flass L 2>0^ Book_ ' ^ Yt^^ ^^e^. c^i^cJl ci^ 6.--CC^lyC that, in making up the ticket for senators, in 1820, his name was dropped,* His personal and many of his political friends were offended at this step ; and, being determined that the public should not lose his services, they succeeded in getting him elected to the House. Soon after taking his seat in that body, Mr. Mills, the Speaker, resigned, and he was called to the chair, — a place which he continued to hold until January, 1822, when he also resigned, in order to accept the appoint- ment of Judge of the Municipal Court, in Boston. Mr. Quincy's political life may be said to have now closed. This is the less to be regretted, inasmuch as the Federal party, the only party to which he ever properly belonged, was fast breaking up. The Federalists had never entirely misfortune; for, if I know myself, I am not ambitious of that sort of distinction which arises from mere singularity, either in conduct or opinion. I have accordingly, and sedulously too, endeavored to raise a doubt upon this question; but I cannot. I could as well doubt of my own existence as doubt of the unconstitutionality of this bill. And, on an occasion of such magnitude and solemnity, he who cannot doubt, cannot compromise." When the final question was taken in the Senate, the votes were, — j'eas, 26; nays, 11. * A communication to the "Boston Daily Advertiser" for April 18, 1820, under- stood to be from Mr. John Lowell, throws light on this transaction. "Why," the writer asks, " are the county of Suffolk and the State deprived of the experience and talents of Mr. Quincy? To him the result will probably be beneficial, since it has given him an opportunity, most honorable to his character, of showing his magnanimity and disin- terestedness. I would rather enjoy the triumph which that gentleman won at the late Federal caucus, than to have the unanimous suffrages of a fickle and ungrateful party. No: I will not say partij, because I believe that at least three-quarters of the Federal party, left to their unbiassed suffrages, not alarmed by reports that Mr. Quincy would not be supported, and that, of course, their exertions to secure his election would be in vain, would have given them their unqualified and zealous support. The fault I find with this issue is, that it seems to hold out to the world an opinion that something more than uncorrupted integrity, unquestionable purity of manners and character, cultivated understanding, long experience in public affairs, and an ardent zeal to pro- mote the honor and interests of the country, and the cause of religion and science, is expected of our rulers. And what is this something more that we expect? Is it a time-serving spirit and flattering manners? Is it dereliction of principle to preserve one's popularity? I repeat it, I would rather be Josiah Quincy, urging in a private assembly his fellow-citizens to do their duty, and to unite in favor of a list from which his own name was ungratefully excluded, than to have had the unanimous applause of both parties." 28 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. recovered from their misunderstanding with John Adams, and still less from the defection of his son; but the actual dissolution of the party, at least as a national one, is com- monly dated from the so-called " era of good feelings," in- troduced at the inauguration of President Monroe, in 1817. So rapid and complete was this dissolution, that, on the recon- struction of parties at the election of John Quincy Adams to the Presidency, in 1824, nothing was left of Federalism, — not even the name. Few if any instances are on record of a party of equal merit and renown passing away so suddenly and so entirely. It has been succeeded in Massachusetts by parties of various denominations, some of which must have found difficulty in telling what they were; but all knew what they were not, — they were not Federalists. To the last, however, Mr. Quincy was " faithful found among the faith- less;" yet with a clear understanding that the old party could never be revived. In reply to a letter written to him in 1847, on the subject of a "History of Federalism," he says: — " It is not, however, to be concealed, that there is now no such thing possible as the retin-n of such influences. The circumstances of our country no longer permit any such purity of motives, as characterized the Federal policy, to be either a general or an efficient principle of party action. The Federal leaders had a clear stage. They were not embarrassed by precedents or examples. They had a homogeneous population to guide, not a composite of all nations and languages. They had for the basis of their power the character and influences of Wash- ington, whose virtues, tried through the War of the Kevohitiou, gave a weight and secured a popularity for their measures, which no future combination of men can hope to attain or possess. . . . The princi- ples of Federalism lasted in power but twelve years, and in purity can never be restored to it. Ojyposuit Natura." Seventeen of the best years of Mr. Quincy's life had been given to legislation and statesmanship. Before passing to other topics, it may be well to consider how far his political theories have been confirmed by events. MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 29 These theories, as entertained at that time, are Lest ex- pressed in his " Oration before the Washington Benevolent Society," delivered by him in 1813, soon after his retirement from Congress. According to him, the principal danger to be apprehended in this country was from the disturbance of " the proportions of political power," occasioned '' partly by the operation of the slave-ratio in the Constitution, and partly by the unexampled emigration into the West." As a natural consequence, the preponderance of the old States would be gradually transferred to the new; and, what is worse, a new national policy would be established favorable to the agricul- tural States, and adverse to the commercial States. New England must, perhaps, submit to this up to a certain point, as '' the fair result of the compact.'^ " We had agreed," says he, " that all the people within the ancient limits of the United States shonld be placed on the same footing, and had granted an undoubted right to Congress to admit States at will, within the ancient li?7iits. We had done more ; we had submitted to throw our rights and liberties, and those of our children, into a com- mon stock with the Southern men and their slaves, and had agreed to be content with what remained after they and their negroes were served." But the admission of Louisiana into the Union, deemed by him clearly unconstitutional, had put a new face on the whole transaction. Our allegiance to " a certain extrinsic associa- tion called the United States " is limited by the condition, that " the principles of the Constitution should be preserved inviolate." — " Whether any such violation has occurred, or whether it be such as essentially affects the securities of their rights and liberties, are questions which the people of the associated States are competent, not only to discuss, but io decided His conclusion is, that " the people of this country have but two events between which to select, and that at no distant period of time: either to put an end to this oppres- sion, and the chance of its recurrence, by a new and amicable 30 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. modification of the proportions and powers of the Constitu- tion ; or to worry along a httle farther, until the weight of grievances produce convulsions which will put an end to the Constitution." * Time has sanctioned some of these speculations, and set aside others. He was certainly among the first to see, in all its extent, the danger to be apprehended from the slavehold- ing power. Occupied almost exclusively with the political aspects of slavery, there was no man in those early days so profoundly impressed by the conviction, that out of that in- stitution would grow jealousies and contentions which would shake the Union to its foundations. So far, he is to be reck- oned among the prophets. But in other respects his fore- bodings, or man}' of them at least, though shared by some of the best and wisest men of his party, have not been fulfilled. New England, by adding manufactures to com- merce, and bringing to both the exhaustless resources of free and skilled labor, has never ceased to prosper under the Constitution as it was, and as it is. Again, he did not make sufficient account