised so much. From his very boyhood he seemed to 
 have every gift of fortune. From College he went 
 abroad, and spent a year in Europe and the East. But 
 the greatest of his opportunities was to sit at the feet 
 of a master of the law, and to enter upon practice with 
 the prestige of his father's name. Thus the world had 
 opened all its gates to him for a brilliant career. On 
 such a prospect the curtain now fell. 
 
 It was a sad day when the old home, known for its 
 hospitality, saw a gathering for another purpose, indi- 
 cated by the flag at half-mast. A note in his father's 
 diary gives the incidents of the last farewell : 
 
 " August 12. To-day my son was buried. The sky was low- 
 ering, but there was no rain. The funeral services were very 
 simple. At five o'clock our nearest friends came to the house, 
 where a prayer was said and a few verses of Scripture read, and 
 then the carriages wound slowly down the hill, following the 
 remains to the Episcopal church, where the full service was 
 read, the anthem chanted and the hymn ' Abide with me ' sung. 
 Then the body was borne to the grave by the workmen in. my 
 service, assisted by a few others, the pall-bearers, relatives and 
 assemblage following on foot. At the grave the coffin, covered 
 
DUST TO DUST. 285 
 
 with flowers, was placed in a cedar cover, and the whole lowered 
 into a vault made of brick at the bottom and sides, and covered 
 with heavy slabs of marble. On the turf which covered the 
 ground I placed an anchor of flowers at the foot, and a broken 
 shaft of flowers at the head. Mournful chimes were then played 
 a few minutes, and we left the grave and the cemetery. By 
 this time the moon, half full, had taken the sun's place, and a 
 soft light shone upon us as we returned to our home. I could 
 but think that it was a merciful providence which had brought 
 my son to die imder his father's roof, and to be borne to his last 
 resting-place by his father's servants." 
 
 So ended a career whose possibilities seemed but half 
 fulfilled when he was cut down in the midst of his days. 
 But if the brilliant promise of his early life fades in 
 the distance, we cannot forget the warmth of a heart 
 that never grew cold. He had a great love of children, 
 and the early death of his only child was a blow from 
 which he never recovered. Perhaps none have a better 
 opportunity to know the heart of a young man than 
 his classmates in College. Living in daily intercourse, 
 they know one another more intimately and more truly 
 than in the great outside world. And therefore it has 
 been so grateful to us to hear those who knew him then 
 tell us that there was no one to whom they could go 
 more freely for any act of kindness ; and that all felt 
 that they had lost a friend when they heard that he had 
 gone to the grave. They will keep his memory green.* 
 
 * In 1883 his father placed a memorial window of his only son 
 in St. Paul's Church in Stockbridge, and one also in the hall of 
 the Kappa Alpha Society in Williamstown. 
 
386 VISIT TO JAMAICA. 
 
 A heavy heart is not made hght by a change of 
 place. But it is a rehef to the burden of sorrow to turn 
 from dwelhng only on one who is ' ' loved and lost " to 
 another not less dear who still remains. So long as there 
 is yet one to love, a stricken father is not quite desolate, 
 mourning as one who will not be comforted. To find 
 such a change of scene and association Mr. Field left 
 New York at the close of autumn for Jamaica, of which 
 Sir Anthony Musgrave was the colonial governor. A 
 few notes from his diary will keep track of the voyage 
 and the visit : 
 
 "November 25, 1880. Started in the ship Atlas, bound to 
 Jamaica, on a visit to my daughter and her family. A snow- 
 storm had come in the night, and the streets, the ship and the 
 shores of the bay were all white as we steamed out to sea. It 
 was very cold, and I had to wrap myself in my warmest. But 
 the sea was not ruffled, the snow and rain had ceased, and the 
 night was fine. After a day or two the repose of the voyage 
 gave me relief from the constant strain of work, with the added 
 burden of so much sorrow. When I came on board I was nearly 
 worn out ; but the quiet of the sh(p, the absence of care, and 
 the softly murmuring sea soothed my nerves. Nobody impor- 
 tuned me, nobody called me. I was alone with myself, with a 
 small ship's company, and with nature, the sea, the winds, the 
 clouds and the stars. 
 
 " November 28. Dudley's birthday. As I sat upon the deck 
 all the morning, I thought of the bright day when he was born, 
 in a front chamber on Murray Street, looking out upon the 
 green of Columbia College, and a canary singing in his cage 
 over the coming of the child. I ran along the years of his life 
 
THE RESTFUL SEA. 287 
 
 till he died. How my lieart was bound up in him ! Then I 
 thought of what was left to me in my daughter and her chil- 
 dren, to whom I am going. " 
 
 As they were sailing Soutliward, each day brought 
 a milder climate, and all the passengers were on deck, 
 enjoying the softer air, while he was for the most part 
 sitting in his sea-chair with a book. He had taken with 
 him the recently pubKshed "History of Our Times," 
 by his old friend Justin McCarthy, and very interesting 
 he found it. It set him to thinking whether government 
 was really made much better by the long discussions in 
 Parliament or in Congress, apropos of which he recalled 
 an observation of Lord Normanby, whom he had met 
 six years before in Queensland, that in all his life in 
 Parliament he had never heard but two speeches that 
 changed the vote in the House of Commons : one was 
 a speech of Lord Palmerston on the famous Don Pacifico 
 case ; and the other a speech of Macaulay on the exclu- 
 sion of the Master of the Rolls from the privilege of 
 sitting in Parliament. So diflQcult was it to move the 
 government. Sir Rowland Hill told him of his expe- 
 rience in getting his plan of cheap postage introduced. 
 He argued and argued, but made little impression till 
 one day the Duke of Wellington sent for him to explain 
 it, and getting interested, told him he would take it up. 
 As the Iron Duke could speak in a tone of command, 
 soon everybody discovered that cheap postage was one 
 
288 THE ISLAND OP JAMAICA, 
 
 of the greatest blessings ever bestowed upon the people 
 of England ! 
 
 "November 30. The last day of autumn. About nine last 
 evening we passed Wattings Island, 1,000 miles due south from 
 New York and 470 from Kingston, and Bird Island at four this 
 morning, and at six stopped at Fortune Island and took on board 
 negro workmen for service on the ship and in port till her 
 return. From this we passed Castle Island and then struck out 
 straight for Cape Maysi, the eastern end of Cuba. 
 
 •'December 2. Kingston. We anchored off the harbor in 
 the night, and steamed up to town by seven o'clock this morn- 
 ing. 'The Governor's carriage was waiting for me, and I was 
 driven to King's House, where I found myself at eight o'clock 
 surrounded by my daughter and her husband and their children. 
 
 ' ' December 6. At three in the afternoon we left King's House 
 in a landau and drove five miles to Gordon-Town, at the foot of 
 the Port Royal Mountain. There taking the horses, which had 
 been sent on before, we followed a bridle-path, said to have been 
 laid out by the Spaniards, for an hour and a half, when we drew 
 up before a low cottage, 4,000 feet above the sea. This is Flam- 
 stead, where Jeanie and her family have passed three summers. 
 It is said to be eighty years old, and is embowered in flowers 
 and vines. Kingston, city and harbor, is at our feet, and the 
 highest range of the Blue Mountains, 8,000 feet, fills the horizon 
 to the north and east. When Columbus was asked by Isabella 
 what Jamaica looked like, he crumpled a sheet of paper, and 
 then opening it half way, said that the surface was like that ! 
 It was a good illustration. I never saw a mass of mountains 
 of so many shapes and so sharply cut. The thermometer now, 
 at eleven o'clock, stands at 71, and a gentle breeze stirs the 
 foliage about me as I write. Church, the artist, resided for a 
 while in these hills, at a cottage a mile or so to the southeast 
 
THE MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 289 
 
 of Flamstead, and he thinks the climate the best lie has ever 
 known. The quiet is complete ; there is no neighbor within 
 fifteen minutes' walk. 
 
 "December 8. Yesterday at three P. M. we had a shower of 
 rain, lasting half an hour. When it ceased, we started on a 
 ride among the mountains— Jeanie, Anthony, an orderly, a ser- 
 vant on foot and myself, in single file, along steep mountains 
 and among stunted trees. We passed the spot where Jeanie 
 was thrown over the hillside from a runaway horse. It is a 
 frightful place, and it was a miracle that she was not killed. 
 Our path lay along Mount Elizabeth, to the southern end. The 
 views were grand. We did little more than walk our horses, 
 now and then starting into a gentle trot. Coming down from 
 the mountain one day, we saw a phenomenon I had never seen 
 before. It had been raining, and instead of a rainbow there was 
 a circle, an aureole, around the head of each of the riders as he 
 rode, mirrored in the mist on the opposite side of the ravine. 
 
 "December 20. Yesterday afternoon at five I went with 
 the Governor to the camp of the West- Indies Regiment to hear 
 the band. The musicians were all black except the leader. The 
 privates of the regiment are black, but the ofiicers are white. 
 I am told that there is not a black officer, high or low, in the 
 British Army. 
 
 "December 28. In the afternoon the Governor, Mr. Baden 
 Powell and myself, made a visit to the Commodore at Port Royal. 
 We were taken over to the tomb of a person who was swallowed 
 up in the great earthquake, thrown out again, and lived after- 
 ward thirty years ! 
 
 "In Jamaica I learned two lessons. One was how completely 
 one phase of life and occupancy could be blotted out by another. 
 We are apt to think with amazement of the changes in Europe 
 which the Northern barbarians effected when they came down 
 
290 ONE RACE BLOTTED OUT BY ANOTHER. 
 
 upon the Roman Empire. The example of Jamaica explains it 
 fully. The Spaniards colonized the island and inhabited it for 
 two hundred years, until it was taken from them by the Eng- 
 lish. There is not now, however, so far as I could learn, a ves- 
 tige of Spanish rule remaining, except the broken walls of a 
 convent on the north side of the island ; the names of three or 
 four small streams emptying into the sea, also on that side ; and 
 the corruption of a name constantly vised on the south side. 
 Near Kingston is a small river which rushes rapidly through a 
 ledge of rocks. This is now called ' Bog Walk,' a corruption, 
 no doubt, of Boca d' Agua. 
 
 "The other lesson was the impossibility of either a social or 
 political admixture of the Aryan and the Negro races. The 
 population of Jamaica is roughly estimated at 500,000, of whom 
 50,000 are whites, 100,000 browns, and the rest blacks. The 
 negroes live in comfortable huts, and the green lanes of their 
 villages are often charming. On market days there are crowds 
 of men and women buying and selling. The white dresses and 
 the headgear of the women make a pictiu-esque scene. But in 
 spite of all this, and though they are as free as the whites, and 
 have been so for seventy years, there is no mingling of the races. 
 The browns hold themselves aloof from the negroes, and the 
 whites from both." 
 
 It is a far cry from Jamaica to the Alps, and yet 
 there was Mr. Field in the following autumn. On the 
 last day of summer he left St. Moritz at seven o'clock, 
 drove up the Engadine to the Malaya Pass, and descended 
 by a very long and steep zigzag to the valley, a road 
 that is wonderful for its scenery. At Casteregno he 
 passed the boundary between Switzerland and Italy. 
 Here the chestnut trees begin to cover the sides of the 
 
ON LAKE COMO. 291 
 
 valley. Having taken the extra post, he travelled rap- 
 idly to Lake Como, where a steamer was waiting, and 
 at six o'clock he was in the Grand Hotel at Bellagio. 
 A day or two after he had one of the surprises that 
 make the delight of travel : 
 
 "September 2. At the wharf this morning, as I was about 
 to go on the steamer for Como, I met my brother Stephen and 
 his wife, who had been at the Hotel Grande Bretagne all day 
 yesterday, neither of us knowing that the other was at Bellagio. 
 We went together to Como, and there I left them at the station 
 to go on to Milan, where I am to meet them on Monday. Around 
 the lake the houses, gardens, boat-houses, fountains, winding 
 walks, and the dark green foliage, with the variety of trees, 
 shrubs and vines, make scenes of indescribable beauty. The 
 charm of the Italian lakes lies in the grandeur of the mountains 
 that surround them, the frequency of bays and inlets, the wind- 
 ings of the lakes, and the softness of the climate, not to mention 
 the numberless villas which in the course of generations have 
 been built upon the shores. 
 
 "September 5. Milan. The town is full of visitors to the 
 Italian Exposition. I have visited it with great interest, con- 
 sidering what advances Italy has made since her unity has been 
 established. Of all the European nations, she is to me the most 
 interesting, from the progress she lias made since she was freed 
 from the rule of Austria, Naples and the Pope, and of the petty 
 sovereigns who divided and enslaved her, and has become one 
 united kingdom from the Alps to the Adriatic. Milan is a bright 
 and cheerful city. The people are better looking than the 
 French or Swiss ; the profiles and bearing of both men and 
 women are finer. 
 
