hardly be conceived at this day, and much less adequately described. I then resided in that village, and was enabled and induced to attend the convention as a spectator, daily and steadily during the entire six weeks of its session, and I was of course an eye and ear witness to everything of a public nature that was said or done. The convention was composed of sixty-five members, and not one of them remains a survivor at this day. That bright and golden age of the republic may now be numbered with the years beyond the flood," and I am left in comparative solitude to recall and enjoy the enchanting vision. 46 The convention combined the talents, experience, and weight of character, of some of the most distinguished men in the state. Most of them had been tutore in the discussions, services, and perils of the revolution. The principal speakers in favor of the adoption of the constitution were, Mr. Jay (then (Secretary for Foreign Affairs), Chancellor Livingston, Mr. Duane (then mayor of this city), Mr. Harison, and Colonel Hamilton. On the other side, and against the adoption without previous amendments, were George Clinton (then Governor of the state), Mr. Lansing (afterwards Chancellor), Mr. Jones (afterwards Recorder of this city), John Williams of Washington county, and Gilbert Livingston and Melancton Smith, delegates from Dutchess. There was no difficulty in deciding at once on which si le of the house the superiority in debate existed. Yet in the ordinary range of the discussions, it was found that the dignity, candor, and strength of Jay, the polished address and elegant erudition of Chancellor Livingston, and the sagacity and exhaustless researches of Hamilton, were met with equal pretensions by their opponents, supported by the simplicity and unpretending good sense of Clinton, the sound judgment of Jones, the plausible deductions of Lansing, and the metaphysical mind and embarrassing subtleties of Smith. But Colonel Hamilton maintained the ascendancy on every question; and being the only member present who had signed the constitution, he felt and sustained most intrepidly the weight of the responsibility which belonged to him as the leader on the federal side of the question. All seemed, as by common consent, to concede to him the burden and the honors of the debate. Mr. Smith was also the most prominent and responsible speaker on the part of the anti-federal majority. There was no person on that side to be compared to him in acute and logical discussion. He was Hamilton's most persevering and formidable antagonist. But even Sinith was routed in every contest, and as Mr. Hamilton had been a most active member of the national convention, and the principal author of the Federalist, his mind had grown familiar with the principles and history of federal governments, and with every topic of debate. He was prompt, ardent, energetic, and overflowing, with an exhaustless store of argument and illustra tion. The three principal topics of debate, in which Mr. Hamilton was most distinguished and most masterly, were (1), on the importance of the union, the defects of the confederation, and the just principles of representation. (2.) On the requisite tenure and stability of the senate. (3.) On the power of taxation and the residuary rights of the states. each of those subjects he bestowed several speeches, some of which were employed in refutation and reply. On He generally spoke with great earnestness and energy, and with considerable, and sometimes vehement gesture. His language was clear, nervous, and classical. He went to the foundation and rea His son of every doctrine which he examined, and he brought to the debate a mind richly adorned with all the learning that was applicable. He never omitted to meet fairly the discussion, and he was sure to discover the strength and weakness, the ingredients of truth and error, in every proposition he had to contend with. His candor was magnanimous, and rose to a level with his talents. temper was spirited, but courteous, amiable, and generous; and he frequently made pathetic and powerful appeals to the good sense and patriotism of the assembly, and painted vividly the difficulties and dangers of the crisis, in order to prepare their minds for a favorable reception of the constitution. The style and manner of Smith's speeches was plain, dry, and syllogistic; and it behooved his adversary to understand well the ground on which he stood, and the principles he advanced, or he might find it somewhat embarrassing to extricate himself from a subtle web of specious reasoning, unless indeed it was met by Hamilton's skill and strength, which nothing could resist. Smith was a speaker of remarkable simplicity, and his disposition was gentle and liberal. Though I had strong political preju dices against Governor Clinton, as the leader of the party opposed to the constitution, yet during the course of the session, I became forcibly struck with the dignity with which he presided, and with his unassuming and modest pretensions as a speaker. It was impossible not to have respect for such a character, or for a young man not to be somewhat overawed in his presence, when it became apparent from all his