Party leaders : sketches of Thomas Jefferson, Alex'r Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John Randolph of Roanoke, including notices of many other distinguished American statesmen

Front matter

u I '

1 '

S. S. Co'treU,

Preface

The design of this work is to give some account of the prominent events, and of some of the eminent personages connected with the poHtical history of the United States. It was obviously impossible, within the compass of a small volume, to compress an elaborate review of the lives of all the men who have figured, and of all the measures that have been agitated, in the course of the eventful period, extending through three quarters of a century, comprehended witliin this work. The leading events of this public and private history, therefore, are all that have been attempted. The author has sought to perform his task with

PREFACE.

candor, both in the narrative and criticism, and especially in entire freedom from all partisan bias. How far he has succeeded, it is for others to judge. The work makes no pretension to research. The events are matters of familiar history. All that the writer has attempted has been a concise narrative of the facts, grouping them together in a compact and perspicuous shape, with such reflections as seemed to him to be just and appropriate. If he has succeeded in this, and in giving to his narrative a fresh and attractive form, his object has been accomplished.

If it be objected that the work is wanting in the sober gravity and subdued tone, by some supposed to be the only legitimate style of history, he begs to remind the critic that he sought to blend interest with instruction, and, especially, to make his pages attractive to young men. To secure this end, he has labored to unite biography with political history ; and, by placing rival leaders in antagonism, to make events and principles stand out in bold relief, and to give a more striking expression to the characters he has ventured to sketch.

An ardent admirer of som.e of the great persona-

PREFACE. 9

ges of whom he has written, and disposed to look with a charitable, rather than a censorious, eye upon the conduct of men, he may have been insensibly seduced into extravagant appreciation of some of the illustrious characters treated of. If so — though historic error should of course in all cases be avoided — he deems it better to err upon the side of unmerited praise than of unjust depreciation ; especially where the memories of men are concerned, whom the general voice concurs in pronouncing public benefactors.

It was the design of the author to have embraced in his work two other eminent party leaders, Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun. But — besides that their eulogies and their writings have been so recently published, and the further fact that it would not be possible to include even a meagre account of men so eminent, and whose hves were so fertile of political incident, within the compass of this volume — the short time at the disposal of the author forbade the execution of this design. Should the public favor be accorded to this work, the original scheme may, in some other form than the present, be carried out, at some future time.

10 PREFACE.

Only one of these papers — Jackson and Clay — in a somewhat ruder form, has been heretofore published. The favor, kindly extended to that paper, by gentlemen of high position and distinction, has suggested the idea of this larger design, and this more ambitious mode of pubhcation.

Livingston, Ala., July, 1854.

Contents

THOMAS JEFFERSON AND ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

CHAPTEE I.

The American Eevokition— Its General Character — Its Leaders, , . .IT

Chapter II

Thomas Jeflterson — His Birth — His Educations-Studies Law — Hears Patrick Henry — Henry's Eloquence — Its Influence on Jefferson — Elected to the Legislature of Virginia— Sent to the Continental Congress — Writes the Declaration of Independence, .......... 24

CHAPTEE III.

Alexander Hamilton— His Birth and Education — Sent to Columhia College, New York— His First Public Speech, in 1774— A Distinguished "Writer and Orator at Seventeen — Elected Captain of Artillery— Appointed Aid to Washington at Twenty — His Military Services — Washington's Estimate of them — Advocates a Nation.al Government in 17S1 — A Lawyer — A Leader in the Continental Congress — Writes " Publius" — The Constitution Adopted, . . . .28

CHAPTEE IV.

Jefferson in the Legislature of Virginia — In 1779, Governor of Virginia — In 17S3 in Congress— Minister to France in 1785 — In 17S9, Returns Home- Washington Organizes his Cabinet — Jefferson, Secretary of State — Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury— Their Official Conduct— Their Personal Relations— Their Talents nnd Characters — ^Their Jealousies and Collisions — Hamilton's Financial System, 85

CHAP.TEE V.

