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 RICHARD HENRY DANA 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS 
 
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 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 SMKsuSMHa 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 £k llitoiTsiDe press, Cmnbrt&ae 
 1890 
 
A*- 
 
 JJ/A 
 
 Copyright, 1890, 
 By CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 % i to i 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. 
 
To 
 
 2Dtje $paS0ac&u0ett0 historical $>ocietp, 
 
 AT WHOSE BEHEST 
 
 THE MEMOIR, OUT OF WHICH GREW THIS LIFE 
 
 OF ONE OF ITS MORE 
 
 DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS, 
 
 WAS ORIGINALLY UNDERTAKEN. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 I. School-days and Voyage to California .... 1 
 
 II. Entrance into Active Life 18 
 
 III. Early Life at the Bar 42 
 
 IV. Washington Allston 71 
 
 V. Vacation Rambles. — Isles of Shoals 84 
 
 VI. Weir, Macready, Judge Story, Horace Mann . . 102 
 VII. Politics. — The Free Soil Movement of 1848, and 
 
 the Buffalo Convention 121 
 
 VIII. The Adirondacks and John Brown 145 
 
 ^ IX. Free Soil Politics 165 
 
 X. The Fugitive Slave Cases of 1851 178 
 
 XI. Vacation Rambles. — A Moose Hunt ...... 202 
 
 XII. Law and Politics. — The Burial of Webster . . 208 
 
 XIII. The Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 
 
 1853 233 
 
 XIV. The Rendition of Anthony Burns 262 
 
 XV. The Marshal's Guard 296 
 
 XVI. The Coast of Maine. — Commissioner Loring. — 
 Rachel. — Rufus Choate. — Judge Woodbury 
 Davis. — Judge Shaw. — Eliza Wharton . . . 331 
 XVII. The First Glimpse of Europe 357 
 
tot; 
 
 RICHARD HENRY DANA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SCHOOL-DAYS AND VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Richard Henry Dana, the younger of the name, was 
 born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the first day of Au- 
 gust, 1815. He came from an old Massachusetts stock, 
 long resident in the town of his birth, the early records of 
 which contain mention of a Richard Dana in 1640, though 
 how long he had then been in the country, or whence or 
 why he came, does not appear. It has always been the 
 family tradition that this first Richard was of French de- 
 scent, and it is still thought probable that his ancestors were 
 French Vaudois dwelling in the valleys of Piedmont, where 
 Danas are still found whose families can be traced back for 
 centuries, and whence other Danas may well have been driven 
 by those religious persecutions of which that region was the 
 frequent scene. Whether of Italian or English, and re- 
 motely, perhaps, as the name might seem to imply, of Scan- 
 dinavian origin, the first Richard had a grandson of the 
 same name who was in his time (1700-1772) a prominent 
 lawyer, and in his latter years an active patriot, though 
 he died before the revolutionary troubles culminated. He 
 married (1737) a sister of Edmund Trowbridge, the emi- 
 nent colonial judge, and by her, in 1743, had a son, Fran- 
 cis, who was a delegate in 1777-9 and ? 84 from Massachu- 
 setts to the Continental Congress, and was appointed by it 
 in 1780 the first American Minister to the Court of Russia. 
 
2 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 7. 
 
 Afterwards he held a succession of honorable offices, and 
 in 1785 was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of 
 Massachusetts. He was made chief justice in 1791, and 
 held that position until he retired in 1806, being succeeded 
 by Theophilus Parsons. Francis Dana married (1773) 
 Elizabeth Ellery, a daughter of William Ellery of Newport, 
 Rhode Island, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- 
 dependence, by whom he had seven children, one of whom, 
 Martha Remington (1784) married (1830) Washington 
 Allston. The child next in age to Martha, Richard Henry, 
 the father of the subject of this memoir, was born in 1787, 
 and, living well into his ninety-second year, is still remem- 
 bered as a poet and essayist. He married Ruth Charlotte, 
 a daughter of John Wilson Smith of Taunton, who, dying 
 in 1822, left four children, the eldest boy, called after his 
 father, being then not yet seven years of age. 
 
 The year following his mother's death the child Richard 
 passed out of the care of his aunts and began his school-life, 
 of which his subsequent recollections were far from pleas- 
 ant. His first master was Samuel Barrett, "a thin, dark- 
 complexioned, dark-haired, and dark-eyed man, with a very 
 austere look." The school, situated in Cambridgeport, was 
 kept in " a long, low, dark room, with wooden benches well 
 cut up, walls nearly black, and a close, hot atmosphere." 
 The discipline of the olden time prevailed. Each misde- 
 meanor was noted down at the instant, and flogging was the 
 punishment for every offence. " When the time came for 
 dismissing school, the books were put away, the names of 
 all the delinquents called over, the chest unlocked, and the 
 long pine ferule produced. How often did our hearts sicken 
 at the sight of that chest and that ferule ! The boys were 
 then called out, one at a time, and the blows given upon 
 the flat of their hands, from two or four up to one or two 
 dozen, according to the nature of the offence and the size of 
 the boys. A few of the older boys never cried, but only 
 changed color violently as the blows fell ; but the other boys 
 always cried and some lustily and with good reason." 
 
1822. SCHOOL-DA YS. 3 
 
 It was during this period of early school-days that Oli- 
 ver Wendell Holmes long afterwards, on seconding the 
 resolutions offered in the Massachusetts Historical Society 
 when Dana's death was announced, recalled him *' as a 
 little, rosy-faced, sturdy boy, piloting an atom of a lesser 
 brother, Edmund, to and from the school-house." Dr. 
 Holmes then also referred to one other incident as coming 
 back to him with painful distinctness, — a case of punish- 
 ment for some slight offence " accidentally aggravated so as 
 to be a temporary injury and give the impression of cruel 
 maltreatment, such as was remote from the master's inten- 
 tion." Even after he grew to man's estate, Dana was un- 
 able to take so charitable a view of this incident, which now 
 has a certain value as illustrating the pre-kindergarten 
 methods of New England. One of the modes of punish- 
 ment in vogue at the Cambridgeport school was dragging 
 the boys about by their ears, " across the school-room and 
 over the benches." One day as Richard Dana, a little 
 urchin not yet eight, was standing up in the class reciting, 
 another boy made him laugh. He was duly rebuked, but 
 could not control himself, and his ear was pulled pretty 
 severely. This sobered him for a moment, but presently he 
 was made to laugh again, and the provoked master took 
 him by the ear and dragged him across the room to his 
 seat. His boy tormentor still would not leave him alone, 
 and partly out of bravado and partly because he could not 
 help it, the child before long was once more laughing. The 
 now thoroughly enraged instructor seized him by one ear 
 and dragged him over the bench on which he was sitting 
 and back again. Some hours later, when school was dis- 
 missed, the other scholars saw that little Richard's ear was 
 bloody and the skin connecting it with the head torn. He 
 was taken home by a procession of boys, and the attention 
 of a committee of the school proprietors was called to the 
 case by his father. The result was that punishment by ear 
 pulling was discontinued at the school, though the ferule 
 survived in full sway. 
 
4 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 10. 
 
 About two years later, as the child was subject every 
 summer to attacks of illness, his father concluded to try the 
 effect of a country boarding-school, and accordingly young 
 Richard was in May, 1824, being not yet nine, taken to 
 Mr. Wright's at Westford, about twenty-five miles from 
 Cambridge. Here he remained for some sixteen months, 
 not unhappy, after a long attack of homesickness had worn 
 itself out ; and, though he learned little, he did a good deal 
 of day-dreaming for one so young, his childish imagination 
 being greatly impressed by the outburst of popular enthusi- 
 asm which marked the fifty-year commemoration of Lex- 
 ington and Concord, followed by Lafayette's long triumphal 
 progress through the country, and the great oratorical ef- 
 forts of Everett at Cambridge and of Webster at Bunker 
 Hill. 
 
 In August, 1825, young Dana was brought home and 
 sent once more to the grammar school at Cambridgeport. 
 At the time of deciding on this change in his child's school- 
 life, the elder Richard Henry wrote a letter to a friend 
 which has been preserved, and which contains this curious 
 passage, strongly characteristic of the father, and not with- 
 out interest as throwing a gleam of light on the early im- 
 pression made on those around him by the son : — 
 
 ..." I have concluded to take him back to Cambridge. 
 The children are mightily pleased at it. Richard, I think, 
 will be of great benefit to Master Ned. If I understand 
 Richard, he is a boy of excellent principles even now. I 'm 
 afraid he is too sensitive for his own happiness ; yet he is* 
 generally cheerful and ready for play, and is a boy of true 
 spirit. After all, I never think of him without some touch 
 of melancholy, and with an impression that if he lives he 
 will not be happy ; and so constant is this feeling in me 
 whenever he comes before my mind, that should he die 
 early, tho' it would be a sad thing to part with him, my first 
 and last thought of him would be, he has escaped the evil to 
 come. I know this is a weakness in me. But when have 
 I been other than a creature of weakness and folly ? " 
 
1 825. SCHOOL~DA YS. 5 
 
 Young Richard did not remain long at the grammar 
 school in " the Port ; " for, soon afterwards, a private school 
 was opened in Cambridge under charge of no less a person 
 than Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Dana was one of about 
 twenty boys who for a brief time imbibed the elements of a 
 classical education under the supervision of the future phi- 
 losopher of transcendentalism, in 1825 a Harvard graduate 
 of two years' standing. In Holmes's memoir of Emerson, 
 two of the youths taught by him, Josiah G. Abbot and John 
 Holmes, give in their own words the impression which the 
 great transcendentalist left upon them as a schoolmaster. 
 Dana also at a later time wrote down his impression. Re- 
 ferring to this portion of his school-days in 1842, before 
 Emerson had yet attained his recognized eminence, he al- 
 luded to him as " since known as a writer and lecturer upon 
 what is called the transcendental philosophy. ... A very 
 pleasant instructor we had in Mr. E., although he had not 
 system or discipline enough to insure regular and vigorous 
 study. I have always considered it fortunate for us that we 
 fell into the hands of more systematic and strict teachers, 
 though not so popular with us, nor perhaps so elevated in 
 their habits of thought as Mr. E." 
 
 But it was under one of these " more systematic and 
 strict teachers " that Dana again became a victim to the 
 brutal and barbarizing system of corporal punishment then 
 so much in vogue. Years afterward, but still laboring under 
 the deepest indignation at the degrading treatment to which 
 as a lad he had been subjected, he gave a detailed account 
 of the incident. It certainly was very bad, and now has a 
 certain historic value as a well authenticated instance of the 
 " Dotheboys Hall " methods in vogue in Massachusetts at 
 about the time Dickens was writing " Nicholas Nickleby " 
 in England. Dana wrote as follows : — 
 
 Mr. W. kept but a fortnight. He was very un- 
 fortunate in all his plans and notions. He also 
 inflicted some violent corporal punishments. One 
 
6 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 10. 
 
 inflicted upon myself was the cause of his being 
 turned out of office. 
 
 He [the schoolmaster] had placed me in the mid- 
 dle of the floor for some offence or other, and my 
 station being near the stove, and the room very hot, 
 I became faint and asked to be allowed to go out and 
 gave my reason, but to no purpose. In a few min- 
 utes we had our usual recess of a quarter of an hour, 
 and I went out. Here I came very near fainting 
 again, looked very pale, and asked leave to go home. 
 This was refused. As I was really sick, at the sug- 
 gestion of the boys, I went home, which was but 
 a few minutes' walk, to get a written excuse. My 
 father saw that I was ill and kept me at home, and 
 sent me the next morning with a written excuse for 
 my non-appearance, alleging faintness and sickness. 
 Mr. VV. was mortified and angry at this and said that 
 the excuse only covered my not returning, while the 
 chief offence was my going home without leave, 
 which he could not excuse, and calling me out, took 
 his ferule and ordered me to put out my left hand. 
 (He also intimated that my sickness was all a sham.) 
 Upon this hand he inflicted six blows with all his 
 strength, and then six upon the right hand. I was 
 in such a frenzy of indignation at his injustice and 
 his insulting insinuation, that I could not have ut- 
 tered a word for my life. I was too small and slen- 
 der to resist, and could show my spirit only by forti- 
 tude. He called for my right hand again, and gave 
 six more blows in the same manner, and then six 
 more upon the left. My hands were swollen and in 
 acute pain, but I did not flinch nor show a sign of 
 suffering. He was determined to conquer and gave 
 six more blows upon each hand, with full force. 
 
1825-30. SCHOOL-DAYS. 7 
 
 Still there was no sign from me of pain or submis- 
 sion. I could have gone to the stake for what I con- 
 sidered my honor. The school was in an uproar of 
 hissing and scraping and groaning, and the master 
 turned his attention to the other boys and let me 
 alone. He said not another word to me through the 
 day. If he had I could not have answered, for my 
 whole soul was in my throat and not a word could 
 get out. ... I went in the afternoon to the trustees 
 of the school, stated my case, produced my evidence, 
 and had an examination made. The next morning 
 but four boys went to school, and the day following 
 the career of Mr. W. ended. 
 
 Remaining here about four years in all, in the winter of 
 of 1829-30 young Richard, being then in his fifteenth year, 
 was sent as a day scholar to a well-known boarding and 
 day school, also within the limits of Cambridge, to be there 
 prepared for college. He afterwards wrote down a detailed 
 
 description of 's, rightly supposing that it was one of 
 
 the last specimens of the old English style of school-keeping 
 in this country, and as such would in time become matter 
 of curious inquiry. As the school in question was for many 
 years in great vogue among the more wealthy families of 
 Boston and vicinity, Mr. Dana's description of it will be 
 recognized readily enough not only by some of his contem- 
 poraries, but by many of the succeeding generation. 
 
 This school consisted of about thirty boys, of 
 whom all but about half a dozen were boarders, and 
 either sons of men of property in Boston, or of South- 
 ern gentlemen and sent to his care. The accommo- 
 dations of the boys were as follows : four large rooms 
 in the attic, in which they slept, six or seven in a 
 room, and to which they were not permitted to go 
 except for sleeping, or for some special purpose, upon 
 
8 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 15. 
 
 leave. There were no fires in these rooms, and I 
 believe but one light in the entry for all the rooms. 
 I am not certain of the latter fact, but, at all events, 
 the boys were never allowed a light except for a few 
 minutes, to go to bed with. There was a wash-room, 
 also without a fire, with half a dozen tin basins and 
 towels, for the boys' washing. There was a dining- 
 room, reserved for meals, and never entered for any 
 other purpose. The school-room was the only room 
 in which the boys could be, except when in bed, by 
 day or night, and in which they must do all their 
 reading, writing, thinking, conversing, and in which 
 their characters and habits were formed. This room 
 was oblong, rather small for the number of boys it 
 was to accommodate, with a stove in the middle, and 
 but one light in the evening for all the boys, and that 
 a lamp fastened to the wall higher than the boys' 
 heads, and of such a kind and so placed that but two 
 or three boys could read by it at the same time. In- 
 deed, what with the noise of so many boys in one 
 room, the necessity of going aw T ay from the stove, and 
 the poor accommodations under this lamp, very little 
 reading was done. Those boys who passed several 
 years at this school before entering college went to 
 college the most ignorant young men upon all sub- 
 jects of literature and of that knowledge acquired 
 through books and the society of educated persons, 
 and not necessarily connected with their Latin, Greek, 
 and mathematics, of any who are able to get for 
 themselves what is commonly called a liberal educa- 
 tion. They seemed to belong to another class from 
 the young gentlemen, well informed and well man- 
 nered, of the school I had left. They were inferior 
 to them also in the sports and athletic exercises of 
 
1830. SCHOOL-DAYS. 9 
 
 boys. For in this school there were bounds beyond 
 which the scholars were never permitted to go. 
 These bounds included the yard about the house and 
 a play-ground adjoining ; but none of the favorite 
 games of foot-ball, hand-ball, base or cricket, could 
 be played in the grounds with any satisfaction, for 
 the ball would be constantly flying over the fence, 
 beyond which the boys could not go without asking 
 special leave. This was a damper upon the more 
 ranging and athletic exercises. Flying kite, too, was 
 of course out of the question, as that requires a long 
 run to raise the kite and sometimes a chase after it 
 if the string should break. Hardly a boy in the 
 school knew how to swim, except the day scholars 
 and those Boston boys who went to the swimming 
 school in vacation. 
 
 The only punishment known in this school was 
 flogging. The master always had a rattan either in 
 hand or lying on his desk ; and if any disorder was 
 observed, or a boy had not his lesson prepared, the 
 master sprang up and down went the rattan upon 
 the boy's back. There were about half a dozen boys 
 who were flogged regularly every day, and who de- 
 tested the sight of school-room, master and books. 
 There was never a half-day without a good deal of 
 flogging. The boys in the upper class, who were to 
 enter college within the year, were rarely if ever 
 flogged. I do not remember a boy in my class being 
 flogged while I was in the school. But the smaller 
 boys suffered from it. Those who were slow to learn, 
 and needed encouragement, became disheartened and 
 made but little progress ; and the smart boys trans- 
 gressed as much as they could and avoid punishment. 
 I remember very well two or three boys, in particn- 
 
10 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 16. 
 
 lar, who became almost stultified over their books. 
 One of them was weeks and weeks upon a few pages - 
 of his Latin grammar, which he had blotted with 
 tears and blackened with his fingers, until they were 
 hardly legible. That boy generally cried from a 
 quarter to a half hour every half -day over his lesson. 
 
 In July, 1831, Dana entered college and soon took a high 
 rank in his class, showing a natural aptitude for mathemat- 
 ics. Before the end of his Freshman year one of those 
 college difficulties, much more common then than now, and 
 absurdly called " rebellions," took place. It soon involved 
 the whole class. It was the familiar story. Some offence 
 had been committed,, and " a charity student" was called 
 upon to divulge the name of the culprit. He refused, and, 
 the matter then having got into the courts of law, was sum- 
 moned as a witness. A class meeting was thereupon held, 
 and resolutions to " sustain our class-mates " were passed. 
 The *' rebellion " naturally followed, breaking out, of course, 
 at evening prayers, when a combined tumult of hissing, 
 groaning and scraping completely drowned the voice of the 
 officiating clergyman. " This brought Mr. Quincy down 
 from his seat, and two or three tutors from the galleries. 
 They watched us closely, but the noise continued through- 
 out the reading and until the prayer commenced ; when it 
 stopped. The same thing was repeated on Saturday morn- 
 ing. There was an open rebellion." Some of the class 
 were sent away, and others were taken away temporarily 
 by their parents. For such as remained, the alternative of 
 suspension or expulsion was jDresented. Though he had 
 nothing to do with the original cause of offence, young 
 Dana wholly sympathized with his class. It had been inti- 
 mated to his father, that if the son would keep away for 
 a few days he would be permitted to remain. The two 
 Richards discussed the matter together, and the course he 
 would pursue was finally left to the younger. He decided 
 that he was " in honor bound " to his class-mates ; so he 
 
1832. SCHOOL-DAYS. 11 
 
 next morning went in to prayers with such of them as were 
 left, and was summoned before the faculty immediately 
 afterwards to be suspended. 
 
 The six months of rustication which ensued he passed 
 with the Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., afterwards President of 
 Bowdoin College, then a resident licentiate of Andover The- 
 ological Seminary. Of this episode in his college life, and 
 of President Woods personally, Mr. Dana always after- 
 wards spoke with feeling and pleasure. The college rebel- 
 lion and its outcome he accounted a piece of great good 
 fortune, for it brought him at a most impressionable age in 
 close contact with a superior man. 
 
 Mr. Woods was then only about four and twenty 
 years old, yet had completed his course of college and 
 professional education, was giving his time to a sys- 
 tem of comprehensive scholarship, chiefly theological, 
 and had already become a ripe scholar. Besides his 
 Latin and Greek and Hebrew, with which he was 
 sufficiently conversant for the purposes of his reading, 
 he both read and wrote with ease German, French, 
 and, I think, Italian. He was an indefatigable and 
 enthusiastic student, with a heart full of noble and 
 kind sentiments, with a manner which won the con- 
 fidence and love of all, with remarkable purity of 
 spirit, and with a firm religious faith and a complete 
 religious personal experience. He was also more free 
 from prejudice, opinionativeness and exclusiveness 
 than most students of theological system. Indeed, 
 I never saw that he had any of those faults. More 
 than any person whom I ever knew he seemed to 
 read, study, think and converse for the purpose of 
 developing fairly all his powers and coming to a 
 knowledge of truth. He was not only a fair but a 
 favorable critic, and his society was very agreeable to 
 
12 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 18. 
 
 the most unlearned and simple, and much sought 
 after by them, a thing not usual with the learned 
 and accomplished. For a student of abstractions, he 
 was uncommonly familiar with every variety of polite 
 literature. Poetry he studied as high philosophy and 
 enjoyed it as answering to a soul tuned for harmony, 
 in love with beauty, and alive to noble or graceful 
 sentiments. Novels and romances of every school he 
 read with interest, and kept himself acquainted with 
 the current literature of the day, also with much of 
 the lighter literature of other times which has sur- 
 vived to us. 
 
 To do all this required system and great applica- 
 tion ; and both of these he certainly had. He never 
 lost a moment. His books, nature or society, and 
 his hours set apart for retirement employed all his 
 time, and whatever he did was done with his might. 
 
 Returning to Cambridge when the period of suspension was 
 over, Dana finished his Sophomore year and had just entered 
 on his Junior year when he had an attack of measles, in some 
 way contracted during the vacation, which he had passed at 
 Plymouth ; although the attack was not peculiarly severe, it 
 left his eyes so weak that for a while he could not endure 
 the ordinary light of day, and, even when they grew better, 
 any effort at reading caused intense pain. This continued 
 for several months, making study impossible, and forcing 
 him to leave college. Under such circumstances the aver- 
 age youth of eighteen would have yielded to his fate. The 
 means of the elder Dana were so small that the visit to 
 Europe ordinarily prescribed in such cases was out of the 
 question for his son, who besides was somewhat young to 
 profit by it. Accordingly for a time Richard lived an aim- 
 less life in Cambridge, useless and dissatisfied, feeling him- 
 self a burden upon his friends. But from childhood upward 
 he had felt a strong love of adventure, which now under 
 
1834. VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA. 13 
 
 the pressure of enforced idleness broke out in force and made 
 him set his heart on a long voyage in order at once to relieve 
 himself from ennui, to see strange lands and modes of life, 
 and if possible to restore his strength of sight. A voyage 
 in the cabin of some India merchantman would in those 
 days of Boston's Calcutta trade have been with most young 
 men the natural outcome of such a longing. Many oppor- 
 tunities for this offered, but Dana was sensible enough to 
 realize that a long cabin voyage with eyes too weak for 
 reading would be intolerably tedious ; and so he made up 
 his mind to go before the mast, wisely reasoning that hard 
 work, plain diet, and open-air life would by effecting a grad- 
 ual change in his whole physical system ultimately restore 
 his eyesight. The experiment was a somewhat daring one, 
 for Dana had not even been brought up as a lad in a sea- 
 port town, and accordingly knew nothing of the sea, or of 
 ships ; indeed the only evidence that he had ever sailed 
 a boat at all is derived from James Russell Lowell, who, 
 when speaking of the college sloop Harvard and her cord- 
 wood voyages to the eastward, in his paper on "Cam- 
 bridge, Thirty Years Ago," incidentally remarks : " In- 
 spired by her were those first essays at navigation on the 
 Winthrop duck-pond, of the plucky boy who was afterwards 
 to serve two famous years before the mast." But there *is 
 a wide difference between the Winthrop duck-pond and salt 
 water, and naturally enough the elder Dana looked at first 
 with little favor on his son's adventurous project. Never- 
 theless, he was wise enough to yield at last a silent though 
 reluctant and foreboding consent to what he could hardly 
 forbid, and Dana thus described the steps which gradually 
 led to his voyage : — 
 
 The first vessel in which I attempted to procure 
 a situation was the ship Japan bound to India, 
 owned in part by Mr. J. Ingersoll Bowditch, son of 
 Dr. Bowditch, the celebrated mathematician. Mr. 
 B. was going out as supercargo, and upon becoming 
 
14 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 19. 
 
 acquainted with me positively refused to let me go 
 before the mast, but offered me a passage with him 
 to Calcutta and back, as a companion, and a room in 
 his house on shore while there. He also introduced 
 me to his father, who partly joined in his son's dis- 
 suasions, though with less earnestness, for the old 
 gentleman had been a short voyage before the mast 
 himself when a boy, and he knew that it had done 
 him good. He told me he liked my resolution, 
 which only added fuel to the fire. I therefore re- 
 fused the kind offer of Mr. B., and after some trouble 
 and delay procured a berth in the brig Pilgrim, for 
 California. I undertook this voyage because it was 
 difficult to get any other that would be long enough, 
 at that time, and because California was represented 
 to be a very healthy coast, with a fine climate, and 
 plenty of hard work for the sailors. 
 
 Sailing from Boston in the brig Pilgrim on the 14th of 
 August, 1834, Dana got back to Boston in the ship Alert on 
 the 22d of September, 1836. He went away a town-nur- 
 tured, college stripling of nineteen ; he returned a robust 
 man of twenty-one. The heroic treatment to which he had 
 recourse settled the difficulty with his eyes ; thereafter they 
 gave him no more trouble. 
 
 But considerable as it was, this advantage was trifling 
 compared with the moral change which his great experience 
 had wrought in him. Taken abruptly away from books 
 and college and home influence, Dana had passed two years 
 during the most impressionable period of life on the deck 
 and the beach in close, hard contact with nature and man ; 
 it was exactly what he needed, and, as a part of his educa- 
 tion, was of more value to him than that of any other equal 
 period of his youth. Dana needed coarsening if he was 
 to deal successfully with practical life. As not unseldom 
 is the case in America, his descent was a disadvantage to 
 
1831. VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA. 15 
 
 him, — it bade fair to handicap him in the race. His 
 chances for achieving distinction would have been incom- 
 parably better had he been the son of some Congregational 
 clergyman settled over a poor country parish ; for in Amer- 
 ica it is not well far any young man to grow up under the 
 consciousness of an ancestry or incumbered by family tradi- 
 tions. Dana not only did so grow up, but moreover he was 
 naturally disposed to dwell upon this sort of thing, and to 
 magnify its importance. The elder Richard Henry was 
 born a dreamer ; sensitive, diffident, distrustful of himself, 
 he shrank from contact with the mass of men, and only a 
 sense of duty could force him into conflict with any one. 
 After the death of his wife, to whom he was tenderly at- 
 tached, he lived with his unmarried sisters and family tradi- 
 tions, and looked out upon the world as he might have 
 looked from his study windows upon a noisy, dusty market- 
 place in which vulgar people crowded and jostled each other 
 in a struggle for prizes, the value of which he felt in his 
 daily life, but could not nerve himself to take his part in 
 getting. He was not, as many are, made bitter or discon- 
 tented by a sense of failure, or of youthful promise not ful- 
 filled, for his was a refined and elevated nature ; but he 
 more and more withdrew within himself and his little family 
 circle, accepting the position the world assigned him as a 
 man of gentle birth and slender means, with a poetic tem- 
 perament which had blossomed and sent forth shoots, but 
 had failed to flower or to grow. 
 
 Of more robust intellect, and far more energetic and self- 
 reliant nature than his father, the younger Richard Henry 
 had many traits of character in common with him. As a 
 child he was sensitive, impressionable, and addicted to day- 
 dreaming ; as he grew up he developed a premature and ex- 
 aggerated punctiliousness on all points of so-called <4 honor," 
 together with a somewhat overwhelming sense of responsi- 
 bility to family ; later on the hereditary traits, good in 
 themselves and calculated to command respect but still not 
 
16 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JEt. 19. 
 
 conducive to practical success in an American business life, 
 became more and more pronounced. But for his hard and 
 healthy forecastle experience these foibles of nature and in- 
 heritance would doubtless have cropped out earlier and 
 borne their pernicious fruit. Thus, with Dana the fore- 
 castle experience arrested morbid action, or, in homely lan- 
 guage, took the nonsense out of him. He could no longer 
 be a dreamer, in danger of becoming a little later on what 
 is sometimes called a " prig," and turned out a tough, 
 manly, sensible young fellow, afraid of nothing, eager to 
 please and succeed, resolute, unselfish and honest. 
 
 He had also received what few college-bred young men 
 ever get, — a course in natural life. That " course," set 
 down in no curriculum, takes time ; but it is worth all the 
 time it takes. Most college graduates go directly from the 
 lecture-room to the pursuit of some calling, or the study of 
 a profession ; possibly they may pass a few months or even 
 years in some foreign college or in the capitals of Europe, 
 that they may return more thoroughly educated, or, per- 
 haps, only travelled gentlemen. Conventionally, this is the 
 correct thing to do. Those who during the days of their 
 youth and vigor snatch a year or two from pleasure or from 
 earning a living and give it to a close communion with na- 
 ture in man and in things are few indeed. The War of the 
 Rebellion thrust upon the young men of a generation which 
 followed, what Dana in 1835 got for himself. They in their 
 time, as he in his, were forced to waste, as it is expressed, 
 precious years in an experience full of dangerous exposure, 
 and which led to nothing. Yet to them as to him that 
 experience was of incalculable worth. It brought out man- 
 hood. Jt showed how much of the heroic is latent. Wher- 
 ever there was pure metal, the dross was purged from it. 
 
 As it was with the mass in the Rebellion, so was it with 
 Dana thirty years before. The stones sink; the corks 
 swim. Close contact with the coarse and the material in 
 nature and man is a crucial test ; but while it develops 
 
1834. VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA. 17 
 
 whatever is coarse and material in those subjected to it, — 
 while the baser natures succumb, he who has in him the 
 qualities of true manhood comes out from the ordeal purged 
 and strengthened ; and so the forecastle did Dana nothing 
 but good. He came out of it better in every respect than 
 he went into it. Whatever measure of success and fame 
 he afterwards achieved in life was in all human probability 
 due to it. That which would have ruined a coarser nature 
 simply toned him up to the proper level. He ceased to 
 be too fine for every-day use. Indeed, all through his sub- 
 sequent life a sort of conflict may be observed between the 
 saving inspiration of the forecastle and hereditary instincts 
 and traditions. In the prime of his manhood the first pre- 
 dominated and led to an early and brilliant career ; as the 
 years went on the freshness of the great lesson faded away, 
 and influences which antedated his birth and surrounded his 
 life asserted themselves, not for his good. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 
 
 Landing in his seaman's clothes on Long Wharf from the 
 Alert on the 22d of September, 1836, a rugged, bronzed 
 young fellow of twenty-one, Dana found himself once more, 
 as if by magic, returned to civilized life. Accustomed as 
 he so long had been to seeing only rough, hardy, sunburnt 
 faces, the men he met seemed at first like convalescents 
 from some epidemic fever, while the women were mere 
 shades. In a day or two all this passed away, and the 
 next few weeks he spent pleasantly enough visiting his rel- 
 atives and in a trip to Burlington, Vermont, where his 
 younger brother Edmund was in college. He then returned 
 to Boston, to which city his father had moved during his 
 absence at sea, and prepared to reenter Harvard ; for he 
 had been given to understand that, upon passing an exami- 
 nation, he could become a member in full standing of the 
 Senior class, that of 1837, his own class having been gradu- 
 ated in 1835. 
 
 Both morally and mentally Dana was at this time in a 
 highly receptive condition. It could not well have been 
 otherwise, inasmuch as for more than two years during the 
 most germinating period of life his mind had been lying fal- 
 low ; and now he had come back in a state of intellectual 
 famine to books and study and intercourse with educated 
 men. His faculties for enjoyment had been stored up, and 
 life to him was all fresh and strange and young. He took 
 a keen delight in everything, — in people, in places and 
 in books. Not that he was in the slightest degree the tra- 
 ditional sailor on shore, for Dana was ingrained a gentle- 
 
1836. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 19 
 
 man ; but, though pleasures low and coarse had no attrac- 
 tion for him, he saw things vividly, and he felt keenly. He 
 was by nature reticent and secretive when he felt much, so 
 he never wore his heart upon his sleeve ; but at this period 
 enjoyment made his aspect bright, buoyant and attractive. 
 Indeed, it was to this buoyancy of temperament and sus- 
 ceptibility to impressions that he owed his early success, 
 both literary and professional. He saw things clearly, they 
 impressed themselves vividly upon him, and he wrote or 
 spoke of them as he saw and felt. 
 
 By those who remember him at this stage of life he is 
 described as a broad-shouldered and erect young fellow, 
 though somewhat short of stature, wearing a profusion of 
 brown, curling hair, which he allowed to grow longer than 
 is customary with men ; his mouth was firm and strong, and 
 a singularly attractive smile when he was pleased or inter- 
 ested, which he retained to the end of his life, revealed a set 
 of handsome, regular teeth. Robust, overflowing with phys- 
 ical health and animal spirits, the chances were large that 
 coming suddenly back from the forecastle to society, the 
 long pent-up hunger for intellectual food and capacity for 
 enjoyment would evince themselves in some pronounced 
 form. They did so ; but in a way which would under the 
 circumstances least have been expected. His mind turned 
 to religious thought. 
 
 The Dana family belonged by descent to the first Ortho- 
 dox Congregational parish of Cambridge, — to the church 
 over which Thomas Shepard, that " silver trumpet," of 
 whom Cotton Mather wrote, " his life was a trembling walk 
 with God," had first presided ; and when the Unitarian 
 schism took place in 1829, the Danas, though relatives of 
 Channing, were among that seceding majority of church 
 members who, clinging to the ancient faith of New Eng- 
 land, abandoned the meeting-house of their fathers to the 
 larger party in the parish, and went under the lead of their 
 pastor to worship temporarily in the court-house. This 
 
20 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 21. 
 
 heated controversy left its scars on the Dana family as well 
 as on the Cambridge parish ; for years afterwards, referring 
 to the family letters written him while at school at West- 
 ford which he had then been looking over, he wrote as fol- 
 lows to his wife : — 
 
 1849. Av gust 4. Those letters bring up our 
 childhood so pleasantly and oddly, they are very in- 
 teresting. I want you to read them. They show 
 how we lived, acted, felt, before the demon of Cal- 
 vinism and Revivalism got hold upon the family. It 
 looks as though we might have been trained up a 
 cheerful, kindly affectioned, religious household, with 
 our pleasures and friends about us. But the flower 
 of our youth from twelve to twenty was under a 
 cloud. The clouds had rolled off, and we were get- 
 ting into light and warmth again after we moved to 
 Boston [1835] ; but the effect of those years on us 
 
 all, and especially on and Father, never can be 
 
 quite erased. 
 
 Subject to influences like these, it would have been 
 strange indeed if from time to time during his school-life 
 young Richard, like most boys of ingenuous nature, had not 
 passed through periods of spiritual awakening, — times 
 when the conscience stirred. When he went to sea, he be- 
 came as the sailors he was with. As he wrote subsequently, 
 " During this voyage I had but one time of serious impres- 
 sions, and that was when lying sick in my berth off Cape 
 Horn, amidst the ice and in momentary danger of death. I 
 knew that the very next wave might send the vessel against 
 ice which the fog hid from us, and which might destroy us 
 in an instant. I lay, too, in my berth in the forecastle just 
 where the vessel would strike if at all. In this state I 
 prayed and vowed to God ; but it was strange, and did not 
 go to the root of the evil ; and the next day I forgot it." 
 
1836. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 21 
 
 Shortly after his return home an incident occurred which 
 affected him greatly. One of his friends fell ill, and, while 
 in that state of acute religious excitement which not unfre- 
 quently occurs in presence of death, often spoke of Richard 
 Dana, expressing great fear as to his spiritual welfare ; and 
 this was subsequently repeated to him. It was such a thing 
 as might have happened in the life of any young man, and 
 under ordinary circumstances would have made no lasting 
 impression ; but coming as it did in Dana's case, at a time 
 when the mind and moral nature were in a peculiarly sen- 
 sitive state, it was a call. His thoughts turned strongly 
 towards religious topics and observances, and the awaken- 
 ing was a continued one. Unitarian preaching, as he ex- 
 pressed it, "went over his head." Orthodox preaching 
 appealed to his intellect, but shocked his instinct ; while it 
 sounded like the knell of judgment, it had none of that 
 visible form and outward state which were needed to satisfy 
 his eye, his ear and his imaginative sense. So, presently, 
 he joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, and through the 
 remainder of his life he continued in public and in private 
 a devout, conscientious and strictly observant Episcopalian. 
 Confirmed at St. Paul's, he later belonged to the Boston 
 parish known as the Church of the Advent, of which he 
 was, as will presently be seen, an original member, and 
 always a burning and a shining light. 
 
 In December, 1836, Dana joined the Senior class at Har- 
 vard, remaining with it until graduation, a period of only 
 six months ; but they were months of such enjoyment as is 
 rarely given to an under-graduate. Both physically and 
 mentally he was matured. He lived no longer in a crowded 
 forecastle, but in a room by himself in the southwest corner 
 of Hollis, and the lot of a college student struck him as the 
 pleasantest possible. He felt none of that desire to be done 
 with school, and the eager longing to begin what is called 
 life, which destroys for so many the pleasure of the most 
 enjoyable years which life affords. On the contrary, he 
 
22 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 21. 
 
 could not understand the indifference and fastidious dissat- 
 isfaction of his acquaintances. Devoted to his studies, he 
 took one of the Bowdoin prizes for English prose composi- 
 tion, and the first Boylston prize for elocution ; he was also 
 a member of both the Porcellian and the Hasty" Pudding 
 clubs. His marks made him first scholar, but as at gradua- 
 tion he had been with his class less than a year no special 
 rank was given him, though at commencement he was as- 
 signed the part which usually fell to the fifth scholar. Of 
 his performance Dr. John Pierce of Brookline, then attend- 
 ing his fifty-third commencement, wrote in his journal : — 
 " A dissertation by Richard H. Dana, son of R. H. Dana 
 and grandson of the former Judge Francis Dana, was on 
 the unique topic, ' Heaven lies about us in our Infancy.' 
 He is a handsome youth, and spoke well. But his compo- 
 sition was of that Swedenborgian, Coleridgian, and dreamy 
 cast which it requires a peculiar structure of mind to under- 
 stand, much more to relish." l The " unique topic " was 
 from Wordsworth, and was suggested to Dana by Professor 
 Channing, who, when asked for a subject, read this line 
 from the volume he chanced to have open in his hand. 
 
 Dana had always assumed he was to be a lawyer, though 
 he felt no call to the profession ; and, in fact, had imbibed 
 from his father an almost morbid dislike of it as hard, dry 
 and uncertain. Still his ancestors had been distinguished 
 lawyers, and he had a distaste for every other learned call- 
 ing, except divinity, for which, as he afterwards wrote, he 
 did not feel himself fit. Under these circumstances it was 
 most fortunate for him that, instead of entering an office, he 
 went immediately after graduation into the Dane Law 
 School, over which Judge Story and Professor Greenleaf 
 then presided. " Free," as he expressed it, " from all the 
 details, chicanery and responsibilities of practice, we were 
 placed in a library under learned, honorable and gentle- 
 manly instructors, and invited to pursue the study of ju- 
 risprudence, as a system of philosophy. From the very 
 1 Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc, January, 1890, p. 219. 
 
1839. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 23 
 
 first recitation it became exceedingly interesting to me, and 
 I have never yet found it dry or irksome." 
 
 Of the surpassing excellence of the Cambridge Law School 
 at this period, and of the high professional spirit there fos- 
 tered, Dana always spoke with warm admiration. Of some 
 of the young men then associated with him he a year or two 
 later wrote as follows : — 
 
 The most successful speech made at the school dur- 
 ing the whole time I was there, was made before a 
 jury of under-graduates, Judge Story on the bench, 
 by Wm. M. Evarts. A law argument which he in- 
 troduced into it, addressed to the Court, was the most 
 complete, systematic, precise and elegantly spoken 
 law argument I have ever yet heard, including 
 many arguments of our most distinguished counsel 
 before our highest courts. Evarts' jury argument 
 was very well done, but Wm. Davis of Plymouth, 
 who was his opponent, did quite as well to the jury. 
 Evarts' was the best law and Davis' the best jury 
 argument I heard in the school. When charging the 
 jury, Judge Story said he must rule the law in cer- 
 tain points against the defendant's counsel (Evarts) 
 though they had been argued to him " in a manner to 
 which I cheerfully do homage." Judge Story always 
 complimented liberally, but never went so far as in 
 this instance. Indeed, Evarts has been a peculiar 
 young man at school, college, and in his professional 
 studies. If he does not become distinguished, he will 
 disappoint more persons than any other young man 
 whom I have ever met with. 
 
 While at the Law School Dana was also instructor in elo- 
 cution in the college, having received the appointment in 
 January, 1839, declining at the same time the position of 
 
24 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 24. 
 
 proctor on the ground that it involved a supervision over the 
 conduct of the students. As instructor in elocution, he was 
 the assistant of his friend and relative Professor Channing, 
 whose methods are still well remembered by the students of 
 those days. In after years Dana had many anecdotes of 
 Channing which he was fond of telling, and to one of them 
 his feelings as a strong churchman not impossibly lent ad- 
 ditional zest. The students were declaiming before the pro- 
 fessor and his assistant, when the piece selected by one of 
 them seemed to excite peculiar disapprobation on the part of 
 Mr. Channing. For a time he simply muttered to himself, 
 " Poor stuff, very poor stuff ! " — and let the thing pass ; but 
 presently he whispered to his assistant, " What is this, Rich- 
 ard ? It is wretched stuff." Without turning his eyes 
 from the declaimer, Dana whispered back, " A selection 
 from your brother, William, sir." 
 
 For Professor Channing, Dana always entertained a most 
 sincere and affectionate regard, and later, in 1856, when a 
 volume of selections from his old instructor's writings was 
 published, his former assistant in elocution furnished for it 
 an appreciative biographical notice. This sketch and little 
 volume are indeed about all that now remain to commemo- 
 rate forty years of professorial labor which did much to 
 influence, not always for the best, the rising literary devel- 
 opment of New England. Though his taste was correct, 
 the methods of Professor Channing were not calculated to 
 excite youthful enthusiasm for letters ; and a generation of 
 students carefully taught to fear and eschew literary en- 
 thusiasm is not likely to achieve any marked degree of 
 lettered excellence in life. Men as a rule outgrow their 
 youth fast enough, and there is no occasion artificially to 
 hurry the process by a constant application of the last of the 
 two precepts which Archbishop Manners Sutton is said to 
 have laid down for the guidance of Bishop Heber. 1 
 
 1 ' ' Place before your eyes two precepts, and two only. One is, 
 Preach the g-ospel ; and the other is, — Put down enthusiasm." 
 
1840. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 25 
 
 In February, 1840, Dana resigned his position in the col- 
 lege and left the Law School, entering the office of the late 
 Charles G. Loring, at Boston, to obtain a knowledge of 
 practice. 
 
 He had meanwhile found time to write out the notes of 
 the journal which he had kept during his voyage. He must 
 have worked hard to do it, for not only was he earnestly 
 devoting himself to the law, but he was hearing under-grad- 
 uates rehearse their exhibition parts for sometimes half a 
 dozen weary hours a day. Before he left the school the 
 manuscript was done, and he then read it to his father and 
 Washington Allston. Both of them advised its publication. 
 Dana himself was now twenty-five years old, and wished to 
 marry ; but he had no means, nor had he yet been ad- 
 mitted to the bar. So far as his book was concerned, there- 
 fore, while he was sincerely anxious to enlighten the public 
 on the real situation of seamen in the merchant marine, he 
 had other and more material considerations in mind : should 
 the story of his voyage prove a literary success, it would be 
 of use to him in securing a share of maritime practice. 
 
 As a young and unknown author what he most wanted 
 was a large sale, and this he was advised the Harpers of 
 New York could probably secure for him better than any 
 other firm. Accordingly he sent the manuscript to William 
 Cullen Bryant, an old friend of his father's, asking Mr. 
 Bryant, after looking it over, to make an arrangement if 
 possible with the Harpers. Then followed a long, vexatious 
 negotiation, which left on Dana's mind a sense of unfair 
 treatment that time only effaced. The Harpers sent the 
 manuscript to Alonzo Potter, afterwards bishop of Pennsyl- 
 vania, then acting as one of their readers, and Bishop Pot- 
 ter, meeting Dana in England many years later, told him 
 that he had advised its purchase at any price necessary to 
 secure it. Acting on this recommendation, the Harpers 
 offered to buy the work, but positively refused to allow the 
 
26 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mv. 25. 
 
 author an interest in the profits or percentage of the sales. 
 Both Mr. Bryant and the elder Dana, who chanced to be in 
 New York, struggled hard on this point ; but were forced to 
 yield. It next became a question of the amount to be paid 
 for the manuscript. Mr. Bryant suggested $500. The 
 Harpers offered $250. At this point the elder Dana retired 
 to Boston, leaving the burden of farther negotiation with 
 Mr. Bryant, who finally pleaded hard for $300 ; but the 
 Harpers were inflexible, and again carried their point. So, 
 for one of the most successful American books of the cen- 
 tury, and the best book of its kind ever written, the author 
 received two dozen printed copies and $250 in money. 
 
 The whole transaction was, on the part of the Harpers, 
 conducted on hard business principles, lacking that little ele- 
 ment of courtesy and personal consideration to which, in 
 view of the recognized literary eminence of his three spon- 
 sors, Allston, Bryant and his father, the young author prob- 
 ably felt himself fairly entitled. Dana was, also, peculiarly 
 sensitive to haggling treatment of this sort; which struck 
 him, moreover, in marked contrast with that which he a lit- 
 tle later received from English publishers. On the other 
 hand, the Harpers afterwards did not treat the copyright as 
 if they considered it of great value, inasmuch as for long 
 periods of time the book was not to be found in the shops. 
 At last, in 1868, the original copyright expired, and Dana 
 then brought out that " author's edition," with a conclud- 
 ing chapter entitled, " Twenty-four Years Later," and this 
 edition has not since been permitted to go out of print. 
 
 The success of " Two Years before the Mast " was imme- 
 diate, though, contrary to Dana's understanding and an ad- 
 ditional cause of grievance, it appeared only in the two 
 series known as Harper's Family Library and the School 
 District Library ; but it so chanced that both of two copies 
 sent to England, one by Charles Sumner and the other by 
 Miss Appleton, who afterwards married the poet Longfel- 
 low, by a strange coincidence found their way to Moxon, 
 
1840. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 27 
 
 the London publisher, who brought out an English edition, 
 and subsequently sent to the author not only presentation 
 copies, but a sum of money larger than the Harpers had 
 given him for his manuscript. Other foreign editions fol- 
 lowed, and kindly words of appreciation presently reached 
 Dana from Rogers, Brougham, Moore, Bulwer and Dick- 
 ens ; and when, a year later, Lord Morpeth visited this 
 country, the young author of " Two Years before the Mast " 
 was one of the first persons he asked to see. Thus Dana's 
 English reputation exceeded his reputation at home ; a fact 
 keenly appreciated by him. Nor, as will presently appear, 
 was this English reputation merely ephemeral. On the con- 
 trary, fifteen years later it secured him a social reception 
 during the London season of 1856, which was probably the 
 most agreeable episode of its kind in his life. 
 
 In the 'summer of 1841, a year after the publication of 
 " Two Years before the Mast," Dana brought out a second 
 book, entitled the " Seaman's Friend." It was a treatise 
 on seamanship and the laws regulating the relations of the 
 ship's company, intended for practical use whether on shore 
 or afloat. This was published by Little & Brown in a small 
 volume of two hundred and twenty -five pages, and by 
 Moxon under the title of " Seaman's Manual." Written 
 with all the clearness of style of " Two Years before the 
 Mast," it had a considerable sale, and is still useful and read- 
 able ; but it was not a book intended for wide circulation. 
 
 In September, 1840, Dana opened an office and began the 
 practice of the law. Although hardly dry from the press, 
 his book was already in the hands of many readers, and 
 brought to him a certain amount of maritime practice of a 
 kind neither very attractive nor very profitable ; but still it 
 was practice. In those days, and indeed long afterwards, 
 his office was apt to be crowded with unkempt, roughly 
 dressed seamen, and it smelled on such occasions much like a 
 forcastle ; but he was young and in earnest, and to a young 
 lawyer anything is preferable to that unbroken waiting 
 
28 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. «8. 
 
 which is apt to mark the beginning of professional life. In 
 Dana's case this tedious period of probation was exception- 
 ally short, if, in truth, he can be said to have experienced 
 it at all ; and so rapid was his progress that, having begun 
 in September with a desk in an office occupied jointly with 
 another person, in November he took two rooms for himself 
 in the old State House building, and increased his working 
 force by the addition of a student. 
 
 The results of his first year at the bar were so satisfactory 
 that, though wholly dependent on himself for support, Dana 
 felt justified in venturing on marriage, he having for some 
 months been engaged to Miss Sarah Watson, a daughter of 
 William Watson of Hartford, Conn. Nearly three years 
 before, in the summer of 1839, this young lady had visited 
 Cambridge in company with her elder sister and her mater- 
 nal aunt, Miss Marsh, a daughter of the Rev. John Marsh 
 of Wethersfield, Conn., and had there passed some time 
 with the family of President Willard, with whom they 
 were on terms of great intimacy. In his day Mr. Marsh 
 had also been a valued friend of old Chief Justice Dana. 
 The friendship of the parents had been continued by the 
 children, and for a time after leaving the Willards Miss 
 Marsh and her niece were the guests of the Danas at their 
 house in Chestnut Street, Boston, where Richard Dana was 
 passing his vacation. The younger people were naturally 
 thrown a good deal together, and the friendship thus formed 
 in due time ripened into an engagement of marriage. 
 
 Though belonging on both father's and mother's sides to 
 old and respected Connecticut stock, so far as worldly pos- 
 sessions went Miss Watson was no better off than Dana 
 himself, nor did she have any family connection in Massa- 
 chusetts. It was a healthy, natural case of young people of 
 slender means marrying simply because they were attached 
 to each other, and had perfect confidence in their ability to 
 face the«vorld and take care of themselves. 
 
 They were married in Hartford on the evening of 
 
1841. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 29 
 
 Wednesday, August 25, 1841, and the next day started for 
 Boston. After spending one week in Rockport they returned 
 to Boston and work early in September, establishing them- 
 selves in permanent quarters at the United States Hotel. 
 " Our parlor," as Dana wrote, ** is in the third story, south- 
 east corner, and has a beautiful view of the harbor, and of 
 the country round Milton, Dorchester and Roxbury. At 
 night we see both the light-houses." 
 
 Dana at this time began to keep a journal, a practice in 
 which he persevered more or less regularly until the year 
 1859. As he became engaged in the severe professional 
 work of a lawyer in full practice, he found little time to 
 make the entries, and the intervals between them grow 
 longer and longer ; but for the first few years the record is 
 regular and detailed, and his quick eye and power of vivid 
 description made what he wrote far more worthy of preser- 
 vation than is apt to be the case with diaries, which are, as 
 a rule, neither interesting nor agreeable reading when they 
 relate to one's own life, and become fairly intolerable when 
 they relate to the lives of others. In the case of Dana the 
 story of the succeeding years is best told in his own words. 
 
 The diary begins in December, 1841, a little more than 
 three months after the writer's marriage, and the first en- 
 try relates to a dinner at Mr. Abbott Lawrence's in Park 
 Street, in honor of Lord Morpeth. 
 
 The company all arrive punctually between quarter 
 before five o'clock and five minutes after. While in 
 the room observe that Sumner now and then whis- 
 pers to Lord Morpeth the names of persons as they 
 come in, and tells him whether he has met them 
 before. I was talking with Lord Morpeth, when 
 Sumner said in a low tone, u That is Mr. Quincy, 
 — the tall gentleman, — whom you have met. The 
 other gentleman not, a Unitarian clergyman," etc. 
 Accordingly Lord M. meets Mr. Quincy half way, 
 
30 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 26. 
 
 with " How do you do Mr. Quincy," etc. This is 
 very convenient. 
 
 Among the company on this occasion were Judge Story, 
 Harrison Gray Otis and George Ticknor, besides Sumner 
 and Dana, both of whom then ranked as younger men. 
 As the dinner was a somewhat exceptional affair Dana made 
 elaborate notes of it, and he was especially impressed by 
 Harrison Gray Otis, then the recognized head of social life 
 in Boston. 
 
 Mr. Otis was in his best vein, and we young men 
 could easily believe that he had been in his prime 
 the best conversationalist in the land. Judge Story 
 talked more, but tediously and without the variety, 
 brilliancy and tact of Otis. Otis never speaks a 
 word without having the attention of the whole 
 table. Indeed, as soon as a word comes from him, 
 all stop speaking. He addresses his conversation to 
 all, and has something which will take the attention 
 of each. Hardly a person present whom he does not 
 bring in, and in a complimentary manner. Judge 
 Story argued like a lawyer and prosed like a book- 
 worm. Otis never forgot that he was a gentleman 
 dining out. . . . Lord Morpeth kept clear of Ameri- 
 can politics, and would say nothing unfavorable of 
 our country, — even of our repudiation. There was 
 plenty of high conservatism talked, and by no one 
 more than by Judge Story, who began life a radical. 
 
 December 18. Went with S. to hear Braham. 
 Very grand and very touching. He sang Luther's 
 Judgment Hymn with a power that was stupendous. 
 I could not conceive of the human voice as being 
 capable of such compass of sound. In the opening 
 to the Creation he was accompanied by trombones 
 
1842. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 31 
 
 and trumpets. There was a choir of fifty, and a full 
 band with an organ. What grandeur and majesty in 
 the effect! Nothing takes us out of ourselves, our 
 every-day sphere, so completely as music. 
 
 1842. January 18. Nothing talked of but Dickens' 
 arrival. The town is mad. All calling on him. I 
 shan't go unless sent for. I can't submit to sink the 
 equality of a gentleman by crowding after a man of 
 note. 
 
 26. Letter from T. Col ley G rattan (" High-ways 
 and By-ways") saying that Dickens wishes to see 
 me, and is surprised that I have not called before, 
 and fixing two P. M. for a call. At two P. M. call at 
 Tremont House and am told that he is engaged. 
 Send up name and am shown up. Kept disengaged 
 on purpose to see Longfellow and myself. Talk a 
 few minutes when Longfellow comes in with Sumner. 
 Disappointed in D.'s appearance. We have heard 
 him called " the handsomest man in London," etc. 
 He is of the middle height (under if anything), with 
 a large, expressive eye, regular nose, matted, curling, 
 wet-looking black hair, a dissipated looking mouth 
 with a vulgar draw to it, a muddy olive complexion, 
 stubby fingers, and a hand by no means patrician, a 
 hearty, off-hand maimer far from well-bred, and a 
 rapid, dashing way of talking. He 7 looks "wide 
 awake," " up to everything," full of cleverness, with 
 quick feelings and great ardor. You admire him, 
 and there is a fascination about him which keeps 
 your eyes on him, yet you cannot get over the im- 
 pression that he is a low-bred man. Tom Appleton 
 says, " Take the genius out of his face, and there 
 are a thousand young London shop-keepers about the 
 theatres and eating-houses who look exactly like 
 
32 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 26. 
 
 him." He has what I suppose to be the true Cockney 
 cut. 
 
 He inquires for father, and wonders he has not 
 been to see him. Offers to call on him if he is un- 
 well. 
 
 27. Dine with Dickens at F. C. Gray's. Pres- 
 ent, Prescott (Ferdinand and Isabella), Sparks 
 (Life of Washington), Mr. Ticknor, C. P. Curtis, 
 Alexander, etc. Like Dickens here very much. 
 The gentlemen are talking their best, but Dickens is 
 perfectly natural and unpretending. He could not 
 have behaved better. He did not say a single thing 
 for display. I should think he had resolved to talk 
 as he would at home, and let his reputation take care 
 of itself. He gave a capital description of Abbots- 
 ford. It was enough to make you cry. He de- 
 scribed the hat Scott wore in his last illness, and the 
 dents and bruises there w r ere in it from his head fail- 
 ing against his chair when he lost the power of his 
 muscles. It was heart-sickening. "And to think of 
 a man's killing himself for such a miserable place as 
 Abbotsford is," adds Dickens. 
 
 C. P. Curtis asks him if there were any such 
 magistrates in London as Fang in " Oliver Twist." 
 Dickens says, " One just such, and many more like 
 him," and tells us that his Fang is a portrait of a 
 magistrate named Tang, who was sitting when the 
 book appeared, and that he was removed by the 
 Home Department in ten weeks after the publica- 
 tion, upon a thorough inquiry. . . . 
 
 Poor Sumner can't take a joke of any kind. He 
 is as literal as a Scotch guide-board. Ticknor is a 
 thorough man, — armed at all points with informa- 
 tion, and using it with great readiness. . . . 
 
1842. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 33 
 
 February 1. The great " Dickens dinner." Jo- 
 siah Quincy, Jr., presides, and capitally. Excellent 
 speeches. Hillard is fervid and interesting, though 
 a little overdone as usual, yet eloquent and touching. 
 Bancroft is heated, intense, striking, yet long-winded, 
 wandering, and out of temper. Stevenson is amus- 
 ing. Edward G. Loring, commonplace in a very re- 
 spectable and rather elevated way. Grattan decent. 
 Mr. Quincy (senior) very well indeed. Mr. Allston's 
 toast went off famously. Dickens spoke excellently. 
 I never heard a speech which went off better. He 
 speaks naturally, with a good voice, beautiful intona- 
 tions, and an ardent, generous manner. It is the 
 speaking of a man who is no orator, but says what 
 he wishes to say in a manner natural and unprac- 
 tised. Grattan called me out. I thought it might 
 happen, and was partially prepared. The audience 
 thought that I was taken by surprise, and I got more 
 credit than I deserved. 
 
 February 5. Called on Dickens at 10.30 A. M. by 
 appointment, as he leaves at one. He was at break- 
 fast. Sat down with him. He was very agreeable 
 and full of life. He is the cleverest man I ever met. 
 I mean he impresses you more with the alertness of 
 his various powers. His forces are all light infantry 
 and light cavalry, and always in marching order. 
 There are not many heavy pieces, but few sappers 
 and miners, the scientific corps is deficient, and I fear 
 there is no chaplain in the garrison. 
 
 Mrs. Dickens appears to be an excellent woman. 
 She is natural in her manners, seems not at all elated 
 by her new position, but rests upon a foundation of 
 good sense and good feeling. 
 
 April 2. Left the United States Hotel and came 
 
34 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt.2Q. 
 
 to Roxbury to spend the summer. Board with Mrs. 
 Atkins in Cedar Street. She is a widow, who lost 
 her husband in less than a year after marriage. She 
 is melancholy, but of an excellent, unaffected charac- 
 ter and religious feeling and experience. This situa- 
 tion is extremely pleasant, being amidst rocks and 
 cedars and quite retired. 
 
 April 17. Sunday. Sermon at the Congrega- 
 tional Church from Rev. Thomas Lavvrie, missionary 
 to Syria. Subject, " Abraham's offering up Isaac." 
 This is the first sermon that ever brought tears into 
 my eyes. I am easy to shed tears over a book, or 
 upon any event in life when thinking it over alone, 
 but no speaker ever brought them into my eyes be- 
 fore. It was only for an instant. No one would 
 have perceived it. It was at the words " his mes- 
 sage home to his mother," when describing the last 
 words of Isaac. It was more the simplicity, sincer- 
 ity, and unaffected deep feeling of the preacher to- 
 gether with his innocence of all rhetoric that pro- 
 duced the effect. 
 
 Though Roxbury was then a quiet country town almost 
 remote from Boston, a summer life in it afforded Dana no 
 relief from business and office cares. Accordingly when at 
 midsummer the vacation time arrived, feeling somewhat the 
 worse from hard work in hot weather, he determined to 
 take a short trip to the British provinces on one of the 
 Cunard steamers, which had then been running to and fro 
 between Liverpool and Boston, stopping always at Halifax, 
 for two years. Of this trip he wrote as he went along a 
 most minute account, which is still interesting from its 
 graphic description of persons, incidents and places. 
 
 July 16. Saturday. Being completely run down 
 by fatigue from warm weather and hard work, deter- 
 
1842. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 35 
 
 mined to make a trip to Halifax, solely to change the 
 scene, to get away from the care and toil of business, 
 to relax my mind completely, and to get upon salt 
 ■water once more. 
 
 Set sail, or made steam, at five P. M. in the steam- 
 ship Caledonia bound to Halifax and Liverpool. . . . 
 
 Baggage on board, business left with Ned and Mr. 
 Peck, fine afternoon, a noble vessel filled with pas- 
 sengers, and we are off for Halifax. Among the 
 passengers are Mr. Chas. Lyell, the geologist, Frank- 
 lin Dexter, United States District Attorney for 
 Massachusetts, a gentleman of high spirit, elegant 
 accomplishments and manners, on a tour for the 
 same purposes with myself, and Mr. David Eckley 
 of Boston, merchant, on a fishing expedition. Also, 
 Mile. Fanny Ellsler, the celebrated opera dancer, and 
 her attendant Mme. Wychoff. We (Mr. Dexter 
 and I) made the acquaintance of Geo. R. Young, 
 a lawyer of Halifax, who was on board, and who 
 treated us with great civility. 
 
 No sooner had we got outside of the light-house 
 and the cool, salt night wind of ocean came over us 
 than I felt myself a new creature. It was damp and 
 a little foggy, but I stayed on deck until nearly one 
 o'clock on Sunday morning, walking to and fro and 
 snuffing up the breeze and offering my whole system 
 to its invigorating influence. I was on deck again 
 before sunrise, and walked deck until breakfast time, 
 which was nine o'clock. . . . 
 
 On Monday morning we were off Cape Sable, and 
 before noon were going up Halifax Harbor. There 
 was a set of young men on board who very early at- 
 tracted my attention. They were tall and well-made, 
 with easy, natural manners, polite to all, but keeping 
 
36 RICHARD HENRY DANA. J£t. 26. 
 
 rather by themselves, and dressed in the roughest 
 travelling clothes. I soon learned that they were 
 men of birth, and one of them a nobleman, Lord 
 Herries. The handsomest of them, and a darling 
 fellow he was, was Charles Sheridan, grandson of 
 Richard Sheridan, and brother of Lady Seymour. 
 Tall, straight, with well-formed limbs, full of activ- 
 ity and spirit, dressed in a sailor's hat, jacket and 
 trousers, but with a decidedly genteel air, he seemed 
 the very impersonation of youthful health and spirit. 
 Another of the set was Baron Geyle, a young Ger- 
 man nobleman, and Mr. Adams, late of one of the 
 English South American embassies. Sheridan found 
 me out as the author of "Two Years," and I was 
 soon in their company. We talked politics a little, 
 and I had hard work to defend my country. The 
 African slave-trade, our own slavey, repudiation, 
 loco-focoism, the Rhode Island rebellion, encouraged 
 by the chief magistrates of other states, etc., the rule 
 of faction, removals from office for party purposes, 
 availability, etc., they were familiar with, and so was 
 I. I had nothing to say. A New York radical was 
 present, and he said, among other things, that all our 
 office-holders were the servants of the majority, and 
 that if a customs officer or a postmaster charged him 
 more than he thought he ought to, or refused to ac- 
 commodate him, he had only to say to him, " Sir, rec- 
 ollect I meet you at the polls." I denounced this 
 doctrine, and told the Englishman that it was a speci- 
 men of those principles which threatened us harm, 
 but that there was a sound conservatism in the people 
 which would save us. Thereupon the radical replied 
 that I was in favor of aristocracy and conservatism, 
 and the reason was because I belonged to an old 
 
1842. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 37 
 
 family, known in the history of the country, and 
 wished to see family privileges. His politeness was 
 only to be equalled by his principles. . . . 
 
 July 22. Took leave of Halifax, its citadel, its 
 barracks, the basin, the York redoubt, as we went 
 down the harbor. The object of my visit had been 
 answered. I had cleared my mind completely from 
 business and cares, and by complete relaxation, with 
 out-door exercises, had restored the healthful and ac- 
 tive tone of my system. I had refused all invitations 
 to public places, to dinners, parties, etc., and none of 
 us delivered our letters of introduction, for we found 
 that we could not go fishing all day, and then, sun- 
 burnt, tired and blackened, dress for a party in the 
 evening. I had resolutely kept from books, and al- 
 though I had books in my trunk and many leisure 
 hours, yet I made a principle of not looking at them, 
 and loafed or walked about the streets or slept instead. 
 Every morning before breakfast I walked either over 
 the citadel, which was the grandest fortification I 
 ever saw, with a fine commanding situation, or to 
 the Government House, or barracks. 
 
 We were no sooner round the point and out upon 
 the deep sea than the wind blew very heavily, and a 
 violent sea arose. Nearly all the passengers were 
 sick, and one of them, Mr. Eustis Prescott, who had 
 been my fellow-passenger from Boston and was now 
 going to Liverpool, Nova Scotia, told me that he had 
 crossed the Atlantic frequently, but had never lost a 
 meal from sea-sickness before. The worse the weather 
 the better I felt, and having clothes suited for all 
 weathers I remained on deck nearly all the time, 
 walking to and fro, and enjoying the consciousness of 
 health, strength and activity, increased by the bra- 
 
38 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 26. 
 
 cing sea air, and heightened by the contrast pre- 
 sented by those about me. 
 
 After tea, and about ten P. M., we touched at Lunen- 
 burg, and landed and took off a few passengers. . . . 
 
 July 23. Saturday. Arrived at Liverpool about 
 seven A. M. As we were to stay an hour, went ashore 
 and walked through the town. The town is built 
 upon a single street running by the side of the river, 
 winding along, and the houses have pretty garden spots 
 before or by the side of them, and are painted, neat 
 and comfortable in appearance. It is quite a pretty 
 village of about 2,000 inhabitants, I should judge. 
 
 Stood out again to sea, bound for Shelburne. 
 About three o'clock stood up Shelburne Bay. This 
 bay is said to be the best in Nova Scotia, being very 
 extensive, deep and surrounded by well-wooded coun- 
 try in many parts. The town of Shelburne is sit- 
 uated at the extreme end of the bay, and presents a 
 remarkable instance of decay. It was founded by a 
 large company of royalists who fled from the United 
 States at the breaking out of the war of '75, and who 
 selected this site on account of the excellence of the 
 harbor. Here they built a town, planted farms, built 
 vessels, and engaged largely in privateering, the car- 
 rying trade, and other modes of active industry by 
 land and sea. There being a good deal of wealth 
 among them, the town was handsomely built, and 
 large capital was embarked and set in motion. For 
 many years the town grew and flourished, but the 
 general peace which followed the battle of Waterloo 
 threw it upon its regular legitimate resources for 
 trade in times of peace ; and from that time the 
 downward progress of the place has been uninter- 
 rupted. The reasons for this were that it has no 
 
1842. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 39 
 
 back country to support it, and for which it would be 
 the natural market and seaport, for it is situated at 
 the end of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, with Halifax 
 above it to cut off its commerce ; and because it lies 
 so far up the bay that it is little used as a port of 
 supplies or a fishing station. In fact, the world 
 seems to have given it the go-by entirely. Witli as 
 beautiful a harbor as the face of the globe can show, 
 and with large capital to assist it, it stands as a 
 warning to all who disregard the regular course of 
 things in the affairs of men and attempt to counter- 
 act it by particular and local efforts. As we steered 
 slowly up the bay the captain of the boat told me 
 that its shores had once been lined with beautiful 
 farms, and that the forlorn, unpainted houses which 
 stood here and there without a fence near them or 
 any signs of cultivation, and used as the dwellings of 
 fishermen, were once the abodes of substantial farm- 
 ers who tilled their acres, supplied the town, and sent 
 their produce to other countries. He said, too, that 
 as fast as the older and more wealthy men died off 
 or left, their houses were taken to pieces, exported, 
 and put up again in other places, and that in this way 
 all the best part of the town had been gradually 
 moved off. This accounted for the fact that in a 
 town which had diminished to one quarter of its size 
 within twenty years there should be no ruinous large 
 houses. Throughout this wide sheet of water, spread- 
 ing out like a large inland lake, not a sail nor a mov- 
 ing craft was to be seen. Had we been its discoverers 
 we could not have gone over in more perfect stillness. 
 As we drew nigh the town we saw a single vessel, a 
 little fishing schooner, lying at anchor off the wharves, 
 while rotting by the side of the wharves, themselves 
 
40 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 26. 
 
 decaying as rapidly, lay two small vessels, condemned 
 for old age. We rang our bell as we made fast to the 
 wharf, and its echoes awaked the dead stillness about 
 us like the fire bell at night. The persons who came 
 down to the wharf were children or old women. I 
 believe but one or two men came, and they seemed 
 decrepit and laid on the shelf. As we were to stay 
 here a half hour, I went ashore to walk about this 
 singular place. As the captain had told me, there 
 was not a large house in the town ; they had all been 
 moved off, and the cellars under them had gradually 
 filled up and been grown over with grass. The streets 
 could not be distinguished except by the lines of 
 houses, as carriage way and sidewalk were alike grown 
 over with grass. Not a vehicle of any description 
 was in motion, nor was there the sound of a black- 
 smith's hammer nor of the carpenter's axe in the 
 place, but the dead stillness of a Jewish Sabbath 
 reigned over the whole region. Excepting the inim- 
 itable accumulation of images of decay in the last 
 chapter of Ecclesiastes, and part of Burke's descrip- 
 tion of the Carnatic, I know of nothing in descriptive 
 literature which the sight of this place called to my 
 mind. The doors were indeed shut in the streets, the 
 pitcher broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken 
 at the cistern. As we walked through the deserted 
 streets, carefully laid out at right angles, hardly a 
 person rose up at the footsteps of strangers, and half 
 a dozen men, strangers, walking about on a Saturday 
 afternoon, hardly drew a face to the window, or 
 brought a boy or girl to the door. No trade or occu- 
 pation of industry of any description seemed to be 
 carried forward, nor was there a house of entertain- 
 ment or a shop in the entire settlement. In one win- 
 
1842. ENTRANCE INTO ACTIVE LIFE. 41 
 
 dovv we observed some thread, papers of pins, and a 
 few weather-stained articles, but the door-step was 
 almost inaccessible, and there seemed to be no one in 
 the room. 
 
 The ringing of the second bell called us aboard, 
 and we cast off from this paralyzed village without 
 having landed or taken on board a single passenger. 
 The captain said he should represent to the company 
 the expense and waste of time in coming up this long 
 bay, and see if they would not dispense with these 
 formal visits. 
 
 The dress of the people we saw was very anti- 
 quated and strange, and the stillness of the place 
 seemed to have crept over the spirits of the inhabit- 
 ants. I should hardly have been surprised had I 
 been told that the children were deaf and dumb. 
 
 The bay looked beautifully as we steamed down 
 it, toward sunset, and we rounded the point and were 
 out upon the ocean before nightfall. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARLY LIFE AT THE BAE. 
 
 The following letter written by Dana, shortly after his 
 return from his Nova Scotia trip to his wife's brother-in-law, 
 the Rev. Oliver Ellsworth Daggett of Hartford, Conn., is 
 still not without its value. Political feeling then ran high, 
 for John Tyler had gone over to the Democrats, and yet 
 Webster continued to hold his seat in the Cabinet, from 
 which all his Whig associates had withdrawn in obedience 
 to the behests of their recognized party leader, Henry Clay. 
 Webster felt his isolation keenly, and in defence of his 
 course had made that speech in Faneuil Hall on the 30th 
 of September in which he propounded his famous query, 
 * If you break up the Whig party, where am I to go ?" 
 
 The letter not only breathes the political excitement and 
 admiration of Webster which then pervaded Boston, but it 
 also sheds some rather interesting light on Dana's profes- 
 sional success as measured by his income. It must be re- 
 membered that those were days of comparatively simple 
 habits, and a professional income of $2,500 a year seemed 
 much larger then than now ; yet as the fruits of a second 
 year at the bar it would to-day in Boston, or indeed in New 
 York or in London for that matter, be looked upon as an 
 exceptional success. The lectures referred to in the closing 
 paragraph of the letter were two, " The Sources of Influ- 
 ence," and " American Loyalty," which Dana had prepared 
 while in the Law School for delivery before the lyceums 
 of towns in the neighborhood of Boston. The income de- 
 rived from this source was not large, but the experience was 
 
1842. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 43 
 
 worth something, for the lecturer was brought in close con- 
 tact with popular audiences : — 
 
 Boston, October 3, 1842. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I am sending you Webster's speech 
 at Faneuil Hall, and cannot forbear asking you to 
 read it, and let your wife and Mary and Mrs. Watson 
 and the ladies at Wethersfield read it also, for I fear 
 they have been a little tainted by the talkers about 
 party and Clay and political ability, etc. 
 
 Webster seems to me to be the only statesman in 
 the country. By the side of him, all the rest appear 
 mere push-pin politicians or else visionaries. 
 
 The printed speech will give you but a faint idea 
 of it. You can't put Webster into print any more 
 than you can put him into my coat and waistcoat. 
 The speech has produced a tremendous excitement 
 here, we have never had anything more astounding 
 and unexpected in the political line. Yet it is a 
 speech powerful to the edifying of statesmanship, 
 •patriotism, and national honor, and to the confusion 
 of small party politics and president-making. 
 
 All sound, conservative, honorable men, who are 
 not already committed too far to be impartial, are 
 encouraged and gladdened. Those who heard the 
 speech — friends and foes, contents and malcontents 
 — all say it was prodigious. Words and emphases, 
 gestures and expressions of countenance, which are 
 lost in print, brought forth acclamations with the cer- 
 tainty and instantaneousness of an echo. It was a 
 tremendous blow. Every paragraph and every sen- 
 tence told. I could not go ; but Ned and Mr. Peck 
 have been off their legs ever since. Mr. Peck thinks 
 he may depart in peace having seen the glory of a 
 great man in his greatest action. 
 
44 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt.27. 
 
 To appreciate the effect you must know that the 
 leading Whig papers (of the Clay party, I mean) 
 had been calling upon Webster to resign, and that 
 the kt Atlas, " our foremost Clay paper, had that very 
 morning predicted that Webster would take this oc- 
 casion to abandon the government publicly and fall 
 into opposition, and denounced terrible things if he 
 did not. 
 
 The prevailing impression upon those who heard 
 Webster, was of a noble spectacle of intellectual and 
 personal grandeur and loftiness. As a friend of mine 
 said : M There was no chance for anything small, 
 anywhere near him." 
 
 ' ' Deep on his front engraven 
 Deliberation sat and public care ; 
 And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 
 . Majestic . . . sage he stood 
 
 With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear." 
 
 Ned says that " a sublime sadness " sat upon his 
 countenance. 
 
 You will excuse my saying so much about this 
 speech ; but nothing else is talked of among us. You 
 will observe that there is not a single ornament or 
 flourish of rhetoric in the whole. 
 
 When I was in Hartford, you asked me about my 
 income, etc. I have since heard that there is a re- 
 port there that I am making a fortune. It is very 
 bad to have such reports, as they lead persons to 
 expect things of one which he cannot do, and which 
 his not doing may make prejudicial to him in their 
 estimation. I have just closed my accounts and tell 
 you (that you may set any one right who has such a 
 notion, without giving the particulars however of 
 
1842. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 45 
 
 course) just how they stand. The net profits of my 
 business for the year ending October 1, 1842, have 
 been $2,138. My expenses have been but a few dol- 
 lars short of $1,600. I have also made a little less 
 than $200 by lectures and articles, which are not in- 
 cluded in my business. My expenses next year will, 
 of course, be larger, by at least one quarter, than the 
 past year. This is the extent of the fortune I have 
 been making. 
 
 1843. January 26. Lectured in the evening at 
 Brighton. Was introduced to the audience as 
 "'Squire Dany from Boston." The president also 
 gave the audience notice that " a reformed drunkard, 
 a New York woodsawyer, named Haddock, and an 
 odd fish, with one eye, and lame," would address the 
 people upon the subject of total abstinence. I dare 
 say that there was more curiosity to hear him than 
 to hear my lecture upon "The Sources of Influence." 
 They attended well, however, but not one word was 
 said to me when I got through. Either they did not 
 like me, or did not know what to think. I did not 
 speak with much faith, as my subject was abstract, 
 and they seemed to be the most illiterate audience I 
 had yet seen. They had no one to take my horse, 
 and none of the usual civilities extended to a lecturer. 
 