of the many ties of interest and sympathy * There can be no doubt that the views here advanced were generally entertained by the party, not excepting its Southern members. Alexander C. Hanson, of Bal- timore, wrote: "Yon mistake the feelings and wishes of the Federalists with whom I communicate, if you suppose the language ol your oration too strong, or your sug- gestions offensive. Our only fear was, that the leading men of Massachusetts would lack boldness. We groan and sweat under domestic tyranny, as mnch as our brethren in the New-England States; we turn an anxious eye on your proceedings, and receive your speech as a pledge of actions suitable to such language. Our only chance for relief and salvation depends on the vigor and intrepidity of the New-England States. There is a short and sui'e road to relief; and, sooner or later, it must be taken. The South and West will continue to govern us as long as the North and East are willing to be governed." What John Randolph, who belonged to no party, thought of this oration, is thus expressed to one of his correspondi-nts: "Mr. Quincy sent me a copy of his speech of the 30th of last month. It is a composition of much ability and depth of thought; but it indicates a spirit and a temper to the North which is more a subject of regret than of surprise. The grievances of Lord North's administration were but a feather in the scale, when compared with those inflicted by Jefferson and Madison." (Garland's " Life of John Randolph.") — Mr. Quincy is said to have been almost the only Iriend of Randolph with whom he never quarrelled. MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 31 between the free Atlantic States and the free inland States, new as well as old, which, in a great national struggle, were almost sure to enlist them on the same side. Neither cOuld he foresee that vast network of railroad communication which is now doing so much to bind together the East and the West, and secure the prosperity of both. Moreover, the theory of the Constitution advanced by him in Congress, and re-affirmed, as we understand it, in this ora- tion, is not that which is now generally held, at least by loyal men. How can any State or section of States proceed " to discuss and decide " the perilous question, whether the Con- stitution has been violated, or not, without usurping the authority which that very Constitution has expressly dele- gated to the Supreme Court? So that, even if the Constitu- tion were to be regarded as a simple and ordinary "compact," dependent for its obligation on the continued fulfilment of all its conditions, the right contended for could not be sustained. In point of fact, however, according to the highest authority on this subject, the Constitution, in strictness of language, is not a compact at all, but a government founded on a compact, — a government thenceforth resting on its own power to enforce its own will. " When the people agree to erect a govern- ment, and actually erect it, the thing is done, and the agree- ment is at an end. The compact is executed, and the end designed by it attained."* On this doctrine, and, as it would seem, on this doctrine alone, can a coerced Union, or a Union restored by force, be reconciled with republican principles or the right of self-government. At the same time, the enlightened and candid historian, in pronouncing judgment on the positions taken by the Federal- ists at the period now under consideration, will make large allowance for the difference between the circumstances under * Mr. Webster's Speech in the Senate of the United States, Feb. 16, 1833, in oppo- sition to the resolutions submitted by Mr. Calhoun. 32 MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. • which they lived and thought, and those under which we live and think. It has been said of Tycho Brahe, that, with the evidence as it then stood, he was right in maintaining his false theory of the heavens against the true one of Copernicus. A similar remark is applicable to the leaders of Federalism at the time of which we are now speaking. The evidence, as it then stood, was often on their side, when the truth was not. Even in those respects in which their apprehensions or their policy have been overruled and set aside by experience, it has been by the experience which followed, and not by that which went before. Accordingly, it may be said, that, when the old Federalists were wrong and the old Democrats right, it was, in many cases at least, because the former looked to reason and precedent, while the latter trusted in their feel- ings and instincts. How, indeed, was it possible for men acting year after year in a hopeless and continually decreas- ing minority, every new measure of public importance seem- ing to them a downward step, their imaginations haunted, meanwhile, by the excesses and issues of the French Revolu- tion, — how was it possible for such men, so circumstanced, not to lose more or less of their confidence in the stability of the existing Government, and in the popular will? Happily, however, Mr. Quincy lived to have his faith in both abundantly restored, and to see and acknowledge, even in those events which most perplexed him at the time, the hand of God. The appointment of Mr. Quincy to the bench of the Muni- cipal Court, in 1822, after he had been withdrawn from the practice of his profession for nearly twenty years, occasioned some surprise. But without much reason ; for the jurisdic- tion of this court was exclusively criminal, and he was known never to have remitted his attention to the best means of dealing with the suffering and dangerous classes, or to the changes made or contemplated in the criminal law. He retained this place but little more than a year; yet one of his decisions lias permanently connected his name with MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 33 the history of Law Reform. It was in the action against Mr. Buckingham, editor of the " New-England Gakixy," for a Hbel on J. N. Maflfitt, a noted preacher of tliat day, which came np for trial in the December Term of 1822. The prosecuting offi- cer in this case had agreed to waive an advantage understood to be given him by the law as it then was, and to allow the defendant to prove the truth in evidence. But the Judge objected to this course, on the ground that, if the law of Massachusetts really and purposely excluded such testimony, the Court was not at liberty to permit its introduction merely on the plea of an agreement of parties. He then went into a full discussion of the legal point at issue, undertaking to deduce, from the Constitutional guaranty of a free press in this Commonwealth, that every one here has the right to publish the truth from good motives ; and hence the admissi- bility of the truth in evidence in all cases of prosecution for libel, — not, indeed, as being a justification in all cases, but as bearing essentially on the question of motive or intent to be decided by the jury. Objections were made at the time to both the substance and form of this ruling of the Judge ; and it does not appear to have been generally accepted as law.* In the very same court, when Mr. Buckingham was arraigned before it again for Hbel, in 1824, he was not allowed to prove the truth of * The decision was not only commented on in the newspapers, but called forth two considerable pamphlets. The first was " A Letter to the Hon. Josiah Quincy, Judge of the Municipal Court in the City of Boston, on the Law of Libel, as laid down by him in the Case of Commonwealth v. Buckingham. By a IMember of the Suffolk Bar." It contests many of his positions, taking substantially the old "common-law" ground, that the sole object of public prosecutions for libel is to prevent breaches of the peace; and that, viewed in this light, the truth or falsehood of the statement is immaterial, — nay, that the truth of the statement often aggravates the evil. It was soon followed by " Reflections upon the Law of Libel, in a Letter addressed to a Member of the Suffolk Bar. By a Citizen; " in which the other side is argued with ability and discrimination, and the personalities in the" Letter" are successfully and indignantly repelled. Both of the pamphlets were published anonymously, the author of the "Letter" not being known or suspected at the time by the author of the " Reflections." Afterwards, it was under stood that the former was Harrison Gray Otis, jun., and the latter, Edmund Kimball, then j'oung lawyers in Boston. 