Iff"*"*"""""

::>^\^^!j^i^:-0:^f.^y::jr':>;.-' :¦<''¦¦ ¦¦"-:i.--<r'.y.^^^^^^^

06019 7911

^¦iTi Tt

ifi^^y)f,!,?iiffs:«Si>',

m

a-JA;iv>."gv;;.yt'fey8fy^Ti.>5a3iy;-!a^^^^^^^

c/^

A^/^ £ ^^ ^^^^

^^i«^*i^//r^

'i5<*^

^6«v«

% ^xxhniz ai %^ttixart

TO THE MEMORY OF

Hon. William C. Bradley.

BY His GRANDDAUGHTER,

MRS. S. B. WILLARD.
II,

BOSTON:
GEO. C. RAND & AVERY, PRINTERS, 3 CORNHILL.
1869.

Childhood and Youth.

It was on the sixth day of March, 1867, when
a large concourse of mourners assembled in the
old Bradley mansion in Westminster, Vt, to
pay the last tribute of respect to a great and
noble man. He had gone to his long home, full
of honor, in a ripe old age.
This same mansion had been the scene of
rare hospitality, and of a long life of sweet do
mestic peace. Many loved and honored mem
bers of the family had laid down in this same
quiet home to die ; but now the noblest Roman
of them all was waiting to be gathered to his
fathers. Well did the divine who preached the funeral
sermon say of him, " He was a remarkable
man, — remarkable in many ways: in the power
of his presence, and the bulk of his brain ; in
the vast sweep and wonderful command of his

4 William C. Bradley.
information, and the hunger for knowledge
which no years nor weakness could still ; in the
independence of his thought, and his tendency
to superstition ; in the ringing vigor of his
voice, and the wealth of fun, wit, story, history,
thought, and wisdom which it conveyed; in the
. versatility and power of his mind, and the posi
tion and service as a public man to -which he
was called ; in the place he filled in regard to
his fellow-citizens, and the gap he leaves behind
in many hearts at almost eighty-five ; in what
he did, and what he did not do ; in what he was,
and what he was not. So much was his weak
ness stronger than other men's strength ; so
much more was he in the evening of his days
than the rest of us in life's high noon ; so robust
and vivid was his life even to the last, — that
he seemed rather to abdicate than be driven
from his throne."
He was born in Vermont, March 23, 1782.
Entering life at the close of our first Revolution,
he died soon after the ctose of the second. He
was wont to say, that he was born in the year of
the peace, and had lived all his life in war. Yet,
when he passed away, a new year of peace had
come. He was of ancient and honorable descent.

Childhood and Youth. 5
His great-grandfather was a soldier in Crom
well's famous " Ironsides." His father, Stephen
R. Bradley, served in the Revolutionary War,
as we find by a commission signed by Major-
Gen. Charles Lee.* He came to Vermont at an
early day, where he did good service in laying
the foundations of our institutions ; was a lead
ing lawyer and statesman, a judge of the Su
preme Court, the first senator from Vermont,
and twice chosen president of the Senate.
His first wife was Merab Atwater of Cheshire,
Conn. She died when William was an infant.
Wlien two years of age, he suffered severely
from scarlet fever ; and to this disease is attrib
uted the loss of hearing, from which he suffered
all his life. He spent some of the earliest years
of his life with his grandparents, in Cheshire,
Conn. They were of the strictest sect of the
Puritans, and hardly knew what to do with the
precocious little fellow, whose love of fun and
frolic knew no bounds. The stern Cromwellians

* By virtue of authority granted to me, occasionally, by his
excellency Gen. Washington, I- do constitute and appoint Ste
phen Rowe Bradley, Esq., to act as captain of the new company
of Cheshire Volunteers during the present expedition ; and he
is to be considered and obeyed as such.
Given, under ray hand, at Head Quarters at Stamford, the
the 24th day of January, 1776.
Charles Lee,
Major-General.

6 William C. Bradley.
had great faith in Solomon's mode of gov
erning, and were somewhat stern in their dis
cipline. At nine years of age, he had read the Bible
through seven times, and thus laid the founda
tion of that thorough knowledge of its contents
which he possessed.
We find the following letter, written when he
was six years of age, to his father : —
Cheshire, Oct. 9, 1788.
Honored Papa, — I have not seen you so long, that I grow
impatient, and can hardly attend to my business in school ;
but I have so strictly attended, that I am able to do an ac
tion which I was never guilty of before. For
These lines, dear papa, I to you present
In real duty, not in corapHment,
To let your goodness truly understand
How in this time I have improved my hand.
To me, my master has conceived some skill ;
This is the product of my hand and quill.
And, should I minister to your content,
I hope my time has not been all misspent.
This being the first letter I wrote, I will write but little.
I am well ; and I hope some good person will speedily for
ward this to you, that you may know where I am, how I am",
and what I am about. I am, dear papa,
Your dutiful son,
BiLLA Czar Bradley.

Childhood and Youth. 7
He was fitted for college at Charlestown, N.H.
In 1794, when he was eleven years of age,
his father sent him the following letter from
Philadelphia, where Congress was then assem
bled:— " I sincerely hope, my son, that you will make
all the proficiency under Mr. May that your
health and abilities will permit.
" It is high time you were complete master
of the Greek and Latin tongues. As soon as
you have acquired these, and a knowledge of
the French, you will have open before you the
extensive study of the arts and sciences, poetry,
politics, religion, and the agreeable study of
history, which embraces the knowledge of men,
nations, empires, and of the world.
" Life, like the labors of the day, if well im
proved in the morning, the labors of the after-
part become easy and pleasant ; but, if ne
glected, they become a burden and fatigue. I
send you a map of the Netherlands, that, when
you read in the newspapers of any place taken
by the French, you may look, and see where it
is. They have not yet crossed the Rhine," &c.
Again, in the January afterwards, he thus
writes : —
" I had the pleasure of receiving a letter from
you, dated the loth inst., which gives me the

8 William C. Bradley.
highest satisfaction to find you determined
praennia Doctarium Frontium. May the
Ederae ever appear green on your brow ! and,
in the language of the same poet, may you say,
' Sublimi Feriam Sidera Vertite ' " !
Then he mentions a collection of books which
he had bpught for him, — Gibbon's History,
Mosheim, and Dupius' Ecclesiastica Historus,
(six volumes each), Ossian 's Poems, and Burgh's
Political Essays. " If you wish any books
added to the collection, let me know, and I will
send them."
It was during this same month that he had
purchased him a Hebrew Grammar, and had
determined to send him a complete set of He
brew books.
So rapidly- did " Billa Czar," as he calls him
self, learn, that at thirteen he not only entered
college, but was considered over-fitted. And
now we find him in the shadow of old Yale, re
moved from the stern restraint, in a measure,
which had always been exercised over him. It
required very little study on his part to keep up
with his class ; while his buoyant spirits, and
love of fun, broke out on all occasions. The
good Dr. Dwight and the staid tutor Stebbins
were as sorely puzzled as the grandparents to
know what to do with the erratic boy, whose
physical and mental vitality was so great.

Childhood and Youth. 9
It would seem that the boys wrote essays ;
and probably the old subjects — " Virtue," " Ad
versity," "Spring," &c. — were given. We can
imagine the other boys crooking their fingers,
and rubbing their heads, to say something very
original and appropriate, while Billa Czar, with
out any loss of time, flings ofif the following : —
SPRING.
Sirs, let me praise,
In youthful lays,
The beauties of the spring :
Descend ye Nine
Of music'.s line,
And teach me how to sing.
Not celebrate
The pomp of state.
No : that is not my duty.
Make, poets yield,
Describe the field
In all her rural beauty.
This is the task
That I do ask :
Apollo help me in it ;
And let me see
In every tree
The robin and the linnet, —
Who'ope their throats,
And utter notes • ' •"
Which I must wish were mine.
How long I'd live
To hear them give
¦ The sound that's so divine !

lo William C. Bradley.
The nightingale.
She wags her tail.
And flies from bush to bush ;
While all the air
Doth echo fair
With music of the thrush.
The gaudy flowers.
They spend their hours
In showing beauties greater ;
And all the field.
It seems to yield
The fragrances of nature.

We do not give this as a specimen of his
poetry, for he wrote much better at this time,
but of the sunny temper, which made what was
to other boys a burden, mere sport to him.
Rev. Timothy Dwight was himself a poet, or
thought he was ; but the. world has since given
him more credit for his theological lore than
for poetic fire.
How much of satire or sincerity there was in
the following lines of Billa Czar we are unable
to determine : —
The profound learning of a learned Dwight ;
He, the great servant of his greater God,
The Christian's comfort, and the deist's rod,
With equal hand judicially shall rule
As president over our rising school.
Columbia's learned must confess him chief.
If that Columbia e'er professed belief."

Childhood and Youth. 1 1
But alas for the boy ! Some college mis
chief was perpetrated ; and no wonder he was
suspected. The rollicking, bright-eyed, daring
fellow fell at once under censure ; and though
he was not guilty of the acts of which he was
accused, as he averred even at eighty years of
age, " yet," he adds, " I had done undetected
mischief enough to deserve censure." He was
expelled from college, and sent home to his
stern father, who was very indignant at his dis
grace, and, as a punishment, gave him a dung-
fork, and set him to work at the manure-heap.
The brave, sturdy boy did not despise his tool,
but used it well, redeeming and biding his time.
But other heaps were for his turning over, and
other fields for him to fill. He soon resolved
to study law. But he would be no mean law
yer. He would be the learned man which the
college refused to make him. Soon he was
deep in the classics again. When his father
sent him away from home, after his return from
college, his step-mother, who was very gentle
and winning, and loved the boy tenderly, put
into his hands a little housewife, in a compart
ment of which was a gold sovereign. Many
times, during the year that followed, he needed
money ; but never was that little piece taken
out of the housewife.

1 2 William C. Bradley.
When over eighty years of age, he showed the
treasure to his grandchildren, but only raised
the gold piece a little, not allowing it to be taken
wholly out.
There it lies still, — a precious heirloom to
the third generation.
We can gather something of the sternness of
the father, and the keen suffering of the sensi
tive boy, by the following extract of a letter,
written at Amherst, where he was studying law
with Judge Simeon Strong: —
" Nothing could be further from my heart ;
and my soul would shudder to reflect that I
had ever been wanting in filial piety, where
justice, reason, and nature demanded it.
" But — and you will now hear me, though
once you would not — but when justice ceases
to demand it, when reason forbids it, and
when nature is wanting, the claim is no longer
valid. If circumstances have ever happened
like this with regard to me, your own feel
ings will convince you. If they have not,
far be it from me to wish to aggravate the
passions of any one, much less of him whom
I have taken pleasure in thinking was the best
friend I had on earth. And if the pleasing
illusion has vanished, if the chain has been

Childhood and Youth. 13
broken, the tenderness which originated in it
still remains ; and I feel for him who has ex
pelled me from his home the same regard as
ever ; for he is my father.
" The awful distance which you have been
pleased to keep between us has been a bar to
my expressing my sorrows as to a father. Do
me the justice to suppose that my heart is, and
ever will be, grateful for that learning and in
formation, which, by your means, I may be able
to procure. It has been the solace of my past
life, and, I hope, will be the support of my
future. At any rate, it will teach me to dis
tinguish right from wrong, — to follow the one,
and to shun the other, — and by that means
keep me from remorse, guilt, or fear. Perhaps
I may be subjected to lowest poverty and want.
Perhaps I may glide smoothly down the cur
rents of life, and, ere I die, arrive at some
degree of eminence and celebrity. In either
case, I am prepared ; and I hope I can bear
both with equal firmness. The pleasures of
life, can have few allurements to a heart as terse
as mine. Its pains can have but few terrors to.
those who have severely experienced the worst.
And, as I expect no happiness short of eternal
rest, I am not liable to be disappointed.
" Mr. Strong's appointment to the office of

14 William C. Bradley.
Judge of the Supreme Court will render my
removal in a few weeks necessary. Should
you think proper to write me, I should be happy
to hear from you soon, as afterwards my friends
will consider my situation uncertain."
He returned to his father's office, where he
soon distinguished himself; and, from that time
till his death, no man in the State was more
beloved. Wherever he appeared, in his own
village, or in any of the towns in the State
where he was known, he was always surrounded
by a group of eager listeners. I can see him
now, in my mind's eye, the centre of such a
group, — his massive head with its crown of
white hair thick and abundant, his bright eye
undimmed by age, the hand curved behind the
ear, ready for the question, which, as Boswell
said of Johnson, was the bell which it was only
necessary to ring to set the stream of wit and
wisdom flowing.
When but seventeen years of age, he was
appointed to deliver a Fourth-of-July oration.
He gives an account of it in a letter to a
friend. " The oration which I mentioned to you was
prepared, and your friend waited for the Fourth

Childhood and Youth. 15
of July in fear and trembling. In the mean
time a committee was appointed, consisting of
my father, Judge Hall, Judge Burt, Maj. At
water, Squire Ranny, and six others, to direct
and manage the business of celebration. They
appointed my father president of the day.
" The day was ushered in by a discharge of
cannon. At eleven o'clock, the bell, which my
father had swung the day before, began to
sound, and so continued till half-past twelve,
when it struck into a quick toll, and the proces
sion commenced as follows : First the mili
tary, commanded by Major Campbell ; next the
American flag, followed by the Declaration of
Independence, borne on a fringed white-satin
soffadan ; after which came your friend as the
orator of the day ; next to him several clergy
men ; after whom came. Gen. Bradley as presi
dent of the day, followed by all the committees ;
then came the spectators, two and two. They
proceeded to the door of the meeting-house,
when the military opened to the right and left,
and the procession passed through. The
Declaration was borne into the pulpit, and
there publicly read by the orator, after which
there was a discharge of cannon.
" A psalm suited to the occasion was then
sung, and a prayer made by the Rev. Mr. Hall

1 6 William C. Bradley.
of Grafton ; which was succeeded by an an
them. " I then rose, and addressed to the audience a
short oration ; which was succeeded by an ode.
The burden of it was sung by three or four of
our best singers, and all the young gentlemen
and ladies joined in the chorus. Then a few
pieces of music, and the performance closed.
The procession returned in the same order to
Pratt's cofifee-house, where an elegant dinner
was prepared, and sixteen toasts drank, accom
panied with a proper number of cheers, and a
discharge of cannon each."
ORATION.
If the most pleasing sight in the eye of
Heaven is a brave and virtuous people trusting
to its protection, and struggling with the tor
rent of adversity which seems for a moment
ready to overwhelm it, the next in order must
be a people whose citizens, having burst the
chains which enslaved them, and triumphed
over tyranny and injustice, have met together
in little groups of festive brotherhood to ex
press their gratitude, to congratulate each other,
and to celebrate the day when they first started
forth to liberty and independence.