 February 2. Rode to Milton to lecture in the 
 evening. A clear, cold night, and I in an open 
 sleigh. Went to the house of a Mr. Campbell, where 
 my classmate, Dr. C. «C. Holmes, is boarding with his 
 newly married wife. Hence to the lecture- room. 
 Two small hard-coal stoves, one on each side of the 
 desk at which I stood, with a pipe running over my 
 head, and a malignant heat coming from them, beat- 
 ing upon my brain, which to a person just from the 
 
46 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 27. 
 
 cold was particularly stupefying. Gave the lecture 
 upon " American Loyalty." After I had done, a 
 great many persons came up to me and expressed 
 their hearty concurrence in its doctrines and their 
 gratification at hearing them uttered. 
 
 In 1843 these lecturing trips were extended to Portland, 
 Providence, New Haven, and Brooklyn; and in 1844 to 
 Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. But as law prac- 
 tice increased they were discontinued, and by 1845 had 
 wholly ceased. None the less Dana was still the common 
 sailor's lawyer, and his earnest advocacy of his clients' cause 
 subjected him at times to slights and annoyance. 
 
 1842. December 14. I had sued Captain Perkins 
 and his brother the mate of the bark Clarissa Per- 
 kins for assaulting two seamen named Singleton and 
 Parsons. Singleton is likely to die of his wounds, 
 so I made complaint, and had the captain bound over 
 criminally. I was obliged to do this because the dis- 
 trict attorney declined acting. I can conceive of no 
 reason except that in arguing against Bryant he got 
 his feelings settled in favor of the officers. Dehon, 
 who defended Perkins, alluded to my forwardness in 
 urging the complaint against the master as an inter- 
 ference. I took him to task for this, and we had a 
 long talk which resulted in my feeling more affection 
 and respect for Dehon than before. He is a good 
 fellow and has honorable feelings. 
 
 I often have a good deal to contend with in the 
 slurs or open opposition of masters and owners of 
 vessels whose seamen I undertake to defend or look 
 after. It is more unpleasant when this is retailed by 
 the counsel. Young lawyers are apt to take up the 
 excitement and prejudice of the clients, which they 
 ought to allay and keep free from. I never have 
 
1842. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 47 
 
 trouble with the upper class of merchants, but only 
 with the small grinding machines and petty traders 
 who save by small medicine chests and poor provi- 
 sions. 
 
 The affair of the brig Somers occurred at this time, and, 
 though now almost forgotten, at the moment absorbed pub- 
 lic attention. The Somers was a small, swift-sailing brig of 
 war, belonging to the United States navy, of two hundred and 
 sixty-six tons measurement. In September, 1842, she was 
 sent to the coast of Africa with dispatches, under command 
 of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a brother of John Slidell, 
 afterwards United States Senator from Louisiana, and of 
 Mason and Slidell fame in the Trent affair. Commander 
 Mackenzie had for family reasons taken the name of an 
 uncle, and was at this time about forty years of age, an 
 officer of experience and repute, besides being favorably 
 known as the author of biographies of Commodores John 
 Paul Jones and Oliver Hazard Perry. The Somers, though 
 pierced for fourteen guns, mounted only ten, and her crew 
 consisted of twelve officers and one hundred and eight men, 
 nearly all apprentice boys drafted from the North Caro- 
 lina, then used as a naval school as well as receiving ship. 
 
 Among the officers was midshipman Philip Spencer, a 
 son of John C. Spencer of New York, then Secretary of 
 War in the cabinet of Tyler. Having finished her out- 
 ward voyage, the Somers left Cape Palmas on the 11th of 
 November for New York, intending to stop on the way at 
 St. Thomas. On the 26th of November the details of a 
 conspiracy devised by Spencer to seize the brig, murder the 
 officers and have recourse to piracy, were communicated to 
 Commander Mackenzie. He at first treated the matter 
 lightly, regarding it as the foolish scheme of a worthless, 
 crack-brained young man ; but the other officers were more 
 alarmed, and at their instance Mackenzie, on the evening 
 of the same day, caused Spencer to be arrested and put in 
 
48 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 27. 
 
 irons. A search among his effects brought to light some 
 more or less compromising memoranda, and on the 28th 
 of November, Samuel Cromwell, a boatswain's mate, and 
 Elisha Small, a seaman, were also put under arrest, and on 
 the 30th four others. Symptoms of sullenness, inattention 
 to duty and disobedience to orders now beginning to appear 
 among the crew, the officers became thoroughly alarmed, 
 and the commander called on them for counsel. An inquiry 
 was held on the 30th of November, and on the 1st of De- 
 cember the seven commissioned officers united in signing a 
 formal document recommending the immediate execution of 
 Spencer, Cromwell and Small, on the ground that " it would 
 be impossible to carry them to the United States, and that 
 the safety of the public property, the lives of ourselves and 
 of those committed to our charge, requires that they should 
 be put to death." 
 
 Commander Mackenzie concurred in this recommenda- 
 tion, and on the 1st of December the three prisoners were 
 hung at the yard-arm. The Somers was then 525 miles 
 distant from St. Thomas, at which place she arrived on the 
 5th of December and thence sailed immediately for New 
 York. 
 
 That some sort of a conspiracy to seize the vessel had 
 existed among a portion of the crew was proven ; and it 
 also appeared from his own admission that it originated 
 with Spencer, who seems to have been a vicious, weak- 
 headed youth in whom the piratical propensity amounted to 
 a mania. It was nevertheless an open question in the minds 
 of the public whether the danger was sufficiently imminent 
 to warrant Mackenzie in having recourse to such extreme 
 measures of repression. Immediately after the return of 
 the Somers a court of inquiry was ordered, and subse- 
 quently Mackenzie was arrested by order of the Secretary 
 of the Navy on the charge of wilful murder and tried by 
 court-martial. The finding of the court of inquiry fully 
 justified his action, and the court-martial pronounced each 
 of the articles and specifications against him not proved. 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 49 
 
 December 29. All the world is talking about the 
 Soiners mutiny and the execution of Spencer. The 
 prevailing opinion (I have not met an exception) is 
 that Mackenzie will justify himself. I have little 
 doubt of it. 
 
 1843. January 4. New York. Called on C. W. 
 Hoffman at the Custom House, where he has an of- 
 fice. Talked over the Soiners mutiny and Captain 
 Mackenzie. He sympathizes with Mackenzie very 
 much, and has a horrid idea of Spencer's father, the 
 Secretary of War, whom he thinks capable of feeing 
 the papers to attack Mackenzie. 
 
 Saw Mr. Ogden Hoffman, who invited me to go on 
 board the North Carolina, and attend the court-mar- 
 tial. 
 
 Went with William and John [Watson] on board 
 the North Carolina to see the court-martial. There, 
 in the cabin, at the head of a table, sat Commodore 
 Stewart, the president of the court, and at his sides, 
 Commodores Dallas and Jones. At one end of the 
 table sat Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, 
 and at the other Midshipman M. C. Perry (nephew 
 of O. H. P.), who was testifying, and standing at the 
 stove was Ogden Hoffman, judge advocate. 
 
 Mackenzie is a calm, resolute, plain, modest man 
 of about forty, entirely without any swagger or as- 
 sumption, and with the appearance of being careful 
 and conscientious. I looked with no little interest at 
 old Commodore Stewart, the veteran of the War of 
 1812-14, and the captor of the Cyane and Levant in 
 the Constitution. 
 
 January 5. Having bid good-by to my dear 
 friends on the night before, I rose early and reached 
 the New Haven boat at seven A. M. 
 
50 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 27. 
 
 Passing the Navy Yard, I saw a man pointing out 
 the Independence, sixty guns, as the Somers. I took 
 an opportunity afterwards to ask him what vessel 
 that was in the stream. He answered, the Somers, 
 which gave me an opportunity to point out the Som- 
 ers to him as the little brig lying in by the wharf. 
 He could hardly believe it was so small. I made a 
 point upon that in favor of Mackenzie. 
 
 January 10. Received a letter from Miss C. M. 
 Sedgwick, desiring me to write to her a letter on the 
 matter of Mackenzie and the Somers, which she 
 might publish, giving a description of the appearance 
 of the Somers, and such inferences from what I saw 
 or heard as I had stated to them. 
 
 January 11. Answered Miss Sedgwick's letter 
 with a long letter carefully prepared for publication. 
 
 14. Received the New York " Evening Post," 
 with my letter in it favorably headed. 
 
 17. My Somers letter published in the " Boston 
 Atlas," "Morning Journal," "New York Tribune," 
 " Morning Post," etc. 
 
 As this " Somers letter " was characteristic of Dana, in 
 many ways, bringing his legal training to bear on his nauti- 
 cal experience with the literary skill natural to him, it is 
 worth while to reproduce it in full. It has, besides, a per- 
 manent interest, for it is the judgment of a man whose 
 judgment carried weight on this painful episode in our naval 
 history, in regard to which opinions then were, and will 
 probably always remain, divided. 
 
 Boston, January 11, 1843. 
 . . . Short as my stay was, I could not refuse 
 's invitation to attend the court-martial, and to 
 
 visit the little brig which had been the scene of the 
 exciting tragedy. 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 51 
 
 We had a fine, clear, cold day, and the Brooklyn 
 ferry-boat zigzagged us across the river, to avoid the 
 floating ice, and a lively sleigh took us to the navy 
 yard. The court is held on board the North Caro- 
 lina, a large ship of the line, which lies moored a 
 few rods from the wharf. A little wherry, in which 
 were two sailors with the naval jacket and shirt col- 
 lar, was passing and repassing by a tow-line or guess- 
 warp, taking passengers off and on. 
 
 It was interesting and singular to see these poor 
 fellows attending about a ship in which a court of 
 great personages was sitting to determine whether a 
 commander can string them up at a yard-arm at sea 
 for a mutiny ; and I felt a strong inclination to learn 
 what impression the whole affair made upon them ; 
 but it would have been improper for me to touch 
 upon the subject with them if I had had an oppor- 
 tunity, as I did not. The marine on guard at the 
 cabin door let us pass, and we found ourselves in the 
 upper cabin, and in the midst of the grave and rather 
 imposing assembly. 
 
 A long table filled the middle of the room. On 
 one side of it sat the three commanders who compose 
 the court ; Mr. Mackenzie sat at one end, Mr. Perry 
 (the witness then under examination) stood at the 
 other end ; and opposite the court sat the clerk and 
 Mr. Hoffman, the judge advocate. There were a 
 number of auditors, and the reporters of the princi- 
 pal papers had a table to themselves. The clerk was 
 reading Mr. Perry's testimony, and all was silent, so 
 that I had a good opportunity for observation. 
 
 Notwithstanding my desire to see Mr. Mackenzie, 
 my eye rested for some time upon the venerable pres- 
 ident of the court, Commodore Stewart, one of the 
 
52 RICHARD HENRY DANA, Mt. 27. 
 
 Old Ironsides' heroes, and the manager of what al- 
 ways seemed to me to be the best manoeuvred battle 
 in our late war. He has a good head, and carries the 
 appearance of a man who can command himself as 
 well as others, and has that calm manner which usu- 
 ally attends one who feels that his reputation is 
 settled. The whole court is one in which great con- 
 fidence must be placed, for they have the name and 
 appearance of possessing clear heads and right 
 minds. 
 
 I next carefully observed the features and expres- 
 sion of the party on trial ; for this case is one which 
 receives its complexion very much from the charac- 
 ter of the chief actor: the facts being such as can 
 never come to us with the same force and meaning 
 with which they came to him at the time. It is not 
 questioned that he acted upon the best of his deliber- 
 ate judgment. How is he qualified, then, in moral 
 and intellectual character, for forming a judgment? 
 — becomes an important question. On this point his 
 appearance is very much in his favor. He is appar- 
 ently about forty years of age, and I am told that he 
 entered the service at ten, and he says he has served 
 thirty years. He has every mark of a calm, self- 
 possessed, clear-minded man, entirely free from any 
 of that dashing, off-hand or assuming manner which 
 sometimes attends the military button. I felt much 
 confidence in him from the moment I had carefully 
 observed him, and this confidence has increased by 
 my being informed that he is more noted for con- 
 scientiousness, order and thoroughness, than for im- 
 agination or enthusiasm. 
 
 I remained but a short time, as I knew that I 
 could read the evidence more carefully the next day 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 53 
 
 in the papers than I could get it while looking so 
 many different ways. 
 
 From the North Carolina I went to the Somers ; 
 and here I must say that no one ought to form an 
 opinion upon the issue of this conspiracy without 
 first seeing the Somers. You have been on board 
 a man-of-war, and you have, doubtless (as I find 
 others have), formed your notions of the state of 
 things in the Somers by what you have seen before. 
 In the ships of the line, frigates, or sloops of war 
 which you have visited there is great appearance of 
 protection, defence, and imposing authority con- 
 nected with the after end of the ship. There is a 
 poop deck, a cabin built above the main deck, with 
 doors and windows looking forward, a marine with 
 bayonet and loaded musket at the door, another at 
 the gangway, and others on guard at various parts 
 of the ship, clear, roomy decks, a plenty of officers 
 about, and the quarters of officers furnished with 
 arms, and well guarded. But you must make a 
 revolution in all your ideas upon these particulars to 
 judge of the Somers. You would hardly believe your 
 eyes if you were here to see, as the scene of this 
 dreadful conspiracy, a little brig, with low bulwarks, 
 a single narrow deck flush fore and aft, and nothing 
 to mark the officers' quarters but a long trunk-house, 
 or companion, raised a few feet from the deck to let 
 light and air in below, such as you may have seen 
 in our smaller packets which ply along the seaboard. 
 You feel as though half a dozen resolute conspirators 
 could have swept the decks and thrown overboard 
 all that opposed them before aid could come from 
 below. And in coming on deck (which seemed to 
 me more fearful than anything else in the officers' 
 
54 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 27. 
 
 condition) the officers would have to come up the 
 steps and through the small companion scuttles, at 
 which a couple of men could easily have cut them 
 down, or shot them as they appeared. The officers' 
 quarters and the cabin are on the same floor with the 
 berth deck of the crew, separated only by bulkheads, 
 and there was not a marine on board to keep guard 
 at the doors, in the gangways, over the spirit room, 
 powder magazine, or arm chest. All these places, 
 and others of hardly inferior importance, have to be 
 guarded by the officers themselves, or intrusted to 
 such of the petty officers and men as they could place 
 confidence in. We were not permitted to go below, 
 but I could easily believe that, allowing sufficient 
 space between decks for the accommodation of the 
 officers and men, the hold might be so occupied by 
 stores, ammunition, ballast, and the numerous neces- 
 saries of a ship of war in actual service, as to leave 
 no place where half a dozen conspirators could be 
 safely confined, apart from the crew, even if retain- 
 ing them on board at all had been possible. In 
 short, no one at all acquainted with nautical matters 
 can see the Somers without being made feelingly 
 awn re of the defenceless situation of those few of- 
 ficers dealing with a crew of ninety persons, of whom 
 some were known to be conspirators, while of the 
 rest they hardly knew upon whom to rely for active 
 and efficient aid in time of danger. 
 
 Indeed, I would go farther and say that one must 
 either have been at sen, or be willing to receive some- 
 thing on faith for those who have, to judge fairly of 
 this case. The difficulty in the public mind is to be 
 satisfied that there was such a state of things on 
 board, after the arrest, as would render it all but cer- 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 55 
 
 tain to men of reasonable firmness and discretion, 
 that the arrested persons could not be taken into 
 port in irons. For this must be made out, or the ex- 
 ecution was unjustifiable. I do not yet mean to give 
 you an opinion upon which I am willing to be held, 
 for the facts are not yet all in ; but I should not be 
 surprised if the facts and demonstrations which satis- 
 fied Mackenzie and his officers should have less effect 
 upon the general observer and reader on shore. The 
 crew were under some fear after the arrest, and 
 would be careful not to do any overt act, or commit 
 themselves at all, until they were ready to attempt 
 the rescue. They would conceal every sign until the 
 moment of the outbreak. If the officers had waited 
 for that evidence, they would have waited just too 
 long for their own safety, and for the prevention of 
 dreadful crimes on the whole ocean. They were 
 obliged to judge from a variety of small circum- 
 stances, of which some are significant only to naval 
 men, and others can hardly be made to appear on 
 paper as they did on the deck. For instance, the 
 refusal of three men to muster. If this was, as the 
 officers believed, a deliberate combination to disobey 
 a lawful order, and carried out, it was of itself a 
 mutiny, and would forfeit the lives of the parties 
 by the martial law : for I know no other definition 
 of mutiny than would cover that act. It is an open 
 defiance of authority, and, connected with the event 
 of the others, w T ould alone go far to make out the 
 required case. The suspected contrivance to carry 
 away the mast; the gathering of the men about the 
 mast-head, away from their stations ; their rushing 
 aft to the boom-brace, and refusal to go forward when 
 ordered; the crowding into and blocking up of the 
 
56 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 27. 
 
 narrow gangways ; their neglect and disobedience of 
 orders ; that " indescribable something," which Mr. 
 Perry mentioned, in their looks and manner, denoting 
 defiance and preparation for worse ; the concealing of 
 deadly weapons in convenient but secret places ; the 
 hiding a dagger in the gun carriage, near Spencer ; 
 the midnight alarms ; and above all the fact of these 
 demonstrations becoming stronger, more apparent, 
 and more frequent as they drew nearer to port and 
 the chances of escape for the guilty were lessening ; 
 all these might make out a case which would satisfy 
 a conscientious, humane and brave man in taking 
 life, when yet a landsman, reading the articles in the 
 papers by his fireside, in the heart of a city, sur- 
 rounded by watchmen, a police and a posse comita- 
 tus, before whom he can " swear the peace " against 
 a suspected assaulter, and have him put into the 
 "Tombs," might think the judgment not sustained 
 by evidence of sufficient danger. If the officers 
 were morally certain of an outbreak, which no con- 
 finement could prevent, — recollect, they could call 
 in no aid from abroad, — there was no place for re- 
 treat, and no concessions would avail them. Must 
 they then wait the onset and its chances? Perhaps, 
 so far as personal danger to themselves was con- 
 cerned, Mr. Mackenzie and his officers would have 
 been willing to run the risk of the contest, or (as 
 would have been more probable) of being taken by 
 surprise and at a disadvantage, rather than to take 
 life beforehand ; but they had also a solemn duty as 
 public officers, at all hazards to prevent this vessel's 
 becoming a pirate, in the hands of men who would 
 have the power and the will to commit the most 
 dreadful atrocities of which we can form any imagi- 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 57 
 
 nation ; and if, from any over-humanity, or a fear of 
 the consequences of an execution to themselves pro- 
 fessionally, or before the public, or from too much 
 confidence in their own power, they had suffered 
 the conspirators to prevail, and the dreadful conse- 
 quences had come to our ears — not even the per- 
 sonal sufferings and death of these officers would 
 have saved their memory from our reproaches. 
 
 On shore life is rarely taken to prevent the com- 
 mission of a capital crime (although the law allows 
 it when necessary) because there can be usually 
 other precautions and means of defence. Not so at 
 sea, in a case like this. 
 
 From what 1 have heard, there seems to have been 
 a strange misapprehension of Mackenzie's report in 
 one particular, and which has injured him somewhat. 
 It has been said that he told Spencer that if he were 
 taken home, wealth and station are all powerful, and 
 li3 might escape death ; and this is sometimes spoken 
 of as one of the reasons for the execution. I knew 
 that this could not be so, for it would be murder, 
 and no better; and I recurred to the report and 
 found that the misapprehension was quite evident. 
 Spencer said, " This will kill my mother," or words to 
 that effect, and afterwards added that it would in- 
 jure his father ; meaning, before the public. To this 
 Mackenzie replied, to make it as well for Spencer as 
 he could (an indifferent consolation to be sure, but 
 the best he could offer), that it would not injure his 
 father's reputation so much to have a son executed 
 at sea for crime, without his knowledge, as to have 
 had him succeed, or to have had him brought home 
 for trial, had that been possible, for the father would 
 naturally, by the instinct of a parent, and from 
 
58 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 27. 
 
 knowledge of the power of wealth and station, en- 
 deavor to screen his son, and thus injure himself. It 
 being at the same time perfectly understood between 
 them, that Mackenzie considered the execution 
 forced upon him by the subsequent acts of the con- 
 spirators. 
 
 With us, in Boston, I have heard but one opinion ; 
 but in New York there have been some misunder- 
 standings and misconstructions, as I think. You will 
 not suspect me of inclining in favor of a despotic use 
 of power at sea ; yet, I assure you, that, having seen 
 the Somers, and felt the defenceless situation of the 
 officers ; knowing that, besides Mackenzie, there was 
 but one commissioned officer on board, and that of 
 the warrant officers, the elder are but young men, 
 and the younger but lads ; knowing that there were 
 no marines on board, and that some of the forward 
 officers, upon whom great reliance is usually and 
 somewhat necessarily placed, were implicated in the 
 conspiracy ; that there was no chance for escape, nor 
 of aid from abroad, nor in concessions ; and that the 
 guilty persons, whether arrested or free, whether dis- 
 covered or secret, would naturally make a desperate 
 effort before reaching the land; and remembering the 
 public duty the officers had to perform to save the 
 lives of those committed to their charge, and to pre- 
 vent at all hazards the success of these hostes humani 
 generis; I am willing to believe that we shall all 
 finally be satisfied that the execution was an act of 
 solemn necessity. We look for the remaining evi- 
 dence with anxious interest. 
 
 April 25. A gentleman by the name of Craney, 
 late a lieutenant in the United States Navy, was in- 
 troduced to me as wishing to study law in my office. 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 59 
 
 After some conversation, in order to explain to me 
 the fact of bis leaving the service, he gave me the 
 history of his unfortunate difficulty with the Depart- 
 ment. It is a most sad story, if he has given it cor- 
 rectly, and I believe him to have done so. 
 
 He entered the navy quite young, and toiled up 
 to a lieutenancy, which gave him an honorable com- 
 petency. While junior lieutenant of the North Caro- 
 lina, receiving ship at New York, Captain Spencer of 
 the navy, brother of the Secretary of War, came on 
 board, bringing with him his nephew Philip Spencer, 
 who had just received a midshipman's warrant. Mr. 
 Craney happened to be officer of the deck, and being 
 acquainted with Captain Spencer the latter intro- 
 duced young Spencer to him, and asked him to assist 
 the young beginner, by teaching him the ropes and 
 looking after him in various ways. Mr. Craney was 
 pleased with the opportunity of befriending the son 
 of the Secretary of War and nephew of an officer of 
 high rank, and thought it might be an advantage to 
 himself if the young man turned out well. Soon, 
 however, he saw that Spencer was a bad fellow and 
 would make him trouble. He had invited him to 
 use his state-room and his books whenever he wished 
 to, and he found that Spencer had abused this liberty, 
 by keeping lights in his state-room after the hour 
 allowed, and by keeping bottles of liquor under his 
 bureau, with which he got drunk while Craney was 
 in the city. He spoke to Spencer several times about 
 it, but it did no good. At length Craney was re- 
 ported to the first lieutenant as having a light in his 
 state-room after hours. Craney explained the matter 
 to the first lieutenant, but nothing was done to the 
 son of the secretarv. 
 
60 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 27. 
 
 One night Craney was in his berth asleep, when 
 he was waked up by a noise and saw Spencer in his 
 state-room trying to draw a bottle from under some 
 place where it seems he had hidden it. Craney 
 ordered him out of the room. Spencer, who ap- 
 peared to be a little intoxicated, said he would go 
 when he chose. Craney ordered him out again, and 
 then Spencer raised his arm and struck him a severe 
 blow as he lay in his berth. Craney sprang out of his 
 berth and pushed Spencer from the room. Spencer 
 resisted, and the noise brought the officers down. 
 Spencer was ordered below. The next morning the 
 first lieutenant sent for Craney and asked him if he 
 intended to report Spencer. Craney said he certainly 
 thought it his duty to do so, as the offence of strik- 
 ing a superior officer was the worst that could occur 
 on board ship. The lieutenant then told him that 
 he would advise him as a friend to do no more about 
 the matter. That it would do him no good at the 
 Department ; that Spencer's friends were powerful, 
 and he had better let it drop. After some reflection, 
 and thinking that Spencer was young and after an 
 alarm might do better, he did nothing farther. 
 
 Mr. Craney had an uncommonly good sextant, and 
 had offered to the professor of mathematics to explain 
 the use of it to the midshipmen whom the professor 
 was instructing daily in the steerage. One day the 
 professor asked Craney to go down and explain the 
 sextant to the young gentlemen, and having no duty 
 on hand he did so. While there, in the presence of 
 the professor, explaining the instrument to the mid- 
 shipmen, he received a violent blow upon the side of 
 the face, which pushed him backwards in his chair 
 and threw him and the chair over upon the floor. 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 61 
 
 This blow was struck by Spencer, who came up be- 
 hind him while engaged looking upon the instrument. 
 At the same time with the blow Spencer wrenched 
 off Craney's epaulet, tearing off the button, and rip- 
 ping down his coat. Craney sprang up, but was in- 
 stantly seized by a number of those present and held 
 back, while young Spencer was dragged out of the 
 room. 
 
 Allowing himself time to cool, and a season for re- 
 flection, Craney reported this and the previous trans- 
 action to the Department. (I suppose from what 
 followed that this report had to go through the hands 
 of s the commander of the ship.) 
 
 Either Captain Spencer or the commander of the 
 ship, Commodore Perry, sent for the professor and 
 several of the midshipmen present, and learned from 
 them 1;hat Mr. Craney's report was rather under- 
 stated than otherwise. Commodore Perry then sent 
 for Craney and tried to persuade him not to report 
 Spencer, telling him that he would do himself no 
 good by it, etc. Craney said he could not pass over 
 it. It was an offence which was punishable even by 
 death if a court-martial so ordered, and being com- 
 mitted in the presence of the midshipmen, and known 
 to the whole ship's company, his own honor as well 
 as a duty he owed the service required him to do it. 
 The Commodore then told him it would be of no use 
 as Spencer had been ordered to join the John Adams 
 at Boston ; and offered him back his charges, which 
 he had not sent to the Department. Mr. Craney 
 says he instantly saw through this. Captain Spencer, 
 finding Craney determined to report his nephew, had 
 written to the lad's father and procured orders for 
 him to join another vessel, and prevailed upon Com- 
 
62 RICHARD HENRY DANA. M-v. 27. 
 
 modore Perry to retain the charges until Spencer 
 should be sent away. 
 
 Mr. Craney stated his opinion very freely, and de- 
 manded that Commodore Perry should retain the or- 
 ders until the charges could be sent to Washington 
 and Spencer arrested. This the Commodore refused 
 to do, saying that he must obey his orders from the 
 Department. 
 
 Mr. Craney then wrote a letter to the Secretary of 
 the Navy, detailing the whole transaction. To this 
 he received a reply slighting the whole matter, and 
 treating Craney, as he thought, in a very insolent 
 and contemptuous manner. To this, I think, but am 
 not sure, Craney replied. At all events, it ended in 
 Craney's being suspended, and Spencer sent upon a 
 cruise in the John Adams. Craney remained sus- 
 pended for weeks on board the North Carolina. He 
 had been insulted and openly assaulted by an in- 
 ferior officer ; himself and the service in his person 
 had been disgraced, and justice and satisfaction had 
 been refused him ; and all because of the influence 
 of young Spencer's powerful friends. These reflec- 
 tions so wore upon Craney that he became ill. His 
 pent-up indignation and his wounded feelings allowed 
 him no rest. Under the influence of these feelings 
 he sent in his resignation, which was accepted. 
 
 After twelve or fourteen years of the prime of his 
 life spent in the service, and almost unfitted for any- 
 thing else, he was thrown out upon the world. 
 
 Not long after his resignation the news of the exe- 
 cution of young Spencer by Mackenzie, on board the 
 Somers, reached America. 
 
 Such is the story of Mr. Craney. It has made my 
 heart ache for him. It is too strongly flavored with 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 63 
 
 injustice, the triumph of wrong and the suffering of 
 innocence not to call out sympathy and interest for 
 the subject of it. 
 
 Whether he has exaggerated the story, or not, I 
 have no certain means of knowing; but I never heard 
 a story told in a more precise, methodical and calm 
 manner ; subsequent events as to Spencer show its 
 probability, and Craney impressed me very favorably 
 for calmness, self-respect and candor. 1 
 
 February 10. At Mr. Ticknor's in the evening, 
 with S. We had the usual company of D wights, 
 Elliots, Guilds, Mrs. Norton (the loveliest of the 
 post-meridian ladies) and her two lovely daughters, 
 Fanny Appleton [Mrs. Longfellow], dressed in black 
 and looking like a princess, reserved and self-pos- 
 sessed, Dr. Howe, Hillard, Leonard Woods, Theodore 
 Lyman, Nathan Appleton, Prescott (Ferdinand and 
 Isabella), Miss Julia Ward [Mrs. Howe] of New 
 York, etc. 
 
 Mr. Ticknor told me the following anecdote of John 
 Adams, which I believe to be literally true, from Mr. 
 Ticknor's great accuracy in all such matters, and I 
 am sure I give his very words. He said that he took 
 an English gentleman out to call upon Mr. Adams 
 at Quincy, during the year 1825, just before his 
 death, and while the election of his son (J. Q.) was 
 
 1 William Craney was appointed a midshipman 23 May, 1832 ; a 
 passed midshipman 23 June, 1838 ; he was dismissed the service 31 
 May, 1839, hy order of the Secretary of the Navy, J. K. Paulding, for 
 reasons specified in a letter, a copy of which was filed in the Depart- 
 ment ; he was reinstated and appointed midshipman 3 September, 
 1841 ; and resigned 15 February, 1842. While the statements made 
 by Craney to Dana, and which at the time impressed the latter so 
 much, may be true so far as Philip Spencer was concerned, the letter 
 of Secretary Paulding above referred to, though relating to other and 
 earlier transactions, should be read in connection with them. 
 
64 RICHARD HENRY DANA. 2Et. 27. 
 
 undetermined. The old man with (as Mr. Ticknor 
 called it) his habitual indiscretion, talked politics. 
 As the election depended mostly upon the vote of 
 New York state, Mr. Ticknor, to keep up the con- 
 versation, said, " Mr. President, how do you think 
 New York will go ? " At this the old man drew 
 himself up and answered, " Sir, I have known New 
 York, man and boy, seventy years, and she has al- 
 ways been the Devil's own incomprehensible." 
 
 April 3. Spent the forenoon in court hearing 
 Choate and Dexter in United States v. Le Crow, 
 indicted for withholding provisions from his crew. 
 Choate made a good argument, but flowery, over- 
 strained and extravagant. Dexter was admirable. 
 That man always seeks to come down upon his case. 
 He seems to be a gentleman practising law, and not 
 a mere lawyer. Calm, courteous, liberal and high- 
 minded man. 
 
 A very troublesome case of professional difficulty 
 has been harassing me for a week or two. A captain 
 and mate of a merchant vessel were complained of for 
 causing the death of the steward, a poor negro. The 
 facts, as testified to by the men at the preliminary 
 examination, were these : — That the master and 
 mate flogged the steward badly about four P. M. for 
 insolence, etc. That the steward then went about his 
 business for an hour or two. That he was again, about 
 eight P. M., flogged, kicked and beaten badly by the 
 master alone, so badly as would have caused the death 
 of many men, as the crew believed. That after this 
 last beating the captain ordered the mate to assist in 
 taking the steward into the cabin. The mate did so. 
 They lifted him in, he groaning like a dying man. 
 After this the crew saw no more. There were no 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 65 
 
 passengers, and no one in the cabin but the master 
 and officers. The second mate was in his state-room, 
 and swore that he knew nothing of the matter. The 
 next morning, when the cook went to call the stew- 
 ard, he found him dead. The cook told the master 
 and officers, and they went to his berth, and there 
 found a glass stopple. They then went to the medi- 
 cine chest, and the laudanum bottle was missing. 
 They then said that the steward poisoned himself. 
 The crew doubted this story. 
 
 The preliminary examination took place, and the 
 master and mate were bound over to appear before 
 the Grand Jury. In the interval the mate came to 
 me and told me that he wished to ask my advice and 
 to retain me as his counsel. He said he had a dis- 
 tinct defence from his captain, and must have separate 
 advice and defence. He then told me confidentially, 
 as his counsel, the whole story. When he had assisted 
 the master in taking the steward into the cabin, they 
 set him in a chair and found him dead. The cap- 
 tain then said, " Then I am in difficulty. You must 
 assist me." They then took the steward, laid him in 
 his berth, the captain got the laudanum bottle from 
 the medicine chest, poured out the laudanum, and 
 placed the empty bottle and stopple by the side of 
 the berth, and then they went to bed. 
 
 This was the case. All the facts testified toby the 
 crew sustained its probability. It was stated sol- 
 emnly, and was somewhat unfavorable to the com- 
 municator of- it. Here then was, as I could not doubt, 
 a case of manslaughter, if not of murder. Yet my 
 knowledge of the facts came to me in the sacred char- 
 acter of a professional communication. I could not 
 use them against my client. The law, as well as my 
 
66 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 27. 
 
 own sense of justice and of the reason grounded in 
 the policy of the profession, would forbid my divulg- 
 ing it. Unless a man can be safe in making a com- 
 munication to his counsel, there would be an end of 
 defences against every charge. I had received it, too, 
 from a man who had a right and was able to keep his 
 own secret under the implied, if not express, promise 
 of secrecy. On the other hand, unless some use was 
 made of the mate's testimony, the master would go 
 unpunished. I did all in my power to persuade the 
 mate to go to the prosecuting officer and divulge the 
 story, and promised him my assistance, and assured 
 him that he would be safe ; but he would not become 
 state's evidence, and he said it would ruin him with 
 his employers, who were connected with the master, 
 and being a foreigner he had nowhere else to look 
 for support. 
 
 In this state I had to stand by and see the case 
 changed from a charge of homicide to one of mere 
 assault and battery for want of sufficient evidence. I 
 did, several times, in conversation, express a strong 
 opinion to a prosecuting officer, grounded on the evi- 
 dence in court alone, however, that an indictment for 
 manslaughter would be sustained against the master. 
 But he would not risk it. 
 
 The trial comes on this week. I am to defend the 
 mate ; and that I can do with a clear conscience, for 
 I believe him innocent even of an unjustifiable as- 
 sault ; but to stand by in silence and see a guilty 
 man escape, when the weapon to convict him is in my 
 own hand, is hard indeed. I have struggled against 
 a desire to divulge, in some secret manner, the truth 
 and the means of getting at it to the prosecuting 
 officer. But I feel it would be wrong. I am merely 
 unfortunate in possessing this painful knowledge. 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAR. 67 
 
 April 4. Mr. Allston dined at Chestnut Street. 
 I met him in the afternoon, accidentally, at Mr. Dex- 
 ter's office. It was delightful to hear Dexter, who 
 the day before was in the height of forensic contest, 
 quietly and with real feeling and zeal talking over 
 the beauties of art with Mr. Allston. 
 
 May 5. On coming to my office, I found among 
 the arrivals the Alert from San Diego, California, 
 125 days. I hastened down to the wharf and found 
 her just hauling in. The crew had been allowed to 
 go ashore at night, and the dockyard men were haul- 
 ing in the ship. The captain and mates were on 
 board. 
 
 She looked just as she did when I made her my 
 home, being painted in the same manner, with the 
 same rigging and spars. There was the same new 
 mizzen rigging upon which we worked at Monterey, 
 the same blocks through which we had hauled ropes 
 so many months, the wheel at which we had stood 
 hour after hour, and every other familiar sign. 
 
 I went into the forecastle. It had been enlarged 
 by throwing in two berths on each side and a space 
 abaft the chain locker, but all else was the same. 
 There was my berth, and in the forecastle I happened 
 to find a man who had occupied the same for the 
 whole of this voyage, which had been three years 
 and three months. I fell into conversation with him, 
 and learned from him a good deal of news about the 
 coast. He insisted upon my accepting from him two 
 shells which he had got at Monterey. 
 
 From the forecastle I went to the cabin, and there 
 saw Captain Phelps and Mr. Everett the chief mate. 
 The captain said he had brought home all his crew 
 except one, who was drowned at Santa Barbara. 
 
68 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 27. 
 
 In the afternoon two of the crew came to my office, 
 and we spent several hours talking over California. 
 
 June 1. This day and yesterday I have been in 
 and out occasionally the anti- slavery convention. 
 Nothing can exceed the wildness and fanaticism of 
 that collection of people. During these two days 
 they have been discussing a resolution offered by a 
 man named Foster to the effect that the Christian 
 church and ministry should be overthrown, and must 
 be before the abolition of slavery can be looked for. 
 More than one half of the speakers advocated the 
 resolution, and nothing can exceed the bitterness and 
 vulgarity of their attacks upon the church and clergy. 
 Of those who opposed the adoption of the resolution, 
 only one, the Rev. S. J. May, ventured to defend 
 churches and clergymen. All the others vied with 
 the supporters of the resolution in abusing these insti- 
 tutions, but contended against the expediency of the 
 anti-slavery society, as such, embroiling itself in a 
 controversy with the churches and clergymen. Two 
 conceited, shallow-pated negro youths, named Remond 
 and Douglass, were among the chief speakers. They 
 seemed to have been entirely spoiled by the notice 
 taken of them, and evidently had but little strengtli 
 of mind by nature. The expression of conceit was 
 so evident upon their countenances as to be perfectly 
 laughable. They were battling the watch with Gar- 
 rison, Phillips, May, etc., as they called these gentle- 
 men, for all titles of courtesy, such as Mr., the gentle- 
 man, etc., are dropped by these radicals. Two or 
 three women also spoke, but their speeches were 
 painful from the sense they gave one of incoherency 
 and excitement almost amounting to insanity. 
 
 Phillips is a gentleman and a scholar, and speaks 
 
1843. EARLY LIFE AT THE BAB. 69 
 
 as such. May speaks calmly and sensibly. Garrison 
 has logic and force, but is a fanatic by constitution, 
 and a hater of everything established and traditional, 
 and an infidel and socialist. Phillips, however, advo- 
 cates exciting the blacks to insurrection and war. 
 All the other speakers are a nest of ignorant, fanati- 
 cal, heated, narrow-minded men. 
 
 The resolution was rejected by a vote of eighty to 
 fifty, but it was rejected on the ground of expedi- 
 ency. There was evidently hardly a person in the 
 society who did not agree with the general tenor of 
 the resolution. 
 
 The elements of which this convention was com- 
 posed are dreadful. Heated, narrow-minded, self- 
 willed, excited, unchristian, radical energies set to 
 work upon a cause which is good, if rightly managed, 
 but which they have made a hot-bed for forcing into 
 growth the most dangerous doctrines to both church 
 and state. They are nearly all at the extreme of 
 radicalism, socialism, and infidelity. 
 
 Just as the convention adjourned a deplorable, 
 looking man announced that in the evening there 
 would be a convention at the Chardon Street chapel 
 to discuss the subject of the right of men to hold 
 property, and the reorganization of society, — "very 
 simple subjects," he added. 
 
 In the evening I went to this convention, and there 
 we had a new exhibition of radicalism. The speak- 
 ers took the ground that no man had a right to any 
 private property, not even to the products of his own 
 industry. They wjere answered by a man named 
 Ballou, who wound them up completely by putting 
 questions to them which they had to answer ex tem- 
 pore. In this way he made them take the ground 
 
70 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 27. 
 
 that an idle man, or a robber, who could work and 
 would not, had the same right to my crop which I 
 had planted and cut as I had myself. This upset 
 them with the audience, and raised a shout of ap- 
 plause for Mr. Ballou. Upon this I left. 
 
 June 12. This being little Sally's birthday, we 
 all went and spent the afternoon with Mrs. Atkins in 
 Roxbury — S. and her mother and Olive, Elizabeth 
 and myself. Mrs. Atkins and the children were de- 
 lighted to see us, and we had a charming time. After 
 the long rains the sun had come out clear and bright, 
 and nothing could exceed the freshness of the air and 
 the richness of the foliage. Sarah was in high spirits, 
 and enjoyed herself like a child. After tea, loaded 
 with great bunches of flowers, we returned safely to 
 town. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 
 
 Washington Allston had married [1830] a sister of 
 the elder Dana ; his first wife, Ann Channing, a sister of 
 William Ellery Channing, having died in London in 1815. 
 Connected with them by both marriages, the family rela- 
 tions between him and the Danas were naturally close, and 
 the younger Richard often visited the artist's studio. After 
 one of these visits, made in company with his wife on the 
 22d of April, 1843, he thus recorded his impressions : — 
 
 Mr. Allston had been reading the " Quarterly's " 
 review of Dickens' M American Notes," and the u Ab- 
 erdeen Correspondence," etc. He is less of a republi- 
 can than ever, and says that if things go on as they 
 promise now "in eighty years there will not be a 
 gentleman left in the country." He says that the 
 manners of gentility, its courtesies, deferences, and 
 graces are passing away from among us. Whether 
 they pass away or no, he is a good specimen of them. 
 Born of a distinguished family in Carolina, and 
 educated into the feelings and habits of a gentleman, 
 with a noble nature, a beautiful countenance, and 
 graceful person, what else could he be ? 
 
 No picture is more pleasing to my heart and fancy 
 than to see Mr. Allston, seated at his parlor fire in 
 the evening, after a day spent in his studio, his eye 
 resting meditatively upon the fire, his beautiful coun- 
 tenance marked with taste and thought, the smoke 
 
72 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 27. 
 
 from bis cigar going up in little clouds and mingling 
 among the gray curls of his hair, and then rising, to 
 etherealize the whole, with the social glass of wine 
 on the table which he has placed before his visitor, — 
 the whole is painted with warm colors in my mind. 
 
 About two o'clock on the morning of Sunday, July 9 of 
 the same year, Dana was awakened by a loud ringing of 
 the door-bell of the house in West Cedar Street, Boston, 
 where he then lived, and in answer to his inquiry a man 
 below informed him that he was needed at Cambridgeport 
 immediately, — that Mr. Allston was dead. 
 
 It went to my heart like a clap of thunder. For 
 the first time in my life I was confused upon an 
 alarm. I could hardly breathe. In time I was 
 dressed and in the street. The night air was chilly, 
 and the streets were as still as death. The man had 
 been to call up Ned at Chestnut Street, and we 
 waited for him. In a moment we h^ard the fall of 
 footsteps, and Ned came up to us. We got into the 
 chaise and rode out, with hardly a word spoken. 
 Ned said, " I left him at nine, sitting at his tea-table. 
 Almost the last thing I heard him do was to ask a 
 blessing at his table." 
 
 We reached the house. I saw a light in his back 
 parlor, where he always sat, but none up-stairs. 
 Where can he be ? Where did he die ? We opened 
 the door. Aunt Betsey met us in the entr}^. She 
 said a few words. He was in the back room. I 
 went to the door and just saw his body lying along 
 the rug in front of the fire, and Aunt S. and Ned by 
 his side. I could not, for my life, have gone up to 
 the body. I went to the other end of the room and 
 looked out of the window. I moved to the other 
 window, but could not go up to it. Never did I force 
 
1843. WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 73 
 
 myself more than when I moved gradually and fear- 
 fully up to it. And there he lay. The men who 
 were called in had placed him upon the rug in front 
 of his fire-place. Excepting that his neckerchief 
 had been removed, he was dressed as usual, his gray 
 and white curls lay about his forehead and shoulders, 
 and his sublime countenance with closed eyes was 
 turned upward. His candles were burning upon the 
 table ; by the side of them lay his spectacles ; the 
 remnant of his last cigar was upon the corner of the 
 mantel-piece where he always placed it, another un- 
 touched which he had taken out to use next lay near 
 it; a small plate as usual held the ashes of his cigar, 
 and a few books, none of them, however, open, lay 
 upon the table and mantel-piece. Mrs. Allston had 
 been taken up-stairs. . . . 
 
 July 10. The funeral services began at half past 
 seven in the evening, being put late that we might 
 have a veil of evening to keep the mourners from the 
 common gaze. . . . 
 
 The service at the house was performed by Aunt 
 Martha's [Mrs. Allston] clergyman, the Rev. Mr. 
 Albro, while the church service was to be read at the 
 tomb by Dr. Vinton of St. Paul's Church, Boston, at 
 which church Mr. Allston had been confirmed, and of 
 which he had never ceased to be a member. . . . 
 
 The procession passed by Mr. Albro's church and 
 the old Trowbridge house, in Mr. Allston's road to 
 church, and thence by the Brighton bridge street to 
 the grave-yard. When we reached the ground it was 
 about half past eight. There were a great many as- 
 sembled in the yard about the tomb, and the sexton 
 stood with his lantern. The moon was struggling 
 through the clouds and making deep shadows from 
 
74 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi\ 27. 
 
 the grave-stones and monuments. The whole was a 
 most impressive scene. The coffin was placed at the 
 grave's mouth, the mourners gathered about it, the 
 men stood uncovered, and the solemn service of the 
 church was read. The preacher's voice, which is 
 unusually good, sounded like a voice of promise from 
 above, uttering words of hope and consolation. At 
 the words " earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to 
 ashes," some earth was dropped upon the coffin, and 
 sounded fearfully and ominously to our ears. Yet 
 the admirable church service seems to sanctify every 
 portion of what attends the burial, even the throwing 
 the earth upon the coffin. At the M Amen," the 
 bearers raised the coffin and entered the tomb, and 
 we left the yard. The moon was shining brightly 
 when we reached home. . . . 
 
 July 11. A letter from Mr. Dexter saying that 
 he did not hear of the death until after the funeral 
 and expressing his regret. 
 
 Sumner called with reference to a monument to 
 Mr. Allston. Judge Story had been quite urgent 
 about it. Judge S., Mr. Dexter, Hillard, and Sum- 
 ner are to control it. Colonel Perkins will head it. 
 Brackett says he has made a very good cast, and 
 seems quite encouraged. 
 
 At the time of his death, as for years before, Allston was 
 working, or was supposed, and, indeed, supposed himself to 
 be working, on his great picture of Belshazzar's Feast, now 
 preserved in an unfinished condition in the Boston Museum 
 of Fine Arts. The picture was in the studio when Allston 
 died, though no mortal eye but his own would seem for years 
 to have looked upon it. The following entries relate to it : — 
 
 Father and I called upon Uncle Edmund [T. Dana] 
 with reference to the picture. We agreed to meet at 
 
1843. WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 75 
 
 the painting room to-morrow at four p. M., with Mr. 
 John Greenough to assist us. 
 
 July 12. At four P. M. we assembled to enter the 
 painting room and " break the seal " of the great 
 picture. An awe had been upon my mind as though 
 I were about to enter a sacred and mysterious place. 
 I could hardly bring my mind to turn the key. We 
 tried to prepare for the worst, so that nothing could 
 disappoint us. But to enter this solemn place, so 
 long and so lately filled with his presence and the 
 home of his glorious thoughts and his painful emo- 
 tions, the scene of his distresses when no human eye 
 saw, and few human spirits can comprehend ! I 
 turned the key and opened the outer door. We stood 
 an instant in the porch ; but Greenough, whose en- 
 thusiasm and interest far surpassed any awe he might 
 feel, rushed in. There before us was spread out the 
 great sheet of painted canvas, — but dimmed, almost 
 obscured by dust and marks and lines of chalk. The 
 eye ran across the picture for the main figures. 
 Daniel stood erect. The queen was there. But where 
 the king should have been, where Daniel's eyes were 
 fixed, was a shroud, a thickly painted coat, effectu- 
 ally blotting out the whole figure. We stood for 
 some minutes in silence. " How could he have done 
 it ? " said Uncle E. " He told me he had finished 
 the king and was satisfied with it." " Oh, in some 
 moment of darkness, he swept it all off." Father 
 looked at it and said, " That is his shroud." It was 
 indeed a most solemn tragedy that this revealed. 
 We felt that this had killed him. Over this he had 
 worn out his enfeebled frame and his paralyzed spirit, 
 until he had sunk under it. The agonies he had en- 
 dured here no tongue can tell ! There in the left of 
 
76 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 27. 
 
 the picture the large figures of three Chaldean sooth- 
 sayers had been chalked over for alteration, the head 
 of Daniel had been chalked, and there were marks for 
 alteration upon the face of the queen. Some of the 
 pillars at the left of the picture had also chalk marks 
 upon them. The steps upon which he painted were 
 placed so as to bring him against the face of the ma- 
 gicians, and by looking carefully we saw marks of 
 fresh paint recently laid on upon the face of the 
 magician nearest Daniel. There then had been his 
 last work. To the latest moment he had labored 
 upon this great work. He had almost died with his 
 pencil upon it. Six hours before his death his pen- 
 cil was on this picture. The right hand of Daniel 
 was incomplete. He had told both me and my fa- 
 ther that this hand was painted open ; that Stuart, 
 to whom he had shown the picture, had told him to 
 paint Daniel's right hand clenched, to express more 
 intensity of feeling, and that he had altered it to 
 please Stuart, or in deference to his judgment. But 
 no sooner had he done so than he felt, what he had 
 anticipated at the time, that it destroyed that idea. 
 Daniel was not to be impassioned or intensely ex- 
 cited. His attitude was to be that of calm sublimity, 
 and in contrast with the varieties of excitement por- 
 trayed about him. . . . The handwriting upon the 
 wall was not finished. 1 
 
 We found ourselves delicately situated. The pic- 
 ture had been partly paid for, and had been conveyed 
 by a legal instrument to the subscribers. It was per- 
 
 1 Afterwards we saw that Allston had a grander conception. The 
 writing- was not to be visible to the spectator. A flood of supernatural 
 light from between the columns, and the direction of all eyes indicated 
 the place, out of sight, where the mysterious writing was. [Note in 
 Diary by R. H. D.] 
 
1843. WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 11 
 
 haps, then, partly theirs; or, at least, they had a 
 contingent interest in it. We could not well pro- 
 ceed without reference to them. Yet, covered as the 
 picture was with dirt and chalk marks, and with the 
 king painted out, without cleaning, varnish, or 
 frame, the proprietors, not artists, would not under- 
 stand or value the picture, and it would be vain and 
 an injustice to Mr. Allston's reputation to subject it 
 to such a test. Would it not be wiser to call in one 
 or two persons on whose judgment we could rely, 
 and in whom the proprietors would also place confi- 
 dence, and let them give their advice ? We thought 
 it would. Having determined this point, we had no 
 difficulty in deciding who those persons should be. 
 Mr. Allston had always relied more upon the judg- 
 ment and was more willing to trust his work and his 
 relations to the public and to the proprietors of his 
 pictures to the good taste and discretion of Mr. War- 
 ren Dutton and Mr. Franklin Dexter, than to any 
 other persons. We felt that in selecting them we 
 should follow the wishes of the deceased better than 
 by any other course. We agreed accordingly that 
 they should be invited immediately to see the pic- 
 ture. 
 
 July 13. Called upon Mr. Dexter. He had a de- 
 sign for engraving all of Allston's sketches and un- 
 finished pictures in a volume, as outlines, to be called 
 Allston's Compositions. I told him of our determina- 
 tion to consult him and Mr. Dutton about the picture. 
 He seemed much gratified and agreed to meet us at the 
 room at any time Mr. Dutton should say. . . . Go- 
 ing up the street, I passed a tall, intellectual looking 
 man, with such a face and manner as one does not see 
 every day. I thought it might be he, but passed on. 
 
78 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 27. 
 
 I next met Mr. Dexter, with a green bag under his 
 arm, at the corner of Summer Street. He proposed 
 returning. I told him I had met such and such a man. 
 44 Oh, that's he ! overhanging gray brows, and a stern 
 expression, — looks like a dragon. That 's the man." 
 We went back and found Mr. Dutton. After some 
 conversation it was agreed to meet at the room at four 
 P. M. of the next day. Both the gentlemen showed 
 a great interest in the subject and a very ready zeal. 
 
 July 14. Friday. Went out to the Port. Spied 
 Uncle Edmund and Mr. Greenough going towards the 
 room. There we found Mr. Dutton, waiting. Mr. 
 Dexter soon arrived, and we went in together. By 
 the use of a sponge with tepid water the picture had 
 been brought out a great deal, and looked like quite 
 another thing. After nearly two hours spent in its 
 examination, we made efforts with spirits of turperi^ 
 tine to remove the shroud from the king. The spirits 
 had a little effect upon the extremes, but none in the 
 centre. It was then agreed among us all to make 7 
 an attempt the next day with the proper materials 
 and solvents, under the care of Mr. Greenough, Mr. 
 Dexter being present. 
 
 Mr. Dutton, of one part of the picture, said, " I 
 have seen nothing in Titian equal to that, for color." 
 And speaking of the group of females between 
 Daniel'and the soothsayers, he said, " I have never 
 seen a group equal to that, except in Rubens' Descent 
 from the Cross ; and this is better than Rubens' for 
 drawing, and not inferior to it in color." All agreed 
 that that group was a wonderful composition and 
 wonderfully colored. They said that for color it had 
 not been surpassed by anything in art. 
 
 On going away Mr. Dexter said, " I can say that 
 
1843. WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 79 
 
 my expectations have been fully equalled." " Mine 
 have been more than equalled," said the enthusiastic 
 Greenough. To this Dexter answered, " It would 
 be difficult for me to say that anything could have 
 surpassed my expectations of this work." 
 
 Mr. Dexter having agreed to meet Mr. Greenough 
 at the room the next morning at twelve, we sepa- 
 rated. 
 
 July 15. Called upon Doggett, the picture-frame 
 maker, to know if he had seen the picture. He told 
 me that about fifteen years ago, when the picture was 
 in Pearl Street, he called and measured it for its 
 frame. That then the principal figures were finished. 
 I questioned as to the dress of each. He said the 
 kins: seemed to be finished, and was dressed in a cloth 
 of orold. This corresponded exactly with John Green- 
 ough's description. 
 
 In the evening Ned came in and said they had been 
 through many alternations of feelings at the room. 
 Greenough tried his solvent, and it had some effect, 
 but seemed to bring out the glazing of the form be- 
 neath and he was obliged to stop. Mr. Dexter, after 
 considering it attentively for some time, sent for some 
 spirits of wine, mixed them with turpentine and ap- 
 plied a little with his finger, carefully. This evi- 
 dently produced some effect, but Mr. Dexter declined 
 doing anything further, and suggested that the pro- 
 prietors of the picture should be got together, and 
 their authority should be obtained before any further 
 experiments should be tried with the picture. 
 
 July 17. Another interview with Dexter. He is 
 oppressed by the unfinished state of the picture and 
 the confusion arising from the evident change of plan. 
 Yet he says it is a great picture, that the figures have 
 
80 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 27. 
 
 haunted him ever since, that he cannot get them from 
 his mind, and that there is nothing in the art superior 
 to some parts of this picture. 
 
 July 19. This afternoon, by agreement, Mr. Dex- 
 ter and Mr. Dutton came out to see the sketches, 
 which they had not seen before, and to look again 
 at the picture, in order to form an opinion as to 
 whether the paint can be removed from the king, 
 and whether, if removed, the king will correspond 
 with the rest of the picture as it now is. . . . 
 
 We spent some time in the room. Dexter sees 
 great signs of change in the light and point of sight 
 which he fears will involve the perspective in confu- 
 sion. He seems almost in despair. Dutton is more 
 confident, and thinks that if the king can be brought 
 out, the picture ought to be exhibited. They both 
 feel most sensibly the power of the picture. Mr. 
 Dutton said he had dreamed of it, and had it before 
 him nearly all his waking hours. 
 
 July 25. Tuesday. Mr. Dexter shows a letter 
 from S. F. B. Morse l in which he consents to come 
 and see the picture, at the request of Mr. D. and 
 ourselves, and that he shall be here Wednesday or 
 Thursday. 
 
 26. Morse says it is a grand work. It grows upon 
 him. . . . 
 
 Morse and Dexter and Uncle Edmund discussed 
 the perspective very fully. There has been a change 
 in the point of sight, and a partial change of design, 
 
 1 Before conceiving' the idea of the electric recording 1 telegraph 
 [1832] Professor Morse had won distinction as an artist and sculptor. 
 Though twelve years younger than Allston, Morse had accompanied 
 him to London when he returned there in 1811, and had there studied 
 in the Royal Academy under Benjamin West. His early efforts in 
 art were subsequently eclipsed by his fame as an inventor. 
 
1843. WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 81 
 
 the alterations necessarily consequent upon which 
 have not been fully carried out. Therefore, there is 
 an apparent confusion and evident want of complete- 
 ness. Morse says that every line aud every chalk 
 mark must be preserved, in order to show the inten- 
 tions of Allston. . . . 
 
 As to the king, Morse says that he saw the picture 
 about two years ago, and that then the king's head 
 was finished and open. That the figure was painted 
 over. Both he and Mr. D. say that the king must 
 have been painted over, not from dissatisfaction with 
 the conception, but in order to enlarge the figure, to 
 do which had become necessary from altering the 
 point of sight. He had begun to raise the Chaldeans 
 in the extreme right, and would then have raised the 
 king in the left. The right hand of the king, lately 
 painted but unfinished, is for the larger figure. It 
 would not probably correspond with the figure under 
 the embrorio. The queen's figure, about the waist, 
 is not finished. Daniel's shoulder is incomplete. The 
 Chaldeans are quite chaotic, and the style of the capi- 
 tals of the front columns had been changed from the 
 sketch and from that of back columns, in the rear of 
 the hall. Morse agrees that he last painted on the 
 head of that soothsayer who has his front face toward 
 the spectator. 
 
 July 28. Set off this morning at seven o'clock in 
 the Western cars, for Hartford and Wethersfield, 
 with S., little Sally, and nurse, to leave them there 
 for a month's visit, and to spend a few days with 
 them myself. . . . 
 
 At Springfield went to Warrener's to dine. There 
 found Mr. Ticknor and his wife and daughter and 
 Mr. Wm. Gardiner. Mr. Ticknor took me one side, 
 
82 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 27. 
 
 and asked with great interest after the picture and 
 Mr. Allston's matters. He had been absent ever 
 since the death. He had known, as a secret, from 
 A lis ton, two years ago, that the king had been painted 
 over, and be said Mr. Allston told him within a year 
 (I think it was) that he had at last fixed upon his 
 final design with which he was satisfied, and that lie 
 should never change it. Mr. Ticknor asked him if 
 he might not alter his plan in some parts which 
 would make labor for him ; to which Mr. Allston 
 replied that it was impossible. Told Mr. Ticknor 
 that I should call upon him in Boston as soon as I 
 returned. 
 
 The strong impression which Allston's individualit 
 made upon Dana did not diminish with the lapsed! time. 
 On the contrary, in 1852, nine years after the artist's death, 
 a house in Cambridgeport in which he had lived many years 
 was destroyed by fire. The incident freshly revived Dana's 
 reminiscences connected with it, and he thus referred to 
 Allston in his diary : — 
 
 1852. August 20. During the three years and a 
 half I was a student at Cambridge, after my return 
 from sea, my Senior year and my two and one half 
 years in the Law School, it was my habit to spend 
 there one evening every week. I walked down about 
 dusk, for his dinner hour was after dark, he had 
 closed his painting room after a day of exquisite or 
 tormenting, lacerating or soothing labor, the candles 
 in their silver sticks were shining over his table cov- 
 ered with a pure white cloth, decked with a few 
 dishes, his never failing decanter of Madeira, and 
 after a warm salutation we sat down at table. His 
 dress was a blue coat with gilt buttons, drab panta- 
 loons, a rich brown or buff waistcoat, and a white 
 
1843. WASHINGTON ALLSTON. 83 
 
 cravat ; while his hair, beautiful even in age with the 
 various tints of gray and waving curls, crowned the 
 exquisite beauty of his regular but animated features. 
 His day's work, be it fortunate or unfortunate, is 
 over. There is nothing more for him to do but to 
 enjoy ease and pleasant society. The meal is pro- 
 tracted, and no claim of helping or being helped is 
 permitted to interfere with anecdote or criticism. 
 
 When the dinner is removed, the glasses remain, 
 and a small plate containing his evening cigar. When 
 this was lighted, and he had leaned back in his chair, 
 and the wreathed smoke arose like a halo about his 
 curling hair, so close to it in color and form and 
 lightness that you hardly knew which was ascending 
 into the air, — then the beauty and the dream of life 
 seemed truly to have begun. 
 
 Take him for all in all, I ne'er shall look upon his 
 like again ! 
 
 The exquisite moral sense, the true spirituality, 
 the kindliness and courtesy of heart as well as of 
 manner, the corresponding external elegance, the ele- 
 vation above the world and the men and things of it 
 — where have these ever been so combined before ? 
 The wine of life is drawn. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 VACATION KAMBLES. — THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 
 
 Towards the middle of August, feeling worn out by con- 
 stant office work in the midst of intense heat, Dana 
 mined to go to the Isles of Shoals for a few dayTbi complete 
 relaxation in that sea air he loved so well. The Shoals, so 
 familiar now, were then almost unknown as a place of sum- 
 mer resort. The Leightons had just begun their purchases, 
 and the islands, inhabited only by a fishing population, were 
 in the primitive condition which had been unbroken for 
 nearly two centuries. There was no house of entertainment 
 yet upon them. Dana's long account of this visit is full of 
 freshness, and the fact that the Shoals have since become the 
 resort of thousands every summer gives to what he wrote 
 in those earlier days a peculiar interest now : — 
 
 1843. August 15. Tuesday. Woke up and found 
 it raining. Gave up my plan for going to the Isles 
 of Shoals. Went down to breakfast in town and 
 found it clearing off. By ten it was a sultry, close 
 day. Determined again to go. Sent for my clothes, 
 hurried through my business, left directions to Ned 
 and Peck, rushed home, threw a few things into my 
 trunk and valise, and hurried off. Just reached the 
 steamer at eleven. It was the Telegraph, bound to 
 Portsmouth. The run down in her was very pleas- 
 ant, and the sea air, as usual, set me up at once. I 
 walked the deck, to and fro, nearly the whole passage, 
 and felt the freedom of having no labor to perform, 
 
1843. VACATION RAMBLES. 85 
 
 and only to follow the will and thought or dream of 
 the moment. As we n eared Cape Ann our tiller 
 rope parted, and in shipping the tiller aft I rendered 
 some service by moving a tackle for the tiller, which 
 introduced me to the pilot, and obtained for me an 
 invitation to the wheel-house, where I spent an hour 
 or so learning the points of land, their bearings, dis- 
 tances, etc. We took off passengers at Rockport, and 
 went quite near to Pigeon Cove. This put it into 
 my head to stop at the Cove on my way back. 
 
 Passed the Isle of Shoals, so-called, although they 
 are a group of seven high, rocky islands. The light- 
 house and the meeting-house were distinctly visible. 
 Reached Portsmouth at five P. M., after a very pleas- 
 ant run. . . . 
 
 August 16. Engaged a boat to take me to "the 
 Shoals," to start at ten. . . . The boatman's name 
 was Jackson, and his boat's the Temperance. On 
 our way down he pointed out the chief landmarks, 
 and gave me much interesting information. After 
 passing the Whale's Back and steering for the Shoals, 
 which were barely in sight, I took the helm, and he 
 went to sleep in the bottom of the boat. As I neared 
 the easternmost island, Duck Island, a large wood 
 sloop tried to go to windward of me. Being on 
 the starboard tack and she on the larboard, I kept on 
 and passed across her house. We came so near, how- 
 ever, that the noise of the water under the sloop's 
 bows woke up Jackson, who started to see a heavy 
 sloop so near upon him. After looking about a few 
 minutes he took anothernap, and I waked him as we 
 came round Duck Island. I kept the helm and 
 steered by his directions through the channel be- 
 tween Hog and Smutty Nose Islands and into the 
 
86 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mx. 28. 
 
 cove of Star Island, where he was to leave me. The 
 prospect was not very encouraging as we walked up 
 to the house where I was to put up. The whole 
 island was less than a mile square, girt with rocks, 
 with very little vegetation and with about twenty un- 
 painted, weather-stained houses scattered about near 
 the landing-place, without any marks for streets or 
 fences. The whole island had a strong fishy smell, 
 and in going ashore we had to walk over a^surface of 
 fishes' heads and bones, which the fishermen leave on 
 the beach, just where they throw them, in cleaning. 
 Jackson took me to the house of Joseph Copwell, the 
 best on the island, and the only one where any com- 
 pany is received. Copwell is a pilot as well as a 
 fisherman, and seems to be a leading man on the 
 island. Jackson soon left me and returned to town. 
 As he went I told him I should be going up Monday 
 or Tuesday. "Oh, "said he, "you won't stay here 
 more than a day or two." He did not know the mo- 
 tive which brought me. 
 
 August 17. After breakfast went fishing in a 
 whale-boat, with two boys. I managed the boat, and 
 the boys showed me places. Caught a few mackerel 
 and haddock. Returned to dinner at twelve. After 
 dinner sailed out again in a small boat with one sail, 
 and beat over to the light-house against wind, tide 
 and a heavy head sea. . . . 
 
 Returned to Star Island to supper. Afterwards 
 walked again upon the rocks, which are very grand, 
 ragged and broken. Some large crevices and ravines 
 seem to have been formed either by the wasting of 
 many centuries, or by some great convulsion of na- 
 ture. They are the grandest rocks I ever saw, as I 
 now remember. None "which I have seen can equal 
 
1843. VACATION RAMBLES. 87 
 
 them, unless it be those of Nahant and a part of the 
 shore of San Juan Campestrano in California. 
 
 August 18. Friday. After breakfast took a 
 boat and went fishing. After fishing for some time, 
 landed on Hog Island. This is the largest island 
 of the group, being, I should judge, about one and 
 a half miles in length and averaging a mile in 
 breadth. It is, like all the others, a mere bed of 
 rocks, with a few patches of vegetation. This island, 
 together with Smutty Nose, the next largest, were 
 bought, during the last year, by two traders from 
 Portsmouth by the name of Leighton. They were 
 noted rumsellers and loco-focoers, and the people on 
 the islands are afraid that they will revive intemper- 
 ance, which has been quite driven out from among 
 the people by means of religious efforts and the total 
 abstinence pledge. . . . 
 
 Returned to Star Island to dine. After dinner 
 Cheever, the light-house man, came over in his boat, 
 to take me to sail, \yith an invitation to spend the 
 night at his house. For the sake of the change, and 
 for the novelty of spending a night in such a place, 
 as well as because Cheever seemed to be a clever 
 fellow and desirous of my company, I accepted the 
 invitation, although I had made arrangements to go 
 off after hake with Shoalsmen, who go every night. 
 Cheever's boat is a new one, just built, belonging to 
 the government, and a very neat boat and a fast 
 sailer. He takes great delight in her, and spends 
 hours every day in sailing about among the islands. 
 I got into the boat, he gave me up the helm, being a 
 stranger, the breeze was brisk, the afternoon clear 
 and pleasant, and putting her through Hog Island 
 passage and sticking her right off to seaward, with 
 
88 RICHARD HENRY DANA. jEt. 28. 
 
 the foam flying from her bows, a bright gurgling 
 wake behind, and the cool sea breeze about us, we 
 had a glorious sail. 
 
 Having sailed several miles due east, we bore 
 round and stood again for the islands. Passing 
 through the passage between Rog^and Smutty Nose, 
 we landed upon the latter, which I had never visited. 
 A small pier or breakwater makes a snug harbor for 
 boats, much better than either of the other islands 
 has. It is in rather a ruinous condition, and only 
 two houses on the island are inhabited. It once 
 contained a population of four hundred or five hun- 
 dred souls. This, however, was before the Revolu- 
 tion, and there are no signs of its former prosperity 
 but the pier, a few hollows where cellars were once 
 dug, and some moss-covered tombstones. 
 
 One of the Leightons was living here. He is 
 brother-in-law of Cheever, who was very anxious that 
 I should see him, and introduced him to me. Cheever 
 has quite an admiration of Leighton's abilities, and 
 told me that he has been for many years in the New 
 Hampshire Senate, was the Honorable Thomas 
 Leighton, and next to Levi Woodbury had more in- 
 fluence with the dominant party, which is loco-foco, 
 than any man in the State. All this may be, for 
 many such men we have. He was seated on the pier, 
 dressed in the roughest manner, with a coarse, dirty 
 handkerchief about his neck, chewing tobacco and 
 whittling a stick with a jack-knife. There was some- 
 thing very unprepossessing about him. He left his 
 seat, and kept on his whittling and chewing as be- 
 fore, and only made an unintelligible sound in an- 
 swer to Cheever's introduction. I saw that he was a 
 character, and determined to try him. I sat directly 
 
184 3. VACATION RAMBLES. 89 
 
 down beside him and entered into conversation. At 
 first lie said but little. After some time lie inquired 
 what had been the result of Wy man's trial. Having 
 told him all I knew, I said, " How is it, Mr. Leigh- 
 ton, that we seem hardly to be trusted to manage 
 money matters?" He admitted that it was so. I 
 inquired the reason. He said it was because of 
 foreign luxuries and foreign notions, which had cor- 
 rupted our republican simplicity. I answered that 
 public faith and mercantile honor were higher in the 
 old countries, especially in England, than here. To 
 this he again assented, and said that was because 
 money was everything here, all could make it, and 
 he who could make the most was at the head of 
 society, while in England this was qualified by he- 
 reditary rank and blood, which no money can buy. 
 The competition and the temptation were less uni- 
 versal and overpowering. I then said a word in 
 favor of the British Constitution, but here he bolted, 
 and said lie hated England and all her ways ; that 
 he liked France better. He then spoke highly of 
 Bonaparte. I told him I never knew a radical who 
 did not like a despot, while a conservative liked a 
 government of law. He said he had thought a good 
 deal about the state of things, and doubted if our in- 
 stitutions could stand. Every republic before ours 
 had been a failure, etc. 
 
 I found that he had read a good deal, and was a 
 sagacious man, but had strong prejudices and a dis- 
 like of established laws and orders, and of any per- 
 sons who had positions better than his own. 
 
 At this time it began to look like a thunder-shower 
 and we left. Cheever took me over to his light- 
 house, and as the weather looked rather threatening, 
 
90 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEx. 28. 
 
 I consented to spend the night. The breeze was 
 cool and sea-ey, and the view, in the midst of thun- 
 der clouds, quite grand. After tea we walked out 
 upon the rocks, and at sundown I went up witli him 
 into his lantern. The evening we spent in a very 
 primitive manner, he showing me a parcel of old 
 views of the Tuileries and Sans Souci, which I 
 looked over carefully and approvingly, translating 
 the French for him at the bottom, and on my part 
 gave him and his wife a detailed account of the bat- 
 tles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. 
 
 His wife is a very pretty young woman, under 
 thirty, and he has three little children. On going 
 away, I gave him a half dollar to lay out in pres- 
 ents for the children when he next went to Ports- 
 mouth. He disliked receiving money, but I told 
 him I wished to make his children a present, and he 
 knew I could get nothing at the islands. 
 
 August 19. Saturday. About nine this morning 
 he took me back to the Shoals. 
 
 There was one thing in the case of Cheever which 
 illustrated most forcibly the unhappy state of our 
 country. He had been appointed to his present of- 
 fice two years ago upon the accession of General 
 Harrison. He had taken great pains to perform his 
 duties well, and being an intelligent, temperate man, 
 with a good deal of ingenuity and the organ of order 
 well developed, he has filled his place better than it 
 has ever been filled. All persons who know any- 
 thing of him agree in saying this. His salary is 
 $600 per annum, out of which he has to pay for an 
 assistant whom he is obliged to keep always on the 
 island in case of sickness or accident to himself, and 
 to support his family. . Lately the collector of the 
 
1843. 
 
 VACATION RAMBLES. 91 
 
 customs at Portsmouth, by whom he is appointed, 
 had him removed and a Tyler man put in his place. 
 Cheever now trembles in his shoes, and is utterly at 
 a loss to know what to do. The state of politics is 
 so confused, and the movements of parties so unin- 
 telligible, that he cannot for his life tell where to 
 look for help. . He has everything at stake, for he 
 has a family to support, and gave up a good trade for 
 this office. If he loses it he loses a support, and may 
 not easily find another. The temptation is too great 
 to be resisted, and all the time he bored me with 
 questions about politics. Not that he inquired at 
 all about the principles and opinions of public men 
 and parties, — that was unnecessary, — but who 
 would succeed ? What would turn up ? What if a 
 man should support Tyler, would Tyler support him ? 
 What were the chances of Clay, Calhoun and Van 
 Buren? In the medley presented to him he knew 
 not where to put his foot, and yet his living 'de- 
 pended upon his putting it down somewhere, and that 
 soon. I tried to talk upon fishing,* boats and the 
 like, but he always went back to his one subject of 
 guessings and schemings. The state of servitude this 
 poor man was in was truly pitiable. With good feel- 
 ings and good principles in the main, he had come 
 to look upon politics as a game, and one in which 
 every man lay down his money upon the point most 
 likely to win. All other notions of politics and pub- 
 lic duties were effaced from his mind. This is not 
 wholly nor chiefly his fault, but a necessary conse- 
 quence of those pernicious practices which have been 
 prevailing for the last fifteen years, — which began 
 with Jefferson, were revived with full vigor by Jack- 
 son, which Van Buren had little need to exercise but 
 
92 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mv. 28. 
 
 never repudiated, and which his party always pur- 
 sued, which the Whigs of 1840 were afraid fully and 
 heartily to disavow, and which when in power they 
 carried out as far as any before them had done, and 
 which now have become the standing rule of practice 
 in the country. 
 
 This afternoon, being Saturday, .the Shoalsmen, 
 who never fish on Sundays, or Saturday evenings, 
 cleaned out their boats, took ashore their bait and 
 lines, washed and cleaned themselves and put on 
 clean Sunday clothes, and, the afternoon being pleas- 
 ant and the breeze good, sailed about in their boats 
 for pleasure. This is the only recreation the islands 
 afford, and I am told that they depend upon a pleas- 
 ant Saturday afternoon to take their families out to 
 sail, and to turn into a pleasure what has been a la- 
 bor to them during the week. The clergyman and 
 his two daughters went out in our boat, upon invita- 
 tion of two of the islanders, and in another I saw an 
 old woman seated in a chair which her descendants 
 had placed for her in the stern of their boat. Some 
 of these parties went to the other islands and wan- 
 dered about them, picking berries ; some went to the 
 light-house, and others merely sailed to and fro. 
 
 I took one sail by myself, and another by invita- 
 tion of a fisherman in his boat. 
 
 Called upon the clergyman, the Rev. Mr. . 
 
 Found him a very illiterate man of the Christian 
 Baptist persuasion, and apparently as weak as illit- 
 erate. He was very much awed by the presence of 
 a Boston lawyer who had been educated at Cam- 
 bridge, for he had received nothing that could by 
 courtesy be called an education, and had never been 
 in a town larger than Portsmouth. His ideas of 
 
1843. VACATION RAMBLES. 93 
 
 Boston and her wealth, intelligence and greatness 
 were quite magnificent. He told me that he had had 
 no advantages, and that a difficulty in the head 
 which came on whenever he tried to read much had 
 always prevented his studying. He had a wife and 
 three children, all supported upon $ 300 a year. 
 
 Went over to Cheever's after tea in a wherry, tak- 
 ing with me two strangers who were on the island, 
 to see the light-house. Found Cheever watching the 
 clouds and doubting whether to take his boat in. 
 The Shoalsmen had told him it was going to blow, 
 but there was so little appearance of it that he at last 
 determined to anchor her off with two anchors 
 ahead, and let her ride. 
 
 August 20. Sunday. Woke up this morning 
 with a heavy gale from the northeast and the rain 
 beating against the windows. The vessels of the 
 Shoalsmen were safe, their cove being protected on 
 that side. At ten walked to church in a violent 
 rain and gale. Found the people on the hill watch- 
 ing Cheever's boat, which was pitching at her an- 
 chors, the sea breaking outside of her. 
 