5 34 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. the publication, though it was asked for expressly, not as a justification, but to rebut the cliarge of" malice. Still we are not to suppose that Mr. Quincy's courageous defence of a free press was without effect. There is every reason to believe, that his forcible statement of what the law ought to he, to- gether with the discussion to which it gave rise, had great weight in determining the Legislature of Massachusetts to pass an Act in 1827, granting, in express terms, to the defend- ant in prosecutions for libel, the very right which he had contended for on the ground of the common law controlled by the Constitution of the State. However this may be, it is certain that a law of libel, substantially the same with that laid down by Judge Quincy, has since been adopted in every State in the Union, either by statute, or by express provision of the Constitution. And the same is also true of England; in short, wherever the press is unshackled, that is to say, wherever men are allowed to publish the truth^ with good motives and for justifiable ends, whether in respect to "public characters " or private citizens. After serving his native city for fifteen months on the bench, Mr. Quincy accepted the more difficult and responsible office of its chief magistrate, which he held nearly six years. Boston owes much to the circumstance, that its most distin- guished citizens, men born and brought up there, and for this reason feeling a natural and just pride in its institutions and good name, have always been willing to take an active part in municipal affairs. The Revolutionary renown associated with the old town organization and the old name, together with a strong democratic fondness for transacting public busi- ness in popular assemblies, induced the inhabitants to reject several attempts to introduce a city government from as far back as 1784. At length, however, in 1821, the population had grown to be so large as to make the old system manifestly inadequate ; and a city charter was therefore obtained and finally adopted, though not without strenuous resistance in MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 35 which Mr. Quincy participated to some extent.* Still, not- withstanding this opposition, when the canvass was opened for the first Mayor, he was put forward as a prominent candi- date, and actually received the largest number of votes at the first trial. But no choice being made, and serious political misunderstandings having arisen, he immediately withdrew his name, as did also the other candidates; f and at the next trial Mr. John Phillips was elected by a union of all parties. Mr. Phillips retired at the end of the year, and was suc- ceeded by Mr. Quincy, who was inducted into office with the usual forms, May 1, 1823. In the short administration of his predecessor, little had been attempted, except to organize the new form of govern- ment, and put it in working order. All the great reforms so confidently anticipated from the change were still to be effected ; a work which could not have fallen into more faith- ful and resolute hands. One of Mr. Quincj^'s first objects was to carry into full effect a scheme commenced two years before, by a committee appointed by the town, of which ho was chairman. Even at * Mr. Quincy is said, in the Memoir by his son, to have "stronglv opposed this change, thinking that the old system of town government was the best adapted to the habits and wants of the citizens, and the least liable to abuses." Also, when he was first nominated for Maj-or, it was objected, that he had been " t!ie most zealous and active opponent of the city charter." That he was opposed to some parts of the new scheme and of the proposed charter, there can be no doubt; but that tie wished to retain "the old system," is hardly consistent with what he says in his "Municipal History of Boston." He there tells us (p. 28), that " the impracticability of conduct- ing the municipal interests of the place under the form of Town Government" had become " apparent to the inhabitants." With seven thousand qualified voters convened in town-meeting, it was, as he goes on to show, " evidently impossible calmly to de- liberate and act;" and, in consequence, "a few busy or interested individuals easily obtained the management of the most important affairs." t The other candidates were the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, and the Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop. The following is Mr. Quincy's account of this political imbroglio: " When I promised a body of my fellow-citizens to stand, Otis was not in the field; he was a member of the United-States Senate, and his intention to run for the mayoralty was un- known to me. When informed he was a candidate, I solicited the Committee to whom my promise had been made to release me from it, as I had no wish to run against Mr. Otis; but they refused." 36 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUIXCY. that time, the abuses connected with the almshouse in Lev- erett Street had aroused pubhc attention to the necessity of! some change in the care of the poor, and of making some distinction between the virtuous and the vicious poor. In pursuance of this end, the committee just mentioned had al- ready purchased above sixty acres of land in South Boston, and erected upon it a House of Industry ; in order that the able-bodied among its inmates miglit find, in cultivating the ground, what was believed to be the most healthful, and at the same time the most profitable, employment. But the whole plan was in danger of being frustrated by a multitude of obstacles, growing partly out of lingering prejudices against the workhouse system, and partly out of the jealousy of offi- cials and the disputed jurisdiction of rival Boards, which it required all Mr. Quincy's courage and determination to over- come. Even with his utmost exertions, it was not until April, 1825, that the last occupants of tlie almshouse were trans- ferred to South Boston. Meanwhile, a House of Correction had been built there under the same auspices ; and this was soon followed by the House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders. There can be no doubt, that a large and growing city would have found it necessary sooner or later to make these or similar provisions. Still, it is to the credit of Mr. Quincy that he hastened the measure, and by hastening it was able to secure an eligible location for the experiment in the neighborhood, before the opportunity was for ever lost.* His attention was next called to the sanitary and police regulations, which, from the remissness or timidity of the authorities, had not kept pace with the growth of the city. No part of the present arrangement for securing cleanliness, comfort, and health, which is the just pride of the citizens, * For the sixty-three acres, which constituted at first the City Farm in South Bos- ton, only one hundred dollars an acre were given, though, before the signing of the deed, five hundred dollars were oftered the original proprietor. Land in that vicinity soon afterwards rose to one thousand dollars an acre. MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 37 was then in operation. For introducing it, they are mainly indebted to Mr. Quincy ; and some notion of the extent of the reform may be gathered from the fact, that, under tlie new system, more than three thousand tons of dirt and decay- ing substances of every kind, accumulated on the wharves and in the narrow streets and alleys, were removed in a sin- gle month. "For the first time, on any general scale destined for universal application, the broom was used upon the streets. On seeing this novel spectacle of files of sweepers, an old and common adage was often applied to the new administra- tion of city affairs ; in good humor by some, in a sarcastic spirit by others." * Nor were his measures less prompt and decisive for sup- pressing social and moral nuisances ; one instance of which will suffice to illustrate the character of the new regime. By a strange anomalj^, in one of the most orderly and decorous cities in the world, another Alsatia, on a small scale, had been suffered to grow up in a part of what was then called West Boston, where the law, and the officers appointed to enforce it, were openly set at defiance. " Twelve or fourteen houses of infamous character were openly kept, without concealment and without shame. The chief officer of tlie former police said to tlie Mayor, soon after liis inauguration, ' There are dances there almost every night. The whole street is in a blaze of light from their windows. To put tliem down without a military force seems impossible : a man's life would not be safe who should attempt it. The company consists of highbinders, jail-birds, known thieves and miscreants, with women of the worst description. Mur- ders, it is well known, have been committed there, and more have been * Quincy's " Municipal Historj- of Boston," p. 68. The bills of mortality afford a striking proof of the wisdom and effectiveness of these sanitary measures. For tlie ten years which preceded Mr. Quincy's accession to the mayoralty, in 1823, tlie annual average proportion of deaths to the population in Boston was about one to forty-two; during the next four years, it was less than one to fifty; and in the last three years of hisad ministration, ending with 1828, it was but one to fifty-seven. — Ibid, p. 267. It is understood, that the usual average of mortality in cities of equal population was at that time about one to forty-seven. 