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JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH

MARCH 13, i8i3 — MARCH 2, i8go

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1891

To
MY DEAR HUSBAND,
THIS SLIGHT MEMORIAL
INSPIRED BY MY DEEP DESIRE TO REGATHER AND HOLD A FEW
RAYS OF THE SUNSHINE AND RADIANCE OF NEARLY
FIVE PERFECTLY HAPPY YEARS,
IN EVERLASTING AND GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE.
ANNA MORRIS BNGLISH.
New Haveh.

One who never turned his hack, hut marched breast forward.
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would trium^ph.
Held we fall to rise, are hafBed to fight better,
Sleep to wake.
Robert Browning.

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.

It would hardly be an easy matter to give those
who never met Governor Enghsh an adequate im
pression of the man, — of the fresh and buoyant
spring of life which characterized him, and which
never failed him to the end ; of his grand cour
tesy ; of his mingled humor and practical down-
rightness of speech ; of the thoroughness, the kind
liness, which pervaded his whole personahty, and
made his very presence vital and exhilarating, —
or any complete revelation of a nature single-
hearted, truth-loving, genuine, and generous, or of
a career singularly consistent from its beginning to
its close.
The object of this brief memorial can only be
to recall a few of his personal traits and of the
incidents of his life to those who had the privilege
of his intimacy, and for many years looked to him
for cooperation, stimidus, and sympathy. Time
hurries by so swiftly, it is best, before the clear out
lines of the impression he left are blurred, to en
deavor to reproduce some faint reflection of a life

2 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
which was wonderfully successful in attaining every
object striven for, and which was as influential for
good as any in our generation.
Far - sighted sagacity, unswerving courage, a
strong will, sturdy independence of thought, a clear
divination in all matters requiring choice, fixed
Christian principles of action, a high sense of duty,
above all a joy in doing, a sense of pleasure in work
well done for good work's own sake, — these, no
matter how expanded and modified by opportu
nity, were his earliest characteristics, just as they
were his latest. Few careers have been more happy,
or have developed under more harmonious condi
tions. Every step forward found a surer basis of
operations ; every seed sown had its certain har
vest. Then, too, it was not only a matter of intellec
tual insight, but of admirable temper, for him to
take hold of things by their right handle. There
was in Governor English an utter absence of the
restless vanity and the selfish eagerness to outstrip
others which embitter the lives of so many men
and turn the simplest competitions into an arduous
struggle. The fault of those usually called " self-
made men " is apt to be that, although they have
ability and energy, they have no training. They
not only fail in knowledge of forms and the habit
of self-command, which are largely a matter of in
heritance and early education, but they lack disci-

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 3
pline. In Governor English we see, throughout his
career, the sincerity and coolness which are alike
the badge of the wise man and the man of the
world. He was a man of action ; he was also a
master of facts. He knew men, and possessed the
keenest discrimination of character ; saw clearly
foibles and faults, and could lay his finger in
stantly on the weak spot in any man ; but he pos
sessed large charity, ample forbearance, and, if he
expressed criticism, was certain to give it a humor
ous touch. If at times his manners seemed dis
tant, it was that he belonged to an older generation,
and by taste and choice retained the punctilious
courtesy of a former period. He quickly unbent
and was an animated and excellent talker, liking
to give and receive the real outcome of his own
and other minds in conversation. To the end of
his life he went on gaining friends among all sorts
and conditions of men. In all his personal rela
tions he left one distinct impression, — an impres
sion stamped by a strongly individual character.
His presence was notable. All that he said and
did had its sure effect. He was keenly ahve to a
joke and quick at repartee. He said pointed and
witty things ; there wdl be occasion to cite some
of the aphorisms into which his experience had
crystaUized, which show the bias of his mind and
his standpoint of observation. Naturally his wide
career as a statesman and a business man had

4 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
thrown him intimately with the foremost men of
the day, concerning whom he possessed a great fund
of anecdote. His own town. New Haven, he knew
as few men have ever known it. At his death one
of his familiar friends in that city exclaimed : " Oh,
what a world of recollections of New Haven, past
and present, and of the men who have lived and
died in New Haven, has gone into the grave with
James E. English ! "
He was, we consider, one of the most fortunate
of men, and he was, to begin with, fortunate in
the period which his long career covered. Every
epoch has advantages and disadvantages which
belong to it and to no other. Americans must
admit that to have been born within the first
twenty years of this century was to begin at the
time when, in the very nature of things, there was
every chance for a man to find his right place and
his right work in the world. Nowadays, when
here at the East every avenue to success is crowded
and every door barred, opening only to a golden
key, it has passed into a proverb that, if a young
man wishes to succeed, he must go West and grow
up with the country. Governor Enghsh, as it
were, grew up with his country. He was born in
New Haven, and his infancy, youth, manhood, and
ripe age were spent in New Haven. He loved the
town, and as a poor man gave it his best energies
and most disinterested service. As a rich man he

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 5
endowed its churches, its hospitals, its university,
its schools, and did much to enhance its beauty.
Every man in New Haven was acquainted with his
beginnings and with every step of his career.
When he left his house on Chapel Street, he was
met at every turn by nods, greetings, pressures
of the hand. His presence was felt, by old and
young alike, not only to confer distinction, but to
give pleasure. The poor sought him constantly
for advice, sympathy, and substantial aid. When
he was struggling against the oppression of bis
final illness, as it was the 22d of February and a
hohday, he was asked : " Why must you go to your
office to-day ? " " Oh, to see my beggars," was
his reply. " They will be disappointed if they do
not find me."
When he entered committee rooms, meetings of
boards of directors, every man present realized
that a helper had come, with a gentle look, clear
sighted good sense, friendly humor, above all
with an enormous capacity for work, which easily
smoothed away seemingly insuperable obstacles.
Responsibdities which paralyzed others were to him
the stimulus which made him feel his own powers.
" Brains were given us to overcome difficulties,"
was a frequent phrase of his. In this slight sketch
of his life it will be seen that it was his habit to
look at the facts of a case with a deliberate pro
phetic vision of what their consequences were hkely

6 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
to be ; then, when he had gathered the full mean
ing of the situation, to act with a resolution abso
lutely fixed.
Governor Enghsh was always proud of his de
scent from good Puritan stock, rightly estimating
the worth of the ideas at the root of New England
civilization, — fervent rehgious zeal; the sacrifice
of ease and self-indulgence to lofty principles ; the
subordination of private hfe to the welfare of the
state. He was descended from Clement Enghsh,
who settled in Salem, Mass., and August 27, 1667,
married Mary Waters, of that town. Clement Eng-
hsh's son, Benjamin English, was in his turn mar
ried to Sarah Hard, June 8, 1699, but in 1700 the
young couple left Salem and came to New Haven.
This Benjamin English was the great-great-grand
father of James Edward English.
" I will tell you how my ancestors happened to
settle here," Governor Enghsh said, with a twinkle
of his eye, on one occasion. " They first estabhshed
themselves in Salem, but when witches began to
ride on broomsticks through the midnight air, an
old colonial aunt of mine fell under suspicion, and
she and her husband thought best to flee. They
sailed to New York, and not liking that hamlet
(New York was only a hamlet then), they floated
up the Sound to New Haven, bought some land,
and made this place their permanent abode."