 The congregation consisted of about twenty-five per- 
 sons, three or four of whom were hard-favored women, 
 ten or a dozen rough fishermen, and the remainder 
 white-headed and brown-faced boys. Some of the 
 boys were barefooted, and some had on red shirts and 
 no jackets. The men were dressed in pea-jackets, or 
 round blue jackets. The sermon was from the text, 
 " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
 in vain." Flat, wandering, and miserably weak was 
 the performance. The poor preacher was evidently 
 much impressed with the presence of strangers, and 
 preached for us much as Vincent Crummies' com- 
 
94 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 28. 
 
 pany played for the London manager. Once he 
 alluded to his own want of education, and said that 
 there were some present who could tell better than 
 he could such and such things. This was pitiable, 
 and only served to lower him in the estimation of 
 his people. I doubt if he can do much good among 
 these people, for although it is not necessary that 
 their clergyman should be learned, yet they are 
 shrewd and need a man of more force and common 
 sense. 
 
 P. M. On coming to church learned that Cheever's 
 boat had swamped close by the rocks on his island, 
 but was kept clear of the rocks by her anchors which 
 still held her. With a telescope saw her white streak 
 rising and falling with the seas, as she lay water- 
 logged on her beam ends. 
 
 After church walked out to the northeast end of 
 the island, the rain having ceased, to see the breakers. 
 The sea was very grand. The long heavy swell set 
 in to the land, forming into high combing seas as it 
 neared the shoaler water, and breaking and rushing 
 up on the steep craggy rock with terrific force and 
 a deafening clamor. I never saw so large seas break 
 on any shore before. They rushed over rocks of the 
 height of forty and fifty feet, and sent their spray far 
 higher into the air. While standing on a high rock, 
 perhaps the highest on the island, and at a distance 
 from its edge which seemed perfectly safe, I was wet 
 through to the skin by an unusually large comber. 
 The swell that set in between Star and Cedar islands 
 was tremendous, and over Cedar Island ledge, which 
 lies about half a mile from the island, the seas broke 
 and threw themselves up into sparkling columns, look- 
 ing like the fountain in the Park when at its highest 
 play. 
 
1843. VACATION RAMBLES. 95 
 
 In the afternoon, when the seas were less high, the 
 boys took a large Newfoundland dog down to the 
 rocks, and in spite of. all their efforts to keep him 
 back, he dived off from a low rock into the foaming 
 billows, and after being sucked off to a distance and 
 then thrown up towards the rocks, and turned round 
 and over several times, he was at last thrown upon a 
 rock to which he clung, and by it scrambled upon the 
 island. We thought his limbs would be broken, but 
 so little frightened was he that he wished to go off 
 again, and the only way by which we could prevent 
 him was to walk directly back to the houses, to which 
 he followed us. 
 
 The sermon in the afternoon was from the text 
 which expresses the keeping of the Sabbath. This 
 congregation amounted to fifty, and with a fuller 
 house and pleasanter weather, the preacher was more 
 ambitious and more unfortunate than in the morn- 
 ing. I could not have endured another such an ex- 
 ercise that day, nor for several days after it. . . . 
 
 August 21. Monday. This morning the rain had 
 ceased, the sun was out bright, and the wind had 
 moderated, but still the seas were high. The elder 
 Copwell, the pilot, tried to raise a party to go off in 
 a whale-boat and save Cheever's boat. I volunteered 
 to go for one, and one other man offered, but he could 
 raise no one else. Some said that the seas were so 
 high that we could not go near the boat, and others 
 said it was government property, and Cheever must 
 raise a signal if he wanted help. 
 
 Finding that a crew could not be raised, I deter- 
 mined to go off and see what was the situation of the 
 boat and communicate with Cheever if possible. 
 Taking a small sail-boat, and the two strangers who 
 
06 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 28. 
 
 were on the island, who could barely pull an oar but 
 were entirely unacquainted with the management of 
 a boat, I went off. On approaching the boat I found 
 that the sea did not break so violently as I supposed, 
 and I ran close by the side of her. She lay on her 
 beam ends filled with water, the sea washing over 
 her, one mast with the sail on it being gone and the 
 other lying broken alongside. Seeing Cheever upon 
 the rocks opposite the boat I ran in to speak with 
 him. He pointed out a smooth place under the lee 
 of a ledge which lay just off the island, and there I 
 put the boat. Taking in my sail, I made the two 
 men row while I steered. Keeping the boat's head 
 out and her stern in towards the shore we rose and 
 fell regularly in the swell, now and then pulling an 
 oar to keep off the rocks. My men were awkward 
 with their oars and a good deal alarmed by their new 
 position, and sometimes failed to pull as I told them, 
 but we kept ourselves safe. At length I let the boat 
 back in toward a large steep rock, and Cheever, watch- 
 ing his chance, jumped on board, while we pulled off 
 briskly. We took him round the boat, which he ex- 
 amined, and then going round to the lee side of the 
 island and watching a smooth chance, landed him 
 again. He told me not to ask the Shoalsmen to come 
 off and help him, but that if they wished to come he 
 should be happy to have their help, as they must 
 know. 
 
 Returning to the island, I found that the men had 
 been watching my boat with great anxiety from the 
 hill, and learned that one old fisherman said we should 
 be lost, that no boat could land where we did, and 
 when we went under the lee of the ledge, they all 
 thought we had gone over it. They were a little 
 
1843. 
 
 VACATION RAMBLES. 97 
 
 ashamed, yet persevered in refusing to go and aid 
 Cheever, putting it on the ground that as the boat 
 was government property he must ask for help, or 
 they could not get salvage, for the boat was safe where 
 she lay. They said that if the boat had been Chee- 
 ver's private property they would have gone at once. 
 In this state of misunderstanding the boat seemed 
 likely to remain untouched. 
 
 After dinner the Shoalsmen went off to catch mack- 
 erel which the northeaster had driven in. The place 
 they went to was off Cedar Point, just front of the 
 Cedar Island passage. The sea was very high there, 
 and the great rollers came in with such size and force 
 as to make it dangerous and very disagreeable to en- 
 counter them in small boats. Nevertheless, as the 
 Shoalsmen were out, I determined to go, and taking 
 the same small boat, with a stiff breeze I ran through 
 the passage and off to the ground where the fishing 
 boats were at anchor. The rollers were so high and 
 so pitched the boats about that only a quick helm 
 with a stiff breeze kept them from being capsized or 
 swamped. I came to anchor off the point, close by 
 two other boats which were pitching up and down so 
 as to stand nearly perpendicular. My boat being 
 small, we were pitched and tumbled about at such a 
 rate that it completely confused me and made me 
 dizzy, and in a short time I felt sea-sick and vomited 
 a little. Yet I kept at fishing and caught several 
 mackerel. The sea was so rough that few of the 
 boats stayed there and I was not sorry to take up 
 my anchor and be off. As I got under way, a man 
 from another boat hailed and told me not to go 
 through the Cedar Island passage, before the wind, 
 that all the boats were going round Star Island. So 
 
98 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 28. 
 
 I braced up and went round Star Island, and it 
 being late ran in to bail Cbeever before night. The 
 surf was breaking so loud upon the rocks that he 
 could not hear, and so high that it was impossible 
 to land. He made a signal for me to go to lee- 
 ward. Here I could communicate with him, but half 
 the words were lost in the roar of the surf. He 
 made it a point not to hoist a signal, because he 
 thought the Shoalsmen ought to come without one, 
 when they saw him in need. I could not make my- 
 self heard well enough to explain to him that they 
 would come if it was his own boat, and I was obliged 
 to leave him. 
 
 The wind was ahead for returning, and the sea 
 was very high, but I beat the little boat over in three 
 tacks, and came safely to moorings before night. 
 
 August 22. Tuesday. This morning it looked 
 cloudy, with promise of rain, and the fishermen said 
 we should have several days of bad weather. As 
 there was a boat leaving for Portsmouth at ten, I 
 determined to take passage in her, since I had given 
 myself a good spell at fishing and boating, and the 
 fair weather seemed to be at an end. My bill at 
 CopwelFs for a week's board was $2.50, and he 
 would take nothing for the use of his boat and lines, 
 since he had the fish I caught. I gave his daughter 
 half a dollar to buy something for herself in Ports- 
 mouth when she next went up, and took my leave 
 well satisfied with my stay and the treatment I had 
 received. 
 
 We had for passengers in the boat the clergyman 
 and his two daughters. The elder, Miss Mary Ann, 
 about eighteen, had never been on the island before 
 this visit, and never in a boat before but once, and 
 
1843. VACATION RAMBLES. 99 
 
 said she did not expect to visit the island again. I 
 did not ask her if she was going to be married. She 
 had some smartness, had been well taught at a board- 
 ing-school, I presume, and seemed to treat her father 
 with far too little respect. The younger, a black- 
 eyed, dark-complexioned girl of about fourteen, was 
 more pleasing. She had been at home, and was to 
 return to the island after parting with her sister. 
 The parson appeared better in the boat than in the 
 pulpit, though but indifferently here. 
 
 As we passed Whale's Back it began to rain and 
 continued raining quite violently for half an hour. 
 The parson produced an old umbrella with which he 
 covered the young ladies, while I, having my boating 
 clothes on, which I had worn during the whole expe- 
 dition, took the rain as it came and got pretty well 
 wet. We reached the wharf at about noon, and in a 
 quarter of an hour I was in my chamber at the Rock- 
 ingham House. 
 
 The group called the Isle of Shoals consists of 
 seven islands. These are mere beds of rock with 
 spots of vegetation here and there. Two of them, 
 Duck Island and the Londoner's, are not inhabit- 
 able, being mere rocks, upon which ducks and sea- 
 birds alight, and to which fishermen make fast their 
 nets. White Island, on which the light-house stands, 
 is also little else than a steep rock with a single 
 patch of soil about the keeper's house. It would not 
 sustain more than one goat from its own produce. 
 A fourth island, called Cedar, is not inhabited, and 
 although I did not land upon it, yet my impression is 
 that it is hardly, if at all habitable. The remaining 
 three, which are the largest, have always had a pop- 
 ulation upon them. Of these, the largest and most 
 
100 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 28. 
 
 fertile is Hog Island. Smutty Nose, or Smotinose, as 
 it is spelled in the old MS. records, or Smyna, which 
 tradition says is its proper name, is the second in 
 size and fertility. Star Island, so-called from its 
 shape, being nearly circular, with rock projections, is 
 now the most populous, and has always had as much 
 prosperity as any of them. At the present time its 
 entire population is one hundred and fourteen souls. 
 On Hog Island there are but two houses, recently 
 built by the Leightons, who mean to make it their 
 headquarters. Smutty Nose has about half a dozen 
 houses, in a decayed condition, and a population of 
 about twenty souls. It seems likely to be soon de- 
 serted. 
 
 Before the War of the Revolution these islands 
 enjoyed great prosperity. Their fisheries were very 
 profitable, and they afforded security from the at- 
 tacks of the Indians who molested the people on the 
 main land. In 1730 the population of the group was 
 eleven or twelve hundred. Hog Island had six hun- 
 dred of them, Smutty Nose and Star dividing the re- 
 mainder. There was a good deal of property, many 
 men of influence in the State, physicians, lawyers, a 
 well-paid clergyman, and men of different trades 
 and mechanical arts. The war opened a new danger 
 against which the islands were unprotected. This, 
 together with the decline of the fisheries and the re- 
 moval of fear from Indian incursions, soon reduced 
 the prosperity of the Shoals. I do not know how 
 low they got, but have an impression that the entire 
 population has been as little as eighty or ninety 
 souls. Some twenty years ago there was a good 
 deal of money made on the islands by three men of 
 the name of Haley, Newton, and Cop well, the for- 
 
1843. VACATION RAMBLES. 101 
 
 mer living on Smutty Nose, and the others on Star. 
 They were reputed to be worth from $10,000 to 
 $30,000 apiece ; but the other inhabitants were 
 quite poor and intemperate and indebted to these 
 three. The Haleys ran out their property and have 
 disappeared. The descendants of Newton and Cop- 
 well still live on Star Island, but their property is all 
 gone, and they labor as common fishermen. There 
 are two or three houses on Star and one on Smutty 
 Nose which look as though they might have been in- 
 habited by people somewhat above the class of day 
 fishermen, but excepting these signs, and the decent 
 gravestones of the Haleys, Newton and Copwells, 
 and of one or two clergymen, I saw nothing to indi- 
 cate a previous population. Indeed, I could hardly 
 credit the story that these islands had supported so 
 many persons, and should not but upon the best au- 
 thority. They must have imported all their wood 
 and nearly all their hay and vegetables. There is a 
 tradition, too, that a school flourished on Hog Island 
 at which the sons of men of fortune in Boston and 
 other parts of the main land were fitted for college. 
 
 The inhabitants have very much improved in their 
 moral condition within the last three years. Temper- 
 ance has spread among them, and no ardent spirits 
 are allowed upon Star Island. Drunkenness was 
 unknown there the last year. It is said that the 
 Leightons mean to sell spirits. If they do there will 
 be a fierce contest, for either they or the islanders 
 will be broken up by it. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WEIR, MACREADY, JUDGE STORY AND HORACE 
 
 MANN. 
 
 While Dana was at work in his State Street office, his 
 wife and child were passing the hot weather with Mrs. 
 Dana's relations in Connecticut. In September he went to 
 Wethersfield to enjoy a few days with them before they all 
 returned to Boston. The diary contains a pleasant glimpse 
 of happy summer hours passed in the country town. He 
 arrived on a Friday evening. 
 
 September 16. Saturday. This day opened beau- 
 tifully. The rain had laid the dust and washed the 
 trees and grass, and cleared the air, and now a clear 
 sun rose with an eastward breeze to prevent the sul- 
 triness of the summer's heat. The birds sang, and 
 through the trees which surrounded our window we 
 could just see the patches of sunlight on the grass. 
 
 The happiness which the day ought to carry with 
 it was shown in the expression and manner of the 
 whole family as they assembled for prayers and 
 breakfast. . . . No day could have been more de- 
 lightful. The temperature of the air was neither 
 hot nor cold, but so that one could lie down with 
 pleasure upon the grass under the shade of a tree. 
 Just before tea we walked out upon the hill and sat 
 down together upon a gravestone. The view was 
 most enchanting. The distant hills, the greenness 
 of all the earth and its growths, the smooth, quiet 
 
1843. COMMANDER MACKENZIE. 103 
 
 stream of the Connecticut, partly hidden by trees, 
 and partly winding amidst green raked meadows, 
 now and then a sail gliding over its surface, or show- 
 ing its top above the trees. . . . 
 
 September 17. Sunday. . . . Before tea S. and I 
 went out upon the hill and sat together in the grove, 
 delightfully enjoying the beautiful air, the waving 
 and rustling of the trees over our heads, and the still- 
 ness and freshness of all nature. We wished it were 
 so that we could spend days and weeks, as we had 
 spent these two. 
 
 The following day they returned to Boston and work, for 
 it was now verging towards the end of September, and the 
 vacation season of 1843 was over. 
 
 September 19. Commander A. Slidell Mackenzie 
 called with Lieutenant Davis. His appearance and 
 manners are very prepossessing. He is quiet, unas- 
 suming, free from all military display in manner, 
 self-possessed, and with every mark of a humane, 
 conscientious man, with sound judgment and moral 
 courage. He is unusually interesting, and creates a 
 feeling of personal affection towards him in those 
 whom he meets. Such was the impression he pro- 
 duced upon me, and I find he made a similar impres- 
 sion upon all who fell in with him during his stay 
 here. 
 
 September 23. Went with S. to see Weir's pic- 
 ture of the embarkation of the Pilgrims. It struck 
 me as well colored, and in excellent drawing, though 
 I am not a judge of such things. Several of the 
 faces, too, I liked very much, as the handsome and 
 well-born expression of Winslow with its dash of Pu- 
 ritanism, Robinson, Standisb, the oldest female and 
 
104 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 28. 
 
 sick child. But I cannot understand the full dress, 
 ball-room array of Mrs. Winslow, and her over- 
 dressed, fantastic aspect. 
 
 25. Breakfasted with Hillard to meet Weir. 
 Was charmed with Weir. I do not know when I 
 have seen a man who gained my affection and confi- 
 dence so soon and so completely. Took him out to 
 see the Belshazzar. He stood motionless and silent 
 before it for full a quarter of an hour. His interest 
 in it was intense. He says it is now in the confusion 
 of a change of horizon and point of sight. Some 
 parts of the picture are in one design and other parts 
 in another. It is chaotic ; but beautiful in its parts, 
 and grand in its design. After seeing the large pic- 
 ture I showed him the small sketches in chalk and 
 brown, and the unfinished sketches in color. Noth- 
 ing could exceed his delight and admiration. Ho 
 said that as exalted as had been his notion of A 11- 
 ston's genius, these things raised it higher ; and that 
 they must be engraved and preserved. He particu- 
 larly mentioned the Christ healing the Sick ; the fe- 
 male figure from life, with the bare arm and neck ; 
 the chalk sketches on crape; and theTitania's Court. 
 
 December 20. It having been agreed that the 
 Belshazzar should be cleaned and varnished, without 
 anything done in the way of change or restoration, 
 we employed Chase to do the work, which he has 
 performed to our entire satisfaction. The subscrib- 
 ers were invited to see it for this day and the two 
 next, and accordingly the room has been open. The 
 picture is so changed, and so completely brought out, 
 that we hardly knew what was there before ; the 
 various parts so brought into harmony, and the 
 strong parts so noble and so complete. Mr. Ticknor, 
 
1844. WEIR. 105 
 
 Mr. Dexter, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Jonathan Mason, Mr. 
 Harding, the artist, are all in a state of highest ad- 
 miration. Father, too, is so encouraged about it, 
 that it has quite put him up in health and spirits. 
 It is now agreed that Chase shall make an effort 
 to restore the king, which had been covered up by 
 Allston. We do not hesitate to attempt this, as we 
 know that he covered it up not from any dissatis- 
 faction with its character and execution, but merely 
 to enlarge it in conformity with an altered perspec- 
 tive. 
 
 1844. January 13. Moved my office from the Old 
 State House to rooms in the second story of Gray's 
 new building, 30 Court Street, where we have two 
 new rooms, with every convenience and in a good 
 neighborhood. 
 
 February 1. Went out to Cambridgeport with 
 S. to call upon Mrs. C. D. Gibson, and to see the 
 picture again. Aunt Martha was getting ready to 
 come into town for the winter. The king has been 
 restored as far as possible. He is in a very defaced 
 state, from the use of the pumice by Mr. Allston be- 
 fore he painted it over, but it adds greatly to the 
 effect of the picture. 
 
 P. M. The harbor being frozen entirely over, 
 through its whole width, and as far clown as the Long 
 Island Light, and a company having engaged to cut 
 a ship channel through the whole length, from the 
 wharves, I went down to see the work in company 
 with hundreds, or rather thousands, of others. The 
 scene was peculiar and exciting in the extreme. The 
 whole harbor was one field of ice, frozen on a perfect 
 level, though somewhat roughly in parts, and strong 
 enough to bear heavy loads of merchandise drawn by 
 
106 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 28. 
 
 cattle. Two gangs of men were at work % one begin- 
 ning at the wharves and cutting down, the other be- 
 ginning at the clear water and cutting up. Each 
 gang numbered over a hundred. Perhaps there were 
 four hundred workmen in all. For lookers-on, there 
 seemed to be half the city and surrounding country, 
 some in sleighs, some on skates, and some on foot. 
 Females and children walked fearlessly from Long 
 Wharf to the Castle, and enjoyed it highly. Among 
 other persons, I met Mr. Theodore Lyman with his 
 two daughters. There were merchants, lawyers, 
 clergymen, and people of every description, some of 
 whom had not been on skates for twenty years. 
 There were booths erected for the sale of refresh- 
 ments, at different parts of the track, and from the 
 end of Long Wharf to the place where the lower 
 gang was at work, a distance of five miles, there was 
 a well-marked foot-way, and travellers upon it were 
 as frequent as on the great highway to a city on a 
 festival day. I skated down as far as the ice would 
 allow, which was within about a mile of Long Island 
 Light, and across to Fort Warren and East Boston. 
 
 In the winter and early spring of this year Dana went on 
 a lecturing trip, in the course of which he visited Washing- 
 ton for the first time. From thence he wrote the following 
 letter to his wife. The explosion on board the Princeton 
 occurred on the 28th of February, and the Griswold re- 
 ferred to in the beginning of the letter was Rufus W. Gris- 
 wold, author of " Poets and Poetry of America." 
 
 Sunday evening, March 3. Was sitting writing in 
 my hotel when a sudden pounding on the door, and 
 in rushed Griswold again, breathless and panting, to 
 tell me that there had been a blow up on board the 
 Princeton, and Upshur, Gilmer, etc., etc., killed. 
 
1844. MOUNT VERNON. 1C7 
 
 From this moment there was nothing but excitement 
 and consternation all over the city, and rumors flying 
 about. Was there ever anything like the ill luck 
 that attends this man, John Tyler ! The president, 
 two secretaries of state, one secretary of the navy, 
 and these other three men, died and killed, his own 
 body servant killed, the postmaster-general stabbed, 
 and yesterday, on coming from the funeral, his car- 
 riage ran away, and his servant was thrown oil and 
 all persons in it and near it put in danger. While 
 the procession was moving to the capitol a purser in 
 the navy died in the city, and Friday afternoon a 
 member of Congress from Pennsylvania died near 
 the capitol. . . . 
 
 The best fact in my letter I leave to the last. I 
 went to Alexandria, Friday, called on Mr. Dana, 
 whom I knew to be the clergyman of the Washington 
 family, and rode down with him to Mount Vernon. 
 We had good horses, the day was a delicious one, 
 like our best days in the early May ; Mr. Dana 
 knew the localities well, and pointed out the resi- 
 dences of the gentlemen as we passed them, with an- 
 ecdotes of each, and ushered me into Mount Vernon. 
 I cannot attempt to describe Mount Vernon, but will 
 only tell you to say to father that he must go to 
 Mount Vernon, if he passes through Washington, 
 without looking to the right hand or the left. It is 
 the most impressive place in America. It leaves an 
 effect upon the feelings not to be erased. The long 
 drive through the woods over the rude carriage path, 
 the plain wooden gate which swings to after you, the 
 old negro porter who stands by it and lets it shut 
 itself, and answers pleasantly with a touch to the hat 
 when you ask him if his mistress is at home and how 
 
108 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 29. 
 
 she does, the ancient house, kept at some expense from 
 decay, with its high piazza, under which Washington 
 walked to and fro every day, the whole inside of the 
 house taking you back to the Virginia of 1780, the 
 noble Potomac rolling at the foot of the mount, the 
 ancestral trees, the tomb, the silence, the solemnity, 
 the elevation of all about you, unite to raise you and 
 take you back to the grandeur of an heroic age. 
 What a possession is this noble, but simple estate, 
 with the sentiment moulded into it by time, for the 
 young proprietor who has succeeded to it. The 
 wonder is that he is not as in a dream, or borne 
 down by the sense of what is around him. 
 
 The venerable Mrs. Washington, the widow of the 
 late and mother of the present proprietor, was there, 
 and we sat with her for some time. She is a digni- 
 fied, simple-mannered, kind woman, and Mr. Dana 
 says has a religious character which would season a 
 dozen ordinary Christians. Her son, the present 
 proprietor, Mr. John Augustin Washington, a young 
 man of two and twenty, did the honors of the place. 
 He was married last year, and has a daughter about 
 ten days old, so that we were in sympathy from hav- 
 ing each a single child, — a daughter. He was edu- 
 cated at the University of Virginia. A more easy, 
 natural, frank, yet high-spirited and well-cultivated 
 man I have rarely seen. There is something about 
 the manners of the Virginia gentlemen which you 
 don't find elsewhere. Plain in their dress, simple in 
 their manners, the question whether they are doing 
 the right thing, comme il faut, whether this or that 
 is genteel or not, never seems to occur to them, or to 
 have any place in their minds. There is a freedom 
 of true gentility, as well as of true Christianity, 
 
1844. THE VIRGINIA GENTRY. 109 
 
 while many men aim at the mark by striving to do 
 the deeds of tbe law, not having the guide within, 
 and are all their lifetime suffering bondage. I took 
 a great fancy to this Mr. Washington and to his 
 mother, as you see. 
 
 We rode back to town, which we reached by night- 
 fall, and it being too late to return to Washington, I 
 passed the night at Alexandria and spent the evening 
 at the house of Mrs. Fitzhugh, widow of a Virginian 
 of wealth and distinction, herself a Goldsborough of 
 Maryland, an old Federal family, where I met Mr. 
 Robert Lee, son of General Lee of the Revolution, 
 heir to the Custis property, and brother of Charles 
 Carter Lee, whom father knew at Cambridge, two 
 granddaughters of Richard Henry Lee, and two other 
 young ladies of the Floyd and Mason families, — all 
 of the old Federal Virginia aristocracy, and all strong 
 Church people and regular attendants on all occa- 
 sions. Mr. Lee rode seven miles that afternoon to 
 the Friday service of Lent. Mrs. Fitzhugh was more 
 like Mrs. Arnold than any other woman I have seen. 
 So you see I am quite insane about Virginia. It has 
 a dark side, however, and the issues of its life are 
 uncertain. 
 
 Yesterday we had a great funeral solemnity, pro- 
 cessions, minute guns, etc. I went to one of the 
 Episcopal churches to-day, which was quite full. 
 The Unitarian, at the next door, almost, was quite 
 thin, I am happy to be informed. 
 
 The summer vacation of 1844 Dana devoted to a trip in 
 the mountains and among the lakes of Maine. As he re- 
 turned from it he closed a letter to his wife, dated from 
 Cape Cottage, Portland Harbor, in the following way, char- 
 acteristic of him in every respect : — 
 
110 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mv. 29. 
 
 Wednesday evening, August 28. I Lave been suc- 
 cessful in everything. I have had fine weather, the 
 best of health and spirits, have seen everything to 
 advantage, and have enjoyed every minute. Where 
 I am now writing the sea roars in my ear, the light- 
 house throws its light across the water, and white 
 sails are stealing up the harbor by the moonlight. 
 I was in love with the country, the mountains and 
 lake, and thought it a delight to be among them, and 
 now when I see " Old Ocean's gray and melancholy 
 waste," and hear its voices, my first love returns with 
 an overcoming power. I feel as though I had been 
 so favored at every step that I ought not to hope for 
 only good. * " Have we received good at the hand of 
 the Lord, and shall we not also receive evil ? " 
 
 September 13. The Parish of the Advent incor- 
 porated itself, and appointed a committee to draw- 
 up a constitution. There were thirteen members 
 present. 
 
 In the autumn of 1844 Macready, the English tragedian, 
 visited Boston, and Dana met him socially a number of 
 times, though they never had much conversation together. 
 A strictly moral as well as a religious man, Dana still re- 
 tained the old New England prejudice against theatres, as 
 being sinks of iniquity and little better than assignation 
 houses. He never until later years visited them ; but in 
 the case of Macready he made an exception. A number of 
 gentlemen had secured the Melodeon for a series of sub- 
 scription performances, and their names and the actor's pri- 
 vate character Dana accepted as a sufficient warrant that 
 all would be right. Accordingly, he subscribed and went 
 with his wife, seeing for the first time the parts of Hamlet, 
 Shylock and Macbeth rendered by an actor of note. The 
 performances were the talk of the town, and to Dana they 
 were a revelation. "Truly," he wrote of Hamlet, "it is 
 
1844. MACREADY. Ill 
 
 great playing. But what a glorious play ! You are lost 
 admiration of the play itself. What a miracle that it 
 should ever have been written ! " Then three days later 
 he dines with a small company at Professor Channing's. 
 " Nothing talked about but Hamlet. The professor says he 
 had seen Kean, and thought no acting could suit him, and 
 he feared he was getting too old and frosty to be moved by 
 it now ; but this put him into raptures. Again and again he 
 came back to it. Passage after passage was repeated and dis- 
 cussed, and the beauties of the performance grew upon us." 
 
 October 14. This evening went to see the Mac- 
 beth, which was Macready's benefit. He played ad- 
 mirably, but never was a play so destroyed by the 
 accompaniments. The witches, the murderers, and 
 the ghost of Banquo were ludicrous and provoking. 
 The audience laughed, and it was irresistible to see 
 two paltry, chicken-hearted lads, one lisping and the 
 other squinting, saying, " I am one whom the vile 
 blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that 
 I am reckless what I do to spite the world." 
 
 His conception of the character seemed to me ex- 
 cellent. He looked like a noble chieftain and a heroic 
 soldier, and yet when he comes in comparison with 
 the mind of his wife, and he turns his thoughts to 
 the consequences of his act, there is almost a weakness 
 about it. His speaking of the passage, " better be 
 with the dead, — Duncan is in his grave," was beyond 
 comparison. Miss Charlotte Cnshman acted Lady 
 Macbeth faultlessly. Many persons of good taste 
 about us said that she did it much better than Fanny 
 Kemble, especially in the sleep-walking scene, which 
 Fanny Kemble declaimed, and Miss Cushman whis- 
 pered or uttered in a low convulsed agony. The first 
 word, " out," was given in a tone perfectly dream- 
 
112 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 29. 
 
 like. So was nearly all. It was broken, wandering, 
 low, convulsed, and agonizing. 
 
 October 15. This evening Macready took bis 
 leave of his Boston friends by giving them an en- 
 tertainment at Papanti's Hall. It was one of the 
 prettiest and most successful things I ever knew, and 
 quite original. 
 
 He had about three hundred people of the highest 
 fashion and intelligence in the city, and a great part 
 of the clergy. Among them were Mr. Webster, Mr. 
 Choate, Chief Justice Shaw, President Quincy, Ab- 
 bott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton, and other distin- 
 guished public men, the Ticknors, Eliots, D wights, 
 Nortons, Searses, Otises, Quincys, etc., and Longfel- 
 low, Felton, Hillard, etc. The hall was brilliantly 
 lighted, and filled with chairs, placed in rows. Ma- 
 cready sat on a small platform, with a desk before 
 him, and read sitting. He first read Dryden's song 
 for St. Cecilia's Day, beginning " From harmony, 
 from heavenly harmony," then Wordsworth's " Old 
 Cumberland Beggar," then "O'Connor's Child," 
 and ended with the scene from Henry IV. part 2d, 
 beginning where the king asks Clarence where the 
 prince is, and going through to the death. 
 
 Between each reading there was an interval of 
 about ten minutes, when the gentlemen walked about 
 and talked to the ladies, and between the second and 
 third readings there was lemonade handed about. 
 
 Soon after the reading closed the doors to the sup- 
 per room were opened, Macready led in a lady, and 
 the rest of the company soon followed. Here were 
 ices, salads, champagne, and the usual supper-table 
 accompaniments. This over, we took our leave of 
 our host and departed, delighted with the entertain- 
 ment in every respect. 
 
1844-45. JUDGE STORY. 113 
 
 The Ode he read with skill and force. The Old 
 Beggar he gave with all the refinement and delicacy 
 it requires. It was melting ; but O'Connor's Child 
 took the heart out of you. The scene from Henry 
 IV. was read with great skill and feeling. 
 
 The whole affair was novel, brilliant with beauty 
 and distinction, and exciting and interesting from his 
 performances, and must have been grateful to him- 
 self. 
 
 December 1. Sunday. The first public worship of 
 the " Church of the Advent" was held this day, 
 being Advent Sunday. We had prepared a hall in 
 the second story of No. 13 Merrimack Street, with 
 bare walls and wooden benches, but a chancel neatly 
 railed off and simply fitted up, a pleasant house organ, 
 and a full, reverential and exceedingly interested con- 
 gregation. The services were conducted in the best 
 possible manner by the rector, Mr. Croswell, the 
 music was excellent, Charlotte singing the first part, 
 and the sermon very impressive and appropriate. 
 Then we had the communion administered to between 
 forty and fifty communicants. Everything is auspi- 
 cious, so far. 
 
 1845. September 5. Great meeting of the bar on 
 the occasion of the death of Judge Story. Never did 
 the bar appear in such strength, and rarely have I 
 known a more impressive scene. The notice was given 
 for ten o'clock, and from a few minutes before until a 
 few minutes after the members flowed in in a stream, 
 filling up not only the bar, but every seat in the room, 
 the witness and jury seats, and the places for specta- 
 tors ; and the whole company were lawyers. Prob- 
 ably not a lawyer in the city was absent who had the 
 physical power to come. More than half the younger 
 
114 RICHARD HENRY DANA. 2Et. 30. 
 
 members bad been pupils of the judge. Among the 
 older were faces which were unknown to the junior 
 members of the bar, which had not been seen in court 
 for twenty years. Webster moved the resolutions in 
 a dignified and feeling speech. Old Judge Davis sec- 
 onded them. Then the venerable Jer. Mason moved 
 a resolution that Mr. Webster be requested to pre- 
 pare a eulogy, which Judge Sprague seconded. Chief 
 Justice Shaw presided. 
 
 September 18. Professor Greenleaf pronounced a 
 discourse upon Judge Story before the Law School 
 and the University. His audience, beside ladies and 
 strangers, consisted of nearly all the officers and stu- 
 dents of the college, over a hundred law students, and 
 a large proportion of the Boston bar. The discourse 
 was written in a simple, earnest and feeling manner, 
 and delivered in a corresponding manner. I never 
 saw more fixed attention. When he closed, every 
 man seemed to move in his seat for the first time. 
 
 The last time I ever saw that most amiable, single- 
 hearted and industrious of men, Judge Story, was in 
 his own court. During an interval in an argument I 
 stepped up to the bench to ask whether I should make 
 a motion. But this was not enough for him. He 
 could not meet a pupil without a greeting. He 
 moved from his seat, his face beamed with kindness, 
 and he shook me by the hand in the most cordial man- 
 ner, and then listened to my business. I believe this 
 was the last day he sat in court. If not the last it was 
 near it, for his death was about a fortnight after. 
 
 December 9. Arrived at Philadelphia at three 
 o'clock. ... I went to the United States Hotel, 
 ordered a fire in my room, and after dinner sat down 
 to read over my lecture. While reading heard a loud 
 
1845. NEWSPAPER REPORTER. 115 
 
 knock at my door. Had hardly answered it before it 
 burst open, and in tumbled a short, fat, greasy-look- 
 ing man, with a soiled neck-cloth and wet black hair, 
 quite out of breath, and breathing like a porpoise. 
 
 " Mr. Dana, I presume. Mr. R. H. Dana, Jr., from 
 Boston ? " " Yes, sir." " You lecture to-night before 
 the Mercantile Library Association." " Yes, sir, I 
 
 hope to." " Well, sir, I am Mr. of the . 
 
 You may know the paper if you don't know me." 
 I told him I knew the paper by reputation. He then 
 apologized, said he was oat of breath, was large and 
 tired, and took a chair. He told me that it was their 
 custom to give a notice of the lecture in the paper of 
 the next morning ; that it* they employed a reporter 
 they could not set it up in season ; and, in short, that 
 he would be much obliged to me if I would give him 
 a sketch of my lecture for the press. 
 
 I asked him if it was usual to do this. He assured 
 me that it was, and was considered perfectly proper. 
 Without more ado, he moved his chair up to the table, 
 took off his great coat and India rubbers, drew from 
 his pocket a roll of foolscap paper which he put on 
 the table, took from another pocket an inkstand and 
 quills, and proceeded to make a pen. He then de- 
 sired me to give him the heads of the lecture, and 
 planting himself, ready for action, said, " ■ American 
 Loyalty,' well, go on, sir, if you please." 
 
 I told him what my first point was. " I shall put 
 it in the third person," said he, and began repeating 
 aloud, as he wrote, " The lecturer opened with a 
 happy allusion." " Now, go on, if you please, sir," 
 and took down my first point. " Done !" said he, 
 and looked up for some more. I then gave him the 
 second head. Still muttering in the same undertone, 
 
116 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 30. 
 
 " The orator next forcibly and clearly defined and 
 illustrated" — he took down my second point. The 
 next paragraphs he varied by " Mr. Dana proceeded," 
 or " Mr. Dana then eloquently," etc., and so on to the 
 end. 
 
 " Now," said he, " a lecturer usually has some 
 favorite sentences, some pet forms of expression, or 
 the like, some passages more high wrought than the 
 rest. Suppose you give me some of these. Select 
 'em for yourself." 
 
 This was a ridiculous position. I had some thought 
 of breaking off with him, and telling him I did not 
 quite like the manner of proceeding, but he was good- 
 natured and seemed to depend upon it, and it was a 
 difficult thing to do. I told him I had some sentences 
 which had been applauded in other places, and which 
 I rather relied upon to hit the humor of the audience. 
 " That 's it," said he, " that 's what I want. Now, 
 sir, go on, if you please, sir." I then picked out two 
 passages which he copied verbatim, introduced with 
 phrases of " poetical," " graphic," and the like, and 
 one of them he prefaced by saying, "as nearly as we 
 could catch his words," and then copied from my 
 manuscript. 
 
 As he was counting over his pages I observed that 
 the first was numbered two. I told him he had made 
 a mistake. " No, sir," said he, " I 'm right. The 
 first page has been set up." He felt in his pockets 
 and produced a crumpled sheet, saying, "Here it is, 
 sir. I thought I would read it to you," and on he 
 went through a paragraph stating that last evening, 
 — Mr. Dana, etc., — large audience, — elite of the 
 city, — marked approbation, — frequent applause, — 
 glowing with patriotism, — gems of poetical effect, 
 
1846-47. HORACE MANN. 117 
 
 etc. " I have said 'notwithstanding the bad walking,' 
 for I don't think it will rain " — here he looked out 
 of the window — M but it is safe to say the walking 
 was bad." 
 
 I asked what he would do if that was not true. 
 Perhaps the audience would be thin, or I might fail, 
 or get no applause. " Oh, never fear ; it will be all 
 right. We'll take care of that, sir; that 's our look- 
 out." 
 
 Here he jumped up, thanked me for my kindness, 
 and hurried off. 
 
 In about an hour more he appeared again, blowing 
 as before, he apologized, and said he had left his 
 overshoes and umbrella. Before he went he pulled 
 out another sheet from his pocket, and said, " We've 
 put a tail upon you, sir. We thought we would give 
 it a fine ending," and he read off a concluding puff in 
 which he apologized for reporting so little of a lecture 
 so well deserving," etc. He took his leave, saying, 
 " This will all be in type, sir, before eight o'clock." 
 
 In one place, while I was reading to him, I used the 
 phrase " sovereignty of law." He muttered, u Law, 
 law, we 've had that once. Suppose we say people," 
 and down went " sovereignty of the people " instead. 
 
 I must do the man the justice to say that he was at 
 the lecture, and that there was some change made in 
 his article, introducing a little more of the lecture, 
 but the puffs seemed to be unaltered. 
 
 1847. August. I had in July the most extraor- 
 dinary conversation with Horace Mann, of the Board 
 of Education, that an author, I suspect, ever had with 
 a critic. He wrote me last spring a curious letter 
 intimating that the Board of Education wished to 
 publish my book " Two Years " in their series, and 
 
118 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 32. 
 
 the object of the letter was substantially to inform 
 me that they would do so if I would make the book 
 worthy of this honor, by amending it, giving more 
 information, making it more useful, etc. I replied, 
 telling hiin that I had no rights in the book, as the 
 manuscript was sold to the Harpers, and added, which 
 was intended as ironical, that otherwise I ought to be 
 obliged to them, etc., for an opportunity to make 
 emendations under their advice. 
 
 A few weeks after this Mr. Mann entered the office. 
 I had always feared I had hurt his feelings, and I 
 fully expected either an apology or complaint. Judge 
 of my surprise to find that he had taken me literally. 
 He was glad that I had been so ready to take the 
 suggestions of the Board. I asked him, of curiosity, 
 what improvements they would suggest. He gravely 
 proceeded to state the defects of the work, and the 
 improvements he and others of the Board would sug- 
 gest. He thought the book fell off in interest at the 
 close, that the concluding chapter was wanting in the 
 true, humane and philanthropic spirit (as an excuse 
 for which he kindly intimated that it was probably 
 hastily written), and that the book should contain 
 more valuable information, which would be useful to 
 young persons, statistical information and facts as to 
 the countries I visited, their resources, productions 
 and the habits of the people. 
 
 I entered into a defence of the book, and led him 
 on, to see what his notions were. He finally gave me 
 to understand that the interest and value of a book 
 consisted in its moral teachings and the information 
 it conveyed as to matters of fact. A narrative, a 
 description, had no value except as it conveyed some 
 moral lesson or some useful fact. The narrative was 
 
1847. HORACE MANN. 119 
 
 a mere vehicle for conveying knowledge. He thought 
 my narrative interested persons, and therefore should 
 be made use of for valuable purposes, as a gilding to 
 a pill, as a mode of getting the attention of readers, 
 especially the young, to various information, statisti- 
 cal, etc., which I might interweave with it. 
 
 I suggested the idea that there was such a thing as 
 unity in a book. That mine was simply a descriptive 
 narrative, and that to make it statistic and didactic 
 would destroy its character, almost as much as it 
 would that of a drama. I said it had life, and that 
 the course he proposed would stop the circulation of 
 the blood. But this was " all leather and prunella " 
 to him. He had but one idea in his head, and that 
 was the idea of a school-master gone crazy, that direct 
 instruction on matters of fact was the only worthy 
 object of all books. 
 
 I told him my mind pretty freely, but he was so 
 intrenched behind his one idea that I could not re- 
 call him. He thought that if " Robinson Crusoe " and 
 my book and other narratives and stories which are 
 popular could only be pressed into the service of edu- 
 cation, and made to carry off the burdens of knowl- 
 edge for the poor boys and girls, it would be a great 
 work for humanity. 
 
 He was most felicitous in his remarks throughout. 
 In fact, I never saw such an exhibition of gaucheness 
 and want of tact in my life. He told me that the 
 Board consisted of a number of gentlemen, but that 
 only two of them had read my book. He said it had 
 no doubt circulated on the seaboard, but that if the 
 Education Society published it, they would give it a 
 circulation throughout the State. Speaking of com- 
 pensation, he thought that should be small, as it ought 
 
120 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt 32. 
 
 to be enough for me to get the approbation, the in- 
 dorsement, of the Board upon my book, to give it ad- 
 ditional character and weight, which indorsement 
 they would probably be willing to give, after my 
 emendations. As a further instance of tact, he s;tid 
 they had a small series for children, and a larger 
 series of works of a more standard character, and 
 added that, of course, mine would go into the smaller 
 series. In short, there is no end to the stupid, gauche, 
 narrow things this man continued to say. If some 
 enemy had employed him to come and try my pa- 
 tience to the utmost, he could not have executed his 
 task better. I got reckless at last, and advanced the 
 most extraordinary and barbarous sentiments on the 
 subject of education, to see if I could move him off 
 his centre of gravity, but to no purpose. 
 
 He said he thought I ought, for my own interest, 
 to do something of this kind, for the Harpers told 
 him that they had not made much out of it, and that 
 the sale was nearly over. I told him that I knew 
 better, and gave him some account of their dealings 
 with me and with others. He hoped this was not so, 
 but thought they must be right as to the sale of my 
 book, that it would be aided by the imprimatur of the 
 Board. 
 
 I told him I would not touch the narrative, nor in- 
 terlard it with anything didactic or statistic. There 
 were some verbal changes I would like to make, 
 which affected the accuracy of the style, and I would 
 consider the question as to my chapter on the history, 
 geography, customs, laws, etc., of California. I would 
 not much enlarge it, but would reexamine it, and if 
 I had any changes to make would let him know. 
 But vetoed, positively, his idea of altering the sub- 
 stance of the book, of course. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 POLITICS — THE FREE SOIL MOVEMENT OF 1848 
 AND THE BUFFALO CONVENTION. 
 
 In the following extract from a letter to his wife, Dana 
 spoke of the obsequies of John Quincy Adams, whose death 
 at Washington had occurred on the 23d of the preceding 
 month : — 
 
 1848. March 12. The demonstrations on the 
 death of Adams show that republics are not ungrate- 
 ful ; certainly not more so than kings. But he fell 
 upon good times. In Athens he would have been 
 ostracized a dozen times ; in Rome he would have 
 taken poison in despair of the republic ; in France 
 he would have been guillotined ; in Henry the 
 Eighth's time he would have been beheaded at the 
 block. 
 
 Faneuil Hall was a solemn sight, — shrouded in 
 black, windows darkened, and lighted by gas, 
 guarded by soldiers, with sentinels erect at the head 
 and foot of the coffin, like statues, night and day. 
 He began his political career under my grandfather, 
 and always professed to hold his character in rever- 
 ence. I am curious to know what he will say of 
 him. They were not alike. My grandfather had 
 more pride than ambition ; Adams, more ambition 
 than pride There was some political difference be- 
 tween my grandfather and his father, the President, 
 and those Adamses are Highlanders in their feuds. 
 
122 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 32. 
 
 The next important entry in the journal is brief, but 
 very significant. As he penned it, Dana little thought how- 
 significant it was. In truth, he had unknowingly come to 
 where the road before him in life forked ; and, though ap- 
 parently he did not then stop to read it, the finger-post 
 pointed to different destinations. 
 
 July 27. Make my debut in political life as chair- 
 man of the Free Soil meeting at the Tremont Temple. 
 Full attendance and well received. 
 
 Dana was now just completing his thirty-second year. He 
 had hitherto strictly devoted himself to his profession, in 
 which he had already acquired an excellent standing. He 
 was recognized- as one of the most promising of the younger 
 members of the Suffolk bar. In politics he was by heredity a 
 Federalist, and by instinct a conservative. So far as the polit- 
 ical parties of the day went, he was a Whig, and a Webster 
 Whig. Indeed, for Mr. Webster he up to this time had 
 felt and expressed the most profound admiration, looking 
 upon him as little less than an intellectual prodigy. But 
 Dana, though he grew up a Whig, was born a Federalist, and 
 for Harrison Gray Otis, and the public men of the Otis 
 school, he had a marked kindness of feeling. This colored 
 his judgments, and more than once found expression in his 
 diary in entries like the following, the first of which was 
 made immediately after some argument in court : — 
 
 Among my hearers was Harrison Gray Otis. 
 After I was through I put some questions to him re- 
 specting the accuracy of some statements in Brad- 
 ford's " New England Biography." This started him 
 off upon old times. He spoke of Samuel Dexter, 
 and said, u You know that he bolted soon after the 
 war. He did n't quite come up to the Frank Dana 
 school." Mr. Otis never spoke a sentence without 
 contriving to work in something complimentary or 
 
1848. POLITICS. < 123 
 
 gratifying to the feelings of the person conversing 
 with him. 
 
 Some years later there is an entry in the diary describing 
 an interview of a very different sort with another public 
 character, also prominent in latter-day Federal politics, 
 but on the opposite side to Otis. In 1844 Dana had occa- 
 sion to visit Washington, and under date of Saturday, 
 March 2, he wrote as follows : — 
 
 Called upon President Adams. He was very dull 
 and abstracted, and although he had told me he 
 wished to see me and to talk with me, yet he had 
 nothing to say. After a dull half hour I rose to 
 leave. He invited me to tea, but I declined. As I 
 left the room, he took my hand, and said, " I retain 
 a sense of the greatest respect and affection for the 
 memory of your grandfather. He was my friend and 
 patron when I was setting out in life, and the friend 
 of my father." He seemed to feel something when he 
 said this, but, upon the whole, his manner was such 
 as would be sure to drive away all young persons. 
 Of Mr. Adams he again said twenty-one years later in his 
 Address on the character of Edward Everett : — 
 
 Without undertaking to analyze and classify those 
 qualities of Mr. Everett, physical and moral, which 
 go to make up what we call, for convenience, the 
 temperament, one cannot but be struck by the con- 
 trast between him and another statesman of Massa- 
 chusetts, his near neighbor in birth and residence, — 
 John Quincy Adams, — of whom Mr. Choate once 
 playfully said, in the privacy of his study, what has 
 passed into public biography, — " What an antago- 
 nist he was! An instinct for the jugular and carotid 
 artery equal to that of any of the carnivorous ani- 
 
124 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 32. 
 
 mals;" and whom Mr. Everett described as one 
 whose natural place would have been at the weather 
 yard-arm in a tempest, or leading the forlorn hope 
 through the deadly, imminent breach. 
 
 A Federalist, a conservative, and a Webster Whig, — all 
 his social connections being with the representatives of the 
 Massachusetts cotton manufacturing interests, there was 
 also something peculiarly repulsive to Dana in the radicalism 
 and extravagance of the anti-slavery agitators. It has been 
 seen how their attacks on law and religion shocked and an- 
 gered him ; while their disregard of the ordinary conven- 
 tionalities of life annoyed and offended him. All their 
 methods of discussion as well as their personal peculiarities 
 tended to drive him to the side of those they attacked. 
 Under these circumstances the political course Dana now 
 took was in the highest degree creditable to him. He ad- 
 hered to the right. He adhered to it on principle, regard- 
 less of self-interest, of his own dislike to its exponents, of 
 personal and professional odium, and of social ostracism. 
 
 A few years later Dana had occasion to set forth the 
 grounds upon which he now identified himself with the 
 Free Soil movement, and he did it better and more clearly 
 than another could now do it for him. After the sessions 
 of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853, 
 Daniel Lord of New York wrote to Dana commending his 
 course as a member of the Convention, but at the same time 
 expressing his surprise that one so conservative could be a 
 Free Soiler. Dana's answer to this letter was dated Janu- 
 ary 26, 1854, and part of it is as follows : — 
 
 1. I am a Free Soiler by inheritance. I am the 
 son and grandson of Federalists. The northern 
 Federalists were decided Free Soilers. The exclu- 
 sion of slavery from the Northwest territory is 
 owing to them. In New England, they opposed the 
 
1848. . POLITICS. 125 
 
 Missouri compromise to the last. The yielding to 
 the South on that point in 1820, the parent of so 
 much evil, was by the Democrats. Harrison Gray 
 Otis, in his celebrated letter in 1848, said that the 
 Federal party was the original Free Soil party, and 
 ridiculed the Buffalo platform as mere supererogation. 
 The Federalists had a deep hostility to any increase 
 of slavery, or of the power of the slave-holding aris- 
 tocracy in our government. 
 
 2. 1 am a Free Soiler by education. I was edu- 
 cated a Whig. The Whig party of New England 
 has been a decided Anti-slavery and Free Soil party 
 up to and through the contest of 1848. I will agree 
 to adopt no positions on the slave question, or any 
 great matter, for which I cannot vouch the unani- 
 mous or all but unanimous resolves of the Whig 
 legislatures and conventions of Massachusetts. You 
 know that Mr. Webster was a Free Soiler to March, 
 1850, and approved of the whole Buffalo platform, 
 thinking it only needless, and claiming the Wilmot 
 Proviso (the test of Free Soilers) as his thunder. 
 
 3. My conservatism leads me to it. There is a 
 compound of selfishness and cowardice which often 
 takes to itself the honored name of Conservatism. 
 That false conservatism I call Hunherism. Now, 
 hunkerism of all names and sections, Whig or Demo- 
 cratic, making material prosperity and ease its pole 
 star, will do nothing and risk nothing for a moral 
 principle. But not so Conservatism. Conservatism 
 sometimes requires a risking or sacrificing of material 
 advantages. Radicalism, also, will do nothing to re- 
 sist the growth of slavery, because that is purely an 
 act of justice to others. It is not our freedom that is 
 at stake. If it were, the Tammany Hall mob would 
 
126 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEn. 32. 
 
 be on our side and beyond us. But in a case for 
 liberal, comprehensive justice to others, with only a 
 remote and chiefly moral advantage to ourselves, to 
 be done at the peril of our immediate personal advan- 
 tages, conservatism is more reliable than radicalism. 
 
 4. I am a Free Soiler, because I am (who should 
 not say so) of the stock of the old northern gentry, 
 and have a particular dislike to any subserviency or 
 even appearance of subserviency on the part of our 
 people to the slave-holding oligarchy. I was dis- 
 gusted with it in college, at the Law School, and have 
 been since in society and politics. The spindles and 
 day-books are against us just now, for Free Soilism 
 goes to the wrong side of the ledger. The blood, the 
 letters, and the plough are our chief reliance. 
 
 Having said so much, I will add that I take you 
 literally. You mean u Free Soiler" and nothing 
 else. A technical Abolitionist I am not. I am a 
 constitutionalist, and in favor of adhering honestly 
 to all the compromises of that instrument. If I were 
 in Congress, and the South should come into court 
 with clean hands, keeping faithfully her side of the 
 compact, and demand of us a fugitive slave law, I 
 should feel bound to give her one (either by na- 
 tional or state legislation), and a bona fide one, but 
 one consistent with law, decency, safety to the free, 
 and the self-respect of the North. 
 
 I have inflicted upon you a pretty heavy penalty 
 for a word, and without a jury, too. But permit me 
 to say that I have written so at length because there- 
 is a good deal of misunderstanding as to the position 
 of Massachusetts Free Soilers, because I know you 
 are capable and desirous of doing justice to those 
 from whom you differ, and because I value highly 
 your favorable opinion. 
 
1848. POLITICS. 127 
 
 To be an avowed Free Soiler in Boston between the 
 years 1848 and 1856 implied a good deal. The social, 
 financial, and political conditions then existing are now al- 
 most forgotten, and in few years more he who speaks the 
 truth about them will be denounced as a maligner. So- 
 ciety, as it is called, — that is, the wealth, culture and pro- 
 fessional and business activities of Boston, — in short, the 
 large majority of those " best people " towards whom Dana 
 felt an instinctive affinity, were Whigs, and devoted per- 
 sonal as well as political adherents of Mr. Webster. A cerr- 
 tain thin, colorless anti-slavery sentiment had always been 
 current and fashionable among them, a sentiment handed 
 down from the early days of the republic, and more recently 
 reflected from England ; but it was a mere sentiment, hav- 
 ing no hold either in conviction or in material interest. On 
 the contrary, so far as material interests were concerned, 
 a great change had recently taken place. The manufactur- 
 ing development of Massachusetts had been rapid, and a 
 close affiliation had sprung up between the cotton spinners 
 of the North and the cotton producers of the South, — or, 
 as Charles Sumner put it, between " the lords of the loom 
 and the lords of the lash." So long as Mr. Webster ad- 
 hered to the anti-slavery utterances of his earlier days, — 
 so long as he saw fit to claim the Wilmot Proviso as his 
 thunder, and to keep terms with the Liberty party, — the 
 reactionary under-current was scarcely perceptible ; but 
 when he changed front openly, — putting in his bid for 
 Southern support, — there was no longer any concealment. 
 Under the guise of loyalty to the Union and the Constitution, 
 social and business Boston by degrees became in its heart, 
 and almost avowedly, a pro-slavery community ; and it so 
 remained until 1861. After the war of the rebellion fairly 
 broke out, a stronger feeling, that of patriotism, dominated 
 over sympathy with the South ; but even when there was 
 hardly a family in the city which did not count father, 
 brother, son or husband in the field, talk as treasonable as 
 
128 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 32. 
 
 it was idle was daily and hourly heard in the fashionable 
 club-house of Beacon Street. True, it was then mere chatter 
 in the mouths of human parrots ; but it echoed loudly and 
 constantly what a few years before had been the political 
 creed of the acknowledged leaders of the town. 
 
 Between 1848 and 1856 feeling also ran high ; and in 
 Boston it ran all one way. Women became politicians. 
 Weak attempts were made at social ostracism ; attempts 
 ludicrous now to look back upon, but at the time exasper- 
 ating to those against whom they were insolently directed. 
 An abolitionist was looked upon as a sort of common enemy 
 of mankind ; a Free Soiler was only a weak and illogical 
 abolitionist. The bold and pointed criticisms made on Mr. 
 Webster were resented as outrages on decency. The few 
 representatives of the unfashionable side — and in number 
 they were a mere handful — who had a recognized stand- 
 ing in the drawing-rooms of Summer, Park and Beacon 
 streets were made to feel in many ways the contempt there 
 felt for the cause they had espoused. Sumner and Dana, 
 for instance, had long been frequent and favored guests in 
 the house of Mr. Ticknor. After they became pronounced 
 Free Soilers they soon ceased to be seen there ; and, indeed, 
 things went so far that all social relations between them 
 and the family of their former host were broken off. So it 
 was generally. Slowly but surely the country was working 
 itself up to the war point ; and the conservative and reac- 
 tionary interests, instinctively realizing the fact, demeaned 
 themselves according to their wont. 
 
 Dana was not a man to regard considerations of this sort, 
 or to pause in his course for one instant from fear of social 
 or professional slights. He did not feel called upon to as- 
 sert himself socially, for the reason that no doubt as to his 
 social position ever entered his mind ; he held himself and 
 his family high. Neither did he now care for social life. 
 Immersed in his profession, with a house full of young chil- 
 dren, he had neither time nor inclination for evening enter- 
 
1848. POLITICS. 129 
 
 tainments. Never a party goer, he rarely dined out, and 
 only occasionally went to receptions. So far as what is 
 known as society was concerned, therefore, the unpopularity 
 of the cause he advocated affected him far less than it did 
 Sumner, upon whom many and pointed slights were put, 
 which he felt keenly, and rarely forgot or forgave. From 
 the professional point of view this open and conscientious 
 adhesion to the unpopular side affected Dana much more. 
 He was, as will presently be seen, openly taunted with strik- 
 ing the hand that fed him ; and he was not the man to bear 
 such a taunt in silence. Moreover, nearly all the wealth 
 and the moneyed institutions of Boston were controlled by 
 the conservatives ; and among the moneyed institutions 
 were the marine insurance companies. The ship-owners 
 and merchants were Whigs almost to a man. It is, there- 
 fore, safely within the mark to say that Dana's political 
 course between 1848 and 1860 not only retarded his profes- 
 sional advancement, but seriously impaired his income. It 
 kept the rich clients from his office. He was the counsel of 
 the sailor and the slave, — persistent, courageous, hard-fight- 
 ing, skilful, but still the advocate of the poor and the un- 
 popular. In the mind of wealthy and respectable Boston 
 almost any one was to be preferred to him, — the Free 
 Soil lawyer, the counsel for the fugitive slave, alert, indomi- 
 table, always on hand. It is impossible to say how many 
 clients were prevented from going to Dana during his years 
 of active practice by considerations of this sort ; but the 
 number was unquestionably large, and the interests they rep- 
 resented larger still. Indeed, brilliant as was his career 
 at the bar, he never had what would be considered a lucra- 
 tive practice ; and that he did not have such a practice 
 was due to prejudice connected with his early political as- 
 sociations. He too suffered for his advocacy of the poor 
 and the oppressed. 
 
 Judged by worldly results to himself, the step Dana now 
 took was probably a mistake. He went out of the line of 
 
130 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 32. 
 
 his profession and mixed in politics. He in so far dissi- 
 pated his force. In doing this he did only what many had 
 done before, and many others have done since. Among 
 Massachusetts men and Boston lawyers John Adams, 
 Fisher Ames and Daniel Webster were cases in point. 
 That in certain ways Dana had a strong natural call to pub- 
 lic life is undeniable ; he showed this while a member of the 
 Convention of 1853, and after that he always looked forward 
 to a political career, which was some day to open before 
 him. In one of the many familiar talks which as a student 
 in his office I had with him a few years later, I remember 
 his speaking of himself in this respect with the utmost free- 
 dom. He then said that he thought the Senate chamber, 
 — a political body, as he expressed it, of some fifty or sixty 
 members, — would be the field in which his powers would 
 find their most perfect play, and that in which he could 
 accomplish the best results of which he was capable ; and 
 long afterwards I heard James Russell Lowell, who knew 
 him well, express a precisely similar opinion. Until late in 
 life l he confidently believed that to become a member of 
 such a body was a thing in store for him before he died. 
 
 Yet it may well be questioned whether in this country, at 
 least since the year 1848, a successful political career would 
 have been possible for a man of Dana's temperament and 
 peculiar way of looking at things. He was born fastidious, 
 and at bottom always remained so, — his personality was 
 pronounced, causing in him a tendency to idiosyncracies 
 very incompatible with a continued political life in Amer- 
 ica. He was punctilious about religion, observances and 
 rites, about points of honor, about family and social posi- 
 tion, about the past, about precedents. He would look at 
 things in a large way, present them with incomparable 
 clearness and move towards his end with directness and 
 strength ; then suddenly some needless side issue was apt to 
 present itself and assume undue importance, — an issue, 
 perhaps, which he had himself created. He thus constantly 
 

 1848. POLITICS. 131 
 
 offered to his opponents points of attack, and they were 
 points of attack upon which the popular sympathy was al- 
 most sure to be against him. No man of Dana's peculiar 
 type has ever yet been a success in American politics. 
 
 But if, like John Adams, — who of all the New England 
 public characters he most resembled, — Dana was to achieve 
 success in public life, he could achieve it only by pursuing 
 the course which John Adams pursued, — that is, by throw- 
 ing himself, body and soul, into a rising popular cause and 
 al solutely identifying himself with it. Had he done this, 
 the chances would have been against him, but still not im- 
 possibly he might have played a large part in the movement 
 of which he could hardly have failed to be a mouthpiece. 
 It is not probable he ever formed for himself any well-de- 
 fined plan of political career, but rather always looked for- 
 ward to it as a somewhat vague possibility ; nevertheless had 
 he, instead of thus drifting to his end, really matured some 
 such plan, the instinct which caused him in 1848 to break 
 ground politically by consenting to attend the Buffalo conven- 
 tion of that year as a delegate would have guided him well. 
 
 The Buffalo convention was one of the more important 
 upheavals in the process of political disintegration which 
 went steadily on between the years 1844, when the " Bir- 
 neyites " deprived Henry Clay of the electoral vote of New 
 York, and 1856, when the Whig party disappeared, and the 
 pro-slavery Democracy found itself confronted by the anti- 
 slavery Republican organization of the North. In 1848, 
 though the Whig party was already doomed, its time had 
 not yet come. The Free Soil movement of 1848 was, 
 therefore, premature ; and moreover, as the result after- 
 wards showed, there was something almost ludicrous in a 
 combination of " Conscience Whigs " of Massachusetts, in 
 revolt over the nomination of the slave-owning General 
 Taylor, with the " Barnburning " Democrats of New York, 
 intent only upon avenging on Cass the defeat of Van Buren. 
 None the less the Free Soil movement of 1848 clearly 
 
132 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 32. 
 
 foreshadowed the Republican uprising of 1856, and of the 
 men who took part in the Buffalo convention an unusually 
 large proportion afterwards became prominent as political 
 leaders. 
 
 Dana was not destined to be one of these. To have made 
 himself one of them it would have been necessary to sub- 
 ordinate law to politics. He might for twelve years yet to 
 come have followed his profession, but the law is proverbi- 
 ally a jealous mistress, and the political movement must 
 have absorbed his thoughts and attention to such an extent 
 that his heart would not have been in his work. John 
 Adams went through almost exactly the same experience. 
 In 1848 Dana was a young lawyer steadily growing in his 
 profession, with a family wholly dependent upon him; so 
 was John Adams in 1765. Dana in the fugitive slave trials 
 drew to himself great notice, identifying his name in the 
 public mind with the popular side of a great political cause ; 
 John Adams did something of the same sort, but on the un- 
 popular side, in his defence of the British soldiers concerned 
 in the Boston " massacre." Here the parallel ends. When 
 the revolutionary troubles broke out in 1775, John Adams 
 abandoned his profession forever, and identified himself 
 absolutely with the cause of national independence. Had 
 Dana as the result either of chance or calculation pursued a 
 similar course when the rebellion broke out in 1861, his 
 political ambition might have been gratified. Perhaps no 
 opening offered itself ; but if it did offer itself, he failed to 
 grasp it. Certainly at a later time he looked for it in vain. 
 The tide in the affairs of men had flooded ; and for him it 
 did not flood again. 
 
 Dana owed his connection with the fugitive slave cases of 
 1853-54 to his political affiliations ; and his connection with 
 those cases was the one great professional and political act 
 of his life. It was simply superb. There is nothing fairer 
 or nobler in the long, rich archives of the law ; and the 
 man who holds that record in his hand may stand with 
 

 1848. POLITICS. 133 
 
 head erect at the bar of final judgment itself. This episode 
 apart, — and it was purely an episode — it would in the final 
 result have been better for Dana had he sternly set his face 
 against all things political and, confining himself to the law, 
 kept his eyes steadily fixed on its prizes. He never would 
 have been a money-making lawyer ; and indeed for money 
 making in any way he had in his younger days a somewhat 
 callow, even though chivalrous, contempt, and, in later life, 
 small aptitude. No one who knew him would ever have 
 sought him out as an adviser because of his skill or judgment 
 in dealing with intricate business affairs. He was above all 
 else a barrister, — a lawyer of the forum ; and he had small 
 business capacity. He would fight a case for all there was 
 in it before a jury or the bench ; he had a fair knowledge 
 of the books and a strong grasp on legal principles ; he was 
 absolutely fearless, never hesitating to measure himself 
 against any one ; he did not know when he was beaten. 
 His proper place, therefore, was at the bar. Up to 1 848 
 he was on exactly the right path, — the path to distinctive 
 professional eminence. Had he adhered to it, he not im- 
 probably would at last have attained, had he so desired, that 
 foremost place in the judiciary of Massachusetts, once held 
 by his grandfather. Most assuredly he would have risen to 
 the front rank of his profession as a jurist of national fame. 
 Had he remained steadfast to his calling, all this well 
 might have been ; but with a pronounced taste for political 
 life, Dana unfortunately had no political faculty. The 
 influence his rough experience before the mast exerted 
 upon him has already been referred to. To a certain ex- 
 tent it qualified him to deal practically with men. But, 
 however potent for good or evil such an influence may be, 
 it can only modify ; it cannot develop in a man that which 
 is not in him to be developed. Under certain circumstances 
 Dana might have been an eminent statesman ; but under 
 no circumstances could he ever have been a successful 
 politician. 
 
134 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 32. 
 
 When, therefore, he made his u debut in political life " on 
 the 7th of July, 1848, and when in the following August 
 he went to Buffalo, he took the step of a lifetime, for thence- 
 forward he never ceased to hunger for a public and political 
 career. Had the contribution he made to politics and polit- 
 ical discussion been large, it might have compensated for 
 the loss both he and his profession sustained when he wan- 
 dered from it ; but such was not the case, for he never gave 
 himself sufficiently to public questions to exert a percep- 
 tible influence upon results. His was but an intermittent 
 voice in a loud and sustained tumult, — a voice that was 
 lost in the uproar. 
 
 Nevertheless, both inclination and a sense of political 
 duty pointing one way, Dana went to Buffalo in 1848. He 
 went there as a Webster Whig, bolting the nomination for 
 the presidency of General Taylor, — doing what his leader 
 wanted to do, but did not clearly see his way to do. The 
 following extracts from letters to his wife refer to the con- 
 siderations which induced him to take part in the Tremont 
 Temple meeting of July 7, and describe the circumstances 
 which led to his being selected as one of the delegates to 
 that convention, the action taken at which defeated Lewis 
 Cass, and made Zachary Taylor president. 
 
 July 8. I write in a hurry, for I am going to 
 spend Sunday with the Ticknors, leaving at 5.30 
 P. M. 
 
 I sent you a packet yesterday, and a few news- 
 papers to-day, that you may see what I am doing. 
 The " Whig " is favorable, the " Advertiser " hostile, 
 and the " Chronotype " radical, so you can judge 
 from them all. The meeting was very large, in the 
 Temple, respectable and enthusiastic. Few of the 
 experienced politicians have joined, but I confidently 
 expect some action from some of them. I will send 
 you my speech when it is reported in full, in' a day 
 
1848. POLITICS. 135 
 
 or two. It was very well received, and my friends 
 who were present said I did extremely well. I am 
 in it, in my heart. I think the honor of Massachu- 
 setts requires it, and I hope you will sympathize 
 with me. 
 
 July 14. As to your question about the Free 
 Soil movement, I cannot say that we do think our 
 "efforts will put to naught those of the other par- 
 ties." Our success depends upon the turn the public 
 mind takes at the North the next three months, 
 and the candidate nominated at Buffalo. As for 
 myself, I can truly answer your question by saying 
 that it is "only for principle's sake that I stir, 
 after the other candidates are nominated." If the 
 North can be brought to act with independence and 
 spirit, we may be able to give the Free Soil candi- 
 date a very large vote ; but whether enough to elect 
 him, or what will be the ultimate result, I don't pre- 
 tend to predict. " It is a case of duty." 
 
 July 21. You will want to know how I came to 
 be chosen. Boston sends three delegates, with the 
 understanding that one is to be taken from each of 
 the three sections from which our party is made 
 up, — Whigs, Democrats, and Liberty Party men. 
 The last two named each its man, and the Whigs 
 were somewhat divided between me and Sumner. 
 S. wished to go, and his personal friends wished to 
 have him go, but all the influential men were in 
 favor of me, because they said Sumner was not a 
 Whig, and would not be so considered by the 
 people. Some of them said, too, that he had no 
 courage and no opinions of his own, but would be 
 influenced by others. The Free Soil men, who are 
 Whigs, are in favor of Judge McLean and they 
 
136 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 32. 
 
 knew I would go for him. Accordingly they agreed 
 on this, called upon Sumner, and told him he was 
 not considered as a Whig, and that they thought the 
 interest of the party required the election of one who 
 was recognized as a decided Whig. He acceded to 
 this view, wrote a very proper letter, and gave up. 
 I told the convention I should do all I could in favor 
 of Judge McLean, but should accede to the nomina- 
 tion of Van Buren if it was made. This is the his- 
 tory of the thing, and such is my position. If 
 McLean is nominated, we shall do very well in Mas- 
 sachusetts, but if Van Buren, we shall be beaten. It 
 is rather a forlorn hope in Boston, where the mon- 
 eyed interest is so strong and so utterly indifferent 
 to slavery. I expect to die an honorable death ; at 
 least, I am prepared to. How much I regret the 
 want of pecuniary means. I could give time and 
 money to this cause in such a way as to be an aid to 
 it and a credit to myself. 
 
 July 28. Our politics are a most absorbing topic. 
 We can hardly think of anything else. I am obliged 
 to exert every effort to secure the right action of the 
 Buffalo Convention, by letters and conversation with 
 persons of every grade of opinion. I happen by cir- 
 cumstances to be put in a measure at the head of 
 the party in Boston, and have much to do. If we 
 nominate McLean and go forward well, and public 
 sentiment goes with us, I shall yield to older and 
 more distinguished men; but if Van Buren is nomi- 
 nated and we have up-hill work here, I suppose I 
 shall be left undisturbed. But the cause looks very 
 well indeed. I believe the spirit of the people is 
 getting fairly roused at last, except in Boston. 
 
 Did I tell 3^ou that I found on examining the his- 
 
1848. BUFFALO CONVENTION. 137 
 
 tory of the original Free Soil ordinance of 1787 that 
 it was seconded in the Continental Congress by my 
 great grandfather Ellery, moved by Rufus King ? 
 
 From this point the diary completes the narrative. 
 
 August 4-7. Friday. Left for Buffalo via New- 
 York at five P. M. . . . Left New York Saturday 
 A. M. in the H. Hudson and reached Albany at 
 night, rooms at Congress Hall. . . . Meeting in the 
 cabin of all Buffalo people. Voted to have the con- 
 vention organized with three from each district, etc. 
 Left at seven P. M. Sunday, and reached Canandaigua 
 at twelve M. of Monday, travelling all night. Left 
 Canandaigua at night, slept four hours at Rochester, 
 and reached Buffalo at noon. Rooms at American 
 House. 
 
 August 9. Convention meets. Charles Francis 
 Adams chosen president, received with great applause, 
 and high tributes paid to his father and his State. 
 
 The recommendation of the committees adopted. 
 This results in a mass convention to hear speeches 
 and ratify, and a select convention, called conferees, 
 to do the work — the latter being the actual dele- 
 gates — each State three times its electoral vote. 
 Our delegation mainly at the American, and our head- 
 quarters there. C. F. Adams, S. C. Phillips, Jno. 
 Mills, our most prominent men. Wm. F. Channing 
 and Cummings, the abolition editor, though neither 
 of them delegates, attend one of our meetings, in 
 onrroom, make motion, speak, vote, and try to inter- 
 fere with the organization in the tenth district, but 
 are voted down. When members generally learned 
 that they were not delegates, they were much sur- 
 prised, and they lost all influence. 
 
138 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 33. 
 
 Meeting of conferees at the court-house. Chase, of 
 Ohio, president, and S. C. Phillips first vice-president, 
 and acting. Organize and vote to have an informal 
 ballot, viva voce. 
 
 August 10. Delegates meet at twelve M. in the 
 Universalist church, which is on the Park, opposite 
 the tent. It has no galleries, and none are admitted 
 but delegates, not even reporters. The States have 
 seats assigned them. Massachusetts and New York 
 and Ohio in front and centre, Pennsylvania on the 
 left, Indiana, Illinois, etc., on the right, and the smaller 
 delegations at the sides. 
 
 B. F. Butler from the committee on the Platform 
 reports the resolutions constituting the Platform. 
 These were first drawn by a sub-committee of seven, 
 unanimously agreed upon, then reported to the full 
 committee of three from each State, discussed, modi- 
 fied and unanimously adopted. These were adopted 
 by the delegates, by acclamation, and without debate. 
 We reported them to the mass convention, which 
 adopted them in the same manner with great enthu- 
 siasm. In our (delegates') convention, every sentence 
 was applauded, and some enthusiastically, with shouts 
 and screams, waving of hats and handkerchiefs. 
 
 The Platform having been adopted, we proceeded 
 to the subject of the presidency, and it was a proof of 
 the determination and principle of the convention, 
 that it refused to do anything about the nomination 
 until the Platform was settled, although it involved 
 a delay of nearly a day. 
 
 It was voted to call the roll of members, and that 
 each member should nominate the person who was 
 his preference, it not being a binding vote, either on 
 the convention or on the individuals, but only a mode 
 of ascertaining opinions, informally. 
 
1848. BUFFALO CONVENTION 139 
 
 Before doing this, we required to know the position 
 of the candidates. Judge McLean being named, Mr. 
 Chase of Ohio, nephew of Judge McLean, president 
 of the delegates' convention, announced that Judge 
 McLean was not a candidate. Explanations were 
 loudly called for, and Mr. Chase further explained 
 that he was authorized by Judge McLean to say that 
 he refused to be a candidate, though his feelings were 
 with us. Mr. Stanton then defined Mr. Hale's posi- 
 tion, and said that as the platform was satisfactory 
 to the Liberty party, Mr. Hale authorized them to 
 abandon their nomination of him, made a year ago, 
 and go into the convention [with all candidates] on 
 equal terms, to abide its result. This was received 
 with great applause. 
 
 Mr. Butler was then loudly called for, to explain 
 the position of Mr. Van Buren. He expressed his 
 personal willingness to do so, but declined unless 
 required by a vote of the convention. It was then 
 voted unanimously that he be requested to explain, 
 etc. 
 
 Mr. Butler then made a long and able speech, ex- 
 plaining the history of the Barnburners' movement, 
 ending by producing and reading Mr. Van Buren's 
 letter of August 2, authorizing his friends to abandon 
 his nomination at Utica, assuring them that it will be 
 most satisfactory to him to have another person nomi- 
 nated in his place, and expressing the deepest interest 
 in the convention. Mr. Butler expressed his belief 
 that Mr. Van Buren would accept the nomination, 
 and adopt the platform. His friends put themselves 
 on the convention, to take its chance, and abide its 
 results. This was the turning point of the conven- 
 tion. For we Massachusetts Whigs had determined 
 
140 RICHARD HENRY DANA. &?. 33. 
 
 not to go into the ballot unless the Democrats came 
 in on equal terms, and took with us the chances of 
 the nomination. 
 