conduct, that he possessed great decision of character, and a stern inflexibility of purpose. The arguments urged by Col. Hamilton in the debates, were substantially the same which he had before employed in the Federalist. They could not have been different, for he had already urged all the leading considerations which led to the plan, and had guided the judgment and skill of the artists. In his opening speech, Mr. Hamilton preliminarily observed, that it was of the utmost importance that the convention should be strongly impressed with a conviction of the necessity of the union of the states. If they could be entirely satisfied of that great truth, their minds would then be prepared to admit the necessity of a government of similar organization and powers with the scheme of the one before them, to uphold and preserve that union. It was like the case of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and doubts on that subject were one great cause, he said, of modern infidelity, for if men could be thoroughly convinced that they had within them immaterial and immortal spirits, their minds would be prepared for the ready reception of Christian truth. After pointing out the radical defects of the articles of confederation, and vindicating the popular basis of the proposed system, he declared his most serious conviction, that the latter was a wise and genuine specimen of a representative republic; and he hoped and trusted that we should find in it an effectual cure for our actual distresses, and that it would prove an eminent blessing to us and our posterity. He concluded his first great speech with the patriot's prayer: Oh! save my country, heaven!" in allusion to the brave Cobham, who felt "his ruling passion strong in death.” His two speeches on the organization, powers, and stability of the senate, were regarded at the time, by the best judges, as the noblest specimens which the debates in that, or in any other assembly, ever afforded of the talents and wisdom of the statesman. They were delivered with a strong desire to put down a most mischievous and pernicious propo sition to amend the constitution, and which was, | that "no person should be eligible as a senator for more than six years in any term of twelve years, and that they should at all times within the period of six years be subject to recall by the state legislatures, and to the substitution of others." Mr Hamilton, on that occasion, took broad views of the nature of man,―his passions, pursuits, interests, prejudices, duties; and he drew his deductions from the design and necessity of government, the settled principles of policy, and the history and melancholy infirmities of all free, and especially of all federal governments, ancient and modern. Instability, a fluctuating policy, and corrupt and vindictive factions, were prominent features and practical consequences in the history of most republican systems, and their necessary tendency was to weaken the sanctity of contracts, lessen the security of property, destroy a proud and just sense of national honour, and finally to forfeit the respect and confidence of the rest of mankind. He contended, therefore, that in all just policy, we ought not to hesitate to infuse a principle of stability into the structure of our national government, by the creation of a senate, to be comparatively small in the number of its members, and to have them chosen for considerable periods of time, so as to inspire them with a feeling of independence, and a lively sense of character, in the due discharge of their trust. Upon no other plan, could the Senate, either in its legislative or executive character, be able to perform its functions as the balance-wheel of the machine. In no other way would that body be able to become the requisite check to the mischiefs of misguided zeal and factious policy in the more popular branch, or to the abuses and misrule of the president, in the exercise of the treaty and the appointing powers. During the sitting of the convention, information was received that New Hampshire had adopted the constitution, and she made the ninth state that had ratified it. That great event wrought at once a momentous change in the condition of the United States; inasmuch as the confederation became thereby ipso facto dissolved, and the new constitution had become, or would be when organized, the existing national government of the nine states which had ratified the same. But that fact, solemn and weighty as it was, did not seem to disturb the tranquillity, or shake the purpose, of a majority of the convention. Mr. Smith and Mr. Lansing both declared that the event had no influence on their deliberations. The convention continued its sharp debates for three weeks longer, and. apparently regardless of that information, until all hopes of an auspicious issue to the business seemed to be lost. It was in the midst of that gloomy period, and just before the clouds began to disperse, and serene skies to appear and gladden the moral atmosphere of the place, that Mr. Hamilton made one of his most pathetic and impassioned addresses. He urged every motive and consideration that ought to sway the human mind in such a crisis. He