38 MEMOIR OP JOSIAH QUINCY. suspected.' He was asked, ' if vice and villany were too strong for the police.' He replied, ' I tlii-nk so ; at least, it has long been so in that quarter.' He was answered, ' Tliere shall be at least a struggle for the supremacy of the laws.' " * In such a struggle, resolutel}^ undertaken by Mr. Quincj, there could be no doubt about the issue. The whole district was put under ban ; all licenses were revoked ; a vigorous police Avas organized ; and, before the expiration of Mr, Quin- cy's first official term, that section of the city was as quiet and safe as any other.f But the most enduring monument of his services as Mayor is the Market-house which bears his name. At first, nothing more was contemplated than to extend the accommodations ab-eady afforded in the basement of Faneuil Hall. Even this, liowever, when brought up for consideration before a meeting of tlie citizens, was scouted by many as a wasteful extrava- gance, as *' the mammoth project of the Mayor." But the scheme gradually expanded, until it embraced the opening of six new streets, and the erection of one of the finest and best appointed market-houses in the world. From beginning to end, Mr. Quincy was the soul of the enterprise; never dis- couraged, indefatigable, freely incurring personal responsi- bilit}^ when it was necessary to further the object. It was, therefore, with no ordinary satisfaction that he was able to * Ibid., p. 102. t Mr. Quincy had been led thoroughly to investigate the great questions connected •with pauperism and crime, and indeed with the -whole subject of social evils and abuses, before being called upon to carry his principles into effect. This appears from the "Address of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital," written by him in 1814; his " Report to the Legislature on the Pauper Laws of Massachusetts," in 1821 ; his " Keports on the subject of Pauperism and a House of Industry in the Town of Boston," in the same year ; and his " Remarks on some of the Provisions of tlie Laws of Massachusetts affecting Poverty, Vice, and Crime," in 1822. These, for the time, are full and instructive papers. In fact, when we remember how much Mr. Quincy wrote and did at that early daj' for the public health and comfort, and to prevent or repress mendicity and crime, especially among the young, and what opposition he met with and overcame, it seems to us that he is better entitled than any other person to be called the Father of Social Science in this country, — a science now in such vogue. MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 39 say, in his final Report on the subject, Nov. 13th, 1826, that the noble improvement was completed ; and this, too, without any addition to the taxes or pecuniary burdens of the city, present or to come. If this were the place for a full account of Mr. Quincy's mayoralty, it would be proper to speak of other things : es- pecially of his efforts to extend the advantages of the public scliools ; of his reconstruction of the fire department, then for the first time made an independent and responsible body ; of his care to recover for the city an exclusive title to the ''Ropewalk Lands," west of Charles Street, now the Public Garden ; of the measures taken by him to defend the islands in the harbor against the inroads of the sea ; and of the first movements towards supplying the city with water."^'" It is not meant that every thing done under Mr. Quincy's admin- istration was done by him : on the contrary, he is eager, on several occasions, to acknowledge important aid from other members of the city government. Still he was the chief administrative and executive officer, and not a man to be so in name without being so in realit3\ Accordingly, it is im- possible to review his course as Mayor without being con- vinced, that, owing partly to the time and circumstances in which he entered on the office, and partly to his personal qualities, the city, in its municipal capacity, is under more and greater obligations to him, than to any other individual. Nevertheless, he was aware from the outset, that a faith- ful and uncompromising discharge of the duties of the chief magistracy would give offence, not only to individuals, but to whole classes. In his first Inaugural Address, he intimated that an amount of discontent would thus be gradually ac- cumulated, which must sooner or later exclude him from office. And so it proved. Twice he was re-elected, almost * The first surveys and estimates for supplying Boston with water by aqueduct ■were made by Professor Treaclwell, at the request of Mr. Quincy, in 1825. 40 MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. unanimously ; but, after that, an organized and growing oppo- sition began to manifest its.e]f, which was at length successful. Wiien a candidate for the sixth time, in December, 1828, he still had a decided plurality of the votes; but, after failing on two trials to obtain the requisite majority, he definitively withdrew. Mr. Quincy's own account of the whole affair, as given in his " Address on Taking Final Leave of the Office of Mayor," is characteristic. " In all this there is nothing uncommon or unprecedented. The public officer who, from a sense of public duty, dares to cross strong interests in their way to gratification at the public expense, always has had, and ever will have, meted to him the same measure. The beaten course is, first to slander in order to intimidate ; and, if that fail, then to slander in order to sacrifice. He who loves his ofiice better than his duty, will yield and be flattered, — as long as he is a tool. He who loves his duty better than his ofiice will stand erect, — and take his fate." This is not the language of a demagogue, nor of a disap- pointed office-seeker; nor yet of an adroit politician: some, indeed, may think that a more conciliating manner might have saved his popularity, without involving any important sacrifice of principle. However this may be, it is certain that his most determined opponents never whispered against him the charge of official corruption, or of selfish or by ends ; much less that of negligence or inaction. On the con- trary, one of the principal complaints was, that he took too much on himself; that he placed himself at the head of all important Committees, and prepared all important Reports ; that there was no place which was not " vexed by his pres- ence." To give a single example : it was his custom to mount his horse at daybreak, and traverse the streets and lanes of the city, that he might see every thing with his own eyes. There were those, of course, to whom such incessant vigi- lance and activity were unwelcome ; and they revenged them- selves by calling it "officiousness " and " intermeddling." So MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 41 far was this feeling carried, that, on one occasion, he was actu- ally arraigned before the Police Court for fast riding, when thus engaged in the public business, — to the danger, as it was said, of other passengers. Two witnesses testified to the fact. Mr. Quincy appeared, and pleaded " Not guilty," being sure that no risk whatever had been incurred; at the same time, he was willing that judgment should be entered against him, and the fine and costs imposed, " to show that no indi- vidual could be placed above the law." The only other popular topic insisted on against him was the City Debt. Of course, it was impossible to carry through the large public improvements instituted by him without large public expenditure. Still he considered his defence complete, inasmuch as he could