 The rolls were called. All the Democrats voted 
 for Mr. Van Buret), and nearly all the Liberty men 
 for Hale. But Chase of Ohio, Stanton and two or 
 three others, voted for Van Buren. The Whigs held 
 the balance of power. It was a critical moment when 
 Massachusetts was called. It happened that S. C. 
 Phillips was culled first. Being a vice-president, he 
 sat in the pulpit, came forward and said, in a clear 
 voice, — Martin Van Buren. Applause broke out, 
 which the president suppressed. Alvord voted the 
 same way, and the two Democrats, which gave Van 
 Buren four of the six delegates at large. I was 
 called next, and named Van Buren. The same thing 
 followed through the other districts, the Liberty men 
 voting mainly for Hale. Mr. C. F. Adams, Weston, 
 Brooks, and perhaps one other Whig named Giddings. 
 The result was that in Massachusetts Van Buren had 
 twenty to Hale's ten, and there were five scattering 
 and one absent. The scattering were Whigs who 
 named Giddings, for consistency's sake, but would 
 have voted for Van Buren on an actual ballot. 
 Adams told me I was right. He had a special reason 
 for not naming Van Buren at first. 
 
 The result of the whole call was that 244 named 
 Van Buren, 181 Hale, and 41 were scattering. It 
 being clear that Mr. Van Buren had the greater 
 number, Mr. Joshua Leavitt of Massachusetts rose 
 to address the assembly. He was called to the 
 platform, and made one of the noblest speeches 
 that was ever made to a deliberative assembly. He 
 sketched the history of the Liberty party and its 
 
1848. BUFFALO CONVENTION. 141 
 
 labors, sacrifices and efforts for fifteen years, the per- 
 secution and contumely it had suffered, the expense 
 of time, money and reputation. He spoke of Mr. 
 Hale, of his noble conduct, of the devoted attachment 
 of the Liberty party to him. But now the time had 
 come when they must surrender all into the hands of 
 this new party. They must also give up their favor- 
 ite candidate. This was touching in the extreme. 
 We knew that Leavitt himself had sacrificed and en- 
 dured all for this cause, and now, in the moment of 
 its success, was to dissolve a party of which he was a 
 leader, to take an inferior place among men who had 
 just come into the movement. Many were moved to 
 tears. One sentence of his was triumphant in its 
 effect, and brought down the most enthusiastic ap- 
 plause. " This result, for which we have labored and 
 suffered for fifteen years, the Providence of God and 
 the misconduct of man have accomplished in an 
 hour," — referring to the new issue of Free Soil, 
 raised by the conquest of new territory. He con- 
 cluded by moving the unanimous nomination of Mr. 
 Van Buren. This was seconded by Lewis of Ohio, 
 also of the Liberty party, in an admirable speech, 
 and was carried by acclamation. 
 
 The question of the vice - presidency now arose. 
 The president being a Democrat, it was a matter 
 of course that the vice-president should be a Whig ; 
 and as the president was from the East it was agreed 
 that the vice-president should be nominated by the 
 West. Accordingly, Mr. Sedgwick of Massachusetts 
 moved that the roll be called, beginning at the West. 
 We then adjourned for tea, upon a suggestion that 
 consultation would save time. The general under- 
 standing was that Ohio, the chief western Stato, 
 
142 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 33. 
 
 should consult the others, and that their nomination 
 should be received. Ohio met and was unanimous 
 for Mr. Adams. There was an enthusiasm for him, 
 partly on account of his father, whose memory they 
 desired to honor and vindicate, and partly on his own 
 account, to vindicate him, as the early champion of 
 the Conscience Whigs, against the attacks and sneers 
 of the Cotton Whigs of Massachusetts. The feeling 
 for J. Q. Adams was far greater than I had imagined. 
 People crowded about the son, shook his hands, spoke 
 of their admiration for the " old man," and seemed 
 by a natural process of the mind to desire to show to 
 him the respect they could not show to the father. 
 The other western States were also unanimous, and 
 the sixty [and] odd delegates from Pennsylvania met 
 and resolved on Adams. A committee then called 
 upon him, and told him what they meant to do. 
 He at first refused, telling them it was agreed it 
 should be a western man. " No," said these gener- 
 ous, whole-souled men, " No, the agreement was that 
 it should be a western nomination, and we agree on 
 you." 
 
 Mr. Adams was very much affected, and said he 
 should do nothing, but leave it entirely to the Massa- 
 chusetts delegation. We were called together, and 
 agreed to say that we should leave it entirely to them 
 — that we should do nothing for Mr. Adams, but if 
 they chose to take him, we were much obliged to 
 them. 
 
 The convention met at eight P. M. Before coming 
 to order, Mr. I. L. White of New York spoke to the 
 western men about Craven of Indiana, but they said 
 they did not want him, they wanted Mr. Adams. 
 An old fellow from Wisconsin, with sunburnt face, 
 
1848. BUFFALO CONVENTION. 143 
 
 hook nose, deep voice, and a noble, ardent counte- 
 nance, seeing iny badge, clapped bis great hand on 
 my shoulder, and said, "Yes, sir, we want him. 
 He 's the man for this day and time. There he is 
 with the crape on his hat now." Mr. Adams wore 
 crape on a white hat for his father. It went to the 
 hearts of these men, as though he had carried his im- 
 age before him. 
 
 A gentleman rose and stated the opinion and feel- 
 ing of the West, and moved that Charles F. Adams 
 of Massachusetts be unanimously nominated. Never, 
 since my ears first admitted sound, have I heard such 
 an acclamation. Men sprang upon the tops of the 
 seats, threw their hats in the air, and even to the 
 ceiling. The cheering was repeated, the news spread 
 to the tent, and in a moment we heard it given back 
 with interest. We went on cheering, three for John 
 P. Hale and his noble friends, three for the Liberty 
 party and Joshua Leavitt, three for the Whigs, three 
 for the Barnburners, three for John Van Buren, 
 three for the Platform, etc. 
 
 Some inferior business being disposed of, we ad- 
 journed sine die, and our chairman reported to the 
 Massachusetts Convention. Here again the platform 
 and candidates were confirmed by a tremendous ac- 
 clamation, and after songs and speeches the conven- 
 tion adjourned sine die. 
 
 Thus ended a noble and providentially successful 
 convention. It was vital in every part, and con- 
 ducted with absolute fairness. Each district, in send- 
 ing its three delegates, had, as far as practicable, one 
 from each of the former parties. In New York 
 there were thirty-six from Democrats, thirty-six 
 Whigs, and thirty-six Liberty men, or persons who 
 
144 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi.ZZ. 
 
 were nominated and stood as such, and in Van 
 B men's own State, almost every third vote was for 
 Hale. So in every other State. Not an unpleasant 
 word was uttered, not a personality arose, not a point 
 of order was raised or disputed, not a complaint of 
 unfairness was made in the organization or conduct 
 of the convention. 
 
 August 11. Friday. Left at 7.45 A. M. for Al- 
 bany, travelling day and night, reached Albany Sat- 
 urday at nine A. M., took bath and dined at Delavan 
 & Co.'s. Left at 2.45 P. M. for Springfield and Hart- 
 ford, and reached Wethersfield at eleven o'clock at 
 night. 
 
 During the months which followed Dana took an active 
 part in the political campaign, making speeches in favor of 
 the nominees of the Free Soil party. All this must have 
 seriously interfered with his professional work, but, like lec- 
 turing, it brought him in contact with a great number of 
 people, thus causing him to be more widely known. The 
 election over, he returned to the routine of a lawyer's life. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ADIRONDACKS AND JOHN BROWN. 
 
 The next year Dana visited the Adirondacks for his vaca- 
 tion outing. His diary contains a long and vivid account 
 of his experiences, and of the exposure and fatigue he un- 
 derwent, and, it ought to be added, thoroughly enjoyed. 
 The original record is still interesting, notwithstanding those 
 imperfections which necessarily occur in every uncorrected 
 first draft of a narrative filling many pages ; but during this 
 trip Dana chanced upon no less a person than the after- 
 wards famous John Brown, then living as a farmer in the 
 wilds of northern New York. More than twenty years later 
 Dana wrote out for the " Atlantic Monthly " (July, 1871) 
 the following account of this experience : — 
 
 ... In the summer of 1849 Mr. Metcalf and I 
 went into the Adirondacks, then but little known to 
 tourists. Our journey up the valley of the Connecti- 
 cut, across Vermont, and up Lake Champlain, full of 
 beauties as it was, presented nothing that would be 
 new to most readers. At Westport, near the head 
 of Lake Champlain on the New York side, we found 
 a delightful colony of New England friends — a re- 
 tired officer of the army, and two Boston gentlemen, 
 one of leisure and one of business — planted in as 
 charming a neighborhood as one need wish to live in, 
 — the lake before them, the Green Mountain range 
 across the lake, and the Adirondacks towering and 
 stretching along the western horizon. 
 
146 RICHARD HENRY DANA. iET. 33. 
 
 At this time Westport had sprung into active life 
 by means of an enterprise of Boston capitalists, who 
 had set up iron-works there. All had an appearance 
 of successful business. The houses of the workmen, 
 and the other appurtenances and surroundings were 
 marked by a style which was but too pleasing to the 
 fancy; yet they were the results of the application of 
 wealth under good taste, and with a large view to the 
 future. Changes of business or of tariffs or other 
 causes have long ago brought all this to an end ; and 
 I suppose the little village has relapsed into its origi- 
 nal state of torpor and insignificance. 
 
 Here we took up a companion for our wild tour, 
 Mr. Aikens, in theory a lawyer, but in practice a 
 traveller, sportsman, and woodsman ; and Mr. Jack- 
 son lent us a wagon with a pair of mules, and a boy 
 Tommy to commissary and persuade the mules, and 
 we drove out of Westport in the afternoon of a very 
 hot day and made for the mountains. Our route lay 
 through Pleasant Valley, along the pretty Bouquet 
 River, which flows from the mountains, winding 
 among graceful hills, into the lake. We baited at 
 Elizabethtown, and spent the night at Ford's tavern, 
 in the township of Keene, sleeping on the floor, and 
 finding that we were expected to wash in the river, 
 and were on our way again before sunrise. From 
 Keene westward we began to meet signs of frontier 
 life, — log-eabins, little clearings, bad roads over- 
 shadowed by forests, mountain torrents, and the re- 
 freshing odor of balsam firs and hemlocks. The next 
 morning we stopped at a log-house to breakfast, and 
 found a guide to take us through the Indian Pass, 
 and sent Tommy and his mules forward to Osgood's 
 tavern ; and, with no luggage but such as we could 
 
1849. THE ADIRONDACKS. 147 
 
 easily carry on our backs, began our walk to Lake 
 Sandford, Tahawus and the Adirondack Iron-Works. 
 The day was extremely hot; and as the distance 
 was less than twenty miles, we went on rather lei- 
 surely, stopping and wondering at the noble expanse 
 of mountain scenery. There was no footpath, and 
 we went by blazed lines, over fallen timber, from 
 stream to stream, from hilltop to hilltop, through 
 undergrowth and copse, treading on moss and strewn 
 leaves vhich masked roots of trees and loose stones 
 and other matter for stumbling ; a laborious journey, 
 but full of interest from the objects near at hand, and 
 made sublime by the sense of the presence of those 
 vast-stretching ranges of mountains. In the afternoon 
 we came into the Indian Pass. This is a ravine, 
 or gorge, formed by two close and parallel walls of 
 nearly perpendicular cliffs, of about thirteen hundred 
 feet in height, and almost black in their hue. Before 
 I had seen the Yosemite Valley, these cliffs satisfied 
 my ideal of steep mountain walls. From the highest 
 level of the Pass flow two mountain torrents, in 
 opposite directions, — one the source of the Hudson, 
 and so reaching the Atlantic ; and the other the 
 source of the Au Sable, which runs into Lake Cham- 
 plain, and at last into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, — but 
 no larger when they begin, trickling from the rocks, 
 than streams from the nose of a teapot. The pines 
 growing in the high crevices look no bigger than pins, 
 and in much of this Pass there is only a narrow 
 seam of sky right overhead. Almost a wintry chill 
 pervades the air, and we refreshed ourselves with 
 water dripping from out of ice-caverns, and walked 
 over banks of snow which lie here through the year, 
 preserved by the exclusion of the sun. Neither road 
 
148 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 33. 
 
 nor footpath is practicable here, and the scene is one 
 of wild, silent, awful grandeur. 
 
 Coming out of the Pass, a few miles of rough 
 walking on a downward grade brought us again to 
 small clearings, cuttings of wood piled up to be carried 
 off when the snow should make sledding over the 
 stumps of trees practicable ; and about sundown we 
 straggled into the little extemporized iron- workers' 
 village of Adirondack. 
 
 This was as wild a spot for a manufacturing village 
 as can well be imagined, — in the heart of the moun- 
 tains, with a difficult communication to the south- 
 ward, and none at all in any other direction, — a 
 mere clearing in a forest that stretches into Canada. 
 It stood on a rapid stream which flows from Lake 
 Henderson into Lake Sand ford, where it was hoped 
 that the water-power and the vicinity of good ore 
 would counter-balance the difficulties of transporta- 
 tion. The works, which were called the Adirondack 
 Iron- Works, were begun and carried on with an en- 
 terprise and frugality that deserved better luck than, 
 I understand, befell them at last. There were no at- 
 tempts here at the taste or style the Boston capitalists 
 had displayed at Westport. All things had the nitor 
 in adversum look. The a^ent lived in a house where 
 it was plain that one room served for parlor, kitchen, 
 and nursery. He was a hard-worked, sore-pressed 
 man. A chance to sleep on a floor in a house with 
 ninety-six puddlers, with liberty to wash in the stream, 
 was as fair a result as we had a right to expect in the 
 one house into which strangers could be received. 
 But then we had the consolation that our landlord 
 was a justice of the peace, and wrote "esquire " after 
 his name, and had actually married a couple, it was 
 
1849. THE ADIRONDACKS. 149 
 
 hoped in due form, and was popularly supposed to be 
 able to fill out a writ, it' the rough habits of the peo- 
 ple should ever call fur so formal a process. 
 
 The three or four days we were here we gave to 
 excursions up and down Lake Sandford, to Newcomb's 
 farm, and Dan Gates's camp, and to the top of Taha- 
 wus. A small company of woodsmen, professional 
 hunters and trappers, took us under their charge — as 
 good a set of honest, decent, kind-hearted, sensible 
 men as one could expect to meet with, having, I 
 thought, more propriety of talk and manners, more 
 enlargement of mind and general knowledge, than 
 the same number of common sailors taken equally at 
 random would have shown. There was Dan Gates 
 and Tone Snyder — I suppose an abbreviation of 
 Anthony or Antoine — and John Cheney and Jack 
 Wright, names redoient in memory of rifles and sa- 
 ble-traps, and hemlock camps and deer, and trout and 
 hard walks and good talks. We rowed up Lake 
 Sandford at dawn and back by moonlight, visiting the 
 Newcomb farm, and drinking of the spring on the hill 
 by the side of Lake Delia, to which opinion had at- 
 tached marvellous restorative powers. 
 
 The scenery here is as different from that of the 
 White Mountains as if these were in a different hem- 
 isphere. Here the mountains wave with woods, and 
 are green with bushes to their summits ; torrents 
 break down into the valleys on all sides ; lakes of 
 various sizes and shapes glitter in the landscape, 
 bordered by bending woods whose roots strike through 
 the waters. There is none of that dreary, barren 
 grandeur that marks the White Mountains, although 
 Tahavvus, the highest, is about fifty-four hundred feet 
 high — only some six hundred or seven hundred feet 
 
150 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 33. 
 
 less than Mount Washington. The Indian Pass 
 frowns over one end of the lake, and Tahawus and 
 Mount Mclntire tower on each side ; and at nearly 
 all points on the lake were the most voluble echoes, 
 which the shouts of the boatmen awakened for us. 
 The moon, the mountains, the lake, the dipping oars 
 and the echoes made Lake Sandford a fascination in 
 the remembrance. 
 
 We spent two days and nights in the ascent of 
 Tahawus and the return, camping out under hemlock 
 boughs, cooking our trout and venison in the open 
 air, and enjoying it all as I verily believe none can so 
 thoroughly as they who escape from city life. Some 
 sycophantic state surveyor had named this mountain 
 Mount Marcy, after the then leader of the political 
 party in power ; but a company of travellers have 
 chiselled the old Indian name into rocks at its sum- 
 mit, and called upon all who follow them to aid in its 
 preservation. The woodsmen have taken it up, and 
 I hope this king of the range may be saved from the 
 incongruous nomenclature that has got possession of 
 too large a part of this region. Sandford and Mcln- 
 tire and Marcy, the names of local politicians, like 
 bits of last year's newspapers on the bob of a kite, 
 tied to th^se majestic, solemn mountains, "rock- 
 ribbed and ancient as the sun " ! In the White 
 Mountains I fear that too long a prescription has 
 settled down over those names which have not un- 
 fairly subjected us to the charge of being without 
 imagination or fancy, — g^ing to our almanacs and 
 looking up lists of presidents and members of Congress 
 and stump-speakers, as our only resource, when put 
 to it to find designations for the grandest objects in 
 nature ; while in their speechless agony the mountains 
 
1849. 
 
 THE AD1R0NDACKS. 151 
 
 must endure the ignominy, and all mankind must 
 suffer the discord between the emotions these scenes 
 call up and the purely mundane and political associ- 
 ations that belong to the names of Jefferson and 
 Adams, Clay and Monroe and Jackson. 
 
 I must pause a moment at Calamity Pond, for its 
 story is too deep in my memory to be passed by. 
 Not long before our visit, Mr. Henderson, one of the 
 proprietors and managers of the iron-works, a popular 
 man in all this region, went up to the pond, which 
 lies on the way to the summit of Tahawus, to make 
 arrangements for turning a watercourse into the vil- 
 lage. Sitting on a rock by the side of the pond, he 
 laid down his pistol ; the hammer struck a trifle too 
 hard upon the rock, exploded the cap, and the ball 
 went through his heart. He had just time to send a 
 word of farewell to his wife and children, when it was 
 all over. The sorrow-stricken company hastened to 
 the village with the sad tidings, and then a party of 
 the best woodsmen — for Henderson was beloved by 
 them all — was organized and went to the fatal spot. 
 They had made a rude bier and bore the body slowly 
 down, cutting a path through the woods as they went, 
 to a spot near the level, where they camped for the 
 night, and where, the next day, nearly the whole vil- 
 lage came out to meet them. The sheet of water has 
 been called Calamity Pond, and the rock, Henderson's 
 Rock. As we passed the site of the camp we saw the 
 rude bier, — a vivid reminder of the sad event ; and as 
 we stood by the pond the story was told over with 
 natural pathos, and — " What a place for a man to 
 die in, and without a moment's warning ! " said Dan 
 Gates. "What a place to build a camp in!" said 
 another. Dan and Tone admitted it, and said they 
 
152 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mv. 33. 
 
 all seemed to lose their wits. This was before our 
 civil war had made sudden deaths in all forms aud in 
 vast numbers so familiar. 
 
 The Opalescent, which comes down from Tahawus, 
 is a captivating mountain stream, with very irregular 
 courses, often broken by cascades aud rapids, tum- 
 bling into deep basins, running through steep gorges 
 and from under overlying banks, always clear and 
 sparkling and cool. The last mile of the ascent was 
 then — doubtless the axe has been at work upon it 
 since — a toilsome struggle through a dense growth 
 of scrub cedars and spruces, and it is only the summit 
 that is bare. With this and the summit of Mount 
 Washington, now probably but three or four days 
 apart, the traveller can get the two extreme oppo- 
 sites of North American mountain scenery ; the view 
 from Mount Washington being a wild sea of bald 
 bare tops and sides, with but little wood or water, 
 while that from Tahawus is a limitless expanse of 
 forest, with mountains green to their tops, and all the 
 landscape dotted and lined with the wide mirrors of 
 large lakes, glittering bits of small lakes, silver 
 threads of streams, and ribbons of waterfalls. 
 
 As we lay on the boughs, with the fire sparkling 
 before us, a good many stories were told, marvellous, 
 funny or pathetic, which have long since floated off 
 from their moorings in memory. 
 
 But it is time to take leave of our excellent 
 friends, whose companionship I shall never forget, 
 and move on towards the promised point of my jour- 
 ney. 
 
 We had sent back the guide, who had brought us 
 through the Indian Pass ; for Mr. Aikens was a 
 good woodsman, and had no doubt he could take us 
 
1849. THE ADIRONDACKS. loS 
 
 back. About the middle of the day we bade good- 
 by to Dan and Tone and John, and took our last 
 look at the straggling, struggling village, — in a few 
 years, I believe, abandoned altogether, — and went 
 through the Pass and crossed the first branch of the 
 Au Sable, and ought to have crossed the second be- 
 fore five o'clock ; but the sun was far declined, it 
 was getting to be six o'clock and after, and yet no 
 river ! Aikens became silent ; but it was soon too 
 evident that he had lost the trail. We had been led 
 off by a blazed line that went to sable-traps ; and 
 here we were, at nightfall, lost in a forest that 
 stretched to Canada, and, for aught I know to the 
 contrary, to the Polar Circle, with no food, no gun, 
 blanket nor overcoats. Expecting to get through 
 in six hours, we had taken nothing with us. We 
 consulted, and determined to strike through the 
 woods, steering by the sun — for we had no compass 
 
 — in the direction in which we thought the river 
 lay. Our course should be north ; and we went on, 
 keeping the setting sun a little forward of our left 
 shoulders, — or, as a sailor would say, a little on the 
 port bow, — and struggled over fallen timber and 
 through underbrush, and climbed hills and tried to 
 get a view of White Face, but to no purpose, and the 
 darkness overtook us in low ground, by the side of a 
 small stream. We were very hungry, very much fa- 
 tigued, and not a little anxious ; and the stories they 
 had told us at the village of parties lost in the forest, 
 
 — one especially, of three men who failed to come in 
 and were searched for and found, after several days, 
 little better than skeletons and almost crazed, — 
 these recurred pretty vividly to our fancies. We 
 drank at the stream, and Aikens, never at a loss, cut 
 
154 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 33. 
 
 a bit of red flannel from his shirt, and bent a pin 
 and managed to catch one little trout in the twilight. 
 He insisted on our taking it all. He said he had got 
 us into the trouble by his over-confidence ; but we 
 resisted. It was, to be sure, a question of a square 
 inch of trout more or less, for the fish was not more 
 than four inches long by one inch thick ; yet it was 
 a point of honor with Mr. Aikens, so we yielded, and 
 got one fair mouthful apiece. The place was low 
 and damp, and there was a light frost, and we passed 
 a miserable night, having no clothing but our shirts 
 and trousers. The black-flies were very active, and 
 our faces and arms and necks were blotched and 
 pitted in the saddest fashion. It was with anxious 
 eyes that we watched the dawn ; for if the day was 
 clear, we could travel by the sun until it got high, 
 but if it was thick or foggy, we must stay still ; for 
 every one used to the woods knows that one may go 
 round and round and make no progress, if he has no 
 compass or point of sight. The day did break clear ; 
 and, as soon as there was light enough, Aikens 
 groped about the skirts of the little opening, and 
 made out signs that a path had once come into it. 
 He thought the brush grew differently at one place 
 from what it did elsewhere. Very well ! We gave 
 ourselves up to him, and began another day's strug- 
 gle with fallen timber, hillsides, swamps, and under- 
 growth, on very faint stomachs, but with every show 
 to each other of confidence and strength. In an 
 hour or so plainer signs of a path rewarded Aikens's 
 sagacity. I was glad for him especially ; for he was 
 a good deal annoyed at the trouble we were put to ; 
 and a better woodsman, for an amateur, or a more in- 
 telligent and generous fellow-traveller, we could not 
 
1849. THE ADIRONDACKS. 155 
 
 have desired. At last came some welcome traces of 
 domesticated animals, and then a trodden path, and 
 about noon we came out upon the road. 
 
 We were out, and the danger was over. But 
 where were we? We held a council, and agreed that 
 we must have got far to the left, or westward, of our 
 place of destination, and must turn off to the right. 
 It was of some consequence, for houses on this road 
 were four to seven miles apart. But the right was 
 up hill, and a long steep hill it seemed. Mr. Met- 
 calf plunged down hill, in contempt of his and our 
 united grave conclusions, saying we did not know, 
 and had better do what was easiest. And well it 
 was we did, for a near turn in the road brought us in 
 sight of a log-house and half-cleared farm, while, had 
 we gone to the right, we should have found it seven 
 miles to the nearest dwelling. 
 
 Three more worn, wearied, hungry, black-fly-bit- 
 ten travellers seldom came to this humble, hospitable 
 door. The people received us with cheerful sym- 
 pathy, and, while we lay down on the grass, under 
 the shadow of the house, where a smutch kept off 
 the black-flies, prepared something for our comfort. 
 The master of the house had gone down to the set- 
 tlements, and was expected back before dark. His 
 wife was rather an invalid, and we did not see much 
 of her at first. There were a great many sons and 
 daughters, — I never knew how many ; one a bonny, 
 buxom young woman of some twenty summers, with 
 fair skin and red hair, whose name was Ruth, and 
 whose good humor, hearty kindness, good sense and 
 helpfulness quite won our hearts. She would not let 
 us eat much at a time, and cut us resolutely off from 
 the quantities of milk and cool water we were dis- 
 
156 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 33. 
 
 posed to drink, and persuaded us to wait until some- 
 thing could be cooked for us, more safe and whole- 
 some for faint stomachs ; and we were just weak 
 enough to be submissive subjects to this backwoods 
 queen. A man came along in a wagon, and stopped 
 to water his herses, and they asked him if he had 
 seen anything of Mr. Brown below, — which it 
 seemed was the name of the family. Yes ; he had 
 seen him. He would be along in an hour or so. 
 " He has two negroes along with him," said the man, 
 in a confidential, significant tone, "a man and a 
 woman." Ruth smiled, as if she understood him. 
 Mr. Aikens told us that the country about here be- 
 longed to Gerrit Smith ; that negro families, mostly 
 fugitive slaves, were largely settled upon it, trying 
 to learn farming ; and that this Mr. Brown was a 
 strong abolitionist and a kind of king among them. 
 Tins neighborhood was thought to be one of the ter- 
 mini of the Underground Railroad. 
 
 The farm was a mere recent clearing. The 
 stumps of trees stood out, blackened by burning, and 
 crops were growing among them, and there was a 
 plenty of felled timber. The dwelling was a small 
 log-house of one story in height, and the outbuild- 
 ings were slight. The whole had the air of a recent 
 enterprise, on a moderate scale, although there were 
 a good many neat cattle and horses. The position 
 was a grand one for a lover of mountain effects ; but 
 how good for farming I could not tell. Old White 
 Face, the only exception to the uniform green and 
 brown and black hues of the Adirondack hills, stood 
 plain in view, rising at the head of Lake Placid, its 
 white or pale gray side caused, we were told, by a 
 land-slide. All about were the distant highest sum- 
 mits of the Adirondacks. 
 
1849. JOHN BROWN. 157 
 
 Late in the afternoon a long buckboard wagon 
 came in sight, and on it were seated a negro man and 
 woman, with bundles ; while a tall, gaunt, dark-com- 
 plexioned man walked before, having his theodolite 
 and other surveyor's instruments with him, while 
 a youth followed by the side of the wagon. The 
 team turned in to the sheds, and the man entered 
 the house. This was " father." The sons came out 
 and put up the cattle, and soon we were asked in to 
 the meal. Mr. Brown came forward and received 
 us with kindness ; a grave, serious man he seemed, 
 with a marked countenance and a natural dignity of 
 manner, — that dignity which is unconscious, and 
 comes from a superior habit of mind. 
 
 We were all ranged at a long table, some dozen of 
 us more or less ; and these two negroes and one other 
 had their places with us. Mr. Brown said a solemn 
 grace. I observed that he called the negroes by their 
 surnames, with the prefixes of Mr. and Mrs. The 
 man was " Mr. Jefferson," and the woman " Mrs. 
 Wait." He introduced us to them in due form, 
 "Mr. Dana, Mr. Jefferson," "Mr. Metcalf, Mrs. 
 Wait." It was plain they had not been so treated 
 or spoken to often before, perhaps never until that 
 day, for they had all the awkwardness of field hands 
 on a plantation ; and what to do, on the introduc- 
 tion, was quite beyond their experience. There was 
 an unrestricted supply of Ruth's best bread, butter 
 and corn-cakes, and we had some meat and tea, and 
 a plenty of the best of milk. 
 
 We had some talk with Mr. Brown, who interested 
 us very much. He told us he came here from the 
 western part of Massachusetts. As some persons 
 may distrust recollections, after very striking inter- 
 
158 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 33. 
 
 vening events, I ask pardon for taking an extract 
 from a journal I was in the habit of keeping at those 
 times : — 
 
 " The place belonged to a man named Brown, 
 originally from Berkshire in Massachusetts, a thin, 
 sinewy, hard-favored, clear-headed, honest-minded 
 man, who had spent all his days as a frontier farmer. 
 On conversing with him, we found him well informed 
 on most subjects, especially in the natural sciences. 
 He had books, and had evidently made a diligent use 
 of them. Having acquired some property, he was 
 able to keep a good farm, and had confessedly the 
 best cattle and best farming utensils for miles 
 round. His wife looked superior to the poor place 
 they lived in, which was a cabin, with only four 
 rooms. She appeared to be out of health. He 
 seemed to have an unlimited family of children, from 
 a cheerful, nice, healthy woman of twenty or so, and 
 a full-sized, red-haired son, who seemed to be fore- 
 man of the farm, through every grade of boy and 
 girl, to a couple that could hardly speak plain. " 
 
 How all these, and we three and Mr. Jefferson and 
 Mrs. Wait, were to be lodged here was a problem ; but 
 Aikens said he had seen as much done here before. 
 However, we were not obliged to test the expanding 
 capacities of the house ; for a man was going down 
 to Osgood's by whom we sent a message, and in an 
 hour or two the smiling face of Tommy appeared 
 behind his mules, and we took leave of our kind en- 
 tertainers. 
 
 In these regions it is the custom for farmers to re- 
 ceive travellers ; and while they do not take out li- 
 censes as inn-holders, or receive strictly pay for what 
 they furnish, they always accept something in the 
 
1849. JOHN BROWN. 150 
 
 way of remuneration from the traveller. When we 
 attempted to leave something with Ruth, which was 
 intended to express our gratitude and good-will, we 
 found her inflexible. She would receive the bare 
 cost of what we had taken, if we wished it, but noth- 
 ing for attentions, or house-room, or as a gratuity. 
 We had some five-dollar bills and some bills of one 
 dollar each. She took one of the one-dollar bills and 
 went up into the garret, and returned with some 
 change ! It was too piteous. We could not help 
 smiling, and told her we should feel guilty of high- 
 way robbery if we took her silver. She consented to 
 keep the one dollar for three of us, — one meal apiece 
 and some extra cooking in the morning, — as we 
 seemed to think that was right. It was plain this 
 family acted on a principle in the smallest matters. 
 They knew pretty well the cost price of the food they 
 gave ; and if the traveller preferred to pny, they 
 would receive that, but nothing more. There was 
 no shamefacedness about the money transaction 
 either. It was business or nothing ; and if we pre- 
 ferred to make it business, it was to be upon a rule. 
 
 After a day spent on Lake Placid, and in ascend- 
 ing White Face, we returned to Osgood's, and the 
 next day we took the road in our wagon on our re- 
 turn to Westport. We could not pass the Browns' 
 house without stopping. I find this entry in my 
 journal : — 
 
 " June 29, Friday. After breakfast, started for 
 home. . . . We stopped at the Browns' cabin on our 
 way, and took an affectionate leave of the family 
 that had shown us so much kindness. We found 
 them at breakfast, in the patriarchal style. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Brown and their large family of children with 
 
160 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 33. 
 
 the hired men and women, including three negroes, 
 all at the table together. Their meal was neat, sub- 
 stantial and wholesome." 
 
 How mysterious is the touch of Fate which gives 
 a man immortality on earth ! It would have been 
 past belief had we been told that this quiet frontier 
 farmer, already at or beyond middle life, with no 
 noticeable past, would, within ten years, be the cen- 
 tral figure of a great tragic scene, gazed upon with 
 wonder, pity, admiration or execration by half a con- 
 tinent ! That this man should be thought to have 
 imperilled the slave empire in America, and added a 
 new danger to the stability of the Union ! That his 
 almost undistinguishable name of John Brown should 
 be whispered among four millions of slaves, and sung 
 wherever the English tongue is spoken, and incor- 
 porated into an anthem to whose solemn cadences 
 men should march to battle by the tens of thousands ! 
 That he should have done something toward changing 
 the face of civilization itself ! 
 
 In 1859-60 my inveterate habit of overworking 
 gave me, as you know, a vacation and the advantage 
 of a voyage round the world. Somewhere at the 
 antipodes I picked up, from time to time, in a dis- 
 jointed way, out of all chronological order, reports of 
 the expedition of one John Brown into Virginia, his 
 execution, and the political excitement attending it ; 
 but I learned little of much value. That was the 
 time when slavery ruled all. There was scarce an 
 American consul or political agent in any quarter of 
 the globe, or on any island of the seas, who was not 
 a supporter of the slave-power. I saw a large por- 
 tion of these national representatives in my circum- 
 navigation of the globe, and it was impossible to find 
 
1849. JOHN BROWN. 1GI 
 
 at any office over which the American flag waved a 
 newspaper that was not in the interests of slavery. 
 No copy of the New York " Tribune" or u Evening 
 Post " was tolerated under an American official roof. 
 Each embassy and consulate, the world over, was a 
 centre of influences for slavery and against freedom. 
 We ought to take this into account when we blame 
 foreign nations for not accepting at once the United 
 States as an anti-slavery power, bent on the destruc- 
 tion of slavery, as soon as our civil war broke out. 
 For twenty years foreign merchants, shipmasters or 
 travellers had seen in American officials only trained 
 and devoted supporters of the slave-power, and the 
 only evidences of public opinion at home to be found at 
 those official seats, so much resorted to and credited, 
 were all of the same character. I returned home at 
 the height of the Lincoln campaign of 1860, on which 
 followed secession and war ; and it was not until 
 after the war, when reading back into its history, 
 that I met with those unsurpassed narratives, by Mr. 
 Wentworth Higginson and Mr. Wendell Phillips, of 
 their visits to the home of John Brown, about the 
 time of his execution, full of solemn touches, and 
 marked by that restraint which good taste and right 
 feeling accept in the presence of a great subject, 
 itself so expressive of awe. Reading on, it went 
 through me with a thrill, — This is the man under 
 whose roof I received shelter and kindness ! These 
 were the mother and daughters and sons who have 
 suffered or shed their blood ! This was the family 
 whose artless heroism, whose plain fidelity and forti- 
 tude, seem to have cast chivalry and romance into 
 the shade ! 
 
 It is no uncommon thing to visit spots long hal- 
 
162 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 33. 
 
 lowed by great events or renowned persons. The 
 course of emotions in such cases is almost stereo- 
 typed. But this retroactive effect is something 
 strange and anomalous. It is one thing to go through 
 a pass of fear, watching your steps as you go, con- 
 scious of all its grandeur and peril, but quite another 
 sensation when a glare of light, thrown backwards, 
 shows you a fearful passage through which you have 
 just gone with careless steps and unheeding eyes. It 
 seems as if those few days of ours in the Adirondacks, 
 in 1849, had been passed under a spell which held 
 my senses from knowing what we saw. All is now 
 become a region of peculiar sacredness. That plain, 
 bare farm, amid the blackened stumps, the attempts 
 at scientific agriculture under such disadvantages, the 
 simple dwelling, the surveyor's tools, the setting of 
 the little scene amid grand, awful mountain ranges, 
 the negro colony and inmates, the family bred to 
 duty and principle, and held to them by a power rec- 
 ognized as being from above, — all these now come 
 back on my memory with a character nowise changed, 
 indeed, in substance, but, as it were, illuminated. 
 The widow bearing homeward the body from the 
 Virginia scaffold, with the small company of stranger 
 friends, crossed the lake, as we had done, to West- 
 port; and thence, along that mountain road, but in 
 mid-winter, to Elizabethtown ; and thence, the next 
 day, to the door of that dwelling. The scene is often 
 visited now by sympathy or curiosity, no doubt, and 
 master pens have made it one of the most marked in 
 our recent history. 
 
 In this narrative I have endeavored, my dear friend, 
 to guard against the influence of intervening events, 
 and to give all things I saw in the natural, transient 
 
1849. JOHN BROWN. 163 
 
 way in which they struck me at the time. That is 
 its only value. It is now owing to subsequent events 
 that John Brown and his family are so impressed on 
 my mind. The impression was made at the time. 
 The short extract from a journal which set down but 
 little, and nothing that was not of a marked charac- 
 ter, will, I trust, satisfy the most incredulous that I 
 am not beating up memory for impressions. I have 
 tried to recollect something more of John Brown's 
 conversation, but in vain, nor can either of my com- 
 panions help me in that. We cannot recollect that 
 slavery was talked of at all. It seems strange it 
 should not have been, as we were Free Soilers, and I 
 had been to the Buffalo Convention the year before ; 
 but perhaps the presence of the negroes may have re- 
 strained us, as we did not see the master of the house 
 alone. I notice that my journal speaks of him as 
 " originally from Berkshire, Massachusetts." In ex- 
 amining his biography I think this must have been 
 from his telling us that he had come from the western 
 part of Massachusetts, when he found that we were 
 Massachusetts men. I see no proof of his having 
 lived in any other part of Massachusetts than Spring- 
 field. My journal speaks of the house as a " log- 
 cabin." I observe that Mr. Higginson and some of 
 the biographers describe it as a frame building. Mr. 
 Brown had been but a few months on the place when 
 we were there, and he may have put up a frame house 
 afterwards ; or it is quite as likely that I was not 
 careful to note the difference, and got that impression 
 from its small size and plain surroundings. 
 
 Nearly all that the writers in December, 1859, have 
 described lies clear in my memory. There can have 
 been little change there in ten years. Ruth had be- 
 
164 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 33. 
 
 come the wife of Henry Thompson, whose brother 
 was killed at Harper's Ferry ; and the son I speak of 
 as apparently the foreman of the farm was probably 
 Owen, who was with his father at Ossawatomie and 
 Harper's Ferry, and escaped. Frederick, who was 
 killed at Ossawatomie, in 1856, was probably the lad 
 whom we saw coming home with his father, bring- 
 ing the negroes on the wagon. Among the small 
 boys, playing and working about the house, were 
 Watson and Oliver, who were killed at Harper's 
 Ferry. I do not recollect seeing — perhaps it was not 
 there then — the gravestone of his grandfather of the 
 Revolutionary Army, which John Brown is said to 
 have taken from Connecticut and placed against the 
 side of the house ; nor can I recall the great rock, 
 near the door, by the side of which lies his body, 
 
 " mouldering in the ground, 
 While his soul is marching on." 
 
 What judgment soever political loyalty, social 
 ethics or military strategy may pronounce upon his 
 expedition into Virginia, old John Brown has a grasp 
 on the moral world. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FREE SOIL POLITICS. 
 
 The extracts from the diary contained in this chapter re- 
 late chiefly to political events in Massachusetts during the 
 years 1849 and 1850. General Taylor died July 9, 1850, 
 and was succeeded in the presidency by Millard Fillmore ; 
 Mr. Webster, who a few months before had made his famous 
 7th of March speech, became Secretary of State, and Robert 
 C. Winthrop was appointed by Governor George N. Briggs, 
 the Legislature not being in session, to the seat thus made 
 vacant in the Senate of the United States. So far as slavery 
 was concerned, the whole course of events was reactionary ; 
 the cry was for the preservation of the Union and the Con- 
 stitution, and in obedience to this cry Congress during the 
 summer and autumn passed, under the lead of Henry Clay, 
 that series of laws known as the compromise measures of 
 1850. Among these measures was the Fugitive Slave act. 
 
 Little realizing what the following decennium had in store 
 for it, the country at this time was thoroughly weary of the 
 slavery question. It wanted to hear nothing more of it. 
 Accordingly in Massachusetts as well as in most other parts 
 of the North the compromise measures were very generally 
 accepted as a settlement upon the whole satisfactory, and the 
 anti-slavery men were looked upon more and more as agi- 
 tators, wicked and wanton. In New York, the Free Soil 
 party hardly outlived the election in which it brought about 
 the defeat of Cass, for in 1849 the Barnburners, still under 
 the lead of John Van Buren, formally returned into the 
 Democratic fold. The new organization showed more vital- 
 
166 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 33. 
 
 ity in Massachusetts, but even there it fell away from 38,000 
 votes in 1848, to 27,800 in 1850. Though the third party 
 in strength, under the majority rule then in force the Free 
 Soilers, as between the Whigs and Democrats, held the bal- 
 ance of power ; for, though the Whigs regularly polled a 
 large plurality of the votes cast at every annual election, the 
 Democrats and Free Soilers together always outnumbered 
 them, and, after thus defeating a choice at the polls, could 
 by acting in concert secure a majority in the Legislature, 
 upon which the election of all state officers then devolved. 
 
 The Free Soilers were the advance guard of the coming 
 Republican party and they were men of principle ; but even 
 for men of principle it is hard to be counted year after 
 year in a small minority. The average man does not like to 
 go on forever throwing his vote for candidates who he knows 
 cannot be elected. If the party, the members of which are 
 called on to do this, does not gravitate towards one or the 
 other of the larger organizations, the individuals who com- 
 pose it almost assuredly will. 
 
 Accordingly two counsels soon began to be heard in the 
 Free Soil ranks ; one set of leaders wanted the party to hold 
 itself high, and to keep clear of all Democratic contamina- 
 tion ; the other set wanted it to preserve its organization, 
 but to cooperate with the Democrats in order to defeat the 
 Whigs and get some share of the fruits of victory. The old 
 " Conscience Whigs " like Charles Allen, Stephen C. Phil- 
 lips, John G. Palfrey and C. F. Adams contended for the 
 former course ; while Henry Wilson, with the understood 
 support of Charles Sumner, was the recognized exponent of 
 the coalition policy. Wilson, though at first defeated, finally 
 carried the day, and his victory resulted in the election of 
 Sumner to the Senate in the spring of 1853, — the United 
 States senatorship having been traded off to the Free Soil- 
 ers in exchange for the state offices, which the Legislature 
 filled by the choice of the nominees of the Democratic party. 
 George S. Boutwell was made governor. 
 
1849. FREE SOIL POLITICS. 167 
 
 It is unnecessary to say that political management and 
 office mongering of this sort had small attraction for Dana. 
 His sympathies were wholly with the better elements of the 
 party, as he undoubtedly would have called those who op- 
 posed entangling alliances. Whether he and his friends 
 were right or wrong in the matter was, as we now see, of 
 little consequence. It was but a phase, and a passing one, 
 in the great process of political disintegration and reintegra- 
 tion then going on, and which was not to result in anything 
 definite for six years yet. Meanwhile the Free Soil party 
 was to pass absolutely away ; not slowly absorbed, as Dana 
 and his friends apprehended, in the Democracy, but sud- 
 denly engulfed in that " Know-Nothing " frenzy which four 
 years later was destined to sweep the State, making clear 
 the way for the Republican organization of 1856. 
 
 Plymouth, July 22. Sunday. At church in the 
 morning. In the afternoon, to please Mrs. Hodge, 
 went to the Unitarian meeting, and heard Rev. Mr. 
 Briggs. A fervid and rather well-written essay, 
 founded entirely on natural religion, and, excepting 
 a few words, with nothing that would have surprised 
 Seneca or Cicero to hear. No Scripture was read, 
 two vapid hymns sung, and something in the nature 
 of a prayer, but entirely divested of the Scriptural 
 phraseology which used to dignify the Congregational 
 prayers, and some high-sounding terms of transcen- 
 dentalism put in their place, and the whole rather 
 addressed to the audience than elsewhere. There is 
 certainly a great change in the style and phraseology 
 of Unitarian religious exercises, greater than the 
 people are aware of, for it is gradual and unnoticed 
 from day to day. 
 
 August 11. Took saddle-horse and rode down 
 to Quincy, to take tea with Mr. Quinoy. Found him 
 
168 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 34. 
 
 at home, and the old gentleman, at eighty-three, took 
 me round his farm, showed me his forty head of cat- 
 tle in his barn, his twelve acres of carrots, and his 
 two hundred tons of hay. He has an excellent farm, 
 and is a thoroughly practical farmer. It is a great 
 solace to his declining years. The estate has been 
 in the family two hundred and ten years, having been 
 purchased of the Indians by a direct ancestor, and 
 from him descended from father to son to the present 
 time. 
 
 At tea, Mr. Quincy told me anecdotes of his early 
 life, and particularly of John Randolph, about whom 
 we happened to speak. He told me that he was par- 
 ticularly intimate with Randolph, there being quite a 
 friendship between them. But Randolph hated New 
 England. Mr. Quincy invited him to make him a 
 visit. " Mr. Quincy," said he, stretching out his fin- 
 ger, "so help me God, I never mean to cross the 
 Hudson River. But if, by any unfortunate accident, 
 I happen to be in New England, your house is the 
 only house I shall enter." 
 
 September 8. Saturday. Rode on horseback, 
 beautiful afternoon, to Mr. Adams' at Quincy. He 
 occupies the old house in which his father and grand- 
 father lived before him, — a venerable old low-roofed, 
 big-timbered house, full of historical associations. In 
 his study, where he is writing the life of his grand- 
 father, that grandfather and the great men of the 
 Revolutionary period, and his father and the chief men 
 of the next two generations, have lived, written, and 
 talked. Here my grandfather and great-grandfather 
 (Ellery) used to spend many days of every summer, 
 during the exciting period of Adams' administration. 
 
 Mr. Adams talked very sensibly about Jefferson's 
 
1849. FREE SOIL POLITICS. 169 
 
 character, and is satisfied that Jefferson was false to 
 his grandfather and a false man generally where his 
 own interests were concerned. In the present poli- 
 tics of our own state Mr. Adams is averse to making 
 terms with either party, and has not that confidence 
 that the " instincts of the Democracy " are on our 
 side which Sumner has — neither has Palfrey. They 
 both see that our cause addresses itself to a sense of 
 justice and national honor, rather than to the in- 
 stincts of personal freedom which would insure the 
 support of the loco-foco part of the Democratic party. 
 September 16. Sunday evening. I took tea to- 
 night with President Woods at Dr. Salter's and 
 stayed until nine o'clock, when I walked over the 
 bridge with father, who came in to church, and it is 
 now so late, with my new habits of early to bed and 
 early up, that I must finish on this page. The Presi- 
 dent wa3 very agreeable, and talked well on (1) the 
 style of the French philosophizing historians and 
 politicians of the present day ; (2) the popular belief 
 in the immortality of the soul as assumed in, and as 
 the essence of, the popular theology of Greece, Rome 
 and the East, and only doubted by some of the 
 philosophers, and in the Jewish institutions and 
 popular belief, and only doubted by the Sadducees ; 
 (3) on the Congregational theory as to ordination 
 and practice as distinguished from the Presbyterian ; 
 on all of which topics he talked clearly and without 
 being in extremes ; also on the state's sustaining in- 
 tellectual without religious education. 
 
 Shortly after writing the above to his wife, Dana had 
 occasion to visit New York, and the following diary entry 
 refers to what he there did and those whom he saw. 
 
170 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. M. 
 
 New York, September 26. Wednesday. Spent 
 first few hours down town. Called on Daniel Lord, 
 who received me most cordially, on Evarts who was 
 out, Win. Russell, ditto. Called on Bigelow at the 
 office of the " Evening Post," who tried to explain 
 the recent union of the Barnburners and Hunkers to 
 my satisfaction, but without success. There are two 
 reasons for it, — one, that no party can be sustained 
 in New York without a fair prospect of immediate 
 success, for one year ; and the other, that the Demo- 
 cratic party is the ruling notion with them, and sla- 
 very is subordinate. Called on Mr. Ripley, whom I 
 found in the fourth story of a huge, dirty building, 
 attained by winding, narrow, dirty stairs, amid the 
 whizzing and clanking of steam machinery, sitting in 
 his shirt sleeves, paragraphing and clipping for the 
 " Tribune." Nowhere is the contrast between cir- 
 cumstances and influence greater than in the office of 
 an editor in New York. Wielding an influence which 
 hardly has its superior in the republic, the editors of 
 the leading journals still write in their little closets, 
 in fourth stories, on pine tables, amid noise, dirt and 
 confusion. 
 
 Returning immediately to Boston, the two next extracts 
 are from letters to Mrs. Dana, while those which follow, 
 and complete the narrative, are from the diary. 
 
 October 1. Saturday I went to the shore and 
 spent Sunday with the Ticknors. It was delightful. 
 The house and grounds look so much better, the 
 bank is grown over, the hills and bank covered with 
 asters, golden-rod, bright red vines, barberries, and 
 the woods alive with the maple leaves ! And the 
 charming damp air of the ocean poured round all. 
 
1849. FREE SOIL POLITICS. 171 
 
 I took several walks alone, and one down the 
 avenue with the family. Sunday afternoon Mr. 
 and Mrs. Dexter, with Mr. and Mrs. Crawford (the 
 sculptor), drove up and spent an hour. Mrs. Craw- 
 ford is a perfectly fascinating woman. I don't know 
 a woman anywhere (except one) who can compare 
 with her. 
 
 October 7. Sunday. I am writing you for almost 
 the first time this season from my secretary in my 
 own room. This gloomy day after going to church 
 (and communion) in the morning, I came home 
 and made a fire in my own chamber to spend the 
 afternoon. After going out to dine, walking round 
 the Common, among the fallen leaves and broken 
 branches, with a northeast wind and rain too heavy 
 for an umbrella to live, I have come back and read 
 two cantos of Fairy Queen, and am writing to my 
 dear wife, my Florimel and Britomart. 
 
 Thursday I am to dine with Mr. Palfrey to meet 
 C. F. Adams and Sumner. I presume it is to be a 
 council of war on the present state of the Free Soil 
 party. If any one asks you what I think of the con- 
 duct of the Barnburners, you may say that I think 
 they have been guilty of desertion of their principles 
 and bad faith to their allies. 
 
 11. Dined at Dr. Palfrey's with Sumner, Dr. S. G. 
 Howe, Dr. Estes Howe. Discussed the propriety of 
 a joint ticket with Democrats. Dr. Palfrey and I 
 opposed it. Sumner and Dr. E. Howe favored it, Dr. 
 S. G. Howe doubtful. I was more earnest than any 
 of them, and told them it would take the virtue out 
 of our party. They said it would elect Dr. Palfrey; 
 I thought not. I told them his strength was not that 
 of organization, but arose from his commending him- 
 
172 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 34. 
 
 self to the moral sense of the people, which this union 
 would impair. Dr. Palfrey was opposed to it, but 
 said he should not interfere, but would be neither a 
 motive nor an obstacle to the plan. 
 
 November 8. Refused to take part in the Faneuil 
 Hall caucus if John Van Buren spoke, not from any 
 personal objection, but because it was favoring the 
 Democratic party. If they would invite a Free Soil 
 Whig from New York as well as a Free Soil Demo- 
 crat I would agree to it. I thought it was impor- 
 tant to preserve entire neutrality — seeing a strong 
 disposition to democratize our party. 
 
 9. John Van Buren called to be introduced. Spent 
 an hour or more at my office. He was very agree- 
 able. A fine example of gentleman of the rowdy 
 school, a Newmarket noble. There is something 
 quite taking about him. He did not succeed in satis- 
 fying me as to the New York coalition, nor did Mr. 
 Bigelow, who called to see me with Sumner and 
 talked Rousseau democracy. 
 
 1850. February 27. This day the Free Soil Con- 
 vention was held at Faneuil Hall, to sustain the Wil- 
 mot Proviso. At a previous meeting it had been 
 agreed that I should write the report and resolutions. 
 It was my idea that they should be addressed directly 
 to the members of Congress themselves, and this 
 suggestion was adopted by the committee. I read 
 my report to a committee consisting of C. F. Adams, 
 Dr. Palfrey, Sumner, Hopkins, Wm. Jackson and 
 others. On the morning of this day I read it to 
 Samuel Hoar and S. C. Phillips. All these gentle- 
 men expressed themselves highly gratified and very 
 few changes were made, those immaterial. It was 
 well received by the convention. 
 
1850. FREE SOIL POLITICS. 173 
 
 The convention was highly respectable both in 
 numbers and character, and deep feeling seemed to 
 pervade it. The report of its doings is in the " Re- 
 publican " of this week. 
 
 March 12. Stephen C. Phillips called at my office 
 and at my request related to me the history of Mr. 
 Webster's course as to the admission of Texas. He 
 told the story calmly and deliberately. 
 
 He had been in Washington and knew the course 
 of measures planned by the Tyler Administration to 
 secure the annexation of Texas. He came home 
 much troubled and alarmed. He knew the greater 
 part of the northern Democracy would sustain the 
 measure, and that the only hope was from the Whigs. 
 Judge Allen happened to be in Salem, and Mr. Phil- 
 lips sent for him, and the whole matter was talked 
 over. They agreed that a movement must be made 
 in time, and first of all that Webster should be seen. 
 Webster had left Tyler's Cabinet and was out of office, 
 and rather out of favor with the Whig leaders in the 
 State for having stayed so long by Tyler, but without 
 doubt supported by the people. Mr. Phillips had 
 been his warm and somewhat confidential friend. 
 He called upon him at his lodgings at the Tremont 
 House and laid the matter before him. He found 
 Webster fully and deeply interested. Webster ex- 
 pressed his great gratification to find the movement 
 begun, and advised that a convention be called at 
 Faneuil Hall, and an address prepared to the people, 
 as the first step toward rousing the North. Mr. 
 Phillips reminded him that it was an important 
 movement, on which the political fate of themselves 
 and the party might hang, and that they must be 
 assured of his support. Mr. Phillips says he never 
 
174 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 34. 
 
 shall forget Webster's reply : " If there is any influ- 
 ence in the name of Daniel Webster, as some persons 
 have said there is, you shall have it all. By this head 
 and this heart (suiting the action to the word), if 
 there is any strength in this old arm, it is all devoted 
 to your cause ! " 
 
 Mr. Phillips then wrote the call for the conven- 
 tion, which Mr. Webster revised and gave his ap- 
 proval to, and it was taken round for signatures. 
 Then they found that a certain number of leading 
 W T higs, represented by Abbott Lawrence and Nathan 
 Appleton, since called the " Cotton Whigs," were 
 indifferent to the subject and averse to any action. 
 Their general motives were well known or shrewdly 
 suspected ; with some of them there was an addi- 
 tional special motive, of unwillingness to cooperate 
 with Webster in a movement that might redound to 
 his credit. Mr. Phillips says that Mr. Lawrence, on 
 giving his final refusal, said, " No, sir. We will not 
 help Daniel Webster to right himself by this Texas 
 movement." At the same time, Mr. Webster's New 
 York friends hearing of this movement became 
 alarmed and wrote to Webster, begging him not to 
 commit himself and the Whig party of New England 
 to it ; that it would alienate the South and seal the 
 alliance between the South and the northern Democ- 
 racy ; that the leading Whigs of Boston would not 
 stand by him, and that there was not sufficient anti- 
 Texas feeling in the North to be the basis of his 
 political action. 
 
 These letters and the coldness of the Cotton 
 Whigs evidently deterred Mr. Webster, and when he 
 was called upon to sign the call for the convention, 
 he held back. Judge [Charles] Allen, with his char- 
 
1850. FREE SOIL POLITICS. 175 
 
 acteristic intrepidity, put Webster's name to it, and 
 told him it should be published, and he might take 
 it back, if he dared. It was thus only that Webster's 
 name appeared. 
 
 As the time drew nigh for the convention, they 
 found Mr. Webster more and more reserved and 
 backward. It was only by absolutely dogging and 
 dunning him that they got him at work upon the 
 address, on Monday, two days before the convention. 
 The address was written in Webster's office, he dic- 
 tating and Mr. Phillips and Judge Allen writing. 
 He divided the objections into heads, and took them 
 up separately, leaving slavery to the last. When he 
 came to this head he paused and became very sol- 
 emn, and told them frankly he did not know what to 
 do. He stated the position of this question, the state 
 of parties, the division among the Whigs, etc., and 
 went no farther. Here he broke down. All they 
 could get from him was a promise to consider it and 
 to meet them Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday after- 
 noon they received a note from him saying that a 
 case in which he was engaged obliged him to be in 
 New York the next day, that he left that afternoon, 
 that the business was in excellent hands, which could 
 manage far better than he could, wished them God 
 speed, etc. 
 
 This was the last they heard from him on this sub- 
 ject. Mr. Phillips says he has met him often since, 
 that Webster has been very cordial and pleasant, but 
 that the subject of Texas never has been alluded to 
 between them. Disheartened and vexed, these men, 
 on the night before the convention, had to finish the 
 address and carry off the dead weight of the deserted 
 convention, and fill up the chasm left by his absence. 
 
176 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt.ZS. 
 
 Now he claims the credit, in his speech of March 
 7, of having endeavored to rouse the people, and lays 
 all the blame on " certain leading Whigs of Boston." 
 And though he has had the grace not to say any- 
 thing against the u Conscience Whigs," yet he has 
 never had the magnanimity to acknowledge or give 
 one word of commendation to the fidelity and bold- 
 ness of those men whom he promised to sustain, and 
 who went nobly but unsuccessfully on, with the 
 work. 
 
 September 1. A meeting of the leading members 
 of the Free Soil party was held at the Adams House 
 to consider the expediency of uniting with the Demo- 
 crats in the state elections. There is little doubt the 
 ultimate plan is a complete union. The measure 
 was advocated by Governor Morton, General Wilson, 
 Earle and Colonel [De Witt] from Worcester, and 
 by William Jackson, Alley and Dr. Swan of the 
 Liberty party. It was opposed by Mr. Hoar (sen- 
 ior), Dr. Palfrey, Adams, Phillips and myself, and 
 was lost without a count. I told them that whether 
 adopted or not I would not do it. 
 
 1851. January 20. Monday. Left at 2.30 P. M. 
 for New York. 
 
 21. Tuesday. Called on Evarts who invited me 
 to dine at Delmonico's next day at three o'clock:. 
 Discussed the Fugitive Slave Bill rather warmly. 
 He defends the act and the compromise on which it 
 is founded, and Webster's course, and thinks Web- 
 ster is to be the next president, in each particular of 
 which I disagreed with him. 
 
 22. Wednesday. After breakfast walked down 
 town. Called on C. W. Spaulding, a witness in 
 Ford v. King, twice, but he was out ; on Judge Kent, 
 
1851. FREE SOIL POLITICS. 177 
 
 who received me with attention, we holding a long 
 converse on Sumner and Boston politics and social 
 life. He is an out and out Whig Hunker, but had 
 to endure a good deal of Free Soil from me. He 
 admitted the attempt of Mr. Ticknor, the Eliots and 
 others to ostracize Sumner, and thought it unwise 
 and unfair. Called on Henry Nicoll, who talked 
 politics, Democratic, and railed at the corruptions 
 in the United States offices, in the way of fees 
 and extortions, and the circumventing of statutes. 
 At " Tribune " office I found Mr. Ripley, Greeley, 
 C. A. Dana and Bayard Taylor, all at work at their 
 separate tables. This is the great enginery of the 
 nineteenth century, steam-engines in every part of 
 the huge building, and four editors at humble tables 
 with pen and scissors in hand, preparing for 100,000 
 readers and more ; with telegraphic dispatches every 
 hour from all parts of the Union. Was introduced 
 to Greeley. Think him coarse and cunning. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES OF 1851. 
 
 The Fugitive Slave Law, passed in the summer of 1850, 
 was now in full operation. No seizure under its provisions 
 had been attempted in Massachusetts, though numbers of 
 such seizures had been made elsewhere and many colored 
 people returned into slavery. There was and always had 
 been a considerable negro population in Boston, living to- 
 gether on the north side of Beacon Hill, and among them 
 it was well known were many escaped slaves. Before the 
 passage of the Act of 1850 these people had considered 
 themselves absolutely safe, and so indeed they were ; but 
 after the passage of the act they were so no longer. It was 
 true there was no probability that any considerable number 
 of fugitives would ever be seized in Boston, for Massachu- 
 setts was not a border-state, and the feeling there among a 
 large portion of the people was so intense that the capture 
 of a runaway negro implied the possession of very consider- 
 able nerve on the part of the captor, and, from a money point 
 of view, could hardly be expected to prove remunerative. 
 
 On the other hand, it was well understood that it had be- 
 come a matter of pride in the South to have a slave seized 
 in Boston and taken back from Massachusetts. Boston was 
 the home of Garrison, and Massachusetts was the hot-bed of 
 abolitionism. A great deal had been heard of the love for 
 the Union and the devotion to the constitution which existed 
 there, but these protestations had not been put to the test; 
 it was high time to put them to the test and see what they 
 amounted to. It was notorious that public meetings had 
 been held in Boston, and even in Faneuil Hall, at which pas- 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 179 
 
 sionate resolves had been passed declaring that, " law or no 
 law, not a slave should be taken back from Massachusetts." 
 It remained to be seen whether the solemn act of Congress 
 or the resolve of the political gathering was law in the 
 State. 
 
 Accordingly all through the autumn and early winter of 
 1850-51 there was a vague general impression abroad that 
 an attempt at seizure would be made, and great uneasiness 
 pervaded the negro community on Beacon Hill. As day 
 after day passed and nothing occurred, this sense of appre- 
 hension in some degree subsided, and fugitives who had 
 sought shelter in Canada ventured to return. But the popu- 
 lar impression was right. The law was to be vindicated ; a 
 fugitive was to be taken back to slavery from Massachusetts 
 soil. 
 
 The following record of his part in the first of these his- 
 toric episodes was made by Dana at the time, and, telling 
 its own story, stands in need of no explanatory introduc- 
 tion. It relates to the arrest and rescue of Shadrach alias 
 Frederick Jenkins. Dana's office at that time was at 30 
 Court Street, and directly opposite the court-house, the side 
 entrance to which his windows overlooked. 
 
 February 15. Saturday, While in my office at 
 about 10.30 A. M., Charles Davis, Parker, and others 
 came in and told me that the marshal had a fugitive 
 slave in custody, in the United States court room be- 
 fore Mr. George T. Curtis as commissioner. I went 
 immediately over to the court-house. Mr. Curtis 
 was on the bench, actually occupying the judge's 
 seat ; Pat. Rile}-, the deputy marshal, with his two 
 regular deputies and two constables, sworn in as spe- 
 cial deputies, were in charge of the room ; a good- 
 looking black fellow, sitting between the two subs, 
 was the arrested fugitive. The arrest had been so 
 sudden and unexpected that few knew it, and it was 
 
180 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 35. 
 
 half an hour before the crowd assembled, but it was 
 increasing every minute, and there was great excite- 
 ment. I went to the marshal's office and prepared 
 a writ of de homine replegiando and a petition for 
 a habeas corpus addressed to Chief Justice Shaw. 
 Robert Morris obtained verbal authority from the 
 prisoner to make the petition, in presence of Ellis G. 
 Loring, and signed and swore to the petition before 
 me. The petition stated that one Frederick Jen- 
 kins, of Boston, laborer, was imprisoned in the court- 
 house by Patrick Riley, that the pretence was that 
 he was a fugitive from service and labor, and that 
 the petitioner did not know whether there was a 
 warrant or not. With this petition I called on the 
 Chief Justice, and stated to him that it was a case of 
 an alleged fugitive slave, and that our object was to 
 test the constitutional power of the commissioner to 
 issue a warrant. The Chief Justice read the petition, 
 and said in a most ungracious manner, " This won't 
 do. I can't do anything on this," and laid it upon 
 the table, and turned away to engage in something 
 else. (This interview was in the lobby of the su- 
 preme court room.) I asked him to be so good as 
 to tell me what the defects were, saying that I had 
 taken pains to conform to the statute. He seemed 
 unwilling to notice it, and desirous of getting rid of 
 it; in short, he attempted to bluff me off. On my 
 persisting he stated, as an objection, that it was not 
 signed by the man himself. I reminded him that 
 the statute permitted the petition to be made by the 
 party imprisoned, "or by some one in his behalf." 
 (He must also have known that in the worst cases, 
 where the writ is most needed, a prisoner cannot 
 sign the petition himself. Sometimes even the place 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 181 
 
 of bis imprisonment is unknown.) He replied, 
 44 There is no evidence that it is in his behalf. 
 There is no evidence of his authority." I asked, 
 " Do you require proof of authority ? What proof 
 do you require, sir ? " He replied, " It is enough for 
 me to say that the petition is not sufficient." He 
 then added, " The petition shows on its face that the 
 writ cannot issue. It shows that the man is in legal 
 custody of a United States marshal." I replied 
 that the petition did not refer to any officer, but only 
 gave Mr. Riley's name, and that the fact of legal cus- 
 tody must appear on the return. To this he replied, 
 44 But Mr. Riley is known to be an officer; and be- 
 sides, the petitioner cannot properly swear that he 
 does not know on what pretence the man is held." 
 I called his honor's attention to the petition, and 
 showed him that the petition stated the pretence 
 fully and truly. He read the petition over again, 
 and finding this to be so, he fell back on his first 
 objection, want of evidence of authority from the 
 prisoner, and added (which was his last objection, 
 and not made until after he had positively refused to 
 issue the writ), that the petition should contain a 
 copy of the warrant, or state that a copy had been 
 applied for and could not be had ; this, too, although 
 the petition stated that the petitioner did not know 
 whether the imprisonment was under a warrant or 
 not, which was true, as arrests may be made under 
 the Act of 1850 without a warrant. I felt that all 
 these objections were frivolous and invalid, but see- 
 ing the temper which the Chief Justice was in, and 
 his evident determination to get rid of the petition, I 
 left him for the purpose of either procuring the evi- 
 dence he required, or of going before another judge. 
 
182 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 35. 
 
 On reaching the court-room, I found that the com- 
 missioner was just adjourning the court to Tuesday, 
 at ten A. M. As this gave us an abundance of time, 
 we determined to consult upon the matter in the 
 afternoon, and no further proceedings were had on 
 the subject of the habeas corpus. 
 
 The prisoner remained in his seat, between two 
 constables, and Pat. Riley was making the most 
 absurd exhibition of pomposity in ordering people 
 about, and clearing the court-room, and Mr. Curtis, 
 dressed in a little brief authority, was swelling into 
 the dignity of an arbiter of life and death, with a 
 pomposity as ludicrous as that of Riley. At the 
 order of the marshal all left the court-room quietly, 
 except the officers and counsel, and when I left there 
 were none else in the room, and the crowd in the en- 
 tries and stairways and outside, though large and 
 chiefly negroes, was perfectly peaceable. 
 
 I returned to my office and was planning with 
 a friend the probable next proceedings, when we 
 heard a shout from the court-house, continued into 
 a yell of triumph, and in an instant after down the 
 steps came two huge negroes bearing the prisoner 
 between them with his clothes half torn off, and so 
 stupefied by the sudden rescue and the violence of his 
 dragging off that he sat almost dumb, and I thought 
 had fainted; but the men seized him, and being 
 powerful fellows hurried him through the square into 
 Court Street, where he found the use of his feet, and 
 they went off toward Cambridge, like a black squall, 
 the crowd driving along with them and cheering as 
 they went. It was all done in an instant, too quick to 
 be believed, and so successful was it that not only was 
 no negro arrested, but no attempt was made at pursuit. 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 183 
 
 The sympathy of the masses was with the success- 
 ful rescue, though here and there was an old hunker, 
 or a young dandy, or would-be-chivalry-man, who ex- 
 pressed anger at the failure of the " Peace Measures." 
 
 It seems that none of the officers were injured, ex- 
 cept by being crowded into corners and held fast, and 
 the sword of justice which Mr. Riley had displayed 
 on his desk was carried off by an old negro. 
 
 How can any right-minded man do else than re- 
 joice at the rescue of a man from the hopeless, end- 
 less slavery to which a recovered fugitive is always 
 doomed. If the law were constitutional, which I 
 firmly believe it is not, it would be the duty of a citi- 
 zen not to resist it by force, unless he was prepared 
 for revolution and civil war ; but we rejoice in the 
 escape of a victim of an unjust law, as we would in 
 the escape of an ill-treated captive deer or bird. 
 
 The conduct of the Chief Justice, his evident dis- 
 inclination to act, the frivolous nature of his objec- 
 tions, and his insulting manner to me, have troubled 
 me more than any other manifestation. It shows 
 how deeply seated, so as to affect, unconsciously I 
 doubt not, good men like him, is this selfish hunker- 
 ism of the property interest on the slave question. 
 
 Sumner thought he had better not appear as coun- 
 sel in the case and did not go in. His reason, which 
 he gave me frankly, was, the effect it might have on the 
 pending senatorial election. 1 He thought the conven- 
 tions of parties and the delicate state of affairs at the 
 State House required him to withhold any public 
 action. This is the reason (though I did not see it 
 at the time) why he declined going to New York to 
 argue the case of Henry Long. 
 
 1 That in which Mr. Sumner was first chosen to the United States 
 Senate. See p. 195. 
 
184 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 35. 
 
 February 23. Judge Metcalf was present at my 
 interview with Judge Shaw, and expressed himself 
 very much disturbed by the conduct of the chief. 
 He seldom speaks, but in this case he spoke freely. 
 
 March 23. Sunday. The last week Sumner and 
 I have been drawing up laws to meet the dangers and 
 outrages of the Fugitive Slave Bill, at the request 
 of the committee of the legislature. We propose an 
 act the first section of which extends the Latimer 
 Law (1848) to the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850. The 
 two next sections are my invention. They prohibit, 
 under a penalty, any officer or member of the volun- 
 teer militia of Massachusetts from acting, in that 
 capacity, under the direction of the United States 
 marshal, under the Act of 1850, under color, or pre- 
 tence of being part of the posse eomitatus ; and to dis- 
 band all companies of the volunteer militia who shall 
 so act in their organized capacity. I cannot doubt 
 the constitutionality of these provisions. We are not 
 obliged to furnish our organizations, arms and equip- 
 ments, our discipline, our paid soldiers, to the marshal 
 to enforce the slave law. As individuals, they are 
 members of the posse eomitatus, but not as officers 
 and privates of volunteer associations. And if con- 
 stitutional, our duty to prohibit it is clear. 
 
 The next section, prohibiting the claimant of a 
 slave from having counsel, is Sumner's. I advised 
 against it, as ungracious, as small legislation. It has 
 an odious look and will answer little purpose. The 
 last two sections require the district attorneys to de- 
 fend all inhabitants claimed as fugitive slaves. These 
 will have little practical effect. If left to me, I should 
 report only the first three. 
 
 Another bill we also recommend, the credit of 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 185 
 
 which belongs to George Minot. It treats every per- 
 son as a criminal who removes or endeavors to re- 
 move, or aids or abets in an attempt to remove from 
 the state, as a fugitive slave, any person who is not a 
 fugitive slave, and makes a legal presumption that the 
 party claimed is free. This looked to us both as a 
 well-devised statute. 
 
 The following extracts from the diary relate to the famous 
 Sims case, which, as will presently be seen, led to the elec- 
 tion of Charles Sumner to the United States Senate. As a 
 record these extracts are complete in themselves. 
 
 April 7. The last week our city has been the 
 scene of a degrading fugitive slave case. A man was 
 arrested by the marshal and his posse, suddenly, at a 
 hotel in which he was a waiter, and locked up in the 
 court-house, which was guarded by a huge force of 
 policemen and a chain stretched entirely around it, 
 so that every one who entered it, except at the far- 
 ther door, must go under the chain. This was Thurs- 
 day night. Friday morning, Mr. George T. Curtis 
 held his court, 1 and Charles G. Loring and Robert 
 Rantoui appeared as counsel. Colonel S. J. Thomas 
 appeared for the Southern claimants. More despica- 
 ble wretches in appearance than the Southern agents 
 I never beheld — cruel, low-bred, dissolute, degraded 
 beings ! No man's life or property would be safe a 
 moment in their hands. Mr. Sewall applied to the 
 supreme court for a habeas corpus, and it was re- 
 fused without argument. Mr. Sewall, after it was 
 refused, asked leave to address the court in favor of 
 the petition, and was refused. 
 
 In the course of Saturday and Sunday a number of 
 
 1 Mr. Curtis in this, as in the Shadrach case, was the United States 
 commissioner before whom the alleged fugitive was carried. 
 
186 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. U. 
 
 gentlemen spoke privately to the judges, among 
 others, Mr. Loring and Franklin Dexter, and an inti- 
 mation was obtained that they would hear an argu- 
 ment. 
 
 Accordingly, this morning (Monday, April 7), 
 Mr. Rantoul and I went into court and moved again 
 for the writ and were heard. I was called in sud- 
 denly and was not prepared for more than an open- 
 ing. Mr. Rantoul had been prepared and made a 
 very striking and forcible argument, considered as a 
 speech to the people, or as a piece of abstract reason- 
 ing, but not one calculated to meet the difficulties in 
 the minds of the court. The Chief Justice was evi- 
 dently timid, and tried to evade a decision of many 
 points. I compelled him to decide that the petitioner 
 was not entitled to the writ as of right, but that it 
 was addressed to the discretion of the court. The 
 petition set forth the " pretence " under which the 
 petitioner was held to be a certain warrant, and an- 
 nexed a copy as required by the statute. The court, 
 assuming the warrant to be valid and legal, and the 
 parties to be entitled to act, refused to issue the writ, 
 and required us to satisfy them of the unconstitution- 
 ality of the warrant before they will issue the writ. 
 
 At three P. M. Judge Shaw delivered the opinion 
 of the court refusing the writ. The grounds of the 
 opinion are these : A conflict between the state and 
 national courts is to be avoided. The national courts 
 have power to issue writs of habeas corpus. The 
 more expedient course is to resort to them when the 
 act of their own officers is concerned, although the 
 state courts will act in extreme cases. This is not a 
 clear case. The only question is whether the com- 
 missioner can constitutionally act. The Act of 1793 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 187 
 
 gave the same powers to magistrates which this act 
 gives to commissioners, and was acquiesced in more 
 than fifty years, and recognized, or at least was not 
 decided to be unconstitutional by any court. The 
 point must be considered as settled by lapse of time, 
 acquiescence and recognition. The writ was refused. 
 
 A writ de homine replegiando was sued out and 
 put in the hands of a sheriff. He demanded the man 
 and was refused by the marshal. As yet the precept 
 has not been served. A criminal complaint was also 
 made against the prisoner for stabbing one of the offi- 
 cers who arrested him. The marshals refused to de- 
 liver up the man on this precept ; and this precept 
 is not served. I do not believe there is moral power 
 enough on the side of the state in opposition to the 
 national government in Boston to enable the sheriff 
 to serve a criminal process. 
 
 April 13. Sunday. I will endeavor to give a cor- 
 rect account of the occurrences of the last eventful 
 week. 
 
 The sheriff had placed in his hands a writ de ho- 
 mine replegiando and a criminal warrant against 
 Sims the fugitive for stabbing Butman, the man who 
 arrested him, with order to serve the first writ, and 
 if that was resisted to serve the warrant. He was 
 advised that the commissioner's warrant, under which 
 the marshal held Sims, being only a civil process, 
 must yield to the criminal process of the state. The 
 sheriff demanded Sims of the marshal on the writ, 
 and was positively refused and told that if an attempt 
 should be made to take him, force would be used to 
 resist. As to the criminal process, the marshal said 
 he had doubts, and asked for twenty-four hours to 
 take advice, which the sheriff allowed him. At the 
 
188 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 35. 
 
 end of twenty-four hours the sheriff applied again to 
 the marshal, and was told that so far as holding 
 under the Fugitive Slave Act was concerned, he 
 probably would have given him up, but that he also 
 held him under a warrant for a crime against the 
 United States. At our request, Mr. Loring (Charles 
 G.) called on the marshal and asked him who issued 
 the warrant and when. The marshal replied that it 
 was issued on Monday morning by B. F. Halle tt. 
 Mr. Loring then asked Hallett what the warrant was 
 for, but Hallett declined answering. Loring said 
 that he feared the warrant was a mere trick. Hallett 
 replied that if it was so, it was to counteract a trick. 
 By my advice Mr. Sewall demanded of the mar- 
 shal a copy of the warrant and return. This was on 
 Wednesday. In the afternoon a copy of the warrant 
 was furnished. It bore date Monday, and had no re- 
 turn upon it. Early Thursday morning (it being 
 Fast Day) Sewall obtained a petition from Sims for 
 a habeas corpus, addressed to Judge Sprague, set- 
 ting forth that he had been held for three days under 
 a criminal warrant, without being brought before a 
 magistrate to be examined, and also that the warrant 
 was void. The defect in the warrant was that it did 
 not allege that Butman was an officer of the United 
 States, or that he was serving a process of the United 
 States, at the time he was stabbed by Sims. Judge 
 Sprague refused to grant the writ. The grounds of 
 the refusal, as stated to me by Sumner and Sewall, 
 who were present, and confirmed by the clerk, were 
 that inasmuch as Sims was held on one process which 
 was legal, he suffered no illegal detention because 
 there was also another process, the legality of which 
 was contested. The counsel cited to him a case from 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 189 
 
 Co wen's Reports, to the effect that where a party 
 held under one process is also served and held by a 
 different process, he may test the legality of the lat- 
 ter by a habeas corpus. Sewall ought to have asked 
 him how he could know judicially that Sims was 
 held under a prior process until it should be disclosed 
 by the return of the writ, for the petition made no 
 reference to it. 
 