The French Eevolutton— Jefferson's and Hamilton's opposite feelings towards France — The French difficulty — Peace with France, . . . . .44

CHAPTER VI.

Jefferson and Hamilton retire from the Cabinet — Their Cabinet Controversies — Jefferson's Anomalous Position in the Cabinet — The Head of the Opposition — Sustains Freneau's Abusive Paper — Opposition to "Washington's Administration Considered — Success of Washington's Administration — Jefferson Eeturns Home — Denounces the Administration — John Adams elected President — Jefferson Vice-President — Hamilton defends the Administration — Jefferson's Opinion of Hamilton as a "Writer — The Federal Party — .John Adams — His Conduct towards France— The Alien and Sedition Laws — Jefferson elected President, 49

CHAPTEE VII.

Jefferson as a Party Tactician — As President — His Inaugural Address — His Conciliatory Policy— Acquisition of Louisiana — Strict Construction — The Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts — Our Relations with England — Decline of the Federal party — Jefferson's Policy, ... ..... 61

CHAPTEE VIII.

Hamilton as a Lawyer — His Death — Personal Traits, &c., . . . .68

CHAPTEE IX.

The Republican and Federal Parties — Characteristics of each — Jefferson's Democracy — Hamilton's Conservatism — Errors of both, , . . , .71

CHAPTER X.

Jefferson as a Statesman— Individual Freedom — State-Eights — The " General "Welfare " Clause — Consolidation — Personal Freedom — Liberty — Free Popular Government— State-Eights Doctrines— Their Influence, . . . .79

CHAPTEE XI.

Jefferson's PoKtical Speculations — Their Influence — His Death — His Character — His Letters — His Published Correspondence — His Ana — His Influence on the State and National Governments, . . . . . . .88

CHAPTEE XII.

Jefferson as a Popular Leader — His Inconsistencies — His Record of Private Conversations— Professor Tucker's Life of Jefferson — His Conduct in Burr's Trial —

In the Impeachment of Judge Chase — His Sensibility to Slander — His Opinion of

CHAPTEK XIII.

Hamilton — His Position, Influence, and Character, .... 120

CHAPTEE XIV.

Hamilton and Jefferson Contrasted— Their True Greatness — Conclusion, . 129

CHAPTEE I.

Introduction — Garland's Life of Eandolph — .John Eandolph — Public Opinion of him —His Birth, Family, Education, and Politics, . . . . .135

CHAPTEE II.

The French Eevolution— Eandolph, in early Youth, a Jacobin — Burke's Pamphlet — Its Influence on Eandolph — Points of Eesemblance between Burke and Eandolph — Eandolpli's Early Character — Death of his brother Eichard and of other Eelatives — His Physical Organization, ....... 143

CHAPTEE III.

Virginia at the date of the Federal Constitution— Contrast between the New-Englander and the Virginian, ....... 148

CHAPTEE IV.

The first Constitution of Virginia— Eandolph opposed to equal Descents and Distributions— Virginia cherishes her Talent — Her State pride and jealousy of external power— Opposition to the Federal Constitution — Barely adopted by Virginia — Eandolph subsequently against it — Strict Construction— "Washington's Administration— Adams's — Alien and Sedition Laws— Callender's Trial- Opposition to Adams's Administration— Eesolutions of 179S— Eeport of 1799— Madison— His Character— Patrick Henry joins the Federal Party— His Character- His and Eandolph's Speeches at Charlotte Court-IIouse— Henry's Eloquence— His Death, 15G

CHAP TEE V.

Eandolph in Congress— His Political Creed— State-Eights— Opposes Adams's Administration—Election of Jefferson — Eandolph and Hamilton — Excise Abolished — Policy of this — Acquisition of Louisiana — Impeachment of Judge Chase— Eandolph as a Party Leader — His Unhappiness — Disappointed Love — His Friendships—Death of his Friends, Thompson and Bryan, . . . 169

CHAPTEE VI.