 "September 22. Went to Mentone, where the house of most 
 
292 MONTE CARLO. 
 
 interest to me was the Pension Anglo- Americana, in which my 
 grandchildren stayed in 1879. Arrived at Monte Carlo at five 
 and took lodgings for the night at the Hotel de Paris, opposite 
 the Casino. The day was wintry and the breakers dashed hard 
 against the shore. The road was either alongside the breakers 
 or above them, giving the most picturesque views of land and 
 sea ; a succession of headlands jutting out into the deep, with 
 bays between ; from which rose slopes covered with vineyards 
 and orange-trees, and dotted with churches and villas, and 
 behind all a glorious background of mountains. Strange that 
 all this beauty and sublimity should be profaned by the vices of 
 men, but here at Monte Carlo is the greatest gambling house in 
 Europe. After dinner we paid a visit to the famous (or infamous) 
 Casino, where we were required to present our cards, and received 
 in exchange tickets of admission to the Cercle des Etrangers. 
 and passed into a large hall, a sort of reception room, where men 
 and women were walking up and down, and then into the gam- 
 bling room, where were four tables, three for roulette and one 
 for faro, and all crowded with players, among whom were a 
 number of women ! Another entrance opened into a reading- 
 room, furnished with more papers than I have seen together 
 since I came abroad. Into this I strayed, and was met with the 
 ghastly news of Garfield's death ! I had no heart to think of 
 anything else, and came straight back to the hotel. 
 
 "Returning to Paris shortly after, I attended a memorial ser- 
 vice for the martyred President in the Protestant Church of the 
 Oratoire. No death since that of Lincoln has created such a 
 sensation throughout Europe as that of Garfield." 
 
 This year the Social Science Congress met in Dublin, 
 which Mr. Field had not visited before, and in his first 
 walk round the town he ' ' found the streets as dirty 
 
DUBLIN AND IRISH HOSPITALITY. 293 
 
 as in New York" [happily our streets are better now], 
 and there was a great deal of squalid poverty, but these 
 unfavorable impressions were soon dispelled by Lord 
 O'Hagan, the Irish Lord Chancellor, who invited him 
 to be his guest at "Woodlands" and with true Irish 
 hospitality gave a dinner in his honor, at which thirty 
 sat down at the table, among whom were Archbishop 
 McCabe and Mr. W. E. Forster, the Chief Secretary 
 for Ireland, with whom he dined the next evening at 
 the Vice-regal Lodge in Phenix Park. Mrs. Forster 
 is a daughter of the famous Dr. Arnold. 
 
 But, with true American curiosity, the one spot in 
 Dublin that Mr. Field wished to see was the place where 
 Robert Emmet was executed, one of the saddest trage- 
 dies in history, with which every American is familiar. 
 The pathetic story of his secret engagement to the 
 daughter of Curran, as told by Washington Irving,* 
 and his courage in the face of death, have thrown a 
 romantic association over his name, which was increased 
 by the emigration of his brother, Thomas Addis Emmet, 
 with other illustrious exiles, to the New World, where 
 Mr. Field had seen them in his early days, and it was 
 
 *The picture by Irving in his "Broken Heart" receives its last 
 touch from the lines of Moore ending : 
 
 Oh ! make her a grave where the sunbeams rest, 
 
 When they promise a glorious morrow ; 
 They'll shine o'er her sleep, like a smile from the West, 
 From her own loved island of sorrow ! 
 
294 A SUMMER IN ENGLAND. 
 
 a sad interest to stand on the very spot where perished 
 the youthful martjT of Irish independence. 
 
 It had become such a habit of Mr. Field to spend 
 part of his summer vacation abroad, that it is enough 
 to say that the next year (1882) he followed his usual 
 course, with only this change, that, as the place of 
 meeting of the Association for the Reform and Codifi- 
 cation of the Law of Nations was in Liverpool, he had 
 no necessity to cross the Channel. Nor was this a 
 hardship or privation, for though he had friends in 
 France, Germany, and Italy, yet next to his own coun- 
 try, there v/as no spot on earth where he felt so much 
 at home, and so much in love with the country and the 
 people, as in dear old England, where he spent two 
 delightful months, returning in October. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE AFTERNOON OF LIFE. THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE. 
 DEATH OF SIR ANTHONY MUSGRAVE. 
 
 The happiest part of a man's life is when he has 
 come to "the land where it is always afternoon." The 
 struggles of life are over ; the battles fought, the vic- 
 tories won. Not that he has ceased to be an actor in 
 the world's affairs, but he has reached a higher eleva- 
 tion, where he breathes a serener air. Into that broad 
 upland Mr. Field had now come. Though he was 
 approaching his eightieth year, his eye was not dimmed, 
 nor his natural force abated. His form was as erect 
 and his step as quick and firm as ever. But there was 
 a little softening of the inner man. Old contests, if not 
 forgotten, were subdued. The combative element in 
 him was not quite so strong, perhaps because the victori- 
 ous can afford to be magnanimous. Or was it rather 
 that the sun had crossed the meridian, and that life, if 
 not quite so stirring as in the midday of battle, was full 
 of quiet thoughts, of cheering memories, and still more 
 cheering anticipations. With the years, as they had 
 come and gone, there had been a more general recogni- 
 tion at home and abroad of the immense service that 
 
296 LORD COLERIDGE IN AMERICA. 
 
 he had rendered in his reform of the law, in sweeping 
 away the technicahties of legal procedure, which, from 
 once being sacred, had now become matters of ridicule 
 and contempt. In 1883 Lord Coleridge made a visit to 
 this country and was received everywhere by bench and 
 bar with the respect due to the Lord Chief Justice of 
 England. On the eve of his departure New York did 
 him honor in a great array of the legal profession at the 
 Academy of Music, which he addressed with a frank- 
 ness that disarmed all criticism. He did not assume 
 to speak for England, as he held a somewhat isolated 
 position in the politics of that country. ' ' I have never 
 shrunk," he said, "from calling myself a radical, who, 
 while greatly admiring Mr. Gladstone, find myself more 
 heartily in accord with Mr. Bright than with any other 
 living Englishman." A most happy introduction this, 
 which sounded as if the Lord Chief Justice of England 
 were almost a republican ! At any rate he sympathized 
 with liberty wherever he found it, and saw more to admire 
 than to criticize, and was more ready to learn than to 
 teach. In this spirit he referred to our systems of juris- 
 prudence, ' ' some of which he confessed he had not been 
 successful in mastering " — a gentle suggestion that even 
 here there were a few things that might be improved 
 in the administration of the law ! He had been told 
 that the English courts despatched business more rap- 
 idly than ours, and ' ' he could not express the pleasure 
 he felt to think that anything in England was done 
 
I.AW REFORM IN ENGLAND. 297 
 
 faster than here — even a lawsuit ! " He had been told 
 also that the English judges take the liberty of assum- 
 ing the direction of affairs more than the practice of 
 some of our States would permit. From his point of 
 view he could not help thinking that the English were 
 right ; and yet from our point of view, so different 
 were the circumstances, that we might be right too. 
 
 But better than all was the lesson of England's expe- 
 rience. He said : ' ' As the result of ten years of labor 
 by a committee of which he was the chairman, the 
 English judges had recommended certain changes in 
 the methods of procedure, to simplify proceedings. 
 It was high time that something was done. A dis- 
 tinguished practitioner once said that he did not think 
 the world or England would be the worse if every case in 
 ' Meeson and Welsby ' had been decided the other way ! " 
 But this conservatism was not confined to England, 
 for he had been told that in one of our States these old 
 methods of practice shone as bright as ever ! To such 
 worshippers of the past he suggested that, "as we had 
 in the Yellowstone Park a collection of the prodigies 
 and monstrosities of nature, so the lovers of these old 
 forms should set up a park for quaint pleadings, where 
 the absque hoes and surrebutters might be preserved 
 to gratify future curiosity "—to all which Mr. Field 
 listened with a quiet satisfaction that he had lived to 
 see the day when England and America were united 
 in the work of Law Reform. 
 
298 KEEPING A BIRTHDAY. 
 
 But — to turn from the professional to the personal — 
 as our eldest brother was the head of the family, it 
 was a part of our household traditions to remember his 
 birthday. With the death of his only son, and the 
 absence of his only daughter, his three brothers were 
 his nearest kindred, and it would have been a sort of 
 sacrilege — at least towards our household gods — if we 
 had not all come together. We must meet somewhere : 
 if it could not be in New York, then in Washington, in 
 the well-known house on Capitol Hill, which has been 
 famous for thirty years for its generous hospitahty. 
 Here we met on his birthday in 1884. Of course it 
 added to our pleasure that others should share in our 
 admiration for one so dear to us, as when the Justices 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States came in a 
 body to pay their respects ; and at dinner the govern- 
 ment was represented by President Arthur and his 
 Secretary of State, Mr. Frelinghuysen ; Chief Justice 
 Waite, and Judges Harlan, Blatchford, aod Gray ; 
 Senators Edmunds, Bayard, and Gibson ; Mr. Carlisle, 
 Speaker of the House ; with Representatives Randall, 
 Tucker, Hewitt, and Dorsheimer ; to whom was added 
 a representative from the Antipodes in Sir Henry Parke, 
 whom Mr. Field had met on the other side of the globe, 
 at Sydney, where he was Prime Minister of New South 
 Wales. With his large stature and white hair he was 
 a striking figure, such as became one of the founders 
 of the new empire of the Southern seas. 
 
VISIT TO HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 299 
 
 The next birthday (1885) rounded out his eightieth 
 year, when his brother Cyrus gave a reception, at which 
 were not only representatives of his own profession, 
 lawyers and judges, but men of science and learning, 
 Professors in Columbia College and in the University 
 of New York ; and men of affairs, merchants and bank- 
 ers — all of whom came together to do honor to one who 
 had done as much as any man of his day to establish 
 the foundations of the Commonwealth. 
 
 In the month of April he was invited to Halifax, 
 Nova Scotia, to make an address at the Dalhousie 
 University, where he was received with the greatest 
 courtesy by the bench and the bar. A number of the 
 judges went to the station to meet him and bid him 
 welcome. The Academy of Music was crowded to hear 
 his address on the Comparative Jurisprudence of the 
 English-speaking peoples. Of the impression made by 
 this visit I have heard from several quarters, but from 
 no one who was more enthusiastic than the late Sir 
 John Thompson, whom I met at the Bering Sea 
 Arbitration in Paris, and again at Ottawa, when he 
 was the Prime Minister of Canada, and made for him- 
 self such a reputation across the sea as led to his 
 appointment as one of the Privy Council, for which he 
 was called to England to be sworn into office, and had 
 gone with the Ministers to Windsor for that purpose, 
 where he died suddenly in the Castle, to the great grief 
 of the Queen. The English government paid an honor 
 
300 THE queen's jubilee. 
 
 to his memory such as had never been given to any one 
 on this side of the ocean except to George Peabody, in 
 sending a ship-of-war to take his remains to Hahfax, 
 where he was buried with all the funereal pomp of a 
 great military parade with reversed arms and folded 
 banners. He was one of the men who could hardly find 
 words to express his admiration of David Dudley Field. 
 
 The year 1887 was an annus mirabilis, as it was 
 the year of the Queen's Jubilee, an anticipation of what 
 we have had ten years later. As it was to be in early 
 summer, Mr. Field sailed for England on the 1st of 
 June, and on the 21st, the great day of the feast, was 
 in his place in Westminster Abbey, in the Diplomatic 
 Gallery, where he and Mr, Phelps were the only ones 
 in plain dress, a stern simplicity which republicans might 
 regard as a distinction, (as it was for Franklin in Paris,) 
 in contrast with the rich costumes and decorations of 
 the European Ambassadors. The scene was one of the 
 greatest brilliancy, but of course all eyes were fixed 
 upon the central figure, eyes that were wet with tears, 
 when the Queen seemed to be lost in the mother, as she 
 kissed her children and grandchildren. 
 
 That was a time of general rejoicing in London, a 
 pleasant episode of which followed two days after in 
 a dinner given bj^ the Association of Foreign Consuls, 
 in which forty nations were represented : indeed every 
 nation that had diplomatic relations with England, 
 except China. As they came in one by one, and their 
 
AN OLD SCOTCH CASTLE. 301 
 
 names were announced, now the Consul of Germany, 
 and now the Consul of Brazil, etc., etc., it seemed as if 
 indeed the ends of the earth were coming together, and 
 that tliis was a sign and token of the time when 
 
 "The war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle flags are furled 
 In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." 
 
 But no Parhament could keep a grandfather long 
 away from his grandsons, the eldest of whom, who bore 
 his own name, was at Dartmouth, on board the train- 
 ing ship Britannia ; while the two younger were in 
 Scotland, pursuing their studies under the watchful 
 care of Mrs. Drummond, a friend and kinswoman of 
 Dean Stanley. They lived in a castle, an old building 
 of irregular shape, once the scene of conflicts between 
 the Highlands and the Lowlands in their border feuds. 
 The grounds were charming, full of old trees and pleas- 
 ant walks. From the castle Mr. Field drove to the 
 school where were Arthur and Herbert, when he had 
 to confess that it was impossible to describe his emotion 
 as the dear boys opened the door and rushed into his 
 arms. 
 
 Returning from Scotland, he had a few days to spare, 
 and thinking it a good time to see ' ' how they do things 
 on this side of the sea," he went down to Durham 
 to attend the Assizes. There were two judges, one a 
 Protestant and the other a Catholic, both of whom went 
 to church before they went to court, Mr. Field attended 
 
302 THE ENGLISH ASSIZES. 
 
 the service in the Cathedral, where he had a seat in the 
 chancel, and observed the judge, as he came in wig and 
 gown with an escort of the sheriff, chaplain and police- 
 man, after which there was a sermon ! The two judges 
 had apartments in the old palace of the bishops. At 
 eleven o'clock they came to the court house in a stage 
 coach, preceded by trumpeters. This was preserving 
 the majesty of justice ! Mr. Field went first to the 
 criminal court with the judge and sat beside him all the 
 morning. He charged the grand jury, who stood in a 
 side balcony a few feet higher than the judge. Then 
 he waited for them to act on the indictments presented, 
 while he read the depositions of the committing magis- 
 trate. After half an hour two of the grand-jurors 
 came into the balcony and the ofiQcer in charge passed 
 down to the clerk of the assize, in a net bag fastened to 
 the end of a pole, two indictments, and withdrew. The 
 person indicted was brought in and put on trial. In one 
 case two defendants were tried for highway robbery ; 
 one was acquitted, the other found guilty and sentenced 
 to penal servitude. A woman was put on trial for con- 
 cealing the birth of a dead child. She had no counsel, 
 but the judge was very lenient, and when the jury 
 found her guilty, with a strong recommendation to 
 mercy, he let her off with only a week's imprisonment. 
 Mr. Field then went over to the ci\al court, where 
 Judge Matthew was sitting, and in the evening dined 
 with the judges at the Castle. 
 
