Memoir of Theophilus Parsons, chief justice of the Supreme judicial court of Massachusetts; with notices of some of his contemporaries

Front matter

CfS) t lL

MEMOIR

TIIEOPHILUS PAESONS,

Chapter II

Of the Ancestry of Tiieophilus Parsons, with a General Sketch of his Life.

Genealogy, p. 6. — John Robinson of Leyden, 7. — Robinson’s Address, 8. — Letter to Mrs. Gray, describing the Death of Moses Parsons, 9. — Character of Moses Parsons, 10. — Extract from his Election Sermon, 12. — Susan Davis, wife of Moses Parsons, 14. — Violet, the Slave, 17. — Birth of Theophilus Parsons, 19. — Enters Harvard College, 21. — Tudor’s Account of him, 21. — Teaches a School at Ealmouth, 23. — Admitted to Practice, 24. — Letter to Theodore Parsons, 24. — Judge Trowbridge, 27. — Marriage, 32. — Dr. Chauncy and the Chauncy Family, 32. — Portraits of Parsons, 35. — Removal to Boston, 35. — His Death, 35.

CHAPTER III. Of Him as a Statesman

His thorough Conservatism, p. 36. — The Principles of Progress and of Conservatism, 36. — Letter of C. S. Daveis, 38. — Letter of Theophilus Parsons to John Waite, 38. — Letter of Moses Parsons to Theophilus Parsons, 42. — The North and the South : Difference of Character, 45. — State Constitution of 1778 rejected, 46. — Essex Convention, 47. — “Essex Result,” 47. — Proceedings of the Essex Convention, 49. — State Convention of 1779, p. 55. — Federal Convention of 1787, p. 57. — Convention of Massachusetts, in 1788, for the Adoption of the United States Constitution, 58. — His-

VI

Contents

tory of this Convention, and the Debates therein, 59-106. — How the Objections to the Constitution were removed, and its Adoption secured, 65. — The “ Conciliatory Amendments,” 66. — Who wrote them, 70. — Their Importance, 75. — Letter from Josiah Quincy, 77. — Letter from James Savage, 80. — The Slavery Question in the Convention, 87. — Extracts from Parsons’s Minutes of the Convention, 91. — Longest Speech made by him in Convention, 96. — Anecdote related by William Gray, 102. — Union or Disunion, 103.

— Federalists and Jacobins : intense Feeling, 108. — Anecdote of Hamilton, 110. — “ Vox populi, vox Dei,” 111. — A Constitution, what it is, 113. — Fisher Ames, 114. — Parsons’s Notions about Politics, and the Progress of this Country, 116. — Offers of Office, 121. — Letter of Timothy Pickering to Theophilus Parsons, 121.

— Reply, 122. — Letter of David Sewall to Theophilus Parsons, 124. — Aliens, his Opinions on the Treatment of, 126. — Letter of Theophilus Parsons to Nathaniel Tracy, 128. — Always and thoroughly a Federalist, 132.

CHAPTER IV. Of Him as a Lawyer

Study with Judge Trowbridge, p. 133. — Entering upon his Profession,

134. — Marriage, 134. — Removal from Newburyport to Boston,

135. — Farewell Dinner to him, 135. — Robert Treat Paine, 135. — Meeting Hamilton in Hartford, 137. — Anecdote concerning Proof of Wills, 138. — Memory, 139. — Knowledge of Admiralty Law, 141. — First Case in which Chief Justice Parker saw him, 143. — Lowell, Father and Sons, 144. — Brevity of Parsons’s Arguments, 145. — Whether Eloquent, 146. — Theory about Eloquence, 147. — Anecdote about Sullivan, 151. — Stopped in the Road, 151. — Parsons’s Knowledge of and Love for Practical Mechanics, 1 52. — His Interest in his Cases, 154. — Position among the Lawyers of his Day, 155. — Letters from Samuel Dexter, 157. — Trial at Hartford, and Anecdotes about it, 158. — Hamilton, 160. — Murray’s Case, 160. — Controversy with Gardiner, 162. — Extract from Willis’s History of Portland, 162. — Statute of Distributions, 163. — Letter to Chief Justice Dana, 163. — Letters from Ezekiel Whitman, 165 ; William Bay lies, 166 ; Zachariah Eddy, 169 ; Oliver Wendell Holmes, 173. — Of Jonathan Jackson and his Sons, 173-176. — Anecdote of John Jay, 174. — Letter from Charles P. Phelps, 176.