say, that the taxes had not increased in a ratio equal to the actual increase of property and popula- tion. Nay, more : he triumphantly asks, " Have I not a right to assert, according to the usual and justifiable forms of ex- pression under circumstances of this kind, that, so far as respects the operations of the Administration now passing away, they have left the city incumbered with no debt ; because they have left it possessed of a newly-acquired real property, far greater, in marketable value, than the whole debt it has incurred?" For these reasons, in concluding his farewell Address, he did not hesitate to exclaim, in the noble language used by the Hebrew magistrate on a similar occa- sion, " Behold ! here I am: witness against me. Whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? at whose hands have I received any bribe ? " Mr. Quincy was now fifty-seven years old. For most of the time since arriving at manhood, he had held, as we have seen, important civil trusts ; but this did not hinder him from taking an active part in the principal literary and scientific associations of the day, and in all well-concerted measures for the improvement of society, — a circumstance to be noticed here, because it doubtless had quite as much to do in prepar- 42 MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. ing the way, and suggesting his fitness, for his next appoint- ment, as the public stations he had filled. He was an early member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Massachusetts Historical So- ciety. For many years he was a Trustee of Phillips Acad- emy in Andover, and of the Theological Institution engrafted on it, and an Overseer of Harvard University. His duties at Washington, as a Representative in Congress, prevented him *from being a member of the Anthology Club: but he was a zealous and libei-al promoter of the Boston Athenaeum, which grew out of that Club; and on leaving Congress, in 1813, he was made one of its Trustees. He was re-elected to this place, without intermission, for the next fifteen years ; and for the last nine of them, and until his removal to Cambridge, he was President of the Institution. He also belonged to the first Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hos- pital, and wrote the Address to the Public, in 1814, which resulted in raising the necessary funds for that noble charity. In 1824, Harvard College conferred on him the honorary de- gree of Doctor of Laws. Nor should the military episode in Mr. Quincy's life be passed over in silence. It was in the disturbed times which preceded and attended our last war with England ; when all thoughtful men felt the necessity there was to strengthen the hands of the government against invasion or insurrection from whatever quarter it might come. Under these circum- stances, the Hussars, a troop of cavalry, splendidly mounted and equipped, was raised among the gentlemen of Boston and the vicinity in 1810, and Mr. Quincy was elected Captain. Afterwards he was promoted to the command of a squadron of horse, consisting of the Hussars and Dragoons, with the rank of Major. The Memoir, so often quoted, goes on to say, — " His great personal advantages of face and figure, set off by his superb uniform, and by his fine charger ' Bayard,' white as snow, still dwell in the memory of the older inhabitants of Boston as the finest MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 43 sight of man and horse they ever saw. At the peace, this corps was disbanded, its expensiveness being extreme ; and he closed his military life. His horse ' Bayard,' oddly enough, was aftcrwai'ds exported to Hayti, and became the favorite charger of the black king Christophe." The ancestral estate in Quincy, bequeathed to him by his grandfatlier, came into his possession in 1798, and was ever afterwards, except while he was President of Harvard Col- lege, his summer residence. Here his attention was naturally- turned to scientific and experimental farming, which he en- tered into, especially after resigning his seat in Congress, with his accustomed enthusiasm ; his failures and successes, as is usual in such cases, being almost equally instructive to his neighbors and the public. He also became a leading member of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and con- tributed several valuable papers to the journal published un- der its auspices. Thus his year was about equally divided between his house in Boston and his house in Quincy, both of which were centres of a large and generous hospitality to his friends and to distinguished strangers. As his family- were with him in his first winters at Washington, he had no occasion for his house in Pearl Street, before mentioned, and it was therefore leased, and never returned to. Afterwards, his town residence was successively in Oliver Street on Fort Hill, in Summer Street, and in Hamilton Place, — the last during his Mayoralty, and until his removal to Cambridge. Dr. Kirkland had resigned the presidency of Harvard Col- lege in April, 1828. The place was still vacant at the end of the year, when, by the result of the election for Mayor in Boston, Mr. Quincy, as we have seen, was relieved from all public cares ; and the attention of the Corporation was imme- diately- turned on him as Dr. Kirkland's successor. He was chosen President of the University, January 15th, 1829. Up to this time, his mind had been mainly intent on political and civil affairs : for the sixteen years which followed, includ- ing all that remained of his public life, he threw himself, with 44 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUI^X'Y. characteristic singleness and earnestness of purpose, into his newly appointed work. It was a great change ; and the feelings with which he contemplated it are best ex- pressed in the following answer, under date of January 24th, to a very kind and cordial letter of welcome from the elder Dr. Ware : — " I need not say to you, Sir, liow little the contemplated station has been to me an object of ambition, or even of desire. Not that it does not in itself include sutiicient to render it a just object of the higbest ambition and purest desire ; but because, xintil it was proposed to me, it had never come within the scope of any thought or project of my life. " When it was presented to my option, it was contemplated solely in the light of duty ; and when my reflections resulted in a determina- tion to accept, in case the appointing and sanctioning Boards should concur, I am not conscious that self-interest threw any weight into the preponderating scale. On the contrary, I feel that I am about to make great sacrifices of personal comfort, and to engage in new duties at a great disadvantage, both from my period of life and my previous habits, — that the result is dubious, as it respects not only my happiness, but my reputation. " From all that I knew of the state of the interior of the Semi- nary, as well as from what I was apprized was seriously contemplated in this city, I could not but realize that the affairs of it were at a crisis, which made it the duty of every well-wisher to it to apply his strength in whatever way those intrusted with its superintendence deemed use- ful. Under the circumstances in which, by a singular course of Provi- dence, I found myself placed, I could not refrain from believing that so extraordinary and unexpected a proposition, made at such a moment, indicated an imperious and not to be questioned duty. " Throwing aside, therefore, personal considerations, and every other but this leading sense of obligation, I resolved, that, if called by the conjunct authorities of the University, I would undertake a task which I do not even yet know how it will be in my power to execute. " I beg you, Sir, to be assured, and request you to assure the other gentlemen of the Faculty, that, if events should call me to that station, I shall enter upon it, pursuing no theories, subject to no schemes, with no projects ; that I come free of pledge to change or to continue any thing that is done or in existence at the Seminary ; and with a cordial MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 45 desire to harmonize with, as I honor, every member of that Board. An absolute self-devotion to the interests of the Seminary is all that I promise." The election of Mr. Quincy was confirmed by the Over- seers, January 29th, and he was inaugurated with the cus- tomary formalities on Tuesday, the 2d of June.