 Coming into town in the afternoon, I found the 
 gentlemen in consultation. It was finally resolved 
 that Sumner and I should go before Judge Woodbury 
 with the same petition, accompanied with an affidavit 
 from Sewall that the marshal told him that he con- 
 sidered Sims as held under the warrant from the time 
 it was put in his hands, and another affidavit from 
 Sims himself, of his never having been informed of 
 the arrest or taken before a magistrate to be exam- 
 ined or bailed. We found Judge Woodbury at his 
 rooms at the Tremont House, and after a long consul- 
 tation, during which I made three journeys to my 
 office and the Law Library for books, to satisfy the 
 judge that he could issue the writ at chambers in 
 term time, and which lasted until seven o'clock, he 
 agreed to open his court at eight o'clock P. M. Ac- 
 cordingly at eight o'clock P. M. the United States 
 circuit court room was opened, and we presented our 
 petition. The marshal sent off for Messrs. Choate 
 and B. R. Curtis, who soon arrived in carriages. I 
 opened the case by citing authorities to show that 
 the habeas corpus is a writ of right, except in certain 
 cases, of which this was not one, and demanded the 
 writ as of right. If not of right, the fact that the 
 prisoner had been held nearly four days without hav- 
 ing been brought before a magistrate was evidence 
 
190 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 35. 
 
 of illegal holding, and also contended that the war- 
 rant set forth no crime. Sumner followed with ad- 
 ditional points and authorities. We both denounced 
 the warrant and arrest as mere tricks. 
 
 Woodbury gave a short opinion, acknowledging 
 that he could not know judicially that Sims was held 
 under another precept, and that the holding under 
 the warrant was prima facie illegal, and required ex- 
 planation, and issued the writ returnable before him 
 forthwith. At ten P. M. the return, drawn up by 
 Curtis (with aid, I presume, from Choate), was sub- 
 mitted. After about half an hour's argument on 
 motion for delay, the judge adjourned to Friday at 
 three P. M. It happened, most unfortunately and pro- 
 vokingly for me, that the Charlestown Flats case, in 
 which I am engaged, and in which there is a great 
 interest involved, and many witnesses and parties, 
 had been specially assigned for Friday, before a com- 
 mittee of the legislature. It was to take all day and 
 there was no escape from it. I had to give up my 
 connection with the habeas corpus, in which my 
 heart and pride and best feelings were engaged, and 
 take to the Flats case, which was a matter of mere 
 pecuniary speculation. It was mortifying to see how 
 absorbed the petitioners were in their mud scheme, 
 coming to my office and talking over the square feet 
 and the lines, without so much as looking out of the 
 window or asking a question about the case of the 
 poor slave, so touching to humanity, so great as a 
 question of constitutional and political law. All day 
 I was employed in this case, and at night learned 
 that Judge Woodbury had, as we feared, remanded 
 the prisoner. He did not think the delay, under the 
 circumstances, so unreasonable as to justify him in 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 191 
 
 releasing the prisoner ; but said that the marshal 
 ought to return the warrant, in good faith, as soon 
 as he conveniently could. Our friends say that the 
 judge made a mere political clap-trap speech, in- 
 tended for the Southern market. Mr. Sewall then 
 presented a writ de homine replegiando in behalf of 
 Sims as a citizen of Georgia against the marshal, and 
 asked the judge to appoint an officer to serve it. 
 Thereupon, Colonel Thomas, attorney for Sims's 
 master, objected to Sewall's authority to act for 
 Sims, on the ground that as Sims had been in the 
 mean time remanded into the custody of his master 
 by Mr. Commissioner Curtis, and the relation of 
 master and slave established, the slave could not 
 appoint an attorney, and claimed the exclusive right 
 to appear for Sims. Judge Woodbury sustained this 
 claim, which, of course, put an end to all further 
 proceedings. 
 
 The other proceedings of the week have been 
 these : On Monday and Tuesday, Mr. Loring and Mr. 
 Rantoul argued the case of Sims before Curtis, and 
 Colonel Thomas replied in behalf of the master. 
 Tuesday P. M. Curtis adjourned the court till Fri- 
 day, to give himself time to write out his opinion on 
 the constitutional question. Friday morning he de- 
 livered his opinion, sustaining his jurisdiction, and 
 granting the certificate to the owner's agent. On the 
 affidavit, he also directed the marshal to escort the 
 prisoner to Georgia. 
 
 Another attempt was made to induce the sheriff to 
 serve the criminal process, with offers of any force he 
 might need for a posse comitatus^ and bonds of in- 
 demnit}', with assurances that the holding under the 
 warrant could not be justified. But the sheriff's in- 
 
192 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr.95. 
 
 clinations were all the other way, and his prejudices, 
 and he let slip the opportunity. Had he been in 
 earnest to serve the process, it might have been done. 
 But the truth is, there is not moral force enough in 
 Boston on the side of the slave to sustain the laws of 
 the state in his favor. The national power, sustained 
 by the interest of politicians, traders and manufactur- 
 ers, overpowers the authority of the state courts. 
 
 Judge Shaw actually went under the chain to get 
 to his court. Judge Wells of the Court of Common 
 Pleas refused to do this, and a place was made for 
 him. I have never been under it. I either jump 
 over it or go round to the end, and have the rope re- 
 moved, which they have at last graciously substituted 
 for the last few links of the chain. 
 
 The Senate has taken up this matter and ap- 
 pointed a committee of investigation, which has been 
 in session the last week. Their examinations show 
 conclusively that the arrest and detention have been 
 made chiefly by the city police force, and that no per- 
 sons have been permitted to enter the court-house, in 
 which the Supreme and Common Pleas courts were 
 both in session, except counsel, parties, jurors, etc., 
 unless by a written permit of the United States mar- 
 shal, while the law requires the state courts to be 
 open. If our people bear these indignities and as- 
 sumptions of power over their rights and privileges, 
 instead of being slave-catchers they ought to be 
 slaves themselves. 
 
 Poor Sims was confined in a small room with one 
 half window in the third story of the court-room, on 
 the west side. The window was barred, and from my 
 office I could see him looking through the grates of 
 his prison. Our temple of justice is a slave-pen ! 
 
1851 THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 193 
 
 Our officers are slave-hunters, and the voice of the 
 old law of the state is hushed and awed into silence 
 before this fearful slave-power which has got such 
 entire control of the Union. 
 
 Saturday morning between four and five o'clock 
 the poor fellow, with tears in his eyes, was marched 
 on board a vessel, escorted by a hundred or more of 
 the city police under orders of the United States 
 marshal, armed with swords and pistols, and in a few 
 minutes she sailed down the harbor. 
 
 A convention of all persons opposed to the Fugi- 
 tive Slave Bill, called a fortnight ago, met at Tremont 
 Temple on Tuesday. It was a most enthusiastic, 
 excited, earnest meeting. The only difficulty was in 
 keeping the people within bounds. A large portion 
 of the company were bent on a rescue, but all the 
 leading men were " law and order " men, and moder- 
 ate counsels prevailed. Horace Mann presided. Ex- 
 cellent letters were read from Seward and Charles 
 Francis Adams, and speeches made by Mann, Pal- 
 frey and others. The election of Allen, the gain for 
 Palfrey, and the increased loss of Upham were cheer- 
 ing intelligence. 1 At one time it was rumored that 
 the sheriff was about to serve the warrant, and it is 
 said that a thousand men prepared to go to the death 
 for the state law were eager to offer themselves for 
 his posse. 
 
 It seems that Sims was brought in a vessel to Bos- 
 ton without the master's knowledge and being dis- 
 
 1 Special elections held in two of the congressional districts of the 
 state, in which at the previous elections no candidate had received a 
 a majority of all the votes cast. Judge Charles Allen was the suc- 
 cessful Free Soil candidate in the Worcester district ; Dr. Palfrey and 
 Mr. Upham were the Free Soil and the Whig candidates in the Mid- 
 dlesex district. 
 
194 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 35. 
 
 covered on board, when inside the light, was mal- 
 treated and confined in the cabin by the master and 
 mate, with the knowledge of the owner (J. H. Pier- 
 son), for the purpose of carrying him- back into slav- 
 ery, against the clear law of our commonwealth. Yet 
 all attempts to arrest either the master or mate have 
 proved futile, on account of the connivance of the 
 owners at their escape. 
 
 Sims was carried back to Savannah and subsequently 
 sold. Charles Devens, afterwards Attorney General of the 
 United States in the administration of Hayes, and a judge 
 of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, was United States 
 marshal for the district of Massachusetts at the time of the 
 rendition, and as such responsible for the execution of the 
 law. Though he performed the duty thus imposed upon 
 him, he naturally disliked it, and thereafter felt himself 
 under a sort of moral obligation towards Sims ; and when 
 in 1853, on the incoming of the Pierce administration, he 
 ceased to be marshal, he made, through the Rev. A. L. 
 Grimes, the colored clergyman in Boston, more than one 
 ineffectual effort to buy the returned fugitive and liberate 
 him. Mrs. Lydia Maria Child made a similar unavailing 
 effort at a later period, General Devens offering again to 
 supply the full amount supposed to be necessary to effect 
 the purchase, some $1,800. After the breaking out of the 
 rebellion, Sims, who had then been carried to Tennessee, ef- 
 fected his escape and got within the Union lines, returning 
 finally to Boston. Here he was aided by Mrs. Child, Gen- 
 eral Devens and others, but finally went back to Tennessee. 
 After Judge Devens became Attorney General, in 1877, 
 Sims appeared in Washington and put in his claim for a 
 place. He was made a messenger in the Department of 
 Justice, and held the position for several years, being re- 
 moved from it in the Arthur administration. He is now 
 (1889) living in Washington, and is a bricklayer by trade. 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 195 
 
 There is no evidence that Mr. Dana ever came in contact 
 with him again, although it would seem probable the two 
 must have met after the latter found his way back, a free- 
 man through the war power, to the scene of his former ren- 
 dition to servitude. 
 
 April 24. This day, on the twenty-fourth ballot, 
 Charles Sumner was elected United States Senator. 
 It was matter of great rejoicing to us, to be sure. 
 At night a procession formed in State Street and 
 went to Sumner's bouse, but he had purposely left 
 town. Thence they went to Charles Francis Adams, 
 who made them a speech, thence to my father's, 
 thinking that I lived there, and called me out. My 
 father went to the door and told them that I was at 
 Cambridge. They then gave three cheers for the 
 old gentleman ! " Three cheers for R. H. Dana, 
 Senior ! " . . . One hundred guns were fired on the 
 Common, at noon (26th), and the news was re- 
 ceived in various parts of New England with ringing 
 of bells and firing of cannon. 
 
 June 1. The M Rescue Cases," for the trial of Scott 
 et ah., concerned in rescuing Shadrach, came on last 
 week, beginning with Tuesday, May 27. Jas. Scott 
 is the first man tried. John P. Hale is senior with 
 me for the defence. What I have seen of Hale has 
 pleased me. He has strong sense, quickness, fair- 
 ness and a habit of thinking over cases and points, 
 with a good memory, although not a book man nor 
 fond of mere learning. He is an excellent compan- 
 ion, unobtrusive and sociable. There is a queer mix- 
 ture of the natural gentleman and the rough country 
 trader or farmer about him. He is a man of good 
 birth and education, but wasted his youth and was 
 saved by an excellent wife. 
 
196 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 35. 
 
 June 8. The last week has been spent in the trial 
 of Scott for aiding in the rescue of the fugitive slave 
 Shadrach. The case was given to the jury at 12.30 
 P. M. of Thursday. At 5.30 P. M. they were called 
 into court and reported that they could not agree 
 and that there was no prospect of their agreeing. 
 Judge Sprague ordered them out again, and kept 
 them out until 9.30 A. M. of Friday, being twenty- 
 one hours. Being still unable to agree, they were 
 discharged. They stood six to six. This was a tri- 
 umph for us, as the Government exerted its utmost 
 efforts to secure a verdict. Judge Sprague gave an 
 elaborate charge on the law, sustaining the constitu- 
 tionality of the Act of 1850. On the facts, I am 
 constrained to say that his charge was ex yarte and 
 excited. His eye flashed, his gestures were vehe- 
 ment and his whole soul was in the maintenance of 
 the law, urging it upon the jury with the zeal of an 
 advocate or a party. In commenting on the evi- 
 dence, he repeated with emphasis all the reasons 
 given by the United 'States attorney for believing 
 the Government testimony and disbelieving ours, 
 adding many suggestions of his own to the same 
 effect, while he did not notice one of our suggestions 
 or make one of his own in favor of our testimony 
 or against that of the Government. In fact, I am 
 satisfied that Judge Sprague considers himself placed 
 on the bench to preserve the balance of the machine, 
 and if he thinks that the jury, or public opinion, or the 
 weight of counsel inclines the scale toward the pris- 
 oner, he must retain the equilibrium by inclining as 
 far the other way himself. This is an error. He must 
 preserve the neutrality of the bench at all events 
 and keep other parties in their places if he can. 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 197 
 
 There is a little too much of the old politician about 
 him to make him a clear judge in political causes, 
 where the interests of his party and political friends 
 are at stake. He is a man of a remarkably clear 
 mind, penetrating and sagacious, equitable and firm. 
 In fact, I have for ten years found him the model 
 of a judge. But in these causes he has shown too 
 much feeling and excitement, and has argued the 
 case for the Government. 
 
 After this jury was dismissed, an attempt was made 
 to impanel another jury. Three of these jurors an- 
 swered that they could not conscientiously find a man 
 guilty under this law, and were excused. The Gov- 
 ernment asked the court to question the jury whether 
 they had expressed or formed opinions, or had any 
 bias in the case. The court ordered the questions to 
 be put. One juror was asked if he had formed an 
 opinion, etc. He answered that he had, and was ex- 
 cused. We suggested that lie did not rightly under- 
 stand the question, and asked to have it explained. 
 We suggested that he might think the questions re- 
 ferred to an opinion as to the entire transaction, while 
 it only referred to the guilt or innocence of Lewis 
 Hayden. The judge recalled him, and explained to 
 him that the question related to the guilt or innocence 
 of the prisoner. The juror then replied that he had 
 not formed an opinion. Mr. Lunt interposed and 
 said that the juror might have formed an opinion as 
 to the acts of other parties. The judge put the ques- 
 tion whether he had formed opinions as to the acts of 
 other parties. I interposed : — 
 
 Dana. I hope the court understands that we do 
 not wish the question put. 
 
 Court. I do understand that you wish it put. 
 You asked to have the original question explained. 
 
198 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 35. 
 
 Dana. We did so ; but this is not an explana- 
 tion, please your honor. The question has been ex- 
 plained, and the juror has answered. This question 
 came from the Government. 
 
 Court. It is a different question, I see. Mr. 
 Clerk put the next question. 
 
 The venire being exhausted, the court adjourned 
 to Monday. 
 
 The "Courier" of Monday, 2d inst., contains a 
 column and a half of attack upon me for my Worces- 
 ter speech, calling upon me to answer Mr. Haven 
 and others. And the " Advertiser " of the same day 
 has two articles on me ; one, signed « the son of a 
 merchant," calls on all the merchants to withdraw 
 their business from me, and to proclaim non-inter- 
 course. I shall not reply now, happen what will, 
 and am glad that I did not reply. This is a mere 
 political move and arises from a desire to injure the 
 reputation of their opponents. The}^ do not desire 
 either to elicit the truth or to do justice. 
 
 June 15. All this week engaged in trying the 
 case of Lewis Hayden for rescue of Shadrach. Hale 
 has argued it nobly, with great skill in feeling the 
 jury, and with passages of true eloquence. 
 
 17. Tuesday. The trial of Morris was broken off, 
 after the Government had put in half its evidence, 
 on account of a juryman, D. B. Walker, who was 
 objected to as biased on newly discovered testimony. 
 He had been put on his voir dire and sworn it, but 
 the court against our objections allowed evidence of 
 things said by him some time ago respecting the Fu- 
 gitive Slave Law and other kindred matters, to show 
 bias and prejudice, and set him aside. Before swear- 
 ing in the new juror, the court, without our consent, 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 199 
 
 continued the case to the next term. Query. If 
 the setting aside of Walker was illegal, is not Mor- 
 ris discharged? 
 
 New York, June 27. Friday. After dinner I went 
 over to Hoboken and spent about two hours in a 
 beautiful walk up and down the banks of the Hudson, 
 from the Elysian Fields to Otto Cottage. I never 
 saw a view in my life to surpass this for beauty and 
 interest. You wander in the woods, on the banks 
 of the Hudson, under the shade of the noble trees, 
 with the great city stretched along for miles before 
 you, its hum of trade and work just audible across 
 the still, broad river at your feet ; the shutting in 
 of the Highlands visible up the river, and down the 
 river the opening to the ocean at the Narrows ; the 
 whole scene enlivened by countless sails, pleasure 
 boats and vessels of burden, with every few minutes 
 a huge steamer darting out with a scream and deep- 
 drawn breathing from the slips of the city. 
 
 July 15. This day was the anniversary of the 
 Story Association. Choate delivered the oration. It 
 was generally understood the afternoon before that 
 he was preparing something on the Fugitive Slave 
 Law and against the Free Soil party. Sumner told 
 me so and would not go. I begged him to go to the 
 dinner, and told him that it anything was said 
 against us we would make fight. But he declined. 
 
 As I went up the platform, Choate shook hands, 
 and said, " I am sorry jon are coming. I shall have 
 to offend you. You had better reconsider." And 
 sure enough, the oration was a defence of the ad- 
 ministration policy as to slavery, and an attack on 
 the Free Soil party and principle. The plan was to 
 prove that the preservation of the Union, in the 
 
200 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 35. 
 
 scale of an enlightened morality, was a greater and 
 higher virtue than that which refused to surrender 
 a fugitive slave, assuming of course, that the two 
 could not coexist. It was an improper and inap- 
 propriate thing, and I think generally felt to be so. 
 This was an occasion when all party questions were 
 to be excluded and the graduates of the school to 
 meet as brothers on common ground to be addressed 
 on some subject of common interest. President 
 Quincy and Mr. Hoar were the two oldest men pres- 
 ent, both Free Soilers, and a striking commentary on 
 the contemptuous manner in which Choate spoke of 
 the youthful enthusiasm and inexperience of the Free 
 Soil party. Neither of these gentlemen attended the 
 dinner. 
 
 At the dinner there was nothing offensive, except 
 the speech of General Carpenter of Rhode Island, 
 who spoke of " that miserable, conceited, fanatical 
 faction," etc. In my remarks I alluded to this in a 
 pleasant way, but so that they should feel it. Mr. 
 Story, in returning thanks for his father's memory, 
 spoke of introducing " a regard for liberty in law, 
 and conscience into legislation." Judge Hoar's toast 
 was also to the point, about love of liberty, reverence 
 for law and fear of God. On the whole, they had 
 the disgrace of making an ill-mannered attack, and 
 we rather had the last word. 
 
 July 17. Thursday. Phi Beta. ... At the din- 
 ner President Quincy was first called up, and re- 
 ceived, all standing. He pronounced a feeling eulogy 
 on Judge Story as the real founder of the Law 
 School, and concluded by saying that he had been 
 forced into this by an occurrence of a recent date — 
 that he had attended the exercises of the Stor}' As- 
 
1851. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES. 201 
 
 sociation, and with deep regret heard an oration of 
 which he would say nothing except that it had not 
 one word about Joseph Story, or the Law School, or 
 Mr. Dane. 
 
 Mr. Story in replying gave " Josiah Quincy, al- 
 ways true to liberty, virtue and friendship." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 VACATION RAMBLES. — A MOOSE-HUNT. 
 
 August 1. Friday. Reached Cherryfield at 12.30, 
 midnight, poor lodgings, early breakfast and ride to 
 Bangor via Ellsworth. The chief characteristic of 
 the country all the way from the British provinces 
 to Bangor is that the farm-houses, small, thin, frail- 
 looking shells, are all placed on the tops of hills, 
 where every wind can rake them, with all the trees 
 cut down in every direction, and not the relief of a 
 tree, a shrub or a vine. Most disconsolate and cheer- 
 less objects they are. Not one attractive farm-house 
 have I seen yet. Where it is so easy to put the 
 house in a snug corner or on a slope, and to leave a 
 grove of trees on the windy and exposed side of the 
 house, to plant a vine that may climb over the door, 
 — but no, there seems to be an inherent tastelessness 
 in the common New England man, a deadness to 
 grace or beauty in every form, which nothing but the 
 cultivation and example of ages can correct. 
 
 August 6. Wednesday. Engaged Rowell, the 
 hunter, to take me moose hunting, as I was deter- 
 mined to kill a moose, if possible, before 1 left. Be- 
 fore dinner I went down with him a few miles in his 
 birch canoe to look after his bear-trap. We landed 
 and went through the woods a half mile or so, and 
 came to a small inclosure made of boughs with an 
 opening on one side, and in the midst a large piece of 
 
1851. A MOOSE HUNT. 203 
 
 moose's carcass. At the opening was a bear-trap, 
 covered with leaves, which Rowell took up. It was 
 a cruel looking implement, and sprung with a fearful 
 clash. He was going to remove it to a place above 
 Kineo. 
 
 After dinner at about four o'clock set off on our 
 moose hunt. We went out in Rowell's little birch 
 with a gun apiece, loaded, a bucket containing some 
 bread and meat for two meals, our thick coats, an 
 axe and some pieces of rope. We paddled across the 
 lake about five miles to the upper outlet into the 
 Kennebec. This is the small outlet, the main outlet 
 being several miles below. The outlet is narrow, 
 with w T hat people call "quick water," that is, " rap- 
 ids," which we shot through, Rowell carefully and 
 skilfully steering between the rocks and shallows 
 and stumps, into a wide outspread which they call a 
 " pond," then through quick water again into another 
 long pond, at the end of which is a dam built by the 
 lumbermen, over which the waters of the lake pour 
 into a small branch of the Kennebec. Around these 
 ponds are patches of grass-grown ground, partly cov- 
 ered by water, muddy and swampy, whicli they call 
 " Poke-logans," into which the moose come to lie 
 down and wallow. 
 
 We floated slowly along the banks of these streams 
 and ponds under the shade of the overhanging forest 
 amid the solitude of nature, with no human habita- 
 tion within miles of us, in perfect silence, hardly 
 daring to move in our canoe, watching with eyes and 
 ears for the sound or sight of a moose. Twice Rowell 
 landed and was gone some ten or twent}' minutes to 
 examine the tracks and marks, and returned with 
 news that there must be at least one moose near 
 
204 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr, 36. 
 
 the lower pond. Just before sundown we landed 
 and ate our plain supper, and when the sun was 
 down put off again, paddling slowly up and down the 
 stream, stopping to listen, and rounding the points 
 and corners in profound silence, not even the splash 
 of paddle being heard, in harmony with the falling 
 of the night shadows on this romantic scene. The 
 sunset was clear and beautiful, and the moon in the 
 mid-heavens grew into light as the sun faded out. 
 Then came the northern lights shooting up their 
 spears into the dark sky, and the long-drawn, plain- 
 tive, musical cry of the loon, unsurpassed for poetic 
 effect by that of any seabird, echoed back and to 
 and fro among the hills. I sat in the bow with my 
 gun by my side ready for instant action, and Rowell 
 laid his across the boat to fire in case I missed, and 
 guided the boat with his paddle. In this way, in 
 entire silence, we floated about from sundown until 
 the moon set, which was a little after midnight. 
 The only sign of a moose was the heavy step, and 
 breaking and cracking of branches as one of those 
 huge creatures passed along near the shore on our 
 left. We followed him slowly on the other side, but 
 we heard no more of him. The moon being down 
 it was too dark for a further hunt, and we drew our 
 canoe in under the lee of a bank, and wrapping our 
 coats about us laid down in the bottom, drawn up 
 in narrow compass, to sleep until the dawn of day. 
 The black flies had been very thick and troublesome 
 in the afternoon and the mosquitoes in the evening, 
 but it was a cold night and we were no longer 
 troubled with them, although our sleep was a little 
 interrupted by the chilliness of the air. I soon, how- 
 ever, fell asleep, and was dreaming of reading a con- 
 
1851. A MOOSE HUNT. 205 
 
 troversy in the " Daily Advertiser " between Mr. 
 Ticknor and the trustees of the Athenaeum, in which 
 the trustees said that Mr. Ticknor complained, when 
 he had in fact control of the committee through his 
 family connections, to which Mr. Ticknor replied 
 tartly with some intimation of political influence, — 
 when Rowell touched me and said it was time to be 
 stirring. Raising myself in the boat, I found that 
 streaks of daybreak were out in the east and the 
 birds beginning their notes. 
 
 Without a word spoken we dropped down the 
 stream to the second pond, and round its shores and 
 up again, without hearing the least sound of a moose, 
 and were floating down again, when Rowell whis- 
 pered, " There 's a moose, right ahead ! " Just then 
 we heard a breaking through the branches and leaves, 
 and he disappeared before I got a sight of him. We 
 were too far off for a shot. We paddled silently and 
 slowly down, ears and eyes attent, when we both heard 
 a sound again a little above us. As quick as 
 thought the canoe's head was turned round in that 
 direction and I held my gun in hand. Again the 
 breaking of branches is heard at the water's edge, and 
 the head and forepart of a moose appears, stepping 
 slowly into the water. He paused and looked about, 
 but did not see us, as we were close under the bank. 
 As he did not go in any farther, Rowell pushed the 
 canoe slowly forward, and I took aim, resting the gun 
 on one knee as I sat in the bottom of the canoe. I 
 took aim as I had been told, at the fore-shoulder, 
 a little behind. I kept the aim until we were within 
 about six or seven rods, when Rowell whispered, 
 u Now, fire," and I fired. It was my first shot at any 
 large wild animal, but I was as calm as if I had been 
 
206 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 36. 
 
 firing at a mark. It was not quite light, but I could 
 see his outline distinctly. He disappeared. " What 's 
 that in the water ! " said Rowell. He had fallen, and 
 after an instant's stillness was struggling in the water. 
 " Shall I fire the other barrel ? " " No I He 's 
 dead." And a few strokes brought us to his side. 
 As we passed him I turned round to look at him 
 and incautiously sat on the gunwale, and over went 
 the little birch, throwing us and our guns and axe in 
 the water. It was not deep, and we recovered them 
 easily and landed. A stab in the throat finished 
 the struggles of the animal, and in a few minutes we 
 had him hauled to the shore. It was a dead lift, 
 getting him upon the bank, for although young, he 
 was as large as a common small-sized cow. 
 
 My ball had taken him just behind the shoulder, 
 a little higher than I aimed, and had gone through 
 the wethers. The work of taking off the hide and 
 quartering the animal I left to the hunter, although 
 I did revive my old California experience by dissect- 
 ing one joint and skinning the fore-leg. 
 
 Amid the triumph of my first shot I could not but 
 take some satisfaction in the knowledge that this de- 
 struction of innocent, perhaps enjoyed life, was not in 
 mere wantonness. This is the food of the people on 
 the lake, by whom other meats are not attainable, 
 and there was an order for a moose from Greenville, 
 where this was to be taken. Man has dominion over 
 the birds of the air, the beasts of the field and the fish 
 of the sea. In its extent this dominion is unlimited, 
 except by the laws of humanity. There must be no 
 cruelty, no needless suffering inflicted, and no more 
 taking of life than the wants of man, in the way of 
 food, clothing, labor or science or art, perhaps also 
 
1851. A MOOSE HUNT. 207 
 
 exercise and recreation, justly warrant. Whatever 
 we may say or feel about the taking of life, is not 
 this the truth ? Is it not the truth of Scripture and 
 of reason ? 
 
 Putting the fore-quarters, either of which was a 
 heavy lift for one man, into the boat, with the skin, 
 we pushed off anew up the rapids, through the ponds, 
 and over the lake to old Kineo, which we reached be- 
 fore the people of the house had gone to breakfast. 
 It had been a novel and exciting chapter in my life, 
 for which I would give many of the humdrum days 
 of pleasure in the established routes of men. 
 
 August 9. Thus ended, on the whole, the pleas- 
 antest, in every way most satisfactory sailing ex- 
 cursion I ever made. It is true that I have a fond- 
 ness for a boat, for life on the water, beyond the af- 
 fection I bear to any other mode of pastime. The 
 vicissitudes of a day in a boat ! This is always a 
 quiet, unutterable pleasure to my spirit. It takes me 
 completely from all cares of life. I forget that I am 
 anything but a sailor, or have any purpose in life 
 but to guide the boat, to watch the winds and meet 
 the little exigencies of the hour. Then, too, my 
 thoughts wander back to my old sea-life, and I dream 
 over the events of that parenthesis in my life, and 
 recall the faces of my shipmates, the scenes on ship 
 and shore, and find myself humming over capstan 
 songs and the cries at the windlass and the halyards. 
 A good breeze enlivens me, and a calm soothes and 
 tranquillizes me, and puts me in a dreamy state, — 
 unless, indeed, I admit, it lasts too long. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LAW AND POLITICS. — THE BURIAL OF WEBSTER. 
 
 October 25. The chief events of the last few 
 weeks are Judge Curtis' induction to office, and 
 charge to tl*e Grand Jury. The latter was a remark- 
 ably clear, lawyer-like performance. His definition 
 of treason was in the technical Curtis-like style, to 
 the effect that " levying war " is a technical phrase, 
 which had an established signification at the time the 
 Constitution was adopted, in the law of the realm. 
 His signification extended it beyond an attempt to 
 overthrow the Government itself, and includes com- 
 bined attempts to resist by force the execution of one 
 or more laws (it matters not which) in all cases. 
 He repudiates the extreme notion that combined and 
 intentional forcible resistance in one case is treason. 
 Yet, I believe, that under our Constitution treason 
 is — treason ! It is an attempt to overthrow the 
 State, and nothing less. 
 
 November 2. Sunday evening. Nothing of im- 
 portance has occurred this week. The " Rescue 
 Cases " are on again, and I made a point of law as 
 to the removal of the cases from the District Court 
 under Act of 1846, § 3, which has given them some 
 trouble. Also, that Judge Sprague erred in remov- 
 ing the juror Walker after the case was opened for 
 a cause on which he had been examined. 
 
 9. Sunday. Ten o'clock p. M. Henry T. Parker 
 
1851. 
 
 LAW AND POLITICS. 209 
 
 has just come out to tell me of the death of our dearly 
 beloved, our venerated clergyman, Dr. Croswell! 
 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord ! He 
 has gone — " having the testimony of a good con- 
 science ; in the communion of the Catholic Church ; 
 in the confidence of a certain faith ; in the comfort 
 of a reasonable, religious and holy hope; in favor 
 with Thee our God, and in perfect charity with all 
 the world." 
 
 How deeply this loss will be felt by our parish. 
 He was its Alpha and Omega. He opened its first 
 service in its little humble hall, and has gone on with 
 it through adversity and prosperity, with singleness 
 of purpose, a devotion never exceeded. Neither sal- 
 ary, nor society, nor literature, nor ease drew him, 
 or threatened to draw him, away a moment. Daily, 
 morning and evening, with hardly rest enough for 
 the necessities of health, has his voice offered up the 
 service of our Church, the only daily service in the 
 city, until a full and devoted congregation has been 
 gathered about him. No man ever worked more 
 faithfully, or with more solemn and substantial ef- 
 fect. It may be said, without impiety, that the eyes 
 of all waited upon him. Generous, kind, patient, 
 devoted, magnanimous man ! May thy prayers 
 never cease to go up for us, poor, frail, sinful worms 
 of the dust, thou hast left behind thee ! 
 
 There are many striking things in the manner of 
 this death. On the tenth day of November, 1844, 
 Dr. Croswell arrived in Boston to take charge of this 
 parish, and on that evening first met us in a parish 
 meeting. On the ninth day of November, 1851, at 
 evening, making an exact period of seven years, to 
 the day, on the Lord's Day, at the last words of the 
 
210 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 36. 
 
 evening service, while kneeling with his face to the 
 altar, with the whole gospel armor on, in the white 
 robes of his sacred office, the Angel touched him, 
 44 The Lord hath need of thee," and as the sun went 
 down his spirit obeyed the summons. 
 
 Mr. [William F.] Otis says, " He was an emana- 
 tion of the Prayer Book." So he was indeed. He 
 was the most liturgical man in form, voice, manner, 
 spirit, I ever saw. He is forever associated in the 
 minds of his people with the grandest and most ten- 
 der parts of that noble service, the Glorias, the Ben- 
 edictions, the Confessions. 
 
 November 16. The chief secular events of the 
 week are the elections. The Coalition (Free Soil 
 and Democrat) has probably carried both branches 
 of the Legislature, and Winthrop lacks 8,000 votes 
 of a majority. I think the Coalition an error of 
 moral science on the part of the Free Soil party ; but 
 I rejoice that the Whigs are defeated, in the present 
 selfish and cowardly policy, and that Sumner's elec- 
 tion is thus ratified by the people. 
 
 The other event is the acquittal of Morris. I hope 
 this will end the " Rescue Cases." Judge Curtis' 
 charge was lucid, and absolutely impartial. 
 
 The Morris above referred to was Robert Morris, the 
 first colored lawyer at the Suffolk bar, and well-known in 
 the legal profession of Boston in 1852 and subsequently un- 
 til his death. Mr. Charles G. Loring, an earnest anti-slavery 
 man, and a prominent member of the Suffolk bar, had taken 
 an interest in Morris, who had studied law in his office. He 
 was the legal adviser of a large portion of the colored com- 
 munity in Boston, his practice being mainly confined to 
 small cases in the inferior civil and criminal courts. 
 Strongly sympathizing with those of his own race, he was 
 
1852. LAW AND POLITICS. 211 
 
 present in the court-room when Shadrach was rescued, 
 though there was no evidence that he was a direct partici- 
 pant in any lawless proceeding. It is he also who is re- 
 ferred to in the following extract : — 
 
 1852. January 2. I received to-day as gratifying 
 a testimonial as I ever received, and perhaps ever 
 shall receive. It was a New Year's present of Hal- 
 lam's works in eight volumes, a superb London edi- 
 tion, beautifully bound, from "several colored citi- 
 zens of Boston," on account of my services in the 
 "Rescue Cases." The gift was accompanied by a 
 complimentary and well-written note from Morris. 
 I answered it with true feeling of satisfaction. 
 
 The note from Morris above referred to was as follows : — 
 
 Boston, January 1, 1852. 
 Dear Sir, — A number of our colored citizens, deeply 
 grateful for your most able and manly defence of the parties 
 indicted for the rescue of Shadrach, and anxious to show, 
 even by a slight token, their heartfelt respect for your char- 
 acter, and their cordial appreciation of your invaluable 
 services in the rescue trials, ask you to honor them by the 
 acceptance of the accompanying volumes of the historical 
 works of Hallam. In his writings we seem to discern a 
 spirit kindred to your own, since they are everywhere ani- 
 mated by that strong sentiment of Liberty protected by 
 Law which lives in your own breast, and which has in all 
 later times so honorably distinguished the truly great consti- 
 tutional lawyers, the Erskines and Broughams of England. 
 • I am, sir, with the highest respect, 
 
 Your friend and servant, 
 
 Robert Morris. 
 R. H. Dana, Jr., Esq. 
 
 Then, and long afterwards, as will appear from the fol- 
 lowing letter, whenever Mr. Dana's name came into promi- 
 nence, it was a favorite newspaper charge against him that 
 
212 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 36. 
 
 he had accepted a fee for his professional services in defend- 
 ing the fugitive slaves or their rescuers. One of these 
 charges appeared in the '* New York Tribune " of the 26th 
 of August, 1872, and was summarily disposed of by Edmund 
 Quincy in the following letter : — 
 
 To the Editor of Tlie Tribune. 
 
 Sir, — In your issue of the 26th instant is an article entitled 
 " A Daw Plucked," which contains the v statement that Mr. 
 Richard H. Dana, Jr., had received the sum of $2,500 " for 
 his services as attorney in behalf of the hunted fugitives from 
 slavery." As my name is mentioned in the same article in 
 a complimentary manner, my conduct and that of two other 
 gentlemen being contrasted with that of Mr. Dana, perhaps 
 you will permit me to state the exact facts in the premises, 
 the same being within my own personal knowledge. 
 
 Mr. Dana never received any remuneration for his pro- 
 fessional services in any fugitive slave case. After the 
 close of the case of Anthony Burns, the Committee having 
 charge of his defence, of their own mere motion, sent Mr. 
 Dana a check for two hundred ($200) dollars. This he re- 
 turned to them, saying, in substance, that he hoped the time 
 would never come when a member of the Boston bar would 
 accept money for his professional aid to a man claimed as a 
 slave. The Committee, then, to show their sense of his ser- 
 vices, presented him with a piece of plate with an appropri- 
 ate inscription, as a permanent memorial of the event. 
 
 When the trials of the " Shadrach Rescuers " approached, 
 Mr. Dana, together with Mr. John P. Hale, then Senator from 
 New Hampshire, were retained professionally for the de- 
 fence. Both these gentlemen held that there was a clear 
 distinction between the case of a slave claimed under the 
 Fugitive Law and that of a citizen who had rescued one out 
 of the hands of the United States officers, and who was to 
 have a legal trial before a court and jury for the act. There 
 were five trials which occupied many days. Mr. Dana de- 
 fended all of them, Mr. Hale having to withdraw after the 
 
1852. LAW AND POLITICS. 213 
 
 first two. For this service Mr. Dana received, not $2,500, 
 or the fifth part of it, but the precise sum of four hundred 
 ($400) dollars. I think no lawyer will say that this was an 
 excessive compensation for the time and labor bestowed on 
 the trials and the preparation for them. 
 
 Edmund Quincy. 
 Dedham, Mass., August 30, 1872. 
 
 After living several years, first in the West Cedar Street 
 house and subsequently in lodgings, Mr. Dana finally, as 
 his family increased, decided to give himself the luxury of a 
 house of his own. Naturally enough he fixed upon Cam- 
 bridge as his future abiding-place. Accordingly, about the 
 year 1851, he purchased a lot of land, not far from Cam- 
 bridge Common and the Washington Kim, and built a 
 house upon Berkeley Street, a name given by himself in 
 honor of Bishop Berkeley. While this house was building 
 and being furnished, he and his family lived at the Brattle 
 House in Cambridge, since occupied by the University 
 Press, but then a hotel. In the Berkeley Street house he 
 passed the next seventeen years of his life, and his best 
 working period. The rear of his land almost adjoined the 
 rear of the larger grounds on which stood the Craigie house, 
 fronting Brattle Street, then occupied by the poet Long- 
 fellow, with whom and his family the personal and social 
 relations of the Danas were always close. Cambridge was 
 at this period in its happiest social condition, as the street 
 railway, which soon converted it into a convenient suburb 
 of Boston, did not make its advent until 1856. So the 
 Danas now saw a great deal of the Everett family, just 
 closing their time of residence in the old president's house, 
 James Russell Lowell and his wife, Professors Channing, 
 Beck, Peirce, and the young professors, Child, Lane, Cook 
 and Gould, who occasionally added a touch of humor and 
 gayety to the Book Club reunions by representations of 
 German amusements, — reminiscences of student days. 
 They also frequently met, among other families, the Pal- 
 
214 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 36. 
 
 freys, the Feltons, the Nortons, the Wheatons and the 
 Greenoughs. For years also it was the habit of Charles 
 Sumner when at home, after taking a Sunday dinner with 
 Longfellow in the middle of the day, to drop in at Dana's 
 at the hour for tea. At one period Dana, as was apt to be 
 the case sooner or later with Sumner's friends, incurred his 
 displeasure by differing from him in public over some ques- 
 tion of political policy, and for years the Sunday evening 
 visits ceased ; but after 1866 friendly relations were re- 
 newed, nor were they again interrupted. In the following 
 entry Dana recorded his delight, when at last, after ten 
 years of married life, he found himself in his own perma- 
 nent home : — 
 
 On Tuesday, March 16, we took possession of our 
 
 new house. ... It is a beautiful house. has 
 
 selected the wall-papers and carpets and curtains and 
 furniture with so much, such exquisite taste, that it 
 looks like fairy-land. Then the pleasure and com- 
 fort and satisfaction of being in one's own house ! 
 Every day since we have been in, we have admired 
 and congratulated like children at a play. 
 
 I have devoted two nights to the arrangement of 
 my books and papers in my study, and have now the 
 comfort for the first time in my life of a private room, 
 with my own furniture and papers and books about 
 me, where I can read and write and think without in- 
 terruption. May we be duly grateful to God for his 
 blessings, and may I make use of my opportunities ; 
 may my private room be consecrated to study and 
 thought for my own good and the good of my fellow- 
 men ! 
 
 Nor in Dana's eyes did time wither or custom stale the 
 attractiveness of this, his first home. Years afterwards, 
 when he and his family had long lived in Boston, he had 
 
1852. LAW AND POLITICS. 215 
 
 occasion to revisit the Berkeley Street house, to attend the 
 funeral of one of its occupants. On his return home he 
 wrote as follows to his wife, who, with several of his 
 daughters, was then in Europe : — 
 
 1871. December 24. I sat in the dining-room, 
 with many thoughts and much meditation on our 
 seventeen years there, when our children were infants 
 and little girls, and we were almost young, and all we 
 had done there ; and after all left the house, I sat in 
 my study, and looked into the parlor. It is a beauti- 
 ful house, — and in such good taste. 
 
 1852. April 29. Thursday, This evening Kossuth 
 was to speak in Faneuil Hall. Sarah and I went, and 
 had the good fortune to get a good standing place, 
 in company with Mrs. S. G. Howe and Mrs. Hillard. 
 He spoke extremely well. His speeches are full of 
 thought, his manner is dignified and quiet, yet ear- 
 nest, his eye the centre of attraction, and his voice 
 clear, audible and flexible, without being very loud. 
 
 May 2. Dr. S. G. Howe invited Sarah and me 
 to pass the evening at his house, and meet Kossuth, 
 Pulszky, and their wives. Mr. and Mrs. Longfellow 
 were also invited, so we took a coach together. The 
 company consisted, beside our host and hostess, of 
 Kossuth, Madame Kossuth, Pulszky and Madame 
 Pulszky, Longfellow, Mrs. Chas. Sedgwick, Theodore 
 Parker, Mr. and Mrs. Hillard, Geo. Sumner and 
 sister, and Wm. F. Channing. I was introduced to 
 Kossuth suddenly, and simply said, "I had the pleas- 
 ure of hearing you at Faneuil Hall." He bowed. 
 u I hope you found it an easy hall to speak in." 
 " Quite the contrary. It is so difficult to keep one's 
 voice, that one loses his ideas." " Indeed, I am sur- 
 prised. You spoke with such apparent ease, and 
 
216 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 36. 
 
 filled the hall so perfectly, that I hoped you found it 
 agreeable to you." No reply. An awkward inter- 
 val. He is a reflecting, abstracted, absorbed man, 
 and never wastes himself on small matters. More- 
 over, English is not easy to him. He looked out of 
 the window, and said that it was a fine prospect. It 
 being dead low tide, I remarked that the low tide 
 and flats were picturesque. He made no reply, and 
 just then Dr. Howe came up. 
 
 This is the beginning and end of my acquaintance 
 with Kossuth. But I like the man. He is thought- 
 ful, earnest, solemn and full of great purposes. His 
 eye is wonderful, indicating both tenderness and in- 
 tensity. 
 
 June 10. The jury disagreed in Elizur Wright's 
 case. Eleven for conviction and one for acquittal. 
 It seems as if Providence alwa}'s raised up at least 
 one faithful man on each jury to prevent a convic- 
 tion in these cases. The general impression is that 
 Wright might have been acquitted if he had had 
 counsel. 
 
 Dana speaks of the curious fact that on every jury before 
 which any one alleged to have been concerned in the Rescue 
 Cases was tried, there was always one " faithful " juror. In 
 subsequent years, he was in the custom of telling a singular 
 anecdote illustrating this fact. A day or two after the 
 rescue of Shadrach he was smuggled off to Canada by the 
 Fitchburg railroad. He was easily traced, and a telegram 
 ordering his arrest was sent to Fitchburg, where in those 
 days the westward train was delayed for a considerable 
 time ; but when the train arrived that day Shadrach was not 
 on it. It subsequently appeared that the conductors of the 
 " underground railroad " having him in charge had sus- 
 pected that a telegraph message to Fitchburg might occa- 
 sion them trouble, so they had left the train at a way sta- 
 
1852. LAW AND POLITICS. 217 
 
 ti'on before reaching that place, and hurriedly driven in a 
 wagon thence across the state line to the first way station 
 in New Hampshire, where they again caught the train on 
 its way north, and forwarded their charge safely to Canada. 
 Some year or more after the rescue trials were over, Dana 
 had occasion to deliver a political speech in Middlesex 
 County, not far from the New Hampshire state line. After 
 the meeting had dissolved, and he was preparing to leave the 
 hall, he was approached by a quiet, plain-looking man, who 
 inquired if he remembered him. After looking at the man 
 a moment, Dana answered, — " Yes. You were the twelfth 
 
 juror in 's case ; " mentioning one of the rescue trials. 
 
 The man immediately replied, " Yes ; I was the twelfth 
 juror in that case, and I was the man who drove Shadrach 
 over the line.' , 
 
 " Now," Dana would add, " how singular it was that Lunt 
 and the United States marshal should have raked the dis- 
 trict of Massachusetts to find a jury that would convict in 
 that case, and had subjected the whole panel to special in- 
 vestigation to establish the fact that no one in it had such 
 a bias as would prevent conviction, — actually packing the 
 jury, — and yet had succeeded in getting into the jury-box 
 the one man who had been instrumental in running Sha- 
 drach finally out of the jurisdiction ! " 
 
 19. All the world absorbed in the ballotings of 
 the Baltimore Convention. Scott, Fillmore and Web- 
 ster. It is strange how much more interesting are 
 personal politics than political principles. The u plat- 
 form " is hardly noticed except by the few thinking 
 minds, while all are running mad on the names. 
 
 The platform seems to me as satisfactory as could 
 be expected of a national party, unless the North 
 could be brought to reject the whole slavery question 
 by force of numbers. The clause " until time and 
 experience," etc., opens the door widely enough for 
 
218 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 36. 
 
 persons who think the constitutional provisions ought 
 to be enforced by congressional legislation. 
 
 June 27. The nomination of Scott is matter of ex- 
 treme mortification and chagrin to the Webster men. 
 They seem to have no principles at stake, but to 
 follow merely a blind personal devotion to Webster. 
 They are full of voting for Pierce. Conservatism, 
 tariff, banks, Cuba, war, — all is forgotten ! They 
 see and feel only the failure of their candidate and of 
 his system. The truth is, they feel that the rejection 
 of Webster and Fillmore, backed as they were by the 
 entire Southern strength, by the power of the admin- 
 istration and of the great cities, in favor of Scott, 
 whose strength lay in the North and in the country, 
 is significant of their entire policy. This convention 
 has shown four things : — 
 
 1. That serving the South is not sure pay. 
 
 2. That the North is able to prevail if it will. 
 
 3. That the liberal Northern element in the Whig 
 party is strong enough to beat the South, the admin- 
 istration and the great cities combined. 
 
 4. That the Fugitive Slave Law is a statute and 
 not a compact. 
 
 Still, the North was far from doing its duty. The 
 eighth resolution l should have been killed and might 
 
 1 The section ref erred to was as follows : — 
 
 Eighth. — That the series of acts of the Thirty-first Congress, — 
 the act known as the Fugitive Slave Law included — are received 
 and acquiesced in hy the Whig party of the United States, as a settle- 
 ment in principle and suhstance, of the dangerous and exciting ques- 
 tion which they embrace ; and, so far as they are concerned, we will 
 maintain them and insist upon their strict enforcement until time and 
 experience shall demonstrate the necessity 1 of further legislation, to 
 guard against the evasion of the law on the one hand, and abuse of 
 their powers on the other, not impairing their present efficiency ; and 
 we deprecate all further agitation of the question thus settled as dan- 
 
1852. LAW AND POLITICS. 219 
 
 have been. The party should have rejected the 
 whole slave question from its platform. It looks too 
 much as if the North yielded the platform to the 
 South, in expectation of carrying its candidate, and 
 came very near losing that. But two great results 
 are gained, — Webster and Fillmore are rejected, 
 and the policy to which they are committed — that 
 of compelling men to treat the Fugitive Slave Law as 
 a compact — is defeated. 
 
 August 26. Invited to preside at the Ratification 
 Meeting at Faneuil Hall, to ratify the Pittsburgh 
 nomination. 1 
 
 Objections. (1.) Cannot engage in politics. My 
 profession requires all my time and mind. (2.) Do 
 not want to commit myself to "Free Democracy" 
 without explanations and qualifications. 
 
 Reasons pro. (1.) The threats made against me in 
 the papers some time ago, that merchants, etc., must 
 withdraw their business from me. (2.) The want 
 of sound and conservative men in action in our party. 
 
 Never more distressed in my life to make a decision. 
 Talked with Adams, Wilson and others. All wanted 
 me to speak. Very reluctantly and quite unsatisfied, 
 determined to decline. Did so. I do not know that 
 I ever so much regretted the want of property, to 
 enable me to do a great public duty. 
 
 September 25. Saturday. Went to Watertown 
 
 gerous to our peace ; and will discountenance all efforts to continue 
 or renew such agitation whenever, wherever, or however the attempt 
 may he made, and we will maintain this system as essential to the 
 nationality of the Whig party of the Union. 
 
 1 John P. Hale of New Hampshire and George W. Julian of Indi- 
 ana had been nominated at Pittsburgh on the 11th of August, by the 
 convention of the Free Soil party, as candidates for President and 
 Vice-President. 
 
220 RICHARD HENRY DANA. ^t. 37. 
 
 to lead in the prosecution of the complaint against 
 Porter for liquor selling. There was apprehension 
 of a riot, and a police force of 125 men were on the 
 spot. It was adjourned, on an affidavit of Porter 
 that he had just learned that the complainant was an 
 atheist. I made an effort to reach the 3.45 train for 
 Hartford, in order to get to Wethersfield. Drove 
 rapidly to my house and there found little Charlotte, 
 who had been promised the journey, trying to get 
 dressed and packed in season, but there was not time. 
 They hurried, but she behaved very well, and said 
 she would not try to go as it would detain me and 
 I might lose the cars. I drove off and reached the 
 cars in season. On the way I was so much affected 
 by the thought of the dear little girl's disappoint- 
 ment, that I could take no pleasure, nor indeed keep 
 my mind composed. It was not necessary for me to 
 go that afternoon, and a loss of a day to me or her 
 mother was not of so much consequence as the dis- 
 appointment to her. Unable to satisfy myself, I in- 
 quired of the conductor, and found that I could get 
 out at Framingham and return in the down train. I 
 did so, and felt my mind so much relieved that I felt 
 sure I had done right. I reached home at tea time, 
 and the little girls were so happy to see me, and we 
 had so pleasant an evening together, and Charlotte 
 was so happy at the thought of securing her journey, 
 that I was well repaid. The prospect, also, of a long 
 quiet Sunday at home was inviting, it being my only 
 day of rest and reading. 
 
 October 23. Engaged yesterday and to-day in the 
 trial of Elizur Wright's case for rescue of Shadrach. 
 He is entirely clear of all connection with the rescue 
 in fact, although he was delighted with the result. 
 
1852. LAW AND POLITICS. 221 
 
 Judge Curtis tries the case well and fairly — very 
 fairly. His bias is against us, but lie schools him- 
 self to keep it under, not only in form but in reality. 
 In some points he has taken pains to aid the prisoner. 
 Only twice has be acted, as we think, under a wrong 
 influence. He was wrong in permitting the third in- 
 terrogatory to be put to the jurors after acknowledg- 
 ing that it was likely to mislead, on the ground that 
 no substitute that had been offered or that he could 
 devise was satisfactory. Better not put the question 
 than to mislead. But it is impossible that court and 
 counsel cannot put a proper interrogation into writ- 
 ing. The second instance was when he interrupted 
 me in my opening, saying that I was going too much 
 into generals, that my duty was to state the facts 
 we intend to prove and the law applicable thereto. 
 If counsel arrange that the usual address to the state 
 of mind of the jury, to remove prejudice and mistake, 
 shall be made in the opening, I do not believe the 
 court can control it. If it can, it is a bad thing to 
 try and fail in. Interference with the argument in 
 a political cause is of questionable utility. 
 
 25. Monday. Yesterday morning, at three o'clock, 
 Daniel Webster died. He died at Marshfield, at his 
 own home, in his bed, surrounded by his friends. 
 
 It is felt by all to be a most solemn season. Those 
 who agree with his course on the 7th March and 
 since feel that the country has sustained an irrepa- 
 rable loss, and almost idolize his memory. Those who 
 condemn his course then feel all the more solemnly 
 his death, for the} r feel that this great sun has gone 
 down in a cloud. Those who sustain him in his op- 
 position to the regular nominations, and in running 
 separately for the Presidency, feel that their head is 
 
222 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 37. 
 
 taken away from them, while those who disapprove 
 of his course cannot rid themselves of the feeling 
 that his defeat at Baltimore and the entire failure of 
 the attempt to arouse the country to his separate and 
 independent support have caused or hastened [his 
 death]. From all these causes, and in their various 
 and conflicting qualities and degrees, all men agree 
 to mourn his death. No death since that of Wash- 
 ington has excited so general a grief. 
 
 October 26. Tuesday, The bar held a meeting 
 yesterday morning, before I got into town, and ap- 
 pointed a committee of five to take charge of the pro- 
 ceedings, prepare resolutions, etc. This consisted of 
 Choate, Bartlett, G. T. Curtis, Hillard and myself, 
 and C. G. Loring, ex officio. 
 
 27. Wednesday. Elizur Wright was acquitted, 
 much to our joy. The bar ought to vote Farley and 
 me a service of plate for demonstrating the impor- 
 tance of professional services. At the previous trial 
 he defended himself, and had but one juryman on 
 his side, — came within one of being convicted. 
 Now he employs counsel, and is acquitted. But he 
 deserved the acquittal. He had no part or lot 
 whatever in the rescue, although he was ready for 
 it, no doubt, if an opportunity had offered. Judge 
 Curtis' charge was a model of impartiality. 
 
 28. Thursday. The bar meeting was held to- 
 day, at 9.30 A. M. As ladies were admitted to a 
 few reserved seats, I took in Sarah and she had the 
 great pleasure of hearing all the performances. The 
 committee met at nine, to read the resolutions. One 
 said that Webster's great voice never failed to sup- 
 port the cause of the oppressed, etc. I requested 
 them to alter this, as it seemed to point to the dis- 
 
1852. LA W AND POLITICS. 223 
 
 puted point of the 7th March speech. Judge War- 
 ren at first proposed to vote me down, as I was the 
 only Free Soiler ; but after a few words from me, 
 either from deference to my argument or from fear 
 that Professor Greenleaf and C. G. Loring might 
 sympathize with me, they consented to alter it, and 
 to speak of his voice having so often penetrated 
 where oppression, etc. I told him I could well sus- 
 tain that, for I believed he had done more than any 
 living statesman to establish the true Free Soil doc- 
 trines. 
 
 The proceedings in court were an honor to the 
 bar and bench, and would have done honor to any 
 bar or bench in the world. Choate was admirable, 
 full of originality, beauty and feeling. Loring was 
 instructive and able ; the apprehensions from George 
 T. Curtis were not realized, for he had the good sense 
 to be quite short ; and George Lunt met the embar- 
 rassments of his position with good taste and feeling. 
 His position was awkward, for he claimed the right, 
 officially, to announce the death and make the mo- 
 tion, while the bar had refused to place the resolu- 
 tions in his hands. The reply of Judge Sprague was 
 spirited and interesting, and delivered in an excellent 
 style, clear and manly, and Judge Curtis, more suo, 
 was clear, judicious, temperate and sensible. The 
 whole affair was worthy of the occasion, which is say- 
 ing a great deal. 
 
 29. Friday. Left Boston at 7.45 A. M. via Co- 
 hasset, for Marshfield, to attend the funeral. At 
 Cohasset we took coaches and rode to Marshfield, a 
 distance of some fifteen miles. 
 
 The day was a warm autumn hazy day, with a 
 falling and fallen leaf, and a sere look of the grass, 
 
22-1 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt.SI. 
 
 in good keeping with the occasion and the rather bar- 
 ren and dreary look of the country. Some four or 
 five hundred passengers came by this train and rilled 
 some fifty or eighty carriages. At every cross-road 
 carriages joined us, and as we neared Marshfield it be- 
 came a perfect funeral procession. As far as the eye 
 could reach, before and behind, was a long file of car- 
 riages, and we had to stop and whip up, at intervals, 
 as in the most crowded thoroughfare. It was inter- 
 esting to see the people on the road, most of whom 
 had never seen an omnibus, nor a larger assembly 
 than of a Sunday at church, gazing with wonder at 
 the six-horse coaches, the beautifully painted omni- 
 buses and the great concourse of men. A mile and 
 a half before we reached Mr. Webster's we found 
 wagons, chaises and coaches, put up at sheds and 
 barns, and standing in the open fields, the horses tied 
 to fences and trees. This continued all the last mile 
 and a half of the way. On looking over the coun- 
 try from the hilltop, they covered the land like 
 grasshoppers. 
 
 When I reached the house it was full, and the 
 doors were locked, while an immense crowd filled the 
 piazzas and the yard, and was scattered over the 
 grounds. Under a tree in front of the house stood 
 the coffin, uncovered, and in it lay stretched at 
 length, in the full dress that he wore at his last 
 speech, " all that is mortal of Daniel Webster." He 
 had on a blue coat with gilt buttons, and a white 
 neck-cloth, which kept up a natural appearance to 
 the form, while the huge, massy forehead, the dome 
 of thought, lay open, under the New England sky, 
 gazed upon by the thousands of his own race and na- 
 tion in silent awe. Even in the open yard the 
 
1852. LA W AND POLITICS. 225 
 
 crowd was so great as to require constant watchful- 
 ness to prevent disorder. 
 
 Daniel Webster was a true product of New Eng- 
 land and true child of her earth, and to her earth, 
 on her most sacred spot, the home of the Pilgrims, 
 was he to return. There was something solemn in 
 the solitariness and remoteness of his home, in the 
 dreary stretches of sea-shore in view, and in the 
 thought that he died here, and not in the bustle and 
 hurry of a city. And to this remote and not easily 
 accessible spot thousands, from all parts of the coun- 
 try, from all cities and states within reach, have made 
 their toilsome journey, moved by a common impulse 
 and overshadowed by an awe which they feel but 
 cannot all express. 
 
 No man represented so completely in our day, at 
 least, the mighty, innate, inaccessible superiority of 
 dialectic intellect. The Almighty gave him, at birth, 
 a larger and heavier brain than any of his race, and 
 a physical frame suited to its utmost needs. 
 
 The body was borne to the tomb, situated in a 
 corner of the parish burying-ground which he had 
 appropriated to himself and his family, with a path 
 leading to it from his home. Then the great crowd 
 began to disperse, and the great caravans started 
 on their way to the neighboring towns and the near- 
 est railroad stations. The scene for a while, except 
 that all was as still and solemn as the driving, turn- 
 ing and crossing, and the calling for passengers would 
 permit, was not unlike the descriptions of the motley 
 crowds of vehicles at the English races. 
 
 I rode to Kingston, and thence to Boston by rail. 
 One of the most touching things in all that met the 
 eye or ear at Marshfield was the lowing of the cat- 
 
226 RICHARD HENRY DANA. 2Zt. 37. 
 
 tie shut up in their barns. They seemed like real 
 mourners for him whose large heart went out in af- 
 fection to them. 
 
 November 3. Wednesday. The country gone 
 "with a rush" for Pierce. A New Hampshire, 
 Democratic, doughface, militia colonel, a kind of 
 tliird-rate county, or, at most, state politician, Pres- 
 ident of the United States ! I fear this is the best of 
 it. But the Whigs in making their platform prohib- 
 ited us from supporting Scott. 
 
 It is now ten days since Webster's death, and five 
 days since the scene at Marshfield, and a national 
 election has intervened, yet the scene and event 
 haunt me. I cannot escape from it. Every vacant 
 phase of mind is filled with the image of the great 
 solemn countenance, lying stretched in death in the 
 open air, under the canopy of heaven, beneath the 
 tree his own hand had planted, in the yard of the 
 house where his affections were garnered up. With 
 all his greatness and smallness, with all the praise 
 and blame, gratitude, admiration, censure and dis- 
 trust, with which we look upon his life, there is 
 something so majestical, so large of mind and heart 
 about him, that an emotion of pride and tears swells 
 at the very thought of him. 
 
 Strange, that the best commendation that has ap- 
 peared yet, the most touching, elevated, meaning 
 eulogy, with all its censure, should have come from 
 Theodore Parker ! Were J Daniel Webster, I would 
 not have that sermon destroyed for all that had been 
 said in my favor as yet. 
 
 1 853. January 4. I never meet Choate without 
 some pleasant or interesting thing being said. I met 
 him in the Library and asked him if he had read 
 
1853. LAW AND POLITICS. 221 
 
 Seward's speech on Webster in the Senate. He 
 had. I hoped he thought it as striking as 1 did, and 
 I added, k4 Don't you think there is more thought in 
 Seward's speeches than in those of any man now in 
 public life ? " He said he did ; that Seward was a 
 thinker and writer as well as a speaker. I alluded 
 to Seward's saying that in one respect Webster sur- 
 passed Erskine and " approached Hamilton," and 
 asked him how the devotees of Webster would relish 
 that. He did not reply directly, but said that he 
 was engaged in an examination of Hamilton, and 
 was at a loss to discover that poetry for which all 
 his contemporaries gave him credit. 1 said I did not 
 think Hamilton's mind was poetic, that he was heroic 
 and chivalrous, but not poetic. Choate thought it 
 must be so, and that his works were clear processes 
 of intellect. " But," said he, " I remember an anec- 
 dote told me by Devereux of Salem. lie had occa- 
 sion to pay some attentions to Aaron Burr during a 
 visit Burr made to Boston after the death of Hamil- 
 ton. He took him to the Athenaeum, and while 
 walking through the sculpture gallery, seeing the 
 bust of Hamilton near him, turned off, naturally 
 thinking it would be disagreeable to Burr to be 
 brought before it. But Burr went directly up to it 
 and said in a very loud tone, * Ah ! Here is Hamil- 
 ton.' An<l, pressing his ringer along certain lines of 
 his face said, 4 There was the poetry ! ' " 
 
 5. Wednesday. Supped at Lowell's with Thack- 
 eray. Present, Longfellow, Felton, Clough, an Eng- 
 lishman, James T. Fields, Edmund Quincy. We sat 
 down a little after ten, had an excellent supper, and 
 left a little before two o'clock. Walked home with 
 Longfellow. Thackeray is not a great talker. He 
 
228 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEr. 37. 
 
 was interested in all that was said, and put in a 
 clever, pleasant word occasionally. Felton, Lowell 
 and I did nearly all the talking. 
 
 February 13. No event of importance has oc- 
 curred the last two weeks. I called on Lunt, United 
 States district attorney, to induce him to nol. pros. 
 the remaining rescue cases, cases of men who for 
 nearly two years have not been brought to trial, 
 and of Scott, who has been tried over, the jury dis- 
 agreeing, and has not been brought to trial again, 
 though twenty months have elapsed. I told him 
 that such a course was unprecedented in criminal and 
 especially in political trials. His reply was that 
 these were not political trials ; that perhaps " the fel- 
 lows had been punished enough " (what right had 
 he to punish ?) ; and lastly, that he supposed I knew 
 that the late Secretary of State, Mr. Webster, had 
 taken these cases into his own hands, and that he 
 (Lunt) had been obliged to do as Mr. Webster said, 
 and not as he wished, etc. This admission of Mr. 
 Webster's deep interest and efforts in these rescue 
 cases corresponds with what Sanger, Mr. Lunt's as- 
 sistant, told me last summer. He expressed himself 
 with a good deal of warmth, and suddenly checked 
 himself to the effect* that if the Secretary of State 
 had common sense, with all his greatness, he would 
 not press a trial at that time. But Lunt refused to 
 nol. pros.< and said, " Perhaps he would try one of 
 them next May." I shall bring it before Judge 
 Sprague. 
 
 23. Wednesday. An attempt being made to re- 
 turn some of the leading men of the Free Soil party 
 to the [Constitutional] Convention from towns they 
 do not live in, a measure necessary from the fact 
 
1853. LAW AND POLITICS. 229 
 
 that our leading men live in Whig towns, Mr. Alley 
 asked me from wliat town I could go. I told him 
 I thought Manchester would elect me, and he said 
 he would make a business of it. To - day Robert 
 Carter called, from the State Committee, and said 
 that the Free Soilers in Manchester were willing to 
 nominate me, and the only difficulty was with the 
 Democrats, without a support from some of whom it 
 would be difficult to elect me, and proposed that Mr. 
 Mayo, formerly of the bar, and last year the Demo- 
 cratic fish inspector, recently removed by Clifford, 
 should call and talk with me and get my opinions, 
 and then go down and talk with Democrats there, 
 with whom he had a good deal of influence. 
 
 This proposal I declined at once. It would put 
 me entirely in the power of a man of whom I knew 
 nothing, who might misrepresent or misunderstand 
 me, and who, at all events, would have it in his 
 power to charge me with deception or inconsistency, 
 if I should differ from him in the convention. I told 
 Carter I would much rather go down in the bold 
 English way and face my constituents, if they needed 
 any information. 
 
 Afterwards Wilson and Alley came and approved 
 of my refusal, and said I should probably be called 
 on to go down and address the friends of the conven- 
 tion. 
 
 March 8. Tuesday. Yesterday was the day for 
 the election of delegates to the convention for the re- 
 vision of the Constitution. I had the compliment of 
 being elected from Manchester by a clear majority 
 over all others on the first ballot. I have also the 
 satisfaction to know that I was elected without a 
 coalition, and am therefore under obligations to no 
 
230 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 37. 
 
 party to which I do not belong. The Free Soil 
 party nominated me, and I accepted the nomination 
 in a letter. The Democrats refused to unite in this 
 nomination, and ran a separate candidate. The 
 Whigs also had a separate candidate. But there 
 were enough of the old parties to vote for me volun- 
 tarily to secure my election. Sumner is elected from 
 Marshfield, and Webster's son was the candidate 
 against him, but Sumner had a large majority. His 
 election was on the 7th of March, the anniversary 
 of Webster's speech ! Several others have been 
 elected from towns in which they do not reside, in 
 the English fashion. The friends of the convention 
 have a very large majority, more than a hundred, 
 over the Whigs. This has been mainly owing to the 
 folly of the Whigs in opposing the convention, and 
 trying to repeal the act for calling it after it had 
 been accepted by the people. 
 
 March 10. Thursday. Court at Dedham. Ver- 
 dict in my favor in Bigelow v. Wood to full amount 
 claimed. Began White v. Braintree. 
 
 We have very pleasant times here at the trials. 
 The judge, the sheriff and the members of the bar 
 from out of town board together at the hotel ; the 
 judge sitting at the head of the table and the sheriff 
 at the foot, the lawyers seating themselves by a tacit 
 understanding according to age and importance, and 
 there is a good deal of pleasant conversation. At 
 dinner there will often be a stray guest from Boston, 
 who has come up to make a motion or look after his 
 docket. Choate, Bartlett, Hallett dropped, in on us 
 this week. Here, too, is the remnant of the old style 
 in which the courts used to be received. The sheriff 
 with a long white rod comes to the tavern and stands 
 
1853. LAW AND POLITICS. 231 
 
 by the door and precedes the judge on his way to 
 court and into his seat, and in the same way conducts 
 him back at the adjournment each day. This is all 
 that is left of the old pomp and parade of court 
 week, — two plain citizens walking through the mud 
 together, one with a long white rod, and the other 
 without ! 
 
 April 7. Thursday. Being Fast Day, took a long 
 walk, and in the afternoon and evening wrote the 
 chapter in the " Memoir of Rantoul " on the Sims 
 trial, at the request of the person preparing it. 
 
 8. Friday. This morning [John P.] Hale re- 
 ceived a compliment which evidently pleased him 
 much, and naturally. Commodore Nicholas, of the 
 United States ship German town, just arrived from 
 the coast of Africa, met him, and thanked him for 
 his efforts in behalf of abolishing flogging in the navy. 
 He said, " No man could have been more opposed to 
 the bill than I was. I believe I cursed you a great 
 many times for it. But I have come back delighted 
 with its operation. It raises the character of the 
 men astonishingly. I could not have believed it." 
 He then invited Mr. Hale on board his ship, intro- 
 duced him to his ..officers and men, and when he left 
 the crew manned the rigging and gave him three 
 cheers. 
 
 During this summer the family of Mr. Dana was broken 
 up, Mrs. Dana having been advised to place herself at a 
 water-cure establishment at Brattleboro', Vermont, whither 
 Dana accompanied her on the 30th of April. 
 
 May 1. Sunday. In the morning Sarah and I 
 went to the Orthodox church (there being no Epis- 
 copal church), and in the afternoon I went with 
 
232 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 37. 
 
 Rosamond to the Unitarian. In each heard charac- 
 teristic sermons. The Orthodox preacher was a 
 hard, sharp man, with a bilious complexion, stiff hair 
 and black eyes, and he preached an argumentative 
 sermon on the Atonement. The Unitarian was a 
 tall, thin, mild-looking jnan, and he preached rather 
 a soft, summery sermon on the text " The fruit of the 
 spirit is love." In both churches the congregation 
 sat through the prayers, and the little form of lean- 
 ing the head forward is now dropped, and there is 
 nothing to distinguish externally the pray.er from the 
 listening to the sermon. 
 
ftTNIVEHSlTy 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE MASSACHUSETTS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 
 OF 1853. 
 
 The Constitutional Convention of 1853 met at the State 
 House in Boston on the 4th of May, and adjourned on the 
 first of August following, having been in session seventy- 
 two days. Among its members were many of the principal 
 Massachusetts public characters of the time, including 
 Charles Sumner, Rufus Choate, Henry L. Dawes, Robert 
 Rantoul, Henry Wilson, Sidney Bartlett, Benjamin F. But- 
 ler and both the Marcus Mortons, the father who had been 
 Governor, and the son who was subsequently Chief Justice. 
 The Convention was presided over by N. P. Banks. 
 
 Though it was Dana's first appearance in a deliberative 
 body, he at once came to the front. Indeed, there was no 
 man in the Convention who rose more rapidly or into greater 
 prominence as a debater than did Dana. In referring, at a 
 subsequent day, to those who had taken active part in it, 
 Charles Sumner spoke of Dana as the man of by far the 
 greatest legislative promise, criticising only his tendency to 
 over-debate, due to excessive readiness and facility. 
 
 The work of the Convention was submitted for adoption 
 by the people in the form of eight propositions. At first 
 they seemed likely to encounter little opposition ; but while 
 still under discussion, a pamphlet appeared, purporting to 
 come from a " Free Soiler from the Start," in which the 
 proposed constitution was vigorously criticised and con- 
 demned. The author of this pamphlet was Dr. John G. 
 Palfrey, the historian of New England, and ever a warm 
 
234 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 37. 
 
 personal and political friend of Dana's. The attack begun 
 by Dr. Palfrey was followed up by Mr. C. F. Adams. A 
 strong opposition also soon developed itself on the part of 
 the Whigs, although not a majority, still the dominant party 
 in the State, the result of which was that on the 14th of 
 November the constitution was rejected by a majority of 
 about 6,000 in a total popular vote of 125,000. 
 
 The chief fault found with it was the substitution of a 
 judiciary, the members of which were appointed for a term 
 of years, in place of the old traditional judiciary of Massa- 
 chusetts appointed during good behavior ; the system of 
 representation was also open to criticism, and, indeed, was 
 intended to perpetuate the coalition of the Free Soilers and 
 Democrats as against the Whigs, already referred to. Both 
 Mr. Dana and Charles Sumner, having taken an active part 
 in preparing the instrument, felt a deep interest in its adop- 
 tion. The relations of both with Dr. Palfrey and Mr. 
 Adams were of the closest possible character, and each took 
 his disappointment in a way characteristic of him : — while 
 Dana good-naturedly found fault with his friends for not 
 having acted in concert with him, giving him a chance to 
 join them in opposing his own work ; it was long before 
 Sumner ceased to evince his sense of public and private 
 grievance. There was, in fact, for some time after a marked 
 coolness in his manner towards Dr. Palfrey, which only 
 time and the advances of the latter towards a reconciliation 
 wholly overcame. 
 
 The following is Dana's account of the closing work of 
 the Convention, his experience and success in which he 
 greatly enjoyed : — 
 
 May 4. Wednesday. This day the Convention 
 for revising the Constitution of the State met. Last 
 night a joint caucus of "the friends of the Conven- 
 tion," both Democratic and Free Soil, was held to 
 agree on candidates and concert measures. After 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 235 
 
 agreeing on candidates it was thought best not to 
 concert measures, lest it should seem like too much 
 dictation. 
 
 11. Wednesday. The Convention has been in ses- 
 sion all this week. I am on the committee on the 
 Bill of Rights, Sumner being chairman. We have 
 had a brilliant speech from Choate, and able ones 
 from Hallett, Judges Sprague and Barker, Butler 
 and others, on interesting questions, going quite into 
 the metaphysics of a constitutional popular govern- 
 ment. 
 
 19. Thursday. In our committee (Bill of Rights) 
 we resolved not to attempt to re-write the instrument, 
 and only to make necessary changes. We discussed 
 the principle of the ''Social Compact" which is set 
 forth in it, and we found not one man who believed 
 in it. Judge Allen and one or two more partially 
 defended it, but evidently had not reflected upon 
 and were not successful or earnest in their defence, 
 while the rest of us agreed that it is a mere fiction, 
 which served its turn against tyranny, but cannot 
 stand examination. Still, we could not alter that 
 without altering the entire phraseology, which might 
 peril the Constitution before the people. 
 
 June 17. Friday. This afternoon, in Convention, 
 made a speech in favor of town representation. It 
 was purely extemporaneous, I mean as a speech. 
 The thoughts, the line of argument, the illustrations, 
 had been over and over in my mind, but I had made 
 no preparation to speak. I spoke a little over an 
 hour, and with an effect which astonished me. The 
 congratulations were overpowering. Old Mr. Chan- 
 dler, probably the oldest and said to be the wisest man 
 in the House, came up to me with tears in his eyes, 
 
236 RICHARD HENRY DANA Mt. 37. 
 
 took my hand, and said, " Sir, you do not need a com- 
 pliment, but you deserve one." There was a perfect 
 crowd about me, and all the rest of the afternoon and 
 evening I had nothing but the warmest commenda- 
 tion. Choate's speech had discouraged the friends of 
 the towns, and they were almost ready to surrender. 
 Boutwell's excellent speech rallied them a little, but 
 they said that mine put them into enthusiasm. 
 
 Burlingame and I walked over to Bunker Hill, 
 and wandered about the base of the monument, talk- 
 ing over the events of this day nearly eighty years 
 ago (17th June) on this spot, while the bells and 
 guns were pealing out. the day from the cities around 
 and beneath us. 
 