— Never accepted a Fee from a Widow, or from a Minister of the Gospel, 181. — Samuel Dexter, 181. — Harrison Gray Otis, 182.

— William Prescott, 184. — William Hickling Prescott, 187.

CONTENTS.

Vll

CHAPTER Y.

Or Him as a Judge.

Resignation of Chief Justice Dana, p. 192. — State of the Dockets, 193. — Appointment as Chief Justice, 194. — Judge Sedgwick, 194.

— Parsons’s Views of the Judicial Functions, 195. — Charge to the Grand Jury, 201. — President Dwight, 205. — Parsons’s Discharge of the Duties of his Office, 206. — Anecdote of Mr. Dexter, 207. — Of Mr. Otis, 208. — Of Mr. Blake, 208. — Of Mr. Burgess, 209. — Anger of some of the Lawyers, 211. — Extract from a Letter from Mrs. Parsons, 211. — Anecdote of Fisher Ames and Judge Paine, 213. — Students, 216. — Anecdote of Elijah H. Mills, 217. — Special Pleading, 218. — Anecdotes from Mr. Daveis, 222. — Extracts from Morison’s Life of Judge Smith, 223. — Story told at Governor Wentworth’s Table, 223. — Evidence that the People were satisfied, 227. — Letter to Governor Strong, 228. — Increase of Salary, 230.

— Letter to Governor Gore, 230. — Second Increase of Salary, 232.

— Publication of his Decisions as “ Commentaries,” &c., 235. — Answer to Governor Strong about the Command of the Militia, 236. — Insurance Law, 237. — Real Law, 237. — Judge Jackson’s Work, 237. — Remark of William Pinkney, 238. — Law of Parents, 238. — Law of Marriage, 239. — Trial of Selfridge, 249. — Humanity as a Judge, 258. — Paper on the Embargo, 258. — Anecdotes from the Rev. Dr. Sanger, 259.

CHAPTER VI. Of Him as a Scholar

His Desire for Knowledge, p. 260. — His Study of all Mechanism, 260.

— Rumford’s Cooking Apparatus, 261. — Mistake of Names, 261. — Library, 263. — Manner of Reading, 264. — Knowledge of Greek, 265. — Desire that Greek should be learned before Latin, 265. — Preparing a Greek Grammar, 265. — Interest in Public Schools, 271. — Scientific Pursuits, 272. — Accident with Woulfe’s Apparatus, 272. — Dr. John Prince, 273. — Mr. William Bond, 274. — Knowledge of Mathematics, 278. — Improvement in Process for working out Lunar Observations, 279. — Mr. Airy, 279. — Pike’s Arithmetic, 280. — Preference of Geometry to Analysis, 281. — Theory of Parallel Lines, 282. — Study of History, 282. — Novelreading, 282. — Degree of Doctor of Laws, 285. — Fellow of Harvard College, 286. — Election of Kirkland, 286. — Unitarianism at Harvard College, 287. — Dr. Kirkland, 288. — Overseers of the

CONTENTS.

viii

College, 291. — Professor Peck, 292. — Pellow of the American Academy, 293. — Letters of Mr. Cutler, 293. — Present Methods of Study, 297. — What is Superficialness? 298. — Letters to Mr. and to Mrs. Wendell Davis, 305. — Dante : Italian Language, 307.

Chapter VII

Of Him in iiis Personal, Social, and Family Delations ; and or his Death.

Of Him as a Deligious Man, p. 308. — Anecdote illustrative of his Observance of Sunday, 309. — Joined Dr. Kirkland's Church, 311.

— Extract from Mr. Thacher's Sermon, 312. — Letters to Mrs. Davis, 315. — Of his Deligious Opinions, 318. — Eemark about the Kev. Mr. Holley, 321. — Dr. Kirkland, 322. — Extract from a Letter of the Eev. Dr. Tappan, 323. — Dr. Hopkins, 324. — Of Him in his Social and Family Delations, 324. — Love of Home, 325. — Personal Appearance, 326. — Hypochondria, 329. — Sleeplessness, 334.

— Extracts from Mrs. Parsons's Letters, 335. — Use of Tobacco, and Delinquishment of it, 336. — Use of Wine, 337. — Little Exercise, 338. — Habits of Study, 338. — Letters to his Children, 340.