touched with exquisite skill every cord of sympathy that could be made to vibrate in the human breast. Our country, our honor, our liberties, our firesides, our posterity, were placed in vivid colors before us. He alluded to the distresses and national degradation which dictated the call for a general convention, and he portrayed in matchless style the characters in that illustrious assembly, composed of the wisest and brightest of our American statesmen. To discriminate largely might be invidious; but it could not be so, he said, to select Franklin, revered by the wise men of Europe, and Washington, crowned with laurels, and refulgent with glory. Intelligence was shortly afterwards received, that Virginia had also adopted the constitution. Mr. Hamilton read with much sensibility a letter to that effect, communicated by express from Mr. Madison. It produced at once a visible change in the disposi tion of the house, and led it to think of adopting the constitution upon certain terms. A resolution to that effect was before the house, when Mr. Smith moved that the constitution be ratified upon condition, that certain powers contained in the instru ment should not be exercised until a general convention of the states had been called to propose amendments. This proposition was discussed for several days, and under the impression in one part of the house, that the adoption of the constitution with that qualification annexed, would readily be received by the existing Congress. Mr. Hamilton was strenuous and peremptory in his opinion, that such a conditional ratification would not and could not possibly be accepted. He assured the house that all expectations from such a source would prove delusive. This opinion gained ground, and the members generally and gradually assumed s more conciliatory tone; and all vehemence in debate seemed to cease as by common consent. Convietions once beginning to operate, were borne along with increasing force against the stream of preju dice. "We did not come here," said Mr. Jay, "to carry points, or gain party triumphs. We ought not to expect it, or wish it. We were without a national government, and on the eve of an untried era. Everything demanded moderation and concession. The laurels of mere party victory, might be bedewed with the tears, or stained with the blood of our fellow-citizens." Mr. Hamilton disclaimed all intention of wounding the feelings of any individual, though he had expressed himself in the course of the debates in strong language, die tated by strong emotions, for on no subject had his mind been agitated with more painful concern. The spirit of the house became liberal and cheering; and at last Mr Jones moved to substitute the words in full confidence, in lieu of the words, upon condition, in the form of the ratification. He was supported by Mr. Smith, who had so eminently distinguished himself, and by Mr. Platt, then first judge of the county of Dutchess, who made a few plain observations in a direct and downright manner, of his sense of duty, and of his determination to follow it. Twelve members came over from the antifederal side of the house, and they were sufficient to constitute the majority which unco: ditionally ratified the constitution. I have always considered the members who made this memorable and unbought sacrifice of error, prejudice, and party discipline, on the altar of patriotism and their cour try's welfare, as entitled to the highest commendation. It was quite an heroic effort, to quit such a leader as Governor Clinton, though it was to follow their own convictions. It was understood that several other members were inclined to follow the same course, but they could not be brought to desert the governor, who remained inflexible, Had he consented to vote for the constitution, the ratification of it would probably have been unanimous. As it was, the spirit of conciliation which closed the labors of that illustrious assembly, was deemed most auspicious, and as affording a new and instructive example of wisdom and moderation to mankind. ABIEL HOLMES. ABIEL HOLMES, the author of the American Annals, one of the pioneer works of American Ilistory, was born in Woodstock, Conn., a town formerly under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, December 24, 1763. His father, Dr. David Holmes, had served as captain with the provincial forces in the old French war in Canada. Abiel graduated at Yale in 1783, and soon after accepted the appointment of Tutor in the college, having first preached a short time to a society in Midway, Georgia. In 1788 he was settled over the congregation in Midway, where he had formerly preached, and maintained a happy relation with them until 1791, when the state of his health compelled him to remove to the north. In 1790, he married Mary, daughter of Dr. Ezra Stiles, the president of Yale College. She died in 1795, leaving no children. In 1792, Mr. Holmes was installed as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Cambridge, Mass., and occupied this position until 1832, a long period of forty years, when the increase of new theological opinions caused a division of the society. He retained his connexion with the "orthodox" portion