Jefferson's Second Term— Our Foreign Eelations — State of Europe — President's Conduct— Eandolph Opposes the Administration — Denounced by his Party — Eeturns Home — Illness and Unhappiness, ...... 182

CHAPTEE VII.

Difficulties -nrith England— Monroe's Treaty— The Affair of the Chesapeake— Tiie Embargo— Eandolph opposes it — Jefferson against a Navy — Gun-Boats— Non- Importation Act — Madison's Election — Eandolph prefers Monroe— "War Measures — War — Eandolph opposes it — Clay and Calhoun in Congress, . . 197

CHAPTEE VIII.

Clay — Calhoun — Contrast between Clay and Eandolph, .... 205

CHAPTEE IX.

Randolph's Speeches against the "War- His Moral Heroism — Calhoun's — Eandolph's Feelings towards England— Excitement against Eandolph — Defeated for Congress by Eppes — Goes Into Eetirement, ..... 217

CHAPTER X.

Eandolph's Religious Sentiments and Conduct — Death of his Nephew, Tudor Eandolph— Extracts of Eandolph's Letters, ...... 222

CHAPTEE XI.

Eandolph for Vigorous Prosecution of the War— His Letter to the New England States— Re-elected to Congress— Opposes the TJ. S. Bank and the Tariff— His Illness and Despondency — Monroe's Administration— Eandolph Opposes it— The Missouri Question — His Letters to Dr. Dudley— His Will— Denounces the Slavery Agitation — Opposes the Bankrupt and Apportionment Bills — Visits Europe— His Impressions of England — Opposes the Greek and South American Resolutions — Opposes Internal Improvements— Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall — Opposes the Tariffofl824— Visits England and France, . . . . .231

CHAPTEE XII.

Presidential Election of 1824 — Election of Adams by the House — Eandolph opposes the Administration — Elected to U. S. Senate — Proceedings in the Senate in relation to the Panama Mission — President's Message in reply — Randolph's Speech on the Message — His Expression "The Puritan and the Blackleg" — Du«l with Clay — Third visit to Europe — Defeated for the Senate by Tyler — Elected to the House— Opposes the Administration throughout — Advocates Jackson's Election — Eetires from Congress — Elected to the Yirginia Convention to amend the State Constitution — Opposes all Innovations — Mission to Eussia — Eeturns Home — Nullification — The Proclamation and Force Bill — Eandolph denounces Jackson— Sustains South Carolina, ...... 243

CHAPTEE XIII.

Eandolph as a Statesman — The Leader of the State-Eights Party — Contrast between his Policy and Clay's — His Consistent and Heroic Devotion to his Principles, .......... 258

CHAPTEE XIY.

Eandolph's Character and Death, ....... 266

ANDREW JACKSON" AND HENRY CLAY.

CHAPTEE I.

Party Strife from 1835 to '45 — Party Contests in America — Jackson and Clay — Points of Eesemblance — A New Country — Jackson — His Character, Public and Private — As a General — As a Party Leader — Adams's Election — Clay's Blunders, .......... 277

CHAPTEE II.

Clay's Party Tactics — Adams's Administration — Jackson's and Clay's Mutual Hatred — Charge against Clay — Jackson as President— Clay in the Senate — The "War of the Giants— The "Spoils" Doctrine— The Proclamation and Force Bill- John Eandolph— His Character — Jackson's Influence, . . . 304

i

CHAPTEE III.