 This evening attended a caucus of the majority at 
 the Adams House. My speech was the turning-point 
 of the discussion, and the deference with which I 
 was treated was truly gratifying. 
 
 June 26. Sunday. The chief event in the review 
 of this week is the affair between myself and Hil- 
 lard. 1 . . . 
 
 I have received another honor in the Convention. 
 
 1 Reference is here made to a passage in one of the debates of the 
 Constitutional Convention. When the method of dividing- the State 
 into representative districts to elect members to the Legislature was 
 under discussion, Mr. Dana objected to the equal district system, 
 making use of the following language : — 
 
 " But even in making a government, I would not base a govern- 
 ment upon absolute numbers. I should not think a town with 800,000, 
 or even with 50,000 or 30,000 inhabitants ought to have so large a 
 proportionate representation as one of the little rural towns, where 
 every man has his property, every man has his fireside, every man has 
 his family, with his children at school, his seat in church, and where 
 he has so strong an interest in the soil, and where his interest is bound 
 up in and is identical with the interest of the town and the welfare of 
 the State. He was born a citizen of Massachusetts, he lives in that 
 town his whole life-time, and there he expects to die and be buried. 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 237 
 
 The grand committee of thirteen is appointed to re- 
 duce the Constitution to the form of articles. I am 
 upon it, and it consists, of course, of the leading men 
 of all parties. This committee has referred the re- 
 solves to a sub-committee of three, Governor Bout- 
 well, Judge Parker and myself, so that we shall be 
 the actual writers of the new parts of the Constitu- 
 tion. . . . 
 
 Should a town with such a population, of a thousand men, be entitled 
 to no greater proportionate representation than a city with its hetero- 
 geneous mass of 100,000 inhabitants ? Look at Boston, for instance, 
 with its 130,000 or 150,000 inhabitants. I have not referred to the 
 statistics, but I shall be a good deal mistaken if there are not 60,000 
 or 70,000 of them foreigners." 
 
 Some days later Mr. George S. Hillard of Boston criticised this 
 reference to Boston as follows : — 
 
 "I regret that my friend for Manchester (Mr. Dana) should have 
 felt himself called upon to add even one jot or tittle to a sentiment 
 towards Boston which has increased, is increasing, and ought to be 
 diminished. I am sorry that he should have cast one stick upon a fire, 
 out of whose heat none but vipers can come. As the bread that he and 
 I both eat comes from the business community of Boston, from men, 
 some of whom are rich and all of whom hope to be rich, it does not 
 become us, like f roward children, to strike at the hand that feeds us." 
 
 Mr. Hillard was the special representative in the Convention of 
 that social element of Boston the disapproval of which, because of 
 his political course, Dana had been made to feel. Coming from him, 
 therefore, these expressions carried with them a possible significance 
 of time and place, which there is reason to believe Mr. Hillard, by 
 nature a most considerate and amiable man, did not appreciate, — 
 they contained a reminder and implied a menace of a kind that had 
 already more than once been heard through the press. The moment 
 Mr. Hillard took his seat Dana claimed the floor and made a brief 
 but pointed reply which at the time produced a deep impression. One 
 passage in it was as follows : — 
 
 "My friend reminded me, and it is not the first time in the course 
 of my life that I have been reminded of it, that ' the bread that he 
 and I both eat comes from the business community of Boston, and 
 that we should not strike at the hand that feeds us.' The hand that 
 feeds us ! The hand that feeds us ! Sir, no hand feeds me that has 
 any right to control my opinions ! " 
 
238 RICHARD HENRY DANA. iEr. 37. 
 
 Friday evening I had a delightful drive with Sum- 
 ner through Brookline and Cambridge, and after 
 the drive we took tea together at Mrs. Meyer's. We 
 talked over " poor Hillard," his early tendencies, his 
 want of constancy and courage, and his subserviency 
 of late years to the dictation of Mr. Ticknor and 
 that clique. We agreed that he had been put up 
 to this service by that class of men ; and we felt 
 obliged to come to the conclusion that what Hillard 
 said about " the hand that fed him " was a true ex- 
 ponent of his nature. 
 
 After the debate, as we were going down, I met 
 Hillard and he came forward and said he hoped 
 there would be no interruption of social relations. 
 In the tenderness of pity and, I hope, of magnanim- 
 ity too, I said, u No, certainly not." He seemed a 
 good deal affected, and said that he did not mean 
 by what he said exactly what I attributed to him. 
 I asked him what he did mean. Said he, "I mean 
 this. I mean that if a man lives in Boston and feels 
 about her position and action as you do, if a man 
 disapproves of her characteristics and interest and 
 conduct, he ought either to keep silent or leave the 
 city." Said I, " Is that your opinion, Hillard?" He 
 said it was. I told him that that principle would do 
 in a club or in a society, but not in a community of 
 equal rights. I told him that that sentiment came 
 from persons who thought Boston was a club — their 
 club. 
 
 July 17. I am writing up my journal, sitting at 
 the north window of the lower room at the shore, 
 looking out upon the woods, with beautiful floating 
 clouds, the low, tumbling roar of the surf, and the 
 occasional note of birds. 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 239 
 
 The last week has been noted chiefly by the debate 
 on the Judiciary. The committee, Governor Morton 
 chairman, reported inexpedient to make any change 
 in the appointment or tenure of judges. Wilson 
 moved an amendment to limit the term to ten years, 
 they being still nominated by the governor. Dr. 
 Hooper moved to amend that b}' making them elec- 
 tive by the people for terms of seven years. On 
 these together came the debate. 
 
 I spoke early and under most favorable circum- 
 stances, about the middle of the forenoon, in a full 
 house. My success was greater than I could hope. 
 The compliments and congratulations were overpow- 
 ering. Choate came down and said, " Your speech 
 has been magnificent. It is philosophical, affecting, 
 brilliant, logical, everything" — I stopped him and 
 said, " Mr. Choate, this is too much. I can't bear 
 it." " It is all true. It is such a speech as one 
 hears once in an age." . . . 
 
 The next day Choate spoke, and in his most bril- 
 liant and winning manner. He commanded undivided 
 attention, and held the strings of the affections and 
 understandings of the audience entirely in his hands. 
 It was one of the great efforts of his life, such a 
 speech as a man may be happy to have lived to hear. 
 
 The question was taken on Hooper's amendment, 
 and it was rejected 101 to 127. Wilson, Boutwell, 
 Hallett, etc., voting against it, Butler, Burlingame, 
 Hooper, Bates, Bishop, Hood, Wood, etc., in its favor, 
 and all the Whigs against it. The question was then 
 taken on Wilson's amendment, and to our no greater 
 surprise than relief, after a neck-and-neck race on 
 the ayes and noes for half an hour, it was rejected 
 158 to 160. The rejoicings and congratulations of 
 
240 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 the Boston members and the conservative men gen- 
 erally knew no bounds, and they seemed inclined to 
 give the whole credit of the victory to me. It is 
 probably true that my position gave more weight to 
 my remarks than any one else could give. . . . Not- 
 withstanding the unremitting clamor of the Boston 
 men, ever since the Convention was called, that we 
 were going to destroy the Judiciary, when the ques- 
 tion was taken, nearly twenty of them were absent. I 
 told Crowninshield that they were down in their 
 counting-rooms writing articles abusive of those men 
 who were saving their lives and fortunes. . . . 
 
 If I had done nothing else in the Convention, I 
 should have performed a valuable service in getting 
 through the resolve respecting a registry of voters. 
 It was my original idea, and no one else thought of 
 it, or seemed to see the necessity or propriety of it. 
 But I hope it may be the means of keeping the ballot 
 pure. The resolve respecting the right to sue the 
 State is also mine. 
 
 August 2. The Convention has now closed, and 
 our long work ended. Before the events fade in my 
 memory, I must set down those that occurred since 
 my last entry. 
 
 The judiciary question was considered as settled, 
 and many of the reformers told me they were sat- 
 isfied with the result, believing it better as it was. 
 But the newspapers made an outcry, I mean the 
 " Post " and a few of the Democratic journals, and 
 some began to fear that they had not done enough to 
 meet the reform tendencies of the Democracy. Still, 
 I think no movement would have been made, had it 
 not been for the animosity of J. G. Abbott of Lowell, 
 against the Supreme Court. He seemed possessed 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 241 
 
 with a bitter hostility to the bench, and vowed that 
 he would revive the subject if no one else did. I 
 talked with him, but it was plain that he was not 
 open to reason. Knowlton of Worcester, who was 
 selected to make the motion, is not a lawyer, and is 
 a popular man with those it was most desirable to 
 influence. The plan was this. The elective-judiciary 
 men numbered about 125. Some twenty-five of the 
 reform members were opposed to any change in the 
 Judiciary. Of the remainder of the reform party, 
 some seventy-five in number, about half were indif- 
 ferent about the result, though ready to vote for a 
 moderate change, while the other half were decidedly 
 of opinion that some change, not involving an election 
 of judges, should be made. The radicals would not 
 be satisfied with a ten-year term, under executive 
 appointment, and the moderates were not willing 
 to sustain the elective principle. They accordingly 
 compromised upon this plan, a seven-year term, un- 
 der executive appointment, but to be confirmed by 
 the Senate, instead of the Council. This would 
 make the appointment more political and popular, as 
 the Senate consists of forty members, annually elected. 
 This plan was brought forward by Knowlton, and 
 supported by the leading men, especially by Bout- 
 well, in a very moderate but influential speech. I 
 made a short speech against the Senate provision, 
 and, I think, exhibited the inconveniences and ex- 
 pense of that mode of confirmation in a way that 
 could not be answered, and gave notice of a motion 
 to strike out the Senate and substitute the Council. 
 When it became in order, Davis of Plymouth stole 
 my motion, but still, as the case was a clear one, the 
 Senate was struck out by a large majority. . . . The 
 
242 . RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 next attack was on the seven-year term. I agreed 
 with Mr. Morton, Jr., that he should make the mo- 
 tion to strike out seven and insert ten years. Before 
 he could get the floor, Huntington of Northampton 
 moved to strike out seven, and gave notice that if that 
 succeeded he should move to insert ten. This mo- 
 tion failed by a small majority. Morton immediately, 
 with a good deal of courage and tact, moved to strike 
 out seven and insert ten, and as one motion. This 
 was objected to, as out of order ; but it was, in fact, a 
 different motion from Mr. Huntington's, as his notice 
 was no part of his motion, and if seven was struck 
 out any other number might be put in its place. 
 Morton's motion was unexpectedly carried by a bare 
 majority. Butler sprang to the floor indignantly and 
 moved a reconsideration, and called for the yeas and 
 nays in a bravado manner, looking fiercely round the 
 House, as much as saying, Now we '11 see who dares 
 vote against the plan of the party; and during the 
 call of the yeas and nays he was very busy in drum- 
 ming up voters. Yet, all his efforts failed, and the 
 reconsideration was lost. Thus we got back to the 
 former motion, of ten-year term with the usual execu- 
 tive appointment, and the compromise was broken 
 up. Abbott, Adams (Lowell), Butler, Burlingame, 
 Breed and the other elective-judiciary men imme- 
 diately came out against the motion as before, and for 
 the first half of the call we thought the project was 
 defeated, but there was a sufficient rally among the 
 lower letters to carry it. So, the whole judiciary 
 effort has ended in changing the life tenure to ten 
 years ; a change that gives but little gain to popular 
 power, while it works one certain evil, it subjects 
 each judge to the temptation or the suspicion of com- 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 243 
 
 mending himself to the executive during the last year 
 or two of his term. The best possible thing would 
 have been to limit the judiciary office to seventy 
 years of age, and left the tenure as before. . . . 
 
 The chief work of preparing the new constitution 
 fell eventually on Governor Boutwell and myself. 
 It was referred to a committee of thirteen, and by 
 them to a sub-committee of Boutwell, Judge Parker 
 and myself. Judge Parker soon gave up active ex- 
 ertion, as he was in a minority and had numerous 
 engagements, so no one was left but Boutwell and 
 myself. We found that two could work better than 
 a large number, so we did not fill up the committee, 
 but got help when we needed it, and every day or 
 two called together the large committee for confer- 
 ence. • We derived our chief aid in work from 
 Alvord, M. Morton, Jr., and Abbott, with occasional 
 advice from Judge Allen and others. Nearly every 
 night we were up until midnight or after, beside the 
 hard work of the convention all day. Saturday night 
 at eleven o'clock we found there was eight or ten 
 hours' work to be done before we could meet the con- 
 vention Monday morning, and Monday was fixed for 
 the last day of the session. There was no escape 
 from a Sunday of hard work, for our report must be 
 in the printers' hands for final revision before ten 
 o'clock at night. Accordingly I made up my mind 
 to the work, and Sunday a little after nine A. M. 
 went to the Adams House, and met [some of the 
 committee] in Governor Boutwell's room. Gov- 
 ernor B. undertook the address, I took the consti- 
 tution, to compare it with the old and mark out the 
 corresponding passages and omissions in the old, and 
 Alvord reversed the process, marking the passages 
 
244 RICHARD HENRY DANA. ^Et. 38. 
 
 in the new. All that was the same in each we 
 crossed out ; what was similar but not in the same 
 form and manner we underscored ; and what was 
 omitted in the old we left untouched ; what was new 
 in the new we left untouched. In this way, by a 
 painstaking analysis, we made sure of every word 
 and phrase, that there could be no omission or repe- 
 tition. We took separate rooms. I had Griswold 
 for a reader, and Alvord had General Whitney. This 
 work employed us without interruption until about 
 five P. M., when we brought our reports together, com- 
 pared them, and made the final correction and arrange- 
 ment for the last proof for the printers. Griswold 
 gave out by the middle of the afternoon. General 
 Whitney held on until tea time, and Alvord gave up 
 at seven or eight o'clock. Boutwell and I kept at it, 
 without intermission, until 10.30 P. M. During the 
 whole of the intensely hot day we did not leave our 
 little close hotel bed-chambers from nine A. M. to 
 10.30 P. M., except for meals. 
 
 At 10.30 we went to the printing office and cor- 
 rected proofs, and I got to bed at midnight. 
 
 Monday morning we were at our committee room 
 before nine o'clock, and at 10.15 our report was in 
 order, the corrected copies struck off and circulated, 
 and the debate opened. Boutwell, as chairman, led, 
 and took the general charge of the report, and noth- 
 ing could have been better done. The entire result 
 of the Convention was in his hands, and he showed 
 himself abundantly capable of carrying it through. 
 His self-possession, thorough knowledge of the sub- 
 ject, calmness and clearness of statement and explana- 
 tion commanded the admiration of all. If there was 
 one man in the Convention who had doubted up to 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 245 
 
 that point his leadership and his right to it, the ques- 
 tion was put beyond a doubt that day. 
 
 The chief debate was on Choate's motion to submit 
 the judicial tenure separately to the people. It was 
 conducted by Choate and Lord pro, and Boutwell and 
 myself contra. We were sustained by the entire 
 strength of the vote of the majority, and after that 
 tliere was not much contest. Still, the passing of 
 each article and chapter in review, with questions 
 and criticisms, required constant attention. Boutwell 
 was thoroughly prepared at all points, and was not in 
 a single instance taken at disadvantage. Only one 
 error was discovered, and that was mainly matter of 
 opinion, to wit: — whether the new requirement of 
 citizenship in the Governor was a substitute for 
 seven years' residence, or additional. 
 
 The whole business closed at a little after one A. M., 
 making fourteen or fifteen hours of debate, uninter- 
 rupted except for dinner and tea, an hour each. 
 After the final adoption of the report, Boutwell read 
 his add less, and we took up the pay-roll and passed 
 it, and then the resolve respecting books and docu- 
 ments. 
 
 While the work of the Convention is fresh in my 
 mind I will jot down my own particular labors. 
 
 In the committee on the Bill of Rights, I brought 
 forward, drafted and carried through a provision giv- 
 ing to every person having a claim against the State 
 a judicial remedy therefor. I endeavored to strike 
 out all the theorizing about the social compact, and 
 the origin of government in the preamble, and then 
 substitute the simple declaration beginning " We, 
 therefore, the people of Massachusetts." For this I 
 obtained a majority of the members of the committee 
 
246 RICHARD HENRY DANA. .Et. 38. 
 
 present, but a sufficient number of absent members 
 voted against me to turn the scale, seven to six, and 
 I made no attempt in the Convention, with a minor- 
 ity report, on a theoretic question, and let it go. All 
 but three of the committee said they disbelieved en- 
 tirely in the social compact, and would not put it into 
 a new constitution, but a majority were unwilling to 
 disturb the old language and stir up people's minds 
 on abstractions. 
 
 I introduced a provision making the habeas cor- 
 pus a writ of right in all cases where the Legislature 
 does not especially vest a discretion in the court. 
 This failed in committee, but was carried in conven- 
 tion by a large majority. 
 
 The provision in Chapter 9 Article 3, requiring a 
 list of voters in all elections, was solely mine. No 
 one else thought of or moved in it. 
 
 The provision for future conventions, Chapter 14 
 Article 2, was mine. 
 
 What measures I advocated and opposed the jour- 
 nal of the debates will exhibit ; and I think I prepared 
 my full half of the chapters of the constitution. The 
 Preamble of Bill of Rights, General Court (I.), Sen- 
 ate (II.), House of Representatives (III.), Qualifica- 
 tions of voters and elections (IX.), Oaths and Sub- 
 scriptions (X.) and Revisions and Amendments 
 (XIV.) I prepared, and assisted in others. 
 
 This Convention has settled the reputations of a 
 good many men. 
 
 [Rufus] Choate has held his own. What more 
 could he do? He has shown himself the brilliant, 
 rich, philosophical orator, the scholar, and the kindly, 
 adroit and interesting man. He has not commanded 
 respect as a man of deep convictions, earnest pur- 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 247 
 
 pose and reliable judgment. But he is felt to be 
 the greatest rhetorical genius of the day. 
 
 [Charles] Sumner has held his own as an orator. 
 He has made two beautiful, classical, high-toned ora- 
 tions, commanding the admiration of all. As a de- 
 bater, a worker, an influential member, he has not 
 succeeded. He takes but little active part, and 
 seems to have a fear of taking the floor, except on 
 leading subjects, and after great preparation. But 
 he is a noble, fine-hearted fellow. 
 
 [George S.] Boutwell has raised himself prodig- 
 iously. He is the only man (unless my friends flat- 
 ter me extremely by making me a second) who has 
 eminently gained by the Convention. He is the 
 best debater in the House. 
 
 [Henry] Wilson has held his place as a manager 
 and a contriver of expedients, and a feeler of the 
 public pulse. He has shown himself a good-natured, 
 well -disposed man, with no personal enmities. I 
 think he is considered by his political opponents a 
 more honest man than they were disposed to regard 
 him ; yet, that is still a mooted point. If any ex- 
 pected him to take a high place as a discusser of 
 leading subjects, they are disappointed. He also 
 failed in the chair as temporary president. He was 
 clumsy and forgetful and undecided. . . . 
 
 [Whiting] Griswold did pretty well on the town 
 question, but even that passed out of his hands, the 
 subsequent speeches being better than his, and he 
 was soon known to be lazy, and not a man to cope 
 with subjects that required labor and thought. He 
 went pretty much to the wall. 
 
 Judge [Joel] Parker disappointed everybody. He 
 showed himself an honest man and a good dry tech- 
 
2^8 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 nical lawyer, but he discussed questions of states- 
 manship and public policy on the narrowest prece- 
 dents, and in the driest manner. He was not listeiied 
 to after his first speech, except from courtesy. He 
 did one good thing, toward the close, in exposing the 
 terrible defects of Hallett's first plan for amending 
 the Constitution. This was a matter of nice detail, 
 and he did it well, yet it was only heard by those 
 who listened attentively. The judge persevered in 
 attention to business, and spoke often, yet his voice 
 was so low, and his manner so dry, that he often had 
 but some half dozen listeners. 
 
 Professor [Simon] Greenleaf seldom attended, and 
 spoke but twice. Those speeches were short, agree- 
 able in their manner and made rather a favorable 
 impression. Their defect was that he did not at all 
 throw himself into his subject, or into the hearts or 
 minds of his hearers. He was sketchy, and did not 
 go near the bottom of matters. Then his known in- 
 difference to the Convention deprived him of influ- 
 ence. In short, the two learned professors from 
 Cambridge had less influence than the two mercan- 
 tile members from the same town, [Isaac] Liver- 
 more and [John] Sargent. 
 
 [George S.] Hillard has been a melancholy fail- 
 ure. He is the only man who goes out of the Con- 
 vention with a stigma to his name. However much 
 he may have meant by it, certain it is that he can 
 never get over the "hand that feeds us," and his 
 two subsequent speeches have shown an ill nature 
 and bad judgment which must always put him low 
 in the estimations of men. His manner, too, is that 
 incorrigible school-boy manner of recitation. It is 
 not debate, nor address, it is a speech spoken at a 
 mark. 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 249 
 
 [Anson] Burlingame made two declamatory 
 speeches, full of warmth, glow, animation, high- 
 sounding, sympathetic words, telling personal ap- 
 peals and attacks, but without substance or form, or 
 any value whatever to a thinking man. He has 
 taken no part beyond these speeches, which were let 
 off at random, and must be considered as having 
 failed in everything but a stirring, wide-awake, 
 stump orator style. He is a warm - hearted, full- 
 blooded fellow, and everybody likes him and regrets 
 that he will not think or study. 
 
 [B. F.] Butler has behaved quite as well, perhaps, 
 on the whole, a little better than was expected of 
 him. He has not been ill-mannered except to men 
 who have fought him in his own way, or men against 
 whom he has an old hostility. He has shown great 
 power of will, strength of mind and industry. Yet 
 he is, as Boutwell says, rather a cavalry officer than 
 a military leader, rather a case fighter than a jurist. 
 
 [Josiah G.] Abbott has shown talents of a con- 
 siderable order, but he is the victim too much of his 
 personal feelings, and has always been in the habit 
 of treating questions superficially, for temporary ef- 
 fect, in a narrow circle, and has not enlarged his 
 mind. . . . 
 
 [F. B.] Crowninshield spoke, and not without ef- 
 fect, but he rather disappointed people in two re- 
 spects. He was superficial, not having prepared 
 himself carefully, or thought deeply, and he showed 
 a good deal of party spirit. Yet all think him an 
 honorable man, and a man of good judgment and 
 kind feelings. He talks better than he speaks, and 
 his feelings are kinder than his expressions in debate. 
 
 [Otis C] Lord has shown marked ability, and is a 
 
250 RICHARD HENRY DANA. ^Er. 38. 
 
 formidable debater; but he is little if at all above 
 Butler in maimers and taste, and has a great lack of 
 judgment. Perhaps his position in a hopeless minor- 
 ity encouraged his naturally reckless and desperate 
 temper. . . . 
 
 Governor [George N.] Briggs has been as much 
 the leader of the Whigs as any one, and always com- 
 mands attention. His manner is of a kind to gain 
 hearers, having an appearance of simple good humor 
 and good sense, without oratory, which tells well on 
 a mixed audience. Then he is considered an honest 
 man, and is a Baptist deacon, a temperance lecturer, 
 etc. Yet there is a little of palaver about him, and 
 the Convention doubted whether he was quite so ig- 
 norant of party as he affected to be. He is indolent, 
 and does not bring to bear the power of mind he 
 actually possesses, nor make any research. He is 
 sometimes, too, clumsy. . . . 
 
 [Sidney] Bartlett, of Boston, has always spoken 
 well. He is short, pithy, clear, and his manner is 
 courteous, and he is known to be free from personal 
 animosities. On the whole, Bartlett, who is an un- 
 popular man in the city, has made a favorable 
 impression on the members of the Convention, par- 
 ticularly upon his opponents. He has not taken a 
 prominent part, but comes in occasionally toward the 
 close and fills up gaps. 
 
 November 20. The people, at the election on 
 Monday November 14, rejected the new Constitution 
 b}' a majority of 5,000 votes. Three causes con- 
 spired to produce this result. The Irish vote was all 
 thrown against it, under the lead of their priests and 
 papers, on account of the clause respecting secta- 
 rian schools, and because it gave political power to 
 
1853. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 251 
 
 the rural districts. The innovation on the Judiciary 
 brought out Dr. Palfrey, C. F. Adams and Mr. Hoar 
 against it, who lead off a large number of moderate 
 Free Soilers and of men not partisans ; and the inter- 
 ference of the Executive, through General Cushing's 
 letter, against the coalition, frightened away or cooled 
 down many of the Democrats. On the whole, I do 
 not find it easy to determine whether I am most 
 pleased or disappointed with the result. I cannot be 
 too thankful for the preservation of the Judiciary. 
 If the Whigs act in good faith, and with common 
 discretion, and give us the reforms for which the 
 Convention was called, through the Legislature, the 
 question of constitutional reform can be put at rest 
 for twenty years, and the Judiciary be saved. If 
 they do not, and a storm is raised, there will not be a 
 stick left standing. 
 
 1854. January. Sunday evening, called at Long- 
 fellow's, where were Tom Appleton and George W. 
 Curtis (the Howadji), and had a very pleasant hour. 
 Curtis is quite clever in conversation, but Tom is the 
 prince of rattlers. He is quick to astonishment, and 
 has humor and thought and shrewd sense behind a 
 brilliant fence of light works. 
 
 With the opening of Congress in the winter of 1853-4, 
 Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois brought forward his famous 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, effecting a repeal of the Missouri 
 compromise ; and in an instant as the slavery agitation 
 sprang into new life the Compromise of 1850 vanished into 
 air. A period of intense political excitement ensued, which 
 culminated in the election of Lincoln six years later. The 
 following passages from the diary and letters relate to 
 Dana's participation in the first stages of this great debate 
 which was to educate the country up to the mark of emanci- 
 pation through war. 
 
252 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 38. 
 
 February 9. The Nebraska question is now the 
 great question before the country. I wrote a short 
 letter to the New York meeting, which was pub- 
 lished. A Free Soil convention is now called in 
 Boston. But the tone of the North is so lowered on 
 the slave question that it cannot be brought back. 
 The Whig party has lost its tone, the Democratic 
 party never had any, and the Free Soil party has 
 been lowered by the coalitions and managements of 
 [Henry] Wilson and others, until it has lost or es- 
 sentially impaired its power of doing good. The 
 committee of the Free Soil party, under the belit- 
 tling influence of [F. W.] Bird and Wilson, issued a 
 call for a Nebraska convention, containing such allu- 
 sions to the defeat of the late constitution as to ex- 
 clude from it Dr. Palfrey and Mr. Adams. If they 
 accept it as an exclusion, I shall not attend myself. 
 Our convention can do no good, and may do harm ; 
 but by attending it under such circumstances I shall 
 be giving my sanction to the exclusion. 
 
 Boston, February 12, 1854. Sunday evening. 
 
 John Jay, Esq., New York ; 
 
 My dear Friend, — Your letter came while I was 
 away attending court, and I am rather late in reply- 
 ing to it. 
 
 To Massachusetts belongeth nothing but shame 
 and confusion of face. The Whig party has been so 
 thoroughly toned down on the subject of slavery by 
 the efforts of 1850, 1851 and 1852, that its tone can- 
 not be recovered for years, if at all. The Democratic 
 party of Massachusetts was always a mean party, 
 and has no tone to lose. The Free Soil party started 
 gloriously here in 1848, but by reason of its coali- 
 
1854. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 253 
 
 tious for state purposes and offices it has fallen under 
 the management of inferior men, has lost public con- 
 fidence, and is not fit to do the great task before it 
 with success. 
 
 All the Whigs express disapproval of the Nebraska 
 bill, but take no action. The Democrats differ and 
 are paralyzed by the Executive. The state commit- 
 tee of our party, without consultation, called a party 
 convention, without making any effort for a general 
 meeting. It is now too late, they say, to alter it. 
 Not only so, but they called it in such a way as to 
 render it doubtful whether those gentlemen who op- 
 posed the constitution can attend, Dr. Palfrey, Mr. 
 Adams and others. This is a specimen of the little- 
 ness of the managers. If the proscribed men do not 
 attend, I think I shall not. A meeting so called can 
 have no effect. Indeed, a meeting of our party alone 
 is, in my opinion, of little use and of doubtful policy. 
 
 I shall do what I can towards a general meeting, 
 but I have little hope of it. The Whigs will put the 
 opposition on the ground of sustaining both compro- 
 mises, and I doubt if we could unite with them con- 
 sistently. 
 
 The election of Fessenden for Maine is a good 
 omen. 
 
 I told Mr. Adams of your plan of a new meeting 
 to declare compromises at an end, and to take up the 
 gauntlet. He approves of it. If it means a war be- 
 tween pro- slavery and anti-slavery in the states, I am 
 not in favor of it. For I am not, in the technical 
 sense, an abolitionist. But if it means war against 
 the extension of slavery into new territory, the ad- 
 mission of new slave states, and the increase of the 
 slave-power in the government, I have always been 
 
254 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 38. 
 
 ready for it and in it. It looks to me as if our re- 
 public was now a slave-holding and slavery propagat- 
 ing and defending institution. All our powers are 
 needed to meet this issue. I could not, either on pol- 
 icy or principle, go beyond it. 
 
 At present I fear we can have no effectual vent 
 here for opinion. This depresses and mortifies us in 
 the extreme. I have some hope of a proper expres- 
 sion, but not much. 
 
 February 19. Sunday. The chief event to me of 
 the past week is my correspondence with the Com- 
 mittee of the Free Soil party, relative to the conven- 
 tion at Faneuil Hall. 
 
 Boston, February 14, 1854. 
 
 S. G. Howe and others, 
 
 Committee : 
 
 Gentlemen, — It is some days since I received your 
 invitation to address the convention on the 17th inst. 
 I have delayed my answer from an unwillingness to 
 come to the conclusion to which I have at last felt 
 myself compelled. 
 
 The question before us involves the destiny of 
 states, and affects the cause of free principles in our 
 country for ages. It is one which requires a united 
 North, and the sinking for the time, if possible, of all 
 party and local differences. I know that the tone of 
 Massachusetts has been so lowered by the efforts of 
 1850, 1851 and 1852, that it cannot easily be recov- 
 ered, but I cannot believe that all hope of public 
 demonstrations of a general character is to be aban- 
 doned. These are the only demonstrations that can 
 have much effect upon the action of Congress; and 
 while these are possible, exclusive demonstrations by 
 
1854. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 255 
 
 the Free Soil party seem to me in the present tem- 
 per of the public mind to be injudicious. If this be 
 so, what shall be said of demonstrations from which 
 some of the most useful and distinguished even of 
 that party are excluded. You are aware that I refer 
 to the language of the address by the state commit- 
 tee and other events of a significant character, some 
 more and some less public, preceding, accompanying 
 and following it. By these causes certain gentlemen, 
 who have done at least as much as any to create and 
 keep in influence and dignity the Free Soil party feel 
 themselves, and I think* properly, excluded. Had 
 this been an accidental, transitory or personal mat- 
 ter, it should have been passed over at such a time, 
 at least by others. But all know that it is part of a 
 system, adopted and avowed, having relations before 
 and after. It becomes, then, a matter of importance 
 to each man and to the party. 
 
 When I held a seat in the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion, I felt at liberty to vote against my party when- 
 ever duty to the great interests at stake seemed to me 
 to require it. When the Constitution was proposed, 
 I spoke and voted against some of its propositions, 
 and felt myself at liberty to oppose it as a whole, 
 without forfeiting my place in the Free Soil party. 
 Some of your number will recollect that we agreed at 
 last in its support, with some doubt and on a balance 
 of reasons. I cannot, therefore, in any manner, in 
 justice to gentlemen whose balance of reasons turned 
 the other way, or in duty to the great cause in which 
 we are engaged, countenance, or involve myself in 
 the support of such a system. If persevered in, it 
 will destroy what remains of means of usefulness our 
 party possesses. I know that many who feel as I do 
 
256 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 on this point will consider it their duty to take part 
 in the meeting notwithstanding. As I shall respect 
 their conclusions, I hope they will respect mine, and 
 that this will be the last time that a narrow policy of 
 some shall be able to keep us from joint action on so 
 great and wide a question. So far as its effect on 
 the Nebraska law is concerned, I sincerely hope the 
 meeting may be successful and glorious. 
 
 Lest my declining to attend should be attributed 
 to lukewarmness, I wish you would do me the jus- 
 tice to make public this letter. 
 
 As to the Nebraska question, two considerations 
 I should like very much to present to our friends. 
 First, let us take care not to be involved in the sup- 
 port of the legislative compromises. Far better 
 would it be for the cause of freedom that the Mis- 
 souri Compromise should be repealed, and a new bat- 
 tle be fought at the organization of each territory, 
 than that we should be induced to sustain the Com- 
 promise of 1850. It is reason enough for us that the 
 present bill seeks to remove a restriction on slavery 
 of thirty-four years' standing. If others have addi- 
 tional reasons for opposing it, founded on compro- 
 mises, we rejoice that even so the resistance is in- 
 sured, but let us be careful of our own position and 
 language. 
 
 Second, let us look back and see how steady has 
 been the advance of slavery and the retreat of free- 
 dom for the last half century. In 1786 all the ter- 
 ritories were made free. In 1820 the new territories 
 could not be made free, but were divided between 
 freedom and slavery, with every advantage to the 
 latter. In 1844 Texas was brought in with slavery, 
 and in 1850 the whole of the remaining territory was 
 
1854. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 257 
 
 left open to slavery. In 1848 the presidential cam- 
 paign could not be conducted in the North on either 
 side, except with Free Soil professions. In 1852 it 
 could not be conducted except by renouncing them. 
 The sliding scale that measures our declining has 
 been applied to us nearly as regularly as the national 
 census is taken, but now they say to us, bow down 
 that we may go over ! But the most humiliating 
 part of the whole is that we feel the North deserves 
 it — that she has brought it upon herself. A long 
 course of subserviency, for political purposes in some 
 nnd for economical advantages with the greater 
 bodies, has brought us into a condition in which the 
 advocates of slavery venture to deride our once pro- 
 fessed principles, those in which we are bred, and on 
 which our institutions are founded. 
 
 The hope is that they have at last gone a step too 
 far, that the cup has at length run over, and that the 
 retroaction so long looked for and promised has be- 
 gun, that the dim eclipse that has hung over our half 
 of the system is passing off, that the long progress 
 into the aphelion, so long and so dark that it seemed 
 hopeless of aid, has at length, spent its momentum, 
 and that we are even now returning to the light ajid 
 warmth of the sun. 
 
 February 19. The chief event of the week has 
 been the anti-Nebraska meeting at Faneuil Hall, 
 called under the auspices of the Whigs, and chiefly 
 the Webster Whigs — the 1850 men. The true re- 
 port is not to be found in the papers. All men agree 
 that the audience were far ahead of the speakers. 
 All attempts to get up applause for the measures and 
 men of 1850 failed, and even Webster's great name 
 
258 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 fell dead, while every sentiment hostile to the Com- 
 promise measures of 1850, and everything of a Free 
 Soil character, went off with rapturous applause. 
 The first thing that brought down the house was 
 Winthrop's saying that he opposed the measures of 
 1850. The venerable Mr. Quincy, the oldest mem- 
 ber of Congress living, the oldest mayor of Boston, a 
 Whig, too, was not invited. But he came and was 
 enthusiastically called out by the audience, and re- 
 ceived with frantic applause. He spoke in his best 
 manner, the thorough, independent, manly character 
 shining out through every word. He told an anec- 
 dote of Randolph. He said to R., " If you push 
 these measures much farther, you will produce Union 
 at the North." " Union at the North ! Union at 
 the North ! We can count on you Democrats as 
 surely as on our own niggers." 
 
 The Compromise men feel themselves sold. It 
 comes hard to them to use the Free Soil arguments 
 and vocabulary so soon, and to be a standing evi- 
 dence of the truth of those who opposed them. 
 
 March 1. We have begun the Federal Street 
 Church case ; but there are to be no arguments, as 
 Judge Bigelow only intends to make up a report for 
 the full bench. Choate, J. C. Adams and myself 
 for the relators, and Bartlett and Hillard for the 
 respondents. 
 
 Choate has been doing more work at the bar since 
 last October than any man at our bar ever did before 
 in the same time. Indeed, I doubt if there are many 
 men living who could have done so much, and all of 
 the highest character. Did any one ever know 
 Choate to lose his temper ? I never did, and have 
 never found a person who did. 
 
1854. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 259 
 
 27. Monday. Choate having been confined to his 
 house for several days, I called to see him. I found 
 him lying on his sofa and in low spirits. He rallied, 
 and we got into general conversation. It turned to 
 the sea, and we spoke a good deal about seamen. 
 Born on the sea-coast of Essex, a boy in the war of 
 1812-14, brought up amongst sailors and fishermen, 
 and the stories and legends of our naval actions, pri- 
 vateers and the Dartmoor prison, he has almost been 
 an enthusiast in our naval history and glories. I 
 found him better informed than I was on the details 
 of our naval actions, although I have, naturally 
 enough, made them a study. He had seen, as a boy, 
 from the Essex hills, the Shannon frigate in Ipswich 
 Bay. He described beautifully the great frigate, 
 lounging about the bay of a warm summer afternoon, 
 and standing off to sea at night, proudly scorning the 
 fleet of fishing boats about her. He had seen, too, 
 the funeral of Ludlow and Lawrence, at Salem, when 
 George Crowninshield brought up their bodies from 
 Halifax in a cartel, and Judge Story delivered the 
 eulogy. He said he never got over the effect upon 
 his imagination of the procession of sailors and offi- 
 cers who had seen fight, who had been in action, and 
 some of the great naval names heading them. 
 
 He said he had talked with Morris and Hull about 
 the action of the Constitution and Guerriere. He 
 asked Hull if he felt certain of taking her, when he 
 bore down. "By no means," said Hull. "Two 
 thirds of my men were foreigners, and more than 
 half of them Britons. When the Guerriere ran up 
 the British ensign and lay-to to receive us, I suffered 
 a few moments of agony which no tongue can ex- 
 press. I expected to see the Englishmen all come 
 
260 RICHARD HENRY DANA. 2Et. 38. 
 
 aft and demand to be released from duty. I thought 
 over what I should do, — whether to shoot down the 
 first man, — when the three cheers came up from be- 
 low, and then all was right, and I had not a fear or 
 doubt from that moment." 
 
 Morris told him that the written instructions from 
 the Secretary of the Navy, Paul Hamilton, were not 
 to fight without a moral certainty of victory. When 
 they made out the strange sail to be a royal frig- 
 ate, as they thought of equal size, he and Hull con- 
 ferred together aside, whether it was within the 
 letter of their instructions to engage. They decided 
 that they never should know whether they could 
 whip her until they tried, and put the instructions 
 below. 
 
 From the Constitution and Guerriere we passed to 
 other actions, and I was astonished by the accuracy 
 of his knowledge and recollection. I thought it was 
 the fleet that chased the Constitution into Marble- 
 head. No, it was the Shannon and Tenedos, and he 
 was mortified that he could not remember who com- 
 manded the Tenedos. It was the fleet that chased 
 her when Hull and Morris got her off by kedging. 
 I told him that the engagement between the Hornet 
 and Peacock was in a heavy sea, and reef-topsail 
 breeze, guns half under, but he said it was in shoal 
 water and calm weather. I am not sure he is right 
 about that. 
 
 As we parted he expressed his gratification at my 
 visit. He spoke of his health, and said, " I have 
 worked too hard this winter, harder than I ever did 
 before. " 
 
 " You have worked harder than any man ever did 
 before," said I. 
 
1854. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 261 
 
 " I have to do it to drown sorrow," said he, " as 
 some men take to drink or gaming." 
 
 This is, no doubt, true. The sad illness of his fa- 
 vorite daughter put him into such a state that he 
 seemed to have no other alternative than incessant, 
 absorbing labor or despair. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 
 
 Shortly after six o'clock on the evening of the 24th of 
 May, 1854, a negro named Anthony Burns was arrested by 
 a deputy United States marshal near the corner of Brattle 
 and Court streets, in the city of Boston, upon the charge of 
 breaking into and robbing a jewelry store. The moment 
 the arrest was made a gang of some six or seven men, who 
 had been lurking in the immediate vicinity, rushed to the 
 assistance of the officer, Butman by name. Surrounding 
 the prisoner, they lifted him up bodily, and, avoiding the 
 sidewalk, carried him rapidly down the middle of the street 
 to the court-house, but a few rods distant, at the entrance of 
 which stood the United States marshal with a drawn sword 
 in his hand, evidently awaiting their coming. Without paus- 
 ing, or even allowing the prisoner's feet to touch the ground, 
 Burns was hurried up several flights of stairs to the jury 
 room of the United States court, at the top of the building. 
 
 A few minutes later the door opened, and the marshal — 
 Watson Freeman — entered the room, accompanied by 
 two men, — the one, Charles T. Suttle, the other, William 
 Brent, both Virginians ; the former being the claimant of 
 Burns. 
 
 Stepping towards the prisoner, Colonel Suttle, taking off 
 his hat with mock politeness, made a low bow, and said : 
 " How do you do, Mr. Burns ? " adding, " Why did you 
 run away from me ? " 
 
 Burns answered, " I fell asleep on board of the vessel 
 where I worked, and before I woke up she set sail and car- 
 ried me off." 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 263 
 
 " Have n't I always treated you well, Tony ? " 
 
 To this question Burns made no answer. 
 
 " Have n't I always given you money when you needed 
 it ? " 
 
 Burns replied : " You have always given me twelve and 
 a half cents once a year." 
 
 It subsequently appeared that Anthony Burns, the man 
 thus arrested, had been born in Stafford County, Virginia, 
 about the year 1830. His mother was a slave, owned by 
 John Suttle, the father of the man who now laid claim to 
 him. Burns was a negro of more than usual intelligence, 
 and had taught himself not only to read, but also, after a 
 fashion, to write, so that for a time he even kept a sort of 
 school. He was well treated by his owner, who trusted 
 him to let himself as well as other slaves out for hire. In 
 this way he got into the employ of one Millspaugh, and 
 found work on vessels lying at the wharves in Richmond. 
 Having long had a design of effecting his escape from 
 slavery, early in February, 1852, he stole on board a vessel 
 at one of the Richmond wharves, and there concealing him- 
 self soon fell asleep. When he awoke the vessel was well 
 down the river, and at the end of two days reached Nor- 
 folk, where she lay for a short time, and then started for 
 Boston. Only one member of the crew knew that Burns 
 was on board, and by him he was supplied in secret with 
 enough bread and water to sustain life ; but he did not 
 leave his narrow place of concealment during the entire 
 voyage, which lasted three weeks and was rough and tem- 
 pestuous. The weather, moreover, as the vessel went north, 
 became so cold that the unfortunate fugitive barely escaped 
 freezing to death. At last, either late in February or early 
 in March, the vessel made fast to the wharf at Boston, and 
 Burns took the first opportunity of slipping unobserved on 
 shore. Here he was soon provided for, and presently found 
 employment in a clothing store on Brattle Street belonging 
 to one Coffin Pitts. He was there earning his living at the 
 time of his arrest. 
 
264 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 Since the rendition of Sims, three years before, a great 
 change had come over the political feeling of Massachusetts. 
 Mr. Webster was in his grave, and the compromise measures 
 of 1850, to the adoption of which the last years of his life 
 had been sacrificed, were buried with him, — already a 
 confessed and utter failure. The debate over the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill had revived and intensified the anti-slavery 
 agitation, rending in pieces the two great parties, one of 
 which was already on the verge of dissolution. In Massa- 
 chusetts the Whigs still kept up an appearance of strength ; 
 but it was an appearance only, for a few short months later 
 their organization almost disappeared in a moment, swept 
 away in the vortex of Know-Nothingism. From the elec- 
 tion of November, 1855, it ceased to be a power which had 
 to be taken into account in the politics of Massachusetts. 
 Charles Sumner was in his third year of senatorial life, and 
 Edward Everett had recently been associated with him as 
 a Whig colleague. In Boston conservative traditions still 
 held sway. The force of business and political habit was 
 potent. The same talk of devotion to the Union and fidel- 
 ity to the Constitution was current, but beneath and behind 
 it were heard ominous mutterings against the arrogance 
 and aggressions of the slave-holding South. 
 
 Accordingly the announcement that another fugitive 
 slave had been kidnapped, and kidnapped within sight of 
 Faneuil Hall, came like a lurid flash of lightning from amid 
 these gathering clouds of a lowering political sky. There 
 was also an audacity as well as a brutality about all the 
 proceedings which sent a thrill of anger and disgust 
 through the State. So long a time had passed since the 
 rendition of Sims that a sense of security had come to be 
 generally felt; the supremacy of the law had then been 
 vindicated, but it had also been made apparent that slave- 
 hunting in Massachusetts was a dangerous as well as a 
 costly occupation. Any further experience of the sort was 
 therefore looked upon by all classes of the community as 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 265 
 
 most improbable, when suddenly they were confronted 
 with it. 
 
 The warrant for the arrest of the fugitive had in this 
 case been issued by Edward G. Loring, one of the commis- 
 sioners of the United States court, but also the judge of 
 probate for the county of Suffolk, and as such one of the 
 Massachusetts judiciary. Anthony Burns was the last fu- 
 gitive slave ever seized, or, in all human probability, ever to 
 be seized on the soil of Massachusetts, and every incident 
 connected with his trial and condition has a lasting histori- 
 cal interest. Dana's contemporaneous record of his part in 
 it was as follows : — 
 
 May 25. Thursday. This morning, at a little 
 before nine o'clock, as I was going past the court- 
 house, a gentleman told me that there was a fugitive 
 slave in custody in the United States court-room. I 
 went up immediately, and saw a negro, sitting in the 
 usual place for prisoners, guarded by a large corps of 
 officers. He is a piteous object, rather weak in 
 mind and body, with a large scar on his cheek, which 
 looks much like a brand, a broken hand from which 
 a large piece of bone projects, and another scar on 
 his other hand. He seemed completely cowed and 
 dispirited. I offered to act as his counsel. He said, 
 " It is of no use. They will swear to me and get me 
 back ; and if they do, I shall fare worse if I resist." 
 I told him there might be some flaw in the papers, or 
 some mistake, and that he might get off. The offi- 
 cers told him he had better have counsel, as it would 
 cost him nothing and could do him no harm. He 
 seemed entirely helpless, and could not say what he 
 wished to do ; but the great thing on his mind 
 seemed to be the fear that any delay and expense he 
 caused his master would be visited upon him when 
 
266 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 38. 
 
 he got back, and that his best policy was to conciliate 
 his master as best he could. I would not press a de- 
 fence upon him under these circumstances, but felt it 
 my duty to address the court and ask for a delay. I 
 did this upon the ground that from all I could observe 
 myself and from what I had heard from others, it 
 was plain that he was in no condition to determine 
 whether he would have counsel or not, and that no 
 court would proceed to a trial and condemnation 
 under such circumstances. The counsel for the claim- 
 ant, a Mr. Edward Griffin Parker, objected to the 
 delay in bad taste and bad judgment. The commis- 
 sioner, Edward G. Loring, at my private suggestion, 
 called the prisoner to him and told him what his 
 rights were, and asked him if he wished for time to 
 consider what he would do. The man made no reply 
 and looked round bewildered, like a child. Judge 
 Loring again put the question to him in a kind man- 
 ner, and asked him if he would like to have a day or 
 two and then see him there again. To this he re- 
 plied faintly, "I would." The judge then ordered a 
 delay until Saturday. 
 
 The conduct of Judge Loring has been considerate 
 and humane. If a man is willing to execute the law, 
 and be an instrument of sending back a man into 
 slavery under such a law, he could not act better in 
 his office than Judge Loring. He professes to detest 
 the law, but he will follow the rigid construction the 
 courts have put upon it as matter of duty. 
 
 The claimant, Colonel Suttle of Richmond or 
 Alexandria, Va., was present, and sat in full sight of 
 the poor negro all the time. I could not get over a 
 feeling that he had seen cruel usage. His scars, his 
 timid and cowed look, his running away, all seemed 
 to indicate it. 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 267 
 
 Before the motion was passed upon, Freeman, the 
 marshal, went up to Judge Loring and whispered, to 
 which the judge replied, " No. He must have a nec- 
 essary time." Freeman whispered again, and the 
 judge replied, rather sharply, " No, sir. I shall give 
 him all reasonable delays." 
 
 May 26. Friday. As the negro was uncertain 
 whether to make a defence or to have counsel at all, 
 I felt that it was improper for me to obtrude myself 
 upon him. If any were to advise, it should be others 
 than a lawyer who had once offered to act. At my 
 suggestion, Rev. Mr. Grimes and Deacon Pitts (the 
 clergyman and deacon of the congregation of colored 
 people) and Wendell Phillips asked leave of the 
 marshal to see him. This was refused. They asked 
 him if it would be of any use to obtain an order 
 from Judge Loring to admit them. He said it would 
 not. They then returned to me. I told them at 
 least to compel Mr. Freeman to refuse it, and wrote 
 a note to Judge Loring (who was at Cambridge, 
 lecturing at the Law School), stating to him that I 
 scarcely felt at liberty to act as counsel for the man 
 and was unwilling to obtrude myself upon him, and 
 that the proper persons to see him and ascertain his 
 wishes had been refused admission. To this Judge 
 Loring responded in a note to Freeman, telling him 
 that it was the man's right to see a few friends, and 
 that if any reasonable number, two or three, wished 
 to see him, their names must be taken to him, and 
 their purpose stated to him, and if he desired to see 
 them, they must be admitted. 
 
 To this order Freeman yielded, and Phillips, Mr. 
 Grimes and Deacon Pitts were admitted. Phillips 
 reported to me that he was a much more intelligent 
 
268 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 38. 
 
 and resolute man than they supposed him to be, that 
 he could read and write, and only needed a little en- 
 couragement to be brought out. He denied entirely 
 having said he was willing to go back, and said he 
 knew he should be sold to the New Orleans market, 
 as soon as his master got him. He gave them a 
 power of attorney to act for him, and desired counsel 
 and defence. 
 
 They, as his attorneys, engaged me, and I engaged 
 Mr. Ellis to aid me. 
 
 Our first step was to apply to Judge Sprague to 
 appoint a person to serve a writ de homine replegi- 
 ando on Freeman in behalf of the negro. The law 
 was looked up and the papers prepared by Judge 
 Russell and Mr. Sewall, and the petition presented 
 by them and myself. We put it upon the ground 
 that the writ was an ancient common law writ, to en- 
 force a common law right, and showed him a form of 
 writ established by statute in Massachusetts before 
 the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789. 
 
 To this Judge Sprague replied that it was not a 
 writ known to the United States courts, one never is- 
 sued to his knowledge by those courts, and, as he un- 
 derstood it, not issuable at the common law when the 
 party was held under legal process. We replied 
 that it did not appear in the writ that he was held 
 under legal process, and that it was, on the face of the 
 proceedings, a writ of right. But the judge refused 
 the writ, after stating many other reasons, on the 
 ground of its not being a writ known to that court. 
 He added that if the writ was issued it would con- 
 tain the clause that it was not to be served if the 
 part} 7 " was held by legal process and could do no 
 good. 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 2G9 
 
 I had not sufficiently examined the subject to give 
 an opinion, but it rather seemed to me that we were 
 entitled to the writ valeat quantum. 
 
 After this decision, at about six o'clock P. M. I 
 went up to see the fugitive. He was confined in a 
 small room, in the third story, west end of the court- 
 house, with some six or eight men in the room with 
 him. The men were of the rough, thief-catching 
 order, and were smoking and playing cards. I with- 
 drew to a window and talked quietly with the man. 
 He appeared a very different man from what he was 
 the day before. He seemed self-possessed, intelli- 
 gent, and with considerable force both of mind and 
 body. His hand had been broken in a saw-mill, he 
 told me, and his face was scarred by a burn. He 
 said that he had not lived with his master since he 
 was seven years old, but had always been hired out 
 by him. That his master had offered him for sale, 
 and he knew very well that if he was delivered up 
 he would never see Alexandria again, but would be 
 taken to the first block and sold for the New Orleans 
 market. He said that there he might be put to some 
 new work he was not accustomed to, and be badly 
 treated for not doing it well. He was in fear of his 
 master, who, he. said, was a malicious man if he was 
 crossed. 
 
 To-night a great meeting is to be held at Faneuil 
 Hall. There is a strong feeling in favor of a rescue, 
 and some of the abolitionists talk quite freely about 
 it. But the most remarkable exhibition is from the 
 Whigs, the Hunker Whigs, the Compromise men of 
 
 1850. Men who would not speak to me in 1850 and 
 
 1851, and who enrolled themselves as special police- 
 men in the Sims affair, stop me in the street and talk 
 
270 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 treason. This is all owing to the Nebraska bill. I 
 cannot respect their feeling at all, except as a return 
 to sanity. The Webster delusion is passing off. 
 
 Amos A. Lawrence called to offer any amount of 
 retainer to enable me to employ some eminent Whig 
 counsel. He said he was authorized to do this by a 
 number of active 1850 men, who were determined it 
 should be known that it was not the Free Soilers 
 only who were in favor of the liberation of the slaves, 
 but the conservative, compromise men. 
 
 In this suggestion I called on Judge Fletcher and 
 Mr. Choate. Judge Fletcher said that his sym- 
 pathies were with us, and if there should be a rescue, 
 he would not lift a finger to prevent it, but that he 
 was under an especial engagement with the Reporter 
 which did not leave him an option as to his time. 
 
 Choate I had an amusing interview with. I asked 
 hitn to make one effort in favor of freedom, and told 
 him that the 1850 delusion was dispelled, and all 
 men were coming round, the Board of Brokers and 
 Board of Aldermen were talking treason, and that he 
 must come and act. He said he should be glad to 
 make an effort on our side, but that he had given 
 written opinions against us in the Sims case on every 
 point, and that, he could not go against them. 
 
 "You corrupted your mind in 1850." 
 
 " Yes. Filed my mind." 
 
 "I wish you would file it in court, for our benefit." 
 
 Mr. Charles G. Loring was out of town, and there 
 was no one else that 1 thought would answer Mr. 
 Lawrence's description. 
 
 May 27. Saturday. Last night an attempt was 
 made to rescue the slave. It was conducted by 
 a few and failed for want of numbers, the greater 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 271 
 
 part being opposed to an action then. They broke 
 in a door of the court-house and a few of them en- 
 tered, but they were not supported. They killed 
 one man, a truckman named Batchelder, who has vol- 
 unteered three times to assist in catching and keep- 
 ing slaves, and the officers retreated. But the men 
 who entered were at first driven back, and the crowd 
 thought themselves repulsed and retreated also. 
 The men who went in first were wounded, and on 
 being driven out, they found that the crowd outside 
 had deserted them. The leader of this mob, I am 
 surprised to hear, in secrecy, was Rev. T. W. Hig- 
 ginson of Worcester. I knew his ardor and courage, 
 but I hardly expected a married man, a clergyman, 
 and a man of education to lead the mob. But 
 Theodore Parker offered to lead a mob to the rescue 
 of Sims, if one hundred men could be got to enroll 
 themselves, but they could not get thirty. 
 
 Robert Carter tells me that Dr. Samuel G. Howe 
 offered to lead' a mob of two hundred to storm the 
 court-house, and that it would probably have been 
 done had not Higginson's attempt led the marshal to 
 call out the military. 
 
 Immediately after this mob, the marshal sent for 
 a company of United States marines from Charles- 
 town, and a company of artillery from Fort Inde- 
 pendence. The mayor, too, ordered out two or three 
 companies of volunteer militia to keep the peace, 
 but not to aid in the return of the slave. 
 
 The hearing began at ten o'clock. The court- 
 house was filled with hireling soldiers of the stand- 
 ing army of the United States, nearly all of whom 
 are foreigners. The lazy hounds were lounging all 
 d«y out of the windows, and hanging over the stairs, 
 
272 RICHARD HENRY DANA. J&r. 38. 
 
 but ready to shoot down good men at a word of com- 
 mand. Some difficulties occurred between them and 
 the citizens, but nothing very serious. 
 
 Mr. Ellis moved for a delay until Monday, and 
 made a few remarks in support of the motion. E. G. 
 Parker and S. J. Thomas followed, opposing it. 
 Their worst enemy could not have marked out for 
 them a worse course of remark than they followed. 
 They seemed to be playing into my hands all the 
 while, saying the very things that I wished them to 
 say. Then the timid manner of Parker, who seemed 
 ashamed of what he was doing, and the petty, mean 
 voice and manner of Thomas were the best foils I 
 could have desired. I made a full reply, and never 
 spoke more to my satisfaction in my life. I am quite 
 mistaken if the general sentiment of the house was 
 not with me, though it was packed w r ith the creatures 
 of Freeman. They all felt ashamed of the appear- 
 ance of their counsel. The commissioner granted the 
 adjournment. 
 
 In the evening I telegraphed to Attorney General 
 Clifford, offering him a retainer, but he replied [de- 
 clining because of] a professional engagement at 
 Springfield. 
 
 This evening I met Rev. Mr. Grimes and Mr. 
 Williams (Glidden & W.) collecting a subscription 
 to buy the man's freedom. They had then obtained 
 a subscription to the amount of 1700. The price 
 asked was 11,200. 
 
 The slave told me that his life had been insured at 
 $800, when he was in Richmond, from which he sup- 
 posed lie was valued at about $1,000. It was a new 
 language to hear a man estimating his own value by 
 the rate at which his owners insured him. 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 273 
 
 The trial of the Burns case occupied all day of 
 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 29 th, 30th and 
 31st of May. Each day the court- room was filled 
 with the United States marshal's "guard" as he 
 called them, a gang of about one hundred and twenty 
 men, the lowest villains in the community, keepers 
 of brothels, bullies, blacklegs, convicts, prize-fighters, 
 etc. Mr. Andrews, the ex- jailer, says that he finds 
 forty-five men among them who have been under his 
 charge at various times. Among them is Louis 
 Clark, a Portuguese, who keeps a famous brothel and 
 has been engaged in several desperate fights, Albert 
 J. Tyrrell, the murderer, a man who robbed Currier 
 & Grott's jewelry shop, etc. These are all armed 
 with revolvers and other weapons and occupy the 
 rows of seats behind the bar and the jury seats. A 
 corps of marines from the navy yard, about sixty in 
 number, commanded by Major Dulany and two com- 
 panies of United States Artillery, about one hundred 
 and twenty men, commanded by Ridgely, occupy the 
 court-house and guard all the passages with loaded 
 guns and fixed bayonets. To reach the court-room 
 one has to pass two or three cordons of police, and two 
 of soldiers. Personally I have been well treated, and 
 all whom I desire to have admitted have been ad- 
 mitted ; but there has been a great deal of rudeness 
 and violence to others. In one instance a sergeant 
 or corporal, in command of a guard at the foot of the 
 stairs, ordered his men to t charge. They did so in 
 good earnest and drove the people down the entry, 
 and it seemed to me, who had just passed them, a 
 wonder that some were not run through. I saw 
 plainly that the sergeant was drunk, and called to 
 me young Dunbar, a very civil fellow who had charge 
 
274 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 of the entry under Freeman, and pointed the man 
 out to him. He acknowledged that the man was 
 drunk, and apologized for it, saying that he had just 
 come upon the post, and immediately reported the 
 fact to the officer of the day. There were frequent 
 instances of men prohibited from going into the 
 courts of the state, and no one was permitted to en- 
 ter the court-house, judges, jurors, witnesses or liti- 
 gants, without satisfying the hirelings of the United 
 States marshal that they had a right to be there. 
 All this time there were, or attempted to be, in ses- 
 sion in the building, the Supreme and Common Pleas 
 Courts of Massachusetts, and the Justices' and Police 
 Courts of Boston. In most cases these courts ad- 
 journed for want of business. Thus the judiciary 
 of Massachusetts has been a second time put under 
 the feet of the lowest tribunal of the federal judici- 
 ary in a proceeding under the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 Judge Shaw, who held the Supreme Judicial Court, 
 is a man of no cournge or pride, and Judge Bishop, 
 who held the Court of Common Pleas is a mere party 
 tool, and a bag of wind at that. It was the clear duty 
 of the court to .summon before it the United States 
 marshal to show cause why he should not be com- 
 mitted for contempt, and to commit him, if it re- 
 quired all the bayonets in Massachusetts to do it, 
 unless he allowed free passage to all persons who de- 
 sired to come into either of the courts of the State. 
 
 Beside the general " guard " which the marshal 
 had to keep his prisoner, there was a special guard 
 of Southern men, some of them law students from 
 Cambridge, who sat round Colonel Snttle and went 
 in and out with him. 
 
 If the claimant's counsel had merely put in his 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 275 
 
 record and introduced evidence to prove that the 
 prisoner was the person named in the record, we 
 should have had no defence except the constitutional 
 objections, which, of course, Judge Loring would 
 overrule, and my two points of objection to the ad- 
 missibility of the record, 1st, that it was a mere 
 recital that there was a record and not a record itself 
 and 2d, that it did not contain a sufficient description 
 of the men ; for, by this cruel statute, if the record 
 is admitted it is conclusive as to every fact but that 
 of identity. But they set out to prove the facts of 
 slavery and escape also by parol, by the evidence of 
 one Brent. Brent's testimony showed that at the 
 time of the alleged escape Burns was regularly leased 
 to one Millspaugh, and was under his control, and 
 even that Colonel Suttle's reversionary interest was 
 mortgaged. His testimony also showed, to the satis- 
 faction of the commissioner (as I learn privately) 
 and of all lawyers, that there had been no escape. 
 If, therefore, the record was not admissible, and the 
 case had stood on the oral proof, they would have 
 failed to prove the right of Suttle to the possession, 
 and the fact of escape. This raised the serious ques- 
 tion whether the record was sufficiently in form to be 
 received, and whether it could be conclusive against 
 evidence put in by the claimant himself. I also 
 made the point that by offering parol proof of title 
 and escape, the claimant must be considered as pro- 
 ceeding under the sixth section of the act, and not 
 under the tenth. In moving an escape by parol they 
 proved that Burns was in Richmond on the 20th 
 March. We introduced strong and clear evidence 
 that he was here on the 1st March and so on to this 
 time. This gave us a point on the identification. 
 
276 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 My argument was on Wednesday and lasted four 
 hours. I spoke entirely to my own satisfaction. 
 My friends say it is the best speech I ever made. 
 Even the " guard" were somewhat affected by it, 
 and many of them said they wished the man would 
 get off. 
 
 Judge Loring paid great attention to all that re- 
 lated to the identity, but took no notes of my points 
 as to the record, the escape and the title. This puz- 
 zled me a good deal. . . . 
 
 Jane 1. Thursday. I spent all day at home writ- 
 ing out my argument for the newspapers. My whole 
 brief was on the sides of a piece of small note-paper, 
 and consequently I was obliged to write from recol- 
 lection. 
 
 2. Friday. This was a day of intense excite- 
 ment and deep feeling in the city, in the State and 
 throughout New England, and indeed a great part 
 of the Union. The hearts of millions of persons 
 were beating high with hope, or indignation, or 
 doubt. The mayor of Boston, who is a poor shoat, a 
 physician of a timid, conceited, scatter-brain char- 
 acter, raised by accident to a mayoralty, has vacil- 
 lated about for several days, and at last has done 
 what a weak man almost always does, he has gone too 
 far. He has ordered out the entire military force of 
 the city, from 1,500 to 1,800 men, and undertaken 
 to place full discretionary power in the hands of 
 General Edmunds. These troops and the three com- 
 panies of regulars fill the streets and squares from 
 the court-house to the end of the wharf, where the 
 revenue cutter lies, in which it is understood that 
 Burns, if remanded, will be taken to Virginia. 
 
 The commissioner entered the court - room punc- 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 211 
 
 tually at nine o'clock. I went to the marshal and 
 asked him if he knew what the decision was to be. 
 He said he did not. I told him that if the decision 
 was in favor of the prisoner, I proposed to give him 
 my arm and conduct him through the guards and 
 soldiers into the street. Freeman replied that he 
 would prefer to clear the square first, and assured 
 me that if the man was discharged he should serve 
 no other precept upon him. 
 
 The decision was short. It took no notice of the 
 objections to the admissibility or effect of the record, 
 but simply declared it to be conclusive as to title and 
 escape, and said that the only point before him was 
 that of identity. On this, upon the evidence of wit- 
 nesses, there was so much doubt that he could not 
 decide the question, and would be obliged to dis- 
 charge the prisoner. In this dilemma, he resorted to 
 the testimony of Brent as to the admissions made by 
 the prisoner to Colonel Suttle on the night of his ar- 
 rest, which he considered as establishing the identity 
 beyond a reasonable doubt, and on these admissions 
 he was convicted. Convicted on an ex parte record, 
 against the actual evidence, and on his own admis- 
 sions made at the moment of arrest to his alleged 
 master ! A tyrannical statute and a w T eak judge ! 
 
 The decision was a grievous disappointment to us 
 all, and elderly to the poor prisoner. He looked the 
 image of despair. 
 
 The court-room was ordered to be cleared at once 
 of all but the prisoner and the "guard." I remained 
 with the prisoner, and so did Mr. Grimes, the 
 preacher. We remained in the court-room a full 
 hour, in company with the prisoner, and this horrible 
 pack, the "guard." Mr. Grimes talked constantly 
 
278 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi 38. 
 
 with the prisoner, and kept up his spirits ;.s he best 
 could. He told him he thought that it was only a 
 point of honor with the Government and the slave- 
 holders to take him to Virginia, and that he would 
 be bought as soon as he arrived there. This cheered 
 him. He expressed some fear lest he should be for- 
 gotten, and said that if sold, with his weakened right 
 hand, he would be sold " down the river," and being 
 put to some new work, to which he was unaccus- 
 tomed, would be ill-treated. This was what induced 
 him to run away. Suttle offered him for sale, but 
 got no bidder on account of the state of his hand. 
 Suttle was afraid he might become useless and be left 
 on his hands, and Burns knew he would be sold at 
 any price. 
 
 Mr. Thayer, of the " New York Evening Post," re- 
 mained in the room a few minutes, and we observed 
 the character and conduct of the guard. Some of 
 them lay down, and got tumbling and quarrelling, and 
 others came into the bar, and sat at full length on 
 chairs. All had their hats on, and such a set of de- 
 bauched, vulgar, out la wish looking fellows I never 
 beheld. 
 
 At about eleven o'clock Burns was led back to his 
 room. Mr. Grimes and I went with him, and re- 
 mained a few minutes. I told him I should accom- 
 pany him to the cutter, and Mr. Grimes offered to 
 go with us also. 
 
 I told the marshal of our intention to go down with 
 Burns. He objected. I told him that it was a privi- 
 lege always allowed to a criminal going to execution 
 that his clergyman and counsel should go with 
 him, and strongly advised him not to refuse it. He 
 took time to consider it, and consulted with others, 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 279 
 
 and brought us word positively that it could not be 
 permitted. We then said we would go and take our 
 leave of him in his room. We went up, and began 
 speaking with him, at the window, as heretofore, 
 when three of the keepers (one of whom was the no- 
 torious Byrnes — " Augur Hole Byrnes") came up 
 and stood by our side to listen to the conversation. 
 I asked Mr. True, who had charge of the room, to 
 order them to leave us, as they had always done be- 
 fore. In all our prior interviews we had seen him at 
 the window, and the keepers had withdrawn to the 
 other end, so that we could talk without being over- 
 heard, as had been settled between Mr. Phillips and 
 the marshal. Mr. True replied that the marshal had 
 issued a new order that all conversation with the pris- 
 oner must be in the hearing of the keepers. I asked, 
 pointing to the three keepers who stood by, " Is the 
 order that I must be overheard by this man, and this 
 man, and this man ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. Those are the orders." 
 
 " I shall hold no conversation in such company. I 
 shall not consent to hold any conversation with the 
 prisoner on such terms." 
 
 The officer said he was sorry, but must obey his 
 orders. 
 
 I then advanced to Burns, gave him my hand, told 
 him that I could not, in self-respect, converse with 
 him on such terms, told him also that the marshal had 
 prohibited our going down with him, and bade him 
 good-by. He thanked me warmly for all I had done 
 for him, and said he had no doubt all had been done 
 that could be done. Mr. Grimes also followed suit, 
 and took leave of him, bidding him trust and hope in 
 God, and giving him his address and that of Deacon 
 Pitts, that he might write to them, if permitted. 
 
230 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 Mr. Grimes and I walked to and fro in front of the 
 conrt-house for an hour or so, the entire square being 
 cleared of the people, and filled with troops. Every 
 window was filled, and beyond the lines drawn by the 
 police was an immense crowd. Whenever a body of 
 troops passed to or fro, they were hissed and hooted by 
 the people, with some attempts at applause from their 
 favorers. Nearly all the shops in Court and State 
 streets were closed and hung in black, and a huge 
 coffin was suspended across State Street and flags 
 union down. A brass field-piece, belonging to the 
 Fourth Artillery, was ostentatiously loaded in sight 
 of all the people and carried by the men of that corps 
 in rear of the hollow square in which Burns was 
 placed. Some 1,500 or 1,800 men of the volunteer 
 militia were under arms, all with their guns loaded 
 and capped, and the officers with revolvers. These 
 men were stationed at different posts in all the streets 
 and lanes that led into Court or State streets, from 
 the court-house to Long Wharf. The police forced 
 the people back to a certain line, generally at the 
 foot or middle of the lanes and streets leading into 
 the main streets, and wherever there was a passage, 
 there, a few paces behind the police, was a body of 
 troops, from twenty or thirty to fifty or one hundred, 
 according to the size and importance of the passage. 
 
 The mayor having given General Edmunds discre- 
 tionary orders to preserve peace and enforce the laws, 
 General Edmunds gave orders to each commander of 
 a post to fire on the people whenever they passed the 
 line marked by the police in a manner he should con- 
 sider turbulent and disorderly. So, from nine o'clock 
 in the morning until towards night, the city was 
 really under martial law. The entire proceeding 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 281 
 
 was illegal. The people were not treated as rioters 
 or ordered to disperse. No civil officers were on the 
 spot to direct the military or to give orders when and 
 how to act. But the people were given their line, as 
 on a parade day, and the troops were ordered) by a 
 military commander, to fire upon them, at the discre- 
 tion of the various commanders of posts. In one 
 case, that of Captain Evans of the Boston Artillery, 
 the two first orders were actually given, and in a sec- 
 ond more the company would have fired, but for the 
 fortunate intervention of Colonel Boyd, who ordered 
 their guns to shoulder. Mr. Almon tells me that he 
 heard an officer mounted tell the crowd that if they 
 passed a certain line, the soldiers were ordered to 
 fire, and would certainly do so. Professor Wyman 
 says that Captain Young of the Artillery at the head 
 of Franklin Avenue presented his pistol at every man 
 that came to the alley, and put two or three persons 
 ridiculously under arrest, with threats to shoot them. 
 I myself saw several men of Company H, 1st Regi- 
 ment, at the head of Broad or Kilby Street, on a 
 slight sign of commotion in the crowd at the foot of 
 State Street, such as often is seen in large crowds, 
 cock their guns and present them, ready to fire, with- 
 out orders. An accident would have cost lives, and it 
 was with great reluctance, and only after repeated 
 orders, that these men would uncock their guns and 
 bring them to order. It has been the greatest good 
 fortune in the world that not a gun was fired by acci- 
 dent or design. No one could limit the consequences; 
 and all concerned would have been in the eye of the 
 law murderers. 
 
 Mr. Grimes and I remained in the court-house 
 until the vile procession moved. Notwithstanding 
 
282 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 38. 
 
 their numbers and the enormous military protection, 
 the marshal's company were very much disturbed 
 and excited. They were exceedingly apprehensive 
 of some unknown and unforeseen violence. 
 
 The " guard " at length filed out and formed a 
 hollow square. Each man was armed with a short 
 Roman sword and one revolver hanging in his belt. 
 In this square marched Burns with the marshal. 
 The United States troops and the squadron of Boston 
 light horse preceded and followed the square, with 
 the field-piece. As the procession moved down, it 
 was met with a perfect howl of Shame ! Shame ! and 
 hisses. 
 
 I walked slowly down the streets at a considerable 
 distance in the rear of the procession, and when I 
 heard the news that it had safely reached the end of 
 the wharf, and that the cutter was steaming out to 
 sea, I returned to my office. 
 
 I remained in my office until about 8.30 P. M., revis- 
 ing my speech for the paper of Saturday, and went 
 over to Parker's to tea with Horace Gray. While 
 at tea, the bells rang for nine o'clock. I remarked 
 to Gray that I had lost the nine o'clock coach, and 
 must either wait a half hour or walk out. Just then 
 Burlingame came up and proposed that we walk out 
 together. I acceded to the proposal and waited 
 some twenty minutes or so for him to finish his tea, 
 and then we three started together. Gray left us at 
 Pemberton Square, and Burlingame and I went on 
 through Court Street. We had just passed Stoddard 
 Street, walking on the left side of Court Street, go- 
 ing towards Bowdoin Square, he on the inside and I 
 on the outside, when I remember observing a commo- 
 tion on my left as of people pushing, and instantly 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 283 
 
 I received a terrible blow over my right eye. I 
 was stunned by it for a moment. Whether I was 
 knocked down or not I do not know. I first remem- 
 ber standing in the street, stupefied and bleeding, and 
 thinking that I had been hit by some accident. I 
 thought that an iron bar which is used to confine win- 
 dow shutters had been suddenly thrown out and had 
 hit me, or that I had received a chance blow from 
 some one in a quarrel at my side. I saw no man. 
 The blow was from behind or at my side, and I do 
 not distinctly remember seeing anything go across my 
 sight, though I have some indistinct recollection of 
 something like an arm or a stick passing across my 
 sight. People came about me, and I recollect insist- 
 ing upon it that I was not hit intentionally, until 
 several told me they saw the man and the blow, and 
 then I said to Bnrlingame, "Well, we 've kept the 
 field." I walked to Dr. Salter's with Burlingame, 
 when he left me, to go to the police office to lodge a 
 complaint, and to the newspapers. Dr. Salter applied 
 arnica externally for nearly an hour, reducing the 
 swelling considerably. The weight of the blow fortu- 
 nately fell on the strong bone over the eye and on 
 the cheek bone. If it had hit the eye, it would have 
 destroyed it. If it had hit the temple, I have little 
 doubt it would have broken it in. 
 
 I was unarmed. Through the whole of these per- 
 ilous days, in the midst of armed men, and in danger 
 of being involved in a riot at any time, I yet deter- 
 mined to go unarmed. I thought that as I had a 
 professional duty to perform, which required all my 
 powers and attention, I should be able to do it better 
 and be less likely to be involved in quarrels if en- 
 tirely unarmed. I carried nothing, therefore, but a 
 
284 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 heavy cane. But it would have made no difference 
 here, for I had no time to fire, or even to look. My 
 cane I missed when I came to my senses. A man 
 behind me said that one of the men who came up to 
 attack me took it away, just as the blow was struck. 
 
 I had on glasses, which I often wear in the night, 
 to aid my sight. The rim and glass of the right eye 
 were broken. 
 
 Burlingame and I took a coach and rode out to 
 Cambridge. It was nearly twelve o'clock, when' I 
 reached home. Sarah had gone to bed. I took no 
 light into her room, and told her of my injury, repre- 
 senting it as a light matter, and not telling her the 
 full truth until the next day. 
 
 From the story told by Burlingame and a Mr. 
 Perkins who was behind, it would seem that as I 
 passed Allen's saloon, where these rowdies congre- 
 gate, my name was called and two men came out, fol- 
 lowed us a little way, and then one of them pushed 
 Burlingame aside and struck me this blow, whether 
 with fist alone or not they cannot tell, and both ran. 
 Burlingame pursued them. They ran through Allen's 
 saloon, and then into Stoddard Street, and into one of 
 the gambling saloons. As he went into Stoddard 
 Street the gang of fellows growled out to Burlingame 
 to go off or he would get what he would not like, and 
 he returned to look after me. 
 
 During Saturday, Sunday and Monday I kept 
 about, but my eye was swollen and bloodshot, but by 
 the middle of the week it was fully recovered. 
 