A GREAT NAVAL REVIEW. 303 
 
 Two old customs he found still kept up at Durham : 
 one, for the judges to receive on leaving each a jacobus, 
 to help them procure protection on their forward jour- 
 ney ; the other, to be entertained by the Dean, where 
 as they dine a hymn is chanted, and at the end the 
 Dean gives them his blessing and a shilling ! 
 
 From Durham he went to Bath, the great resort of 
 English fashion a hundred years ago, and still famous 
 from its association with the distinguished figures of 
 a former generation. Here lived Lord Chatham and 
 Gibbon the historian ; Fielding, the novehst ; Lady 
 Huntington, the friend of "Wesley ; Napier, the author 
 of the Peninsular War ; and Walter Savage Landor. 
 
 Leaving these memories behind, Mr. Field was .next 
 to witness a demonstration of the present greatness of 
 England in the naval review at Portsmouth, where he 
 was a guest on board of one of the troop ships and fol- 
 lowed the Queen's yacht through the whole squadron, 
 a display of "sea-power" such as the world never saw 
 before, nor since till ten years afterward (1897), when 
 it was eclipsed, but only by England herself, and in the 
 same Avaters. 
 
 From the Isle of Wight he came back to London to 
 attend the Peace Conference at Guildhall, where they 
 were welcomed by the Lord Mayor, and in the eve- 
 ning a great banquet was given at the Mansion House, 
 at which there were three hundred guests, and 'Mr. 
 Field had to respond for his countrymen. 
 
304 DEATH OF SIR ANTHONY MUSGRAVE. 
 
 That summer (of 1887) seemed to be devoted to fetes 
 and celebrations. But after the sunshine come the 
 shadows : and the next year he was called to England 
 on a sadder errand. He was spending the summer at 
 his seaside home on the Sound. The 9th of October was 
 the birthday of his daughter, and his thoughts were fly- 
 ing over the seas to her, when a message from his brother 
 Cyrus was put into his hand, telling him that her hus- 
 band, Sir Anthony Musgrave, had died at Brisbane, the 
 capital of Queensland, the day before, after an illness 
 of but five hours ! The shock was the more terrible 
 in that it was wholly unexpected. He was in the full 
 vigor of manhood, and never more active or more use- 
 ful. Brought up in the service of his country, he was 
 an admirable type of that class of men Mdio, trained for 
 their high positions, have done so much for the glory 
 of England. With his long experience in different 
 parts of the world, he may have well looked forward 
 to many years of usefulness and honor. His death was 
 therefore a great public loss. But the most agonizing 
 reflection to Mr. Field was that his only child was a 
 widow, and far away on the other side of the globe. 
 But, thanks to the ocean telegraph, it was possible to 
 communicate with her, and with his message of sym- 
 pathy went the assurance that he would meet her in 
 England, to which he assumed that she would imme- 
 diately return ; and he sailed the next month. He 
 met her at Plymouth, which was her first port, and 
 
A QUIET SUMMER IN STOCKBRIDGE. 305 
 
 came with her to London. After a week or two they 
 went to Scotland, to see her youngest son, Herbert. To 
 a stricken mother no sympathy could be so tender as 
 that of one who had shared her great sorrow. He 
 was still there at school near the picturesque old castle, 
 whose occupants were as venerable as its ancient walls. 
 
 Returning to London, it was necessary to make plans 
 for the winter. It was too late to return to America, 
 and the winter in England would be bleak and cold. 
 And so, after some deliberation, Mr. Field decided to go 
 with a party of friends to Egypt, where they spent the 
 winter, going up the Nile, and did not return to England 
 till the spring, and reached America in May. 
 
 After nearl}^ a year's absence from his country he 
 was glad of a quiet summer in Stockbridge. Nothing 
 was so restful to him as nature, and he was more than 
 willing to exchange the ceaseless roar of London for 
 the stillness of the Berkshire Hills. The last of June 
 brought the day of Commencement at Williams Col- 
 lege, and we drove up through the county together. 
 With the beauty of the season were the associations 
 of other days, as we passed over the same old roads, 
 through the woods, and by lake and stream, that we 
 had travelled many times when life was young. 
 
 At Williamstown he missed his life-long friend Mark 
 Hopkins, to whom it had been his sad privilege to pay 
 his tribute of love and admiration the year before. 
 There were a few old veterans wandering about the 
 
306 ATTEMPT TO KILL JUSTICE FIELD. 
 
 grounds, as if looking for some familiar face that they 
 should see no more. At the meeting of the alumni 
 Mr. Field was the most conspicuous figure, and when 
 he entered the dining hall, the whole company rose and 
 greeted him with cheers. Grateful as all this was, it 
 was a constant reminder that he belonged to a genera- 
 tion that was rapidly disappearing. 
 
 The summer was passing quietly when there came 
 a shock to us all. On the 14th of August the tele- 
 graph brought the astounding news that that very day 
 there had been an attempt upon the life of our brother 
 Stephen by the notorious Terry, who had threatened to 
 kill him because of a decision which he had given on 
 the bench — a threat which might have been treated 
 with contempt had it not been that he was a man of 
 blood (he had killed Senator Broderick in a duel many 
 years before), which led the government to detail an 
 officer to accompany the Judge on his visit to Califor- 
 nia to hold court — a precaution that proved to be very 
 timely, as the bully, who was a giant in stature, fol- 
 lowed him from place to place to carry out his threat, 
 and finally approached him at a table and struck a blow, 
 and raised his arm for another, which would probably 
 have been fatal, if the officer had not shot him dead on 
 the spot ! The tragedy created great excitement in 
 California and all over the country. Although the 
 issue was a relief, we could not feel that our brother 
 was quite safe till he had crossed the Continent and we 
 had him under our own roof. 
 
JUSTICE DAVID J. BREWER 
 
 IThough two Presidents of the United States had been assassinated, the 
 attack on Justice Field was the Jlrst on a Justice of its Supreme Court. Had 
 he fallen in the discharge of his duty, he would have been succeeded soon 
 after by one of his own blood. Justice Brewer is the nephew of Justice Field 
 and of David Dudley Field, whose Christian name he bears, and in whose 
 office he began the study of law. and inherited the courage of both his 
 uncles, as well as their clear head and determined will.^ 
 

 
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BAR ASSOCIATION AT CHICAGO. 307 
 
 The season closed with more grateful associations. 
 Mr. Field, in addition to the duties imposed upon him 
 by his connection with societies at home and abroad, 
 was also the President of the American Bar Associa- 
 tion, which met this year (1889) at Chicago. It was 
 not the first time that he had been in that city on a 
 similar errand. Thirty years before it had been his 
 fortune to deliver an address at the opening of the Law 
 School of the University of Chicago on the Magnitude 
 and Importance of Legal Science. The present occa- 
 sion brought together hundreds of lawyers, not only 
 from the West, but from all parts of the country. In 
 his opening address he reviewed the changes in statute 
 law in the States and by Congress during the preced- 
 ing year. The sessions continued for three days, and 
 were closed, in the usual American style, by a dinner, 
 at which he presided "with a dignity and grace," says 
 one who was present, "that gave a pecuHar charm 
 to the occasion." It was a lesson in courage, and 
 an inspiration and example to the young men of the 
 profession, to see so many of the most distinguished 
 members of the bar gather round this old warrior, who 
 had fought the battle of law reform for half a century. 
 
CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 THE PEACE CONGRESS IN LONDON. 
 
 The summer of 1890 found Mr. Field once more in 
 England, so regular was the swing of the pendulum 
 from one side of the ocean to the other, from the land 
 of his fathers to the home of his children. His daugh- 
 ter, after the death of Sir Anthony Musgrave, had 
 taken a house at Harrow for the education of her sons 
 at the famous school founded more than three hundred 
 years ago, from which have come many who have added 
 to the glory of England in arms; in literature and 
 science ; in the pulpit and at the bar. 
 
 To be with those so dear to him was to Mr. Field 
 the chief attraction to England, but he had also this 
 summer a special engagement, to preside at a Peace 
 Congress, to be held in London, that would bring 
 together representatives from many countries, who 
 were enlisted one and all in the common cause of 
 promoting the peace of the world. 
 
 As it was necessary for him to be in London, or 
 very near to it, no suburb could be more convenient 
 than Harrow, which is only ten miles away, and from 
 its elevation (for it is "Harrow-on-the-Hill") one can 
 
LONDON IN THE SEASON. 309 
 
 almost see the dome of St. Paul's, so that while he was 
 far enough from the great city to be out of its rush 
 and roar, yet he was so near that he could be whirled 
 into it in half an hour, and be brought back again at 
 any hour of day or night. 
 
 As the meeting of the Congress was not to be until 
 July Mr. Field had several weeks to enjoy the society 
 that gathers only in a great capital. At a lawn party at 
 Mr. Gladstone's he met Lord Ripon, whom he had last 
 seen at a reception in New York, on his return from 
 Washington, where he had led the way for the Ala- 
 bama arbitration. As he was afterward the Governor- 
 General of India, he had represented England in two 
 hemispheres. With Lords and Commons were well- 
 known writers, among whom were Mrs. Humphrey 
 Ward and Mr. James Bryce, who has made our part 
 of the English race known to our kinsmen across the 
 sea by his "American Commonwealth." But the chief 
 charm of all was Mr. Gladstone himself, moving about 
 among his guests, enlivening all by the animated con- 
 versation of one of the greatest of living men. 
 
 From the Prime Minister who had ruled England 
 for so many years, it was but a step to the present 
 Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, and the members of 
 his cabinet, whom Mr. Field met at St. James's Palace, 
 where the Prince of Wales received in place of the 
 Queen, with his brothers, the Duke of Edinburgh and 
 the Duke of Connaught. 
 
310 FROM PALACE TO PARLIAMENT. 
 
 From Palace to Parliament was an easy transition. 
 That very evening he had an appointment at the House 
 of Commons, where he heard an animated debate on 
 the Irish question between Mr. Balfour, Mr. Gladstone, 
 Sir George Trevelyan and others, after which he dined 
 with Sir Richard Webster in the crypt below, where 
 may be seen every evening when Parliament is in ses- 
 sion some of the most famous men of England. With 
 Sir Richard were two of his sisters, and Sir William 
 Hart Dyke and his wife, with the Solicitor-General and 
 Mr. Henry Moskelyne. 
 
 Turning from Parliament, which has centuries of 
 history behind it, Mr. Field found that England was 
 not so old as to be above trying new experiments in 
 government, the most notable of which was the Lon- 
 don County Council, that had been introduced to take 
 the place of the old ' ' vestries, " which, antiquated and 
 cumbrous as they were, were yet so rooted in the very 
 soil of England, like the oaks which had stood the 
 storms of a thousand years, that it seemed that they 
 could not be removed. Yet the Reformers did achieve 
 the impossible in framing an ideal city government, 
 which is almost as difficult as to frame that of a king- 
 dom. To govern Paris is to govern France. It would 
 be too much to say that to govern London is to govern 
 England : but certainly a wise and just government of 
 the greatest city in the world would be an "object 
 lesson " to all cities and all countries. 
 
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL. 311 
 
 Mr. Field was curious to see this new departure in 
 city government, and Mr. Frederic Harrison, who was 
 a member of the Council, took him to it, and introduced 
 him to the President, Sir John Lubbock, who had suc- 
 ceeded Lord Rosebery. He found it to be composed of 
 men of all ranks and conditions, from the Duke of 
 Norfolk, the first Duke of the realm, to John Burns, 
 the representative of the working classes. In one point 
 it extended its membership further than any American 
 body, as it had at least one member of the other sex, 
 Miss Cobden, a daughter of the famous Richard Cob- 
 den. Whether it was that her gentle presence imposed 
 a restraint upon the other members, the proceedings 
 were as quiet and orderly as if they had been in a 
 church. There was none of the hurly burly and con- 
 fusion that one sees in the Chamber of Deputies in 
 Paris or in our House of Representatives in Washing- 
 ton. Everything was conducted so purely with a single 
 eye to business, that, if Mr. Field had been asked his 
 opinion, and his pride as an American had not forbid- 
 den, I am afraid that he would have answered that 
 London had the best municipal government in the 
 world ; while New York, vnih its Board of Aldermen, 
 largely composed of Irish bar keepers, had the worst ! 
 Whether it wiU be better under the constitution of 
 the Greater New York remains to be seen. 
 