Eomoval of the Deposits — Jackson's Critical Position — His Iron Nerve — Eemoval of Duane — The Whig Party — Union of the Purse and the Sword — Diflference between the English and American Governments — Jackson's Charges against the

United States Bank— His Issue before the People — The Conduct of the Bank— Biddle — His Blunders— Commercial Distress — Jackson's Tact — His Appeal to the Farmers— Effect of the Deposits on the State Banks — Increase of Banks and Paper Money — Error of the Democratic Party — Jackson's Triumph — The Monetary and Speculative Excesses of 1S35-36— The Specie Circular— Its Effects, 827

Chapter IV

Jackson's Second Term— Van Buren Elected President — Commercial Distress— Party Excitement — Harrison's Election and Death — Tyler's Administration — Clay's Defeat — Jackson's Death — His Achievements and Charactor, . 840

Chapter V

Clay in the Senate — His Patriotic Course— ^Compromise of 1850 — Analysis of Clay's Character — His rank as a Statesman— Compared with Calhoun and 'Webster — His Death, 858

PARTY LEADERS.

THOMAS JEFFERSON AND ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Chapter I

The American Eevolution— Its General Character — Its Leaders.

The Amep.ican Revolution is not only one of the most important, but one of the most interesting events in the history of the world. A young people oppressed and persecuted, rising to throw off a foreign yoke, and preferring all extremes of danger and disaster, of hardship and of privation, to a submission to personal and political degradation, are necessarily objects of peculiar sympathy and regard. But the Colonies of Great Britain brought to their struggle an uncommon degree of this interest and consideration. The movement of the Colonists was the furthest possible from a sudden outburst of popular passion. It had nothing of the temper, or purposes, or unrestrained impulse^ or wild excesses of a mob. It preserved throughout the war the order, the system, the conservatism of loyalty to law and organized civic institutions. It proposed, it is true, an overthrow of government ; but it set up another and better government, before it started to put down the old. It proposed armed and violent resistance to English rule ; but it resisted in the name and by the authority of public law regularly enacted. It was not a paroxysm of popular rage, roused by sudden provocation. Neither was it undertaken without due preparation of the public mind, nor, as far as could be, of material resources, nor in ignorance of the advantages rationally to be expected from success, and of the dangers and evils which would certainly accrue from failure. The point of violent resistance was reached as a logical conclusion from foregone premises and by slow stages. It was attained only after exhausting all means of peaceable redress. It was only reached after the most elaborate discussion and the most deliberate consideration. The questions involved were all public questions. Private griefs and personal considerations were, in a singular degree, wanting in the canvass of motives and reasons for opposition to the crown.

The whole history of the struggle was heroic. Whatever elements make up true glory, national and personal, were all found in that long travail for Independence. Fortunately, a pure, elevated and singularly brave generation of men led the movement ; and every quality that can make

TIMES OF THE REVOLUTION, 19

or develope heroism was stimulated and forced into exercise. The affairs of a government, now just organizing and calling for the most varied skill of the politician to meet crises, and unexpected exigencies and new relations, required statesmanlike abilities, both legislative and executive ; while, in the field, every martial quality was of course demanded and developed. Success, too, was not a sudden thing. It was not a mere brilliant exploit, turning the heads of the victors. It was long in doubt. Nay, for many long campaigns it seemed improbable, at times almost hopeless. Nor were there wanting difficulties of all sorts, in the cabinet and in the field, and even in the camp, to darken the prospects and to chill the hearts of the patriots. Great and unexpected reverses ; sad defections, the weak vessels, once trusted brothers, falling off; miserable rivalries, even in the face of danger ; bickerings, envy, insubordination in camp ; disease, want of munitions of war, and of food, clothing, and shelter ; the hope long and still deferred ; the flag almost fainting in the breeze ; the country, deserted in all its busy avocations, under a thick cloud of gloomy and of .dreary silence ; the forays of domestic enemies ; the dwellings of the patriots blazing at midnight ; the path ambushed by day ; the dark deeds, too horrible for description, of the savages on the frontiers ; the church closed or become the rendezvous of revelling soldiers ; the schoolhouse on the hill deserted and the windows broken in ; the sudden incursion of hostile cavalry into peaceable neighborhoods, scattering the women and children from the liouses the marauders pillaged ; the plough stopped in the furrow, and the dilapidated farm overgrown with briers ; the towns and villages depopulated and in ruins ; and the streets of cities deserted, or only exhibiting, here and there, under some creaking sign, a little knot of busy idlers discussing the last news from headquarters. This condition of their country, so bleak and desolate, was trying enough to the fortitude and constancy of the patriots. It is the highest of all human praise to say, that their constancy and fortitude were equal to such a trial. Indeed, we think these masculine virtues, indicating, or making the strength and greatness of the soul, more truly glorious than the noisy and brilliant courage and daring, which charge over batteries, or lead forlorn hopes up bastions. It may well be doubted whether the records of ancient or modern times give us, even in the history of Bruce or Frederick, any authentic example of a constancy more noble and triumphant, than that exhibited by Washington and his compatriots during the protracted war of the Revolution.