* Until the induction of President Kirkland, in 1810, all the inaugural exercises excepting the prayers, had been in Latin. With him began the practice of delivering the Inaugural Dis- course in English ; but neither his nor Mr. Quincy's was printed. The latter contained a forcible statement of the importance of adapting the methods and processes of edu- cation to the wants of the people and the spirit of the age ; together with an earnest protest against an unreason- able urging of change, and the propensity in this country to multiply colleges, instead of building up and properly en- dowing a few. At the inauguration, as well as in the letter just quoted and on other occasions, he speaks of his surprise on being called to preside over the University, and at the total change it would require in his habits of life, and this, too, at a some- what advanced period of life. Nevertheless, it was a per- fectly natural appointment. Mr. Quincy had always been a favorite and honored son of the University, and had stood up for her courageously, on more than one occasion, wdien her rights were threatened. He had also kept up his scholarly, and especially his classical, tastes and studies throughout all the vicissitudes of his public career, and, by his published * The votes of the Overseers were forty for concurring, and twenty-six against it. The opposition was made up partly of those who objected to him on political or secta- rian grounds, and partly of tliose who thought that the President of the College sliould be a clergyman, as had been the usage hitherto, with the single exception of Judpe Leverett, and he was a Bachelor of Divinity, and had preached for a siiort period. Tlie confirmation was strenuously resisted by writers in the " Boston Recorder " and the " Boston Statesman." 46 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. speeches, orations, addresses, and reports, and his contribu- tions to the newspapers and magazines,* had won an acknowl- edged place among the literary men of the country. Nor should we forget in this connection the " Memoir" of his fother, which he had given to the world in 1825, and of which Mr. Webster said, " It is one of the most interesting books I ever read, and brings me nearer than any other to the spirit which caused the American Revolution.'' Above all, he had a dis- tinguished name and large connections and influence, and was known to be a man of experience and skill in affairs, of untiring assiduity, and of great vigor in government, — quali- ties in which the College was then supposed to be especially in want. A writer in the '^ Boston Statesman," though op- posed to the ap23ointment on sectarian grounds, felt obliged to say, "For Mr. Quincy I have a very high regard; and I think him possessed, in a high degree, of some of the qualifi- cations for" the chief executive office in the University. I utterly disclaim any design, in the remarks I am about to make, of calling in question his personal or literary qualifica- * Newspaper " editorials," as they are now termed, were almost unknown in Mr. Quincy's early days, their place being supplied by articles, or series of articles, con- tributed anonymouslj', or under some popular pseudonj'm, by the leading and active minds of the day. Mr. Quincy did his full share of this work; but it is no longer easy to identify his contributions. The " Port Folio," in Philadelphia, was edited by his classmate, Joseph Dennie; and on this account, as well as from sympathy with its high political tone, he is supposed to have been a not unfrequent contributor to it. A long series of papers, headed " Climenole," and running through almost the whole of the fourth volume, for 1804, is ascribed to his pen. It is an ironical satire on the Democratic party, which probably had an interest and significance at the time, now lost. He also wrote occasionally for the " Monthly Anthology." He is the author of an extended and elaborate Review of Fisher Ames's Works, begun in the number for November, 1809, and continued through several successive numbers. Of course the article is highlj' laudatoiy : it could not be otherwise, in speaking of one of the greatest and best men this country has produced. But it is also discriminating, and shows a consciousness of the weak side of many of the Federal attacks on the dominant party. " He was," says the reviewer, " a partizan warrior, perpetually dashing into the very centre of the hostile camp, dis- turbing the sleep of the commander, and depriving his guards of repose; but the result of his efforts was rather brilliant than decisive. He brought away more marks of honor than trophies of victory; and obtained more evidences than rewards of prowess. His virtues and skill were the delight and admiration of his friends; but it does not appear that he made any durable impression on his enemies." MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 47 tions, or of making even an insinuation unfiivorable to bis character." In one respect, however, he certainly Avas unprepared for his new duties, being without any experience whatever, either in the details of teaching or in the order and govern- ment of a large literary institution. As a practical man, he knew how serious this deficiency was; but he also knew in what way it could be supplied. For the first six months of his presidenc}^, he gave himself entirely to the study of the processes of instruction and discipline, as they went on under his eyes; acting, meanwhile, under the constant advisement of Professor Ware, for whose judgment in these matters he always entertained the highest respect. It Avas not until after this, so far as the internal arrangements of the College were concerned, that he began to have an opinion of his own, and to cause his influence to be felt. It may also be men- tioned, as illustrating his nice sense of justice, that, while Professor Ware was thus helping him to govern the College, he insisted on his receiving a portion of the President's salary. With these qualifications, and in this spirit, he began his long administration, — only four of the twenty have been longer, — an administration which will ever hold an honor- able place in the annals of the College, whether regard be had to its internal or external relations. In what he did for its internal discipline, there was nothing which he looked back upon with more satisfaction than his success in introducing the practice of appealing to the laws of the land in cases of grave offence committed by members of the University. The measure had been resorted to before in rare and exceptional instances, but Mr. Quincy made it to be a part of the recognized policy of the College, and caused it to be inserted as such in the College Code. It was not so much for the purpose of bringing the students under new penalties, as of obtaining the means, through the grand jury, 48 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. of compelling testimony under oath, and so of bringing to light the real culprits. Examinations before the Faculty were often worse than useless. What was called " College morality " justified all kinds of prevarication and subterfuge to screen the guilty ; or, if the witness shrank from such a course, what was called " College honor," constrained him to refuse to testify, thus taking the punishment on himself. In a long address to the students, in October, 1829, announcing and re- commending the new policy, he thus accounts for the origin of these abuses : — " The reason is, that youth are here denied the common principles of examination and trial, by which alone truth can be maintained and error detected. The Board charged with tliese investigations are en- trusted with none of those powers by which alone society defends its safety and property. Had the tribunals of justice no other means of enforcing the discoveiy of truth than those possessed by the Faculty of a college, society could not exist a day." A few years afterwards, in the serious College disturb- ances of 1834, the courts of law were again resorted to, and indictments were found against three students. The proceed- ing occasioned some uneasiness, as well within as without academic circles, and was finally brought up for consideration before the Overseers ; which led Mr. Quincy to undertake be- fore that Board a still more elaborate defence of the policy in question. In the course of the argument he observes, — "Farther reflection, however, led to the conclusion that the so-called * College morality ' itself, complained of above, was not so much the effect of any peculiar perversity in the youthful mind, arising from influences existing within the sphere of a