 It was full midsummer when the Peace Congress 
 opened. It had been organized only the year before in 
 
312 THE PEACE CONGRESS. 
 
 Paris, where it had its first meeting, and now crossed 
 the Channel, carrying out what in war might be called 
 a strategic movement, recognizing the principle that to 
 reach the people of a country, the most direct way is to 
 advance on the capital, the centre of population. As 
 became a country in which the Christian religion is 
 recognized as the most potent influence for peace 
 among men, its sessions were prefaced by a special 
 service on the preceding Sunday in St, Paul's Cathe- 
 dral, where seats were reserved for the delegates, and 
 Canon H, Scott Holland preached a sermon on the 
 text, ' ' They shall beat their swords into ploughshares 
 and their spears into pruning hooks," 
 
 On Monday morning the delegates assembled at the 
 Westminster Town Hall, where they were met by the 
 Organizing Committee, of which Mr, Hodgson Pratt 
 was chairman and Mr. W. Evans Darby secretary. 
 Nothing could be more grateful than the hearty English 
 welcome. If they could only have had the presence of 
 two of their old leaders ! But Lord Shaftesbury, who 
 had been the friend of Mr. Field for many years, and 
 was foremost in every good cause, had gone to the 
 grave ; and the mighty voice of John Bright was 
 forever silent. But the love of liberty, of justice, and 
 of peace, which they had kindled in the hearts of their 
 countrymen, remained behind them. It was also an 
 inspiration to those who came from the Continent. 
 France was represented by a Member of the Institute, 
 
REPRESENTATIVES FROM MANY COUNTRIES. 313 
 
 M. Frederic Passy, who took a very active part in the 
 discussions, as did also Dr. Charles Richet, of the 
 University of Paris, M. I'Abbe Defourny, and others, 
 who read papers and made speeches in French. 
 Whether it was the presence of the Gauls that kept 
 away the Germans or not, there were but three repre- 
 sentatives from Germany, one of whom was a resident 
 of London, and another a lady, the widow of a Ger- 
 man pastor, who had lived there ; while the third, Mr. 
 Gustav Meier, was a prominent citizen of Frankfort- 
 on-the-Main, but too progressive and radical in opinion 
 for the German authorities. He removed later to 
 Switzerland. There were representatives from Italy 
 and Spain ; Belgium and Holland ; Denmark and 
 Sweden ; Austria and Servia ; and even from Asia 
 Minor and India. 
 
 In his welcome the Chairman had said : ' ' We have 
 desired to mark our international character by appoint- 
 ing a president who is not an Englishman, but a citizen 
 of a friendly nation, on the other side of the Atlantic," 
 and in the afternoon the Congress was formally opened 
 by Mr. Field, who as he rose to speak, looked round on 
 an audience such as is rarely assembled in London, or 
 in any European capital. Of course, it was largely one 
 of Englishmen, with a strong element of Americans, 
 but with them were many of other countries who, if 
 they spoke in different tongues, recognized one another 
 as kindred in a common humanity. 
 
314 MK. field's address. 
 
 Mr. Field began by disclaiming for the Congress 
 any official character. "We are here," he said, "to do 
 our part in influencing public opinion to promote the 
 peace of nations. We have no authority from any 
 government. We appeal — as we only can appeal — to 
 the reason and the conscience of our fellow men." 
 Then advancing immediately to his subject : the two 
 great conditions of peace were Disarmament and Arbi- 
 tration, The first was more of an European than an 
 American question, as our army was so small that it 
 would hardly serve for the smallest European State. 
 Though our country spread across a continent, and 
 our population was over sixty-four millions, yet our 
 "standing army" numbered but twenty-five thousand 
 soldiers ! But it should be said in explanation that we 
 really had no enemies : that our vast dominion was 
 bounded, not by rival kingdoms, but by two oceans ; 
 so that we needed but two or three dozen regiments, 
 which were distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; 
 a regiment here and there holding a fort that guarded 
 one of our great commercial cities, and that might, on 
 occasion, serve as an aid to the police in case of mobs 
 or riots ; while other regiments were distributed on the 
 border to protect the settlers against the Indians. As 
 to the cost of our army, it was utterly insignificant 
 for a nation so rich as ours. 
 
 But the moment we crossed the ocean all was 
 changed. Here were great empires crowding one an- 
 
THE COST OF WAR. 315 
 
 other, whose armies had swelled to hundreds of thou- 
 sands, till the whole continent trembled under their 
 mighty tread. The mere existence of such countless 
 hosts, drawn up in battle array, was itself a provoca- 
 tion to war. And then the fearful cost ! Even Eng- 
 land, the richest nation in the world, felt the drain 
 upon her vast resources. Said Mr. Field : 
 
 "The btirdens of the warlike establishments of the Conti- 
 nental States are already grievous to be borne. Yet the German 
 Emperor has just called for more batteries of artillery to be 
 added to his vast army, that he may be able to cope with the 
 ever-increasing armaments of France ; and even in England — 
 impregnable England — it seems to be a political maxim that her 
 navy must always be kept on a level with any two navies in the 
 world. In the admirable address of Mr. Charles Roundell, on 
 the progress of the working classes of England during the pres- 
 ent reign, it is stated that a calculation has been made for the 
 purpose of showing how each pound of the national taxes has 
 been spent during the present century. The calculation is, that 
 there has been spent out of each pound : 
 
 s. d. 
 On war and preparations for war 16 Z)^ 
 
 On all expenses of civil government 3 8)^ 
 
 For all these wastes and woes there was but one 
 remedy, an agreement between nations that, in case of 
 difference, instead of rushing into war, the questions 
 in dispute should be submitted to the impartial judg- 
 ment of outside parties, that were not enemies to 
 either, but friends to both ! This was not a new thing 
 
316 ARBITRATION AS OLD AS CIVILIZATION. 
 
 under the sun. "Arbitration between States," said 
 Mr. Field, "is as old as civilization." 
 
 "Two of the Grecian States, when Greece was in her glory, 
 had a long-standing dispute about an island off their coast. 
 They finally agreed to submit the dispute to arbiters, and the 
 award was religiously kept. Since then the world has been 
 deluged in blood, but now and then during the tempest a voice 
 has been heard crying for the arbitrament of reason to replace 
 the arbitrament of the sword. Henry of Navarre was one of 
 those who cried for it, and the Papacy has more than once offered 
 its mediation. Finally, when the Temple of Janus was closed in 
 1815, men turned their thoughts more than before to the means 
 of preventing the reopening of the gates. If the means adopted 
 have not been altogeth-er successful, they have prevented some 
 wars, and even one prevented is worth all the trouble that the 
 friends of peace have ever taken. 
 
 Of this arbitration our two English-speaking coun- 
 tries had given a noble illustration. After our Civil 
 War we were in anything but a friendly mood. A 
 sense of wrong kept up a constant irritation, a feeling 
 of bitterness, that might have continued to this day, 
 if we had not agreed to submit our differences to an 
 outside, and therefore an impartial, tribunal. 
 
 The Alabama arbitration was a lesson to the whole 
 world. But the Americans had bettered tiio instruc- 
 tion by going one step further still in what we may 
 call preventive arbitration, as it anticipates danger in 
 case of any incident that excites the public, and pre- 
 vents an explosion by the assurance that the matter 
 
TWO CONTINENTS DEDICATED TO PEACE. 317 
 
 will be fairly met, and fully explained, if not directly 
 between the parties themselves, yet by reference to 
 other countries that are friends of both. Only the 
 year before the Congress in London, there had been an 
 ' ' International Conference " in Washington, composed 
 of representatives of all the Republics of North, Cen- 
 tral, and South America, which, after some weeks of 
 deliberation, adopted arbitration as the principle of 
 American International Law for the settlement of 
 differences, disputes, or controversies that might arise 
 between them ! At the close of this conference Mr. 
 Blaine, Secretary of State, bidding adieu to the dele- 
 gates, said : "If in this closing hour the Conference 
 had but one deed to celebrate, we should call the world's 
 attention to the deliberate, confident, and solemn dedi- 
 cation of two great continents to peace. We hold up 
 this new Magna Charta, which abolishes war, and 
 substitutes arbitration between the American Repub- 
 lics, as the first and great fruit of the International 
 American Conference." 
 
 The summer of 1890 may well be called a golden 
 summer, as the very air seemed to be filled with peace : 
 
 No war nor battle's sound 
 Was heard the world around." 
 
 The whole earth was at rest and quiet. Hardly had 
 the Peace Congress adjourned before it was followed 
 by another assemblage, kindred but not the same, an 
 
318 IS IT ALL A DREAM? 
 
 "Inter- Parliamentary Conference," composed of mem- 
 bers of the Parliaments of different countries, who in 
 meeting face to face came to that full understanding, 
 which is the best assurance of peace. When their 
 deliberations were over, they all sat down together at 
 a feast of good will, at which Mr. Field was a guest, 
 and when called upon for his word of cheer, answered 
 briefly : 
 
 "My Lords and Gentlemen, I am going to preach you a very 
 short sermon upon the text projDOsed by Mr. Shaw-Lefevi-e — an 
 International Parliamentary movement. Last week I had the 
 honor of being present at an unofficial Congress, composed of pri- 
 vate individuals of many nations, earnestly bent on doing what 
 they might to further the cause of international arbitration. 
 To-night I am proud to address a body of ParUamentary repre- 
 sentatives inspired by the same lofty ideal. 
 
 "I hear people declare us enthusiasts, dreamers, unpractical 
 folk chasing a phantom. But stop a moment I Think a moment ! 
 Is it true that we are unpractical ? What is that prayer we hear 
 Sunday after Sunday, 'Give peace in our time, O Lord.' What 
 does that mean ? It means that we have the consciences of the 
 world with us. Things change as time rolls on. Suppose the 
 common people in the time of the Plantagenets and Tudors had 
 claimed the right to manage the aflPairs of the nation. What 
 would the nobles have said ? But what do the nobles say now ? 
 
 ■•' We are called unpractical, but when the German Emperor 
 demands more battalions for his armies, and a representative of 
 the groaning German people rises in the Reichstag and asks %vith 
 whose blood and whose money those battalions are to be paid 
 for — is that unpractical ? And when the statistician tells you 
 Englishmen that during the whole of this century, for every 
 
GOING TO THE CONTINENT. 319 
 
 pound of public money raised, 16s. Z}4d. have been spent for 
 war — is that unpractical ? And when you learn that to-day out 
 of six hundred and seventy members of the House of Commons 
 there are two hundred and thirty -four ready to vote for an arbi- 
 tration treaty, and that if only one hundred more members will 
 join us, the problem is solved — is that unpractical ? 
 
 No ! we are not visionaries in fighting the battle of civiliza- 
 tion. The contest may be long, but the victory is sure. We 
 may not see it in our day, but our children will, when the church 
 bells shall ring all over the world for the coming of universal 
 peace. " 
 
 And was this gathering of the nations merely pomp 
 and show, signifjang nothing ? On the contrary it was 
 more sacred and binding than any treaty. From the 
 hour when the Americans were taken into the hearts 
 and homes of England, they could not help feeKng 
 that they were no more "aliens from the common- 
 wealth of Israel," but fellow-heirs in the great inherit- 
 ance of learning, of liberty, and of religion. 
 
 After the strain of this continued excitement Mr. 
 Field felt the need of rest, and with his daughter and 
 her two younger cadets (the eldest was on board his 
 ship in the Mediterranean), took flight to the Continent. 
 They had engaged rooms at Heidelburg, which had 
 especial attractions to young students in its ancient 
 university, as well as in its beautiful scenery on the 
 Neckar. Leaving them in these picturesque surround- 
 ings Mr. Field went to Homburg, to which Americans 
 flock not only for its waters, but for the great number 
 
320 SIR CHARLES RUSSELL. 
 
 of visitors from all parts of Europe, among whom are 
 always some notable personalities. 
 
 A striking figure this summer was the old Duke of 
 Cambridge, so long the commander in Chief of the 
 English army, in which he succeeded the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, to whom Mr. Field was introduced, and al- 
 though watering-place acquaintances do not ordinarily 
 amount to much, there seems to have been an attrac- 
 tion between these two old veterans. Again, a stranger 
 of such commanding presence that he might have been 
 a soldier, introduced himself as Sir Charles Russell. 
 The two men were at once drawn to each other by the 
 common interests of professional life, and by the rela- 
 tions of their two countries, and were soon plunged in a 
 long conversation about the English bar and English 
 politics. This first interview gave Mr. Field a very 
 high opinion of his new acquaintance, so that it was 
 no surprise, on the death of Lord Coleridge, to see Sir 
 Charles Russell named at once for the succession as 
 the Lord Chief Justice of England. 
 
 From these restful days Mr. Field was recalled to 
 England to take part in another "Association" of 
 which he was a member, and might almost be called 
 the founder — that "for the Reform and Codification of 
 the Law of Nations," which met this year at Liverpool. 
 
 Returning to London, he joined some American 
 friends, with whom he had been invited to pay a visit 
 to Winst^d Abbey, the home of Byron, an invitation 
 
VISIT TO NEWSTEAD ABBEY. 321 
 
 which appealed to one who could well remember when 
 Byron was the idol of the youth of America, not only 
 for his poetry, that will live as long as the English 
 tongue, but for his romantic career, dying in Greece, 
 where he had gone to join in the struggle for liberty. 
 
 Accepting the invitation, they left London for New- 
 stead Station, where the carriage of Mr. Webb, the 
 proprietor of the estate, was waiting for them. The 
 Abbey is a mile and a half distant, to which they were 
 driven between rows of trees to where a turn brought 
 them in sight of the Abbey, the arch of the chapel 
 standing in the gloaming naked against the sky. The 
 rest of the old pile remains or has been restored. 
 