But the popular element of interest to a struggle, its triumph, was to succeed all this privation and trial. It came, at last, like gleams of grateful sunshine after a long and disastrous storm. And such a triumph ! A triumph, in which the personal renown of the victors fades, in the " splendor of a benefaction to their country and to their race, shining down, like a sun, on countless generations of mankind.

And scarcely less interesting, and not less instructive.

MEN OF THE REVOLUTION. 21

was that period of our public history, in which, after peace had come again, were laid the foundations of empire, and was reared up, on the ruins of old systems, that structure of civil government, which, by the blessing of God, secured, and which alone, probably, could have secured, the liberties and happiness, without which the preceding struggle had been a curse.

It was a happy characteristic of the times adverted to, that the country was under the direction of its virtue and its talent, and that of these so much existed. The .Revolutionary era was emphatically the intellectual and patriotic period of the confederacy ; not intellectual, perhaps, so far as the masses were concerned, but pre-eminent for the virtue and intellect of the men who were called to the higher posts of the public service.

We go back to those early times and revive our patriotism at the fountain-heads of the public liberty. We feel better nerved to the performance of our duties, by our intimacy with those who accomplished the great deeds of the Revolution. We find among them, and especially in the chief of them, what is so important to a people, an ideal of i^atriotism and excellence. Not a lesson, merely, nor a teacher, but a warm and living example, an impersonation of every moral, political, social and heroic virtue. The very existence of such a man, the mere fact that he lived, is a treasure of inestimable value to our people. It may keep them from falling, or, if, unhappily, they should fall, it furnishes the means of their recovery.

It is almost an amiable weakness that we are prone to look back upon the men of those times with superstitious reverence. Wc exempt them, in our partial veneratioDj from the frailties and imperfections of humanity. AVe endow them with fabulous powers. We endue them with a superhuman virtue. We forget that they were but men, and, too frequently, men disfigured by petty weaknesses, and a few of them stained by crime. The same passions that riot now in the vulgar breast, in some degree inflamed theirs. The same bitter rivalries, the same cabals, cliques, and partisan schemes and selfish intrigues, that now degrade ambition into a huckstering squabble for office, were then known. The same railing animosities and deadly feuds ; the same ungenerous decrial and uncharitable imputations ; the same tergiversations and lust of place and money, that now degrade politics into the dirtiest of trades, then had sway, though, doubtless, in far fewer instances than in this age of their full-blown development.

And yet, who can go back to the Revolutionary era, and fail to see, in the forms of the men who made that age illustrious, types of a noble and chivalrous manhood, such as he looks for in vain in all past history ? What familiar figures and faces rise up to the memory, as if exhumed from the buried past, in all the fire and perfectness of their mid-day prime ! The able and comprehensive Greene, most like his commander ; the rough and dashing Morgan, the Lannes of the war ; the brilliant and enterprising Harry Lee ; the adventurous and brave Col. Washington ; the calm but en-

REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS. 23

thusiastic Lafayette, lifting eyes of reverent admiration to his chief; the bold and frank Henry Knox, loved of Washington ; the accomplished and knightly Charles Cotesworth Pinkney ; the hot and rash " Mad Anthony " Wayne, dashing like a tempest on the enemy ; the elegant and courtly Edmund Randolph ; the philosophic Franklin, his quiet face beaming with benignity and thought ; the Adamses, the Otises, the Quincys, glowing with zeal and eloquence ; Jefferson and Hamilton ; and he — Yirginia's greatest orator, now, at the organization of the new government, full of years as he was full of honors ; near the close of a life now rewarded by the opening glories, which his prophetic eloquence had unveiled to his country : while the Central Figure of this august group towers above them all, not less in the regal majesty of his form, than in the sublime purity of his character, and in the sound judgment and wise moderation of his ripe statesmanship.

In this group were tivo names, not the oldest, nor, at the close of the Revolution, the most distinguished, of the bright array we have glanced at, but who were destined to impress upon their country a more lasting and important influence than any other men, with one or two exceptions, who have, to this day, appeared on the stage of action. These were the characters '^hose names head this paper.

CHAPTER 11.

Thomas Jefferson — His Birth— His Education— Studies Law— Hears Patrick Ilenrj — Henry's Eloquence — Its Influence on Jefferson — Elected to the Legislature of Virginia— Sent to the Continental Congress — Writes the Declaration of Inde pendenoe.

Thomas Jefferson was born on tlie 2d day of April, 1703, (0. S.,) at Shadwell, in the county of Albemarle, in the State of Virginia. If, as some suppose, the characters of men are modified by the physical scenery around them as they grow up to manhood, Jefferson was fortunate in the home of his youth ; for it is difficult to conceive of a landscape more beautiful and romantic than that which greeted his youthful vision. A lovely valley, smiling at the feet of the high lands swelling above it ; luxuriant plains, shadowed by the mountains towering, peak after peak, all around; the river dashing between the hills and bursting, with exulting song, into the glittering sunshine ; the Blue Ridge, with its soft haze marking the horizon with a long indented, line of azure, until the eye loses its form far away in the dim distance ; picturesque farmsteads crowning the hills,

JEFFERSON HEARS PATRICK HENRY. 25

and green meadows nestling in their laps, make up a scene of almost unequalled beauty and grandeur. Such a home was fit to inspire a spirit of Liberty, and to nurse and nurture into strength and maturity her favorite champion.

In his seventeenth year, Jefferson was sent to "William and Mary College, at that time, and for many years subsequently, the most approved institution of letters in the State ; in whose venerable halls so many of the most eminent sons of that honored commonwealth were furnished forth with the first preparation for the distinguished parts they played in later life.

It was in his twenty-third year, while a student of law at Williamsburg, under the pure and learned Wythe, that Jefferson heard Patrick Henry, in the House of Burgesses, declaiming against the Stamp Act. For a young man to hear Henry and to adopt his cause, were the same thing ; for the great orator spoke under the double inspiration of Eloquence and Liberty. Henry was in the prime of his powers, and this speech was one of the greatest of his life. The scene then enacted was worthy of the historic pencil ; the orator, kindling with the fire of Ezekiel, and pouring forth from his impassioned soul, aflame with liberty, the thoughts so long imprisoned and burning for utterance in the solitude of the forest ; quelling opposition ; cowing the bold by greater boldness ; inspiriting the timid ; and pleading the cause of his countrymen with a rapt enthusiasm akin to inspiration ; his voice swelling out its thunder tones, his form dilated, and his countenance transfigured. 2

And then, the young auditor in the lobby, strangely thrilling and carried away captive by the new influence throbbing in his heart and firing his brain ; that stranger, a rude, unfashioned youth then, but predestinated to be, and receiving then the impulse which was to make him, one of the most effective of all the champions of freedom in the world. It is barely too extravagant a figure to say, that the neophyte votary was thus baptized to Liberty in the fire and the flood of Henry's eloquence.