college, as the natural and even necessary consequence of a pretended immunity from the laws of the State. AVhen once the certainty of being examined under oath and confronted with each other, as in courts of justice, is established, the power of obtaining impunity by falsehood is taken away, and with this the temptation to commit it. Of all principles of moral cori'up- tion, in youth or manhood, that is the surest and most effectual which places the individual above or beyond the sanctions of the law." . . . MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 49 " The notion that this exemption from the laws of the land is a privilege to students, is of all opinions the most false and fallacious. A privilege ! To whom ? Not to the orderly and well-disposed. To these it is an oppressive and insupportable evil. By the eftect of such exemption they are deprived of the character of compelled witnesses, and obliged to take that of voluntary informers, if they speak the truth." The whole subject was then referred by the Overseers to a Committee, John Quincy Adams being the chairman, who, in an able and extended report, approved of every thing which the President and Faculty had done ; and the resolutions embodying the sense of the report Avere " unanimously '' adopted by the Board.* The good effects of the new deter- mination were not, perhaps, so immediate or so considerable as expected: up to this hour, indeed, it has been but im- perfectly carried out ; but there can be no doubt that it was the beginning of a more efficient administration of col- lege discipline. It is probably one of the causes which, for a quarter of a century, have prevented the recurrence of an open and general "rebellion" against the College authorities, — formerly so frequent, almost periodic. It is also thought to have done much to save the College from those violent col- lisions between officers and students, sometimes ending in homicide, by which similar institutions in this country have been troubled. In every instance of mere college mischief, * Alluding in the Report to certain strictures which the Senior Class had seen fit, in their published account of the disturbances, to pass on the Head of the College, Mr. Adams says, " For nearly five and forty years, since President Quincy took, as a mem- ber of the then Senior Class of Harvard Universit}% at the close of his career as a student, the higliest honors of the Seminarj% his life, his deportment, his manners, may emphati- cally be said to have been exhibited in the presence of all his brethren. The life of no man of his cotemporarics has been more constantly under the eye of the public. It is not for this Committee to pronounce his panegyric: to many members of this Board he was long familiarly and intimately known, before any one member of the present Senior Class of Harvard University was born. He was known to their fathers, — known to many of their grandsires, in multiplied relations of life, public and private. It was re- served for the circular of the Senior Class of Harvard University to convey, in doubting and dubious terms, an imputation upon his sincerity and integrity." 7 50 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. the prosecution has led to confession; whereupon the prose- cution has been withdrawn, the College falling back on col- lege punishments as soon as the real culprits were known. There was another subject intimately connected with the peace of the College and its proper relations to the commu- nity, by which Mr. Quincy's mind was much exercised. It will be remembered that the people were beginning, at this time, to be divided and intensely exasperated on a multitude of new questions and new projects. In the ordinary relations of life, he was not a man, as we have seen, to counsel or practise timid reserves or a non-committal policy. But he felt that a retreat for study should be kept as far removed as possible from the noisy and distracting strifes of the hour. Moreover, he was eminently a just man. He knew that he had no right to use the influence, or complicate the interests and prospects of a great public institution placed under Jiis care, as he might his own. He knew that Harvard College belonged to no party, or sect, or clique ; and he therefore strove, both by example and authority, to keep it free from all such entanglements on the one side or the other. Thus, in 1838, having been informed that a discussion was announced for the evening, in some society belonging to the Divinity School, " on the subject of 'Abolition,' as it is called," and that very general invitations had been given to the un- dergraduates, and to the members of the respective schools, to attend on the occasion, he hastened to apprise the Theolo- gical Faculty of the fact, and to express his regret and con- cern on account of it. In the course of this communication he observes : " Whatever may be your or my private opinion on the main question, I think there can be but one in the minds of prudent men, that, in the state of excessive excita- bility of the public mind on this topic abroad, it is desirable not to introduce it obtrusively into a seminary of learning, composed of young men from every quarter of the country ; among whom are many whose prejudices, passions, and inter- MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 51 ests are deeply implicated and affected by these discussions, and who feel very naturally and strongly on the subject." Again, in 1840, he writes to a tutor, reminding him of the circumstances which attended his appointment: "I then dis- tinctly stated to you, that there was no sense of official duty more imperative in my mind than that of keeping Harvard College out of every paiiy vortex, and that I held it an incum- bent duty of every officer of the Institution to abstain from any act tending to bring within its walls discussions upon questions on which the passions and interests of the com- munity are divided, and warmly engaged, without doors." For several years, many of the friends of the College had been urging important reforms in its course and methods of instruction, rendered necessary, as it was said, by the wants of the community and the advanced state of science. Lit- tle, however, had as yet been done towards maturing these schemes, and carrying them into effect ; and one of the hopes entertained on the appointment of Mr. Qiiincy was, that they would soon begin to feel the effects of that indomitable spirit of activity and progress which he had just been evincing as Mayor. And this hope was not disappointed. In June, 1830, he submitted to the Board of Overseers " A General Plan of Studies," designed " chiefly to effect a more thorough edu- cation in the Greek and Latin languages, the Mathematics, and Rhetoric." According to the new program, the hours given to the first three studies above mentioned are nearly doubled, without lessening the amount of instruction in the other departments. Here, certainly, was early evidence of activity and progress ; but not, it must be confessed, in the popular direction. Most of the reformers believed that abun- dant time was given already to mathematical and classical studies : what they wanted was, that more room should be made, at least for such as desired it, for the moral and physi- cal sciences and the modern languages. They deaianded, in short, that a much larger privilege of selection among dif- 52 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. ferent studies should be allowed ; that classes should be divided into sections, according to talent and proficiency ; that examinations should be rendered more thorough and effective ; that rank should be determined by a carefully and elaborately prepared scale of merit ; and that the College should be open to students wishing to avail themselves of its means of instruction in particular departments, without being candidates for a degree.