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 7
The new home they made was on Water Street,
near what is now Brown Street. Here was born a
son, a second Benjamin Enghsh, who, when the
British army invaded New Haven, July 5, 1779,
fell, pierced by a bayonet. His son, also Benja
min Enghsh, was married November 17, 1768, to
Abigail DooHttle, the daughter of Isaac Doolittle,
a well-known jeweler and maker of tall wood-case
clocks. This Benjamin Enghsh the third owned
vessels engaged in the West India trade, and dur
ing the administration of Thomas Jefferson held a
position in the Custom House. He and his wife
Abigail had eleven childi'en, of whom James Eng
lish, the father of the subject of the present sketch,
was one. He was by trade a cabinet-maker, and
also owned and cultivated farm lands a short dis
tance out on the Derby road. His place of busi
ness was on Chapel Street, on what is now known
as the Yale Campus, just east of the Art School.
March 29, 1807, he married Nancy Griswold, a
woman of fine, serious dignity, and gifted with a
shrewd inteUigence. This story is related as an
example of the principles which governed the
worthy couple. At one time, when they were liv
ing where Calvary Baptist Church now stands.
Captain Beecher, their neighbor, walked into the
house and said : —
" I have got five hundred doUars that I want to
loan out at six per cent. I have no use for it, and

8 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
I should hke to invest it in that way. Now, Eng
hsh, I should hke to have you take it. I am avUI-
ing to accept your own note, not even asking to
have it indorsed."
James English glanced at his wife, then, after a
moment's silence, she said : —
" We have always been good neighbors, have n't
we, Captain Beecher?"
" Yes," their visitor rephed.
" And we wish to continue so, do we not ? "
" Yes," said Captain Beecher again.
" Well, then, do not ever offer to loan us money
again. Before I would have my husband borrow
money, I would go out and scrub for a hving."
This was a woman to have sturdy sons, and to
make her husband and children respected for char
acter, thrift, and independence, whether poor or
rich. She herself belonged to a family which is
distinguished in Connecticut annals, and which has
given two governors to the State. If, possibly,
James Enghsh lacked some of the energy and de
cision which characterized his wife, he possessed
his own distinctive attributes. His mUd and ami
able disposition made him generally loved and re
spected, and he fulfilled many public trusts with
faithfulness and sagacity. He accumulated a com
fortable property, and died at the age of sixty-six.
He and his wife had ten chUdren : Hannah, Ben
jamin, John, Charles, Henry, George, Ehzabeth,

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 9
Nancy, and Caroline, besides the subject of this
memorial, who was the fourth child.
James Edward English was born March 13,
1812, in the old famUy mansion on Chapel Street,
just below York. This property had belonged to
Isaac Doolittle, and had passed to his daughter,
James Edward's grandmother, and has since re
mained in the English famUy. In 1814 the an
cient house was removed, and a new one built on
the same site.
James Edward English is remembered as a boy
of wide-awake inteUigence, with a striking alert
ness of glance and a pose of the head which sug
gested readiness for action. He combined two traits
rarely seen in conjunction. He was ready to hsten
to the opinions of others, yet was absolutely self-
rehant, and hked to think out any subject and act
on his individual conclusions. His strength and
courage, besides his characteristic bias, are shown
by an incident which occurred when he was but
eleven years of age. Happening to hear that a
farmer from Bethlehem wanted a boy to hve with
him, he offered himself for the position, and carried
out the project, although his parents were at first
loth to give their consent to it. There was nothing
unusual in this arrangement. In old-fashioned New
England communities, almost wholly uninfluenced
by class prejudices, both boys and girls whose ser
vices were not required at home were often brought .

10 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
up in other famihes, where they were treated like
chUdren of the house. Young Enghsh remained
for two years with this farmer, in the winter attend
ing school, in the summer employed on the farm.
It might be interesting to give instances of the
famous Americans who have in their youth driven
cows to pasture, and most of them, we fancy, would
have confessed that the breeziest and happiest
memories of their hves belonged to that period.
" A human life," says George Eliot, " should be
well rooted in some spot of native land, where it
may get the love of tender kinship for the face of
earth, for the labors men go forth to, for the
sounds and accents that haunt it." Throughout
his long career James Edward Enghsh was to hve
in the busy world and to act upon the world, and
it was weU for the growing lad to have a brief
experience of country living and thinking. The
quietest youth is the best preparation for a busy
manhood. No doubt the boy always felt within
himself the stirring of strong impulses towards the
far-off world. Youth is not youth unless it sees
visions and dreams dreams.
When Mr. English had let his boy go with the
farmer, he handed the latter some money for pos
sible needs, saying, " When you get tired of my
son, send him home."
But no one who ever enjoyed James Edward
Enghsh's faithful service hghtly wished to part

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 11
with it. When he was thirteen, however, his father
recalled him to New Haven, and placed him at the
Lancastrian school kept by the well-known and
popular teacher, John E. Lovell, who had lately
come from England and established this large and
flourishing institution. Here James Edward stud
ied for two years, and then was apprenticed to
Atwater Treat to learn the trade of carpenter
and joiner. Atwater Treat's workshop stood on
the site now occupied by Hillhouse High School.
Young English had already shown a talent for
architectural drawing, and this gift decided his
career. Architecture was not then an established
profession in this country. A master buUder con
structed houses on general principles, giving httle
thought to their beauty, or even to the careful
adaptation of the details of arrangement to re
quired ends.
" I remember," Governor English once observed
late in hfe, " when New Haven was a scattered set
tlement of only seven thousand souls (now we have
almost a hundred thousand) ; when the houses were
low structures, of the plainest style of colonial
framework, with many httle windows and fat, cum
brous chimneys. There was not a pair of window-
blinds in the whole city then, — not a single pair.
I remember the stir and envy created by the first
latticed shutter which ever graced a house here.
It was Joseph Dutton's, and he thought himself

12 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
lord of the town, tUl the rest of us took on the
novelty, too."
Mr. Endish himself was to do much towards
modernizing and beautifying New Haven. He
was a born architect, grasping by sure instinct the
principles which underhe good architecture. Be
fore the close of his apprenticeship he was recog
nized as the equal of any architect and builder in
New Haven, and on attaining his majority, in 1833,
he began his career as a contractor and master
buUder. During the next three years he erected a
number of substantial houses, having designed and
drafted his own plans; and the gratifying result
was, that he now found himself possessed of means
sufficient to enable him to embark in the lumber
business. A yard was opened on Water Street,
near the canal basin ; he worked early and late,
estabhshed a reputation for fair dealing, and soon
developed a thriving trade in lumber and building
materials. When the commercial crisis of 1837 swept over
the country Mr. Enghsh was twenty-five years old.
In New Haven the suspension of banks was fol
lowed by the failure of merchants and manufac
turers. Then ensued a general shrinkage of val
ues and a temporary stoppage of trafiic. Shortly
before the panic a rich citizen of New Haven,
perceiving in Mr. Enghsh the thoroughness, the
sagacity, the habits of systematic energy, which