Childhood and Youth. i"]
Such, fellow-citizens, is the spectacle now
presented ;' such is the day which now sheds its
lustre around us ; and such, I trust, are the feel
ings with which you have assembled to com
plete its celebration. I trust that no impure,
no unhallowed sentiments find entrance here ;
but the voice of faction is still, and the in
fluence of foreign attachments is laid aside.
That as' Americans we have met together on
American ground, and on the American birth
day, to rejoice that we are a free, happy, and
independent people, and to recapitulate the
means which Heaven has kindly put within
our reach to render that freedom, independ
ence, and happiness eternal.
How these precious blessings were acquired
it is needless to repeat : they are rooted in the
memory of every man. Those who have not
seen have heard, and their fathers have told
them. The tale of our Revolution is recorded
in the page of history ; and the living memory
still retraces the period when, from the jarring
elements of patriotism and rebellion, the beau^
tiful fabric of our Constitution rose with all its
symmetry to view ; when, weary of dissension
and confusion, men rushed to the standard of
order, and rallied round the banner of the laws ;

1 8 Willian C. Bradley.
when, discarding the passions and the pride of
victory, the soldier and the statesman combined
together to lay the foundations of that system
which has preserved us from anarchy, con
firmed our hatred of tyranny, and, after a lapse
of more than twenty years, exhibits us as the
only nation on the face of the globe really and
substantially free. And this, too, at the period
when the rest of mankind, passing through
every shade of government, from the light and
frivolous misrule of fanciful theory to the most
dark and gloomy despotism, is either bending
its submissive neck to the yoke of the con
queror, or trembling on the eve of one of those
volcanic explosions which shake the political
world to its centre. We, and we alone, have
been able to temper reformation with reason ; to
check the lust of power, yet give full scope to
every efifort of generous ambition ; and, after
pulling down the rotten edifice of antiquated
architecture, to rear, not a political Babel, but a
fair and goodly temple, consecrated to equal
government and rational liberty.
That a difiference of opinion should have
arisen among the framers is calculated to ex
cite neither our astonishment nor resfret. It is
wisely provided that beings liable to error

Childhood and Youth. 19
should disagree, and generally the spark of
truth is elicited from the collision of sentiment.
Those who had seen and dreaded the iron hand
of oppression might fear its return, and, in their
eagerness to guard against the abuse of power,
might enervate and palsy the executive arm ;
while others, witnessing the frantic zeal of an
infuriated multitude, with the view of calming
and restraining its erratic and dangerous efforts,
might establish a power formidable to the free
dom and happiness of man. With sentiments
thus conflicting, nothing interesting to the
country escaped the eyes of the venerable states
men who planned and prepared the great
charter of our liberties. They discussed, de
liberated, and determined ; and the joint product
of their wisdom, the fruit of mutual .concession,
was received and adopted by the people as the
bond of union, the palladium of their rights ;
and, during the administrations, the test of its
excellence has been found in the moderation of
the rules and the unexampled happiness and
prosperity of the ruled.
There may be some among you who expect
me to pass these dififerent administrations in
review before you. Such is not my intention.
I wish to recall no recollections which can steel
your hearts against the influence of truth, or

20 William, C. Bradley.
stifle in your bosoms that ardent and soci&l
patriotism which ought to unite you together in
the love and support of your country. You
are alike her children ; and it would be the ex
treme of folly, from a mere dispute concerning
the complexion of her stewards, to stab the
vitals of that parent whom you cannot wound
without destroying yourselves. Indeed, I have
never conceived so great difiference tb exist be
tween them, as the vain and heated imagination
of partisans have led them to believe. I per
ceive the same spirit of firm, dignified, and im
partial neutrality in their conduct towards the
belligerents of Europe, the same readiness to
communicate and explain, to justify the motives
of others, while they were capable of palliation ;
and, above all, to resort to every means of nego
tiation, rather than encounter the ¦ horrors of
war. At home, with the solitary and mere
personal exception of economy, I behold them
travelling in the same path of peace and union,
— a path pointed out by that accomplished war
rior and statesman, who secured in the closet
what he had acquired in the field ; who aban
doned power,,in the youth of his glory, to court
the charities of domestic life ; and who, at his
departure, bequeathed to his countrymen an
inestimable legacy, in that farewell address to

Childhood and Youth. 21
their feelings and patriotism which so strongly
inculcates upon them to cherish peace, and
preserve inviolate their Federal Union.
After such a charge, and from such a man,
how was it possible for the two great States of
Virginia and Massachusetts, at dififerent periods,
to boldly stand forward and advocate the disso
lution of the Union, and the abrogation of our
Federal compact ?
If they so far forgot the almost dying injunc
tions of the great and good Washington, how
could they so far forget themselves ! Could
they imagine that when hardly able, united to
gether, to withstand the bruises and bufifetings
of a world in arms, they would be more safe
when attacked singly, when distracted and di
vided. Could they dream for a moment that either
confidence could be placed, or honor be found,
in a people rioting on the ruins of a constitu
tion which they had so often and so cheerfully
sworn to support ! Or had all history preached
in vain .?
Had they learned for nothing how the de
scendants of Jacob, torn in pieces and delivered
by the vengeance of heaven to the demon of
discord, fell an easy prey to the Assyrian con
queror.

2 2 William C. Bradley.
Had they forgotten the awful hour, when, on
the disastrous plains of Cheronea, the liberties
of brave, enlightened, but divided Greece were
cloven down by the sword of a Macedonian
rival } Yes : all was forgotten in the rage and
madness of the moment ; and, if charity per
suades us to draw the oblivious mantle over the
errors of our hasty brethren, duty compels us
tp leave uncovered sufficient to show their de
pravity, and to impress upon all minds how
necessary and precious a. thing it is for our little
republics to dwell together in unity.
This can only be accomplished by the mode
ration, industry, bravery, and piety of our
citizens. For it is an axiom founded in human
nature, that there is no political where there is
no moral virtue ; and that he who neglects the
duties which he owes to religion will never be
faithful in discharging those which he owes to
his country. The great chain of truth and
order which depends from the throne of heaven,
and binds man to man, and man to God, is so
clearly and intimately connected and blended
together, that destroy but one link, and the
whole tie is broken asunder. But the bond de
rives not its strength from the arm of man ; and
hence the founders of our government, perceiv
ing that religion to be pure must be free, and

Childhood and Youth. 23
remembering that attempted control over the
mind had only put a torch in the hand of bigotry
to inflame society, wisely provided for that
liberty of conscience derived from the Author
of our being, who endowed us with volition.
Having fled themselves from the iron rod of
persecution, they opened a door of refuge to the
oppressed Christian, where the tests and inquisi
tion, where the fire and faggots of deluded
Europe, could no longer reach.
With the same care and foresight, they pro
vided, that to the bravery and-discipline of our
citizens should be committed the protection
and defence of our native land. The tales of
other times had not only told them how formid
able to liberty was a standing army of soldiers
who had no interest in the soil, — who were
picked from the refuse of society, and driven
by debt or infamy to herd together, and follow
without scruple the instructions of a desperate
leader ; but they had seen the locust-clouds of
hireling Hessians, which, without being led by
the poor motives of conquest or glory, crossed
the ocean, and inundated their country, to mas
sacre a people who had done them no injury,
and to reduce a nation of freedmen to their
own miserable state of hopeless servitude.
On the other hand, they had read in the

24 William C. Bradley.
bloody and yet reeking characters inscribed on
Bunker's Hill, what a band of hardy yet undis
ciplined yeomanry, fighting for their firesides
and altars, their wives, their children, and their
country, were able to perform. They had, like
wise, witnessed their cool and unabating per
severance in enduring privation through a long
and tedious war, their calm and steady fortitude
which danger could not shake, and cold, hunger,
and sickness could not subdue ; and rightly
judged that such men were the best deposi
tories of their own safety, the best guardians
of their own freedom, and the best support
ers of the privileges which they had bled to
acquire. But what will our pity or bravery avail us if
we are still to buy or to borrow two out of three
of the great necessaries of life 1 if, while we
raise our food, we are always to rely upon
others for our drink and our clothinar.''
No nation is truly independent while these
things depend .upon the caprice or the com
merce of others, rather than the industry of her
children at home : and it is in vain that we are
placed in a land flowing with milk and honey,
if we must pay tribute to the worms of sub
jected Italy, the meagre laborer of barren
Scotland, the scourged and despairing slave of

Childhood and Youth. 25
the Indies, or the crippled and squalid paupers
of Leeds and Manchester.?
With almost every variety of soil and climate
under heaven, with every material in abun
dance, and with all the powers of machinery at
our command to save labor and expense, what
but public spirit is wanting to render us inde
pendent of the whole world, to place us in a
situation in which, instead of that poor and
peddling traffic which tends to embroil and
distract ourselves, the fair and honest merchant
would, whea it could be done with safety,
launch upon the ocean the unnecessary but
profitable surplus of our own riches, while
each citizen at home would, at all times, " sit
beneath . his own vine and his own fig-tree, and
none to make him afraid," Then, when sur
rounded by plenty, enlightened by the moral
guidance of our revered and pious teachers,
protected by the bravery, discipline, and con
fidence of each other, and fully supported by
the honest and independent industry of our
own people, what would be left for Americans
to fear }
Nothing but the violence, the unnecessary
violence, of our own passions. These passions,
I am sensible, are always common in a repub
lican government ; and it is with peculiar deli-

26 William C. Bradley.
cacy and apprehension I approach the sub
ject of moderation. When restrained within
proper limits, there is no question but party
spirit is the true life and pabulum of liberty ;
and what these limits are is not so difficult to
define as many imagine. By reverting to the
era of our Constitution, we find the establish
ment and principles of the two great American
parties, perhaps equally attached to the same
instrument and equally necessary to its preser
vation. The one, jealous of executive power
which might be dangerous to the. people, and
the other jealous of those passions of the peo
ple which might be dangerous to themselves,
and both reverencing the Constitution, which
equally guards against the evils dreaded by
both, serve as a check upon each other; while
the government, poised by its own weight, re
mains permanent and established over the
whole. While each party — watching measures
and regardless of men, but hesitating before he
accuses of partiality those who were elevated
to a painful pre-eminence and awful responsi
bility — expresses his confidence or mistrust in
a fair and constitutional manner, we have noth
ing to apprehend, but are to consider it as the
pledge of our liberty and safety.
Such men differ with decency and candor;

Childhood and Youth. 27
and their difiference is occasioned by principle,
rather than the influence of a party name.
They endeavor to form their sentiments upon
full and mature investigation ; knowing that it
is as culpable to yield the mind to the dominion
of another, as to submit the body to passive
slavery ; that he who cannot think is an idiot,
he who will not is criminal, he who does not is
a slave. To such men, of whatever party, how pleasing
must be the reflection, that whatever have been
their opinions of the strong executive measures
of the second President, or of the mild and
courting policy of his successor, an opportunity
is at last presented them of meeting on the
same platform, under the auspices of a man
who, next to the immortal Washington, was
the -foremost with his pen and eloquence to
accelerate the adoption of our national consti
tution ; and who, in a time of unusual difificulty
and danger, is laboring with painful but unre
mitting solicitude to steer the great vessel of
State through the billows of -war abroad, and
the rocks and quicksands of faction and discon
tent at home.
But what shall we say of that spirit which
applauds or condemns without discrimination;
which, removing every'excitement to virtue and

2 8 William C. Bradley.
discouragement to vice, bestows its flattery alike
upon measures, whether pregnant ' with pros
perity or ruin, or which indifferently condemns
our rulers and all their measures, be what they
will. But this accusing spirit happily weakens its
own influence by the generality of its applica
tion ; and when we hear men continually disap
prove every act, as if nothing good could come
out of Nazareth, we. are strongly inclined to
doubt their judgment and disbelieve their cen
sure ; and, when we hear them always accuse
the government of partiality, we see at once,
that, deceived by their own confined vision and
unhappy bias, they are led to imagine others as
partial as themselves ; as he who, placed at the
end. of a line, supposes him who is really in the
centre to be at the other extreme. Did not
this spirit thus fortunately counteract itself, the
consequences might be most deplorable ; for
not only would the virtuous man shrink from
the task of public service, in itself sufficiently
difificult, when sure of being assailed with all the
low rancor and vulgar ribaldry of indiscriminate
abuse ; but the people, harassed with succes
sive cavillings, and distrusting all those good and
mild acts of government which are not calcu
lated to insure their prosperity, would remain

Childhood and Youth. 29
in a state of continual fluctuation, until some
daring adventurer, possessed of bravery and
talent, by the boldness of his enterprises should
become a. hero, and, commanding universal
admiration, seize upon the reins of'power, and
from a hero become a tyrant.
Then, when we are reduced to servitude,
and have lost by our own folly the power if
not the inclination of self-government, we shall
perceive the value of those blessings which are
gone forever.
We shall learn too late, that
" 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume.
And we are weeds without it."
Alas ! the train of evils arising from the
excess of party spirit, and against which we
have to contend, ends not here : there is a more
base and mongrel species, which, as it has no
honorable motives to justify it, covers' its pos
sessor with shame in proportion to its zeal. I
allude to that spirit which arises from foreign and
anti-American attachments, — attachments, that,
instead of that pure and liberal philanthropy,
consistent with patriotism, which teaches us
to regard every nation treating us with justice
as our friend, leads us to side with one nation
against another, and, in espousing the quar-

30 William C. Bradley.
rels of other countries, to forget our own. If
ever the miraculous interposition of Heaven
saved a nation from destruction, how much
reason have we to believe it to be our own !
Instead of waiting till the vials of wrath were
poured upon the nations with whom we were
connected, and in whose fate we must inevitably
have shared, we were taken by the hand, and
led to a place of freedom and security. Not
only this : by i.nterposing as a rampart of neu
trality between the colonies of contending
powers, the two Americas were saved from a
scene of carnage and destruction which no
language can describe.
What madness, then, posesses us, when the
arrows of the Almighty are flying through the
nations of Europe, to desire to mix and mingle
in the mighty conflict !
Can we save ourselves by rushing into the
flames .? or shall we, to secure a trifling and pre
carious gain, commit the lives, fortunes, and
destinies of this happy people to the mercy of
that overwhelming tempest which now desolates
the fairest portion of the globe .? Why, then,
this warm, this ardent attachment to the great
belligerents which leads us, whenever their
iniquitous views clash with the interests of our
native country, to advocate their cause ?