— Dinner Company, 342. — Dev. Mr. Thacher, 342. — Dev. Mr. Buckminster, 343. — Love of Animals, 345. — Love of Teaching, 348. — Dislike of Observation and Notoriety, 349. — Some Failure of Health, 351. — Use of Hot Water as a Demedy, 352. — Death, 352. — Supposed Cause, 354. — Circumstances attending his Death ; his Last Words, 354. — Expression of his Face, 355.

Appendix

Fage

I. Essex Desult ........ 359

II. Chief Justice Parker’s Address to the Grand

Jury 403

III. Obituary Notice 425

IV. Essay on Parallel Lines 429

V. Formula for Extracting the Doots of Adfected

Equations 439

VI. Letter to the Author from Judge White . . 446

VII. Letters to Theopiiilus Parsons, Senior, from

Various Correspondents .... 456

MEMOIR.

Chapter I. N

TH£ MOTIVES AND THE MEANS OF THE AUTHOR FOR WRITING THIS MEMOIR.

My father died in 1813. If he were wholly forgotten, I should not seek to revive a recollection of him. But his official position, to which circumstances gave a peculiar importance, required of him to give some decisions which laid the foundations of important law. These must be remembered and sometimes referred to, at least by lawyers. They perhaps are almost the only men of this generation who know much about him. For nearly all others the veil of time has settled over him ; and if his name be heard or read, it calls up no distinct image.

If this veil only obstructed or obscured the remembrance of him, or if it entirely prevented this remembrance, I should make no effort to remove it. But while he is remembered at all, he should be remembered aright.

He had no love of fame, contemporary or posthumous. It will probably appear to a reader of this Memoir, that it was one of his errors to despise public opinion exceedingly. He not only cared nothing whatever for fame, but was less desirous than he should have been to leave a just impression of himself. He had not many personal enemies ; but no man can discharge the duties of the high office he held, without conflicting with some interests, and exciting 1 some resentments, which perhaps have not yet died. And his political enemies, for reasons which will be more fully stated hereafter, were bitter. While he lived, they did not spare censure or reproach, as opportunity offered or could be made. But I believe he was never known to say or to authorize one word by way of answer, defence, or explanation, or to manifest anything but the most perfect indifference. He was, however, a just man, and loved the truth ; and if his disposition to protect the truth was overcome by his unwillingness to defend himself, I know of no reason, and am conscious of no feeling, which should prevent my attempting at least to do him exact justice.

This is my object in preparing, at this late day, this Memoir ; and, so far as I know my own purposes, it is my only object.

When he died, I was but sixteen years old ; and had little knowledge, and now have but few trustworthy recollections, of him in his more public relations. What he was at home, what as husband, father, friend, I knew and remember better. In drawing his portrait in these relations, I shall trust, with some confidence, to my own impressions ; but as to his public duties, and for what he was as a statesman, a lawyer, a judge, a scholar, I shall rely mainly upon documentary or other evidence. And if I have some confidence in family traditions, and some belief of facts or anecdotes, which cannot be proved but have been repeated until they can hardly be doubted, it will still be with the hope and the endeavor to give to the best evidence the greatest weight. I shall try to avoid all assertions of which it can be said only that they may be true.

Upon some points I have distinct impressions, due in part, I am certain, to my own recollections of his words and acts. But they are due also in part to the many conversations I have had, years and years ago, with his old friends, who loved to talk of him as much as I loved to hear them. I find myself unable to distinguish accu-

CHIEF JUSTICE PARSONS.

rately, at this distance of time, between these two elements of belief. What seem to me only my own recollections may have been strengthened and filled out, and perhaps shaped or varied, by such conversations, without my being able to recognize this effect. They who knew him have, for a long time, been few in number ; and now they are very few. If now alive, he would be one hundred and nine years old ; and of course all who could be called his contemporaries have passed away. There are still living, .however, those who, although much younger than he, knew him intimately. Of late years it has been an infrequent pleasure to me to meet them. But I have called upon them to aid me in constructing this slight memorial, and they have rendered far more assistance than I had ventured to expect.

I propose, in the first place, to speak of his parentage and family. If I had no other reason for this, I should do it because it was one of his traits to be glad, and perhaps proud, of his descent from one man among our forefathers, whom he profoundly revered, — John Robinson of Leyden. I shall speak also of his childhood and youth, and of the few changes which occurred in his simple and uniform life. Then, in other chapters, I shall endeavor to present him to my readers as he was, as a statesman, a lawyer, a judge, a scholar, a religious man ; and in his personal, social, and family relations.