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 13
make the sure way to fortune, had offered to em
bark $20,000 in his enterprise, considering that
the young man's own services easily balanced that
amount of capital. This flattering offer had been
declined by Nancy Griswold's son, who now found
his own great opportunity. Looking beyond the
present emergency, he perceived that the renewal
of trade must offer a good chance to any man
ready to make use of it. He extended his lumber
business. He had already established a flourishing
trade along the Farmington Canal, furnishing man
ufacturers with lumber and other needed supplies.
In this manner he had become acquainted with
H. M. Welch, of PlainvUle. The two young men
were associated in this business for many years,
until, in 1849, Mr. Welch came to New Haven
and formed a partnership with Mr. English, the
firm being Enghsh & Welch. For several years
this house carried on a large and profitable busi
ness, handling lumber by the cargo, and in addi
tion owning three small schooners, — these being
employed in bringing lumber from Maine, also in
making frequent trips to New York, Albany, and
Philadelphia. In 1853, having amassed a competency, Mr.
Enghsh and his partner retired from the lumber
business. Next, in company with H. M. Welch,
Hiram Camp, John Woodruff, and a few others,
Mr. English purchased the bankrupt clock concern

14 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
of Chauncey Jerome, reestabhshed the business,
and by good management soon made it not only
successful, but the largest clock manufactory in
the world. Again, in 1855, Mr. English became
identified with the Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe
Company of Naugatuck, in which he retained a
large interest up to the time of his death, — a
connection covering a period of thirty-seven years,
during twenty-nine of which he was president of
the company. He also became a large stockholder
in the Adams Express Company, the PlainvUle
Manufacturing Company, the Bristol Brass Com
pany, and many other enterprises. He invested
largely in New Haven real estate, developing and
improving it. None of his wealth was gained by
speculation, nor was he ever known to push his
own interests at the expense of those of any other
man. " Governor Enghsh never wronged any man
of a penny ; " " Governor Enghsh never commit
ted the least act not absolutely fair and above-
board ; anything dishonest would have wrenched
his whole nature," — these are the phrases which
rise spontaneously to the lips of aU who knew
every circumstance connected with his career. He
was as keen-sighted where the interests of others
were concerned as for himself. The same dehb-
erate, far-seeing judgment of men and of measures
which he showed in his personal affairs character
ized his investments as director or trustee. " Men

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 15
often come to me," he said on one occasion, "with
projects which they are confident wUl yield a profit
of thirty or forty per cent, and I listen to them
patiently and think of something else. But when
a man comes and says, ' I want to submit a plan
by which a permanent profit of eight or ten per
cent can be made,' and he can explain to me how,
by special facihties in the purchase of material, in
methods of transportation, or a better adaptation
of labor, the business has a promising look, I give
such a man my best attention. If I have been
successful, it is because I have been content with
reasonable profits ; for I know that enormous gains
soon invite ruinous competition."
On January 25, 1835, Mr. English was united
in marriage to Caroline Augusta Fowler, the daugh
ter of Timothy Fowler, a weU-known and highly
respected farmer of the town. " My wife," Gov
ernor Enghsh remarked after the death of Mrs.
English, many years later, " was descended in di
rect hne from WUl Fowler, who, with Davenport
and Eaton, were the original resident proprietors
of land in this part of Connecticut. Fowler pur
chased a large tract of land at the junction of what
are now caUed CoUege and George streets. At
that period a broad creek extended from the har
bor to this very point, and it was here that the
original settlers landed, in 1639. Here Fowler
made a clearing and buUt hunself a rude house.

16 'JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
Here he reared his family ; his sons and daughters
reared others; and here my wife was born and
bred, and here she died. My son Henry, on the
maternal side, traces his ancestry further back than
any other resident of New Haven, — back to the
very foundation of the colony."
Beginning in a moderate way, Mr. Enghsh and
his wife, after their marriage, rented part of a
house on Fair Street. Later they lived on Union
Street, untU, at the age of thirty-three, he bought
a lot on Chapel Street and erected the substantial
house which was his home for forty-five years.
Four children were in course of time born to Mr.
and Mrs. English, — three sons and a daughter, —
of whom only one, Henry, lived to grow up, and
he now survives his father.
Mr. Enghsh spent forty years in the pubhc ser
vice. He was a statesman rather than a pohtician.
He was too radicaUy honest a man — looked at a
subject too clearly on its own intrinsic merits, and
too wisely with a just calculation of the effects of
measures for the public welfare ; he thought too
highly of the good of the state, and too little of
narrow, personal ambitions — to give himself up to
any mere party pohcy. It would have been im
possible to hun to advocate any cause he did not
consider righteous and just. He hated temporary
expedients ; makeshifts were abhorrent to him.
He carried the same disinterested zeal into the ad-

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 17
ministration of every office he held that he showed
in his business relations. Old-fashioned ideas in
aU their simplicity and narrowness had not lost
their hold upon men when he entered public life,
and he maintained them to the close of his career.
He was for many years a highly valued member
of the Board of Selectmen, his services covering
ten years of the period between 1847 and 1861.
He also served as a member of the Common Coun-
cU in 1848-1849. In 1855 he was elected to the
Legislature, and in^the foUowing year to the State
Senate, where he served for three terms, 1856, 1857,
1858. WhUe a meijiber of the State Senate, Mr.
English obtained a charter and estabhshed the
Connecticut Savings Bank, of which he was presi
dent from 1857 until the time of his death. In
the spring of 1860 he was nominated by the Con
necticut Democrats for Lieutenant-Governor, with
Thomas H. Seymour at the head of the ticket;
but they were not elected. In April, 1861, he
was elected to the 37th Congress, and in 1863
reelected. He was Governor of Connecticut in
1867 and 1868, and again in 1870. And in
1875, being appointed, by Governor IngersoU,
United States Senator to fiU Mr. Ferry's unex
pired term, he served in the Senate of the Fortieth
Congress until 1877.
It should also be recounted that the highest
honors in the power of his party to bestow were
2

18 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
at one time on the point of being offered to him.
In 1868, when Horatio Seymour was nominated
for President, it was confidently expected that the
choice would fall on Governor English. Governor
Seymour, of New York, was presiding at the na
tional convention, which was held in New York
city, and he had repeatedly expressed his desire
not to be made the candidate. Had he adhered
to this decision and declined absolutely, James
Edward English would have been nominated by
acclamation. He was a member of the conven
tion, and his headquarters at the St. Nicholas were
thronged with prominent Democrats from all parts
of the country. With General Grant for the Re
publican candidate, it is hardly probable that Gov
ernor Enghsh would have been elected ; but he
would have poUed a great popular vote, for his
Congressional record had estabhshed him in the
admiration and affection of his countrymen.
This Congressional experience, to which we have
merely aUuded in passing, must be more fuUy de
scribed. In aU Mr. English's early services to his
city and State, his practical knowledge of affairs,
and his inborn faculty of organizing men into effi
cient action, had always been recognized. He
was naturaUy a leader. " I do not want to be a
taU to anybody's kite," was a phrase with him.
He felt confidence in his own powers, and he in
spired imphcit confidence. His skUl, inteUigence,