Childhood and Youth. 31
Is it possible we have so far forgot what is
due to our character as a nation, and to our
honor as free men t Is it possible that men,
styling themselves republicans, are attached to
the interests and subservient to the views of a
military despot ; and when a Corsican usurper
seizes upon our fortunes, and sports with the
lives and fortunes of millions, can they proclaim
him our friend, and benefactor of the human
race ? On the other hand, is it to be believed
that there are still among us men, who, longing
for the flesh-pots of Egypt, sigh to return to
the bosom of royalty, to exchange their freedom
for taxation and servitude } That the survivors
of our Revolution behold unmoved the impress
ment of our seamen, the exaction of tribute
from our countrymen, and when the blood of
our fellow-citizens, slaughtered in the security
of peace and in sight of our shores, was
streaming on the deck of a national vessel, that
they could coolly say, " This is just, this is
right ! " If so, then the blood of Warren,
Montgomery, and Mercer has been shed in
vain. In vain have the martyred patriots of our
Revolution carried their wounds to the great
Tribunal to testify against their oppressors, if
we now court the bloody hands of those oppres
sors when raised to lash and to scourge us. No :

32 William C. Bradley.
I will not believe it. If a few abandoned men,
without talents and without integrity, and the
profligacy of whose characters ought to., be the
antidote to the poison they disseminate, have
advanced doctrines like these, we may remem
ber their only h6pe of rising to wealth or
position is, like the filthy scum over the pure and
transparent liquid, by the fermentation they
have themselves created.
But the honest, the steady, the independent
yeomanry of our country, of all parties, disclaim
opinions such as these. They know too well
the value of our institutions to suffer them to
be impaired for a moment. They know too well
the horrors, calamities, and despotism of Europe
to suffer it to excite any other sensation but
pity or contempt; and when they compare the
freedom and happiness of America with the
folly, slavery, and bloodshed of other countries,
they learn the better to prize their own.
FeUow-citizens, you are now upon ground
politically holy. The last asylum of liberty is
here : chased from every other quarter of the
world, she has taken up her residence among
you. Drive her hence, and she flies to heaven.
But no : you will guard and protect her. Cher
ished beneath her fostering wings, you will at
least bury your dissensions; and, uniting in

Childhood and Youth. ^iZ
every work of piety and industry, you will con
vince' the world that we are the rare spectacle
of a government subsisting by the love of the
people, and of a people whose only ambition is
to spend our lives in the service of God and our
country. ODE.
AU hail to the day that auspicious returns
Our hills and our valleys to cheer !
While the patriot flame in each bosom still burns.
This day shall to freemen be dear.
Does the wide-rolling sun to his uttermost bound.
Whose ocean earth's limit devours,
From his light-giving throne in the heavens look down
On a nation so happy as ours ?
On our flock-feeding hills, and our maize-covered plains.
See 23lenty and peace now appear !
See courage and strength string the nerves of our swains,
And health paint the cheeks of our fair !
And where the lone Indian, untutored and wild,
Roamed the forest quite fearless and free.
Cultivation has come, and contentment has smiled
On freemen undaunted as he.
When Britain brought havoc and carnage from far.
Alert the Green-lMountain Boys rose :
They rushed through their woods like blood-hounds of war.
To meet and to battle their foes.
Their foes, too, beheld and confessed with alarm,
That to death or to conquest they drove ;
For how could the slaves meet the powerful arm
Which for country-and liberty strove?

34 William C. Bradley.
The conflict once over, and peace, now returned,
Rage dies in the heart of the brave :
In friendship or battle with ardor they burned.
Yet conquered but only to save.
Regardless of power, by power ne'er enthralled.
Affection their passions will bind :
The fame they aspire to is but to be called
The brethren and friends of mankind.

Now Union's firm bands have around us intwined
A wreath for which crowns we disdain :
What glory attracted, it faster shall bind,
Nor further shall break the sweet chain.
Our government loved, our own native State
Still dearer and dearer shall be ;
And nations shall bow to the fiat of fate.
Let the Vennonters always be free .'

If Mr. Bradley committed some youthful
errors, most nobly did he atone for them.
Coming into the world with an extraordinary
amount of physical and mental vitality, finding
a vast fund of enjoyment of various sorts be
fore him which he was peculiarly fitted to
appreciate and enlarge, the temptation was
great to confound pleasure with good living.
But it did not hold him long. He flew only
near enough to the deceitful flame to feel its
heat, not near enough to burn his wings. Amid
the temptations of a time and a career full of
inducements and opportunities of success, he

Childhood and Youth. 35
held the rudder of his self-control, and was
master of his craft throughout the perilous
voyage of life." Such is the testimony of a
friend. But neither that friend, nor those most inti
mate with him in life, were aware of a sweet but
silent influence, which, like the gentle dews of
heaven, were falling upon him, making his
character more rich and beautiful than it other
wise would have been.
He had a nature peculiarly receptive of
friendship. He was a positive character:
there was no neutrality in him. As certain
modern philosophers would express it, his
magnetism was strong to- repel or retract.
Ardent, impulsive, but not fickle.
It is said that love with young .men, like the
diseases of childhood, is contagious ; and that
young love never lasts, always giving place to
the passion of manhood. Not so with young
Bradley. When a mere schoolboy, he plighted
his troth for the first and last time ; and that
love grew with his growth, and strengthened
with his strength, till, at eighty-four years of age,
the tenderness and devotion of this happy
couple was like the blossom of the olive, rare
and beautiful. No wonder ; for it had been

36 William C. Bradley.
nourished in a rich soil, — sixty-five years of
happy married life, and we mi'ght add ten more
of devotion and love. The whole correspond
ence is preserved. Every letter, note, and scrap
of paper, which contained her lover's or her
husband's name was carefully cherished. The
notes before marriage lie still in the same box
where her hands placed them, with little
mementoes of friendship, the soft curl from the
darling baby-boy which they laid so young
in the grave, and the pictures on ivory of
the young husband in his beautiful manhood,
and the little boy who Went so long before
them to heaven. The object of this life-long
love was Sarah Richards, daughter of Hon.
Mark Richards of Westminster. She was
wholly worthy of his love, in person and in
character. She was petite and graceful, with a beaiiitiful
blue eye, dark hair, a gentle voice, and a quick,
light step. She was one of the old school of
gentlewomen, had met Washington in her
father's house at Boston, and mingled with the
refined and courteous of that age. Her love
and admiration for her husband was deep and
sincere, and she was unconscious of the great
influence which she exerted over him. He
never failed to consult her on all important

Childhood and Youth. 37
changes, and always paid great deference to her
opinion. She was a practical housewife, and
oi-dered her household well. Her knowledge
of business was so thorough, that, after he
entered on political life, she took the burden
of domestic affairs from him, to his great relief
When he was about sixty-five years of age, she
once said to him, " Why, William I don't
believe you have been into the barn for ten
years ! " And yet nothing suffered, for she
united economy 'with generous living. There
was never want or waste in Mrs. Bradley's
household. A letter, written by a friend to his grand;
daughter, will perhaps interest the reader : —
" My dear Sarah, — Among the sweetest
memories of my life are the days passed in
the dear old mansion at Westminster. I
had known your grandparents, through family
friends, long before my personal acquaintance
commenced. My first visit was made to them
a few years after your mother's marriage. You
were a child ; and, as I engaged you in some
childish sport, your grandfather said, ' She is
ours : we shall never part with her.' Your
grandmother added, ' You will smile to hear
how we obtained her. Her mother was ill, and

38 William C. Bradley.
took a journey for her health, leaving the little
one with us. When the parents returned,
papa stood in the doorway (you can imagine
how his portly figure filled it), and said, " You
cannot take our baby away unless you take me
too. " Your own mother afterwards said to me, ' I
could not deprive them of the child, when I
saw how much it added to their happiness,
though my heart longed for my baby.'
" The friendship, if I may so call it, between
your grandfather and your mother was very
tender and beautiful. She was a warm-hearted,
generous child.
"In all the long correspondence which took
place when he was at Washington, in every
letter where he asks the children what he shall
bring them from Washington, while the others
with childish eagerness express their wishes,
little Merab's invariable reply is, ' Tell papa,
all I want is his own dear self.'
" It was very hard to part with her when she
married, though her marriage was wholly satis
factory to her parents.' In all his letters and
conversation, he refers with the highest esteem
and respect for your father.
" The same unselfish devotion which she
manifested as a daughter was seen in the wife.

Childhood and Youth. 39
She lived in and for her husband. My first
visit at her own house is remembered as if it
were but a pleasant dream, which I saw but
yesterday. "Judge Kellogg was then in the prime of life,
a handsome man, dignified and courteous in
manner, distinguished as an able lawyer, and
holding one of the highest offices in the State.
-That day he was unusually social ; and, unbend
ing a little from the cares of his professional life,
which was at that time very laborious, he con
versed for two or three hours most delightfully.
The little wife detected my interest and admi
ration ; and, as she went in and out of the room,
on hospitable thoughts intent, — for she had
ordered some of her husband's favorite dishes
for dinner, and was determined the cook should
not spoil them, — I could not help smiling as I
caught the expression of her eye, which said
more than words, ' I knew you would enjoy my
husband's conversation.' She was the most
unselfish of women, ever studying the happiness
of others.
"To'return to the old home. I never realized
the beauty of certain traits in your grandfather's
character more than at your own wedding.
" It almost broke your grandmother's heart to
have you go ; but, loving your hapjainess better

40 William C. Bradley.
than her own, she concealed it as much as pos
sible. Her husband understood her feelings ;
and, thoua:h he felt that half the sunshine of the
house was to be taken away, he bore up brave
ly. You remember, he wished to have a good,
old-fashioned wedding ; ' for,' said he, ' the old
hive will never swarm again.' He was de
lighted with the flowers which the betrothed
sent in such rich profusion from Washington.'
The rooms were radiant with their beauty.
' Now we will have the house thoroughly light
ed,' he said. ' Flowers, lights, and ladies,' he
added : ' let us have them.' As for the wed
ding-feast, he knew well, that, if your grand
mother ordered that, there would be no lack of
good cheer. I never saw him more brilliant,
and full of wit and repartee, when the little bot
tle of wine, one hundred and twenty-five years
old, was opened by your uncle Dorr, and had
been kept for many years to be opened at the
wedding of the first grandchild. I watched him
when the ceremony was performed. He stood
by the side of his wife, who could not suppress
some tears ; and, taking her arm in his, as soon
as the last words of the prayer were ended, he
went up, and congratulated your husband and
yourself I could not hear distinctly all that
he said ; but there came to my ear the fervent

Childhood and Youth. 41 ,
'God bless you 1' which he pronounced over
you and yours. When I saw you last, happy
in your husband, happy in the child who cher
ishes with such precious love the memory of
his great-grandfather, this passage of Scripture
occurred to me : 'He has blessed thee, and
thou shalt be blessed.' "

Political Life.

It is not our province, in this little memorial,
to write a history of Mr. Bradley's political la
bors. We hope the time will come when a full
and complete biography of the two Bradleys
will be given to the world.
There are ample materials for such a work in
the correspondence which took place between
father and son, from the time when the former
entered Congress, in 1791, to Jackson's admin
istration, at which time William C. retired from
public life ; and also in the letters written during
the early troubles in Vermont.
In the letters of the elder Bradley to his son,
we find a minute and graphic" account of the
transactions of the government during the ad
ministration of the first four presidents. He
was a keen observer of men, and a severe critic ;
while there runs through all his letters a dry
humor, which gives zest to their perusal.

Political Life. 43
The first letter from Congress to his son
bears date Dec. 5, 1793, when William was ten
years of age, and was written at Philadelphia
during Washington's administration. Jefferson
was Secretary of State.
The French Revolution was in progress ; and
we see how the stern republican, a descendant
of one of Cromwell's old Ironsides, looked
upon it : —
" I have sent a newspaper of this day, where
in you will see that the French, a great and
powerful nation, who have been oppressed by
kings, priests, and a certain class of men called
nobles, who are frequently worthless, being
designed to abuse the rest of mankind, are
making repairs in their government, dethron
ing their king. If they should, it will make
an important revolution in the history of this
world, from which period will spring the day-
star of liberty; and you will hereafter read
with rapture the efifort made by the French
people, which, in its effect, will not only re
dound to their good, but to yours and mine,
and nations yet unborn."
There seems to be an interregnum in these
letters for a time after William's expulsion from
college ; but they soon commenced again. We

44 William C, Bradley.
find the embargo most strenuously opposed by
the general ; and, whenever he feels disturbed
by the aspect of affairs, it seems to be a great
relief to send a letter to William.
When party-spirit run high, the general was
not afraid to show his colors, and to fight man
fully, if need be, under them. At one time,
when they were voting to repeal the Judicial
Law, comrnonly called " Adams's Midnight Ju
dicial Law," he says, " The ' Feds ' had no other
object than to procrastinate, and keep off the
question. ' Some of them spoke five or six hours,
and Bayard spoke seven hours and a half; and
the whole might have been reduced to ' seven
nonsenses and a half We sat from ten o'clock,
A. M., to eleven o'clock, p. m. ; but suspecting the
' Feds ' wanted to keep us up all night, and
drive us into the sabbath, we adjourned, and
Monday determined to have the question. Pro
visions, and a little grog, were carried into the
lobby, and we were in permanent session."
Again : " The ' Feds ' died hard. They fought
' tush by tush,' and at last died a-praying for
mercy. What placed the bill in so disagreeable
a position when I returned was, that Mr. Cal
houn of South Carolina voted with the Feder
alists." (John E.) John C. was then but twenty
years of age, and had just entered Yale College.