Forty years ago I had an immense mass of his manuscripts. But then I did not think I should ever make use of them. Yery many I have given away to those who wished for his autographs ; others, to those who desired them for other reasons. Some, or rather many, I have lost, I know not how. The residue — not the tenth part of what I once had — were saved, and now lie before me, because my friend, Mr. Charles Folsom, laid a hand of gentle compulsion upon them, some years since, and carried them off to the Boston Athenseum. It will be seen, however, that even this remnant is of much use to me. And I should be very glad if gentlemen having any letters or other manuscripts of my father’s would send them, or copies of them, to me, or lend them to be copied ; or would give me any information which I might use to correct errors in this book, or add to it interesting or illustrative facts. I should employ them for the public benefit, if this book comes to a second edition ; or otherwise use them for my own.

In an Appendix I insert some of my father’s productions ; and reprint the Address of Chief Justice Parker (my father’s successor) to the Grand Jury, in 1813, in which he gives a sketch of his life and character. This has never been published, excepting at the close of the tenth volume of the Massachusetts Reports. I add to this a brief Memoir, by Mr. Samuel L. Knapp, and one or two of the obituaries published at his death. These may be regarded as contemporary testimonials to his position, and to the extent and quality of his usefulness. They are annexed to this work, not to revive the recollection of my father, or extend or diffuse it, but that I may place on record those means of estimating him correctly, which — due allowance being made for my own filial bias, or for my leaning too far in my endeavor to resist this bias, and for the prejudices or predilections of other persons — may cause him to be, when not forgotten, not misjudged.

I will add a word on another topic. No one can be more aware than I am of the egotistic appearance imparted to this Memoir, and to this prefatory chapter, and to this very paragraph, by the circumstance that I write it in the first person, and speak of the subject of it as “ my father.” This appearance must needs be so offensive, that it would not be deliberately encountered but for what seem to be good reasons. One of these is, that, as matter of honesty, I wish my readers to remember that I am writing about my own father, that they may therefore make all due allowance.

CHIEF JUSTICE PAKSONS.

Another is, that I wish to remember this myself, that I may therefore exercise clue caution. Still another is, that I was obliged to choose between this way of treating and presenting my subject, and that other way which consists in an apparent withdrawal from all personal interest, and which is a little apt to withdraw from the book all interest whatever. We have eminent American works which repeat the capital “ I ” to the utter exhaustion of the printer’s stock ; and certainly this is a great fault. We have others which totally avoid the use of the first person singular, by an unwearied, but somewhat wearying, ringing of the changes upon all the phrases and indirections which go round and round this little word, and are always in sight of it, but do not touch it. This seems to me a great fault also ; if for nothing else, because it compels the reader to remember that he who is perpetually laboring to avoid speaking of himself, can never, by any possibility, forget himself.

But these are small matters. No success in them would compensate for a failure in my principal purpose ; nor will ill success in them inflict great pain, if I am permitted to believe that this Memoir presents a lifelike and true portraiture of my father and his friends.

Chapter II. Of His Ancestry, With A General Sketch Of His Life

Near the close of the first half of the seventeenth century, perhaps about 1645, Jeffrey (or Geoffrey) Parsons sailed from England for the West Indies. He was then very young. He remained at Barbadoes, with an uncle, some years, and then came to Gloucester, on Cape Ann, about 1654. There he settled. On the lltli of November, 1657, he married Sarah Vinson. He passed the rest of his life in Gloucester, and died there on the 16th of August, 1689. He was a prominent citizen, having been chosen selectman for several years ; and was a successful merchant, leaving at his death what was there and in those days regarded as a competent fortune.

So much, and but little more, is known with certainty of the origin of my father’s family. An ancient letter or two, with a constant and consistent tradition, render probable a few additional particulars. They are, that Jeffrey (so the name appears to have been generally spelt) was a younger member of a family holding a respectable position among the gentry of Devonshire. He must have had means of his own, or been aided by his family, because, although a young man when he came to Gloucester, he carried considerable property there with him. It is at least certain that he bought a house and some lots of land, in 1655.

