HARRISON GRAY OTIS

(1765-1848)

ARRISON GRAY OTIS, nephew of James Otis, and a leader among New England Federalists, was born in Boston, October 8th, 1765. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and at Harvard University. After studying law in Boston, he was elected to succeed Fisher Ames in the House of Representatives, where he opposed Jefferson's theories with great vigor. Leaving the House in 1801, he was Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1803, and two years later was elected to the Presidency of the State Senate where he served until 1814. In that year he was one of the leading members of the Hartford Convention; in the year following he was elected to the United States Senate where he remained until 1822. He died October 28th, 1848. It is said that during the delivery of his oration on Hamilton, "all hung with breathless admiration on his words, and at the end, in stillness indicative of the deepest sorrow, returned to their homes with only the consolation that such men as Ames and Otis remained."

HAMILTON'S INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS (Pronounced at the Request of the Citizens of Boston, July 26th, 1804)

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E ARE convened, afflicted fellow-citizens, to perform the only duties which our republics acknowledge or fulfill to their illustrious dead; to present to departed excellence an oblation of gratitude and respect; to inscribe its virtues on the urn which contains its ashes; and to consecrate its example by the tears and sympathy of an affectionate people.

Must we, then, realize that Hamilton is no more! Must the sod, not yet cemented on the tomb of Washington, still moist with our tears, be so soon disturbed to admit the beloved companion of Washington, the partner of his dangers, the object of his confidence, the disciple who leaned upon his bosom! Insatiable Death! Will not the heroes and statesmen, whom mad ambition has sent from the crimsoned fields of Europe, suffice to people

thy dreary dominions! Thy dismal avenues have been thronged with princely martyrs and illustrious victims. Crowns and scep

tres, the spoils of royalty, are among thy recent trophies, and the blood of innocence and valor has flowed in torrents at thy inexorable command. Such have been thy ravages in the Old World. And in our infant country how small was the remnant of our Revolutionary heroes which had been spared from thy fatal grasp! Could not our Warren, our Montgomery, our Mercer, our Greene, our Washington appease thy vengeance for a few short years! Shall none of our early patriots be permitted to behold the perfection of their own work in the stability of our government and the maturity of our institutions! Or hast thou predetermined, dread King of Terrors, to blast the world's best hope, and by depriving us of all the conductors of our glorious Revolution, compel us to bury our liberties in their tombs! .O Hamilton, great would be the relief of my mind, were I permitted to exchange the arduous duty of attempting to portray the varied excellence of thy character, for the privilege of venting the deep and unavailing sorrow which swells my bosom, at the remembrance of the gentleness of thy nature, of thy splendid talents and placid virtues! But, my respected friends, an indulgence of these feelings would be inconsistent with that deliberate recital of the services and qualities of this great man, which is required by impartial justice and your expectations.

In governments which recognize the distinctions of splendid birth and titles, the details of illustrious lineage and connections become interesting to those who are accustomed to value those advantages. But in the man whose loss we deplore, the interval between manhood and death was so uniformly filled by a display of the energies of his mighty mind that the world has scarcely paused to inquire into the story of his infant or puerile years. He was a planet, the dawn of which was not perceived; which rose with full splendor, and emitted a constant stream of glorious light until the hour of its sudden and portentous eclipse.

At the age of eighteen, while cultivating his mind at Columbia College, he was roused from the leisure and delights of scientific groves by the din of war. He entered the American army as an officer of artillery, and at that early period familiarized himself to wield both his sword and his pen in the service of his country. He developed at once the qualities which command precedency and the modesty which conceals its pretensions.

Frank, affable, intelligent and brave, young Hamilton became the favorite of his fellow-soldiers. His intuitive perception and correct judgment rendered him a rapid proficient in military science, and his merit silenced the envy which it excited.

A most honorable distinction now awaited him. He attracted the attention of the commander in chief, who appointed him an aid and honored him with his confidence and friendship. This domestic relation afforded to both frequent means of comparing their opinions upon the policy and destinies of our country, upon the sources of its future prosperity and grandeur, upon the imperfection of its existing establishments, and to digest those principles, which, in happier times, might be interwoven into a more perfect model of government. Hence, probably, originated that filial veneration for Washington and adherence to his maxims, which were ever conspicuous in the deportment of Hamilton; and hence the exalted esteem and predilection uniformly displayed by the magnanimous patron to the faithful and affectionate pupil.