We pass rapidly over other passages in the life of Jefferson ; his election, in 1 769, by the people of his county to a seat in the Legislature, which he held to the time of the Revolution, and signalized by his unsuccessful proposition for the emancipation of the slaves of the State ; his appointment, as member of the Correspondence Committee, established by the colonial legislature ; his address to the king, in 1774, so commended by Burke, vindicating the claims of the colonies; and his election, in 1775, as one of the delegates of Virginia to the Continental Congress.

And now discontent had grown into agitation, and agitation had passed to the verge of Revolution. The colonies were ripe for open revolt; indeed, the field had been taken in Massachusetts, and the first blood of the war shed. Mighty events were on the wing. The country stood still and silent, as men stand on the eve of a great explosion. The crisis had come when the work of a moment controls the events of centuries, and tells the destiny of millions. The crisis was boldly met, and the venture boldly taken. It fell

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 27

to the task of Jefferson to announce the decision to the world, and to appeal to that world in vindication of its justice. No hope was left of conciliation, and no chance of retreat ; and The Declaration rang out its burning words of defiance and resolute resistance. The country answered back with shouts and huzzas.

Chapter III

Alexander Hamilton— His Birth and Education — Sent to Columbia College, New York — His First Public Speech, in 1774 — A Distinguished Writer and Orator at Seventeen — Elected Captain of Artillery — Appointed Aid to Washington at Twenty — His Military Services — Washington's Estimate of them— Advocates a National Government in 1781 — A Lawyer — A Leader in the Continental Congress — Writes " Publius" — The Constitution Adopted.

A YOUNG man, just entering his nineteenth year, a student in one of the colleges of New York, heard the summons to arms, for which he had long been impatiently waiting, and repaired at once to the standard of his country. He was born in the little isle of Nevis, one of the leeward West India group, in the year 1757. From early youth, he had given promise of great eminence. He had published, in his fifteenth year, an account of the desolation, by a hurricane, of some of the West India islands ; and the paper containing it falling into the hands of some gentlemen of St. Croix, they were so struck with its ability and eloquence, that they sought out the author. They found him, a clerk in the counting-room of one Nicholas Cruger. Thinking that

A YOUNG WRITER AND ORATOR. 29

such talents should uot be unimproved, with the noblest and wisest generosity they proffered to send him, and prevailed upon him to go, to the city of New York, to be educated. He was, accordingly, entered a student of Columbia College. He rose rapidly from class to class, mastering whatever branch of study he essayed, without difficulty. He joined the Debating Society of the college, and, from the start, as by a natural gift of oratory, he bore the palm of eloquence from all his young associates.

At the age of seventeen, he wrote for the press essays upon the political topics then agitating the country, which were distinguished by graces of style and maturity of thought ; no mere sophomore affairs, with gleams of genius here and there shining through the pruriency and flashy wordiness of boyish composition, but strong-sensed, wellreasoned articles, in which the fancy and the imagination only set off, illustrated and intensified the close and vigorous argument.

On the sixth of July, 1774, the people of New York met in the open fields. A vast concourse of men, under the excitement of the events that were driving forward the EiCvolution, met to hear discussed the great questions of the day. New interest had been imparted to the proceedings, by one of those acts of individual oppression (the imprisonment of McDougal),which, more than abstract principles, exert a deep and active influence on the public mind. The meeting, after a protracted and interesting session, lasting until nearly sunset, was about to disperse, when a youth, pale, of slight, but manly form, high and broad forehead, and eagle eyes, rose to address the people. Curiosity, as much as interest in the subject, turned all eyes upon the youthful speaker. But curiosity soon gave place to other sentiments and emotions ; for the orator, after the first blush of embarrassment had faded from his cheek, launched out boldly into his argument ; and eloquent appeal and strong reasonings, burning invective and prophetic augury came up as he called them. The duty of resistance, and the majesty and sacredness of the popular cause, were so enforced and vindicated, that, when the speaker closed a strain of eloquence which enchained attention in breathless silence, he was greeted with long shouts of approval and applause.