Political Life. 45
After a while came the Burr conspiracy. The
colonel had been a personal friend of the elder
Bradley, and it was long before the latter could
believe in his treachery. The rumors and
speculations were written to William daily. At
last, when the cumulative evidence became too
strong for him to doubt, he writes, on Dec. 27,
1806, " Burr has now filled up the measure of
his wickedness, and damned himself and charac
ter to all generations ; and, if half be true, he
ought this day to be on a gibbet."
The particulars had just arrived 'from New
Orleans ; and we can judge of the dififerent rate
of time at which intelligence travelled then,
when we learn that Wilkinson's despatches were
dated Nov. 29, and arrived in Washington Dec.
27. There was much excitement at this time;
and no one felt more interest in affairs at home
and abroad than Mr. Bradley. His letter this
day is very long ; and he closes thus : " We are
waiting with great anxiety the consequences of
the battle of Jena. Indeed, my son, the politi
cal, moral, and intellectual world are travailing
in pain to bring forth, and appear to be on the
threshold of great events. Kingdoms are ris
ing and falling like meteors of the night ; and
the dry bones, the covenant people of God, be
gin to shake and stir, &c. You may yet live to

46 Willian C. Bradley.
see events take place, which, if conjectured at
this time, would procure its author the appella
tion of madman."
What the writer means b}' the " covenant
people of God," "dry bones," &C., we can con
jecture only by some other letters, in which he
describes Paine, and the influence of his doc
trines at that time. He had several interviews
with him.
All the prominent characters of the day are
sketched by his strong, truthful pen. Our war
in the Mediterranean with Tripoli is fully dis
cussed ; and, according to his letters, the en
trance of the Tunisian ambassador made almost
as much a sensation as the Chinese minister
and his suite in ours.
"On Saturday (Dec. 2, 1805), there came to
the Navy Yard our three frigates, just returned
from the Mediterranean, commanded by Capt.
Decatur. They brought the ambassador. He
is a Turk by nation, and a great character in
Tunis, being pacha and generalissimo of all
the Turks, and the second man in the nation.
He has brought with him two aide-de-camps
and nine servants. In richness of apparel, he
exceeds the French ambassador, being covered
with gold. He has brought, as a present from

Political Life. 47
the Bey to the President, four fine Arabian
horses, and a saddle said to have cost twelve
hundred dollars. He speaks with admiration
of our country, especially of our rivers, of which
he said he had no conception, and could hardly
believe that the Potomac was fresh water. He
wears his beard very long. Gen. Eaton, and
all our naval ofificers, are here ; and they all
agree that we might have taken Tripoli without
danger or difificulty."
Then follows a severe criticism of " Lear."
The impeachment of Chase and Pickering
"forms the topic of several letters.
Then comes the long contest before, the war,
— the doubts, the struggles, the wisdom, and
the folly of our legislators.
Now and then, with a few masterly strokes of
his pen, he sketches a character ; and it stands
out in basso relievo, either for our admiration or
disgust. Now we see Randolph's long, lean
figure, swaying to and fro in debate, flinging, in
a sudden fit of anger,, a pamphlet, which Madi
son is supposed to have written, across the
Senate Chamber. And, again, we see him
quarrelling with Wilkinson, and calling forth
from the latter the following carS : —

48 William C. Bradley.
"A HECTOR UNMASKED.
" In justice to his character, I hereby proclaim John
Randolph to the world for an insolent, slanderous, prevari
cating poltroon. "James Wilkinson.
" Washington, Dec. 31, 1807."
• Whenever and wherever depicted, Mr. Brad
ley sees in Randolph only a stormy spirit.
He sees much of Mrs. Madison, and is quite
gallant in his " devoirs " to the lady. There is
an amusing correspondence carried on between
father and son, concerning certain shoes and
slippers which Mrs. Madison wishes to procure
from a Quaker shoemaker in Lynn.
In a letter to his son, who was then in
Washington, he says, —
" Remember me with the most cordial affec
tion to Mrs. Madison. I am not unmindful of
her request to her religious friends in Lynn.
I have written to Mr. Breed, informing him of
her commission, and of the honor shown them
by her ' whose shoe-strings they were not wor
thy to untie.' The business shall be accom
plished, and the shoes forwarded ; and you may
assure Mrs. Madison they shall have the sim
plicity of the Quaker, the elegance of the
court, and, in some measure, the quality of
the Jewish slippers in the wilderness, that lasted
forty years."

Political Life. 49
Mrs. Madison paid for the shoes, though the
Quaker shoemaker charged more for them than
the stern general thought was reasonable.
The old gentleman was' a great economist in
domestic and public affairs. He abhorred all
waste of the public funds, and was .very severe
upon many of the claimants for the contents of
the nation's purse.
" Since the President has given notice that
there is money in the treasury, the old claims
pour in like a flood. It is with claims under
our government as with sins under the law : a
remembrance is made of them once a year ; for
it is impossible that any sacrifice can do them
away. B  , being dead, yet speaketh. His
account at the treasury has been settled seven
or eight times, and he has signed one or more
discharges in full of all demands against the
United States. He has, however, left a daugh
ter in his own likeness ; and his claim for
services may extend to the fourth generation.
When Capt. O'Brien returned from Algiers,
he exhibited an account of ^l6,ooO; Robert
Smith, then Secretary of State, told me that
he audited the account ; but that, in a few days
after, he came to him again, with another de
mand of $10,000. 'Capt. O'Brien, how comes

50 William C. Bradley.
this to pass .'^ why didn't you exhibit your whole
account at once .? ' Capt. O'Brien replied, ' Mr.
Smith, did you ever know a man who could
swallow two red-hot potatoes at once ? ' Now,
it seems, he has come with the third red-hot
potato." Speaking of a senator from New England,
whose desire to make speeches was greater than
his ability, he writes, " He is, William, one of
the least of God's mercies granted to us."
We have made some progress since those
days in transmitting news across the ocean, as
will be seen by a letter dated Nov. 19, 1804:
" Last night, the Embassador from the French
Emperor, M. Sheeriot, arrived here, having been
but twenty-seven days from France. He has
come in great pomp, in a swift-sailing frigate >'
and, though chased by several of the British
armed vessels, nothing could come . up with •
him." His letters, previous to the war of 181 2, are
numerous, and full of indignation at the imbe
cility of the government.
He has some hope of the Senate, " who, from
the smallness of its body and the experience of
age, get along tolerably well ; but, as to the other
house, such a d  d chaotic body you never

Political Life. 5 1
saw. You have no conception of the rage there
is in the other house for speaking", declaiming,
bawling, and every kind of vociferation that ever
came from man or beast ; the" whole session,
almost, taken up in those windy harangues ;
and every day it grows worse and worse,
' Quern deus vult perdere prius dementat.'"
From this time his letters are minute and
full, giving to the reader the causes which led
to the war, and a description of the prominent
characters who figured at Washington, from
1809 to 18 1 3, at which time he left Congress,
and William entered. The correspondence
continued ; and the old gentleman at home was,
if possible, more watchful over the public in
terests than when one of its legal guardians.
William keeps him informed, both by letters
and papers. No published history gives such a
truthful and spicy account of the men and
measures of that period as these letters.
Thus William entered upon his Congressional
life at the age of thirty-two, but with a better
knowledge of our political history, and the
machinery of our government, than most public
men possess at sixty.
Handsome in , person, accomplished and

52 William C. Bradley.
courtly in manners, with a sparkling eye, ready
wit, and that genial, sunny temper that made
sunshine wherever he went, no wonder he soon
became a favorite.
We can easily understand how Clay, but
five years his senior, sought his society ; and, if
the old gold snuff-box could speak, it would
tell us of many a rare joke that dropped while
the soothing mixture was pinched up. They
were both fond of snuff, and Mr. B.'s box never
failed in yielding a supply of the best " rappee."
It was a brilliant era : we shall never see its
like again. Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Grundy,
Forsyth, .Pickering, and many others whose
names are now household words, were in the
House. Mr. Bradley won his way to general
favor. We find even Webster, naturally reticent
and somewhat grave in manner, yielding to the
charm of Bradley's society, visiting him in his
room, where, merry as a young collegian, he
laughed at the oddities, and imitated the eccen
tricities, of a certain member.
Webster was the elder by six weeks only.
With perhaps a more massive intellect, he had
not the culture, the genius, nor the sympathy
with humanity, which characterized Bradley.
A friend who knew both well has said, " While

Political Life. 53
Webster studied and gained knowledge, always
with a view of gaining his own ends, and some
aggrandizement to himself, Mr. Bradley studied
and improved his mind for the real love of it ;
that Webster would always walk over a friend
to benefit himself, while Mr. Bradley, with his
warm and noble heart, would stoop ever so low
to help any one in trouble or distress."
The one lived to a good old age, and died, as
his eulogist has beautifully said, " like a mon
arch who cheerfully abdicates his throne ; " the
other, of self-inflicted wounds, —
" Like the struck eagle stretched- upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
Views his own feather on the fatal dart,
And sees the shaft that pierced hini to the heart."
While Mr. Bradley was an able and popular
man in Congress, always welcome in the most
brilliant drawing-room, and showing a wonder
ful versatility of talent, that caused him to be
envied and admired, he was all the time weary.
of political life, and longing for the home which
the " little wife" there made so bright for him.
Their correspondence is all preserved. It is
beautiful to find him, after the turmoil of those
exciting days of war, spending a little time every
night in writing to his wife, with her picture

54 William C. Bradley.
before him, and closing with these words,
" Think of me, my darling, as I do of you every
evening before prayer."
He liked the attrition of great intellect : he
was not insensible to the brilliant tournaments
where such men as Webster and Calhoun were
pitted against each other, nor did he shrink
when called to enter. the lists ; but he loved far
better his home, his library, and his children.
His political life is thus summed up by Mr.
Frothingham : —
" At twenty he was admitted to the bar.
Refused permission to practise in the Supreme
Court on account of his youth, he had won so
great respect and admiration for his talents,
acquirements, and character, that the Legisla
ture appointed him attorney for Windham
County, and thus secured his access to the
Supreme Court. He held this office for seven
years. At twenty-four he became represen
tative to the State Legislature ; at thirty a
member of the State Council, which corresponds
nearly to the present Senate ; and at thirty-one
representative to Congress. Here he served
one term during the last war with Great Britain,
of which he was an. advocate (i 8 13-18 15); and
two years after the close of which he was ap
pointed agent of the United States, under the

Political Life. 55
treaty of Ghent, for fixing- the North-eastern
boundary. In this work, which lasted five
years, he did what he esteemed the great service
of his life. Through the wild region of the
Nort-h-east frontier, he went in person and
laid down the line, which, rejected by Great
Britain, and disputed over with an acrimony
which well nigh ended in war, he had the satis
faction of seeing adopted in the Ashburton
treaty. This ended, he was sent to Congress
again for two terms (1823-27). Here his public
career substantially closed at forty-five ; though
at sixty-eight we find him again in the legis
lature of Vermont ; at seventy-four presidential
elector, throwing the vote of Vermont for J. C.
Freemont ; and in the following year a member
of the State Constitutional Convention.
" During the most" of his public career he was
a Democrat, when that word meant friend of
the Republic and of the rights of man. The
slavery question had not reach the portentous
form that it afterwards assumed. It appeared
only in disguise, in which it might readily mis
lead honest and liberty-loving men. In joining
the Free-Soil party of 1848, he but carried out
his life-long principles.
" They with whom he had acted forsook them.
They left him, therefore, and he was of them

56 William C. Bradley.
no more. He clung to the thing he had always
revered. In the trial-hour it blossomed into
universal liberty. The name by which he
rightly called it they followed, although cunning
men had baptized it into the spirit of slavery.
He kept the reality of consistency ; they its
shadow. He lived in the days of men whom it
is the fashion to think the great men of the
Republic. Born the same year as Webster,
Calhoun, Benton, and Cass, — whose acquaint
ance and respect, with that of Adams and Clay,
he enjoyed, — he seems to me, though winning
no such conspicuous fame, to hold a position of
more real greatness than the three most famous
of them. He was too wise to make the Ameri
can system. It was not in him to speak words
so false to humanity as the Seventh-of-March
speech. He would have died sooner than de
stroy his country for slavery's sake. But he
made no pretence to being a reformer. He sat
up as advocate of no original and startling
theories. He raised no Quixotic standard of
political or personal morals. He held to the
attainment of practical ends. He was emphati
cally of the people. I suppose it was his pride
and joy to represent what may be called the
advanced average thought of the people. In
this respect he was like Mr. Lincoln. Perhaps

Political Life. 57
it was one secret of the people's love for him.
Though on their better side, he kept within
their reach."
During his last term in Congress he had a
rupture with the President, owing to what he
considered a breach of faith on the part of Mr.
Adams ; and he then transferred his allegiance
to Jackson, the rising chief of the Democratic
party. This occasioned his retirement from
public life. For twenty-five years more, and
afterwards, he devoted himself most assid
uously to public life, the practice of his pro
fession ; and no one took higher rank in the
State than himself His opinion was law until
the highest tribunal had decided otherwise.
His advice was sought far and near; and
those who depended upon it usually found their
profit in so doing.
It was while he was a member of the State
legislature that Webster died.
It seemed most fitting that the Nestor of the
Assembly should pronounce a eulogy upon the
dead. But he was of opposite political
opinions ; and it was well-known with what
biting satire and keen wit he could attack an
opponent. Some thought he could not bury

58 William C. Bradley.
Caesar without one thrust at the fallen ; others
dififered : all were curious.
They little knew the heart of the speaker
who doubted him at such a time.
The two Houses met ; the hall was densely
crowded ; and a stillness, as if the dead were
there, hovered over the place. When he rose,
all eyes were turned upon him ; but, with calm
dignity and repose of manner, he commenced.
With the true nobility of a great mind, which
is never blind to the talents and virtues of
another, he pronounced a eulogy upon the
departed which is both beautiful and true.
The great intellect, the eloquence, the legal
ability, and the virtues of the deceased were all
remembered ; while political animosities and
party strife were- hidden by the hands that so
reverently composed the shroud, and garlanded
the bier with flowers.
The following is the eulogy : —
" Born in the same year, and but nine weeks
from each other, and living in contiguous
States, it was my good fortune to become ac
quainted with Mr. Webster in early life. We
both entered together -the Twelfth Congress,
summoned by Mr. Madison to provide for the
exigencies of the war with Great Britain.