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 19
integrity, and executive abUity had been shown
already in each office he had filled, and when, in
1861, he entered the Thirty-seventh Congress, these
weU-tested powers were transferred, it might be
said, to fighting ground. The summer of 1860
Mr. English had spent abroad, reluctantly under
taking the tour alone on account of his wife's del
icate health. He traveled through Great Britain
and Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, and Swit
zerland, reaching home in November, too late to
vote for either Douglas or Breckenridge in the
presidential contest which resulted in Mr. Lincoln's
election. It is impossible for any one not born and bred a
Democrat, in whom the sentiments and prejudices
of old-fashioned Democracy have not grown with
his growth and strengthened with his strength,
fuUy to understand the dilemma which confronted
the party in 1860 and 1861. Mr. Enghsh be
longed to a famUy of Democrats, and his adherence
to the fundamental principles of Democracy never
wavered. Nothing better shows his practical in
sight than his attitude from the first mutterings of
civU war. At a time when most Democrats were
wavering, going forward and back, balancing expe
diencies and plausibilities, and calhng on the old
gods to return, he had a clear, prophetic vision
that this was one of the historic periods when
" The old order changeth, giving place to new."

20 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
Throughout the Civil War Mr. English inva
riably voted, not according to the dictates of mere
party policy, but from his convictions of what was
demanded in a great national crisis.
During the four years that he was a member of
Congress he served on the Committee of Naval
Affairs. In 1863, when the new Speaker was
planning certain changes. Secretary Welles, of the
Navy Department, made a personal request of Mr.
Colfax that Mr. Enghsh should be retained on the
Committee, as his services had been found so val
uable that no other man could replace him. Mr.
English was also on the Committee of Public Lands.
He supported aU the war measures of the adminis
tration, and quickly recognized the fact that slavery
must be abohshed. But on questions of finance,
internal policy, and revenue reform, he remained a
consistent Democrat, voting against the Legal Ten
der BUl and the National Bank system. Although
he was a manufacturer and identified with manu
facturing interests, he opposed all high-tariff meas
ures, and considered protection for the sake of pro
tection a short-sighted pohcy.
President Lincoln soon took the measure of Mr.
Enghsh, and the two were friends. " Friend Eng
hsh " was, indeed, Mr. Lincoln's favorite mode of
addressing the other, for he found much that was
akin to himself in Mr. English's pure and disin
terested type of character ; in the absence of any

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 21
sleek ofificiahty in his way of looking at subjects ;
in his magnanimous devotion to country and duty.
Besides being in sympathy regarding the most
vital questions of the hour, the two men were in
touch sociaUy and mentaUy, each enjoying the
other's play of humor over the incidents of the
time. It is related that Mr. English called one
day at the White House at three o'clock, and, re
marking to Mr. Lincoln that he had come to ask a
personal favor, requested that Col. A. H. Terry
should be appointed Brigadier-General.
" I shaU have to teU you a story, Friend Eng
hsh," said the President, with a humorous twinkle
of the eye. " There was a bright httle old Irish
man who Uked to steal into some easily accessible
henyard and eat a raw eg^ or two, in order to
keep himself in good condition. One day he was
thus recuperating his strength, and had opened two
eggs and absorbed their contents, and was just
about to do the same with a third, when he heard
the peep of a chicken. ' Too late. Chick,' said the
Irishman, as he swaUowed it down, 'you should
have peeped before.' And so, Mr. English, you
are too late. I made Colonel Terry a Brigadier-
General just one hour ago."
In 1863 President Lincoln, by virtue of his
authority as Commander-in-Chief, issued his Eman
cipation Proclamation. This was a military meas
ure, and the general question of slavery had stUl

22 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
to be met by legislative action. Mr. Enghsh had
voted for the bill abolishing slavery in the District
of Columbia, and he had told the President and
others that he would vote for a constitutional
amendment which should forever put an end to
slavery in the United States. The bUl was intro
duced in the House of Representatives in May,
1864, by Mr. Ashley, of Ohio ; but even the Re
publicans were not yet united on the measure, and
it was defeated, — Mr. English, by the advice of
Mr. Ashley himself, voting against it. But in
February, 1865, the Amendment was again pro
posed. The Thirty-eighth Congress was shortly to
expire, and, although the next House would be
strongly Repubhcan, President Lincoln was deeply
anxious to have the measure passed during this
session. Mr. English had been recaUed to New
Haven by the serious Ulness of his wife, and he
was in attendance upon her. sick-bed when word
was sent him from Washington that the Thirteenth
Amendment was to come up on the foUowing day.
He set out at once for Washington, arriving in
time to hear the final speeches of the debate, and
to vote with the ten Democrats who helped to carry
the bill by the required two-thirds vote.
" Well, Enghsh," Mi-. S. S. Cox, of New York,
said to him when they met, " I am afraid that I
cannot vote for the Amendment."
" Ah," said Mr. Enghsh. " WeU, I intend to

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 23
vote for it." When the count was caUed and his
emphatic " Yes " rang forth, applause sounded
throughout the House.
The announcement that the Amendment had
been passed by a vote of 119 to 56 was received
by the members on the floor and the visitors in
the gaUeries with an outburst of enthusiasm rarely
witnessed in the Capitol. Republicans sprang from
their seats, and, regardless of parhamentary rules
or the Speaker's efforts to enforce silence, cheered
and applauded. The men in the galleries joined
in the uproar, whUe ladies clapped their hands,
waved their handkerchiefs, and uttered exclama
tions of dehght and enthusiasm.
Mr. English remarked to a New Haven friend,
whUe talking over this experience, " I suppose I
am poUticaUy ruined, but that day was the happiest
of my hfe."
For once his usuaUy clear insight was at fault.
He was very far from being pohtically ruined.
Connecticut was to be forever proud of the man
who had stood calm and self-possessed in a great
whirl of excitement, and whose courage and hon
esty had proved themselves to be grounded in the
essential and permanent principles which have made
the world full of noble examples.
President Lincoln was very anxious that Mr.
Enghsh should return to Washington for a third
term in Congress. But business interests demanded

24 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
his presence at home, and reluctantly, and against
the wishes of his constituents, Mr. Enghsh gave
up his Congressional career.
He had greatly enjoyed the four years in Wash
ington. As far as her dehcate health would per
mit, Mrs. Enghsh had been with her husband,
and their son Henry, a boy of eleven, had passed
a spring and summer in Washington, which wUl
always remain an imperishable memory. " During
those momentous months," he writes, " the broad
avenues of the capital continuaUy exhibited a war-
hke panorama. Regiments of men and horse,
together with heavy wagon-trains, were ever pass
ing to and from the front, whUe scores of uniformed
officers swarmed about the hotels. In the month
of June, 1862, a party of Congressmen and their
famihes enjoyed an excursion by steamer down the
Potomac to Mount Vernon, Fortress Monroe, Nor
folk, and the battlefield of Yorktown. Among
them was Mr. Enghsh, accompanied by his wife
and son. During this interesting trip, many evi
dences of the horrors of war were presented to their
unwiUing eyes, including houses torn by explod
ing shells, and the sad spectacle of several hundred
wounded men fresh from the field of action before
Richmond." Accompanied by his wife, Mr. Enghsh made
many visits to the camps and hospitals about Wash
ington. " Many a poor f eUow was thus comforted