 A full report of my argument appears in the " Trav- 
 eller" of Saturday, June 3d, and in the "New York 
 Evening Post " of the same date. 
 
 I have had letters of compliment and congratulation 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 285 
 
 and condolence and sympathy from all quarters, 
 which have been very gratifying to me ; and, for 
 once since 1848, my position seems to be in accord- 
 ance with that of the powers that be in Boston. The 
 change wrought by the Nebraska Bill is astonishing. 
 The moderate Whigs, who doubted and distrusted 
 Mr. Webster's course in 1850, are out clear and firm, 
 and full of sympathy for us. The " Webster Whigs," 
 if anything, feel worse than any others. They feel 
 to blame. They feel that they have been deceived 
 by the South, and that they have misled others. I 
 do not know how many who hardly spoke to me from 
 1850 to 1853, and whom I heard of in all quarters 
 as speaking against me bitterly, come up to me with 
 the freedom and warmth of old friends, and talk as 
 though there had never been any difference between 
 us. This is not always easy to bear. But it is so 
 gratifying a sign, that I can waive the personal ad- 
 vantage I might take if I pleased. 
 
 On Wednesday they arrested a man on suspicion of 
 being my assaulter. He is a very strong man, a bulty, 
 going by the aliases of Oxford, Huxford and Sullivan. 
 He pretended not to know me when I came into 
 court, and asked in a very loud tone, " Which of 
 those gentlemen is Mr. Dana?" and asked me, after 
 I had stated the charges, whether I had ever seen him 
 before. I asked him, by a lucky thought, if he was 
 not one of the United States marshal's " guard." 
 He said he was. I then asked him if he did not stay 
 in the court-room, after the decision was given, and 
 after the room was cleared. He said that he did. 
 
 Now it is quite impossible that he did not know 
 me, as I had been before the guard constantly for five 
 days, and making an argument of four hours. 
 
286 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 38. 
 
 June 25. Sunday. The excitement from the Fugi- 
 tive Slave case has not yet passed away, and the case 
 and its attendant circumstances, the military govern- 
 ment we were under, and our relations with the gen- 
 eral government, are constant subjects of exciting 
 interest. P. W. Chandler has written a series of arti- 
 cles in the " Daily Advertiser " on the martial law 
 which we were all put under. These articles have 
 been temperate and clear and have commanded gen- 
 eral assent. B. F. Hallettmade a ridiculous attempt 
 to answer th^m in the " Courier." Colonel Thomas 
 has replied in the " Post," to much more purpose than 
 Hallett, but not successfully. Chandler proves that 
 the act of the mayor was illegal and that the city was 
 under martial law all day, unlimited discretion being 
 lodged with General Edmunds, and power of life and 
 death delegated down to the commanders of posts 
 at the heads of alleys and lanes, the crowd being 
 nowhere told to disperse or in any respect treated as 
 rioters, and indeed no civil officer was upon the spot. 
 
 The change in public sentiment on the slave ques- 
 tion is very great. Men who were hostile or unpleas- 
 ant in 1851 are now cordial and complimentary, and 
 the prevailing talk among merchants and lawyers is 
 that of hostility to slavery and the slave-power. It 
 is all fair weather sailing now. This case is precisely 
 the same as that of Sims. But then we were all 
 traitors and malignants, now we are heroes and patri- 
 ots. The truth is, Daniel Webster was strong enough 
 to subjugate, for a time, the moral sentiment of New 
 England. He was defeated, killed, and now is de- 
 tected. He deceived half the North, but they are un- 
 deceived. He does not stand as he did six months 
 ago. 
 
HRSITY 
 
 1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 
 
 30. Friday. To-day I bad an illustration of the 
 outrageous operation of the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 Smith, the caterer, called upon me about his foreman, 
 Robinson, who was in some danger, as they thought. 
 I told him to send Robinson to me, and in the after- 
 noon he came in and told me his story. He was the 
 slave of Messrs. Lumpkins & Logan, slave-traders 
 in Richmond, Virginia. He was the foreman and 
 overseer of their establishment, very much trusted by 
 them, and had charge of their gangs of slaves, which 
 they collected for sale and to send to the New Orleans 
 market. They sent him from Richmond in a vessel 
 bound to New Orleans with a cargo of forty-eight 
 slaves. They were driven by stress of weather off their 
 course and wrecked on one of the British West In- 
 dia Islands, where the negroes were all liberated by 
 the local courts. Robinson came to Boston. He had 
 given his word to his owners, when he left Richmond, 
 that if he was alive he would meet one of the Mr. 
 Lumpkins in New Orleans at such a time. He felt 
 bound to keep his word, and went there and stayed 
 over his time, and his master did not come. He then 
 returned to Boston and established himself. This 
 was in 1840. In 1842 Mr. Lumpkins came to Boston 
 and inquired for him. As there was no such abom- 
 inable Jaw as that of 1850 then in operation, and lit- 
 tle or no fear of recapture was felt, he went to see 
 him at the Tremont House. Mr. Lumpkins asked 
 him about the loss of the vessel, what had become of 
 the men, etc. Another Southern man was present 
 and asked Lumpkins : " Is that one of your boys ? " 
 "No," said Lumpkins, " he was, but he is now a free 
 man." Lumpkins made no claim or pretence of a 
 claim. Now this Mr. Lumpkins is in Boston inquir- 
 
288 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. S&. 
 
 ing for Robinson, and he desired my opinion whether 
 it was safe for him to be about here. I was obliged 
 to say to him that he was free, and that his former 
 master had no more right to carry him off than lie 
 had to carry me, but that there was a legal certainty 
 that he would be delivered up to him if he made a 
 claim. The reason was this: All the claims now 
 made are enforced by transcripts of records. If his 
 master claims him, he will no doubt have a record. 
 This record will be conclusive of the facts of slavery 
 and escape. The defence itself would admit the iden- 
 tity, and the commissioner would be concluded by the 
 record on the other points. He could not even hear 
 the defence. Thus a free man would be sent into 
 slavery. Nor Is it necessary to suppose perjury or 
 bad faith, for no doubt men in Virginia would call 
 this an " escape " under the statute, and swear to his 
 being still his slave, and perhaps magistrates in Vir- 
 ginia would sustain the doctrine so far as to grant the 
 record. People will never see the damnable charac- 
 ter of the tenth section of that act until a few atrocious 
 cases shall have arisen. 
 
 September 10. Sumner spent the evening with 
 me. He says that when he is in executive session 
 of the Senate, with closed doors and sworn keep- 
 ers, he feels as if he were in the cabin of a pirate, 
 sitting around a council board, at which the various 
 projects of piracy are discussed, one proposing a 
 descent upon the Gold Coast, another a visit to the 
 Mediterranean, and another a cruise for homeward 
 bound Indiamen. 
 
 I asked him if he meant, seriously, that their spirit 
 was such as to bring up the comparison to his mind. 
 " Seriously," said he, "I do mean so. That is just 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 289 
 
 it. Their spirit is that of pirates. They do not 
 seem to be aware of it, but they talk like pirates. 
 They speak of getting Cuba and getting the Amazon, 
 and this and that, in disregard of all principles of 
 the law of nations, and of common faith." 
 
 He said he had often been tempted to tell the 
 American people, or give them some hint of how 
 these sessions are conducted, but he feared that al- 
 though he should reveal no particulars, yet it might 
 be called a violation of secrecy. So, too, as to the 
 nominations to office ; said he, " Since 1 have been in 
 the Senate, some thousands of nominations have been 
 acted upon, and whether confirmed or rejected, the 
 test openly and unblushingly put now, in debate, by 
 Senators, is the test of fidelity to the slave-power. 
 At first it was the Fugitive Slave Law. Now it is 
 Nebraska. It is not enough that he be of the ruling 
 party, the least suspicion of infidelity to the Southern 
 policy of the party is fatal. The most minute and 
 gossiping evidence is gone into, on each side, pro and 
 con, to prove or throw in doubt the position of the 
 nominee, but the fitness for the office is not alluded 
 to. Only in two instances, positively, only in two 
 instances, can I remember that the moral character 
 or fitness of the nominee have been alluded to." 
 
 September. I take to myself the entire credit 
 of the case of the Orkney, just decided hy Judge 
 Sprague. It presented the question directly what 
 the rule was when a steamer meets a sail vessel going 
 free, whether each should keep to the right, or the 
 sail vessel should keep on her course and the steamer 
 avoid her, and whether, if the latter, the steamer must 
 go to the right, or had her choice of sides. In this 
 case the sail vessel kept to the right and the steamer 
 
290 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 39. 
 
 to the left, and they were in collision. I was counsel 
 for the steamer, and in order to prevail we must 
 establish three things: (1) That a sail vessel going 
 free, meeting a steamer, must keep her course ; (2) 
 that the steamer must do all the avoiding ; (3) that 
 the steamer had her choice of which side she will go. 
 A recent case of Dr. Lushington's, The City of Lon- 
 don (4 Notes of Cases), was directly against me. He 
 held that in such case each vessel must keep to the 
 right. 
 
 I examined carefully every case of collision in 
 England or America, and made up my mind that 
 there was a rationale which lay at the bottom of the 
 whole law of collision which had never been ex- 
 pounded or even hinted by any judge or commenta- 
 tor, and which, if sustained, would overturn Dr. 
 Lushington's decision and give me my case. I pre- 
 sented it in full to Judge Sprague, in an argument of 
 nearly four hours long, illustrating and enforcing it 
 in every way in my power. . I acknowledged it to be 
 new, but told him that by propounding and enforcing 
 it, he could do for the law of collision what the great 
 Lord Holt did for the law of bailments in Coggs v. 
 Barnard. The result was that, after a deliberation 
 of ten days or so, Judge Sprague adopted and sanc- 
 tioned it entirely, overruled the City of London, and 
 gave me my case, and, what was more gratifying still, 
 he adopted not only my positions but my reasons, 
 and did not add anything material to my argument. 
 
 I have a right to take some pride in this, and the 
 entire credit. 
 
 The following correspondence explains itself and com- 
 pletes the record of Mr. Dana's connection with the fugitive 
 slave cases, a record no line of which he or his could ever 
 wish to blot. 
 
1854. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 291 
 
 June 15, 1854. 
 R. H. Dana, Jr., Esq. 
 
 We are directed by the Vigilance Committee of Boston 
 to offer you their most sincere thanks for the prompt de- 
 votion with which you hastened to the protection of Anthony 
 Burns, and to assure you of their profound appreciation of 
 the eloquence and ability with which he was defended. 
 
 While recognizing the disinterestedness which led you to 
 proffer your services without a fee, they beg leave to in- 
 close the accompanying check, not as compensation, but as 
 grateful acknowledgment merely of your efforts to aid them 
 in securing justice to fugitive and freeman. 
 
 In behalf of the Executive Committee of the Vigilance 
 Committee, 
 
 Wendell Phillips. 
 
 June 15, 1854. 
 
 Wendell Phillips, Esq. 
 
 In behalf of the Executive Committee of the Vigilance 
 Committee of Boston. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have just received your note of 
 yesterday, conveying to me, in very gratifying terms, 
 assurances of the feelings entertained by the society 
 you represent respecting my services in the recent 
 case of Anthony Burns. 
 
 They give me more credit than I am willing to 
 receive. The good fortune which is said to attend 
 early rising made me one of the first of the members 
 of the bar, if not the first, to hear that there was a 
 man in custody as a slave in the court room. To ren- 
 der myself at once on the spot, and to offer my pro- 
 fessional services to him and to those who were com- 
 ing forward as his friends, was an act I trust natural 
 to me, and requiring no effort or sacrifice. Many 
 others would have done the same, and no doubt did 
 as fast as they heard the intelligence. I have done 
 
292 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 39. 
 
 so in the cases of alleged slaves in Boston heretofore, 
 and so have others, and I hope the members of the 
 bar in Massachusetts will never fail to be ready to 
 render this service gratuitously to the cause of hu- 
 manity and liberty. A portion of my time, and the 
 application of such influence and ability as I may 
 possess, is the only contribution I have to make. 
 Others contribute of their means and powers, all in 
 their various ways, and many at great sacrifice and 
 with little or no return even in the way of acknowl- 
 edgment. 
 
 Looking upon the matter in this light, while I 
 thank the committee for their kind words of ap- 
 proval, and for the subtlety of good taste which led 
 them to draw a distinction between compensation 
 and an acknowledgment of a gratuitous service, I am 
 sure the committee will not think me in the least dis- 
 respectful to them when I say that in whatever form 
 their politeness may cast the offer, I am not willing 
 to retain the check which accompanies your note. 
 Beside my own feeling in the matter, which would 
 be conclusive with me, I would not have the force of 
 the precedent which has been set in the trials for 
 freedom in Massachusetts thus far, impaired in the 
 least, for the honor of my profession and the welfare 
 of those in peril. 
 
 I beg you to express to the committee my sense of 
 their attention, and believe me, 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Richard H. Dana, Jr. 
 
 Boston, January 1, 1855. 
 
 Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Some of our fellow-citizens have charged 
 me with the grateful duty of transmitting to you the accom- 
 
1655. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 293 
 
 panying piece of plate, which we beg you to accept as a 
 mark of our appreciation of the zeal, patience and ability 
 with which you managed the defence of Anthony Burns. 
 
 You have declined all pecuniary compensation for these 
 laborious and painful services, and we do not hope to add, 
 by this gift, to the satisfaction you must experience from 
 the faithful performance of a great and humane duty, but 
 we rather seek our own gratification in thus asking you to 
 preserve and hand down to your children and your chil- 
 dren's children this record of your noble act, as one of the 
 many evidences (their richest inheritance) of a useful, honor- 
 able and Christian life. 
 
 Accept at the same time our heartfelt wishes, that the 
 year now opening may be blessed to you and yours, and ex- 
 empted from the sorrows and trials which you have shared 
 with us in the year just closed. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 R. E. Apthorp, Committee. 
 
 Cambridge, January 4, 1855.' 
 
 Robert E. Apthorp, Esquire: 
 
 Bear Sir, — The labors of a lawyer are ordina- 
 rily devoted to questions of property between man 
 and man. He is to be congratulated if, though but 
 for once, in any signal cause he can devote them to 
 the vindication of any of the great primal rights af- 
 fecting the highest interests of man. 
 
 I have always regarded the part I was able to take 
 in the defence of Anthony Burns as a privilege for 
 which I ought rather to give than to receive remu- 
 neration. The unsuccessful issue of that trial and 
 the humiliations, neither few nor small, which at- 
 tended and followed it, permit us to look back upon 
 it only with the most painful emotions. The only 
 bright recollection is that there were some, among 
 whom are those who join with you in this testimonial, 
 
294 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 39. 
 
 who, with you, stood by him in his hour of need, 
 with the aid of their countenance, their characters, 
 their fortunes, at some peril even to their lives, to 
 save him, and in him the cause of humanity and the 
 fair fame of Massachusetts. It was my lot to aid in 
 the way most appropriate and convenient, the way of 
 my profession. 
 
 You have thought proper to present to me this 
 beautiful gift, on the beginning of a year, which we 
 hope has written against it in Heaven's ordinal no 
 such bitter draught for Massachusetts. 
 
 I shall always look upon it rather as a memorial 
 of the event, than as a testimonial to myself ; and I 
 shall teach my children, to whom you kindly refer, 
 when they read my name, which you have placed 
 upon it, to regard me rather as the representative of 
 the donors themselves, than as entitled to any pecul- 
 iar personal merit. But as an evidence of the kind 
 fueling of so many of my fellow-citizens, and as a 
 grateful remembrance of your friendship, I shall 
 claim in it a peculiar property. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Richard H. Dana, Jr. 
 
 The piece of plate thus given was a salver bearing the 
 following inscription : — 
 
 TO 
 
 RICHARD H. DANA, JR. 
 
 FOR HIS 
 
 MANLY AND GRATUITOUS DEFENCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNALIENABLE RIGHTS 
 
 OF 
 
 ANTHONY BURNS, 
 
 WHO WAS 
 
 KIDNAPPED AT BOSTON, MAY 24TH, 
 
 AND DOOMED TO ETERNAL BONDAGE, JUNE 2d, 1854. 
 
 FROM A FEW OF HIS FELLOW CITIZENS. 
 
1853. RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS. 295 
 
 Among the books in Mr. Dana's library is a copy of 
 Campbell's Specimens of the British Poets, given to him in 
 1853. To the fly-leaf of the volume is attached a letter, 
 touching in its simplicity, which reads as follows : — 
 
 Me. Richard Dana : 
 
 Respected Sir, — I received the money without any 
 trouble whatever. 
 
 Yesterday I went round to the friends in Cambridge to 
 return their money, and only one family that would receive 
 it. I was advised by Mr. Longfellow to put the remainder 
 into the bank for my own benefit. Please to accept this 
 book as a small token of my respect for your untiring ex- 
 ertions not only in my cause, but in being a friend in all 
 cases to a proscribed race. Respectfully, 
 
 Rosanne Taylor. 
 
 In an earlier portion of this narrative Dana's connection 
 with the fugitive slave cases was referred to as the u one 
 great act of his life ; " and the strong expression was then 
 ventured, that " the man who holds that record in his hand 
 may stand with head erect at the bar of final judgment it- 
 self." The record is now complete, and speaks for itself ; 
 no occasion ever again arose for Dana to take his stand 
 by the side of a hunted slave. 
 
 u But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and 
 all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of 
 his glory. . . . 
 
 " And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily 
 I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my 
 brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 
 
 In the extracts from the diary contained in the last chapter 
 there was a reference to the arrest of Huxford, that one of 
 the ruffians who composed the United States marshal's guard 
 during the hearing which preceded the rendition of Burns 
 who immediately after, on the evening of Friday, June 2, 
 assaulted Dana in Court Street. The story of Huxford's 
 subsequent flight to Louisiana, his being thence brought 
 back to Massachusetts on requisition and convicted of the 
 assault, with all the singular incidents of criminal life con- 
 nected with those events, was in subsequent years often told 
 by Dana, and in February, 1876, he made it the subject of a 
 lecture which he delivered before the Young Ladies' Satur- 
 day Morning Club. This lecture pieces out and completes in 
 a most interesting manner his narrative of the Burns case. 
 
 Before giving those portions of the lecture which are not 
 taken from the diary, it will be well to reproduce the part 
 of Dana's closing argument before Commissioner Loring 
 which so exasperated the members of the marshal's guard. 
 It constituted the exordium of what he then said, and at 
 the time was very generally printed in the newspapers and 
 commented upon. 
 
 I congratulate you, sir, that your labors, so anx- 
 ious and painful, are drawing to a close. I congratu- 
 late the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that she is 
 to be relieved from that incubus which has rested 
 on her for so many days and nights, making her to 
 dream strange dreams and see strange visions. I 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 297 
 
 congratulate her that at length in due*time, by leave 
 of the marshal of the United States, and the dis- 
 trict attorney of the United States, first had and ob- 
 tained therefor, her courts may be reopened, and her 
 judges, suitors and witnesses may pass and repass 
 without being obliged to satisfy hirelings of the 
 United States marshal and bayoneted foreigners, 
 clothed in the uniform of our army and navy, that 
 they have a right to be there. I congratulate the city 
 of Boston that her peace here is no longer to be in 
 danger. Yet I cannot but admit that while her 
 peace here is in some danger, the peace of all other 
 parts of the city has never been so safe as while the 
 marshal has had his posse of specials in this court- 
 house. Why, sir, people have not felt it necessary to 
 lock their doors at night, the brothels are tenanted 
 only by women, fighting-dogs and racing-horses have 
 been unemployed, and Ann Street and its alleys and 
 cellars show signs of a coining millennium. 
 
 I congratulate, too, the government of the United 
 States that its legal representative can return to his 
 appropriate duties, and that his sedulous presence will 
 no longer be needed here in a private civil suit for 
 the purpose of intimidation, a purpose which his 
 effort the day before yesterday showed every desire 
 to effect, which, although it did not influence this 
 court in the least, I deeply regret that your honor 
 did not put down at once and bring to bear upon him 
 the judicial power of this tribunal. I congratulate 
 the marshal of the United States that the ordinary 
 respectability of his character is no longer to be in 
 danger from the character of the associates he is 
 obliged to call about him. I congratulate the officers 
 of the army and navy that they can be relieved from 
 
298 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 this service, which as gentlemen and soldiers surely 
 they despise, and can draw off their non-commissioned 
 officers and privates, both drunk and sober, from this 
 fortified slave-pen to the custody of the forts and 
 fleets of our country, which have been left in peril 
 that this great republic might add to its glories the 
 trophies of one more captured slave. 
 
 The following are the material portions, not already given 
 in the diary, of Jhe lecture describing the arrest of Hux- 
 ford, one of the " associates " whom Marshal Freeman was 
 " obliged to call about him." It will be remembered that 
 the narrative was prepared in 1876, twenty-two years after 
 the events described in it took place, and eleven years after 
 the close of the rebellion. 
 
 Looking upon this assembly I am reminded that a 
 generation is growing up which does not remember, 
 and will hardly believe, that slavery was the public 
 law of half of this republic, and that the slave-power 
 ruled all in its politics. From the institution of the 
 government until the civil war there were nineteen 
 presidential terms. Of these the North held six, the 
 South thirteen. The South held the chief-justiceship 
 of the Supreme Court for sixty-three successive years, 
 and there was not an hour from the adoption of the 
 Constitution until the civil war when a majority of 
 that court were not slave-holders, although the free 
 States furnished more than three quarters of its busi- 
 ness. When there were five judges the South had 
 three, when there were seven it had four, when there 
 were nine it had five. The slave-power ruled the 
 army and navy, West Point and Annapolis. No 
 man could be appointed a teacher in either of those 
 institutions who was suspected of anti-slavery opin- 
 ions, and such opinions clogged the advancement and 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 299 
 
 made the life uncomfortable of any officer of the army 
 or navy ; and I doubt if a man with such opinions 
 could have held a clerkship in any department in 
 Washington, and the capital was slave soil, with its 
 slave-markets and slave-jails. No man suspected of 
 such opinions could hold any office requiring confirma- 
 tion by the Senate. In 1859-60 I made the circum- 
 navigation of the globe, and in every port I visited I 
 called upon the American consul, and I never saw one 
 who was not either an advocate of slavery or a willing 
 or silent servant of the slave-power. In no consulate 
 could an anti-slavery newspaper be found, and I believe 
 that if any consul was detected in subscribing for the 
 "New York Tribune " or " Evening Post " he would 
 have been removed. To our ship-masters and foreign 
 ship-masters and supercargoes in all foreign lands the 
 republic showed only its slavery side, ahd the same 
 may be said substantially of our foreign embassies. 
 
 At home the slave-power was steadily advancing. 
 From six states it had risen to fifteen. Our ancestors 
 had prohibited slavery in all the then territories of 
 the United States not formed into states. The South 
 obtained the decision of the Supreme Court in 1855 
 that slavery could not be prohibited in any territory 
 either by Congress or by the territory itself. This 
 doctrine was adopted by the Democratic party. In 
 1850 Congress passed the infamous Fugitive Slave 
 Law which deprived the colored people of the free 
 states of all the traditional guaranties of freedom, 
 and brought the slave-hunters to our doors, and con- 
 verted our court-houses and jails into barracoons. 
 The slave-power expected, in the Lemmon Case, and 
 I do not doubt would have obtained a decision of the 
 Supreme Court, that slave-masters residing in a free 
 
300 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 state for temporary purposes, as for education, health 
 or summer resort, could hold their slaves here, and 
 compel our magistrates and police to aid them in their 
 discipline. 
 
 I will not go further into details. This generation 
 can hardly believe to what an extent the slave-power 
 had subdued, overawed, and at least neutralized the 
 anti-slavery sentiment of the North between 1836 
 and 1860. -* 
 
 I have thought these remarks necessary that you 
 might better understand my narrative, the scene of 
 which is laid in Boston in 1864. . . . 
 
 Saturday, May 27. Coming into town from 
 Cambridge this morning, I learned the exciting and 
 serious events of the night before. I had confined 
 my attention to the work before me, and purposely 
 kept myself ignorant, as far as possible, of names and 
 things connected with any forcible violation of law. 
 What I now state was, much of it, learned after- 
 wards, some of it since the war and the abolition of 
 slavery. There had been a plan to rescue Burns, 
 which was kept very quiet, to be carried out mostly 
 by men from the country, especially from the town of 
 Worcester. It was understood, or thought to be, that 
 preparations should be made in the afternoon, and 
 that when all was ready a signal should be given at 
 the meeting at Faneuil Hall, and the entire force of 
 the meeting should be directed against the court- 
 house. Dr. S. G. Howe, 1 whose name we utter with 
 bated breath, Colonel T. W. Higginson, then a young 
 writer and lecturer, and Martin Stowell of Worcester, 
 were among those looked to, to lead the attack. The 
 signal was given at the meeting, but the meeting was 
 1 Dr. Howe died January 9, 1876. 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 301 
 
 violent, and it was either not known or misunderstood, 
 and the crowd blocked the egress, and only Higginson, 
 of the leaders, who did not go to Faneuil Hall, but 
 devoted himself to the preparations, was in Court 
 Square. Only the light stuff of the meeting came to 
 the square at first and precipitated an attack which 
 they were by no means ready to follow up. How 
 much of this, if anything, the speakers at Faneuil 
 Hall knew, I cannot tell ; but their speeches were 
 deprecatory of mobs and violence. Mr. Phillips es- 
 pecially implored them to await the decision of the 
 commissioner, — that it would be time enough to 
 attempt a rescue if the decision should be adverse. 
 But about nine o'clock somebody called out that the 
 mob was attacking the court-house ; the cry " To the 
 court-house ! to the court-house ! " was raised, the 
 audience became ungovernable, poured out through 
 the doors, and made for Court Square. This precipi- 
 tated an ill-prepared and premature attack. A large 
 stick of timber, which had been deposited in an alley 
 for the attack, was seized and used to batter down one 
 of the small doors. The marshal, though not antici- 
 pating the attack, was not entirely unprepared. He 
 had in the course of the day collected an extra force 
 of about fifty men who were armed with cutlasses. 
 They were stationed mainly behind the door which 
 was attacked. The door was several times forced and 
 closed again, and Mr. Higginson and two or three 
 others entered. All who entered were educated men, 
 Harvard College graduates, but found themselves 
 confronted b} r this force with drawn weapons, and 
 deserted by the crowd. No one else seems to have 
 attempted to enter. Higginson received a cut across 
 the chin, the scar of which he still bears, and other 
 
302 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 rough handling, and with his two or three supporters 
 was forced back into the street. He called out from 
 the steps, u You cowards ! will you desert us now ? " 
 But there was no organized following, and the police 
 had already got among them and seized some dozen 
 or more and carried them off to the watch-house. 
 Dr. Howe, Martin Stowell and others reached the 
 square, but too late, and the attack came to an end. 
 I know of one attempt Dr. Howe made to give the 
 mob a chance, after he got there, but none availed 
 themselves of it, with the one serious result that a 
 truckman named Batchelder, who bad volunteered on 
 this as on the previous occasion to assist in arresting 
 and guarding fugitive slaves, was killed by a stab 
 while forcing back the door. 
 
 This failure put an end to all further efforts at a 
 rescue, for the marshal soon became fully prepared. 
 Looking from my window upon the west front of the 
 court-house this morning it presented a strange aspect. 
 It was fully garrisoned. A body of the United States 
 troops from Fort Warren, under Major Ridgley, 
 and a company of marines from the Navy Yard at 
 Charlestown, under Major Dulany, and a company of 
 artillery were stationed in the court-house, and an- 
 other company of artillery in the adjacent city hall, 
 and sentries guarded every access to the court-house 
 and lined its passageways, and one or more field- 
 pieces, loaded with small shot, were planted in the 
 square. 
 
 Perhaps I ought to explain to the younger part of 
 the audience that although the court-house belonged 
 to the state, a few rooms at the northerly end of it 
 had been leased to the United States for judicial pur- 
 poses, and the government had there a court-room 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 303 
 
 and smaller rooms for clerks, marshals and juries. 
 But the guard which the marshal placed took posses- 
 sion of the entire court-house, and no one could 
 enter it or pass through its passages, except through 
 files of soldiers, and after satisfying the persons in 
 charge of each locality, who were often irresponsible 
 men, temporarily appointed. Attempts were made 
 to hold the state courts during the next week, but 
 were soon abandoned. 
 
 The hearing had been appointed for ten o'clock this 
 morning. Passing the sentries at every door and 
 angle, to whom I refused to give any account of my- 
 self, requiring them to send for the officer in com- 
 mand, I went into the court-room with Mr. Ellis. 
 The commissioner was in his seat, Burns at the 
 prisoner's dock, and Suttle and his counsel at a table 
 within the bar. There were no men bearing arms 
 openly within the room, but on the benches next the 
 bar and in the jury seats was a body of 120 men, 
 known as the marshal's guard, to whom my story par- 
 ticularly relates. When the marshal found himself 
 in danger, he thought it best, besides the troops, to 
 have a small body of men not soldiers to be the es- 
 pecial guard over Burns as well as protectors to him- 
 self. There was at this time in Boston a notorious 
 man whose name, as it is now twenty-one years ago, 
 and he left Boston soon after, I feel at liberty to give. 
 He was an Italian named Luigi Varrell or Varelli, 
 but popularly called Loui Varrell or Loui Clark, the 
 name under which he was naturalized. A few years 
 before he had been tried for his life for the murder of 
 a woman whom he called Mrs. Clark who, if I recol- 
 lect right, was thrown from Charlestown bridge. The 
 government was not able to convict him. He kept a 
 
304 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 gambling hall and a liquor shop, and was engaged in 
 horse-racing, dog-fighting, prize-fighting and other 
 equally reputable employments. He was a clear- 
 headed, capable fellow, and though vindictive and 
 passionate on occasions was cool in business, and 
 made money out of the passions of others. He was a 
 kind of king among the low classes of men who re- 
 sorted to him places, and whom he more or less em- 
 ployed. There was at the same time a Mrs. Clark 
 who contributed to swell the revenues of the joint 
 concern by other methods. This was the man for the 
 sudden and peculiar needs of the marshal. He sent 
 for him, and in four hours Varrell had the guard col- 
 lected, armed and in the court-house. As they sat 
 round the sides of the bar they showed no weapons, 
 but each man had a revolver and a knife under his 
 loose sacque coat. Varrell, short, stout-built, dark- 
 complexioned, with a quick, black eye and heavy 
 brow, stood a little aside keeping a good watch over 
 everything. A friendly bystander who knew the 
 world told me something about this guard, and iden- 
 tified one of them as Tyrrel, w 7 ho w T as tried and not 
 convicted for the murder of a woman in the West 
 End, and another who served his time in the state 
 prison for robbing Scott & Currier's jewelry store. 
 They were certainly what is familiarly called a hard- 
 looking set. Mr. Andrews, the ex-jailer, says he finds 
 forty-five among them who at various times had been 
 his prisoners. 
 
 Mr. Ellis and I again moved for a postponement 
 till Monday. It was opposed earnestly by the coun- 
 sel for Suttle, which gave me the opportunity I wanted 
 for a speech. The commissioner again granted our 
 request, and the hearing was postpone d till ten 
 o'clock on Monday. 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 305 
 
 I do not purpose to carry you through the trial or 
 its incidents. They occupied Monday, Tuesday and 
 Wednesday, on which day the arguments were fin- 
 ished. The commissioner adjourned the hearing to 
 Friday morning, when he was to give his decision. 
 For seven days the court-house was held in the charge 
 of the troops and the marshal's guard. There were 
 about sixty marines from the Navy Yard, and about 
 one hundred and twenty regulars from Fort Warren, 
 as I have said. These guarded the doors and passage- 
 ways in all the stories. The body-guard under Louis 
 Clark slept and ate in the building, most of them in 
 the court-room itself. The court-house had the look 
 of a garrison, the regulars lolling out of windows and 
 hanging about the doors, most of them foreigners, as 
 was the case with our army then, some of the lazy 
 hounds stretched on benches, or diverting themselves 
 in the small rooms with cards and pipes. There were, 
 besides, cordons of city police. So long as they at- 
 tempted to keep open the state courts, there were sev- 
 eral instances of difficulty and obstruction to litigants, 
 witnesses and jurors coming to and from the court- 
 rooms. Attempts were made by certain barristers to 
 procure an order from the state courts requiring at 
 least one door and passage to be kept open and 
 guarded by officers of the court ; but no judge was 
 found who seemed willing to issue the order or even 
 to summon the United States marshal before him 
 and insist upon satisfactory arrangements. 
 
 The state of things was so portentous that on Sat- 
 urday morning the counsel for Suttle, with his con- 
 sent, opened negotiations for the sale of Burns, or, 
 more strictly, for his emancipation. They were met 
 by the Rev. Mr. Grimes, who spent nearly the whole 
 
306 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 88. 
 
 day and evening in procuring the required sum of 
 money, which was $1,200. The negotiations got so 
 far that the necessary paper was drawn up and the 
 money secured, when they were broken off by the in- 
 tervention of the United States attorney. This offi- 
 cer had no function whatever to perform in the case. 
 It was a private question of one man's claim to the 
 possession tyf another, and the United States was in 
 no sense a party ; but the attorney insisted that the 
 emancipation should not take place, that the law 
 should be vindicated, and if the decision was against 
 Burns he should be actually taken back to Virginia, 
 and there delivered into the custody of his owner, 
 after which the owner might, if he saw fit, take the 
 money and execute the papers. The commissioner 
 who was to try the case did his utmost to carry out 
 the negotiations, but the voice of the United States 
 attorney prevailed, and Suttle refused to go any far- 
 ther, but said he would sell him after he had got 
 him to Virginia. The United States attorney acted 
 under orders from the Cabinet at Washington, with 
 whom he was in constant communication by tele- 
 graph. Thus the negotiations broke off, and the 
 trial proceeded. 
 
 On Friday, June 2d, in a crowded court-room be- 
 fore a most anxious audience, with still larger crowds 
 from all parts of the Commonwealth, drawn to Bos- 
 ton by their intense interest, the commissioner gave 
 his decision. It was in favor of the claimant, remand- 
 ing Burns into his custody. 
 
 The preparations made by the marshal were of an 
 imposing character. The adjutant general of the 
 United States army had been ordered by the Pres- 
 ident to Boston, empowered to take United States 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 307 
 
 troops from New York, who were kept in readiness 
 to move. The entire police force of Boston was in 
 service. On the requisition of the mayor, portions 
 of the state militia, consisting of a battalion of dra- 
 goons, a regiment of artillery and two of infantry, 
 were paraded. Their function, as officially stated, 
 was to preserve the peace. The United States gov- 
 ernment chartered a steamer, which lay at a wharf 
 near the foot of State Street, to transport Burns, with 
 a portion of the regulars, to the United States rev- 
 enue cutter, which lay at anchor below, prepared to 
 carry him to Norfolk. The militia who had been 
 called out were posted along Court Street and State 
 Street from the court-house to the wharf. Court 
 Square was held by the regular artillery and their 
 cannon. The militia were drawn up across every 
 street or alley that led to or from Court or State Street, 
 at a little distance up the street or alley, so that the 
 people should be kept back, and there should be no 
 access to the route of the procession. The marshal's 
 guard formed immediately about Burns, in front, 
 behind and on each side. They no longer concealed 
 their weapons, but each man wore a short Roman 
 sword and a revolver. Within the hollow square 
 were the marshal and Burns. Before them were the 
 cavalry and a part of the regulars, and behind an- 
 other portion of the regulars, with their cannon. 
 The streets were to a great extent hung in black, and 
 mottoes indicating indignation or shame were sus- 
 pended from windows, and, as the procession moved, 
 there were almost incessant hissings and low cries of 
 " shame, shame," although there were no attempts at 
 violence. ... 
 
 I was detained in town until late in the evening. 
 
308 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 Mr. Anson Burlingame, Horace Gray (now Chief 
 Justice) and I took tea together at Parker's, talking, 
 gloomily enough, over the events of the day. Some 
 of the marshal's deputies, and others who had volun- 
 teered with them, were having a high supper at other 
 tables, making themselves conspicuous by loud, tri- 
 umphant talking. Being too late for the nine o'clock 
 omnibus (for half-hour omnibuses were the only com- 
 munication with Cambridge at that time), Burlingame 
 and I agreed to walk out together, as we had often 
 done before. Mr. Gray left us at Pemberton Square, 
 and Burlingame and I went along Court Street on 
 the left side, I walking on the outside next the street. 
 We passed Stoddard Avenue, a vile neighborhood, 
 and had nearly reached the Revere House, when I 
 noticed that some one crowded Mr. Burlingame away 
 from me, and I felt myself struck a very heavy blow 
 on the head, — I thought for the moment it was by 
 an iron bar, — and the next I knew was that I was 
 picking myself up from the pavement, a little stunned, 
 and pretty well covered with blood. A crowd soon 
 got about me, and a man who gave his name as Per- 
 kins, and seemed friendly, said I had been struck 
 by a man from behind, and that two men had turned 
 and run back towards Stoddard Avenue, Mr. Burlin- 
 game pursuing them. Burlingame soon rejoined me, 
 and I went to the house of a neighboring physician, 
 and after some two hours of rest and care there we 
 went out in a coach to Cambridge. He told me that 
 seeing me fall and two men running away, he fol- 
 lowed them as far as Allen's saloon, into which they 
 ran, when a crowd of rough fellows blocked his way 
 in a threatening manner, — " You 'd better be off from 
 here," — and he came back to look after me. The 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 309 
 
 blow had fallen upon the thick strong bone just over 
 the right eye, and the physician said that my fall and 
 bleeding had probably prevented congestion, and that 
 had the blow fallen a trifle lower I might have lost an 
 eye, or if a trifle higher it might have broken in the 
 temple. As it was, I escaped all serious consequences, 
 and was at my office the next day. 
 
 The city offered a large reward, but I had no belief 
 that the man would be discovered, and neither Bur- 
 lingame nor I could have identified him. 
 
 During all the exciting scenes of the last week, 
 when so many were armed, I carried no weapon, and 
 purposely. I had a special duty to perform, purely 
 civil in its character, and I felt that I should do it all 
 the better if I relied on nothing but civil and moral 
 power. 
 
 About a week after this assault there came into 
 my office a small, thin, dark, sharp-eyed man, who 
 must see me alone, and announced himself as Heath, 
 a detective. 
 
 " I 've got your man, Mr. Dana." 
 
 "Well, where is he?" 
 
 " I have n't arrested him yet. I want you and 
 Mr. Burlingame to identify him." 
 
 I repeated the circumstances, and assured Heath 
 that neither Burlingame nor I could do anything 
 toward identifying him. Heath was persistent and 
 seemed really to think that we might do something 
 to accommodate him, for he was after the reward. 
 Being at last convinced, he asked what he should do, 
 having no proof. 
 
 M Are you sure it is the man ? " 
 
 " Yes, I know it is." 
 
 " Then, if you know it, you can prove it." 
 
310 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 38. 
 
 " Oh, no, Mr. Dana. It is n't so in our business." 
 
 Asking for an explanation, he said that the police 
 had some person in almost every gang of criminals 
 on whom they had some hold, and from whom they 
 would sometimes get information. Such persons were 
 criminals themselves, discovered in some misconduct, 
 whom the detectives " let up," on the understanding 
 that they should occasionally give help. In this case 
 the informant was a woman. 
 
 " And you can't use her as a witness ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, that will never do. It would cost her 
 her life. Besides, we must keep faith with these 
 people, or we lose all hold of them." 
 
 Ihe man's name, he said, was Huxford. I advised 
 Heath to arrest him if he was sure he was the man. 
 
 The next day Heath came in again. 
 
 " I 've got him, sir. He's in the police court, and 
 the judge wants you to come in." 
 
 You may not all know — the ladies will, but 
 some of the gentlemen may not — the law which 
 governs cases of arrest. It is a part of our free system 
 that if a man is arrested on suspicion of crime he is 
 entitled to be examined immediately by a magis- 
 trate, and if there is not proof enough to warrant his 
 detention, he is entitled to be discharged. As we 
 had absolutely no proof, I expected to see Huxford 
 discharged at once. I went into the police court, 
 and took my seat in a small inclosure occupied by 
 lawyers. In the prisoner's box was a large, powerful 
 man, with a big head, full neck, heavy brow, short 
 cut hair, with the regular prize-fighter look. A few 
 minutes after I took my seat he asked, loud enough 
 to be heard by the magistrate, and looking towards 
 our seat, — 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 311 
 
 " Which of those gentlemen is Mr. Dana? " 
 
 Ah ! It is seldom that a guilty man helps himself 
 by anything he undertakes to say. Immediately it 
 occurred to me, How do you know that either of 
 those gentlemen is Mr. Dana? I was satisfied from 
 this that he knew me. 
 
 The judge called up the case, and the man an- 
 swered to the name of Henry Huxford. He was 
 asked if he was ready to be examined. Fortunately 
 for us, and it was his second and great mistake, he 
 said he was not. " Why not? " He could prove that 
 he was at home and abed at the time I was assaulted, 
 and wished time to get his witnesses. Heath, who 
 conducted the case, consented to a delay with well- 
 affected reluctance. The judge granted two days, 
 with bail at $1,500. Immediately stepped forward 
 Louis Varrell. "Is he good?" said I to Heath. 
 " He ? Yes. He 's good for $10,000 any time." I 
 had gone upon the witness stand before the postpone- 
 ment to state what little I knew. The judge asked 
 Huxford if he wished to put any question to me. 
 Here he made his third mistake. " Did you ever see 
 me before, Mr. Dana? " If I had not been a lawyer 
 I should probably have answered, " Not that I re- 
 member." But I replied, " Were you one of the 
 marshal's guard in the Burns case ? " 
 
 I put this question at a venture, on the probability 
 only. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Huxford. 
 
 H Then I have seen you before," said I. 
 
 This confirmed the falsity of his first question. 
 The idea that a man who had guarded Burns in the 
 court -room five days, and seen and heard me for 
 hours every day examining witnesses and arguing 
 
312 RICHARD HENRY DANA. My. 38. 
 
 the case, should ask which of three or four gentlemen 
 I was was too preposterous. My replies probably con- 
 firmed Huxford's suspicions that we knew all about 
 him. 
 
 On the second morning Heath came in again. 
 
 " He 's gone ! " 
 
 " Who's gone?" 
 
 " Huxford. He 's off. He was off that afternoon." 
 
 I said I supposed it was an arranged thing, — that 
 the bail would be paid by contribution, perhaps the 
 United States paying part. No! Heath was sure 
 Huxford had run off and left Varrell in the lurch. 
 Varrell was in high wrath, had traced him to New 
 York, where he had taken ship as a sailor to New 
 Orleans, and was to get a warrant from the governor 
 and go or send by rail to New Orleans and bring 
 the man back. I was incredulous, but Heath was a 
 better judge than I of such things. He said it was n't 
 so much paying the bail that Varrell minded. It 
 Mould never do for him to let one of these men get 
 the better of him. His power over the whole class 
 would be gone. They all knew that Huxford had 
 cheated him, and it was worth everything to Varrell 
 to get him back and put him in the dock. Varrell's 
 counsel stated the facts to the court, and asked for a 
 postponement long enough to enable Varrell to bring 
 back his man. The judge asked what we had to say. 
 Had it been left to me I should doubtless have either 
 refused or consented outright. But every man to 
 his trade. Heath wished to confer with Varrell, and 
 I left it all to Heath, who was indeed the dominus 
 litis. What Heath told me the next day gave me 
 a new idea of human ingenuity, to say nothing of 
 honesty. He had sturdily refused to agree to a post- 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 313 
 
 ponement, and, when urged for a reason, said that 
 he might lose his witnesses, — of which the virtuous 
 Heath had not one, and did not expect to have. 
 Huxford would try to prove an alibi, and some wit- 
 ness against him might fail. Varrell said he would 
 furnish witnesses. That was very well, but Heath 
 was n't to be caught by words. If Varrell would fur- 
 nish two witnesses who saw the whole thing, and 
 they would make an affidavit in writing to be left in 
 Heath's hands so that they couldn't change their 
 testimony afterwards, and Varrell would be bail for 
 their appearance as witnesses in large sums, the mag- 
 nanimous Heath would consent to a postponement. 
 All this had been done, and Heath handed me the 
 two affidavits. They were in due form and in full 
 detail. The witnesses had been together Friday 
 night at Allen's saloon, where Huxford and others 
 of the marshal's guard, who had been paid off, were 
 celebrating their victory. The strong gaslight in the 
 street and the big bay window showed Burlingame 
 and me passing by. " There goes Mr. Dana," said 
 Huxford ; " I 'd like to give him his corn," and he 
 started out after me. The two witnesses, who weie 
 young men, followed him and saw all that happened, 
 the blow from behind, my fall, and Huxford passed in 
 plain sight by them on his retreat to the saloon. The 
 next morning they met him and gave him a wink. 
 He asked them if they saw it, and told them to keep 
 dark. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the 
 testimony, and Heath said the witnesses were nice 
 boys. 
 
 Varrell obtained the requisition from Governor 
 Washburn, and sent off Heath, accompanied by a 
 policeman named Jones, to New Orleans, duly em- 
 
314 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 powered to secure the extradition of Huxford. The 
 following narrative of the doings at New Orleans I 
 had from Heath himself. 
 
 Arriving at New Orleans, Heath presented a letter 
 of introduction to the chief of police, a man named 
 James, of whose capacity and fidelity Heath formed 
 a high opinion. The esprit de corps of the police- 
 man was too strong even for his hatred of abolition- 
 ists. He did n't care what abolitionist the man had 
 assaulted, if Heath wanted him he should have him. 
 They went together to the Governor, and obtained the 
 proper papers for the arrest. Here he learned more 
 about Huxford. He bore a very bad character. He 
 had lived in a street which the police never entered 
 without a strong force, and had been sentenced to six 
 months in the house of correction, but had not been 
 committed, the case having been in some way post- 
 poned by the assistance of an influential supporter of 
 Huxford's, General Quitman of Cuban filibuster no- 
 toriety. Quitman was one of the officers of Lopez's 
 expedition to Cuba where they were all taken and 
 Lopez garroted, and the inferior officers and the men 
 had been released on the intercession of our govern- 
 ment. Huxford, who was best known in New Or- 
 leans as Bill Sullivan, was one of Quitman's men, 
 and had since been serviceable to him and others in 
 politics as a shoulder -hitter, and was one of that 
 infamous company called " Thugs," part of whose 
 superfluous energies were devoted to managing pri- 
 mary meetings, guarding ballot-boxes and challeng- 
 ing voters. 
 
 A policeman of New Orleans named Howard was 
 assigned to Heath, and they went together to the 
 mouth of the river and there awaited at the pilot 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 315 
 
 station the arrival of the ship in which Huxford had 
 sailed. It was midsummer, intensely hot, the whole 
 region sandy and muddy, and as disngreeable as pos- 
 sible. Heath made it his business to secure the good 
 will of the pilots, and offered a prize of five dollars 
 to the man who would first sight the ship, and ten 
 to the man who would put him on board. On the 
 morning of July 3 the ship was telegraphed, and 
 Heath was put on board. Almost the first man he 
 saw was Huxford. 
 
 " Heath ! What in h — 1 do you want aboard this 
 ship ? " 
 
 " Bill, I want you, and I am going to have you." 
 Bill took a different view of it, and scouted the 
 idea of being taken out of the ship in the river where 
 all the M boys" would stand by him. The crew gath- 
 ered about in a threatening way, prepared to stand 
 by their shipmate. There had been for years a very 
 bad state of things in the river. As soon as a large 
 ship arrived she was boarded by runners and land- 
 lords and low characters of all sorts who sometimes 
 practically had possession of the ship. A short time 
 before a New England captain by the name of Holmes, 
 trying to enforce order among his crew, had been shot 
 by one of these ruffians from on shore. The captain 
 of this ship called Heath below into the cabin to 
 examine his authority for the arrest, and Heath told 
 Howard to keep a sharp eye on Bill and not let him 
 get out of sight, and the mate had orders to let 
 no boat board the ship. Heath found this captain a 
 man determined to enforce order, with seven revol- 
 vers loaded and at hand. Nobody, he said, should 
 control his ship but himself. Being satisfied of 
 Heath's authoritv, he told him he should have his 
 
316 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 38. 
 
 man, and they went on deck. But Huxford, alias Bill 
 Sullivan, was not to be found. Howard, who turned 
 out to be a nobody, said that Huxford's wife, who 
 was on board as a steerage passenger, had cried and 
 howled and set the crew all agog, and they had hus- 
 tled Huxford out of his sight. The afternoon and 
 evening were wasted in vain attempts to discover 
 him. All boats were kept off from the ship, and two 
 men had been obtained by signal to the pilot station. 
 Pistol iu hand, Heath and an officer searched the 
 forecastle and every part of the vessel where they 
 thought it likely Huxford would be hid, the crew 
 muttering and threatening but the captain and mate 
 prepared for fight. Heath passed an anxious night, 
 afraid to leave the deck. Toward morning, while it 
 was still dark, he heard a splash in the water and ran 
 forward. He could see a board floating off with the 
 tide and something large upon it, and Huxford's wife 
 was moaning and crying, and some of the men stood 
 round jeering at Heath, — u There he goes. You 've 
 lost him." 
 
 Heath jumped into the rigging, drew his pistol and 
 pointed toward the board, but he noticed that Mrs. 
 Huxford was n't disturbed by it, and with that and 
 the appearance of the object on the board and other 
 symptoms he came to the conclusion that it was not 
 Huxford. 
 
 That morning the steward's boy, a negro, told 
 Heath he believed the man was in the galley ; but 
 the galley was locked, and the key was lost. One 
 door was locked but another was hooked inside. 
 Heath found that a long knife slipped through the 
 crack would lift the latch and he went in. There 
 was nothing there but a coal box, with the lid closed, 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 317 
 
 that seemed quite too small to hold a big man. He 
 raised the lid and out popped a pair of bare feet. He 
 seized them and gradually dragged out Huxford. 
 
 "But, Heath, Huxford was a bigger man than 
 you." 
 
 " Yes, sir, but authority goes a great ways in all 
 these cases." 
 
 A more miserable object Heath said he had scarce 
 ever seen. The weather was hot and the galley was 
 hotter yet and the coal box hotter still, besides being 
 lined with coal dust, and Huxford was dripping with 
 sweat, and his face looked like a leg of bacon that 
 had been hanging all day in a July sun. Heath had 
 him out and got him aft, and made the most of his 
 advantage and of the weak and forlorn condition of 
 his prisoner. Huxford still persisted that he would 
 not go to Boston, but said that if Heath would take 
 him to New Orleans he would be all right there. 
 Heath said that was just what he meant to do; that 
 he meant to put him into the parish jail in New 
 Orleans until a steamer sailed for the North. They 
 then came to terms. 
 
 " Now, Cocky," said Huxford (for Heath had a 
 squint of one eye), " you 're a man of your word. If 
 you will give me your word that you '11 take me to 
 New Orleans and put me in the parish jail, I '11 go 
 with you and make no resistance." 
 
 Heath told him that he should do that thing ex- 
 actly. In such cases as these, strange as it may 
 seem, there is some value attached to a promise. It 
 is always of value to a detective to have the reputa- 
 tion of a man who rarely gives his word to a criminal, 
 and always keeps it ; and sometimes it is worth 
 while for a prisoner to keep his word too. The crew 
 
318 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 38. 
 
 began to gather and threaten, but Huxford told them 
 he knew what he was about, that he was going to 
 New Orleans with " Cocky," that it would be all 
 right when he got there. But Mrs. Huxford came 
 up and began screaming and imploring, when the 
 brute brought her a blow which felled her to the 
 deck, and when she got up he said : — 
 
 " Now you shut up, and go and get me a clean 
 shirt and some soap and water, black my boots, and 
 bring them to me." 
 
 The poor woman did as she was bidden, and brought 
 him soap and water and a towel, then a fresh shirt, 
 and in due time his boots well blacked, and he got 
 into a boat and went ashore to the pilot station with 
 Heath. Mrs. Huxford was left to go up to New Or- 
 leans by the ship. 
 
 They passed the whole day of the third at the pilot 
 station, where Heath had some difficulty in keeping 
 Huxford sober and out of bad company which had 
 come down from the city to pass the eve of the Fourth. 
 Heath gave him a little rope and allowed him to play 
 poker with three men from the city. Going in to 
 look after them lest Huxford should get too well 
 acquainted with them, Huxford said : — 
 
 " Heath, will you lend me five dollars ? These 
 fellows have cleaned me out." 
 
 Yes, Heath would lend him five dollars and set him 
 up again in play. Huxford called for more liquor. 
 " No you don't,'' said Heath. " These three gentle- 
 men may have what they like, but you must n't have 
 any more." 
 
 Huxford was obedient, and Heath left them and 
 went to the house, and here he was so thoroughly 
 overcome with sleep, having watched the deck the 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 319 
 
 whole night before, that he told a man to keep an eye 
 on the four and call him if anything looked wrong, 
 and fell into a profound sleep. The man waked him, 
 as he did n't like the looks of things. Heath went 
 down and brought off Huxford, but the only way he 
 could keep himself awake and keep Huxford by him. 
 was by playing billiards. So the officer and his pris- 
 oner played billiards together till dark. Then came 
 fireworks of all sorts and rowdyism of the worst kind, 
 and Heath had no peace until an upward bound 
 steamer was hailed after midnight and he took his 
 prisoner aboard. There was but one state-room 
 vacant, one which no one else would take, as it was 
 over a cattle-pen, and some of the cattle had died and 
 the stench on a hot night was as disagreeable as it 
 could be. He gave Huxford the choice of the berths, 
 made him undress and lie down, and clapped a pair of 
 irons on his wrists, Huxford making no resistance, 
 and passed the rest of the night in a chair by the side 
 of the berth by having brandy and water and cigars 
 brought to him at intervals of an hour by the steward, 
 for the character of the passengers was such that he 
 did n't dare to go to sleep. He had telegraphed from 
 the pilot station to the chief of police, and when the 
 boat came to the levee there was the chief with a 
 coach and a force of police, and Huxford was hurried 
 into the coach and safely lodged in the parish prison. 
 Huxford actually seemed in high spirits, topping and 
 confident, which Heath did n't understand until the 
 chief found he was visited daily by General Quitman 
 and other of his filibustering and political friends, and 
 discovered that their plan was to have him taken in 
 execution on the old sentence of imprisonment and 
 put in the house of correction, and then take the 
 
320 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt.3A. 
 
 ground that in Louisiana an imprisonment for an 
 offence against their own law must have precedence 
 over a process of extradition to another state. It was 
 part of their strategy to put off the service of the 
 warrant to the last moment, and when Heath had him 
 aboard a vessel to take him out just before she sailed. 
 They noticed that Mrs. Huxford was very desirous 
 to learn what steamer they were going to take to the 
 North. Then came in the strategy of the detective. 
 Of course he did not tell her the right steamer, and, 
 equally of course with him, he did not tell her the 
 wrong one, but kept up a mystery. They thought- 
 the hotel clerk at the bar was a doubtful person who 
 might give information to the other side, so Heath 
 and the chief had a little low-toned conversation, just 
 enough for him to hear a little of. The next morn- 
 ing there were two steamers to sail to New York at 
 eight o'clock, one direct and one by way of Havana, 
 and at the same hour another was to go up the river 
 to Cairo in Illinois. So Heath and Mr. James dis- 
 cussed the matter at the bar between going up the 
 river and by rail to New York or by way of Havana. 
 Mr. James leaned to the Cairo route, but Heath had 
 never been to Havana, and as it was only a matter of 
 half a day's delay he was inclined that way, and said 
 that Mr. Jones, the policeman who had come from 
 Boston with him, would look after the prisoner while 
 he went ashore. The clerk, as they intended, caught 
 the substance of this and communicated it, as they 
 afterwards learned, to General Quitman. The three 
 steamers lay at long distances apart, the Cairo 
 steamer at the upper end, the Havana near the mid- 
 dle, and the direct steamer quite at the lower part of 
 the levee. They bought tickets in their own name 
 
1354. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 821 
 
 for the Havana steamer, and then tickets under 
 feigned names were got for the direct steamer. 
 
 On the morning of the day of sailing instead of 
 calling at the jail for their prisoner at seven o'clock, 
 as they had given out to the jailer, they went at three 
 in the morning, waked up the jailer and demanded 
 their prisoner. He was very loath and must see their 
 papers, and interposed delays of all sorts ; but the pa- 
 pers were right, the chief could not be trifled with, and 
 they soon had Huxford in a coach and drove straight 
 toward the Havana steamer until they were out of 
 sight, and then made a long circuit and placed him 
 on board the direct steamer, and fastened him up in 
 a state-room with irons on feet and hands, one of them 
 all the while with him, the other looking out, and the 
 chief on the levee with a sufficient force to put down 
 any lawless attempt at a rescue. But Heath's great 
 fear was the arrival of officers with the warrant of 
 commitment under the state law. He was on the 
 very eve of a great success after all his trouble and 
 risk, and to be defeated at the last moment would 
 have been too much to bear. He said it was the 
 most anxious three hours he ever passed until the 
 fasts were cast off and the vessel's head turned into 
 the river, and he gave his good-by and thanks and 
 hearty hand-shake to the chief of police who had be- 
 haved so well. 
 
 But Heath's troubles were not over yet. It was low 
 water, midsummer, and vessels were often detained 
 at the bar for the height of the tide. As they ap- 
 proached the point where you must choose between 
 the two passes out they met a steamer which had 
 come over the southeast, and advised them by all 
 means to take the other. They did so, and after 
 
322 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 38. 
 
 spending about an hour they met another steamer, 
 with one of the pilots on board whose acquaintance 
 Heath had made at the station, who had been over 
 both bars and told them they could not get over that 
 bar and must turn round and go out by the southeast 
 bar, and he thought that if they ran close to the buoy 
 and put on full steam they could do it. So the big 
 steamer was twisted round and came near being stuck 
 in the mud, but got about at last, and was taken up 
 the river and down into the other pass, Heath ner- 
 vously looking out for every steamer or tug that came 
 near them or showed her smoke up the river. As 
 they neared the bar the captain put on full steam and 
 carried away the buoy and ploughed up the yellow 
 mud on the bar, but got her off into deep water and 
 she stood out to sea, and the mind and body of Heath 
 got some well-deserved repose. 
 
 In due course of time Heath returned in triumph 
 to Boston, and Huxford was committed to the jail, 
 and Varrell moved among his crowd with a higher 
 crown and longer sceptre than ever. 
 
 Heath learned by letter from the chief that, on the 
 eventful morning as soon as they had left the jail, the 
 jailer hurried off a messenger to General Quitman, 
 and he roused his friends, and they got officers with 
 the warrant and went down to the Havana steamer. 
 The names were on her books and the number of the 
 state-room, but the man was not to be found. They 
 searched the steamer from end to end, and wasted a 
 good deal of time in waiting for the possible arrival 
 of the coach. Then they bethought them of the 
 Cairo boat, and guessed that Heath had changed his 
 mind at the last, or that the Havana boat and the 
 names were only a blind, so they tore off to the upper 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 323 
 
 end of the city and searched the Cairo boat, and were 
 last seen making for the berth of the direct boat, 
 where they arrived some half an hour after she had 
 Btarted ; and there they gave up the chase. 
 
 In due time the case came on for trial at Boston, — 
 Commonwealth vs. Huxford. I gave evidence of the 
 occurrence, of which I knew nothing beyond the blow 
 and its effects. The only evidence we had, without 
 which he would have been acquitted, came from the 
 two young men produced by Varrell. It was refresh- 
 ing to the sight to behold two such clean, straight, 
 comely, nicely dressed youths. They wore neat, 
 black frock-coats and gray trousers, plain gold studs 
 on plain immaculate linen, simple neckties, the neat- 
 est of French boots, were clean shaved from ear to 
 ear, and with rather short-cut hair upon the head, 
 and street gloves of yellow kid. Both were light- 
 complexioned, fair and with blue eyes. The absence 
 of anything dashing or overdressed about them was 
 noticeable. Their manners were models of quietude 
 and self-possession. Each told his story simply and 
 clearly, and each was cross-examined by Mr. Bradley, 
 the counsel for Huxford, with great address but with 
 absolutely no effect. Huxford was convicted and 
 sentenced to two years in the house of correction. I 
 confess I began to feel something like compassion for 
 the poor, blundering brute as against his clever and 
 wickeder master, Varrell. 
 
 A few days after this the two witnesses came into 
 my office and in the civillest manner, with their usual 
 self-possession and repose, asked my advice about the 
 lawfulness of carrying concealed weapons, saying 
 that they had been threatened by Huxford's friends. 
 Prepossessing as they were and with all their lamb- 
 
324 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 38. 
 
 like innocence on such subjects, and with all their 
 scrupulous wish to obey every tittle of the law, I still 
 thought it wisest for me to decline to advise them, 
 putting it upon the ground of my relations to the 
 case. I thought it also prudent to add that since the 
 assault upon me I had felt at liberty to be prepared 
 for defence. I never fathomed their purpose in coin- 
 ing to me or learned who sent them. During that 
 summer I occasionally met Varrell in the street, and 
 fancied that his black eye and dark face and hair, 
 contrasted with the pure white linen of his coat and 
 trousers, had an ominous look ; but it was no doubt 
 prejudice, although I had been the occasion of his 
 spending a good deal of money, and taking a good 
 deal of risk and trouble. 
 
 When Huxford's term was about half expired a 
 stranger came into my office and asked me to sign a 
 petition for the pardon of Huxford which he showed 
 me, neatly written out, awaiting my signature to be 
 put at the head. I refused. He stepped back, looked 
 me steadily in the face, and said in the most serious 
 tone he could assume, " Mr. Dana, I advise you to 
 sign that paper ; " and after a pause repeated the lan- 
 guage in the same tone. I told him I regarded this 
 as a threat, and that it had now become impossible 
 for me to sign it even if I would have done so other- 
 wise, and that I should feel it my duty to report the 
 occurrence to the Governor. He left the office before 
 I had time to inquire who he was and where he came 
 from. I made my report to the Governor. No peti- 
 tion was presented to him, and Huxford served out 
 his full term. 
 
 One morning Mr. Bradley called upon me and said 
 that his client Huxford was now out, and asked me 
 
1854. THE MARSHALS GUARD. 325 
 
 if I had any objection to seeing him, assuring me that 
 Huxford had no ill-will against me at all. I had no 
 objection, and the result was that Mr. Bradley and 
 Huxford revealed to me the secret that lay at the 
 bottom of the whole story. 
 
 Huxford was one of those whom Varrell, on his 
 short notice, had swept into the marshal's guard. He 
 was something of a prize fighter, and had led what is 
 known as a hard life, — hard and fast. After they 
 were paid off at the marshal's office Friday evening 
 Varrell took some dozen of them to Allen's saloon to 
 treat them. While they were there Varrell called 
 attention to me and Burlingame passing bv in the 
 strong gaslight, and said, " There goes Mr. Dana. 
 I '11 give any man ten dollars who will give him his 
 corn." "I'm your man," said Huxford, and they 
 started out together. Huxford protested to me that 
 he had no ill-will against me whatever at the time, 
 but was excited by liquor and willing to gratify Var- 
 rell. As they followed us they laid out their plan 
 of attack. I was on the outside, next the curbstone. 
 They were to come up behind ; Huxford was to strike 
 me a round, swinging blow on the right side of the 
 head, which was expected to knock me in toward the 
 wall, and Varrell, at the instant, was to catch me with 
 a blow on the left side as I was falling. Mr. Bur- 
 lingame and I kept so close together that Varrell was 
 obliged to push between us and crowd him off, which 
 drew no attention, as the sidewalk was considerably 
 thronged. The plan was a good one, and would have 
 been more decisive in its results but that I did not 
 fall according to the programme. Huxford's blow 
 was delivered a little too sidelong, and, instead of 
 falling to the left, I reeled round and fell into the 
 
326 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 38. 
 
 street ; so the virtuous Varrell, with the best inten- 
 tions, lost his share in the work. 
 
 And now for the two witnesses. Huxford admitted, 
 of course, that much of what they said conformed to 
 the fact, but neither of them was present or knew any- 
 thing about it ! Their evidence was perjured through- 
 out, made up from the whole cloth. 
 
 "But why," I asked, "should Varrell procure per- 
 jury unnecessarily? Why couldn't he have taken 
 some witnesses who did know?" "Oh, they would 
 know too much. They might implicate him in it." 
 I suggested that they might have left him out. " No, 
 Varrell would n't take that risk. They might drop 
 something unawares, or let something out on cross- 
 examination that would implicate him. The best 
 way was to have clean, fresh witnesses, who knew 
 nothing of the transaction, write the story out for 
 them, let them get familiar with it, and they could n't 
 let out what they did n't know." 
 
 He told me that these young men had been em- 
 ployed by Varrell about his genteel gambling house 
 and other places of a like nature ; that he always 
 keut a few such, and insisted on their being neatly 
 dressed, quiet, temperate, taking the best care of 
 themselves, and keeping up the best appearances. 
 They were well paid and were expected to do what- 
 ever Varrell wished to have done. He confirmed 
 Heath's notion about the escape, which, however, now 
 needed no confirmation. VarrelFs object was to 
 punish him for breaking faith and running away, and 
 to satisfy people that he was not to be trifled with. 
 
 Some two or three years after this there came into 
 my office a man, pale, sickly, with one eye, what is 
 called seedy in his clothing, quite down at the heel, 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 327 
 
 the toes of Lis boots worn through, and quite mis- 
 erable generally. He wished to consult me about 
 a claim to some money from the death of an aunt in 
 Vermont. He thought there might be some two or 
 three hundred dollars coming to him. I told him I 
 could n't attend to it in another state ; that I did not 
 know the laws of Vermont; that he must go there 
 and get a lawyer. I dare say I was rather short with 
 him. 
 
 44 You don't seem to remember me, Mr. Dana." 
 " No. Have I ever seen you before ? " 
 44 Don't you remember the case of Huxford ? " 
 44 Yes. What had you to do with that? " 
 44 Why, I was one of the witnesses that convicted 
 him." 
 
 There indeed he was, — what a change ! He felt 
 it himself, and with the most subdued and doleful air 
 he gave me his story. He said that some time after 
 the trial he was at a horse-race at Chelsea Beach, and 
 
 Mr. (naming a young man of good family who 
 
 kept very low company and had forfeited his social 
 position, but whom his companions always called 
 
 Mr. ) had a quarrel with him, told him he had 
 
 sent a better man to prison than he was himself, and 
 struck him a blow which put out his eye. After that 
 he said Varrell did not want him any more, and he 
 seemed to have fallen pretty fast till he had got into 
 his present most piteous condition. I gave him money 
 enough to take him to Vermont, which he promised 
 to use for that purpose ; and I know nothing of him 
 since. 
 
 The other witness has prospered, owns several 
 houses in rather a bad neighborhood, and is a large 
 owner in a theatre and newspaper, and, so far as I can 
 
328 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 38. 
 
 learn, engages in nothing worse than what is called 
 politics. 
 
 Varrell was rewarded for his service in the Burns 
 case by a post in the custom-house in New York, 
 nominally to inspect customs, but mainly, it was 
 thought, to manage primary meetings in the lower 
 parts of the city, in which he and his shoulder-hitters 
 were no doubt useful politicians. In the civil war, 
 having lost his office by change of parties, he turned 
 patriot, raised a company of roughs, was their cap- 
 tain, and was in the unfortunate affair of Ball's Bluff. 
 He circulated great stories of his personal valor, rush- 
 ing at the Confederates bowie-knife in hand, all which 
 I found our gentlemen who were in the fight entirely 
 discredited. Indeed, it turned out in that war that 
 the roughs were not as good soldiers, not as brave, 
 not as enduring, and certainly not as trustworthy, as 
 young men from the public schools and the Sunday- 
 schools, the plough and the machine shop ; and Varrell 
 and his squad, like others of the sort, were sent to 
 guard the Dry Tortugas. Since the peace he has 
 changed his politics once and not wisely, lives in New 
 York, but is thought not to be prosperous. 1 
 
 1 This man, called Luigi Varelli by Mr. Dana, was commonly 
 known as Louis Clark, and is described in the police records as Louis 
 Bireal or Bieral, alias Louis Clark, alias Spanish Lew, though ac- 
 cording to his own statement he was born at Valparaiso, Chili, of 
 Portuguese parents, about the year 1814. In his early life he is said 
 to have been a prize-fighter, and was one of many similar characters 
 driven out of San Francisco by the famous Vigilance Committee of 
 1851. Afterwards a prominent "sporting " character and authority, 
 he was referee in the Morrissey and Heenan prize-fight of October 
 20, 1858, and in the celebrated trotting-match between Patchen and 
 Flora Temple in 1860. 
 
 He lived in Boston several years, mainly between 1850 and 1860, 
 and his name was there connected with a notorious brothel kept by a 
 woman reputed sometimes to be his sister and sometimes his wife. 
 
1854. THE MARSHAL'S GUARD. 329 
 
 Perhaps I may be misled by my personal connec- 
 tion with this story, but it has always seemed to me 
 
 Not long- before the breaking- out of the war of the rebellion he 
 moved to New York, where he engaged in politics. He next made 
 his appearance as captain of Company G, in the 1st California In- 
 fantry regiment (71st Pennsylvania), and with it took part in the af- 
 fair at Ball's Bluff in October, 1861, in which Colonel Edward Dick- 
 inson Baker, then United States Senator from Oregon, was killed. 
 Absurd stories were told after that engagement and went the rounds 
 of the press, of the desperate exploits of Bieral in defending the body 
 of Baker, and avenging his death on the Confederates by the daring 
 and dexterous use of a formidable bowie-knife While there was no 
 reason to suppose that Bieral in this affair behaved otherwise than 
 creditably, receiving in the course of it a bullet wound in the foot, 
 his bowie-knife performances were, it is almost unnecessary to say, 
 quite imaginary. 
 
 After the close of the rebellion he was appointed an inspector in 
 the New York custom-house, which position he held for more than 
 twenty years. He was several times charged with accepting bribes, 
 or improperly exacting money at the custom-house, and in 1886 was 
 removed from his position for demanding and obtaining from a woman 
 two dollars for passing throug-h the customs a sewing-machine, and, 
 it was alleged, keeping the money. He used every means in his 
 power to get reinstated, and when he failed of his object became sul- 
 len and desperate, claiming that he was destitute and without other 
 means of support than what he derived from his position as inspector. 
 He saw fit to hold Hans S. Beattie, surveyor of the port, responsible 
 for his misfortunes, and on the 1st of November rushed into the sur- 
 veyor's office in the custom-house and shot him. 
 
 Though Mr. Beattie survived this attempt on his life, its desperate 
 character renewed the recollection of Bieral' s career, and he again 
 figured in the columns of the newspapers as the " avenger of Baker" 
 He was indicted for assault with attempt to kill and pleaded ' ' not 
 guilty," setting up insanity as a defence. His trial took place in 
 January, 1887, and resulted in a verdict of guilty, accompanied by a 
 recommendation to mercy. On the 10th of March, being then, ac- 
 cording to his own statement, seventy-three years of age, he was sen- 
 tenced to five years' confinement at hard labor in the state prison at 
 Auburn. 
 
 His exploits after the death of Colonel Baker are said to have been 
 described by Charles B. Lewis, one of the editors of the Detroit 
 Free Press, who wrote under the pseudonym " M Quad," in his book 
 Field, Fort and Fleet 
 
330 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 38. 
 
 a striking illustration of the strange ways in which 
 human justice is worked out, and the imperfection of 
 its results. 
 
 Varrell was the chief criminal, drew in Huxford, 
 and planned the whole. He escaped and was unsus- 
 pected and was rewarded. There was absolutely no 
 evidence against Huxford, and he would have been 
 discharged in an hour had he not stated a false de- 
 fence of an alibi and asked for time. Even then he 
 would have escaped, had he not broken faith with 
 his surety and fled. He was convicted of a crime 
 of which he was guilty, but by perjured testimony. 
 That was furnished by the vindictiveness and self- 
 interest of Varrell. One of the perjurers suffered, 
 but only from the temper of a man as bad as himself, 
 if not worse ; and the other is in almost affluent cir- 
 cumstances. If there were no hereafter, if it were 
 " the be-all, end-all here," if there were not entered 
 at the end of each man's account, as at the foot of 
 the merchant's ledger, "carried forward," I do not see 
 how we could believe that the world is ruled by a 
 Being absolutely just, omniscient and omnipotent. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE COAST OF MAINE. COMMISSIONER LORING. — RACHEL. 
 
 RUFUS CHOATE. JUDGE WOODBURY DAVIS. JUDGE 
 
 SHAW. ELIZA WHARTON. 
 
 In August of this year Dana was invited by William B. 
 Franklin, afterwards a major-general in the civil war but 
 then a lieutenant of Topographical Engineers in charge of 
 the inspection of light-houses on the coast of Maine, to ac- 
 company him on a tour of inspection. George F. Shepley, 
 United States District Attorney for Maine at that time and 
 subsequently (1869-1878) the judge of the United States 
 first circuit court, was also of the party. Immediately after 
 his return, Dana wrote a letter to his wife in which he gave 
 the following account of what he did and saw on this, the 
 nearest approach to a yachting cruise he seems ever to have 
 made. 
 
 1854. Manchester, September 3. I suppose you 
 wish to hear about my voyage. I reached Portland 
 at ten P. M., where Shepley was waiting for me and 
 took me to his house. The next day, as the schooner 
 had not got in, I spent in Portland, chiefly lying still 
 in the house and reading Romilly's u Memoirs," which 
 I finished. In the afternoon I joined a party of Eng- 
 lish and Canadians in an excursion down the harbor 
 in a steamer. In the evening had John Neal at tea, 
 whom I found to be a character, one of the curiosities 
 of literature, very entertaining, large, strong, with a 
 spirited air, independent, quick in general, but with 
 no malice, exceedingly egotistical, but not trouble- 
 some on that account. 
 
332 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 39. 
 
 The next day the schooner arrived, but we did not 
 sail until Thursday at noon. Oh, how parched and 
 dusty everything was in Portland, and what a relief 
 to be upon the foaming sea ! 
 
 All the light-houses, buoys and beacons in the 
 United States are placed under the charge of a 
 scientific board of naval and military men at Wash- 
 ington, called the Light-house Board, and this Board 
 divides the coast into districts, over each of which 
 an officer of the Engineer Corps (Topographical) is 
 placed as inspector. His duty is to visit the light- 
 houses, see that the keepers do their duty, suggest im- 
 provements, see to their supply, report on new sites, 
 and see that all buoys and beacons are in their places. 
 This is a new system, and has been in operation 
 with excellent results for two years. Each inspector 
 has a vessel at his command, in which to make his 
 tours. Lieutenant Franklin has charge of the coast 
 of Maine. He is married and lives in Portland, and 
 makes excursions from there east and west. The 
 vessel is a schooner of about eighty tons, a Baltimore 
 clipper, and a pretty little craft. Franklin, Shepley 
 and I had the cabin to ourselves, the master and 
 mate living forward, and I found everything agree- 
 able. Uncle Sam's rations are not abundant, but we 
 supplied some deficiencies, and had a good stock of 
 porter and ale and claret. I believe I was made for 
 the sea, and that all my life on shore is a mistake. 
 I was intended by nature for a general roamer and 
 traveller by sea and land, with occasional edits of 
 narratives, and my duties as lawyer, scholar and pub- 
 licist are all out of the way. To me the sea is never 
 monotonous. Whether in calm or blow, in fog or 
 clear sky, it is full of interest and variety. At sea 
 
1854. THE COAST OF MAINE. 333 
 
 we have the same variety of sky that we have on 
 shore, and changes of the surface which the landsman 
 never sees. Imagine that by changes of wind, calm 
 or storms, the landscape should be thrown into hills 
 or smoothed into a prairie before your sight, as you 
 sit at your window ! I like a dull, heaving calm, and 
 when the fresh breeze raises the sea into billows and 
 they rush foaming past you, and your vessel bounds 
 over them, there is an ecstasy of delight which thrills 
 every nerve. 
 