There are in the family various versions of a romantic story about his meeting Sarah Vinson — the beauty of the

CHIEF JUSTICE PARSONS.

place — at a spring on her father’s farm, which is still called Vinson’s Spring ; and sundry love passages ensuing, which ended, not without due tribulation, in their marriage. I would tell this more particularly ; but, unfortunately, the traditions do not harmonize, and no one of them seems to me well authenticated or particularly probable.

The genealogy of the family, from Jeffrey down, has been well preserved. And the most noticeable thing about it is the extraordinary fertility of the marriages of those early days. This was true not only of our own immediate line, but of all those wTith whom our ancestors intermarried. And I have heard the same remark made of other families.

Moses Parsons, Jeffrey’s grandson, being the youngest son of his youngest son, was my father’s father. He was born in Gloucester, June 20th, 1716. He entered Harvard College in 1732, graduated in due course in 1736, and immediately applied himself to the study of theology, in further execution of that purpose of devoting himself to the ministry which had induced him to enter college.

For some years, however, he maintained himself by teaching a school in Gloucester. And there, on the 11th of January, 1743, he married Susan Davis, to whom he had been for some years betrothed.

She was the fifth in descent from John Robinson of Leyden ; whose son Abraham had, in Gloucester, a son of the same name. This grandson of John had a son Andrew, whose daughter Anne married Abraham Davis ; and their daughter Susan was my grandmother.*

* Some persons have even doubted whether any son of John Robinson came to America. But I have a document drawn up by my father about eighty years ago, and another which some years afterwards he gave a relative (from whom I have it), which agrees perfectly with the first, from which I gather the facts that I have stated in this paragraph. He was a careful genealogist, and loved to investigate questions of this kind ; and in this particular question he felt a deep interest. And he had all the means of information which a

John Robinson of Leyden ! How often have I heard my father utter that name, and always with every expression of admiration and reverence ! I suppose he thought that this ancestor of his had done more to form the character of New England, by his direct influence, and by impressing his character upon those whom he sent forth to found a nation, than any other man. I cannot remember when I first became familiar with the beautiful address of Robinson to that portion of his church who were about to depart from him and seek a wilderness, which, in compensation for the enjoyments that civilization could give, offered them only freedom to worship God. After the tenderest words of farewell and the wisest words of counsel, he said :

“ Brethren, we are now quickly to part from one another; and whether I may ever live to see your face on earth any more, the God of heaven only knows ; but whether the Lord hath appointed that or not, I charge you before God and his blessed angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to wide acquaintance in Gloucester and its neighborhood could give him. From my boyhood I was accustomed to hear it said by him and others of my family, that we were descended from John Robinson. He never doubted it, and I did not know that any doubt existed, or could exist, on this subject, until many years after his death.

I am aware, also, that doubt has been cast upon Robinson's address. But there is no ground for this beyond the fact that Governor Winslow, from whom wre have it, does not assert that he writes it out from a copy. He was, however, a careful, earnest, and honest man. And, to say nothing of the probability that the Pilgrims bore with them to their desert homes a copy, or more than one, of words which were clothed for them with all the interest which spoken wrords could have, Winslow was himself one of those to whom they were spoken ; and he wrote his account of the address in the midst of those wrho heard it with him, and while their memory of it must have been fresh, if indeed they could ever have forgotten it.

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receive any truth by my ministry. For I am verily persuaded, — I am very confident, — that the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of his Holy Word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no further than the instruments of their

reformation This is a misery much to be lamented ;

for though they were burning and shining lights in their own times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God.”

On the 20th of June, 1744, my grandfather was ordained minister of Byfield, in Essex County, Massachusetts. There he lived a peaceful and useful life ; and there he died, on Sunday, the 14th of December, 1783, at the age of sixty-seven.

In the following letter my father communicated the fact to my aunt, Mrs. Gray, then living at Epsom, in New Hampshire.