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 25
by their ministering presence, and great must have
been the rejoicing as the papers were produced
which in many instances granted a furlough to the
convalescent." For years there had been no Democratic gov
ernor of any Northern State. In 1866 the Dem
ocrats of Connecticut nominated Mr. Enghsh for
governor, feehng that in him they had a candi
date around whom aU good men could rally. The
ticket, with Mr. Enghsh at its head, was defeated
in 1866, but, again brought forward in 1867, was
triumphantly elected. Mr. Enghsh was inaugu
rated as governor in May, 1867, and remained in
office untU May, 1869, having been reelected in
AprU, 1868, by a largely increased majority. De
feated in 1869 by MarshaU Jewell, Governor Eng
lish was chosen in the foUowing year for a third
term, finaUy retiring in May, 1871.
Few governors have been as popular as was Mr.
Enghsh. AU Connecticut was proud of the man,
of his personal history, of his private traits and his
pubhc record. The position of an executive offi
cial gave especial distinction to his most charac
teristic gifts, inteUectual, official, and social. His
messages were models of terse and weU-chosen
English ; his few words were always to the point ;
his manners were dignified, and distinguished by a
fine courtesy. His presence on aU occasions and
in every sort of assemblage roused intense enthu-

26 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
siasm. His services to his State and his coun
try were widely recognized. He always took the
deepest interest in the cause of education, and his
efforts so greatly promoted and developed the facU-
ities offered by the pubhc schools, that he has been
called the "father of the free-school system m
Connecticut." In 1875, as we have said, on the death of Sen
ator Ferry, Governor Enghsh was appointed United
States Senator, and took his seat December Sth.
The Sth of January foUowing, he took part in the
memorial exercises held by the Senate in honor of
his predecessor, when he himself paid an eloquent
tribute to Senator Ferry's character and services.
This brief term in the United States Senate may
be said to have closed Governor Enghsh's pohtical
life, which had been in every way unique. He
had made no money out of pohtics. His whole
salary as member of Congress had been given to
the Sanitary Commission. This was, indeed, but a
part of his generous contributions to aU efforts to
aUeviate the distresses incident to the war. A
whole chapter might be devoted to the account of
his various offices, services, and benefactions to the
soldiers on the field and in hospitals. It was
largely by his personal efforts that the New Haven
Hospital enjoyed such rich and precious privUeges
for usefulness all through the war.
WhUe serving for two years in the Senate, it

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 27
was remarked that Mr. Enghsh did not draw his
salary, and as this caused an irregidarity in the
accounts he was remonstrated with, and a check
was signed for the back pay. He dechned to take
it, but, adding enough to the amount to bring it up
to a certain sum, he said, " Send it to Mrs. Ferry ;
it rightfully belongs to her."
While in office he was constantly in the secret
of the financial policy of the administration, and,
without departing from what most officials con
sidered the line of strict integrity, he might have
used his knowledge in his own interests. For
example, early information of the intention of gov
ernment to levy a tax on whiskey gave many men
high in position a chance to make large profits,
and this was eagerly seized and made the most
of. Mr. Enghsh's moral sense was not so phant to
opportunity. He never tried to serve two masters,
nor acknowledged a higher and a lower law, — one
for parade and one for private use. " The world's
wages are pocketed, the world's work is not done,"
could never be said of him.
For several years his wife had been an invalid,
and, after patiently enduring a long and painful
Ulness, Carohne Augusta English passed away
in October, 1874. This bereavement naturally
brought father and son more closely together. In
February, 1875, the two undertook an extended
journey through the Southern States, visiting every

28 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
important point between Washington and the Rio
Grande. Returniag home in AprU, preparations
were at once made for a prolonged European tour,
and on June 23, 1875, Governor Enghsh, accompa
nied by his son Henry, saUed from New York in
the " Scythia." Nearly five months were devoted
to a rapid but most instructive journey, in which
the two visited the chief cities of Great Britain and
Ireland, France, Belgium, HoUand, Germany, Den
mark, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and
Switzerland. Mr. English was an enthusiastic and
indefatigable traveler and a close observer. Re
turning home in November, father and son were
welcomed by a delegation of old friends and neigh
bors. Governor English did not retire into dull seclu
sion, although he gave up pohtical ambitions after
the end of his term in the Senate. He touched
life at too many points, and was too ardently in
sympathy with the whole world of thought and
energy, ever to be a mere man of leisure. " Every
man is as lazy as he can afford to be," was one of
his pithy sayings; but he would never have ad
mitted that a situation existed which had not its
duties and its necessity for honest hard work. On
setthng down once more in New Haven, he re
sumed his connection with the different corpora
tions and public institutions with which he had
become so prominently identified. With advancing

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 29
years he graduaUy laid down the more active man
agement of his extensive manufacturing interests,
and devoted instead much of his personal attention
to real estate investments. During the ten years
following 1877 he put up a number of substantial
business blocks on the principal thoroughfares,
which are among the best examples of modern
buUdings in New Haven. In fact, a detailed state
ment of these enterprises, combined with the gen
eral business he directed, the banks of which he
was a chief officer, the charitable institutions of
which he was a moving force, the educational in
terests which he promoted, show that, although now
a man of large means, he was no more of an idle
man than he had been while making his fortune.
In 1873 an effort had been made to enlarge
the hbrary of the Yale Law School, and Governor
Enghsh gave $10,000 to the University to buy
books and increase the privUeges and facUities of
the law students, of whom his son Henry was one.
He superintended the designs and execution of
the Soldiers' Monument, on the summit of East
Rock, and successfuUy carried through all the
business connected with the management of the
enterprise. NaturaUy the erection of this beauti
ful memorial on so striking a site turned the atten
tion of New Haven people to the importance of
securing an easy approach to the heights which
make so noble a background to the seaside city.