 They were welcomed with true English hospitality 
 and introduced to whatever there was that had any 
 association with the poet. Here was Byron's own 
 room, with the bed on which he slept, and the old hall, 
 where he had his revels with his friends. The room 
 assigned to Mr. Field was the one occupied by Wash- 
 ington Irving when he visited the Abbey, to take in 
 its features for the description in his Sketch Book. 
 From the Abbey they were driven to Hocknall church, 
 where the poet sleeps after his stormy life : and the 
 evening was spent in looking over his manuscripts. 
 
 From this old Abbey Mr. Field and his friends flew 
 away to Scotland to visit American friends on Loch 
 Lomond, and then, returning to Liverpool, embarked 
 for their home beyond the sea. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 VISIT FROM HIS DAUGHTER AND HER SONS — THE 
 DEATH OF HIS BROTHER CYRUS. 
 
 To spend a season in London, in a constant round of 
 public meetings and social engagements, may be very 
 delightful, but would hardly be prescribed by a physi- 
 cian to a man in his eighty-sixth year. Mr. Field had 
 an iron frame that could bear any amount of fatigue, 
 but when he had crossed the sea he felt the reaction, 
 and found it wise to reserve his remaining strength by 
 going into winter quarters. 
 
 But to a man who never wanted for occupation the 
 months were not long nor lonely, and he celebrated his 
 eighty-sixth birthday with his brothers and nephews 
 and nieces around him. In the evening General Sher- 
 man came in to offer his congratulations. They were 
 warm friends, and found great pleasure in recalling 
 their memories of former years. But the warrior's 
 work was done. The next week he was taken ill and 
 died in a few days. The funeral pageant was such as 
 had not been seen in New York since that of General 
 Grant, and was a warning to many of the veterans 
 who followed him to the grave, among whom was Mr. 
 
A FAMILY MEETING OX THE HUDSON. 323 
 
 Field. The warning came none too soon, for in another 
 week he, too, was in the hands of the doctor, who, after 
 a careful examination, told him that his stout old heart 
 did not beat quite so firm and strong as when he was 
 in the full swing of lusty life. Its irregular beating 
 was a danger signal. As he could not go abroad to see 
 his dear ones, they must come to him. He took a 
 house at Dobbs Ferry, where he was soon joined by his 
 daughter and her two youngest sons, as the oldest was 
 on board his ship. Thus the family that had been at 
 Harrow the jeav before was established on the banks 
 of the Hudson and passed a happy summer together. 
 
 It was not till the beginning of September that they 
 took their leave. As Mr. Field's brother Cyrus had a 
 yacht, which was always at the service of coming and 
 departing guests, they all went on board for their last 
 sail. It was a perfect day. The woods were beginning 
 to be touched with their autumn hues, while light 
 clouds were floating in the deep blue sky. In an hour 
 or two the boat drew up at the Cunard dock, from 
 which the voyagers waved their adieus to those on 
 board the yacht as it turned and steamed up the river. 
 
 Mr. Field lingered in the country for some weeks to 
 enjoy the beauty of the autumn, coming into town on 
 the 12th of October. He was still under the doctor's 
 care, but went out on the 3d of November to cast his 
 vote for the first time under the new ballot, formed 
 after the Australian model. 
 
324 A WINTER AMONG HIS BOOKS. 
 
 The next day saw him in a novel court. Though he 
 had been all his life arguing cases at the bar, he had 
 never been present at an ecclesiastical tribunal ! Pro- 
 fessor Briggs, of the Union Theological Seminary, was 
 accused of heresy before the Presbytery of which I 
 was a member, and I invited my brother to accompany 
 me to hear his defence. It was written out in full, and 
 the reading took two hours and a half. But Mr. Field, 
 who was always interested in a subtle argument, sat to 
 the end, though I am afraid that he did not go away 
 with increased respect for our church courts, when he 
 saw an eminent scholar arraigned because of his inter- 
 pretation of some passages in the Old Testament. But 
 he was not much concerned about the issue, for he was 
 sure that, sooner or later, truth would make its way. 
 He was content to say with Galileo, "The world does 
 
 move 
 
 The winter was a very quiet one, as the rigors of 
 the season kept him within doors, but even then there 
 was an exhilaration in looking out through the frosted 
 panes at the fljnng snow. Though shut up among his 
 books, he was not without company in the great minds 
 that spoke to him from the printed page, while he was 
 still an interested observer of the events of the passing 
 time. His friends, too, felt it to be a pri%alege to spend 
 an hour in conversation with him, so that he was never 
 lonely, and when he completed his eighty-seventh year, 
 looking backward on the life that was nearly ended, 
 
WHAT IS IT NOW TO LIVE ? 325 
 
 and forward to the longer life that was soon to begin, 
 he thus moralized with himself : 
 
 What is it noiv to live ? It is to breathe 
 
 The air of heaven, behold the pleasant earth. 
 
 The shining rivers, the inconstant sea, 
 
 Sublimity of mountains, wealth of clouds, 
 
 And radiance o'er all of countless stars. 
 
 It is to sit before the cheerful hearth 
 
 Witli groups of friends and kindred, store of booTiS, 
 
 Rich heritage from ages past ; 
 
 Hold sweet communion soul with soul, 
 On things now past, or present or to come. 
 Or muse alone upon my earlier days. 
 
 Unbind the scroll whereon is writ 
 
 The story of my busy life. 
 Mistakes too often, but successes more, 
 And consciousness of duty done. 
 It is to see with laughing eyes the j)lay 
 
 Of children sporting on the lawn. 
 
 Or mark the eager strifes of men 
 
 And nations, seeking each and all. 
 
 Belike advantage to obtain 
 
 Above their fellows ; such is man ! 
 It is to feel the pulses quicken, as I hear 
 
 Of great achievements near or far 
 Whereon may turn x)erchance 
 The fate of generations ages hence. 
 It is to rest with folded arms betimes. 
 
 And so surrounded, so sustained. 
 
 Ponder on what may yet befall 
 
 In that unknown mysterious realm 
 
326 A SHADOW ON THE HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 Which lies beyond the range of mortal ken, 
 Where souls immortal do forever dwell, 
 Think of the loved ones who aw^ait me there, 
 And without murmuring or inward grief, 
 With mind unbroken and no fear, 
 Calmly await the coming of the Lord. 
 
 With such serenity he contemplated the future. 
 But he could not be insensible to the sorrow of one so 
 dear to him as his brother Cyrus, whose life had been 
 not only one of great activity and distinction, but of 
 complete domestic happiness. Married at the age of 
 twenty-one, he had lived with the wife of his youth for 
 half a century. Only a few months before they had 
 celebrated their golden wedding, with congratulations 
 from both sides of the ocean. But the next summer, 
 when they had removed to their beautiful home on the 
 Hudson, she was taken ill, and died at the close of 
 autumn, to be followed in a few months by their eldest 
 daughter, which, with other sorrows, quite broke his 
 heart. 
 
 From that moment he lost his interest in life. He 
 had no heart to go anywhere, but once came with 
 Dudley to us on my birthday. It seemed to comfort 
 him to be with his brothers, and we tried all our gentle 
 arts to cheer him. He brightened a little and once or 
 twice a smile passed over his sad face. But his heart 
 was in the grave, and we could not repress the forebod- 
 ing that this family meeting might be our last, and so 
 
DEATH OF HIS BROTHER CYRUS. 327 
 
 it proved. In June he went to the countrj^, and there in 
 midsummer the end came. In the diary which Dudley 
 kept, he recalls the final scene : 
 
 "July 12th. Our dear brother Cyrus breathed his 
 last this morning. He had been ailing and mourning 
 all the while since our dinner at Henry's, but in June 
 he was moved to his country seat at Dobbs Ferry, 
 where he hoped he might revive, and he did a little, 
 but it was only a flush of life from the country air, 
 and so he lingered, sometimes better, sometimes worse. 
 Stephen arrived from "Washington a week before, and 
 Henry from Stockbridge, and both remained at the 
 house and were with him constantly. I went two or 
 three times a day from Hastings, where Laura [the 
 wife of Dudley, Jr.] was occupying her old home. 
 This morning Stephen and Henry sent for me to hasten 
 to Cyrus's bedside. I knew what the message meant, 
 and went at once. I found him unconscious, but 
 breathing still ; we watched him closely, sitting by 
 his bedside, the three brothers, Mrs. Judson and 
 her two sons. Hemorrhage from the lungs set in, 
 and at 9 :50 his Hps ceased to move. His busy life was 
 ended. 
 
 "A simple religious service was held at his house 
 on Thursday afternoon, and the next morning we went 
 in a funeral train to Stockbridge, where we rode slowly 
 through the village street, so beautiful with its long 
 avenue of maples and elms, to the old Congregational 
 
328 AT REST BY HIS KINDRED. 
 
 Church, in which our father had preached for so many 
 years, and the beloved form was laid in the aisle before 
 the pulpit. The service was very simple : only a 
 prayer, with reading of the Scriptures and the singing 
 of one or two favorite hymns ; and the procession 
 formed again, and moved across the green to the 
 burying ground where our father and mother lay, and 
 where his wife had been laid but a few weeks before. 
 There, in the sweet summer afternoon, we laid him to 
 rest in a bed of ferns and pine boughs and covered 
 with flowers. Peacefully now he sleeps where he so 
 often said he wished to sleep, by the side of his wife 
 and close to his father and mother, his sister and his 
 oldest son. Long as any of us survive, shall we 
 cherish the memory of our beloved brother." 
 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE LAST SUMMER AMONG THE HILLS. 
 
 The summer of 1893 Mr. Field did not spend abroad. 
 One year before we had laid our dear Cyrus to rest 
 beside his kindred, among the hills where he was born, 
 and his eldest brother could not but choose to pass 
 the following summer — the last, as it proved, that he 
 was to spend on earth — in the quiet valley so dear to us 
 all from its associations with the living and the dead. 
 
 As Mr. Field's house on the hill top in Stockbridge 
 was much too large for his diminished household, he 
 took up his home for the summer in the village, in 
 "Laurel Cottage," that was full of pleasant memories 
 as it had belonged to his second wife. * 
 
 It is in a quiet nook, embowered among the trees, 
 
 *Mr. Field was three times married, first to Jane Lucinda 
 Hopkins, of Stockbridge, who was the mother of his children, 
 who died in 1836 : second to Mrs. Harriet Davidson, the widow 
 of James Davidson, who died in 1864 : and third to Mrs. Mary- 
 Elizabeth Carr, the widow of Dr. Samuel J. Carr, a physician of 
 Baltimore, who died in 1876. "Laurel Cottage" has since been 
 made familiar to the public by the delightful letters of Matthew 
 Arnold, who occupied it in the summer of 1886. 
 
330 SUNSHINE WITHOUT AND WITHIN. 
 
 with a background on one side of the rocky knoll of 
 Laurel Hill, at the foot of which the Housatonic flows 
 gently under the willows. Mr. Field's room was on 
 the second floor, in the rear, looking South, so that it 
 was full of sunshine, while from the window he looked 
 down the green slope to the river, beyond which rose 
 the wooded side of Bear Mountain, so named from the 
 bears that were once as numerous among the rocks and 
 trees as were the Indians who built their wigwams in 
 the valley below.* 
 
 And if there was sunshine without there was sun- 
 shine within. He was always sitting at his table, 
 reading or writing, but ready to lay down book or pen 
 to talk on the topics of the day, on which he gave his 
 
 * Possibly his interest was increased because of a feeling 
 almost of reverence for the primeval forest. The sound of the 
 woodman's axe had no music to his ears, and he was almost 
 indignant at the farmers, who swept acres upon acres, leaving 
 the earth naked and bare. This he looked upon as a kind of 
 desecration, and from time to time bought large tracts to save 
 the forests, so that at last he found himself the owner of a whole 
 mountain side. Of this he gave to the town fifty -eight acres, 
 including the Ice Glen, a deep gorge in the mountain (which 
 had apparently been rent asunder by an earthquake), that for 
 its wildness is a favorite resort of the young people, who come 
 at night, when the darkness is lighted up by flaming torches, 
 which but magnify the surrounding gloom and perchance give 
 a creeping chill to the young men and maidens, that is only 
 removed as they emerge by a dance on the green I 
 
IS THERE ANOTHER LIFE? 331 
 
 opinions freely, and was no less ready to listen to mine, 
 however little they might be worth, from which we 
 wandered off to graver subjects, for his mind was so 
 active that he was ready to talk on the law or the 
 Gospel, on politics or religion. 
 
 It may surprise some who did not know the man to 
 be told that our conversations were often on the gravest 
 subjects — of the supernatural and the life to come. He 
 did not talk of these things with everj'^body. As he did 
 not intrude into the opinions of others, no stranger 
 would presume to catechise him as to his belief or 
 unbelief. But, like every thoughtful man, he was not 
 without his questionings about the great mysteries of 
 life, and when he was with an old friend, like Mark 
 Hopkins, he talked freely. But now that friend was 
 gone, and he had his own silent, solitary thoughts. As 
 he rode over the hills, and saw the sun going down in 
 the west, he could but reflect how soon he would sink 
 below the horizon. And then what? Was it all a 
 blank ? or was there another life that was to begin ? 
 Man's breath goeth forth from his nostrils. But is the 
 soul only a breath ? Is thought only the vibration of 
 particles of the brain, as the strings of an instrument 
 give forth sound ? When the instrument is broken 
 the music is gone. Why may not the last sigh of 
 the departing soul be the utter going out of life, 
 growing fainter and fainter till it is lost in the eternal 
 silence ? 
 