of the parish, a colleague having been settled with him, to whom he soon resigned his share of the duties, and passed the remainder of his life peacefully and happily in Cambridge. His religious and ecclesiastical faith was that of the Puritans. His position at Cambridge was, therefore, peculiarly difficult and delicate, surrounded as he was with communities of different faith, and in the immediate vicinity of an institution at that time almost exclusively under Unitarian influence. But he was charitable by nature, and disposed to live peaceably with those whose faith differed from his own. For a long course of years he was in the habit of exchanging pulpits with the Unitarian clergy of the neighborhood, and never ceased to be on the most friendly terms of intercourse with many among them. In the year 1800 he married Sarah, daughter of the Hon. Oliver Wendell, of Boston.* In his literary career Dr. Holmes, in 1798, wrote the life of his father-in-law, President Stiles, a work of genuine worth and character. In 1805 he published his American Annals, a work in two volumes octavo, containing the outlines of American History from 1492 to the period of its publication, a work of careful collection and research; and in 1829 he published a second edition of the work, enlarged with a continuation of the record. The American Annals employed him some ten years in composition, and much labor was expended on its revision. This was a labor of love. To verify a doubtful legend; to disprove a questionable tradition by new testimony; to get at the absolute fact and let this tell its own story: such labor as this was his highest literary pleasure. Like a famous observer in science he might have adopted the saying of Rousseau as his motto, “I know that truth is in things, and not in my mind that judges of them, and that the less of myself I mingle with them the nearer I shall come to the truth." He observed the remark, however, very differently from the famous egotist who originated it. In 1817 Dr. Holmes delivered a course of Lectures on Ecclesiastical History in Harvard College. He published in the Massachusetts Historical Collections a Memoir of the French Protestants; and a History of the Town of Cambridge. Besides the works thus enumerated he published various serinons. Occasionally, like many of his clerical contemporaries, he indulged in verse, not, however, in any more serious efforts than a slight translation or an occasional hymn. His fondness for history and antiquarian research was no doubt favored and fostered by his early relations with his revered father-in-law, President Stiles. But the author of "The History of the Judges" joined to his learning a love of theory leading him at times towards credulity, which his son-in-law did not inherit. The master was fond of wide speculations; the pupil was content with the humble task of collecting, sifting, verifying, and classifying the facts of history. To the same master is to be traced the love of the Hebrew language, which he always retained. He often referred to his first lessons received from the lips of the President himself. He had Greek and Latin enough for the reading of sacred and classical books, and so much of French and Spanish as was necessary for the consultation of historical authority. He had too a scholar's taste in books. Without being a book collector in the strict sense, he had a fondness for good editions, and there were few happier moments than when he brought home an Elzevir, or a Stephanus, or a Frobenius, and introduced the venerable new comer to his somewhat crowded shelves. In his personal character he was of a kindly and genial disposition, and the somewhat severe forms of belief in which he was bred, and to which he was faithful through life, never chilled his social nature. In the general love and confidence of his parish and supported by the Christianity which he had served, he died at Cambridge, June 4, 1837.* ST. JOHN HONEYWOOD. ST. JOHN HONEYWOOD was born in 1764, the son of an English physician who had settled in Leicester, Mass. In 1766 the father, then a surgeon in the American army, lost his life at Ticonderoga, leaving his son an orphan and destitute. He was educated at the expense of a few friends at the school of Mr. Tisdale, in Lebanon, Conn., and continued his studies at Yale College, where he became domesticated in the house of the Presi dent, the Rev. Dr. Stiles, who always maintained a high regard for his pupil. He took his degree in 1782, and passed the two following years as a teacher in an academy at Schenectady, New York. He then removed to Albany and studied law in the office of Peter W. Yates. After having been admitted to the bar, he removed to Salem, Washington Co., where he practised his profession during the remainder of his life. He was one of the Presidential electors by whom John Adams was chosen the successor of Washington. He Mass. Hist. Collections, vol. vil. We are indebted for the personal reminiscences to a communication from the pen of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. married in 1788 a daughter of Col. Mosely of Westfield, Mass., and died Sept. 1, 1798. & Honey woods The volume of his poems would