Political Life. 59
Whatever may be said of their predecessors,
no such Congress has ever sat since. It
seemed as if each State, except, perhaps, our
own, had there collected the elite of its talent,
and poured it into the Capitol. To say noth
ing of the giants of the Senate, the House of
Representatives was filled with a host of able
men, at the head of whom, on one side, stood
Clay, Loundes, Cheves, Calhoun, Grundy, and
Forsyth, — they are . named in the order in
which they took rank in the House ; on the
other side were Benton, Pickering, Stockton,
Gaston, Grosvenor, and Hanson. These noble
bands have wholly disappeared, except Mr.
Cheves, who probably owes his survival to his
early withdrawal from the exhausting labors of
Congressional life, although every way qualified
to fit and adorn any station. It was among
these statesmen that Mr. 'Webster appeared,
and, although a new member, and but thirty
years of age, immediately took his station as a
. leader. Sir, we may say what we please about
phrenology and physiognomy; but it does' seem
to me as if the Great Author of our being is
sometimes pleased to stamp upon the counte
nance of man, made in his image, some portion
of his divinity; and I appeal to any one who
ever saw Webster in public life, whether he

6o William C. Bradley.
was not struck at once by the indications of
power contained in his very-look. He spoke,
if my memory serves me, but seldom, at con
siderable intervals ; and although in his last
public appearance he was pleased, looking at
his later and mightier efiforts, to treat his
speeches of that day, which really lay at the
foundation of his fame, rather slightly, yet those
who heard them' will never lose the impression
which they made. He remained a member till
the close of Madison's administration, when,
pressed by the necessity of providing for his
growing family, he returned to the practice of
his profession in his native State ; but finding
it to be incommensurate with the exigencies of
his situation, he removed to Boston, where a
vacancy occurred on the decease of Samuel
Dexter. How well he filled it our books of
jurisprudence abundantly prove.
" While thus successfully engaged, a new state
of things arose. During the war the foreign
commerce of the Union had been almost anni
hilated : our merchant ships were lying on
the docks ; and, to supply the wants of the
people, factories of some kind or other had been
established all over the land. When peace
came, the vessels darted from every port, the
commerce of the country spread with new vigor

Political Life. 6i
into every clim'e, immense importations of
merchandise took place, and the infant manu
factories were almost crushed. In this way a
complete antagonism was created between the .
mercantile and manufacturing interests ; and
it was well understood that Webster was the
champion of the former, and Clay of the latter.
Both were again returned, as well — pardon the
egotism — as myself, to the House in the last
Congress, during Mr. Monroe's administration.
These great men were there pitted against each
other,- and then broke out that rivalry which
was never really extinguished till lately, in the
grave. Sir, it was a sublime spectacle to see
these two commanding minds, day after day,
and week after week, contending over the
Tarifif Bill of 1824, travelling over, the whole
science of political economy, and exhausting
every art of logic or eloquence in an almost
balanced house. Seven times the bill hung on
the casting vote of the "chair ; but at last Mr.
Clay prevailed, and it was passed. The policy
of the government became changed. Mr.
Webster gracefully yielded to the alteration ;
and two years afterwards, when he took the
lead of the House, the tarifif again came up, and
he supported it on grounds directly opposite to
those which he had taken before.

62 William C. Bradley.
" There are those who have never ceased to
reproach Mr. Webster with inconsistency in
this respect; but, sir, there seems to me that
there is a distinction which is too often over
looked or forgotten.
" When a man betrays a principle which is
vital to the interests of the republic, and which
he had maintained before, he is wholly unfit for
any public trust whatever ; but, when his change
is a mere yielding to expediency, it is a dififerent
thing altogether. Tarififs are, of necessity, al
ways matters of expediency ; and an unchanging
one would, in time, defeat itself If the future
historian shall have no heavier charge of this
nature to lay against him, I think his record
will be fair, and his fame will bear it ; nay, he
may be found entitled to high praise for having
supported a policy which reconciled the jarring
elements, and so much advanced the material
interests of the country."
Mr. Bradley then adverted to Webster's first
appearance in the Senate, and to his famous
contest with Hayne. He said, —
" The ancestor of Hayne was a highly
esteemed gentleman, and I think an officer in
the Revolutionary army ; was captured by some
of Tarleton's troops, and barbarously and dis
gracefully hanged.

Political Life. 63
" The memory of the atrocity sunk deep into
the heart of South Carolina, and his descend
ant became her petted child. Well did he
justify the predilection ; for he was a gentleman
of lofty attainments, unspotted honor, and an
accomplished orator. When he made his ap
peal to the Senate in behalf of his struggling
native State, his splendid eloquence would have
made a lasting impression had he met a less
formidable antagonist. But he sank under the
ponderous blows of Mr. Webster, and secession
became at once powerless. From that time
the deceased debater remained in the Senate,
an unmatchable athlete, until he was called
into the Department of State by Gen. Harrison ;
and this brings- me to a transaction rnore im
mediately affecting ourselves.
" When he entered the cabinet, the northern
boundaries of the four States, Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, and part of New York,
were unsettled, and remained so from the days
of the Revolution.
" There had been various attempts at adjust
ments, and my own feeble services had been
required by the government, but I must confess
without much hope on my part ; for when
President Monroe, on his tour, visited his pre
decessor, the venerable John Adams, at Quincy,

64 William, C. Bradley.
the aged patriot expressed a belief that the
question would not be settled, because he" had
found it the most difificult to arrange, and the
British ministry more pertinacious on that
point than on all others, in framing the treaty
of 1783. The claim of the United States was
strong on the side of Maine and New Hamp-
sire, but terribly weak on that of Vermont and
New York ; having no better foundation than a
survey, confessedly incorrect, made of a portion
of the line previous to the American Revolu
tion. The opposite party was desperately
resolved on securing a passage between New
Brunswick and Quebec ; and the rights of
Maine were too clear to be surrendered without
her consent. We failed ; and the failure was no
reproach when Gallatin and Livingston could
not succeed. The two nations were on the
eve of an outbreak, when the English ministry
deputed Lord Ashburton, a highly respectable
nobleman, but more conversant with commerce
than national law, to confer with the American
Secretary, who was fully versed in every branch
of the question. No one can doubt the trium
phant superiority the latter would have exhib
ited in the controversy, had it been carried on
according to the then received maxims of diplo
macy ; but he laid aside all pride of talents, and

Political Life. 65
consented to meet his adversary in a frank and
unreserved manner, and try to arrange the
difficulty on the broad principle of mutual
benefit. They succeeded ; and the signature
of Daniel Webster gave to Vermont ninety
square miles of territory.
" This done, he returned again to the Senate,
where he remained until called to his former
post by the present chief magistrate ;" and it
was that, determined as ever to make his mark
on the history of his country by collecting the
expressions of national feeling which had burst
out from time to time, and combining them
with his own inbred patriotism, he embodied
the whole in the nervous and dignified language
of which he was so consummate a master, and
fulminated to Austria that famous manifesto of
American principles which has vibrated through
every throne in Europe.
" Here, Mr. Speaker, the recentness of the
transactions, and the delicacy of the subjects,
admonishes me to pause. It is not my purpose
to rake open the embers -of party-spirit, or to
utter a word which could disturb the unanimity
of our grief
'' When the prophet was taken to heaven, his
deserted companion saw only the chariot of fire
and the horsemen of Israel ; and, on this oc-

66 William C. Bradley.
casion, I would have eyes for nothing but the
glories of Daniel Webster. Less I cannot say
in justice to him and myself
" There may be those, who, looking to former
opposition, may think, that, notwithstanding our
friendly relations in private life, I have already
said too much. To such I answer, th.at, old as
I am, when my heart becpmes too contracted to
swell at the manifestation of talent, worth, and
greatness, may it cease to beat ! Were I, being
in a state of safety, to look upon the lion roam
ing in his native haunts, and to behold his firm
and .regal tread, the majesty of his counte
nance, his large, calm eye filled with the ex
pression of conscious power, how could I
withhold my admiration ? If he was afterwards
seen by me breaking out of bounds, and scat
tering desolation and misery abroad, should I
be inconsistent in declaring my abhorrence ?
But when the shaft of the Mighty Hunter had
laid him low, dead, prostrate before ijie, and
I looked upon his great and noble proportions,
and the symmetry of his make, I must feel that
he was indeed created monarch of the forest.
So it has never been permitted me to cease
admiring and bearing witness to the great
things of D.aniel Webster ; and if it can soothe
his mighty spirit to have a political adversary

Political Life. 67
twine the cypress round" his tomb, I freely offer
myself to bear to his memory a tribute which
I trust will be also in unison with the feelings
of the whole House."
Mn B. then offered the following : —
'''' Resolved, That this House has learned with deep
sorrow the death of the eminent jurist, legislator, and states
man, Daniel Webster, whose labors in the forum, the
senate, and the cabinet, have honored and adorned his
country, and carried its celebrity beyond the limits of our
language. "Vermont, in particular, owes him a debt of grati
tude for having, by his able, frank, and manly bearing in a
difficult negotiation, completed and established herfcound-
ary ; and she now gives utterance to her sympatliy with the
nation and with his bereaved family for the loss of so great
a man."

Mr. Bradley as a Poet.

Mr. Bradley was a poet by nature. His
imagination was rich, and he had a keen and
just appreciation of the beautiful. Whenever
he read poetry, his rich, flexible voice, his ex
pressive face, and his abandon to the subject,
made it a rare treat to his listener.
The Bible and Shakspeare held, of course,
a large share of his heart : the glorious imagery
of the prophets had a peculiar charm for him.
I think the charge sometimes brought against
him of the too free use of plain and somewhat
obsolete old Saxon words may be owing to his
familiarity with those two books. Burns had a
warm corner in his heart, and he held lovingly
in his memory many of the sweetest songs of
the Ayrshire poet.
From the time he was six years old to his
death, I find scraps of poetry scatteredv among

Mr. Bradley as a Poet. 69
his papers ; but many of them are mere frag
ments, hastily thrown off, and evidently in
tended for no other eye than his own. We
give a few specimens.
In a very beautiful and clear hand, but ex
ceedingly minute, the following was found in a
watch which he wore for many years : —
" Little monitor ! by thee,
Let me learn what I should be, —
Learn the round of life to fill,
Useful and progressive still.
Thou canst gentle hints impart,
How to regulate the heart.
When I wind thee up at night,
Mark each fault; and set thee right,
Let me search my bosom too,
And my daily thoughts review, —
Mark the movements of my mind,
Nor be easy when I find
Latent errors rise to view
Till all be regular and true.
Among some manuscript letters, I find the
following: first, a little printed slip from a
British newspaper, dated Dublin, Aug. 3,
1813: —
" The ' Peacock,' American sloop-of-war, mounting
thirty-two-pounders and two long nines, with a complement
of one hundred and fifty men, is now in the Irish Channel.
The crews of several vessels sunk by her arrived on Satur
day at Dunleary. The sails of the ' Peacock ' were much

70 William C. Bradley.
shattered in consequence of a severe engagement which slie
had with a British sloop-of-war, name unknown, which she
unfortunately sunk.
" On Friday morning she was ofT the Wexford coast. She
has done much mischief: all the captured vessels have
been sunk."

"To Hon. W. C. Bradley.
" Dear Sir. — A subject for your fancy. Our ' Peacock,'
not. the same breed as the British. The ' Argus ' caught
the ' Peacock ' napping. Our ' Peacock ' killed the
' Sparrow. Hawk,' and now has conquered the ' Pelican '
on her own dunghill. Give me an impromptu before the
House rises to-day. "J. GALES, Jr.
"Oct. n."

Appended to this is the following, with this
note : —
" Too much engaged with the business of the.
House to make poetry." But, nevertheless, he
adds this : —
The " Peacock " of England, inflated with pride,
Once venturing abroad on the wing,
The American " Hornet " the flaunting fool spied,
And killed the poor wretch with its sting.
But the American " Peacock," of Heaven's own queen
The choice, and the emblem so fair.
When she wings forth her course, and her splendor is seen,
Her rivals sink clown in despair.

Mr. Bradley as a Poet. 71
The " Sparrow Hawk," vain of his prowess and fame,
The blaze of her glory o'erpowers ;
And, struck with o'erwhelming confusion and shame,
The blood-nourished " Pelican " cowers.
We find a number of patriotic odes written
about this time,' but we Will quote only one.
TO THE GOOD SHIP "CONSTITUTION."
Hail " Constitution ! " the pride of our navy,
Our glory in peace, and our leader in war.
Who forced, in fierce battle, the "Guerriere" and "Java"
To strike their red flag to the stripe and the star.
The charm which had bound
The nations around
In hopeless submission was broben by thee ;
And thy valor plucked down
The blood-sprinkled crown
Which glowed on the brow of the Queen of the Sea.
Thine is no art but to cripple the boaster,
. Her yards to unbrace, and her cordage to break :
Destruction impends when thy cannon accost her.
And the bottom of ocean is strewed with the wreck.
Round the hulks, as they la}',
The dolphins shall play,
Well pleased with their statioii, thy trophies to keep
On coral beds low.
Where the pride of the foe,
And her insolent thunders, here sunk to their sleep.
Or if once becalmed on the far distant billow,
Thy sails are at rest, and the winds cease to sigh,
Rest in peace, lovely ship, on thy watery pillow,
l^or reck of a danger approaching too nigh.

72 William C. Bradley.
Should whole fleets annoy.
And seek to destroy.
The Tritons and Naiads shall draw thee again,
Till the favoring blast
To thy rescue can haste ;
For dear is thy charge to the gods of the main.
But name not the spot where the waters delighted
Thy keel to receive and thy new sides to lave, —
The same where first on us fair Liberty lighted,
Like Beauty's own goddess fresh sprung from the wave.
For Faction most base
Hath dishonored the place :
Now his pinions have grown,
The Eagle has fiown.
And the raven has cursed and polluted his nest.
But thou, " Constitution,'' triumphant and glorious,
Shall stretch to renew and eternize thy name :
In thy wake, too, young heroes, already victorious,
Are crowding their canvas to rival thy fame.
Then tyrants beware,
And let traitors despair
To humble the land where thy timbers once grew ;
For freemen will fight
And die for their right,
But the prize of the battle, ye tars, is for you.
The following was found on a torn scrap of
paper, evidently written in haste after the baby's
call. It was at his boarding-house in Washing
ton, and it would seem that the child had found
its way to his room.