332 SCIENCE AND RELIGION — OPINION OP AGASSIZ. 
 
 All these questions hung on the greater one of the 
 existence of God. Mr. Field had in his college days 
 studied Butler's Analogy and Paley's Natural Theol- 
 ogy, and accepted their conclusions. But with his 
 logical mind he was always open to argument, and 
 was not afraid to look any proofs squarely in the face, 
 even if they led him to annihilation ! Such a man 
 could not be indifferent to the scientific speculations of 
 the day, supported as they were by new discoveries. 
 Darwin had made a great stir in the scientific world by 
 his work entitled "Origin of Species by Means of Nat- 
 ural Selection," followed up by "The Descent of Man," 
 in which he attempts to trace it to a development from 
 a lower order of animal life. Indeed he did not hesi- 
 tate to picture the ancestor of the human race, saying 
 that "Man is descended from a hairy quadruped, fur- 
 nished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal 
 in its habits ! " This was an ancestry that was not very 
 flattering to our pride, but the theory was caught up 
 by the atheists of the Continent as doing away with 
 the need of an Author of all things. But in America 
 there was at least one man of science, Louis Agassiz, 
 who was not carried away by this assumption of supe- 
 rior knowledge : as I once heard him declare in the 
 ringing voice that bespoke a conviction which nothing 
 could shake, that the adaptation of means to an end, 
 which runs through nature, is the infallible token of 
 mindy the proof of an intelligent Creator. 
 
TYNDALL AND LORD KELVIN. 333 
 
 Another great authority was equally positive. In 
 the year 1884 the British Association for the Promotion 
 of Science met for the first time on this side of the 
 Atlantic, in Montreal, and among the distinguished 
 men who came to it was Sir William Thomson, now 
 Lord Kelvin. As he had been closely associated with 
 our brother Cyrus in the laying of the Atlantic cable, 
 the latter claimed him as his guest as soon as he landed 
 in America. On his way to Montreal, he came to us in 
 our country home, and spent a few days in the Berk- 
 shire Hills. Of course I could not lose the opportunity 
 of questioning such an authority on the relation of 
 science and religion — questions which he met with the 
 coolness of a philosopher, to whom nothing was sacred 
 but truth. He thought that the much vaunted theory 
 of natural selection had had its day. Cold and cheer- 
 less as it was, he would not shrink from it, if it was 
 supported by evidence. But it was, to use the form of 
 a Scotch verdict, "unproven." "But what," I asked, 
 ' ' do you say to the bold prediction of Tyndall that ' in 
 matter will yet be found the promise and the potency 
 of all life?'" to which he answered with a smile, "I 
 do not think Tyndall would say that now;" and then ho 
 told me how Pasteur had exploded the theory of spon- 
 taneous generation ; and gave me his own opinion that 
 the argument from design in the material world, a8 
 wrought out in what he called ' ' that excellent old book, 
 Paley's Natural Theology," was unansiverable ! 
 
334 GOING ABROAD FOR THE LAST TIME. 
 
 All these points I talked over with my brother for 
 hours, and he assented to the conclusions, but never 
 argued about it, for the questions were too awful to be 
 discussed like a point of law. Sometimes he sat silent, 
 leaning his head upon his hand, with a far-away look, 
 as if he was peering into the distant and unknown. A 
 photograph taken, I know not where, perhaps on the 
 other side of the globe, shows him in these thoughtful 
 moods, as I have seen him a thousand times. 
 
 But happy as he was this last summer in riding about 
 the Berkshire Hills, yet as the season drew on, and the 
 autumn leaves began to fall, I perceived a yearning for 
 the dear ones beyond the sea, and he said, ' ' I want to 
 see my daughter once more, and my boys," as he 
 always called his grandsons, even when they were 
 nearly grown to manhood. Indeed the eldest, who bore 
 his grandfather's name of Dudley, had just reached his 
 majority, and it was partly to celebrate this event that 
 he wished to spend the coming Christmas in England. 
 If he could but once more be with that beloved 
 group, he could die happy. The doctors shook their 
 heads, for he had not yet fully recovered from the 
 illness of three years before. But love carried it over 
 prudence and that last satisfaction was given him. 
 Leaving home late in the autumn, in two weeks he 
 was sitting before the open fire at the home of his 
 daughter in East Grinstead, in Sussex, about thirty 
 miles from London, to which Lady Musgrave had 
 
STRONG PATERNAL AFFECTION. 335 
 
 removed after her sons had finished their studies at 
 Harrow. Here they were all gathered round him. 
 Dudley was already a midshipman in the navy, but 
 fortunately his ship was now in an English port, so 
 that he was able almost every Sunday to visit his 
 mother and grandfather. Arthur was in the military 
 school at Woolwich, while the youngest, Herbert, had 
 made his studies for the same profession, and had gone 
 through his examinations, but had not yet heard the 
 result, for which he was waiting with no small anxiety, 
 as there were four hundred candidates, and only fifty 
 appointments. But one morning The Times brought 
 the full report, from which it aj^peared that he was, 
 not only one of the fifty, but the second on the list ! 
 This was, of course, immensely gratifying to the young 
 soldier, and to his mother and brothers, but perhaps 
 most of all to his grandfather, in whom the paternal 
 instinct was very strong. It did one's heart good to 
 see the mixture of pride and affection that glowed in 
 his face as he looked round the little circle of those 
 who had his blood in their veins. If he was ambitious 
 for his grandsons, it was only that as they grew in 
 years they should develop a manliness that gave promise 
 of an honorable career. In a pamphlet of "Personal 
 Recollections" which he had prepared for his grand- 
 children, he closes with this tender farewell to those 
 who should come after him : 
 
 "Here, in the middle of my eighty-eighth year, I 
 
336 LEGACY TO THOSE WHO COME AFTER HIM. 
 
 close what are hardly worthy to be called 'Reminis- 
 cences,' since they are little more than a succession of 
 dates, with names of persons and places. But even 
 these have their use. The dates of the years as they 
 pass are so many milestones to mark the successive 
 stages of our life's journey : while the names of places 
 far apart on the face of the globe, tell of the goings to 
 and fro : and as a background for the personalities 
 that appear as actors on the stage, they recall the 
 varied scenes and occupations of a long and laborious 
 life. These guide posts will be of service at least to 
 my grandchildren, who from these 'Notes' may turn 
 back to the 'Diaries,' where all is detailed with greater 
 fullness, from which they may know what manner of 
 man their grandfather was. To them he leaves this 
 brief story of his life, only reminding them that, on 
 whichever side of the ocean their lot may be cast, the 
 elements of true manhood are the same ; and bequeath- 
 ing to them, as their best inheritance, the love of free- 
 dom, the spirit of independence ; fidelity in every posi- 
 tion, private or public ; and the traditions of truth, 
 justice and honor." 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND — THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN. 
 
 Delightful as are the homes of England, the coun- 
 try is not quite the same in December as in May. 
 It is now as when Keats wrote the exquisite lines : 
 
 "St. Agnes' eve ! ah, bitter chill it was ; 
 The owl with all his feathers was a' cold." 
 
 Although Sussex is in the south, and its chalk hills rise 
 up like the cliffs of Dover, as if to protect the land 
 from the sea, yet the winds sweep over the South 
 Downs, and howl round castle and cottage. Mr. Field, 
 accustomed to the blazing fires of America, had to wrap 
 himself up very warmly, and still felt that the climate 
 of England in winter was not quite suited to one of his 
 age ; and after the Christmas holidays were over, and 
 the grandfather's heart was filled with joy and pride, 
 he bade adieu to the household so dear to him, and 
 accompanied only by his faithful valet, Watson, who 
 had been with him for years, he crossed the Channel 
 to Paris, where he found his "nice and warm apart- 
 ment waiting for him " at his old quarters in the Hotel 
 Bristol. Though it was mid- winter Paris was as gay 
 
338 A WEEK AT NICE. 
 
 as ever. But he was so eager to get into a warmer 
 climate that he left the same night for Cannes, though 
 he missed the luxury of travel to which he had been 
 accustomed in America. "The train de luxe,^^ he 
 said, " is a misnomer : there is no luxury in it ! " But 
 any feeling of discomfort vanished as he reached Mar- 
 seilles, and looked out on the glittering Mediterranean. 
 
 Nice was bathed in sunshine. His hotel was on the 
 quay, and even in mid- winter, January 15th, he re- 
 ports : "The sun is shining all glorious this morning." 
 His letters seem to breathe the warmth of the atmos- 
 phere. He writes to his daughter : 
 
 "Of course I greatlj^ miss your companionship, and 
 that of my dear boys, but I am better off in this 
 climate. The sun has shone brightly the five days 
 that I have been on the Riviera, and I am perfectly 
 comfortable. My faithful Watson guards me. I took 
 a walk with him before lunch along the boulevard, 
 which skirts the bay for a mile or so. The scene was 
 a gay one, such as only France can exhibit : all sorts 
 of people and all sorts of vehicles, and I might add all 
 sorts of amusements. The French are an amiable and 
 volatile people, with a streak of the tiger in them ! " 
 
 And now the sea itself took on a new interest, when 
 a letter from England informed him that his oldest 
 grandson, who was a midshipman in the navy, and 
 had been waiting orders, had been ordered to the East 
 India squadron. He answered at once : 
 
HIS GRANDSON ORDERED TO INDIA. 339 
 
 "This is good news if the station is healthy. I sup- 
 pose that on board the ship one is protected from 
 disease more than on land. God i:)rosper the dear 
 fellow ! How fortunate it is that I came over as I 
 did, and could see all my brave boys and you together. 
 Give Dudley my warmest love and wish him every 
 good fortune. Keep up your heart, my darling ! " 
 
 Writing again, he asked about the ship and her 
 commander, and was gratified to get the best reports, 
 not only of the superior officers, but of his fellow 
 midshipmen. A few days later he writes : ' ' Before 
 this my dear Dudley is off on his way to his duty in 
 the service to which he has devoted himself for life. 
 What a dear brave fellow he is ! He will yet do us 
 all credit, I firmly believe." 
 
 Happy dreams of a proud grandfather, which 
 warmed his heart every time he thought of "his 
 boy " on his way to India to the brilliant career which 
 had been pictured for him. Happy in his anticipa- 
 tions, he was happy also that he did not live to 
 suffer the bitterness of disappointment. But only a 
 few months after his own death in America, came the 
 tidings that the grandson who bore his name and had 
 given such promise for the future, had died on the 
 other side of the globe, in the harbor of Bombay. 
 
 From Nice Mr. Field took his journey by easy 
 stages : resting a couple of days at Monte Carlo ; and 
 
340 SIX WEEKS IN ITALY. 
 
 again at Mentone, where a daughter of his brother 
 Cyrus, Mrs. Andrews, had Kved for many years. 
 
 When he reached Genoa, he laid out his plan for 
 the rest of the winter. He had six weeks to spend in 
 Italy, and dividing the time so as to get the most out 
 of it, he thought it wiser, instead of going direct to 
 Florence and Rome and Naples, to reverse the order 
 and sail from Genoa to Naples, so as to be at once in 
 the warmest climate, where he might spend a couple 
 of weeks, and then come north slowly, so as to be in 
 Rome for the Holy Week, and "wind up with Florence, 
 from which it would be an easy day's journey back to* 
 Genoa, from which he was to sail for America. 
 
 This was an excellent division of time, which he 
 carried out with a military precision, and with a success 
 beyond his anticipations. He wrote from Naples, "The 
 weather is so mild that I do not need a fire. I have no 
 sensation of cold ; and being careful to keep out of the 
 night air, I feel as safe as if I were in Stockbridge or 
 Gramercy Park." And then, looking out upon the 
 Mediterranean, he adds : ' ' Dudley is by this time far 
 on his way to Port Said. I can imagine the dear fellow 
 sailing past Naples in this 'great and wide sea.' God 
 bless him and you all ! " One day he spent in an ex- 
 cursion to Pompeii, and found the excavations greatly 
 extended since his visit fifty-seven years before ! Look- 
 ing back through all those years it was like recalling a 
 past existence to sit in the Grand Hotel du Vesuve, 
 
IN ROME. 341 
 
 and look out upon the bay that never loses its beauty, 
 and see the smoke of Vesuvius ascending as he had 
 seen it in the long ago of more than half a century. 
 
 Yet with all the attractions of Naples those of 
 Rome were greater. The very next morning after his 
 arrival he was in St. Peter's, and "To-morrow," he 
 writes, "J. intend to visit the Coliseum, and other 
 monuments of old Rome. But I restrain myself to 
 two or three hours a day." He had reason to be on his 
 guard, for nothing is more wearying than sight-seeing. ' 
 In his younger days he had explored them all, going 
 day after day to the Forum and the Capitol ; seeking 
 out the spot where "great Caesar fell;" and riding 
 along the Appian Way, where he could almost hear the 
 tramp of the Roman legions, returning from the wars, 
 
 " Bringing many captives home to Rome, 
 Whose ransom did the public coffers fill." 
 
 If he had not now the strength for such fatiguing 
 excursions, it was something still "to breathe that 
 haunted air." 
 