have appeared in the author's lifetime, but death interrupted his plan of publication, and the work fell for biographical notice and editorship into the hands of his successor, who married his widow, a matter-of-fact man, who records this circumstance with coolness, and offers as an apology for the paucity of the facts his limited knowledge of the author; with whom his acquaintance seems to have Of the been mainly of a posthumous character. literary habits of Honeywood he records the composition of one of his short poems on fifty separate pieces of paper-which, he trusts, with some uncertainty, have been correctly joined together. The little volume which contains these poems was published in New York by T. & J. Swords in 1801, and was dedicated to Josiah Ogden Hoffman, then Attorney-General of the State. Unimportant as a collection of poetry, it is a curious picture of the closing years of the last century when Washington declined a re-election to the Presidency (the subject for several pages of heroic verse), when Shea rebelled in Massachusetts (celebrated in an ironical song), when Europe was seething with the coming Revolution (a lively news-monger's ballad), and Citizen Adet went home to France full of the prestige of the new republic of the west, duly impressed upon his mind by a poetical address from St. John Honeywood. Then for purely domestic matters the negroes were celebrating Pinxta, the ladies were lying in in great state, or writing letters not in the best of English-at least our poet inculcates Entick in terms which would be superfluous at the present day, when learning and good sense are such common things. Since daily occasion compels us to write, Read these lines, my dear Clara, and learn to indite, Here is then the great secret, to this you'll attend, Write in just the same manner you'd speak to your friend; Avoid all hard words and bombastical strain, If your style be but chaste, it can scarce be too plain, Many persons who've got a slight tincture of knowledge, Young boarding-school misses, and students from college, By high sounding nonsense endeavor to please, These smoothly written verses, and others more pointed, show the writer to have possessed a pleasant vein of humor. His graver attempts are somewhat prosaic. THE SELFISH MAN'S PRATER ON THE PROSPECT OF WAR. Again the clouds of battle lour With terror and dismay; Protect me, all disposing power, In this disastrous day! As in the camp the soldiers learn Then while my neighbours and their sons Grant that my boys, secure from guns, And while with taxes and expense My kindred are distress'd, O grant that all my hard-earn'd pence And should the Frenchmen gain the day, Yet, if by thy disposing will, In her indulgent laws!' And should she disbelieve my word, To witness I ne'er drew my sword, Or fir'd a gun at all. For since from frailty and mistake I wish no active part to take, But leave the whole to thee! Though impious pirates on the seas Our merchants' ships despoil; Yet shall my spirit rest in ease Till foes invade the soil. Then let the fiends of battle rave, My peaceful vales shall sing; Full thrice their value bring. May fat contractors, fraught with gold, May continental rags no more But crown my basket and my store What though the fig-tree shall not bloom What though it be thy righteous doom Yet if thou wilt thy servant bless, I'll joy in my own righteousness, THE PURSE: Addressed to a Friend. The Author was journeying with a friend: for convenience This purse, long sever'd from its mate, JOSEPH BROWN LADD. Adieu! fond purse; what though no more And cram thy sides with many a fee. For well I ween the marriage state Full oft thy succour must require, For making one who once were two; Of want and pinching times shall tell; For making sick what late was well. The tailor, cloth-curtailing rogue, His long-stretched bill will oft display: Shall greet thee ev'ry quarter-day. And hopes that you will prove his friend. He longs to drink your worship's health, And that, your honour knows full well, Poor servants are not born to wealth. Next Doll, with ill-affected blush, Hints how she soon expects to wed; In sable order shall arise; Shall join to bear the burden down: But such rare bargains must not pass: * Whitsuntide, a holiday for servants and slaves. "And O! my dear, I cannot bear To hang in parlour or saloon. "A harpsichord, at price still lower, "A singing-bird, of tender age, From India's groves has lately flown: "Twill match the robin in the cage; And birds should never live alone." The charges of a lying-in! Must be well paid for every boy; Choice figs and raisins of the sun; When gossips come to pay their court; To hush its cries, and get the pap. O! who in this unfathom'd pit, In sober sense, would dare to plunge; He to Italian ears had sung. JOSEPH BROWN LADD. JOSEPH BROWN LADD, the son of William and Sarah Ladd, was born at Newport, R. I., in 1764. He received the rudiments of an English education, and at the early age of ten produced a few verses not without merit. In 1775 his father removed to a farm at Little Compton, which he This cultivated with the assistance of his sons. mode of life was distasteful to the young poet A teacher of music. |