30 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
and offer such advantages for a summer pleasure
ground. The first drive to be completed was that
made by 'the city from Bishop's Gate to Indian
Head, by the southeastern entrance to the park at
Cedar HiU. This was foUowed by the Farnam
Drive to the summit of East Rock, beginning at
the base of the cliff at Orange Street Bridge and
winding through the northern half of the park.
This was completed in 1883. In the spring of
1885 Governor Enghsh gave the city $23,000 to
make a third road, which, starting from the same
point at Orange Street Bridge, followed the vari
ous curvings of the southern half of the park and
terminated at Lookout Point. No pubhc improve
ments could so weU have set off the unusual
advantages which New Haven possesses. No city
on the Atlantic coast offers the same charming
combination of sea and upland scenery.
For many years Governor Enghsh spent several
weeks of each summer at the Grand Union Hotel,
Saratoga, and he was one of those who helped to
make the place the favorite resort of distinguished
men from aU parts of the United States. He had
had a long experience of the Springs, visiting them
year after year before the time of railroads, when
the journey from Albany was made by stage-coach.
He hked to illustrate the development of the great
watering-place by recounting how, when he was a
boy, his father brought him to Saratoga, and they

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 31
stopped at a pubhc house where the landlord asked
a blessing at table, and requested his guests to
take part in morning prayers !
Governor English found much satisfaction in
this annual rendezvous, where men of every type
and profession met easUy and exchanged opinions
on all questions of the hour. He had an un
quenchable thirst for information, and found, in
each person he was thrown with, some special
capacity for giving him certain facts. And those
with whom he talked appreciated the largeness and
fair-mindedness with which he judged opinions,
ideas, and experiences the opposite of his own.
He could give comprehension and sympathy with
out being swayed from his own sure anchorage.
He remained always himself, and was never run
away with by novelty. He possessed ample tact,
and was master of the art of saying just enough,
never too much. He once observed : " A man can
not talk aU the time and talk sense. He must talk
nonsense, or not tell the truth."
Hundreds of men from aU parts of the country
wUl always remember the dehghtful " rural break
fasts " which it was his custom to give at Saratoga,
inviting twenty or thirty guests at a time. At
these banquets nothing was spared which could
give completeness to the entertainment, both in
the way of menu and table appointments. But
the impression best retained by aU who enjoyed

32 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
this hospitality is of the high spirits and animation
of Governor English, who invariably showed special
distinction as a host. The position seemed to give
all his powers their freest play, and brought out
almost unexpected elements of charm in his strong
and individual character. He has been described
on such occasions as " the prince of good feUows."
He hked to make after-dinner speeches, and those
who have listened on such occasions wiU recaU his
splendid appearance as he stood in his character
istic attitude, his hand under the breast lappel of
his coat, his head weU poised, his face grand,
strong, earnest, his manner at first shghtly formal,
but soon melting into an air of enjoyment, as with
keen zest he recounted an anecdote, or made a
witty hit, which amused and dehghted his hearers.
It was in 1885, while enjoying his summer rest
at Saratoga, that Governor English met the woman
destined to become his second wife. This was
Anna R. Morris, who, by an interesting coinci
dence, was, in a way, a townswoman of his own,
being a descendant of one of the oldest New Haven
families, the Morrises of Morris Cove. She was
born at the South, being the daughter of Lucius S.
and Letitia C. Morris, of Augusta, Georgia, but
with her famUy came North to reside when httle
more than a chUd. As it chanced, she had al
ready heard much of Governor Enghsh from
friends who knew him weU and regarded him with

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 33
peculiar affection and veneration. Thus it was not
strange that the acquaintance soon expanded into
friendship, and that friendship led to a completely
satisfying union which crowned two hves with rare
happiness. The marriage took place in New York, October
7, 1885. Governor Enghsh was no longer young,
but so far, added years had only given him a
greater variety and compass of experience, riper
and meUower powers of inteUect, and increased
powers of social enjoyment. He had always been
a man of unusual physical strength, never having
had a day's Ulness. The strict self-disciphne, the
thoroughness of attention given to the least duty,
which characterized him, had had sure effect upon
his whole habit of life : thus he was, indeed, only
in the golden autumn of his years when he made
this happy second marriage. He carried into it
aU the quahties which give excellence and charm
to private hfe, — tenderness, courtesy, sympathy,
freshness of feeling, and the finest and most chiv
alrous sense of what is due to woman. He was
happy himself, and he made aU those happy with
whom he had to do.
Large receptions were given to Governor and
Mrs. Enghsh, both in New Haven and in New
York, after their return from their wedding jour
ney. We have seen that he had always been an
extensive traveler ; he was now to repeat old jour-
3

34 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
neys and take new ones, with a happy young wife
who enjoyed to the fuU the charm and the intel
lectual advantage of this new experience.
In January, 1886, Governor and Mrs. English
went South, first to Florida, then to Cuba. They
were traveling with friends who were acquainted
with many of the prominent people in Havana ;
they were accordingly much feted, and enjoyed
the charm of seeing a great deal of the private and
social hfe of that city. Governor Enghsh found
novelty and charm in this glimpse of the tropics,
this new world, with its different civUization. He
enjoyed the climate, and the whole spectacle offered
by the Cuban capital, where men, women, and chil
dren, aU alike, seem to be preparing for a carnival
festival. He entered with freshness of enjoyment
into the round of luncheons, dinners, operas, par
ties, and suppers. He hked the bright spirit which
dictated the novel ideas and customs, and which,
set off by the combined brUliance and naivet^ of
Cuban women, give piquancy to social intercourse.
Everything, indeed, combined to add zest to this
hohday experience ; and whUe entering into the
lively diversions offered, he sometimes said, " I am
only twenty-one."
Towards spring they returned to the States,
going first to Florida and later to New Orleans
to attend the Mardi Gras celebration. Governor
Enghsh had many acquaintances in the latter city,

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 35
and aU the foremost society people vied with each
other in offering hospitalities to the visitors.
AprU was passed at the " Arlington," in Wash
ington. Governor English had always retained
the most hvely recoUections of his four exciting
years spent at the capital, and loved the place
beyond most others. Washington was for him
associated with great principles, great men, and
great emergencies. He had played an important
part there at an epoch of ardent excitement, when
Hfe pulsated with a burning, passionate fever of
deep feeling and high patriotism.
Always on entering Washington he was power-
fuUy thrUled. Like an old war-horse, catching
the echoes of the bugle reveUle, he felt the ancient
spirit return, and longed once more for the fray.
" This is the old stamping ground," he would say,
and anecdotes and reminiscences would rise to his
lips, of President Lincoln, and of all the men with
whom he had so long stood shoulder to shoulder
and borne the brunt of the battle.
The foUowing six months were passed between
New York, Saratoga, Newport, and Lenox. In
November, Mr. and Mrs. Enghsh saUed for Havre
on the " Champagne." December was spent in
Paris. As we have seen. Governor English carried
into his travels the same quick insight, the same
exact observation, which had all his life made him
a master of facts. He felt deeply the high historic

36 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
charm of the cities of the Old World, where on
every hand are found suggestions of the rise and
faU of dynasties, and where the story of great
epochs is imperishably hnked with streets, buUd
ings, and monuments.
He was equally interested in modern inven
tions and improvements. His attention fastened
at once on the essential points in which these
foreign cities showed likeness or contrast to the
places with which he was famUiar. Accustomed
as he was to the method and routine of American
state and municipal governments, he had a keen
interest in the practical workings of European
state and municipal affairs. Thus, in Paris he
found ample field for observation and study. He
hked to penetrate the principles which underhe
corporations and organizations ; he had a keen
eye for commercial advantages and disadvantages,
and easily mastered facts and statistics. An archi
tect by profession, he was naturaUy interested in
pubhc buildings. He hked splendid edifices, both
those which are the remnants of bygone periods
and those buUt to answer modern requirements.
He enjoyed everything that is vast, spacious, com
modious. He studied new streets, new buUdings,
the bridges over the Seine, the houses along the
banks. And both in this and in the later time he
and Mrs. Enghsh spent in Paris, he was interested
in every landmark which pointed to the terrible