While the disasters of the American army and the perseverance of the British ministry presented the gloomy prospect of protracted warfare, young Hamilton appeared to be content in his station, and with the opportunities which he had of fighting by the side, and executing the orders of his beloved chief. But the investment of the army of Cornwallis suddenly changed the aspect of affairs and rendered it probable that this campaign, if successful, would be the most brilliant and decisive of any that was likely to occur. It now appeared that his heart had long panted for an occasion to signalize his intrepidity and devotion to the service of his country. He obtained, by earnest entreaties, the command of a detachment destined to storm the works of Yorktown. It is well known with what undaunted courage he pressed on to the assault, with unloaded arms, presented his bosom to the dangers of the bayonet, carried the fort, and thus eminently contributed to decide the fate of the battle and of his country. But even here the impetuosity of the youthful conqueror was restrained by the clemency of the benevolent man: the butchery of the American garrison at New London would have justified and seemed to demand an exercise of the rigors of retaliation. This was strongly intimated to Colonel Hamilton, but we find in his report to his commanding officer, in his own words, that, "incapable of imitating examples of barbarity, and

forgetting recent provocations, he spared every man who ceased to resist."

Having, soon afterwards, terminated his military career, he returned to New York and qualified himself to commence practice as a counselor at law. But the duties and emoluments of his profession were not then permitted to stifle his solicitude to give a correct tone to public opinion by the propagation of principles. worthy of adoption by a people who had just undertaken to govern themselves. He found the minds of men chafed and irritated by the recollection of their recent sufferings and dangers. The city of New York, so long a garrison, presented scenes and incidents which naturally aggravated these dispositions, and too many were inclined to fan the flame of discord and mar the enjoyment and advantages of peace, by fomenting the animosities engendered by the collisions of war. To soothe these angry passions, to heal these wounds, to demonstrate the folly and inexpediency of scattering the bitter tares of national prejudice and private rancor among the seeds of public prosperity, were objects worthy of the heart and head of Hamilton. To these he applied himself and, by a luminous pamphlet, assuaged the public resentment against those whose sentiments had led them to oppose the Revolution, and thus preserved from exile many valuable citizens who have supported the laws and increased the opulence of their native State.

From this period he appears to have devoted himself principally to professional occupations, which were multiplied by his increasing celebrity until he became a member of the convention which met at Annapolis, merely for the purpose of devising a mode of levying and collecting a general impost. Although the object of this convention was thus limited, yet so manifold in his view were the defects of the old confederation, that a reform, in one particular, would be ineffectual; he, therefore, first suggested the proposal of attempting a radical change in its principles, and the address to the people of the United States recommending a general convention, with more extensive powers, which was adopted by that assembly, was the work of his pen.

To the second convention, which framed the Constitution, he was also deputed as a delegate from the State of New York.

In that assemblage of the brightest jewels of America, the genius of Hamilton sparkled with pre-eminent lustre. The best of our orators were improved by the example of his eloquence.

The most experienced of our statesmen were instructed by the solidity of his sentiments, and all were convinced of the utility and extent of his agency in framing the Constitution.

When the instrument was presented to the people for their ratification, the obstacles incident to every attempt to combine the interests, views, and opinions of the various States threatened, in some of them, to frustrate the hopes and exertions of its friends. The fears of the timid, the jealousies of the ignorant, the arts of the designing, and the sincere conviction of the superficial, were arrayed into a formidable alliance, in opposition to the system. But the magic pen of Hamilton dissolved this league. Animated by the magnitude of his object, he enriched the daily papers with the researches of a mind teeming with political information. In these rapid essays, written amid the avocations of business, and under the pressure of the occasion, it would be natural to expect that much would require revision and correction; but in the mind of Hamilton nothing was superficial but resentment of injuries, nothing fugitive but those transient emotions which sometimes lead virtue astray. These productions of his pen are now considered as a standard commentary upon the nature of our Government, and he lived to hear them quoted by his friends and adversaries, as high authority in the tribunals of justice and in the legislature of the nation.

When the Constitution was adopted, and Washington was called to the presidency by his grateful country, our departed friend was appointed to the charge of the Treasury Department, and of consequence became a confidential member of the administration. In this new sphere of action he displayed a ductility and extent of genius, a fertility in expedients, a faculty of arrangement, an industry in application to business, and a promptitude in despatch; but, beyond all, a purity of public virtue and disinterestedness which are too mighty for the grasp of my feeble powers of description. Indeed, the public character of Hamilton and his measures from this period are so intimately connected with the history of our country that it is impossible to do justice to one without devoting a volume to the other. The Treasury of the United States at the time of his entrance upon the duties of his office was literally a creature of the imagination, and existed only in name, unless folios of unsettled balances and bundles of reproachful claims were deserving the name of a Treasury. Money there was none, and of public credit scarcely a shadow re