 But modern Rome, if it be not quite so imposing to 
 the imagination as ancient Rome, is still the Capital, 
 and combines more to attract the stranger than any 
 other ItaHan city. He found the climate but little 
 changed from that of Naples. There it had been 
 almost too warm for an overcoat ; while in Rome the 
 air was a httle crisp, but all the more bracing. He 
 
342 THE AMEKICAN COLONY. 
 
 writes to his daughter : "If you could see me basking 
 in the full light of an Italian sun, you would think me 
 well off. All is cheerful about me. Our hotel (the 
 Quirinal) is excellent, the city is clean, the streets are 
 full of people, all seeming interested in something ; life 
 is in its best estate as far as outward appearances go." 
 
 With so many attractions, it is not surprising that 
 Rome should bring together, more than any other city 
 in Europe except Paris, a very miscellaneous society, 
 as it is from many countries ; and a very charming 
 one, as it includes artists and authors and scholars 
 studying ancient history ; and notable public men : 
 French deputies or English Members of Parliament ; 
 who, to prolong the Christmas holidays, find no winter 
 resort so full of interest as the ' ' Eternal City. " 
 
 Rome has also a large American colony. The hotel 
 was fuU of Americans, who appeared at a reception 
 given by Mrs. John Hay in numbers equal to the 
 weekly reception of the American Minister. In this 
 goodly company no one was more welcome than Mr. 
 Field himself. Wherever he went he was surrounded 
 by friends and admirers, who were all delighted with 
 the youthfulness of one who seemed to belong to an- 
 other generation. Those who had known him in former 
 years said they had never seen him more full of life ; 
 at once enjoying more and contributing more to the 
 enjoyment of others. 
 
 Those whom he had known in his earlier visits were 
 
A BIRTHDAY WITH OLD FRIENDS. 343 
 
 few, but it was good to look into their faces again. 
 The oldest of these was the American artist Terry, 
 who had lived in Rome half a century, and his charm- 
 ing wife, whose first husband was the famous sculptor 
 Crawford, and who was the mother of the popular 
 author, Marion Crawford. As Mr. Field's birthday 
 (February 13th) was at hand, they would have him to 
 dine with them. He felt it to be hardly prudent to be 
 out in the evening, but could not deny himself the 
 pleasure of sitting down at luncheon with such dear 
 old friends. The same day he wrote to his daughter in 
 a tone of grateful satisfaction with the past and calm 
 contemplation of the future : "I am stronger than I 
 was a year ago, when I passed my birthday with the 
 Judge in Washington. The voyage and the sea and 
 the journey since have done me good, and above all 
 the visit to you and the sight of my boys has created a 
 soul under the ribs of death." But in his last words 
 there is a tone of sadness that is almost prophetic : 
 ' ' What may be in store for us in the year now entered 
 upon God only knows. I only know that we must 
 keep brave hearts, prepared for any event, and seeking 
 to do our duty whatever may befall." 
 
 Next to Rome in its attraction to those who come 
 over the sea, is Florence, where every winter brings 
 together a large foreign population, in which are hun- 
 dreds of Enghsli and American visitors : and here, as 
 at Rome, Mr. Field's countrymen gave him a hearty 
 
344 IN FLORENCE. 
 
 welcome. Among the resident Americans no one is 
 better known than Professor Fiske, of Cornell Univer- 
 sity, who has lived here for years, which he has devoted 
 to collecting rare books. His early editions of Petrarch 
 are of such value that he keeps them locked up in 
 cases as he would precious jewels. Another treasure 
 is a collection of Icelandic literature ! Most of us 
 hardly know that Iceland ever had a literature. It 
 would seem as if the intense cold would freeze the 
 very blood and brains of the inhabitants. But the long 
 evenings have been favorable to reading and to writing 
 also. Here is a Bible centuries older than Luther's, 
 and a collection of other volumes which show that 
 there was a dawn of letters in this far away island, 
 almost in the Arctic circle, long before the Renaissance 
 came in Central and Southern Europe. 
 
 Among the well-known virtues of our American 
 professor is that of hospitality to his countrymen, 
 which he shows in the most delightful way. He would 
 come in his carriage to take Mr. Field to a drive to the 
 Tower of Galileo, or to some other of the beautiful 
 points of view around Florence ; and next bring the 
 codifier of America face to face at his table with one 
 of the most distinguished of jurists and statesmen of 
 Italy ; and again give him a reception at which he 
 could meet the best representatives of Italian society 
 as well as the English and American residents. These 
 
A STORMY VOYAGE. 345 
 
 courtesies made his visit so pleasant that he could say 
 truly, ' ' My days are passing serenely in Florence. " 
 
 But such days always come to an end, and he took 
 his way to Genoa, from which on the 28th of March 
 he writes to his daughter : 
 
 "It is now eleven o'clock and we go on board at 
 four. So these are my last words before reaching my 
 own beloved land. We leave Genoa at ten to-morrow, 
 and go first to Naples, touch at Gibraltar, and through 
 the Azores direct to New York, where our arrival is 
 promised for the 9th of April. 
 "Ever lovingly 
 
 "Your father, 
 
 "David Dudley Field." 
 
 With this last message of affection to the one he 
 loved most on earth, he embarked the next morning 
 from the birthplace of Columbus, for the new world 
 that Columbus discovered, and on a ship that bore the 
 name of Columbia ! 
 
 Looking, as we were somewhat anxiously, for his 
 safe return, we counted the days from the time that 
 the good ship passed the Straits of Gibraltar. Al- 
 though it was April, the voyage was so tempestuous 
 that most of the passengers kept snugly in their berths. 
 But no storm could drive him below. He was so supe- 
 rior to the weakness of others that he hardly showed 
 the proper degree of sympathy. I always told him 
 that such indifference was from the absence of the 
 
346 SAFE AT HOME, 
 
 sensibilities which belong to our poor human nature, 
 which only provoked his amusement, for nothing in 
 nature thrilled him in every nerve like a storm at sea. * 
 The rough weather did not abate till they were in sight 
 of our coast, and indeed the Columbia entered our 
 harbor in what Americans would call a blizzard ! As 
 soon as she was reported to be coming up the bay, I set 
 off for the pier of the Hamburg American Line, in 
 Hoboken. The ship was at the dock, and Mr. Field 
 had just driven away. Following to Gramercy Park, 
 I found him not at all the worse for his voyage. As 
 soon as he heard my voice he called to me, and as I 
 entered the room, he was standing with his back to a 
 blazing fire, and threw his arms around me, saying, ' ' I 
 was never better in my life ! " That brotherly embrace 
 I shall never forget : 
 
 " A.h, little thought we 'twas ovir last I" 
 
 Even now, as I think of him those arms are round 
 me still. 
 
 Going up to his library, we spent an hour in ex- 
 
 * The Eev. Dr. Van Dyke, of New York, who was his fellow 
 passenger, wrote afterwards that "on the voyage he was so 
 happy, so energetic, and such an inspiring companion, that in 
 spite of his great age he seemed young. Those days on the sea 
 were pleasant to him ; and he increased the pleasure of others. 
 I shall always be glad to think that I was his fellow-traveller 
 and privileged to listen to his wise and cheerful conversation." 
 
HE NEVER GREW OLD. 347 
 
 changing the experiences of the winter. He had much 
 to tell of England, France and Italy, while I could 
 only supplj" the domestic incidents of which he wished 
 to hear. But no matter what was the subject, he 
 entered into it and gave his opinion with all his old- 
 time freedom. Recalling it since, I have asked myself 
 if there was any trace of feebleness or mental decrepi- 
 tude, and I cannot recall the slightest. Although he 
 was in his ninetieth year, there was no confusion of 
 thought or language. He was within a few hours of 
 the end of life, and yet his mind was as clear, and his 
 conversation as fresh and vigorous, as if he were but 
 seventy or fifty. Whatever weakness might touch his 
 stalwart frame, his intellect never grew old ! 
 
 I came again in the afternoon, but a reporter was 
 with him, and our conversation was deferred till the 
 next daj". We never looked into each other's eyes 
 again. That very night, about three o'clock, he awoke 
 with a chill and rang for his valet, who was so well 
 trained and experienced that he was competent to act 
 as nurse and almost as doctor, who did everything to 
 relieve him. But as soon as his physician could be 
 called, he found that the chill was the forerunner of 
 pneumonia. Watson said that there had been some 
 delay at the pier after the ship reached it, and that Mr. 
 Field went suddenly from the warm cabin into the cold 
 air on the dock. His old heart trouble, from which the 
 doctor said he had probably not been entirely free any 
 
348 SUDDEN DEATH. 
 
 time during the last twenty or twenty-five years, reap- 
 peared, and he sank from hour to hour. I saw him 
 that afternoon, and calhng his name, there was a faint 
 sign of recognition, but he did not speak. After a con- 
 sultation, the physicians thought he still might rally, 
 and that I could safely go home. But at three o'clock 
 in the morning the nurse called the doctor, who saw at 
 a glance that, as one expressed it, "the great lawyer 
 was going before the greatest Judge," and in half an 
 hour, without a tremor, a motion or a sigh, the heart 
 stood still. 
 
 Coming so suddenly, the shock to us was terrible. 
 But when we recovered our self-possession, we could 
 not but reflect on what might have been : that he 
 might have died on the other side of the ocean, in a 
 foreign country, surrounded by strangers ; or on the 
 voyage, in which case we should have had sorrow 
 upon sorrow. But he had reached his country, and 
 died under his own roof, among his kindred. Nor 
 could the summons have come more gently. The foot- 
 steps of death had been as soft as the footsteps of 
 angels. As long as he was conscious of anything, it 
 was of home, and of the love and the tenderness here 
 and beyond the sea. 
 
 And, after all, the work to which he had devoted 
 his life was done. He had but one remaining ambition 
 (to be sure it was a pretty large one), that his codes 
 should be adopted all over the world 1 He said : 
 
HIS LIFE WORK WAS DONE. 349 
 
 *'Tliey are written and published. It is only a ques- 
 tion of time when they will be accepted." He was 
 going up into the Berkshire Hills (for which he waited 
 only till the apple blossoms should appear), where he 
 would spend the summer, not only in the scenes most 
 dear to him, but in an occupation to which he had 
 looked forward with eager interest. It was to put on 
 record the story of his long and somewhat stormy life, 
 that would be a history of the great battle for Law 
 Reform, in which he had been foremost for more than 
 half a century. Thus he was twice happy in the past 
 and the future ; in his memories and his anticipations ; 
 when he closed his eyes for the last time and sank to 
 his rest. 
 
 As only the day before the city papers had announced 
 his arrival from Europe in robust health, few knew 
 even of his illness, so that the announcement of his 
 death was a surprise. One of the first to whom word 
 was sent was Mr. Choate, who had been for years his 
 neighbor in Stockbridge. He came immediately, and, 
 as he looked upon the marble brow of one who was but 
 a few hours before so fuU of life, he said that he had 
 never seen anything so majestic in death ; that 
 
 "He lay like a warrior taking his rest, 
 With his martial cloak around him." 
 
 As soon as the bulletins announced the sad event, 
 there was a general feeling among the people to whom 
 
350 DUST TO DUST. 
 
 his form and figure had been famihar for half a cen- 
 tury, that a great personality had disappeared, whose 
 like they should not see again. Every public tribute was 
 paid to his memory. The flag upon the City Hall was 
 hung at half-mast. The courts adjourned, with appro- 
 priate words from the bench. The Legislature was 
 then in session and, to quote the report from Albany, 
 "the news of the death of this great man wakened a 
 feehng of profound regret," The speaker, who an- 
 nounced it in the Senate, said : ' ' He died crowned with 
 honor. Hislife was a lesson and an inspiration." Both 
 houses adjourned in respect to his memory, and ap- 
 pointed committees to attend his funeral. 
 
 The last service was on Sunday afternoon in Cal- 
 vary church, where he had attended for forty years, 
 which was crowded by representatives of the old fami- 
 lies of New York, and a large deputation from Wil- 
 liams College, with the President at their head. The 
 pall-bearers were : Chief Justice Fuller, of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States ; Charles Butler, who was 
 over ninety years of age ; William M, Evarts, Joseph 
 H. Choate, John Bigelow and Abram S. Hewitt ; 
 Judges Charles Andrews and A. R. Lawrence and ex- 
 Judge Charles A. Peabody ; Chancellor MacCracken, 
 Robert E. Deyo, H. H. Anderson and Robert M. 
 Gallaway. 
 
 The services were, as he would have wished, very 
 simple, with no eulogy. It was enough to hear in the 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 351 
 
 arches above the echo of the voice that has sounded 
 through all the centuries, ' ' I am the Resurrection and 
 the Life, saith the Lord : he that believeth in Me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live ! " 
 
 The next morning we bore him away to the Hills, to 
 which his eyes had been turned, and laid him down 
 under a weeping willow, whose long tresses drooped 
 over his place of rest, beside the graves of those he 
 loved. 
 
 When we came back from that visit to the house 
 prepared for all the living, a great element had gone 
 out of our lives, and the world seemed emptier than 
 before. But if public applause could make up for the 
 loneliness of grief, we had it in an abundance that was 
 quite overwhelming. The tributes from the press were 
 such as I have never seen at the death of an}- one 
 except our martyred Presidents, or the heroes of the 
 war. This took me by surprise, for with all my love 
 for him, I could not but remember that he had been a 
 man of war from his youth, and I looked for some 
 sharp criticisms, but every voice was hushed, and all 
 recognized the immense service which he had rendered 
 to his country. One editor indeed, who is second to 
 none of his brethren in America, placed him high 
 among the lawgivers of history, and as such among 
 the benefactors of mankind. 
 