Mr. Bradley as a Poet. 73

THE MORNING CALL.
This morning, absent from his chamber,
Dull politics engaged the bard ;
Nor dreamed he of the bright-eyed rambler
Who on his table left her card.
No footman wrapped in gaudy livery.
Nor at the door stood silvered coach ;
No, not her footsteps, light and quivery.
Announced the charmer's near approach.
She let no living mortal know it,
So silent was she that fair morn.
But stole to see her faithful poet
• When all the world to church was gone.
" Why, what a shame ! " the prude is saying ;
" And this upon the Sabbath too !
Who was the wicked hussy ? " Praying
Your pardon, ma'am, 'twas little Sue.*
Thus Slander makes her sly advances,
And tells a tale of blackest hue,
When, could we know the circumstances,
All might be innocent and true.
It would hardly be honest to conceal the fact,
that among the poems we find frequent little
* The little child of Mrs. Murfriee of Tennessee.
10

74 William C. Bradley.
odes to tobacco ; nor would a pen portrait of Mr.
Bradley be complete without reference to the
gold snuff-box which he carried for so many
years, and loved as a dear bosom companion.
He was neat and gentlemanly in the use of its
contents, never allowing it to degenerate into
excess. It was a habit formed in youth ; and
the following ode seems to have been written
before middle life : —
" Tobacco, hail ! thou source of pure delight.
Thou gay enlivener of the winter's night.
When gloomy storms and whistling winds assail.
And howling tempests sweep along the vale ;
When pattering raindrops on the shut-ter beat,
Or strike the thatch upon my low retreat, —
'Tis thine the sweetest converse to afford.
And close the laughter of the social board ;
To make the joys of health and home increase.
And soothe my soul to harmony and peace.
Since when the keen European dared to brave
The untried horrors of the western wave, —
To quit his native realms abroad to roam.
And seek in cheerless wilds a peaceful home,
Where persecution's iron rod no more
Should scourge the pilgrim from his dear-loved shore.
How did thy fame increase thorough every land !
How did the knowledge of thy sweets expand 1
How did the race of man with rapture see
The day that opened on a world and thee •!

Mr. Bradley as a Poet. 75
Haply for ages had thy virtues cheered
Th'e lonely Indian, and to life endeared
The few small comforts innocence can know, ¦
Midst darkening forests capped with wintry snow ;
Or when his squaw, within his lonely hut,
Prepared the embers to receive the nut ;
And numerous offspring seated round the blaze
Improve the time to crack the yellow maize.
While in the midst the father smoking sat, .
And fondly listened to their youthful chat ;
And as at times, with voices loud and strong.
They strive to imitate the warrior's song.
First learned from him, how fondly then would he
Think what he was, and what his sons must be !
Supremely blest, resigned to thy control,
Thy genial influence soothed his savage soul."
We find the following note addressed to the
editor of "The National Intelligencer," in the
handwriting of Judge Collamer: —
" A few weeks since we spoke of the Hon. William C.
Bradley of "Vermont, on the occasion of his visit to this city
the past winter. He is indeed a gentleman of rare intellec
tual accomplishments ; and we are much pleased to have
the opportunity to publish, for the first time, the following
production of his lyric muse. It is a beautiful production
of a man far advanced in life ; and was written at the re
quest of his grandson, to be used at the ordination of his
fellow-students in theology.
" Washington, D.C, i86i."

76 William C. Bradley.

ORDINATION HYMN.

When erst, in Eden's leafy shade,
Man newly felt his Maker's breath,
Ere fair temptation's charms had made
. This world a scene of sin and death,
'No second tongue was needed then
To tell the Almighty's high behests :
The still, small voice could come to men,
And find an answer in their breasts.
2.
But when, debased, the torpid soul
God by his messengers awoke,
Amid the thunders solemn roll.
The tempest's blast, the lightning's stroke,
Then rose the altars to his name.
And crowds the ritual splendor saw,
Heard prophets sing, and priests proclaim,
The awful terrors of the law.
3
At length the Fulness from above
To earth the high commission bore,
And spoke to man of peace and love
As never mortal spoke before ;
And, conquering Death, the risen Lord
Gave forth his great and last command,
And bid his brethren spread his word
To every soul in every land.

Mr. Bradley as a Poet. 77

• PART II.
O thou most High ! all good and just.
Look down from heaven, thy dwelling-place ;
Behold thy servant take his trust.
And aid him with thy helping hand
To work thy work, to do thy will,
To speak thy praise, to preach thy word.
Promote all good, repress all ill, —
A faithful steward of the Lord.
Found him on thine eternal Rock ;
Make him a shepherd of thy care.
Heavenward to gently lead his flock.
And in his arms thy lambs to bear ;.
To walk upright in vvisdom's ways,
In which the blessed Jesus trod.
Until the " Well done ! " comes with praise.
Fresh from his Father and his God.
At the commencement of the war, when Gen.
Anderson had charge of Fort' Sumter, and
feigned himself intoxicated to deceive the
people of Charleston, Mr. Bradley wrote the
following : — BOB ANDERSON, MY JO.
Bob Anderson, my jo, Bob,
I wonder what you mean,
To drink so many juleps
In praise of Hallow'en.
You need all your wits. Bob,
To keep the forts, you know ;
But they'll slip through your fingers.
Bob Anderson, my jo.

78 William C. Bradley.
Bob Anderson, my jo. Bob,
When first we were acquaint.
You were a sweet cadet. Bob,
And always did your stint :
But now your shanks are shaky. Bob ;
You stagger as you go ;
Your tongue is thick, your eye is glazed,
Bob Anderson, ray jo.
Once in the bush, with Black Hawk,
You fairly did your share ;
And so with Osceola, Bob,
¦ Whose bones you have in care.
You got fame among the Greasers, Bob,
Though with a wound or so ;
But novv we'll wound your honor.
Bob Anderson, my jo.
Fort Moultrie is a jewel. Bob ;
Fort Sumter is a gem ;
But with forts well made of cotton-bags,
We'll surely conquer them.
They now are in your keeping. Bob ;
But, soon as cocks do crow.
We'll ease you of the burden,
Bob Anderson, my jo.
We've watched you in the " Nina," Bob,
That away you might not steal ;
For we know when you're yourself. Bob,
You are a cunning chiel.
But this night you are harmless. Bob :
Sleep off your drunk, you fool !
While we steam away to Charleston,
And keep our bonny Yule.

Mr. Bradley as a Poet. 79
Thus sang the boasting heroes
Of the palmetto and snakes,
And never dreamed that Robin
Was such a wide-awake.
They gone, he roused his mettle ;
And, while they took their swipes,
He stole the march upon them.
And saved the stars and stripes.
The Rev. Pliny H. White, President of the
Vermont Historical Society, who studied law
with Mr. Bradley, and knew and loved him well,
says, " He wrote much more poetry than is gen
erally supposed."
A short lyric, entitled " Dawn, Noon, and
Midnight," was extensively published and much
admired. I sat near him when he wrote it, and
had the pleasure of hearing him read it imme
diately upon its completion ; his always excel
lent intonation being made more efifective and
impressive by the yet present excitement of
composition. A copy of it, in his own beautiful
and peculiar handwriting, has been fittingly
framed, and is in the room of the Historical
Society : — '¦
DAWN, NOON, TWILIGHT.
Imprisoned in a living jail,
A lusty, kicking son of earth.
Ready to wake and weep and wail.
My limbs are struggling to the birth.
Let me pass !

So William C. Bradley.
Now on my feet I tottering stand,
Till, by enticements bolder grown,
I quit the watchful mother's hand.
And lo ! I learn to go alone.
Let me pass 1
Now in youth's buoyant merry round.
With quickened pulse, my steps advance,
Where music, wine, and wit abound,
And blooming beauty leads the dance.
Let me pass !
Now blest with children, wife, and friends, —
Ambition urging to the van, —
I strive to walk where duty tends,
With love of God, good will to man.
Let me pass !
And now my better home draws nigh.
Free from presumption and despair ;
But weary, faint, I wait to die.
And leave this world and all its care.
Let me pass ! "
Another poem, written when he was far ad
vanced in years, is less known than that, and is
worth insertion here, not only for its great
merits as a poem, but as a record of what was
perhaps the experience of his own soul. It is
written- in the old ballad metre, and may be
entitled —

Mr. Bradley as a Poet.

" A BALLAD OF JUDGMENT AND MERCY."-
As at midnight I was reading by my lamp's fitful gleam,
I fell into a slumber ; and behold ! I dreamed a dream :
This outer world had undergone a great and sudden change,
And every thing around me seemed wondrous new and
strange.
No sunlight, no moonlight, no starlight, glittered there :
A mild and steady twilight seemed to permeate the air ;
And there sat the blessed Jesus. No golden throne had
he.
But was clad in simple majesty, as erst in Galilee.
Behind him Justice, Mercy, Truth, safe guides in earthly
things,
Their functions now absorbed in him, all stood with folded
wings ;
And the recording angel, with deeply-sorrowing look.
Took in his hands and opened the all-containing Book.
There came a distant murmur, as if of waves upon the shore,
While throngs on throngs unnumbered into the Presence
pour :
By their instincts segregated here, nigh the close of Time,
Rush the bad of every nation, of every age and clime.
They stop astonished, all abashed ; and with attentive ear,
Though the angel's lips were moving, no accents could I
iiear :
Yet of that startled multitude, to each like lightning came
His life's continued story, its mingled guilt and shame.
11

82 William C. Bradley.
From all the secrets there disclosed, oh ! who could lift the
vail ?
Or of the varied shades of wrong unfold the dreadful tale
Of kingly pride, plebeian spite, of violated trust.
Of mastering force, of hidden sin, hate, cruelty, and lust ?
Each has his due allotment ; and, with agony of heart,
The vast assemblage vanished at the thrilling word, " De
part ! "
There was no driving angel and no extraneous force ;
For conscience was accuser, and the punisher remorse.
When this I saw transacted, upon my face I fell :
The anguish of that moment no human tongue can tell.
With throat convulsed and choking, I gasped, and strove to
cry,
" Have mercy. Lord ! Oh, mercy have ! a sinner lost
am I ! "
To look upon that face again, how was it I .should dare I
And yet I wildly ventured with the courage of despair,
When that pitying eye fell on me, beaming mercy from
above.
And I saw that smile ineffable of never-dying love.
By so sudden a transition, all stupefied I gazed.
Then, in my members trembling, rose, bewildered and
amazed :
But kindliest words of comfort the blessed Master spoke.
Which wrapped my soul in ecstacy ; and, sobbing, I awoke.
The following was written on the fly-leaf of
a Bible which he presented to his daughter
Merab : —

Mr. Bradley as a Poet.

A FATHER'S GIFT TO M. A. BRADLEY.
These well-bound leaves an earthly father gave.
Proof of his care, his love, his hope to save ;
But, oh ! the precious word inscribed within,
The powerful antidote to poisonous sin ;
Which guides the wanderer, dries the mourner's eye;
Which teaches how to live and how to die ;
Which breaks the bondage of the frozen tomb.
And wakes the joyful soul in life to come ;
Life, too, eternal : this to me was given
By Thee, my Father, God, which art in heaven.

Home Life.

We have already referred to -the Rev. Pliny
H. White, whose intimate relations to Mr.
Bradley enables him to give a correct picture
of the man. He says, " A great man he was :
all things considered, it is not too much to say
the greatest man Vermont has yet produced.
Williams may have equalled him as a lawyer,
Collamer as a reasoner, Phelps as an orator, and
Marsh may be his peer in multifarious learning ;
but neither of them, nor any other Vermonter,
living or dead, who has come to my knowledge,
has been at once lawyer, logician, orator, and
scholar to so eminent a degree. His personal
presence was that of a remarkable man. He
was of portly frame, inclined to corpulence ; his
head was massive and nobly formed ; and his
temperament bilious-nervous, combining in
tense activity with great strength and endur
ance."

» Home Life. 85
The intellectual faculty which first attracted
attention and compelled admiration was his
wonderful memory. It was nothing less than
wonderful. It held with unfailing tenacity
whatever was committed to its care, — words,
facts, dates, ideas, principles. It was indeed
the faculty which lay at the foundation of all
his other mental powers, and made it possible
that they should be what they were. It made
him one of the most learned of men, not only
in his profession, and literature of his profession,
but in all departments of learning. His men
tal appetite was so keen, and his mental diges
tion so perfect, that nothing came amiss to
them. He was an excellent scholar in Greek
and Latin. Unlike many who abandon the
study of the classics when their school-days are
over, he read them constantly and with delight
to extreme old age. When over eighty he was
delighted at finding a copy of Grotius in pos
session of a friend. It was in Latin; but it
made no difiference to him. He borrowed and
read it through. With English and French
literature he was intimately acquainted. He
made himself familiar with Hebrew that he
might read the Old Testament in the original,
and was much better acquainted than the
majority of ministers with the history and criti-

86 William C. Bradley.
cisms of the sacred text. In fact, theological lit
erature was his favorite study. He studied the
Bible systematically, and wrote valuable com
ments upon texts of Scripture, usually consid
ered dark and mysterious. These exegeses are
neatly written, and would form a valuable refer
ence for the biblical scholar. At one time,
when absent from home, a group of strangers
listened in wondering admiration to his conver
sation at the breakfast-table. It was Sunday
morning, and certain theological subjects were
discussed. He displayed such minute and
accurate knowledge of the Bible, that they, sup
posing him to be a minister, asked him to
preach. He did so, much to their edification.
. His deafness prevented his attending church ;
and when once importuned to do so by a
minister, for example's sake, his ready reply
was, " Are we not commanded never to turn a
deaf ear to the word of God .? "
Some members of the family had been out
to a camp-meeting, held not many miles from
Westminster. There was great excitement,
and such slaughtering of the Queen's English
as would bring tears from all students of Web
ster or Worcester. Mr. Bradley was reading
when we entered : he looked up from his book,
and ask«d how we had enjoyed our ride to the