 The coast of Maine is the most beautiful and in- 
 teresting coast in America, and I know of no coast in 
 the world where there are, in the same short space of 
 150 miles or so, so many harbors, bays, sounds, inlets, 
 reaches, islands and headlands ; besides that, there 
 are no wastes of sand ; but the soil, although mostly 
 light and barren, is still a soil with some verdure and 
 forests of evergreen trees, with high hills and small 
 mountains come quite down to the shore as at Man- 
 chester. The finest yachting ground I have ever 
 seen is the "Edgemoggin Reach," a sound formed by 
 the mainland on one side and a stretch of islands on 
 the other about thirty miles long and from three to 
 five wide, lying between the mouth of the Penobscot 
 and Mount Desert. We visited S^guin Light, St. 
 George's, Booth Bay, Townsend, White Head, Owl's 
 Head, Thomaston (Rockland), Camden, Pumpkin 
 Island, Bear Island, Becker's Island, Mount Desert, 
 South-west Harbor, North-east Harbor, and returned 
 to the mouth of the Penobscot, where I took the 
 steamer from Bangor to Boston, having been absent 
 from Boston ten days, and on board the vessel eight 
 days. It has been as invigorating and reviving an 
 excursion as I ever took, and I have enjoyed every 
 
334 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 39. 
 
 moment. It has brought back my old sea-life more 
 than anything that has occurred to me since, espe- 
 cially the landing in boats, of which we had a good 
 deal. Every day was fine weather, except a few 
 hours of rain one evening, and one day of very heavy 
 swell, which rolled us about too much. Franklin 
 was on General Taylor's staff at Buena Vista, and I 
 got from him full accounts of that battle and of the 
 war generally. Shepley, too, is a very pleasant com- 
 panion, and has a good deal of fun. We breakfasted 
 at seven, dined at twelve, had tea at six, and supper, 
 with porter and ale, at nine. We had no adventure, 
 except that I took Franklin and Shepley to an island 
 a few miles off in a sailboat belonging to the vessel, 
 to visit a light, and, beating back against a heavy sea 
 and strong wind, carried away the mast, breaking it 
 short off at the throat. But we had got within a 
 mile or two of the vessel on our way back, and expe- 
 rienced no difficulty. 
 
 Mount Desert is a beautiful region, made up by 
 islands, high, rocky and picturesque, through which 
 the sea runs up into very pretty harbors and inlets, 
 and the vessels run up among the hills and lie under 
 their shelter. The light-house, seen from the sea, 
 looks as if it were away up in the country, shining at 
 the base of a high hill. 
 
 The diary supplements this letter with the following notes 
 of Lieutenant Franklin's talk about the Mexican war, Gen- 
 eral Taylor and the battle of Buena Vista, and describes 
 also a visit to Professor Bache's coast survey encampment 
 among the Camden hills. 
 
 Franklin had been in the Mexican war, and was in 
 General Taylor's staff at Buena Vista. From him I 
 gained a full account of the battle, with many little 
 
1854. THE COAST OF MAINE. 335 
 
 hints and anecdotes as to soldier's life, all quite inter- 
 esting. This account of the battle of Buena Vista 
 agrees with that which Bliss gave me. They agree 
 that at the end of the day our army was exhausted, 
 dispirited, its vigor and morale gone, and that they 
 all looked forward to the next day as to certain de- 
 struction before this overwhelming force, and that 
 the retreat of the Mexicans was unexpected. We 
 woke up and found ourselves victors instead of vic- 
 tims. It flashed upon us that we had gained one of 
 the most remarkable victories of modern times, when 
 we expected a day of certain destruction. He says 
 that all the story of the Mississippi regiment using 
 their bowie-knives is entirely false. They used only 
 the rifle-ball, and not even bayonets. He spoke very 
 highly of Lincoln, and says he was killed by a shot 
 through the back of the head when facing a regi- 
 ment, riding in front, and encouraging them on at 
 a critical moment when they were faltering under a 
 severe fire. His situation was a most exposed one, 
 a situation which it would have been mere foolhardi- 
 ness to take, except under the circumstances of this 
 battle, where our troops were chiefly volunteers, and 
 all depended on the officers. Lincoln was Acting 
 Adjutant General, and had no command of the regi- 
 ment, but seeing them falter he rode in front and 
 cheered them on by example as well as by word. 
 
 Franklin says that Bliss was the ablest young man 
 in the army. But the entire credit of the battle he 
 gives to Taylor. There was a power in old Tay- 
 lor's presence, in his mere name, the mere confidence 
 that he was there, which kept up the day. He told 
 me it was his firm belief that if Taylor had been 
 killed, or if he had been detained two hours more at 
 
336 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 39. 
 
 Saltillo, the whole army would have been on the full 
 ruu. He agreed, too, with the general account that 
 the artillery saved the day ; but he does not give the 
 credit of this to Bragg any more than to Sherman. 
 He says it is the mere accident of Bragg's propos- 
 ing to Taylor to retreat, and Taylor's saying to him 
 that there must be no retreat, and to "give them 
 grape, Captain Bragg," that has popularly connected 
 Bragg's name more with the battle than Sherman's. 
 
 Franklin saw O'Brien lose every man in his bat- 
 tery and his guns, and save only his own life. He 
 agrees with Bliss, too, in the belief that if the artil- 
 lery had not repulsed the charge of the cavalry (as 
 by all the rules and chances of war they could not 
 do) our defeat was certain. 
 
 Bliss told me that Taylor did not speak to Bragg 
 at the time, and all the story about u a little more 
 grape " was a fable. But Franklin says he was by 
 Taylor's side when Bragg rode up and told Taylor 
 that he was unsupported by infantry and could not 
 maintain his post, and that Taylor replied, " You 
 must maintain your post. There is no choice. You 
 must do it. If they get near give them grape." 
 He also says that nearly all the officers at the coun- 
 cil of war held that night were in favor of retreat- 
 ing. If this had been done, both armies would have 
 been in full retreat at the same time. 
 
 Franklin says that the war had a bad effect on our 
 officers, producing a great deal of intemperance and 
 gambling, and ruining many fine fellows. I was sur- 
 prised to hear him speak of one and another, living 
 and dead, who had become intemperate, or formed 
 ruinous habits of gambling, and he says that many 
 outrages were committed on the Mexicans, less no 
 
1854. THE COAST OF MAINE. 337 
 
 doubt than by conquering armies generally, but still 
 enough to give one a dreadful idea of military con- 
 quest, and he himself is not a man of peculiarly deli- 
 cate organization, or of fastidious moral sense, but 
 simply an average, honest-minded man of average 
 morals and tastes. . . . 
 
 I was landed at Camden about eleven A. M. of 
 Thursday, August 31. As I had several hours on 
 my hands I rode up to the foot of the mountain and 
 walked up to Bache's encampment. The entire scen- 
 ery about Camden is unusually picturesque, even for 
 the sea-coast of Maine. Near the top of the moun- 
 tain, in the midst of the deepest and richest foliage 
 of oaks and evergreens, with the exquisite perfume of 
 the spruce tree pervading all, stood the company of 
 snow-white tents. The effect as you turn the path 
 and come suddenly upon it is quite picturesque. In 
 the tents were officers writing and reading, and the 
 servants at their various avocations. Found Mr. 
 Bache in a tent divided into two apartments, one 
 occupied by himself, and in the other, which is the 
 sleeping-room, was Mrs. Bache sewing. Mrs. Bache 
 always accompanies her husband in his camp duty. 
 Although the day was warm he had a fire, and sat 
 with a cloak about his chair. His table was covered 
 with books and papers, and he seemed busily at work. 
 The weather had been too thick for observations for 
 several days, and the smoke from the fires in the 
 woods had obscured several points. I stayed to dine. 
 Mr3. Bache was a Newport lady and a friend of Mrs. 
 Professor Channing, and I found her quite agreeable. 
 Mr. Bache is a calm, quiet, well-bred man, with an 
 appearance of thoughtful ness and of determination, 
 and impressed me very favorably. He was very at- 
 
338 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 39. 
 
 tentive, but I left immediately after dinner for fear 
 of interrupting his labors. 
 
 November 5. I have just read " The Heir of Red- 
 clyffe." Oh, that my eyes were rivers and my head 
 a fountain of tears ! Read it all young men and 
 young women ! Never have I seen the religious 
 character, elevated virtue, struggles with evil, the 
 pure, unostentatious, noble, heroic, chivalrous good- 
 ness, portrayed in so affecting, so captivating a man- 
 ner. Guy! Poor, dear, noble Guy ! Would to God 
 the impression of this book might never leave me ; 
 that it might be with me in life and in death! In 
 all time of my prosperity, in all time of my tribula- 
 tion, especially in all the time of my prosperity, 
 which is always the trying time with me. I have 
 done nothing but sigh and weep all day, and the ser- 
 vices at church kept me in almost constant tears. 
 Guy and Amy were so real to me, that it was a 
 mournful pleasure to me to go through the same ser- 
 vice that they went through, to read their psalms and 
 lessons. And it happening to be the Sunday after 
 All Saints, the clergyman preached on the " Com- 
 munion of Saints." It was more than I could bear. 
 
 " Guy's Sea," as poor Amy called it, overcomes me 
 at every recurrence. Then the lines from Sewell : — 
 
 "A stranger's roof to hold thy head, 
 A stranger's foot thy grave to tread 
 Desert and rock and Alp and sea 
 Spreading between thy home and thee ! " 
 
 There is something in Guy that reminds me of 
 myself, but how sad is the difference ! In his love 
 of adventure, his devotion to the sea, the rocks and 
 the wild scenery, his love of boats, his turn for ro- 
 mance and heroic adventure, his sober seriousness as 
 
1854. THE COAST OF MAINE. 339 
 
 a lover, the melancholy devotedness of his courtship, 
 his youthfulness and elasticity, — in all these I am 
 reminded of some of the best points in my own life 
 and character. In a general desire to be elevated 
 and religious, and in the power of such things to 
 touch me, I am like him. But also, I have no con- 
 stancy, little of his power of self-discipline, his reso- 
 lution, his moral courage, and far, far behind him in 
 purity. He was pure. He was a constant striver 
 for victory. I am only an occasional struggler be- 
 tween long intervals of ease, indifference and self-in- 
 dulgence. He had a sure hope and affections fixed 
 on the world to come. Nearly all my portion is in 
 this life. My thoughts are here, my treasure is here, 
 Heaven and the spiritual world are unreal to me, 
 and I have no power to bear mental suffering, be- 
 cause I have no sure hold on what is beyond. 
 
 God grant that the cares of this life may not de- 
 stroy me. I feel that if I were independent of my 
 profession, and my wife were spared to me, and we 
 could together give ourselves to contemplation, to 
 religious exercises, to nature, to art, to the best of 
 reading and study, spending much of our time at the 
 dear, dear shore, we should be more elevated, more 
 tender, more fit for a spiritual world. My only stay 
 at such times is the thought that God assigns us our 
 duties. My duty is clear. I must support myself 
 and my family, and earn a competency for them by 
 my profession. This requires indefatigable labor. 
 All I can do is to aim at a life of rectitude and in- 
 tegrity, and to keep my better nature open to influ- 
 ences by books, by poetry and eloquence, by nature, 
 and by as much attendance on the worship of God 
 as my time will permit. But shall I do this ? No, 
 
340 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 39. 
 
 if I am to judge from the past. God keep in me the 
 hope and the effort, work in me to will and to do ! 
 Amen. 
 
 November 15. ... I heard a capital thing said by 
 Dr. Lieber. Speaking of visiting at Lenox and 
 
 Stoekbridge, among the , he said he felt like St. 
 
 Joseph in the pictures of the Holy Family, the only 
 one of the company that had not a halo round his 
 head. Any one who has visited among them can 
 appreciate and enjoy this. . . . This week we have 
 been trying the case of the bark Missouri for salvage. 
 I put upon the stand Captain Pitman, who had been 
 engaged in the embezzlement of the specie with 
 Dixey, the master of the Missouri, on the coast of 
 Sumatra. He testified that Dixey proposed it, and 
 tried to persuade him into and offered many induce- 
 ments, that he said they would be discovered and 
 convicted, but Dixey said they would not, and tried 
 to persuade him that it was safe. Choate cross-ex- 
 amined him as to those inducements pretty strictly, 
 and wished to know what the inducements were. 
 Pitman said there was one he did not know whether 
 he ought to mention. 
 
 Choqte. You may keep it secret, if you prefer. 
 
 Dana. No, Captain Pitman, let us know all about 
 it. 
 
 Pitman. Well, sir, he said that if we were detected 
 he would get Mr. Choate to defend us, and he would 
 get us off if the money was found in our boots. 
 
 It was a good many minutes before the court and 
 audience recovered its gravity. 
 
 December 16. Dined at the Albion in a select 
 company, of Emerson, Lowell, Alcott, Goddard (of 
 Cincinnati, lecturer), an English gentleman named 
 
1855. JUDGE LORING. 341 
 
 Cholmondely (Oxford graduate), a clever and prom- 
 ising Cambridge student named Sanborn, and Wood- 
 man. It was very agreeable. Emerson is an excel- 
 lent dinner-table man, always a gentleman, never 
 bores or preaches or dictates, but drops and takes up 
 topics very agreeably, and has even skill and tact in 
 managing his conversation. So, indeed, has Alcott ; 
 and it is quite surprising to see these transcendental- 
 ists appearing well as men of the world. 
 
 1855. March. Petitions have been sent to the Leg- 
 islature for the removal of Judge Loring from the 
 judgeship of probate. If they are founded upon the 
 notion that, in discharging the duty of commissioner 
 in the Burns case he acted from any corrupt or wil- 
 ful motive, or was wanting in kindness and fairness 
 in his treatment of Burns or his counsel, it is a mis- 
 take. If founded on the opinion that in acting at all 
 as commissioner he violated any law or the spirit of 
 any law of Massachusetts, it is a mistake. If founded 
 on the opinion that, without either of these reasons, 
 he ought to be removed because of his acting as mag- 
 istrate in a slave case, my own opinion is that it is 
 far better for Massachusetts first to put herself right 
 upon the record, to pass a law prohibiting such an 
 act, and then to punish all who transgress it. This 
 is more dignified in the state, and safer as a precedent 
 as regards the independence of the judges. It seemed 
 to me that no man in the state was in a situation to 
 act with as much effect as I, seeing that I was counsel 
 for Burns, known to be an opponent of the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, and hostile to Judge Loring and his set. 
 It seemed to me therefore that it was my duty to 
 come forward, not in his defence, but in defence of 
 the principle, and to save the anti-slavery cause from 
 doing something it might regret. 
 
342 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 39. 
 
 I first called on Franklin Dexter and President 
 Quincy, to get them to head a remonstrance and 
 become responsible for the counteraction. My inter- 
 vie w with Mr. Quincy was very gratifying. It was 
 a noble spectacle to see this venerable man of eighty- 
 five with his memory and all his powers about him, 
 grand, stately, simple, a relic of great times gone by, 
 born before the battle of Bunker Hill, six years old 
 at the Declaration of Independence, whose father 
 had died in the cause, a member of Congress under 
 Jefferson's administration. His views on the subject 
 were clear. He wished Loring punished and his set, 
 the clique of the Curtises put down, but he thought 
 his removal would be a violation of the spirit of the 
 Constitution, yet he said that it was an irresponsible 
 hand that struck the blow, a "Know-Nothing" legis- 
 lature, and their act would be no precedent. He pre- 
 ferred, therefore, to stand by and see it done rather 
 than to interfere. 
 
 Mr. Dexter's views were much the same. Yet he 
 was more willing to act, were it not for his extreme 
 dislike to the Curtis faction. He said " If they were 
 a tyranny, I would fight them ; but they are a pesti- 
 lence, and I shun them." 
 
 The advice of neither of these gentlemen was quite 
 satisfactory. Mr. Dexter is always too fastidious, 
 and " reasons too precisely on the event," and thus 
 seldom acts with effect. He is entirely independent 
 of everything but his own tastes and antipathies, but 
 he is the slave of them. He is fearless of man, but 
 does not care enough for any man to risk anything, 
 or to stir himself. Mr. Quincy reasoned too much 
 like a politician, it seemed to me. He wished to let 
 the Know-Nothings injure themselves, and was willing 
 
1855. JUDGE LORING. 343 
 
 that an irresponsible hand should strike the blow. 
 My answer is that I do not feel myself wise enough 
 to limit and define beforehand the consequences of 
 an act I think illegal and wrong, which touches vital 
 principles of the Constitution. 
 
 I called on Mr. Adams (C. F.), but he was away. 
 Being obliged to go to Dedham, I could consult no 
 more, and was obliged to commit myself to action 
 without further opportunity for advice. 
 
 My course was to appear in behalf of certain re- 
 monstrants who are anti-slavery men — entirely dis- 
 tinct from Judge Loring and his friends, and not in 
 any professional capacity. 
 
 March 6. After several delays and adjournments, 
 I appeared to-day before the committee and made 
 a long address upon the subject. I endeavored to 
 lay down the true principle as to the right of re- 
 moval by address, and to illustrate and enforce, to 
 present rules and suggestions in the way of public 
 policy and discretion, and then to do justice to the 
 conduct of Judge Loring, as to the modus operandi, 
 as to which I think the petitioners are misrepresent- 
 ing him. I believe my speech had a decided effect 
 not only on the committee, but on the large audi- 
 ence. It is a narrow plank to walk. I think Judge 
 Loring did wrong in acting as commissioner while 
 he was a Massachusetts judge. I think his decision 
 was wrong. I dislike exceedingly the spirit of his 
 friends and supporters, but I think he ought not to 
 be removed. My speech will be published. 1 
 
 1 Remarks of Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq., before the Committee on 
 Federal Relations, on the proposed removal of Edward G. Loring from 
 the Office of Judge of Probate, March 5, 1855. Boston : Printed by 
 Alfred Miidge & Son. 1855. 28 pp. 
 
344 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi. 39. 
 
 March 30. Friday. Anthony Burns called to see 
 me, with his clergyman, Rev. Mr. Grimes, to thank 
 me for my defence, and to pay his respects. He 
 appeared very well, in good health and spirits. He 
 seems a modest, conscientious man, and his story 
 must be drawn from him. 
 
 He told me that he was put in irons as soon as he 
 arrived in Richmond, which was early in the sum- 
 mer. He was put in a slave jail and kept there, in 
 close confinement and in irons, both on his hands 
 and on his feet, until November, except during a few 
 weeks when he had a violent fever and the irons 
 were taken off by order of the physician. These 
 irons were not for security but for punishment, as it 
 was impossible for him to escape without them. In 
 November Colonel Suttle put him up at auction. 
 He was more tlmn an hour on the block before there 
 were any bids of consequence. The crowd were ex- 
 asperated against him for his former escape, and 
 threatened him so much that Suttle thought him in 
 danger, and got a gang of some twenty or thirty 
 men to stand by to protect him. Burns said this 
 was not because Suttle cared for his life or limbs, but 
 because he was his property and was afraid he would 
 be injured so as to reduce his value. At length he 
 was bid off to a Mr. McDaniel of North Carolina, a 
 slave-trader, for $910. , McDaniel was obliged to 
 carry him away by night for fear of the mob. 
 
 In North Carolina he was well treated by McDan- 
 iel, who is a bold, frank fellow, and whose object 
 was to speculate in him. McDaniel soon got into cor- 
 respondence with Burns's friends here, and at last 
 agreed to deliver him at Baltimore for $1,300 and 
 expenses, making a profit of $400. This agreement 
 
he was obliged to keep secret, for if it had been 
 known that Burns was to be restored there would 
 have been danger to his life. On the way to Balti- 
 more several times people in the conveyances learn- 
 ing McDaniel's name, and suspecting that he was 
 taking Burns north, became violent, and in a steam- 
 boat McDaniel had to stand at the door three hours 
 with his revolver loaded and capped. 
 
 I showed Burns the window of the room in the 
 court-house where he was confined, and the court- 
 room. What a change, and what a life for an ob- 
 scure negro ! One of several millions of obscure ne- 
 groes, he escaped to Boston, and is as obscure there, 
 when in a day his name is telegraphed all over the 
 Union, millions await the decision of his fate in anx- 
 ious suspense, riots and bloodshed occur, the heart of 
 a nation is aroused ; over his body is the great strug- 
 gle between the moral sense of a people and the 
 written law backed by armed power ; half a nation 
 is humiliated and half a nation triumphant as the 
 scale is turned ; to him freedom for life or servitude 
 for life hangs in suspense ; the die turns for slavery, 
 bonds and imprisonment await him ; but the eyes of 
 a nation are on him, again humane hearts beat, and 
 he is purchased to freedom ; and now revisits the 
 scene of his agony of trial a hero, a martyr, with 
 crowds of the learned and intelligent of a civilized 
 community listening to his words! Who can tell 
 what a day may bring forth ? Who can tell what 
 are the things and which are the men that are to 
 move the world ? 
 
 The subsequent life of Anthony Burns can be told in few- 
 words. Rejecting with manly self-respect an offer from 
 Barnum to exhibit himself at the Museum of the showman 
 
346 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 39. 
 
 in New York, and refusing in any way to make the story 
 of his wrongs a means of livelihood, Burns, who had as a 
 slave been a preacher, determined, now that he was a free- 
 man, to become a clergyman. He was offered a scholar- 
 ship at Oberlin, which he at once accepted, and early in the 
 summer of 1855 entered upon his studies. In due course 
 of time he was ordained as a minister of the Baptist per- 
 suasion, and subsequently was settled over a church at St. 
 Catherines in Canada. He there died July 27, 1862. 
 
 I have every reason to be gratified and satisfied 
 with the course I took in opposing the removal of 
 Judge Loring. It is wise to take advice of the el- 
 ders, and always right to weigh it well, but not always 
 necessary to follow it. My instincts taught me that 
 my course was right, and I felt that the advice of 
 Dexter and Qivincy was too politic and cautious; 
 Dexter' s, from fastidiousness, and Mr. Quincy's, prob- 
 ably from a really doubtful state of mind, a desire 
 to see the thing done. 
 
 Except an abusive article in the " Atlas," by Hil- 
 dreth, which the u Telegraph " had declined to pub- 
 lish, and a very unfair letter to the "New York 
 Evening Post," I suspect from Hildreth also, who is 
 as venomous and deaf as an adder, I have been well 
 treated, and the amount of compliment and congrat- 
 ulation heaped upon me by the best of men has been 
 gratifying in the extreme. I feel, too, that I have 
 been the means of bringing the anti-slavery senti- 
 ment of the State to a stand-still and reconsideration 
 upon the subject, and rallying the public sentiment ; 
 for no one else moved in the matter, and no one could 
 have moved so effectually as I could, having been 
 Burns's counsel, and having all the natural feeling of 
 one who had lost his case. 
 
1855. JUDGE WRING. 347 
 
 The committee have behaved shabbily. After 
 telling me distinctly that they wanted no testimony 
 on the subject of Judge Loring's conduct, as they 
 should not base their report at all upon that, and 
 that I need not introduce Mr. Grimes or any other 
 witness, they not only did base their report upon it, 
 but they procured additional testimony against him. 
 This is very mean, but I do not know how I shall 
 avail myself of it. The report is a wretched affair, 
 perhaps the poorest state document I ever saw ; but 
 little better could be expected from such a committee. 
 Yet even at that, there was only a majority of one 
 in its favor. 
 
 After long consideration and exciting debate the address 
 asking for the removal of Judge Loring passed the Legisla- 
 ture, but Henry J. Gardner, then governor, declined to ac- 
 cede to it. When, in 1857, N. P. Banks became governor, 
 the agitation of the question was renewed, and in 1858, John 
 A. Andrew being then the leader of the Republican side of 
 the House of Representatives, an address was again passed. 
 Thereupon Judge Loring was removed. He was immedi- 
 ately appointed by President Buchanan a judge of the 
 United States Court of Claims, which position he held until 
 December, 1877, a term of nearly twenty years. He then, 
 having passed the age of seventy years, resigned. 
 
 June 3. All last week I was at Worcester, trying 
 the case of Commonwealth vs. Horace Ives, on a 
 charge of embezzlement. Called on Judge Allen, 
 and had a long talk with him about politics. He 
 says no one who was not on the spot can form any 
 opinion- of the manner in which Webster appeared 
 in the Senate after his 7th of March speech, when 
 the slave questions came up occasionally. He was 
 evidently in a work for which he had no heart, and 
 
848 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 40. 
 
 as to which his conscience was not easy. Judge 
 Allen said, " One could not but pity him." 
 
 June 17. Made my annual pilgrimage to Bunker 
 Hill, at sundown, and took in the noble coup d'oeil, 
 and recalled the ideas which that spot always fur- 
 nishes to the mind either at all patriotic, or at all 
 thoughtful. 
 
 November 4. Sunday evening. The absorbing 
 occupations of law and politics have prevented my 
 keeping up my journal the last two months. Since 
 my last date we have held our convention at Worces- 
 ter. Its history is to be found in my " Report " to 
 the people of Cambridge, printed in the " Atlas " of 
 last week. The temporal questions of men, and the 
 gossip, is well enough passed by; but we think the 
 triumph of the Republican cause to be of the greatest 
 importance to the cause of freedom in the struggle 
 with the slave oligarchy. 
 
 Sumner made a noble speech at Faneuil Hall Fri- 
 day night, before a crowded assembly, at which I pre- 
 sided. Seward's speech at Albany, on the " privi- 
 leged classes," the oligarchy of slavery, has been the 
 key-note of the new party. 
 
 Rachel has been here, and I have seen her twice, 
 once as Phedre, and once as Adrienne Lecouvreur. 
 She is the greatest person I ever saw upon a stage. 
 She is absolutely free from the stage artifices and 
 tricks, even the traditionary mannerisms of the stage, 
 in attitudes, gait, gesture and tones of voice. All is 
 her own. Though there may be an excess of art, it 
 is apparently simple and natural. It is an art 
 wrought out by herself from practice on her own na- 
 ture. You do not know how she comes on the stage 
 or goes off. Her easy parts are easily played, and her 
 
1855-56. RACHEL. 349 
 
 passionate parts cut to the quick. In Phedre I was 
 surprised at the tenderness, the sympathetic and fem- 
 inine character of her expression and action. She was 
 more touching than startling. Her hair is raven 
 black, black as night, her eyes small, but they have 
 expressions one never saw before and can never for- 
 get, their beauty >s in their socketing. She is but 
 little, if at all, above middle height, very slight and 
 thin, her face thin, with an olive complexion, as it 
 seems by gas-light. Wicked beyond measure the 
 scandal of the day makes her. There must be foun- 
 dation for this, even if it be exaggerated. She inter- 
 ested me extremely, though I fancied I could see, 
 perhaps from prepossession, room and verge enough 
 for an evil spirit. . . . 
 
 Judge Hoar reports a £Ood thing of a shrewd old 
 fellow in the country who listened to a theological 
 discussion upon the difference between Unitarians 
 and Universalists, and said the only difference he 
 could ever see between them was that the Universal- 
 ists thought God was too good to damn them, and the 
 Unitarians thought they were too good to be damned. 
 
 1856. February 17. An obituary of Mr. [Ed- 
 ward Tyrrel] Channing in the " Daily Advertiser " 
 of the 15th inst. is by me. 
 
 25. Wednesday. R. W. Emerson lectured at 
 Cambridge this evening, the subject being " Stone- 
 henge and Carlyle." It was an easy, pleasant nar- 
 rative of a visit he made to Stonehenge in com- 
 pany with Carlyle. According to his account, which 
 is, doubtless, as favorable as possible, Carlyle must 
 be a conceited, dogmatical, pugnacious, ill-bred man, 
 sceptical in great matters, opinionated and positive 
 in little ones. It was characteristic of these two un- 
 
350 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 40. 
 
 believing philosophers that on Sunday, which they 
 spent at Winchester, they passed the morning in 
 talking at a friend's house, and the evening in loung- 
 ing round the cathedral, while service was going on 
 inside. 
 
 March. Mr. Choate delivered a lecture in Boston 
 nominally on the old age of Samuel Rogers, but 
 really on the periods in which he lived. It was an 
 address of great power and beauty. His allusion to 
 the stream of memories in Rogers's old age, full and 
 placid, flowing beneath the arches of his mind not yet 
 fallen, was quite beautiful. He had a grand tribute 
 to Cowper, and a touching allusion to his gloom — un- 
 able to see the angels that assuredly waited to receive 
 him on the other side of the dark river. He put 
 Byron, Wordsworth and Scott, at the head of the 
 poets of the period, and Coleridge at the head of the 
 second class, with Campbell, Shelley and others. 
 Query : If Coleridge should not go into the first rank 
 for quality though not for quantity ? He had a very 
 gratifying tribute to my father, " the elder Dana," 
 with Bryant and Longfellow. 
 
 April. I have been much interested, the last 
 two weeks, in the case of Judge Woodbury Davis, of 
 Maine, whom the Legislature of Maine are threaten- 
 ing to remove by address from the bench of the Su- 
 preme Court. It is, I believe, the first instance in this 
 country of an attempt to remove a judge solely on 
 grounds of party policy. Superior courts have been 
 abolished to get rid of judges, and where this is for 
 no good reason it is a perversion of power ; but to re- 
 move a single judge of the Supreme Court by address, 
 on no charge of incapacity or misconduct, has never 
 before been attempted. This is a bold attempt to 
 
1856. JUDGE DAVIS. 351 
 
 reduce the judiciary under the control of party and 
 caucus. Judge Davis decided a constitutional ques- 
 tion necessarily before him, which he could not avoid 
 deciding, candidly and temperately, but against the 
 views and policy of the party in power. After a good 
 deal of disciplining and dragooning, by the operation 
 of caucus, the party is induced to make his removal 
 a party question. Caucus votes it; and the party 
 must follow. Fortunately, the Constitution requires 
 the "causes" to be specified, and notice and a hearing 
 for the judge. In this case, the "causes" assigned 
 were simply that he refused to acknowledge the com- 
 mission that the Governor gave to the new sheriff, 
 the constitutional power of the Governor to give the 
 commission being the point in issue. 
 
 Judge Davis's friends retained Choate to plead his 
 cause before the Legislature, and I was retained to 
 make full preparation of the law and history, and to 
 take Choate's place in case he was prevented by ill- 
 ness or engagements from going. I was obliged to 
 make the same preparation as if I were the only 
 counsel, without knowing until Wednesday whether 
 I should be called upon to go. Wednesday night, 
 Choate being ready, I handed over to him my brief 
 (seventeen pages), and he went to Augusta. 
 
 It is a great occasion. I should have felt great 
 pride in making an attempt, by speech and reason, 
 before the legislature of a sovereign state, to stay 
 and turn back, at its outset, the current which, un- 
 checked, will prostrate every barrier against the om- 
 nipotence of party majorities. 1 
 
 1 The joint committee of the Legislature of Maine to whom this 
 case was referred were addressed on behalf of Judge Davis by- 
 Henry W. Paine, F O. J. Smith and Rufus Choate ; Edward Kent, 
 
352 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 40. 
 
 April 8. Met Dr. Robinson, governor-elect of Kan- 
 sas under the state constitution, at a small gather- 
 ing in the rooms of the Emigrant Aid Society. He 
 gave a clear, moderate and sensible account of the 
 state of things in Kansas, and of its histor}'. He 
 strikes me like a calm, quiet, resolute, clear-headed 
 man. It was an interesting and instructive spectacle, 
 to one observant of the developments of the Ameri- 
 can mind and character, and the course and results of 
 our institutions, to see this plain, self-made man, not 
 educated to politics or law, in a modest, but firm and 
 intelligent manner lay down the constitutional prin- 
 ciples, and refer to the historical precedents on which 
 their whole movement had been predicated and 
 shaped. Where else in the world can be found this 
 native aptness for affairs, this mingled respect for 
 law and precedent, and love of order, with devotion 
 to liberty and freedom and personal rights. Verily, 
 every true-born Yankee is a maker of constitutions, 
 a founder of empires, a builder of cities, a subduer of 
 nature and a regulator of men. 
 
 In the Presbyterian Church case (Attorney Gen- 
 eral vs. Federal Street Church), Hillard, in drawing 
 the answer, said that our ancestors came here to estab- 
 lish religious freedom, and that no particular mode 
 of faith had ever been required in Massachusetts. In 
 my argument I referred to that statement, and made 
 
 ex-governor of the State, attended as his counsel. The decision of 
 the committee was said to have been taken on party grounds solely, 
 uninfluenced by the arguments ; and on their report the Legislature, 
 by a party vote in both houses, adopted the address, in pursuance of 
 which the Governor, Samuel Wells, April 11, 1856, removed Judge 
 Davis from the bench. The same Legislature afterwards abolished 
 the office ; but their successors sitting in 1857 reestablished it, and 
 Judge Davis was restored to his former position. 
 
1856. JUDGE SHAW. 353 
 
 some sport by alluding to the real history of religion 
 in Massachusetts, and inquiring where the learned 
 counsel had obtained his information, etc. The judges 
 and bar smiled, and Hillard explained and retracted 
 the entire statement. But I noticed that the Chief 
 Justice did not seem to relish the occurrence, and 
 muttered something which seemed to indicate that he 
 thought the statement substantially correct. When 
 the court conferred upon the subject of the judgment, 
 they unanimously agreed that we had failed to estab- 
 lish that the deed of Little, etc., created a public 
 charity, and it was conceded by us that unless it was 
 a public charity we could not prevail, and they au- 
 thorized the Chief Justice to draw up an opinion in 
 accordance with those views. He drew up the 
 opinion, and when he came to read it, to the surprise 
 of the court as well as to the astonishment of the 
 bar, it contained an elaborate historical argument to 
 show that there had always been religious freedom in 
 Massachusetts, and that the word " orthodox " used 
 in the statute was not used in any technical sense, 
 but left each church to its own opinion of what was 
 orthodox. It is no disrespect to Judge Shaw to say 
 that a weaker argument never came from a sensible 
 man. It was self-evidently wrong, and there was no 
 way of accounting for it, but to admit that Judge 
 Shaw had come to such a state of doting fondness 
 as to create a bias that entirely perverted a sound 
 and honest mind. Every man at the bar, as well as 
 on the bench, saw the lamentable weakness it ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 When the case came in its order to be printed, the 
 judges came to an agreement among themselves and 
 spoke to the Chief Justice about it, and told him that 
 
354 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 40. 
 
 they could not agree to have that stand as part of the 
 opinion. Judge Metcalf said he not only entirely 
 disseuted from it, but that he was not willing to have 
 the sanction of the Supreme Court given to one side 
 of the controversy respecting the Hollis professorship. 
 Judge Thomas and Judge Bigelow, who are both 
 Unitarians, also attacked the opinion, and demon- 
 strated its fallaciousness. The Chief Justice made 
 fight for a time, but was obliged to yield, and took 
 back the opinion and revised it, leaving out all those 
 parts that related to religious freedom ; and it is to 
 be printed in that form [3 Gray, 1], . . . The truth 
 is, Judge Shaw is a man of intense and doting biases 
 in religious, political and social matters. Unitarian- 
 ism, Harvard College, the social and political respec- 
 tabilities of Boston are his idola specus et fori. 
 
 [Salem.] May. ... I have found a resource in 
 riding, there being very good saddle-horses here, and 
 rode out every morning and evening to Danvers, Bev- 
 erly, Marblehead, etc. But the ride of the chief in- 
 terest was on Thursday evening, to Danvers, to the 
 grave of Eliza Wharton. I gave my horse to the 
 charge of a boy at the gate, and following a well- 
 beaten foot-path came to her grave. It is marked 
 by a large upright stone, brown sand-stone, all the 
 upper part of which has been broken off by the cu- 
 riosity of visitors to carry away pieces as relics. So 
 far is it defaced by this barbarism, which yet has a 
 relish of piety and sentiment in it, that the name is 
 gone, and much of the inscription, but I could read, 
 in the gathering twilight, broken sentences testifying 
 to her beauty, her genius and her many virtues and 
 charms. 
 
 How aad and solemn is it for a man to stand by the 
 
1856. ELIZA WHARTON. 355 
 
 grave of a woman of beauty, genius, station, affection, 
 betrayed by one of bis own sex to shame, anguish, 
 desertion and death ! 
 
 It is now more than sixty years since she died, yet 
 her story is as fresh as yesterday, and the interest in 
 her grave and in what tradition has preserved of her 
 few weeks of deserted, unrecognized, tearful life in 
 Danvers rather increases than diminishes with years. 
 The steps of visitors have made a path to her grave, 
 the headstone is scarcely preserved by reason of the 
 demands of their sentimental interest, and even the 
 spot where the "Bell Tavern " stood, in which she 
 sojourned and died, now built over with shops, can 
 be pointed out to the stranger by any child in the 
 village. 
 
 The episode of Eliza Wharton like that of Charlotte 
 Stanley, who was by the mother's side a near relative of 
 Eliza Wharton's, has always excited great interest and great 
 sympathy. Each was made the subject of a work of fiction 
 modelled on Richardson's " Clarissa Harlowe," and " Char- 
 lotte Temple " and " Eliza Wharton, or the Coquette " 
 though now forgotten, both in their day passed through 
 many editions and were widely read. 
 
 Eliza Wharton, or, to give her real name, Elizabeth 
 Whitman, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1756, and 
 lived there during almost the whole of her life ; and it was 
 probably due in part to this local association through his 
 wife's connection with Hartford and Wethersfield, that 
 Dana felt so deep an interest in her fate. Her father was 
 long connected with Yale College, while her mother, named 
 Stanley, was descended from a younger son of one of the 
 seventeenth century Earls of Derby. Noted for her beauty 
 and gentleness of character, Elizabeth Whitman was greatly 
 admired by the young men of the pre-revolutionary period 
 in Connecticut, among whom were Aaron Burr and Pierre- 
 
356 RICHARD HENRY DANA. ^t. 40. 
 
 pont Edwards ; finally in 1775 she became engaged to the 
 Rev. Joseph Howe, pastor of the New South Church in 
 Boston, who had been driven from his charge at the time 
 of the siege of Boston and sought refuge in Connecticut. 
 He seems to have died in Hartford in 1776. Elizabeth is 
 said to have tended him in his last illness ; " but, as she 
 had loved him with moderation, she mourned for him with- 
 out despair." She next became engaged to the Rev. Jo- 
 seph Buckminster, afterwards settled at Portsmouth, New 
 Hampshire ; but this engagement was subsequently broken 
 off. Five years later, in May, 1788, being then thirty-six, 
 she left her home and family, ostensibly to visit a friend in 
 Boston, but stopped on the way at Watertown ; and thence, 
 a few days later, was driven over to Dan vers, reaching that 
 place early in June and going to the Bell Tavern, where 
 she gave her name as Mrs. Walker. She claimed to be 
 waiting there for her husband, and a few weeks later, in 
 July, gave birth to a dead child, and died herself a fort- 
 night afterwards. A paragraph in the " Boston Chronicle " 
 then first revealed her place of refuge to friends and rela- 
 tives. 
 
 She wore a wedding ring, and insisted that she was mar- 
 ried ; though if such was the fact, the name of her husband 
 and the father of her child has never been disclosed. She 
 herself was silent on the subject, merely saying, when 
 pressed, that her death was the easiest solution of many 
 problems. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF EUROPE. 
 
 To see England and especially London had long been a 
 dream of Dana's life. In the course of his vacation ram- 
 bles he had now visited most of the portions of his own 
 country which were interesting and then easily accessible, — 
 Niagara, the White Mountains, Canada, the lakes and 
 coast of Maine, and the British provinces ; he had seen 
 California and the Pacific ; he had twice rounded the 
 Horn ; but he had never crossed the Atlantic, or gone back 
 to what was to him far more than it is to most Americans, 
 " our old home." The time for the dream to be realized 
 came at last. 
 
 Dana went abroad in 1856 under the happiest possible 
 auspices. No longer a boy, he was exempt from a boy's 
 restless thirst for excitement ; but he had not reached the 
 period when the faculty of enjoyment is impaired. Not 
 yet forty-one, his reading, thoughts and mental associations 
 were all connected with England and things English ; but 
 he had really known only America. He was accordingly in 
 an eager and thoroughly receptive condition. He went, too, 
 under the most favorable circumstances, for not only did he 
 have a reputation of his own as the plucky young fellow 
 who had served two years before the mast and written a 
 book which recalled Defoe, but more recently his defence 
 of Burns and his manly stand in the Fugitive Slave cases 
 
358 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mi.AO. 
 
 had aroused a new interest in him. For it is to be re- 
 membered that the English aristocracy was, as respects 
 slavery, in a very different frame of mind in 1856 from that 
 in which it found itself five years after when the war of the 
 rebellion broke out. In 1861 all its sympathies went with 
 the South, and those loyal to freedom and the Union were 
 made to realize keenly enough how thin, even in the highest 
 circles, is the veneering of politeness which overlies genuine 
 British brusqueness. It was otherwise in 1856 when Dana 
 first visited London. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " was then in 
 the height of its world-wide vogue, and anti-slavery cant 
 echoed in levee and drawing-room. England thought itself 
 enlisted heart and soul in favor of the oppressed slave, his 
 champion was sure of a welcome, and Dana was the legal 
 champion of the fugitives. 
 
 Moreover, on the 22d of the previous May Charles Sum- 
 ner had been assaulted and beaten down in the senate 
 chamber by Preston S. Brooks. Sumner was at that time 
 probably better known than any other American in the 
 highest circles of London society. The interest in him had 
 been revived and quickened by the murderous attack of the 
 slave-holding ruffian, and there was hardly a door in all 
 England which would not have flown open in welcome to 
 one bearing a missive from the Massachusetts Senator. 
 Hearing that he was going abroad, Sumner sent Dana let- 
 ters of introduction to many of his friends. 
 
 Those too were the golden days of the Victorian era. 
 The Queen, only thirty-seven, was a young woman still, the 
 Prince Consort was of the same age as his wife, and their 
 children, all children yet and about them, had not begun to 
 marry. The Crimean war had been brought to a close but 
 three months before, and the English army was returning 
 home ; while London swarmed with the heroes of Sebastopol 
 and Kars, social lions of the day. Lord Palmerston was 
 premier, and Sir George Cornwall Lewis was chancellor of 
 the exchequer, from which position Mr. Gladstone had the 
 
1856. THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF EUROPE. 359 
 
 previous year withdrawn. Neither he nor Lord John Rus- 
 sell were then in office. On the opposite parliamentary 
 benches sat Disraeli, who four years before had been the 
 leader in the Commons of the first Derby cabinet, the head 
 of which, " the Rupert of debate," now led the Tories in the 
 Lords. Across the Channel, the second Empire was in the 
 full blaze of its tinsel glory, and the Emperor only three 
 years before had seated the daughter of the Spanish Count 
 of Montijo beside him on the imperial throne. 
 
 Sailing from Boston on the steamship America of the 
 Cunard line the 2d of July, Dana landed in Liverpool on 
 the 13th of the month ; for that was before the days of 
 "ocean greyhounds," and the average summer voyage 
 lasted ten days, — a great advantage, now lost, to the over- 
 worked man of business seeking rest and relaxation abroad, 
 but finding it, pure and simple, only on the ocean. Return- 
 ing, he left Liverpool for New York on the 23d of August, 
 having thus been exactly forty-one days on foreign soil. 
 
 In these days, when the man who has not been abroad is 
 the exception, almost every educated American knows from 
 his own experience the sensations which a first glimpse of 
 Europe, and especially of England, can hardly fail to give 
 rise to in one of his class ; and his journal is apt to refer to 
 familiar scenes with which the guide-book usually deals to 
 better effect. To publish now the detailed diary of a trip 
 to England, and of a few weeks passed in London as re- 
 cently as 1856, seems, therefore, at first almost absurd, — 
 Stratford, London, Westminster Abbey and Stonehenge, 
 have all been more than sufficiently described. But, while 
 this to some extent is true, it is true only of writers and 
 seers of a certain class ; by writers and seers like Wash- 
 ington Irving or Nathaniel Hawthorne or Richard H. Dana 
 even these familiar scenes have not been, nor will they ever 
 be, described enough. There are innumerable pictures in 
 existence now of well-known bits of landscape upon which 
 the world sets no great store, though still it prizes them 
 
360 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 40. 
 
 at their full worth ; but of sketches of those same scenes 
 by the pencils of Claude or Turner or Corot it neither has, 
 nor is it likely to have, more than are desired. Of this, his 
 first trip to familiar England, Dana, for the benefit of his 
 family at home, which included his father and sister, wrote 
 out in his letters and journals an elaborate account. That 
 account is to-day as fresh and bright and absorbing as it 
 was when first written ; and its interest is as great now to 
 the general reader as it was then to the little circle of 
 friends for whom it was intended. It reveals also the man 
 as he was in the young maturity of his powers, — eager, 
 observant, loyal, enthusiastic and humorous. 
 
 The companions of his voyage were the well-known 
 Thomas Gold Appleton, already referred to as " Tom Ap- 
 pleton, the prince of rattlers," and "William W. Story, the 
 latter of whom, a man of thirty-seven, known only as yet 
 by his law treatises and the life of his father, was going 
 abroad with his family to devote himself to art. For the 
 rest, the America on that outward trip held the usual heter- 
 ogeneous collection of passengers then as now crossing the 
 Atlantic by every steamer, who, very strange and formal 
 when the voyage begins, ' become quite intimate before it 
 ends and they separate, usually not to meet again. Never- 
 theless, there must have been something rather exceptional 
 about this particular trip, for Mr. Appleton, already a vet- 
 eran in Atlantic voyages, in writing home spoke of it as 
 " certainly one of the pleasantest passages I have made," 
 and described at length how he, Story, Dana and Miss 
 Biddies, the pretty actress, found the paddle-box a nice 
 place to sit in the morning, where they told stories, recited 
 poems and talked of writing a book, to be called " Spray 
 from the Paddlebox." Nor did Mr. Appleton ever forget 
 the Mormon elder on his proselyting tour, presently to be 
 described by Dana in his narrative. To his last days the 
 Boston wit and story-teller delighted to imitate the nasal 
 twang with which Elder Pratt, relating the interview be- 
 
1336. AT SEA. 361 
 
 tween Joseph Smith and the higher powers concerning the 
 authenticity of the Mormon tablets, concluded by saying, 
 " which being shown to the angel, he pronounced to be ab- 
 Bolewtly caorrect." Unlike Apple ton in that respect, this 
 voyage was Dana's first experience of the kind, and so every- 
 thing struck him as strange and new, and he set it all down ; 
 and it is the strongest possible proof of the literary and de- 
 scriptive jDowers of the man that the familiar sights and 
 scenes he then portrayed retain their life and freshness yet. 
 
 July 2. . . . We started punctually at twelve M., 
 with a most beautiful day overhead and around us. 
 Our two guns rang and echoed through the harbor 
 and city, our streamers flowed gayly, and we went 
 down the harbor in beautiful style — actually bound 
 to Europe, — the Europe of my dreams, that I hardly 
 dared believe I should ever see. But now that the 
 time has come, I am so intensely interested in my 
 own country, in the impending struggle between the 
 free classes and the slave-power that I cannot con- 
 jure up a thought of England. Her history, her 
 cathedrals, her castles, her nooks and corners, all lose 
 their significance, and have no hold on my feelings or 
 fancy. . . . 
 
 Spent all the evening on deck. 
 
 Nothing can exceed the beauty and cheerfulness of 
 our going off. A clear sky, fresh, pure air, quiet 
 sea, bright sun, bright blue waves, just broken by a 
 steady breeze, all carrying health, joy, vigor, to every 
 vein and nerve ! What is like the sea for healthful- 
 ness, vigor and joy ! And to me, beyond all this, 
 the infinite delight of freedom from all labor, the cer- 
 tainty of nothing to do, the certainty that there is 
 nothing I can do. No matter how many strings you 
 have left flying, no matter what occur to you as 
 
362 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 40. 
 
 things you might do or ought to do, you banish and 
 forget them all in the knowledge that miles of blue 
 water — a mare dlasociabde — makes them impos- 
 sible. To me, this is an unspeakable delight. 
 
 All sails are set, including a topmast studding 
 sail, and we go beautifully on. 
 
 10.30 P. M. Orders come aft to burn a blue light. 
 It is burned from the stern, and soon we throw a 
 rocket into the blackness of the upper sky. How it 
 tears up into the darkness, with its brevis furor, its 
 short-lived madness ! Another interval of ten min- 
 utes or so, and another rocket. Then, far ahead, we 
 see a light, and a rocket breaks in the sky and drops 
 its golden fires. This is the return boat, the Canada, 
 bound in to Boston. She passes us, several miles to 
 leeward, too far to see her regular lights, but the 
 blue lights and rockets are exchanged as complimen- 
 tary signals. 
 
 A little before midnight I leave the deck reluc- 
 tantly for my state-room. . . . 
 
 July 5. Saturday. Heavy fog, heavy rolling sea, 
 dullest of weather all day, steam whistle and horns 
 blowing all the time, decks wet. men in thick over- 
 coats and caps, windows down, all the women but the 
 Hungarian matron sea-sick, and about half the men. 
 The wind is astern, and the ship rolls heavily. I ac- 
 knowledge to the mortification of feeling a little 
 squeamish myself. I have taken my meals, and kept 
 walking deck all day, but do not feel comfortably, 
 and eat sparingly. . . . 
 
 We begin to learn something about the passengers. 
 There is a caplain in the Royal Navy, a small, matter- 
 of-fact, commonplace looking man, conscientious and 
 faithful, who keeps on deck all the time. He has 
 
1856. FELLOW PASSENGERS. 363 
 
 just left the command of the Arab, a brig of war, at 
 Halifax. Then there is a tall, raw-boned, canny old 
 Scotchman, with a red nose, dressed in a black dress 
 coat, over that a thin linen sack, half too small for 
 him, and over that a plaid shawl. I have named him 
 Sawney McBean. He is the peripatetic animal, now 
 walking deck, now in the cabin, now in the fiddley, 
 and always to be met stumbling up or down stairs. 
 If you run against any one, it is sure to be he. He 
 looks good-natured all the time, and the great red- 
 ness of his nose, and the glassy look of his eye, gives 
 you a suspicion of strong horns. . . . 
 
 Then we have a Crimean hero, an officer of the 
 — , a young man of good appearance, who, Napier 
 tells me, has been in most of the battles. His 
 regiment has just arrived in Halifax, and he is going 
 home. He is a slender, well-made, plucky looking 
 fellow, and has a soldierly walk on deck. . . . 
 
 6. Sunday. At ten o'clock all hands called, and 
 passengers invited to morning service. The cabin 
 is well rilled, and between sixty and seventy per- 
 sons, including officers and crew, attend service. It 
 is read by a clergyman, in a white cravat, a quiet, 
 modest man, who reads intelligibly and seriously, 
 and the responses are remarkably well given, quite 
 as well as in many churches. All seem interested, or 
 at least respectfully attentive. This governmental 
 respect for the institutions of religion is not only a 
 tower of strength to the government itself, linking 
 it in with the strongest sentiments of our nature, 
 but has a wholesome effect upon persons, and tends 
 to create respect for religion itself, as I believe. I 
 joined in the prayer for the Queen, for I am under 
 her flag and protection. She is bound to protect my 
 
364 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 40. 
 
 life and property with all the power of her realm, 
 and I owe her, while I choose to remain under her 
 rule, a qualified allegiance, all that is consistent with 
 my allegiance to my own country. . . . 
 
 Long talks with Appleton. He is in a strange 
 state about mesmerism and spiritual mediums. He 
 believes in the phenomena of spiritual mediums, and 
 told me many stories of communications from the 
 spirit land, and of table - moving, music, etc. He 
 says it confirms his belief in Christianity, and he 
 holds to what are called miracles, and to the good 
 and evil spirits of the Old Testament. He talks of 
 the Deity a great deal, but I doubt if he holds to 
 Christianity. It is a belief in a superintending, per- 
 sonal deity, but it does not include the Incarnation, 
 or the Trinity. It is, however, an interesting devel- 
 opment. . . . 
 
 July 7. Monday. Rose early, and was rewarded 
 by the sight of an iceberg. After a few minutes on 
 deck, " Starboard — hard a-starboard ! " was shouted 
 from forward. " Hard a-starboard ! " was echoed 
 from aft. " Starboard, every spoke ! " cried the cap- 
 tain. " Every spoke it is, sir," said the mate. 
 " Stop her ! Stop her ! " By this time several pas- 
 sengers rushed on deck, and a large iceberg lay loom- 
 ing in the fog, a few yards to windward, with the 
 small satellites drifting by its side. All we could see 
 in the thick fog was the dull, dark mass, a few shades 
 darker than the fog, high and long, with a broken, 
 wild outline. It was soon lost in the fog to leeward. 
 We were sailing directly upon it, and only the bright 
 lookout saved us from running upon it. . . . 
 
 At night, thick fog again, boat at half speed, watch 
 set, captain faithful at his post, the shrill steam 
 
185C. A DEATH AT SEA. 365 
 
 whistle, the fish-horns from the bows, the prolonged 
 li all' s well," at the sound of every bell, give the ro- 
 mantic interest of peril, exposure and watch, to our 
 life. I remained on deck until about midnight, and 
 turned in with my clothes on. I do not like to be 
 caught unprepared in case of an alarm. At day- 
 light I undressed and slept until seven bells. . . . 
 
 8. Tuesday. Just after breakfast, while we were 
 sitting over the table, the actress came up, evidently 
 disturbed, and said that the delirium tremens man 
 had just died. He died in a sudden, violent convul- 
 sion. There is something dreadful in the thought 
 of a poor fellow, the victim of vice, dying in this ter- 
 rible way, disgraced and suffering, away from all 
 friends, in the midst of the wide ocean, his poor 
 body to be thrown into the deep, and his spirit to go 
 to the Maker of all ! It goes to the hearts of many, 
 and the effect upon the crew, and the whole body of 
 the waiters and servants, is perceptible. The tone 
 of the passengers gives one little satisfaction, at least 
 those I hear from. Story is a confirmed latitudina- 
 rian and epicurean. He does not make sport of 
 death, but cold indifferentism and superficial philos- 
 ophy rule him. . . . Appleton has a whimsical mix- 
 ture of levity, indifferentism, selfishness and good 
 thought. But I detest the whole of it. . . . 
 
 My nature requires (though I am as far as possible 
 from living up to it) — my nature requires a super- 
 natural faith, observances and rites. 
 
 The Crimean hero is Major G , of the — , one 
 
 of the few survivors of the Redan. He is quite 
 young, and it is said the general offered him any re- 
 ward he would choose, and he chose a commission 
 for his younger brother. 
 
366 RICHARD HENRY DANA. ^t. 40. 
 My Sawney McBean turns out to be Mr. P , 
 
 the celebrated Quaker, one of the three Quakers that 
 made the visit to the Emperor of Russia to counsel 
 him against war. . . . My merchant shipmaster, 
 with whom I confer, and walk deck, is from Bangor, 
 Maine, has been several times round Cape Horn, as 
 he tells me, to the Chincha Islands, Australia, Cali- 
 fornia, etc. He gives a dreadful account of the coo- 
 lies at the guano islands. When he was there, lie 
 one morning found three of them hanging at the 
 door of the English commissioner, where they had 
 destroyed themselves from despair. Many threw 
 themselves from the rocks into the sea. He came to 
 me yesterday and said, M Is that man at your table, 
 with the beard, Judge Story's son ? " I told him he 
 was. He said, "I was never more taken aback in 
 my life. I thought he was some outlandish man." 
 I explained to him that Story spoke all languages, 
 lived abroad. Patent-Machine has also found out 
 that he is Judge Story's son, and expresses his re- 
 gret that a young man should leave his country and 
 turn himself into a foreigner. He had been before 
 Judge Story in a patent case, which he detailed to 
 me. 
 
 The best mistake, too good to be allowed to get 
 
 out, was made by Captain O , Major G and 
 
 the others, at the opposite table. O asked me 
 
 about Miss Biddies and said, "That gentleman who 
 waits upon her (Appleton), he belongs to the same 
 theatre, does n't he ? " " Oh, no," I said ; " he is a 
 gentleman of property." " We made up our minds," 
 said he, "that he was an actor that did the heavy 
 papa in the comedies." 
 
 The fog continued all day, but not so thick as it 
 
1856. A BURIAL AT SEA. 3G7 
 
 was, though we are still hemmed in to a narrow 
 sphere of about one quarter-mile circuit, the fog bank 
 hanging round us on all sides, ready to close us in, as 
 if it were only frightened off to that distance by the 
 noise and sight of the steam and the great body the 
 steam drags along. Full steam is ou, all sail is set, 
 including a topmast studding-sail, and we go booming 
 through the water at the rate of eleven and a half and 
 twelve knots. " The wild and wasteful ocean " swells 
 and surges about us, and its dull gray hue is only 
 broken by the white yeast of the waves as their tops 
 jostle together in the confusion of our wake. It is a 
 glorious sight, a proud and inspiring sensation, to 
 stand on the high quarter-deck, the lofty sails spread 
 before you, the great hull throbbing with the invisible 
 power that is driving you along, nothing but a wild 
 waste of waters about you, through which you are 
 tearing, rolling and plunging, with an aim and course 
 as sure as the needle to the pole. But how unspeak- 
 ably drear}% how gloomy is the sea behind you, in 
 this dull, sullen weather! Well suited is it to the 
 scene we are all awaiting — the burial of our poor 
 passenger. 
 
 At eight P. M. the carpenter removes the gangway 
 railing and bulwarks, leaving a small space in the 
 side open down to a level with the deck. The boat- 
 swain pipes all hands to bury the dead. It is still 
 light in this high latitude, though the day is far 
 spent, and nightfall is beginning to settle on the sea. 
 Six men bring to the gangway a plank, on which is 
 some large object covered with the British flag, and 
 place it at the open gangway. As they partially 
 withdraw the flag we see the canvas sewed round 
 the body. The body is placed with its feet over the 
 
 DIVERSITY 
 
3G8 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mr. 40. 
 
 plank and its head on board. The passengers and 
 crew gather in solemn and respectful silence about it, 
 filling the passage-ways and the steps and hanging 
 over the rail of the upper deck. The clergyman, 
 book iu hand, advances to the head of the body. All 
 stand uncovered while the words, u I am the resurrec- 
 tion and the life, saith the Lord," break upon the 
 silence. The young surgeon stands by the side and 
 reads the responses and the alternate verses. At the 
 words, " We therefore commit his body to the deep," 
 the seamen raise the inner end of the plank, the flag 
 is lifted, and the heavy weight plunges into the sea 
 with a heavy leaden plunge that is heard fore and 
 aft, and is swept astern, and swallowed up in the 
 waste of waters, gloomy, roaring, tumbling, cold, 
 fathomless ! 
 
 Then come the consoling words of the Lord's 
 Prayer, joined in aloud by many deep voices, among 
 which I noticed several of the crew, the benediction, 
 — all cover their heads, the crowd disperses over the 
 ship, the gangway is replaced, and the monotonous 
 voyage goes on. The hundred or two human beings 
 who are not yet called away, with their little respite 
 of weeks, or years at most, before them, go back to 
 their works, their talk, their plans, some wisely so- 
 bered, some disturbed for a moment, to recover their 
 gayety, or their indifference, with little or no gain, 
 and some to relapse at once, without a thought, into 
 the frivolous or selfishly laborious tenor of their ways. 
 
 In no mood to join my party in the cabin, I walk 
 the upper deck until nearly midnight. What place 
 or scene can be better suited to reflection ! Except 
 the officer pacing to and fro at the binnacle, I have 
 the upper deck to myself. The huge sails tower 
 
1856. STEAMER GAMES. 369 
 
 mysteriously into the dark air — the ocean, dull, 
 gloomy, broken into little sheets of white foam, which 
 hurry by us with the speed of frightened horses, a 
 great dim swell of broken seas behind us, the whistle 
 of alarm, the everlasting, unceasing throb and hurry- 
 ing onward of the great bulk with its freight of human 
 beings, the spirit of death that has cast his shadow 
 over us, and the thought of the poor lifeless body, but 
 twelve hours ago in life, floating leagues astern, 
 fathoms down in the sea, — if a man cannot think 
 and feel now, when can he ? Still, in the saloon be- 
 low the parties are at their suppers, their wines, 
 cards and cigars, as ever, and the talk of the loungers 
 in the fiddley goes on as usual. . . . 
 
 9. Wednesday, There is some discussion among 
 the nautical men whether the ship ought not to have 
 been brought to during the burial. The custom 
 always has been to back the main yard in sailing 
 vessels. We thought the engine would have been 
 stopped, and the sails backed. But the ship went on 
 at her full speed. There seems to be a deference to 
 the ceremony and the event that the ship itself can 
 show by stopping in her course. It could have been 
 done, and unless there is a settled usage to the con- 
 trary should have been done. . . . 
 
 11. Friday. This is our first fine day since leav- 
 ing Halifax. The sun is out bright, the sea is smooth 
 and blue, and the air soft and agreeable. After lunch, 
 loud shouts of laughter from the upper deck drew 
 us all there. The British officers and other gentle- 
 men, all English, are engaged in games and exercises 
 of strength, agility and sleight, of the most amusing 
 character; some are laughable beyond measure. It 
 is refreshing to see these young men, lieutenants in 
 
370 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 40. 
 
 the Guards, Crimean heroes, who had fought at In- 
 kerman and Balaklava, a post captain in the navy, 
 and two young gentlemen of family and fortune, 
 travelling for pleasure, with their coats off, rolling, 
 tumbling and jumping about decks, playing leap- 
 frog, tying up hands or feet, and walking or jump- 
 ing with their other limbs, -r- before a crowd of spec- 
 tators of all classes and descriptions, who applaud 
 and shout and laugh in the most boisterous man- 
 ner. One game is a cock - fight. Two men sit on 
 the deck, each with his hands tied together, his 
 knees bent up, and his hands drawn over them, and 
 a stick placed through his arms, and under his knees, 
 so as to skewer or truss him, like a fowl in a dish. 
 They are placed opposite each other, and having 
 only the use of their feet, and that very much con- 
 fined, the fun is in their efforts to tip one another 
 over on the side. Each cock has his backer, who 
 tends him, pats him on the back and head, and lifts 
 him when he is down. These games made great 
 
 sport. Major G and Mr. R , Lieutenant 
 
 A and Mr. T , etc., etc., made pairs, to the 
 
 huge delight, especially, of the children. The per- 
 formances closed with races on all fours, the run- 
 ners to jump three poles, placed at intervals across 
 the deck, still keeping on all fours. The first race 
 
 was between Major G and Mr. R , neck and 
 
 neck, but won by G . The next was between 
 
 Captain O and a gentleman whose name I do 
 
 not know, easily won by the latter, as O is 
 
 fifty, and a little stiff. It was absurd to see him, in 
 his gold laced cap and naval buttons, hurrying and 
 leaping along on all fours. He made good sport of 
 his defeat. The last was between the two winners, 
 
1856. CRIMEAN VETERANS. 371 
 
 and quite spirited, — won by Major G , who 
 
 made a brilliant leap over the last pole. Mrs. Story- 
 was the winning post, and when the judges awarded 
 
 the race to G , Lieutenant A , who acted as 
 
 owner of the winning horse, led him up on all fours, 
 amid cries of " winning horse to the post," and Mrs. 
 Story placed two pennies on his neck, and he can- 
 tered off. Lieutenant A then sent his dog 
 
 round with a cap in his mouth, to pick up pennies 
 from the crowd, made a mock speech of thanks, and 
 the gentlemen ended by tossing up for the pennies. 
 
 The grave N took the part of a property man, 
 
 and Supe, and gathered up the stools and boards. 
 
 Where else but in England, with all that is said of 
 their stiffness and pride, could you find men of that 
 class and rank making such free natural boys of 
 themselves, with utter absence of all false pride, be- 
 fore strangers, a mixed crowd, many being their in- 
 feriors. . . . 
 
 12. Saturday. . . . While I am writing, Major 
 
 G comes to write at the same table, and we get 
 
 into talk about Sebastopol. He was one of the few 
 that came alive out of the Redan. He gives me a 
 full account of it, with a rough pen-and-ink drawing. 
 He says it was shamefully mismanaged. Only 1,500 
 men were sent to the assaulting party, with a rein- 
 forcement of 2,000. The reinforcement came on 
 without order or direction, in small squads, and was 
 useless. Under the dreadful fire it could not be 
 formed, and was only butchered. The stormers car- 
 ried the Redan, and held it, with momentarily dimin- 
 ishing numbers, for two hours, under deadly fire and 
 the bayonet, until they were driven, pell-melt, over 
 the wall, and fell into the ditch below, and on the 
 
372 RICHARD HENRY DANA. jEt. 40. 
 
 bodies of their own dead and wounded, and some 
 upon the bayonets of their own men. He attributes 
 the miscarriage to the incapacity of Simpson, who, 
 he says, is an old fool. Simpson was two miles off, 
 and had made no plan at all adequate to the occa- 
 sion. There should have been 12,000 men in the 
 attack and reserve, all moving on. He says every 
 military man will say that the force sent could not 
 have held the Redan if it had been taken. He says 
 that General Windham behaved like a lion, and de- 
 serves all the credit he has received. G is a 
 
 young, slender, active man, with a mild, open, clear 
 blue eye, that looks at once gentle and incapable of 
 fear. 
 
 Little Story is brought to the dessert every day, 
 and as soon as he gets into the saloon, he sets up a 
 shout of delight, at which Tom Apple ton called him, 
 " Vox clamantis in deserto" . . . 
 
 After tea Story, Appleton and I went into the 
 second cabin to hear a Mormon lecture. We have 
 just discovered that there are three Mormons on 
 board, who are on a proselyting or recruiting tour to 
 Europe, — one a brother of Brigham Young, and 
 another, the famous Elder Pratt. They have given 
 lectures on Mormonism every evening since the good 
 weather returned. The cabin was full of second- 
 class passengers, with a few first-class. Pratt gave 
 the lecture. He is a cool, cunning fellow. Several 
 of his statements were intentionally misleading. His 
 account of the finding of Joe Smith's revelation was 
 a melancholy attempt at imposition — the angel ap- 
 pearing to Mr. Smith in the town of Manchester, 
 county of Lafayette, State of New York, the metal 
 plates inscribed in the reformed Egyptian tongue, 
 
1356. A MORMON LECTURE. 373 
 
 translated by Joe into Yankee slang English by aid 
 of the Urim and Thummim which he found with the 
 plates, and which the angel pronounced to be correct, 
 and then the carrying off of the plates by the angel, and 
 the ingenious contrivance of a box of plates, contain- 
 ing a future revelation, to be made known whenever 
 the angel shall require it, the hiding-place of which 
 is known to only six or seven of the Mormon church. 
 He gave the impression that a man could not take 
 a second wife without consent of the first, — but 
 Story and I put a few questions to him that floored 
 him on that, and I think we damaged his influence 
 with the audience. 
 
 Coming out from the close cabin with this profane 
 stuff, we find ourselves in the beautiful twilight of 
 this northern sky, and the Tory Island Light, my 
 first sight of Europe, gleaming on our starboard bow. 
 There is something unusual in having one's first 
 sight of a new world, not land, but a bright light, 
 set as if a signal of welcome, with no sign of land or 
 habitation about it. 
 
 Again we remain on deck, nearly all night, in this 
 bewitching twilight. After one o'clock we go below. 
 A passenger who sat up later tells me that the dawn 
 began soon after one o'clock and that at half past one 
 he could see to read coarse print. Indeed, there is 
 no night here. 
 
 July 13. Sunday. . On deck at half past seven, and 
 there lay the north coast of Ireland, broad on our 
 starboard side, stretching as far as the eye can reach, 
 and on our left hand the distant line of the west 
 coast of Scotland, while we are steering a southerly 
 course, down the Irish Sea, keeping close to the coast 
 of Ireland. Out of the low clouds on the left, off the 
 
o74 RICHARD HENRY DANA. JEt. 40. 
 
 coast of Scotland, towers and looms the Ailsa Craig, 
 a conical hill, alone in the sea, like an outpost of the 
 Scottish mountains. About it is Hying, here and 
 there, a lugger, or a pilot or fishing boat. We are 
 close upon the Irish coast, and can distinctly see 
 houses and churches and cultivated fields. We pass 
 the entrance to Belfast, and see the sailing vessels 
 and a large steamer going in. Thanks for this beau- 
 tiful, sunny day, this delightful first view of a new 
 world ! 
 
 At ten o'clock is the service again, respectably at- 
 tended, although the great attractions of the coast 
 keep many on deck ; the crew are present in white 
 trousers and blue frocks, again is the prayer for the 
 Queen and the royal government, and for our safe 
 arrival " at the haven where we would be." 
 
 Coming on deck we find the Isle of Man on our 
 left, the tops of its highest hills hidden by the clouds. 
 Appleton has already pointed out to me the difference 
 between the European and American sky, the milder 
 tints of the European blue. There is no European 
 sky, he says, that is not possible to the painter; but 
 the American colors are too sharp and clear. 
 
 At the close of as beautiful a Sunday afternoon as 
 ever shone we entered the Mersey. On the right is 
 the picturesque bold outline of Anglesea, gradually 
 subsiding into the levelled stretches of Cheshire, and 
 on the left the low coast of Lancashire. Vessels 
 of all nations coming and going, steamers to and 
 from Ireland and Scotland and the lower ports, and 
 steam-tugs toiling along with the great ships behind 
 them, and the distant spires of Liverpool and Birken- 
 head, enliven the scene. But that which arrests the 
 eye of the American on his first visit with as much 
 
1856. LIVERPOOL. 375 
 
 of wonder as delight, is the deep, deep, dark green- 
 ness of the banks, hillsides, lawns and foliage. It is 
 so deep that if you were first to see it in a picture, 
 you would condemn the artist as false to any possible 
 nature. The next most striking impression is the 
 absence of all painted buildings, those spots of many 
 colored houses and blinds, sprinkled over New Eng- 
 land scenery, and instead of it, the stone or brick 
 of all buildings, in country as in city, of various col- 
 ors, but all giving the sense of stability and repose, 
 and making a mild contrast with the deep green of 
 grass and trees. 
 
 Liverpool, with its great dock, walled in, and its 
 towering warehouses, looks like Sebastopol. How 
 strong, how high, how spacious is everything! As 
 we go up the river, we notice with pride that nearly 
 half the ships have the Yankee flag, and those gener- 
 ally the smartest looking vessels. We fire our guns, 
 and come to anchor. The tender boards us, with the 
 officers of the customs. To my surprise, they are 
 civil and rapid in their proceedings, but much time 
 is consumed necessarily. A glorious sunset, of 
 brightly tinted clouds, gilds the whole sky, and while 
 it is broad daylight the Liverpool clocks show 
 clearly nine o'clock. 
 
 Reached the Queen's Hotel at ten o'clock p. M., 
 and I am on British soil in a British inn. The 
 neat housemaid, in her neat cap, with her quiet, 
 civil manner, shows me to my bed-chamber, where 
 all is still, clean, heavy and sober. . . . Waiting for 
 our luggage keeps us up until after one o'clock, and 
 when I go to bed the excitement of the scenes kept 
 me awake, I believe, all night. I do not think I 
 slept at all. The steamer, the coast of Ireland, the 
 
376 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 40. 
 
 light-houses, the English shores, chased through my 
 brain, until I was obliged to cool my head down with 
 wet towels. 
 
 July 14. Monday. The morning looks dull, but I 
 heard a man under my window announcing that it 
 was a fine day, which no one, unacquainted with this 
 climate, would have suspected. Breakfasted, and took 
 tickets for London. Took 11.30 train for London. 
 Shot through the long tunnel which runs under the 
 town of Liverpool, and emerged into the green fields, 
 among the deep foliage, the hedge-rows, the lanes, 
 the woods and parks, and the mild sky of old Eng- 
 land. Our journey occupied nine hours, as we were 
 not in an express train. The whole way I scarcely 
 once, if ever, took my eyes off the exquisite land- 
 scape, or relieved them a moment from watching 
 the constantly changing and ever- renewing succes- 
 sion of delights. As far as the eye can reach, deep, 
 rich, green foliage and grass, undulating surfaces, 
 with occasional ranges of high hills, and picturesque 
 breaks in the distance, hedge-rows, quiet, green lanes, 
 flowers springing spontaneously from all fields and 
 from all places, and filling the air with their fragrance, 
 so that it is borne into your car-window as you are 
 hurried by, — grass fields and grain fields, some in 
 full ripeness for harvest, and others gathering and 
 gathered in, stacks of hay and grain, gathered and 
 thatched over, men, women and children in the fields 
 raking into rows the cut grass and grain, others load- 
 ing the wagons of " harvest home," and ever and 
 anon the village, the hamlet, the larger town, the old 
 parish church in the midst of the church-yard, the 
 nobleman's or gentleman's park, the distant spires of 
 a cathedral, towers of a castle, — all, all, was charac- 
 
1856. ENGLISH SCENERY. 377 
 
 teristic of England. But how can one convey an idea 
 of this to an American at home who has never been 
 out of America ? I will do my best. Fancy your- 
 self in a nice coach, well stuffed seats, containing six 
 persons, with plenty of room to stretch yourself, to 
 lounge, to put your book, paper, map, hat and coat, 
 at a broad open window, carried along at the rate of 
 from thirty to fifty miles an hour, with no smoke or 
 dust whatever, on a mild summer day in which you 
 are sensible neither of heat nor cold, the sun not bright 
 enough to dazzle or pain the eye, and a succession for 
 two hundred miles of Mount Auburns and Greenwoods 
 without their disfiguring monuments, of the richest 
 parts of Brookline, of the Genesee Valley, and of the 
 Connecticut valleys, with no bare or barren or sun- 
 dried spots. Then imagine your railroad to be so 
 firm and deeply laid, and the engines so well managed, 
 that you have but the least possible jar, no sudden 
 starts and bringings up, and no smoke or cinders or 
 smell of gas, and the banks and sides of the railroads 
 turfed over, and a continued row of hawthorn hedge 
 in full greenness on each side, without intermission, 
 for two hundred miles, except in the streets of the 
 towns. Then imagine such an exuberant growth of 
 spontaneous flowers of all colors that their fragrance 
 often fills your car as you pass. To this add the 
 most picturesque and soothing memorials of an antiq- 
 uity of eight and ten centuries with the life and 
 activity of a prosperous present, a ruin overgrown 
 with ivy, an old parish church with its church-yard 
 and ivy, a noble manor or park, the overtopping 
 towers of a castle or spires of a cathedral, with a 
 chime to salute your ears if you stop at the station 
 on the hour or half hour, the country alive with 
 
378 RICHARD HENRY DANA. Mt. 40. 
 
 the inland navigation of canal and river boats, a quiet 
 trout stream, blooming hedge-rows in all directions, 
 and lanes invariably lined with hedges or the higher 
 growth of bushes and shrubs, under any one of which 
 you feel that lovers might meet or part. Then re- 
 move once and forever from your mind all Yankee 
 notions of so much as one building or structure of 
 wood, and all pictures of paint, whether white or 
 yellow houses, or green blinds, and in place thereof 
 substitute stone of subdued tints, or brick of a dull 
 umber, or dark brown, and roofs all slated, tiled or 
 thatched. Picture to yourself each railroad station 
 with a broad platform of tiled brick or stone, and the 
 building of stone or brick, with casement windows 
 and tiled roofs, with ivy and climbing roses already 
 growing over it, looking, each one of them, like a de- 
 tached part of a manor-house of Elizabeth or James's 
 time, so beautiful that Ruskin objects that they are 
 out of place and keeping. Imagine every road cross- 
 ing the railroad by a stone bridge, looking like a Ro- 
 man aqueduct. Imagine everything so toned down, 
 that even the steam-whistle is not disagreeably loud. 
 Then add the historic associations of the names of 
 places you pass — Old Stafford, Bosworth, with its 
 battle-field, where ended the War of the Roses. Dr. 
 Johnson's Litchfield, with its cathedral towers ; old, 
 exquisite, dreamy Trentham, with its church and 
 yard ; Dr. Arnold's Rugby, and then the rapidly 
 multiplying indications of a huge metropolis, while 
 you feel you are nearing London, — the London of 
 your childhood and boyhood's dreams — do all this, 
 and then acknowledge that you have but an inade- 
 quate notion of an American's first day's journey in 
 the land of his forefathers. 
 
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