My dear Sister:

You must prepare yourself for most melancholy and distressing intelligence ; but shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? Our dear father is no more. He left us to become a saint in heaven last evening, at forty minutes past seven. His disorder was originally a bad cold seated upon his lungs, and at last such a load of phlegm collected there that he could not expectorate. His strength failed him fast ; but his piety and resignation were always uniform, and continued to the end what we have always known them. I first saw him on Saturday last, in the forenoon. He smiled upon me as usual, and professed his perfect readiness to go, saying that he was satisfied in his religion, and that his hopes were firm. Death had no terrors for him ; and whether he stopped or died, seemed equally indifferent to him. William and Judith got in from Boston about an hour before the blessed man’s translation. He squeezed their hands, and attempted to speak, but the phlegm interrupted that voice which delighted in expressions of kindness and love. Afterwards he had a little coughing spell, and I asked him to raise and throw off the phlegm, and Judith held a handkerchief to liis mouth ; but he replied that he had raised nothing, and that he should soon be gone. Then, turning himself on his right side, he fell into a sweet sleep, and, without a struggle, sigh, or groan, sunk into the everlasting arms of his Saviour. He lay without an alteration of feature, but with that same calm countenance which it was our delight to look upon. O, my dear sister, I have seen a Christian live, and now I have seen one die. To such a man death has no sting, no terrors ; it is merely a kind passport to a blessed eternity. There are a thousand circumstances which we shall love to tell, and you will love to remember ; but as the messenger is waiting, I must omit them. Compose yourself, my dear, and collect all your firmness to bear this stroke ; and remember the hand from whom it came. And can we, shall we, now be unkind to our best of parents, by wishing him less happy than he is ? Can we desire to recall him from heaven, and interrupt his happiness ? Human nature has its weaknesses, however. But it is our duty not to indulge, but correct them. And may we mourn my father by living as he has taught us by his precepts, his life, and (0, too high the price of knowledge !) by his death.

We propose to inter the corpse of my father next Thursday, but we much doubt whether you can attend. Do not, my dear sister, expose your health, or that of your little ones. But if, without danger or distress, you can come to us, you will be exceeding dear to the afflicted society. My mother — poor woman ! — supports herself much better than I expected.

I send by the bearer money for your use, that, if you determine to come, your journey may be made as convenient as possible.

We are all most affectionately yours.

Theoph. Parsons.

Monday Morning, 15 December, 1783.

Of my grandfather I believe I am authorized, by a large amount of concurrent testimony, to say, that he was an intelligent and thoroughly respectable man. His published sermons indicate that his mind was well cultivated ; and all I have ever heard convinces me that he had an excellent judgment, and was a cautious and discreet person, who seldom thought or acted otherwise than right. That he was generally respected may be inferred from his being often

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called upon as referee or counsellor, sometimes from a considerable distance, to settle disputes or investigate matters of difficulty. It is something, too, that he was summoned from his obscure and distant country parish to preach the Election Sermon before the Legislature ; for in those days this was a matter of considerable moment.

I had thought of giving some extracts from his printed sermons, and from those preached at his death, and other contemporary testimonials concerning him, because I was convinced, on what seems to me sufficient evidence, of their substantial truth. Instead of this, however, I give the following extract from Allen’s American Biography. I know of no circumstance which should have prevented the author from forming or expressing a correct opinion. He evidently gives, in eulogistic language, the result of an investigation into all the testimonies accessible to him ; and what he states may be considered (after a due allowance for the “ De mortuis nil nisi bonum ”) as an approximation to the conclusion to which a fair consideration of the evidence would lead. He says :

“ The Maker of the human frame gave him a most graceful and commanding presence, a quick conception, a fertile invention, an easy flow of thought and of expression, a correct judgment, a resolute temper, and a large share of the kind and tender sensibilities. These, expanded by a liberal education, polished by a large acquaintance with mankind, and sanctified by Divine grace, made him eminent as the gentleman and the Christian, the divine and the preacher. When he had once deliberately fixed his opinion or his purpose, no opposition could shake him. He always carried the dignity and decorum of the Christian minister into his most cheerful hours ; and, though he often indulged his pleasant humor among his friends, he never degraded himself by the puerile jest, the boisterous laugh, or by vain, indelicate mirth. He usually mingled with his sprightly sallies some useful lesson of a moral nature. He knew how to be familiar without meanness, sociable without loquacity, cheerful without levity, grave without moroseness, pious without enthusiasm, superstition, or ostentation, — zealous against error and vice, without ill-natured littleness, — affable to all, without the least sacrifice of his ministerial dignity. There was a generous openness in his language and behavior ; and one could almost discern his heart in his frank, honest countenance. He was influenced by enlarged benevolence. He was a zealous advocate of the civil and religious interests of his beloved America. Eminent as a preacher, he yet greatly excelled in the gift of prayer. His last hours were brightened with the hopes of the Gospel. He anticipated the joy of dwelling in the presence of the Divine Saviour, whom he had served in his church below.”