Home Life. 87
camp. A grandson, then about sixteen years
of age, commenced a very ludicrous description
of the meeting; the comic side only having
made any impression upon him. Thinking to
please his' grandfather, whose love of fun he
well knew, he rattled on, while Mr. Bradley
with one hand behind his ear, listened atten
tively. When the young man paused to take
breath for a moment, the old gentleman, with a
look of displeasure on his face, said, " My boy,
never make sport of the religious worship of
any sect : no true gentleman will do it ; " and,
with that peculiar up-drawing of the lip which
those who knew him well will remember, he
returned to his reading, and the young gentle
man subsided into a reverie.
By those who did not know him well, he was
called "irreverent," "unconverted," &c., &c.
This was owing in a measure to his intense
hatred of all cant. He laughingly called his
Greek Testament his pocket-pistol to shoot
ministers with; but he held that a minister
should be- a thorough student, and in earnest
about his work. One such young minister I
remember, to whom he opened his library, and
asked him to graze in that rich pasture at any
time, and lent him his books most freely. He
took great pleasure in theological discussion

88 William C. Bradley.
with him ; and the good man, who had heard
Mr. Bradley spoken of as a free-thinker, often
went away filled with admiration. He was a
firm believer in the divinity of Christ; and no
one could speak more tenderly and lovingly of
our Saviour's life and teaching. He was well
versed in Hopkins and Edwards ; while he
read also Strauss, and other writers of the Ger
man school of liberal thinkers. But he kept
Strauss out of his library ; for he said certain
undisciplined minds might be unsettled in their
faith by it. He was full of sympathy for all
oppressed and sufifering humanity. The wail
ing of an infant, the sorrows of a child, the
perplexities of a maiden, the sterner trials of
manhood, all won sympathy from his great, big
heart. " I shall never forget," said one young
mother, " when weary with watching in the
sick-room, and faint-hearted from many per
plexities, going to Papa Bradley's house for a
short visit. It was a summer day, the doors
were open, and I walked in unannounced.
The old gentleman sat in the bright sitting-
. room, talking with some prominent political
gentleman on business ; but seeing me he rose,
came and opened his arms, drew me to him,
and imprinted a kiss on my pale, worn face. In
an instant my whole frame drew strength and

Home Life. 89
fresh life from that strong, loving nature.
Tears came, but not of sorrow : it might have
been irreverent, perhaps blasphemous; but I
could not help thinking of the woman who
touched the hem of our Master s g-Axvcv^nir If
the strong, and the gifted, and the great of this
world had more of this insight into the sorrows
of the lonely, they would be more like Him wha
gave the weary and heavy-laden rest.
" If Papa Bradley would come and speak to
me, I should be better," said one young wife and
mother who was ill and sufifering.
He had a wonderful command of words.
His whole intellectual wealth was at instant
command ; and he gave it utterance in language,
rich, copious, and expressive, but never redun
dant. His language was adequate to express all
varieties of emotion, — the tender and the stern,
the gentle as well as the harsh. He could fas
cinate a woman, or win a child ; and he could
also denounce a demagogue, or blister a rascal
with sarcasm. On all occasions, and under all
circumstances, his language was like the Chris
tian grace of charity : it never failed.
Mr. Bradley was as admirable in conversa
tion as in oratory, and far more delightful.
Nothing pleased him more than to find a willing
hearer, or group of hearers, and to pour forth

90 William C. Bradley.
by the hour together the exhaustless treasures
of his mind. It is by his conversational power
that he will be longest remembered. Where-
ever his noUe white head and portly form were
.to be seen, they were the centre around which
gathered a crowd of listeners, glad to. be silent,
while his loud, rich voice was heard in a con
tinuous strain of argument, narrative, illustra
tion, anecdote, quotation, as he passed "from
" grave to gay, from lively to severe," through
the regions of science, literature, politics, phi
losophy, morals, theology, usually closing his
monologue with some ludicrous story or crisp
witticism. It mattered little to him whether
his hearers were capable of appreciating his
discourse or not. He seemed to suflfer with a
plethora of thoughts, from which he could find
no relief but in conversation ; and he not sel
dom wasted upon a group of illiterate hearers
the recondite learning and brilliant ideas that
might have charmed and instructed an audience
of scholars.
Had there been any one to play Boswell to
this Johnson, American literature might have
been made rich in a department in which it is
now an absolute pauper.
His wit was as keen as a Damascus blade,
and his ready repartees constituted one of the

Home Life. 91
most attractive features of his public and private
speech. He was rather fond of a shrewd
answer to the questions of clergymen ; and, if
the joke was a little at their expense, he relished
it none the less. The following is a description
of Mr. Bradley at home, written some years
since for a New- York paper, by one of its cor
respondents : —
" The village of Westminster consists of one
long street, crossing a table-land of about one
mile in diameter, and somewhat elevated from
the Connecticut, which lay, as we rode, on our
left. It is enclosed by a semicircle of hills, which
touch the river above and below the village.
It was a beautiful sight as it lay before us in
the sunlight of early summer, — quiet as peace
asleep. It was not the quiet of stagnation or
death, for life was there : we knew it by the curl
ing smoke, by the sheep that dotted the hills,
and the cattle that were feeding in the pastures.
We saw men at work in the meadow ; heard the
hammer of the village smithy, and saw chubby
faces peeping at us from the little brown school-
house. Near this last spot we found a spring,
shaded by a willow-tree, on which hung a tin
dipper. We drank from the rustic cup, and
fancied the liquid purer than filtered and iced
Croton.

92 William C. Bradley.
" ' Come, make a call with me : I wish you to
see a friend of mine, whose name you have
often heard."
"A very short walk brought us to a quaint
and pleasant mansion. On the arched gateway
was a comical-looking stone idol, or such it
appeared to me. Inside the fence were flowers
and shrubbery, and a most delicious bit of ever
green hedge, — hemlock, I think. -There were
some fine elms in the yard ; and around their
trunks were pointed iron rings, evidently de
signed to keep intruding cats from climbing for
birds. Near the door, in a large tub, was an
orange-tree, on which were ripe oranges and
opening buds. Just gleaming through the
thick grass was a white marble slab, with the
inscription, ' To the memor}^ of our faithful
Httle dog Penny.'
" These things passed before our eyes in a
moment of time ; but they inclined us to the
belief that some original genius presided over
the place. The iron barricade against cats
won our heart at once ; for the feline races are
our perfect abhorrence, with their velvety tread
and glaring eyes, their caution and cunning,
their bird-killing propensities, and their ap
parent delight in the sufifering of their dying
victims.

Home Life. 93
" We were prepared to see some pale, studi
ous gentleman, whose love of nature and retire
ment had led him to seek this green nest in the
hills, where he could pursue his studies and
enjoy life in repose.
" The broad old-fashioned hall was lined with
books on each side, and flowering plants stood
round in pleasant confusion. The door of the
sitting-room was open, and by a round table sat
a portly gentleman, reading ' Blackwood.' He
rose, greeted my companion cordially, and my
self with as warm a welcome as a stranger could
desire. But oUr host was no pale, quiet stu
dent. " Had I not known he was an American, I
should have supposed myself in the presence
of a ' fine old gentleman of merrie England.'
He was portly and florid as if fed on roast beef
and port, but redeemed from the sensual by a
massive, nobly-formed head. He had a keen,
bright eye, which gave me at once a glance
into that capacious brain ; and as I have some
times peeped through the window of a conser
vatory, and caught a vision of rich masses of
. foliage and rare flowers, that bloom in lavish
beauty under high culture, so there I could see
dimly the rare blossoms, fruit, and foliage of
abundant wit and wisdom beneath the silvered

94 William. C. Bradley.
dome of that head. As he stood with one hand
curved behind his right ear, head inclined for
ward, — for his hearing was imperfect, — with
those eyes bright and expressive as those of a
happy child, I said to myself, ' Behold a man
who has preserved for threescore years and ten
the freshness and vivacity of early youth ! who
has enjoyed this world as God means his chil
dren should enjoy it ; not doing penance here,
hoping thus to be happier hereafter ; not mort
gaging his earthly tenement, and paying inter
est thereon, because there are better mansions
in heaven.'
" We plunged at once into a stream of talk,
suggested, I believe, by the article in ' Black
wood,' a critical dissertation on Homer. From
Homer we descended gradually to modern
poetry ; and here we listened in pleased aston
ishment, as, with quickness and taste, the
chaff was separated from the wheat. Now and
then, for illustration, a choice bit of Shakspeare,
a line or two from Chaucer, or an epigram from
Pope, were scattered like pearls dropped care
lessly from the string ; and once he repeated a
poem of Motherwell's with a true Scottish
accent, and a pathos that made us understand
why a poet can be fully understood only by a
brother poet.

Home Life. 95
" The wife of our host entered now and then
into the conversation. She is a lady of refine
ment and taste, and, in a quiet, gentle manner,
assisted in a quotation, or found some reference
from the library ; but now and then left the
room, gliding round as on other cares intent.
" In our interest we had forgotten time ; and,
before we were aware of its rapid flight, we
received an invitation to continue our conver
sation at the tea-table.
" We would have declined ; but our host
settled the matter at once : ' I see you are a
lover of old books ; I have some which I wish
to show you, but I cannot till after supper.
Come, we will not keep madam waiting, but
return from her table to a feast with the an
cients.' I certainly did not regret staying ; for
on the table was a luxury rare enough in coun
try villages, — a cup of genuine Mocha. My
spiritual olfactories even now discern its deli
cious fragrance as I write. It had strength and
aroma, and was served with rich cream, in
antique cups of unmistakable china, — true
china blue.
" Repartee and anecdote gave piquancy to the
repast, and we rose refreshed in the inner and
outer man. The library is rich in rare old
books, in one section I found an odd mixture

96 William C. Bradley.
of theological lore. Caler and Parker lay side
by side ; Cotton Mather in undisturbed proxim
ity. Swedenborg was not annoyed in his visions
by the discussions of the Council of Trent at
his side, or the Alexandrian dissensions. This
juxtaposition of opposites led us to guess, what
we afterwards learned was a fact, that the owner
of the library had examined many creeds, and
studied a vast quantity of theological writings ;
but, rising superior to all human creeds, he had
turned from the wisdom of uninspired writers
to the simple teachings of the New Testament,
which he seemed to love as .a child loves the
counsel of a loving father. He invariably reads
it in Greek ; ' and,' said my friend, ' I never
realized the beauty of Christ's life and precepts,
as when, sitting by his side, he has read to me
from the original, giving the literal translation,
unfettered by creed or dogma.' Of course, in
his independence of creeds and dogmas, he is
censured by many, and even termed infidel by
those whose ideas of God are formed only by
the "dogmas of ecclesiastical tradition. ' But,'
said my friend, ' I knew incidentally of a little
¦act of self-denial which might well be imitated
by some who censure him. The Congrega
tional Church failed one year in giving their
minister adequate support. Mr. Bradley had

Home Life. 97
had that winter some unusual dem.ands upon his
own purse ; ' but,' said he to- his wife, ' Mamie,
I must deny myself that illustrated work on
Egyptian antiquities which I intended for my
library, and we must give up Espy's ventilators
for the present, and give the money to aid the
minister. He is a worthy young man, and
must not suffer : it is time we sinners should
aid Zion if the saints are forsaking her.'
" ' You can see,' added my friend, ' that he
must be open-hearted and free : it is his nature.
There is not a meagre streak in him ; and yet
he is peculiar in his dislike to waste. Nothing
useful is destroyed.' The following lines. were
copied and preserved by him as very valua
ble:— " ' Oh ! waste not thou the smallest thing
That's made by the Divinity ;
For out of sands are mountains made,
And atoms make infinity.
Then waste thou not the smallest thing :
'Tis imbecile infinity ;
Forwell thou knowst, if ought thou knowst.
That seconds make eternity.' "
" He is the most efifective pleader in the State,
and has won many a case by his eloquence and
wit.

98 William C. Bradley.
"Not many years since, the majority of. a
church in a neighboring town took down their
place of worship, and removed it to -a more
convenient place. Two or three members,
either to avoid taxation or for some other
equally selfish motive, gave great annoyance to
the church, and sued for damages, causing a
writ to be served on one deacon as he was
going to the dedication of the new house, and
on the other as he returned from it. The
church found some trouble for the lack of cer
tain documents which had been mislaid or lost.
One of the early settlers sent in an old bee
hive taken from the garret, and its contents
were emptied befofe the court. But all their
search proved unavailable ; and the deacons be
gan to despair of their case, as one document
of special importance was not to be found. It
made them no more hopeful to see Mr. Bradley
walking up ¦ and down the toom, apparently
indififerent to every thing else but the Bible
which he was engaged in reading. Their per
plexity did not trouble him. But, when the
time came for him to plead, he spurned all the
old musty records before him, and, holding out
that most ancient of all records, he cited the
guileful and malicious conduct of Sanballat and
Tobiah when they would hinder Nehemiah on

Home Life. 99
the Plains of Ono in his work of rebuilding; the
temple. It was so apt, and he brought it home
with so much power, that the effect was irresist
ible. To this day these two persecutors are
known by the names of Sanballat and Tobiah.
'" Squire Bradley,' says Mr. Beckley the min
ister, as they came out of court, 'if we minis
ters could preach as you plead, our sermons
would be more effective.'
" ' Ay,' said Mr. Bradley, ' if you felt that you
were as near judgment as we lawyers know we
are when we plead, your preaching would have
more effect'
" At one time in a conversation upon inspira
tion, he remarked, ' The Book of Proverbs was
not all written, by Solomon. It is so called be
cause the name ' Solomon " was a synonyme of
wisdom ; and the sayings of many wise men are
here collected. They are not inspired, but are
mere maxims of worldly wisdom.'
" ' But, sir,' said my friend, ' it is unsafe to
say of any part of the Scripture it is not in
spired : in this way we may reject the whole
canon ; for probably no two would agree as to
what should be retained or rejected.'
'" In this case the matter is very evident,' he
said, but seemed disinclined to enter upon any
argument.