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 37
period of the Commune. It was thus invariably
his habit, even whUe amusing himself, to be ad
vancing in knowledge and gaining a more com
prehensive culture.
From Paris he and his wife went to Nice. He
was fascinated by this resort, where the world
basks in sunlight, and sea, shore, sky, and moun
tains ghtter with fresh briUiancy of hue. Often
afterwards he aUuded to the charm of existence
on those beautiful shores. Here, as in Paris, he
was interested in all that came before his eyes.
The background of the Maritime Alps, the char
acter of the rock formations, the nature of the
soU, aU stimulated his perceptions, and more than
once he commented upon the signs of violent
upheaval in aU the strata, and the volcanic appear
ance both of rocks and clay. Possibly the deep
significance of such indications lurking in the
fair landscape, hke the shadow of death over the
brightest shows of hfe, deepened the beauty of
the veU of luminous haze across the background
of mountains, the blue of the sky, and the purple
of the sea. An interruption was to come, like the
sudden crash of kettledrums in the midst of deli
cious flute-melody. On February 23, 1887, the
great earthquake which desolated a large region in
Italy was experienced at Nice, with sufficient vio
lence to startle the crowd of pleasure-seekers, and
to send many of them flying from the shores of
the Mediterranean.

38 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
Perhaps for the very reason of his scientific
predictions that this was an earthquake region.
Governor Enghsh stood like an unshaken oak-
tree through the scenes of excitement which fol
lowed the repeated shocks of that terrible day.
When night came, few of the guests at the hotels
retired to rest. Ready for flight, yet not knowing
whither it was safe to flee, since news from aU
points seemed to menace them with fresh dangers,
they sat or walked about the rooms and corridors,
expecting the worst; for the end of aU things
seemed near at hand. Governor Enghsh, never
theless, lay down and slept tranquiUy. At his
wife's entreaty, he had not undressed, thus being
prepared for any possible emergency. Mrs. Eng
hsh sat beside her husband, with her eyes fixed on
the crystals of the chandelier, which were certain
to give the signal of any approaching upheaval.
The moment the least jar came, she was to rouse
Governor Enghsh and find safety by rushing forth
into the night.
Two hours past midnight came a quaking, a
rumbling, a rushing sound. In an instant the
sleeper was awakened, informed of the danger,
and, regardless of his prohibition, he was encased
in a huge ulster, which enveloped him from head
to foot ; a great plaid shawl was folded across his
shoulders, and a sea-cap was drawn over his ears.
Thus accoutred, in order that he might be pro-

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH, 39
tected from the dampness and chill, he was drawn
into the throng of guests who, in intense and pain
ful excitement, were scrambling down the stairs in
a hurry to reach the streets. Just as he was to
be led forth, however. Governor English remarked
that, as the shock seemed to be safely over, it
might be as weU to wait inside, at least until some
fresh danger came, since the night air at Nice was
more to be dreaded than any ordinary earthquake.
Accordingly the party halted on the ground floor.
The ladies were aU in a state of panic ; on every
hand groups were exhibiting every sign of agita
tion ; some were hysterical, others were peremp
tory ; there were shrUl vociferations, entreaties,
trembling exhortations, and the voices of a dozen
different nationahties combined to make a very
Babel of the place. Governor Enghsh still, —
much against his will, — arrayed in his tartan,
his ulster, and his cap, stood, majestic and cahn,
leaning against a pUlar, his arms folded across his
breast. A young man passing the massive figure
cried : —
" Governor Enghsh, you look as if you were
Washington crossing the Delaware."
" I wish I were," said Governor English, in a
tone of such hearty disgust at the general agitation
that, in spite of sobs, tears, and groans on aU sides,
everybody within hearing laughed outright.
This inopportune earthquake marred the pleasant
plans for a journey through Italy and to the East.

40 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
After such an experience of the dangers that
lurked in these fair, smiling regions, Mrs. English
felt disinclined to court any fresh experiences of
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in Southern
Italy. The direction of their tour was changed,
and they traveled through Central Europe, visit
ing Belgium, Germany, and Austria, and especiaUy
enjoying Vienna. Governor English was much di
verted by the people they encountered of so many
varying nationalities. He frequently remarked that,
in spite of different habits and customs, human
nature, after aU, is essentiaUy the same wherever
found. April and May were passed in Paris. The
weather was marvelously beautiful, and regularly
each day at noon Governor Enghsh took his morn
ing promenade along the Champs Elys^es. Both
he and Mrs. English entered largely into Parisian
social life, of which the American colony is now
an integral part. Mrs. Enghsh had her days at
home, and her husband, with his air of splendid
courtesy and his rare tact as a host, contributed
largely to the success of their receptions. Although
always ready to devote his best powers to aU such
social occasions, and to enjoy aU that was going
forward, his phrase was, " I am only a passenger,"
and he hked best to leave every detail of arrange
ment to his wife, accepting her decision on aU
points, and loyally making her the centre and
chief in their happy domestic life.

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 41
It was the JubUee year, and naturally June found
Governor and Mrs. English in London. It was a
beautiful and cloudless season. " Queen's weather "
it was called all over England. They stayed at
the great hotel on Trafalgar Square ; for Governor
English hked a central position, and he now en
joyed London in a leisurely way, as he had enjoyed
the Continental cities, and was never tired of vis
iting Westminster Abbey, the Parhament Houses,
the Thames Embankment, etc. Their rooms com
manded a fine view ; thus they were enabled to
see the great procession to the utmost advantage
when the royal famihes of England and of Europe,
and the highest nobihty of aU countries, attended
the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. Governor
English was greatly impressed by the perfection
of the pohce and mUitary arrangements ; the easy
control maintained over the vast crowds ; the com
pleteness of each detail, which seemed to have
been ordered with clearest prevision, so that no
possible mistake could mar the success of the day.
Mr. Phelps was at that time our minister to Eng
land, and, as he and Governor Enghsh were old
friends, aU the advantages of the London season
were open to the visitors. And rarely has society
had more to offer than in June, 1887. At the
great Inaugural and JubUee Dinner of the Asso
ciation of Foreign Consuls, given at the Hotel
Metropole, where so many men from so many climes

42 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
sat down together. Governor Enghsh had a fore
most place. Hon. T. M. WaUer, Consul-General
of the United States, was at the head of the table,
with the Lord Mayor of London on his right and
Canon Farrar on his left. Among the many good
speeches of the night, that from Governor English
is still remembered as one of the best and most
felicitous. Later he traveled with Mrs. English through
England, Scotland, and Ireland, returning to the
United States in July by the " Etruria."
The two following years were as happUy, even
if more quietly, spent. Governor Enghsh was
devoted to his home, and keenly felt the charm
of domestic life, enjoying aU its niceties and ele
gancies. He liked to entertain, found zest and
stimulus in social intercourse, yet was never hap
pier than when he sat quietly thinking. There
was a favorite spot in his conservatory where he
was often to be found.
" Dear, are you lonely ? " his wife sometimes said,
when she came upon her husband sitting there.
" I am never lonely. My thoughts are always
company for me," he was certain to reply, and his
face showed the workings of an animated inteUect
busy with aU the problems of existence.
He did not seem to grow old; he stiU showed
all the vigor of middle hfe. There was a wide
awake force about him which braced those who