 When a man who has been so long in the public eye 
 passes away, the first question that -sviU arise in some 
 
352 HIS UNKNOWN GENEROSITY. 
 
 minds is as to the benefactions that he left behind him. 
 These were things which Mr. Field never spoke of. 
 His codes were his best legacies. But, as to the minor 
 point, although it is something which does not concern 
 the public, I may dismiss it in a few words which will 
 be quite sufficient. As some thought of Mr. Field as 
 of a cold temperament, absorbed in his own affairs, now 
 that he is gone, we may lift the veil of privacy, and 
 show him as he was. 
 
 Certainly he was not of the number of those who 
 throw away money right and left, where it might do 
 as much harm as good. His gifts were prompted by 
 personal attachments. He had the feeling of a child 
 towards the place where he was born. Our parents, to 
 whom we owed everything, were married in 1803, so 
 that 1878 measured off three-quarters of a century, 
 and on the very wedding day, the last day of October, 
 the four brothers who were living, went up to the old 
 home in Haddam, Conn., to dedicate two small parks 
 which they gave for the recreation of the inhabitants, 
 one on the site of the old meeting-house, where our 
 father preached for years, and the other on "Isinglass 
 Hill," a bold, rocky eminence rising behind the village, 
 where the older brothers used to play. There was a 
 large gathering of the people, who seemed much pleased 
 with this remembrance of the old town. Some years 
 after, when our eldest brother died, it was found that 
 in his will he had given $5,000 to Haddam, that the 
 
DOING GOOD IN SECRET 353 
 
 parks might be laid out with taste by the planting of 
 trees, with open lawns between, that they should be an 
 inheritance to the people forever. The same home 
 feeling had led him to give $10,000 for the tower in 
 Stockbridge, to which he added in his will $5,000 for 
 the ringing of the chimes at sunset. Of public objects 
 the first in his eye was AVilliams College, to which he 
 gave first and last $40,000. 
 
 But there was one act of beneficence, done in secret, 
 that was still more characteristic. When Chief Justice 
 Taney died he left two daughters who w^ere literally 
 penniless, and had to support themselves b}^ writing in 
 the departments. When this came to be known, there 
 was a general feeling that it was not quite to the honor 
 of the profession that the daughters of the Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 
 should be left to want. At a meeting in Washington 
 the case was stated delicately, and it was assumed that 
 the bar would deem it not onl}^ its duty but its pleasure 
 to look after the family. But the sympathy did not go 
 beyond the stage of oratory. Chagrined at this failure 
 to pay what he regarded as a debt of honor, Mr. Field 
 gave to the clerk of the Supreme Court his bond to 
 remit to one of the daughters $500 a year during her 
 life, which he paid from 1873 till her death in 1891, 
 thus contributing $9,000 to save the credit of the bar. 
 This he did when he had never seen the daughters, nor 
 the Chief Justice himself, except on the bench, and 
 
354 GOOD LAWS BETTER THAN GIFTS OF MONEY. 
 
 though his decision in the Dred Scott case was very 
 repulsive to him. The incident is enough to show that, 
 if he was careful as to whom he gave, when his heart 
 was touched he was a very generous man. 
 
 But the gift of money is the least of all gifts, for if 
 given unwisely, it will only make the poor poorer, and 
 more dependent than before. It is not charity that 
 men want, but justice. If it be a good deed to step 
 forward to defend a poor man in the courts, it is better 
 still to give him a law by which he can protect himself. 
 Teach him his rights, and he can stand on his feet, 
 calling no man master. When he is on the same level 
 as the rich man he is lifted up with a feeling of self- 
 respect. He is as good as anybody. There is one law 
 for all men. No man is so high as to be above its 
 power : and none so low as not to be under its pro- 
 tection. 
 
 But how far have the reforms of the law introduced 
 by Mr. Field extended ? Are they not limited to a few 
 States, so that in point of fact but a small portion of 
 the American people share in these benefits, real or 
 imagined? This is not a question for argument, but 
 for statistics, for which I do not trust to any knowledge 
 of my own, but to the authority of one who is as well 
 informed as any man in the country. To my inquiry 
 how far the new codes have been adopted in the United 
 States he replies as follows : 
 
THE CODES IN STATES AND TERRITORIES. 355 
 
 "New York, January 12, 1898. 
 "Dear Dr. Field : 
 
 "Your brother's codes, with such modifications as 
 were deemed necessaiy to accommodate them to each 
 locaHty, were adopted in whole or in part in Twenty- 
 seven States and Territories. 
 
 "But, in addition to this, the principles of your 
 brother's Code of Civil Procedure, and especially its 
 fundamental doctrine of fusion of law and equity, 
 have made their way in so many other States, that I 
 do not know of any, outside of New England, Dela- 
 ware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania and Tennessee, which have not been 
 seriously affected by the influence of his codes. As 
 to these, Louisiana is still governed practically by the 
 French law ; Pennsylvania had united law and equity 
 long before the codes were framed ; and there was 
 really not so much occasion for reforms in that direc- 
 tion in New England as in other parts of the covmtry. 
 Even in the excepted States, the old common law 
 practice hardly exists, outside of New Jersey, Delaware 
 and Pennsylvania. In fact, the principal difference 
 between States which have adopted the codes and those 
 which have not is that in the latter the process of 
 reform has been carried out by cutting away useless 
 forms instead of by positive constructive work. 
 
 "Thomas G. Shearman." 
 
 This was an extraordinary statement, but it only 
 
356 MAKING LAW FOR FORTY MILLIONS. 
 
 whetted my appetite for something still more exact. 
 States and territories are indefinite quantities, ranging 
 from forty thousand inhabitants in Nevada to six mil- 
 lions in the State of New York. The total result would 
 be more satisfactory if the separate statements could be 
 transmuted into the aggregate population, for which I 
 applied to the same high authority, and received the 
 following answer : 
 
 "New York, January 18, 1898. 
 My Dear Dr. Field : 
 
 "In reply to your inquiry I have made a hasty 
 calculation, from which I judge that, assuming our 
 population in 1890 to have been 03,000,000, 38,000,000 
 of those resided in States where your brother's codes of 
 practice have been in substance adopted. But the fun- 
 damental principle of those codes — that is, the fusion of 
 law and equity, and the administration of Justice in a 
 single court, instead of being divided between a court 
 of law and a court of chancery — have been adopted in 
 States containing much more than nine-tenths of all 
 the population. Of course, some of these, such as 
 Pennsylvania, had adopted this principle long before 
 the date of your brother's codes ; but for the most 
 part, this change is a result of the codes. 
 
 "Thomas G. Shearman." 
 
 This is simply astounding. It is a revolution. The 
 computation of thirty-eight milhons is made on the 
 basis of the census of 1890. But Mr. Field lived till 
 
HOW LONG WILL THEY STAND? 357 
 
 1894, and the natural increase of these four years 
 would be at least two millions, making a total of forty 
 millions ! 
 
 But can such sweeping changes be permanent ? 
 Those who were opposed to the codes from the begin- 
 ning, have explained their success as a craze for reform, 
 which had swept over the country as a tidal wave, but 
 which would be followed by a reaction, and pass away 
 as swiftly as it came. This is indeed possible, but is it 
 probable ? We can only judge of the future by the 
 past. So far we have yet to learn of a single State or 
 Territory that, having adopted these codes, has gone 
 back to the "beggarly elements" of the old, tedious 
 and roundabout way of obtaining justice. "Revolu- 
 tions do not go backward," at least peaceful revolutions 
 that are in the line of human progress. If the new 
 laws are better than the old why should the}' not stand 
 till they are superseded by codes that are better still ? 
 But this is a free country, and we are not responsible 
 for what may be done by a future generation. We 
 read in the Bible that once the sun went backward, but 
 we hardly expect to see the miracle repeated m our day. 
 
 Accustomed as we are to see our legislatures meet- 
 ing from year to year, and enacting new provisions of 
 law, we are apt to think of laws as transitory things, 
 which change with the ever-shifting popular a\411. But 
 they are the oldest creations of man — as old as civiliza- 
 tion, or as history itself. To trace the genealogy of 
 
358 LAWS AS OLD AS HISTORY. 
 
 our laws, we should not stop at King Alfred, nor the 
 Code of Justmian, but go back to the laws of Moses, 
 which, though given three thousand years ago, have 
 been flowing on through all these centuries, like the 
 waters of the Nile. When our Pilgrim fathers crossed 
 the sea they formed in the cabin of the Mayflower a 
 constitution for their little State, which they tried to 
 frame after the pattern given in the Mount. Traces 
 of that code still remain. The setting apart of one 
 day in seven as a day of rest, dates from Mount Sinai, 
 while the sacredness of marriage received its sacrament 
 of baptism in the Garden of Eden. 
 
 As laws are the oldest of human institutions so are 
 they the most enduring. A good laAV does not weaken 
 by time, but grows stronger and stronger. Men do not 
 get tired of justice, but cling to it, and hand it down 
 as a sacred heritage to their children. The legislator 
 who has framed but one such law has planted in the 
 earth an acorn that may grow to be an oak, with trunk 
 so strong, and arms so wide, that many generations 
 shall sit under its shade. It may even grow to the 
 stature of the cedars of Lebanon, whose mighty trunks 
 have stood the storms of three thousand years ! The 
 sturdy growths of law become knarled and knotted by 
 time, till they become a part of the very constitution of 
 human society, to endure as long as society itself. 
 
 And well is it that it is so, for law is the only thing 
 that holds the world together ; and holds it not for 
 
THE MORAL EFFECT OF GOOD LAWS. 359 
 
 evil, but for good : not to make men slaves, but to 
 make them free. 
 
 A thought that was never out of Mr. Field's mind 
 was the moral effect of laws that commend themselves 
 to the plain and sober sense of common people. He 
 believed that nothing was so demoralizing as injustice, 
 as it destroys the sense of right and wrong. On the 
 other hand a simple maxim of law, that was an echo 
 of common sense and common justice, was an educa- 
 tion in righteousness, and the constant pressure of a 
 code so framed was a powerful influence upon national 
 character — an influence that was not only perpetuated 
 but increased from generation to generation. 
 
 ' ' Let me make the songs of a people, and I care not 
 who makes its laws," is a very pretty saying that lacks 
 nothing but truth. A song of home or country may 
 indeed send a thrill to the heart of an exile from the 
 land of his birth. But laws are not meant to thrill us 
 with transient sensations, but to rule our lives, grasp- 
 ing us like the forces of nature, surrounding us like the 
 atmosphere, and holding us fast like gravitation. 
 
 Does this put us in the remorseless gripe of nature ; 
 under the crushing weight of laws to which there is no 
 relief of sunshine or of song? I answer that in the 
 last analysis law is harmony. "Law has her seat in 
 the bosom of God, and her voice is the harmony of the 
 w^orld." Gentle manners are the offspring of an au- 
 thority that is firm but kindly. When there is one 
 
360 GOING DOWN TO POSTERITY WITH HIS CODE. 
 
 law for all men, high aud low, rich and poor, then will 
 come the day of the great reconciliation. But it is in 
 the order of things that law should go before, and 
 songs and rejoicings should follow after. 
 
 If it be a question of the fame that shall live, as 
 between the lawgiver and the conqueror, we have the 
 final judgment of one who was both. When Napoleon 
 was in exile at St. Helena, he found that Europe was 
 not perpetuating his name by celebrating his victories, 
 and that they would give him but a poor hold on the 
 gratitude of the world that he was leaving behind. 
 But there was another and better title to the remem- 
 brance of future generations : "I shall go down to 
 posterity with the Code in my right hand ! " Was 
 there ever a nobler claim for immortality? Napoleon 
 is dead, but the Code Napoleon still lives and ma^^ live 
 as long as the nation for which it was made exists. 
 But is he the only one that has followed this path to 
 glory? On the morning when the flag was drooping 
 at half-mast over the City Hall, a judge sitting on the 
 bench adjourned his court, saying that the words of 
 Napoleon might have been spoken with far more truth 
 of an American jurist who had just breathed his last.* 
 May not the tribute of honor which we gladly pay to 
 the sovereign who served his country by his laws more 
 
 *If the benefit of laws be measured by the myriads they rule, 
 the population of the States and Territories which adopted the 
 codes, was greater than the whole population of France. 
 
 P 
 
 JAM oo.- 
 
HIS NAME IN HISTORY. 361 
 
 than by his wars, be claimed also for one who devoted 
 his life to the laws of another country in another 
 hemisphere ? 
 
 Here, at the end of my story, I recur to my text on 
 the title page : "It was the boast of Augustus that he 
 found Rome of brick and left it of marble. But how 
 much nobler shall be the sovereign's boast, when he 
 shall have it to say that he found law dear and left it 
 cheap ; found it a sealed book, left it a living letter ; 
 found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inherit- 
 ance of the poor ; found it the two-edged sword of 
 craft and oppression, left it the staff of honestj" and 
 the shield of innocence." 
 
 Our American reformer was no sovereign and had 
 no power to establish law by a decree, but standing 
 alone — with but one purpose before him, that inscribed 
 upon his tomb : 
 
 " To bring justice tuithin the reach of all men " — 
 
 he pursued it for half a century, against an opposition 
 that would have crushed most men, till before he closed 
 his eyes in death he had given law to forty millions 
 of his countrymen. Surely he who has left such a 
 record to those who come after him, will have a name 
 in history, as one who did as much as any man of his 
 generation, to bring in the better time — which prophets 
 have foretold — of the universal reign of righteousness 
 and peace. 
 
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