loo William C. Bradley.
" Sometime afterwards, when I was about
leaving, after a delightful two days spent with
him, he said, ' We have had a pleasant visit.
Come again ; come often to see us.'
" ' Indeed, I have enjoyed it much, and am
only deterred from coming oftener by that cau
tion in the Proverbs, " Withdraw thy foot from
thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee
and hate thee." ' I shall not soon forget the
look, as he turned upon me his full, round eye,
keen and- sparkling, ' Ay, ay ! that Solomon
never wrote all the proverbs. He was royal in
soul as well as in name, and full of hospitality.
Do you think so generous and kingly a man
ever penned that ? '
" It is delightful to see this man in the green
November of life, hale and hearty, ripened and
mellowed, with all the juices of a kindly na
ture flowing in a full, strong current in his
veins. Such a spectacle does one good : we
understand better the capacity and power of
the human soul to enjoy and impart enjoyment.
Here was a man who had seen much of political
life : he understood all the crooked devices and
corruption of such a life. He was in Congress
with Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Adams, Hayne ;
and was one among that galaxy of names, the
like of which will never be_ seen again in our

Home Life. loi
country. There are now but two of his old
friends left in political life in Washington, —
Col. Benton and Gen. Cass. Our host, less
restless and more nobly ambitious than these,
has sought to avoid public life. He has held
many offices, and might have held many more,
but has preferred the practice of his profession
and the pursuit of literature in his quiet home.
He was induced, from some political reasons, to
take a seat in the State Legislature last winter ;
and the political veteran went up among the
boys, and enjoyed the session very well.
" Last winter he was appointed by the State
on some mission to Washington. It seemed
to him, before going, but a sad journey : it was
like visiting the city of the dead. The faces
that used to greet him would greet him no more ;
the hands that met his with so warm a pressure
were motionless in death. He felt himself of
a past generation, almost unknown by those
who occupied seats so long filled by old friends.
But it proved otherwise. He had a happy
home there with his children, Henry. A. Wil-
lard and wife; and there were many who had
heard of him and wished to see him.
" He became, to his astonishment, quite a
lion in the place ; and, wherever he went,
there was a group quickly gathered round

I02 William, C. Bradley.
him, and there was heard the wit and the
quick retort.
" ' Ah ! ' said he to one such group : ' I have
not been here since Gen. Jackson lived in the
White House. Then I came to visit old
friends. The General came to me one day, and,
slapping me on the knee, said, " Why, Bradley,
you hearty old cock, what makes you so hale
and merry at your age 1 "
" ' "I don't know. General," said I, " unless it
is that I hold no office, and do not want one." '
There was a shout of laughter at this ; but the
speaker went on, ' Now, gentlemen, I am not
much of a man-worshipper, but I have those
same breeches yet' "
It may surprise some, sharing the present
mania for leaving home that works so much
harm to our country towns, that so able a man
was willing to spend his life in his native place.
But it is worthy of all praise. To stay at home
where he is well known, and live down the sus
picions and mistrusts created by early excesses ;
to stay at home, and compel the affection, con
fidence, and honor, which even a prophet is not
apt to have in his own country ; to stay at
home, and, in face of seemingly overmastering
difihculties, to make noble eminence out of noth-

Home Life. 103
ing, — there is something great and brave
and beautiful in that ! He loved his home, the
quite village of Westminster, and the people
among whom he lived. He delighted to wel
come children, grandchildren, and great-grand
children, to his home. As long as he lived
there was a powerful magnet to draw them
hither. A friend thus describes a visit made to them
in 1840: — - .
" It was a cold day in midwinter: the ground-,
was covered deep with snow. When, after a
long sleigh-ride, we opened the door of this
hospitable mansion, I shall never forget the
bright cheerful look of the broad hall, warmed
by a Canada stove, an'd lined on each side with
books, while rare flowers were blooming on
little stands and shelves. An orange-tree, on
which were blossoms, buds, and fruit, gave its
perfume freely to the genial atmosphere. The
door of the sitting-room was open ; and on the
ample hearth burned an , old-fashioned wood
fire, giving a bright response to the cordial
welcome of the mistress of the family, . — a
graceful, petite, middle-aged lady, one of the
most winning and lovable women it has ever
been my lot to meet

I04 William C. Bradley.
" Mr. Bradley, then a little past sixty years of
age, was seated at a table reading. Around
him lay the numbers of the foreign quarter
lies. My first impression was, ' What a volume
of brain ! ' My second, as he rose to receive
me, ' What a fine physique ! ' He at once re
called" my ideal of Wilson (Christopher North) ;
and I still think, that in richness of humor,
'breadth of intellect, and the most delicate ap
preciation of the beautiful, the two men were
similar. Could they have met, what scintilla
tions of humor, and sparkles of wit, would have
been elicited by the contact !
" That evening, just before retiring for the
night as I sat by his side, he turned, and, fixing
his great bright eyes upon me, said very ab
ruptly, ' Do you say your'prayers before going
to bed } ' The question, coming from one
whom I had never met before, startled me for
an instant; but rallying quickly, I replied, ' I
never say prayers.' He caught the emphasis
on the word say, and it pleased him.
" There seemed to be established between us
a rapport, as the French say, upon religious
matters ; and from that day commenced a friend
ship which I count among the richest gifts
which life has given to me. ' Some thought
him lax and unbelieving,' says the Rev. Mr.

Home Life. 105
Frothingham ; and adds truly, ' How little they
knew him ! ' I have myself heard certain
ministers and church-members speak of him as
an ' ungodly man.' I had no answer to give to
such ; for they understood him as little as the
glow-worm, grovelling in the dirt understands
the brightness and beauty of those stars whose
orbits are near the sun. He worshipped God
with the reverence and humility of a child.
" One stormy Sunday he took out his Greek
Testament ; and, giving me a chair by his left
side (he could hear better with the left ear), he
spent most of the day in rendering certain pas
sages more literally, and giving his own views
upon them, — particularly the Gospel of St.
John. " ' Ah ! ' said he, as he read and translated
those precious words, ' Theology is the noblest
profession ; law is second to it'
" He loved the Bible, and could quote it
freely and to some purpose, as his brother law
yers can testify. He wrote out his religious
views somewhat after the manner of a commen
tary on the more. difificult passages of Scripture ;
and it was among his manuscripts, very neatly
and legibly written.
" Few men are as happy in domestic life
as Mr. Bradley. His guests will recall the

io6 William C. Bradley.
earnest look which he would turn upon his
wife when he could not understand a stranger
readily : that look always brought her to his
side ; and, laying her small hand upon his broad
shoulder, she would repeat iu low, clear tones,
the words, which spoken in a higher key by a
stranger he could not hear.
" Shortly after my acquaintance with him, he
met with one of the greatest sorrows of his life,
— the death of his beloved daughter, the wife
of Judge Kellogg. She was very dear to him.
She inherited his warm, generous temperament;
and, living near him after marriage, their inter
course was frequent* It was sad to see the
* It may not he inappropriate to introduce here a letter from Mrs.
Emma Willavd, principal of Troy Female Seminary, to Mr. Bradley,
while his daughter was yet a school-girl : —
"Dear Sir, — We send you back the gentle and amiable being
you sent us, in as good health as we received her. You cannot expect
much improvement in so short a time ; yet we think she has begun
the. work under the most favorable auspices. Although she came into
school late in the term, and was put into classes which were formed at
its commencement, yet, at the close of the term, she stood on a level
with the best scholars in each class. She has won upon our aifection,
and has learned to love us. She begins, I think, to confide freely
in me ; and she apj^ears so prudent, that I am not afraid to confide
in her. " Merab is so confiding amcng her companions, and so little in
clined to think ill of any one, that there is a species of confidence that
I find necessary to repose in her, which is to point out to her the real
character of her companions, when she is in any way to come into
contact witii them. In short, Mr. Bradley, you send her to me — what
I love to find in my pupils — pure, modest, docile, ingenuous, sound

Home Life. 107
strong man bowed beneath this afifiiction. But
when, in the course of time, her place was filled
by another, it was delightful to see this great
generous' heart giving its warm -welcome to the
stranger. " Almost his first words on my meeting him
after the event were, ' Mrs. Kellogg and I are
the best of friends. I love her very much ! '
And this friendship continued to grow brighter
and warmer until death.
" His son's death came to him at a time when
he felt the loosening of" earthly ties ; and he
grieved less for himself than for the bereaved
wife and children.
" He had no fear of death. ' I look upon it'
he once said, ' as one of the changes through
which we must pass to a higher state of exist
ence ; ' and believing fully in that resurrection
which is simply the ascension of the spirit to a
purer state, leaving the earthly body to mingle
with its kindred elements, he, as Mr. Frothing
ham beautifully expresses it, ' abdicated here
for an immortal home there.' "

in heart and mind. Be it mine to see that she retains these fine quali
ties, which she owes to God and to you her parents, while she adds to
them the elegance of the lady, and the intellectual culture of the intel
ligent woman.
" With sentiments of the most cordial esteem, I am yours and Mrs.
Bradley's affectionate friend, Emma Willard."

io8 William C. Bradley.
He spent some of the latter years of his life
in Brattleborough, in the family of his son, J.
Dorr Bradley. While there the latter died sud
denly. This death was a most severe afifiiction
to the aged parents. Father and son were very
dear to each other : there was a sympathy of
interests and tastes, which made it delightful
for them to live together. After Mr. Bradley
the younger died, the eldest daughter, Mrs.
Dorr, made her home with them, and was
devoted in her care of her parents. But she,
too, was taken away, leaving them to mourn the
loss of all their children, — two sons and two
daughters. But they were not alone : Mrs. Bi-adley, the
wife of J. Dorr Bradley, remained ; and, like a
ministering angel, was always near them, gentle
and loving in her ministrations, bearing with
gentle patience her own sorrow, and, in sweet
forgetfulness of'self, living for others.
After Mrs. Bradley died, in August 1866,
her husband went with her remains to West
minster ; and, after laying her in the family
tomb, did not return to Brattleborough, but
remained in the old home, there to wait till the
door which opens so noiselessly, and then
shuts us in forever with the silent dead, should
open for him.

Home Life. 109
He told his wife, while they lived in Brattle
borough, that if she died first he should go
with her to Westminster, and remain till he was
called to lie by her side.
" His old age," says Mr. Frothingham, "how
beautiful it was ! How large in charity, how
sweet in tenderness, how cheerful in hope, how
calm in trust how healthy in outlook ! Old
age is life's glory or its shame ! Hard, cold,
querrulous, cynical, it shows life's failure. Ten
der, warm, kindly, and believing, it testifies to
life's success. During our country's deadly
struggle, it bated not faith in the triumph of the
right, when younger hearts sank well' nigh in
despair. " Some thought him lax and unbelieving.
How little they knew of the breadth and depth
of his vision and his piety ! Free in his think
ing he certainly was. A mind so truth-seeking
could not be otherwise. But when speaking of
his almost life-long physical infirmity, which had
deprived him of so much, he said it had been a
blessing to him, securing to him people's best
thoughts only ; saving him from a vast deal
of chaff, and compelling him to reliance upon
himself, — shall we say there was no quiet faith
in him and reverence ?
" Asked ' what he thought of Christ' he re-

1 1 o William C. Bradley.
plied, ' What Peter answered to Jesus when
asked " Who do men say that I am 1 The son
of mian.? And Peter answered and said. Thou
are the Christ, the son of the living God."
That is my faith,' he said. An old minister,
anxious about his condition, inquired of him,
shortly before his death, as to his views. The
old man made this beautiful reply, ' As I grow
older my faith grows simpler : I come nearer
and nearer to the simple truth of salvation by
Christ' He had no fear of the future. In
cheerfulness he waited, longed for death. And
when it came, as God's gifts come to his be
loved, in sleep, he passed to the everlasting
waking. None needed to close his eyes ; for,
from that sleep they woke no more."
Mr. White, whom we have before quoted,
says, " Talent and scholarship have descended
in a remarkable manner in the Bradley family,
from generation to generation, and not only
descended from generation to generation in the
Bradley family, but continually approached
nearer and nearer to positive genius. In 'The
Professor's Story,' Holmes tells us of the
' Brahmin caste of New England,' by which he
designated the harmless and untitled aristocracy
of scholars, among whom, by the repetition of
the same genial influences, generation aft^r

Home Life. 1 1 1
generation, there is established a peculiar
organization, both bodily and mental, and
learning, and aptitude for learning, become
congenital and hereditary.
" To this Brahmin caste the Bradleys certainly
belonged. Stephen R. Bradley, indeed, was
characterized rather by intellectual vigor and
energy than by culture. But his son, William
C. Bradley, inherited all his father's strength
of mind, and added to it the most liberal
culture which books and the best society could
offer. His brain was larger in quantity and
finer in texture than his father's. He had extra
ordinary talents ; but his son Jonathan Dorr
Bradley had more than talent — even that inde
finable something termed genius. He had a
vein of humor as rich as Goldsmith, a wit that
sparkled like Sidney Smith's, a satire which had
the bite without the venom of Pope's, a lively
fancy, a glowing imagination, a keen suscepti
bility tb the true, the beautiful, and the right.
" If the fourth generation has not been as
conspicuous as its predecessors, it is because
utter prostration of health has cut short the
career of one who might otherwise have added
lustre to the name of Bradley, by valuable con
tributions to American literature. A poetical
gem, anonymously published sortie years ago.

' 1 2 William C. Bradley.
and now for the first time credited to its real
author, will justify my assertion, and serve as
a conclusion to this memorial."
THE FOUR PHILOSOPHERS.
Four great philosophers
Come every year.
Teach in the open air,
Then disappear. .
Winter's the Stoic,
So chill and heroic.
He sits in the mountain-breeze, biting and pure ;
And when, to bring fear and doubt.
Damp nightly, winds are out.
Wraps an old cloak about : he can endure.
Spring, at dull hearts to mock,
Comes in a farming-frock,
With garlands and ploughshares a lesson to give.
He sings through the fields a while.
Turns up the soaking soil.
All haste, and laughing toil — briskly can live.
Summer with mantle free,
Epicurean he,
Lolls in the cooling shade like a tired boy ;
While blazing suns unkind
Leave the stout mower blind.
Where faints the mountain wind : he can enjoy.
Autumn, when all are done,
He's the good Christian one :
Fills well the granaries, where seeds may lie
New coming years to bless ;
Then, in his russet dress.
All hope and quietness, sweetly can die.

*>«fiSf

WBSH**%'i'j';j»J«i.*-:

mmmmm

««. 1 , i

>li":

.V'

IiV

w.

Li:

V f

ip

'^i^^:ilj

' '' ''!; is

tZi^^A.

'M^'

"Wfr-.-V

If

;.

-iff .,¦,';•!"",

i

r-^.^*

.-$« ..//' 1

^^^®^5^9