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 43
Hved with him hlie a tonic. He never nodded or
dozed ; he never lounged, was never seen in dis
habille, was always ready for any occasion. Al
though he found charm in occasional solitude,
he was social by habit and uistinct. He liked to
give his reminiscences of people and places. He
had seen New Haven grow with the growth of the
country and strengthen with its strength. Dur
ing his long and busy life, the State House on the
" Green " had risen from its corner-stone, and had
crumbled into decay. He could draw upon a rich
fund of interesting facts connected with the early
settlers of New Haven Colony ; he remembered
aU the genealogies of the old famUies, was weU
acquainted with every landmark, and knew the
story of aU the old houses.
He was a member of the Quinnipiac Club, a
famUiar and now sadly missed figure at its meet
ings. His friendships were intimate and familiar.
His public charities were hberal, his private bene
factions incessant. It was weU known that he had
given largely to Yale CoUege, to the city, to hos
pitals, churches, schools, and asylums ; but some of
his most benevolent deeds were done so quietly,
with so httle ostentation, that the pubhc knew
nothing of them.
It need hardly be said that he was a rehgious
man. The English famUy had for generations
been Episcopahans, and Governor Enghsh had

44 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
been a regular attendant at St. Paul's Church for
more than forty years. His turn of mind was not
dogmatic ; the verities of religious faith were, for
him, not the questions which rouse theological
argument, but firm behefs, rooted in hving, doing,
and being. The strict self-disciphne and thor
oughness of purpose which throughout his long
life had never permitted him to neglect any duty,
had their mainspring in veneration for the worth
and beauty of Divine laws, and he felt and incul
cated a profound sense of reverence for the Divine
government of mankind.
We jot down a few of his apothegms, uttered
not from any wish to say good things, but as
brief, pointed expressions of the sum of a long
experience : —
" All things equalize themselves in time."
" The past, at least, is secure."
" It is the first step that costs the money."
" No man can afford to hold an office that has
the slightest taint upon it."
" Wise men change their opinions, fools never."
" Idle brains are the DevU's workshop."
" Seeking pleasure is chasing shadows."
" Sentiment is stronger than argument."
" Our opinions are apt to follow our desires."
A favorite expression when people said too
much, or overdid what they attempted, was, —
" People often go by where they want to stop."

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 45
Of the calamities which come upon unlucky
people, —
" The downward tendency accelerates the mo
tion." When people made an ostentatious display, with
nothing substantial to back it, the observation
was, —
" Some people hang out more than they wash."
Governor English had rarely been in more per
fect health than at the beginning of 1890. He
had often remarked jokingly that he intended to
hve until he was ninety, and indeed he had lost so
httle of his early vigor that his family and friends
had not begun to regard him as an old man.
More than once he had expressed an earnest wish
to see his eightieth birthday, and it has been sur
mised that, had he been spared, it was his intention
to celebrate that occasion by a generous distri
bution to New Haven charities. His seventieth
birthday had been a notable event ; congratula
tions had been sent to him from far and wide,
whUe a great reception was given him at home.
But none of the earnest prayers from aU who loved
and honored him were to be fulfiUed. He was to
die just before he had completed his seventy-eighth
year. He had hved to old age without having recourse
to doctors or drugs. Some httle time before his
death, a physician, to whom he happened to men
tion some trifling aUment, wrote him a prescription.

46 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH.
"What shaU I do with it. Doctor?" asked
Governor Enghsh. " I never had a prescription
before in my life."
" Take it home and frame it," said the physi
cian. " Men who hve as you have hved need no
medicine." Thus it was hardly strange that the symptoms
of his first and only iUness shoidd be disregarded,
and that he should attribute them to a mere cold,
or possibly to the grippe, which had prevaUed all
that season. While at the Quinnipiac Club on Sat
urday afternoon, February 22, his hoarseness was
remarked. By Monday this had increased ; but
it was not until Tuesday that he confessed he was
not well. He ate little at dinner that evening,
and at nine o'clock said he would go to his room.
A party of young people had gathered to play
cards, and before he left the parlors, in apparent
high spirits, he joined in the conversation as he
looked over the hands, and made animated com
ments on the game.
" Look out for Mrs. M  ," he said, gayly, to
a young man playing against a lady who was stay
ing in the house. " She wiU win everything you
have." He went to bed, but a httle later Mrs. Enghsh
found that he had not slept, and he complained
of a pain about his heart. She at once applied
every available remedy, whUe strongly urging him
to allow her to send for a physician.

JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH. 47
" But I am not sick ; I am never sick," he
rephed. Some hours after midnight, as the symptoms did
not yield to any ordinary measures, a doctor was
summoned. It was not until the next morning
that the trouble was pronounced to be pneumonia.
The case did not at first rouse strong apprehen
sions of danger, and for some days it was fully
beheved that his vigorous constitution would en
able him to surmount the disease. When he found
himself reaUy iU, with a nurse in attendance, he
was half amused by the novelty of the situation.
" WeU, I have broken my record," was his re
mark. As he grew weaker physicaUy his mind was stUl
active, and his spirit unshaken.
" Governor, how do you feel ? TeU me how
you feel," Mrs. Enghsh said to him, entreatingly,
as the case grew more critical.
"As weU as I can expect, under the circum
stances," was the calm reply.
AU was peace of mind, love to his innermost
circle of dear ones and to aU the world, absolute
clearness of inteUect almost to the very end.
He died at two hours past noon, March 2, 1890.
Never had mourners over an unspeakable be
reavement a fuUer conviction that, in spite of
their own personal cravings for a longer privilege

48 JAMES EDWARD ENGLISH,
of that beloved companionship, the man they wept
for was as happy in his death as he had been in
his life. AU had loved and honored him. The
influence of his good works would go on develop
ing and progressing through whole generations of
men yet to come. His early endeavors and aspira
tions had been nobly matured and executed. He
had set himself a task, and had accomphshed it
wisely and thoroughly. Nothing remained undone
that could have been done.
In life he had been honored, and now in death
he was honored as few men are honored. Tele
grams and letters, full of reverent love and grateful
veneration for Governor Enghsh and sympathy for
those he had left to mourn him, poured in from aU
over the land. More precious stiU, perhaps, to the
sorrowing family, were the signs of grief and af
fection which came from their townspeople. The
whole city was moved to deep feehng for the loss
of one whom it had so recently seen face to face,
whom it had loved and rejoiced in.
The day when the final scene of aU was reached
was one of chilhng winds, biting sleet, and driving
snow ; yet men and women gathered from distant
cities, and of those who had known and loved Gov
ernor Enghsh in New Haven few were absent from
the last rites. All alike felt that a man had passed
away whose place in this later day and generation
could never be exactly filled.

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