* Mr. Quincy is understood to have had his doubts, from the beginning, as to the wisdom or practicability of some of these propositions. Nevertheless, as they had been re- peatedly recommended and insisted on, and sometimes by the authorities of the College, he was sincerely desirous, acting in concert with the Faculty, to put them to the test of experience. And it was remarkable in Mr. Quincy, that, whenever he felt called upon to execute a plan, he threw his whole soul into it, forgetting all objections and misgivings he may himself have once entertained, and acting as if the entire scheme, from its inception, was his own. This appears in the course he took in 1832, respecting what was then called, " The Minimum Scheme." It consisted in establish- ing a minimum in every important branch, which was re- quired of all as the condition of a degree. But " any number of students in any class, not less than six, wishing to attain this minimum in an early part of the College course, might form a section for that purpose." Having effected this object, they were free to elect what studies they would afterwards * See on this subject a Report of a Committee of the Overseers in 1824, of which Judge Story and Mr. John Pickering Avere active members ; " Remarks on a Report of a Committee of the Overseers of Hai"\-ard College, proposing certain Changes in the In- struction and Discipline of the College. By One, lately a Member of the Immediate Government" [Professor Norton], 1824; "Remarks on Changes lately proposed or adopted in Harvard Universky. By George Tieknor, Smith Professor, &c.," 1825; " Speech of John Pickering, Esq., before the Board of Overseers," published in the "American Statesman," for Feb. 1, 1825; and an article on "Reform of Harvard Col- lege," in the "United-States Literary Gazette," begun June 15, and continued through successive issues to Dec. 1, 1825, by Dr. Gamaliel Bradford. MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 53 pursue, and " be formed into sections in reference to those studies, without regard to classes.''^ Again, in the following year, he was equally in earnest for another plan, which con- sisted in confining the required study of Greek, Latin, and Mathematics to the Freshman and Sophomore Classes, so that students who were unprepared in those studies might enter the Junior Class, and take a two-years' college course in In- tellectual, Moral, and Political Philosophy, in the Physical Sciences, and in the Modern Languages. The latter would not be entitled to a degree ; but, in lieu thereof, they were to receive a diploma specifying what they had done. Both of these projects fell through, because they were found to require a larger staif of instruction than the Col- lege had at its disposal. But in other respects he was more successful ; especially in the measures agreed upon to secure a perfectly reliable scale of merit, an improved method of public examinations, and a large extension of the elective system. For a time, indeed, the elective system was car- ried so far as to allow any student to discontinue the study of Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, one or all, at the end of the Freshman year, choosing a substitute out of several stud- ies proposed, among which were the Modern Languages. Many were alarmed at this bold innovation, thinking it little better than an abandonment of the classics altogether ; so much so, that Mr. Quincy felt called upon to come forward in its defence, in " Remarks on the Nature and Probable Effects of introducing the Yoluntary System," addressed to the Board of Overseers, in 1841. He argues thus: — " Now, what possible objection can there be to permitting parents or guardians, who know the character, aptitudes, and destination of their sons or wards, to decide the question for them ? Is it possible, in the nature of things, that what is best in every individual case can be better decided by the principles of a general system than by the intelUgence of the natural guardians of a young man, acting upon a knowledge of his peculiar powers, temperament, and objects in lite ? 54 MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. If a parent chooses that his son shall not spend more than one college year in imbuing his mind with>a knowledge of Greek and Latin, what concern has the College or the friends of classical literature in the matter, provided he do not obstruct others in attaining it? How- much less concern, then, have they, — rather, how much reason to en- courage and rejoice in this voluntary secession from these studies, when the direct effect must be to aid, and take obstructions from the path of, those who engage ardently in the pursuit of these languages ! . . . " A college which should send forth only two-thirds, or even one- half, of its graduates, thoroughly educated by a known and seen stand- ard, by which they were faithfully tried and rejected if found wanting, and if approved receive the appropriate honor, will do more for the cause of classical learning, than twenty colleges who send forth all their members tried by no standard, without any evidence of attain- ment, except having passed through a prescribed process, and where what they have done is matter of faith and not of sight." If it sliould still be objected that he did not do as much as was expected for academic reform, the answer is found in the fact that he did more than the College has been able to re- tain. At the present moment, though a re-action is under- stood to be now going on in favor of the elective or proper University system, that principle is not carried out and ap- plied to any tiling like the same extent as under President Quincy's administration. Moreover, we must not shut our ejes to another fact, — namely, that there was, and is, a seri- ous difficulty in the way, though one, we are glad to say, tliat is continually lessening.'^ A large proportion of our Fresh- * In the four consecutive j-ears, beginning with 1806, the average age of students entering Harvard College, was sixteen years and four months ; in the four consecutive years beginning with 1820, it was sixteen years and eleven mouths; in the four con- secutive years beginning with 18C0, it was seventeen years and eight months. But there is another view to be taken of the comparative age of the students, which makes the change more notewortliy. In the tirst two of the above-mentioned groups of classes, many entered under fifteen, and nearly half under sixteen; while in the last, out of four hundred and seventy-seven admitted, there was but one under fifteen, and only eighteen under sixteen. This change has been brought about, for the most part, by the higher character and greater strictness of the examination for admission ; but, if more is now exacted, it is almost exclusively in one branch, the ancient languages, and is not under- stood to involve any essential change of general policy. A vast amount of rudimental MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 55 man and Sophomore Classes, whether regard be had to their age or studies, ought rather to be at some pubHc school or gymnasium. The instruction required, or most of it at least, might be given there to better advantage, at less ex- pense, and with far less moral exposure. As things now are, it may certainly be said, with no little show of reason, of these classes at least, that they have not as yet completed the general and preliminary studies which are necessary to a liberal education ; and therefore that, for them, the time has not come to talk about dropping one study, and taking up another. And besides, even if they were to do so, who sup- poses that the mere right of selection among a crowd of ele- mentary studies will make a university ? Undoubtedly these elementary studies must first be attended to and mastered ; but a university is not the place for it. Whenever Harvard College is ready to take the stand of leaving all rudimentary and drill teaching to the preparatory seminaries, and open its doors wide to persons of maturity, and to them alone, — that is to say, to persons who must be presumed to know what high special teaching they are fitted for and require, — the Voluntary or Elective System, without restriction or limita- instructiou is still expected and provided for in the College: it is, however, an important gain, that more than a year has been added to the average age of the students. Some are disposed to comisel contentment with things as they are, on the ground, that, as our colleges have grown up amidst our wants, thej' must be suited to them. But this is a fallacy. Though our colleges have grown up amidst our wants, they have never been what the countiy really required, but only what it was in a condition to do for the time being, — a compromise between our wants and our means. Again, there are those who are willing that the College should sink into a mere preparatory department for the Professional and Scientitic Schools, the latter to be regarded as the University proper. But the sons of Harvard will be slow to acquiesce in this view. It is hardly necessary to add, that the advocates of change have no wish to slight or crowd out the classics and the pure mathematics : on the contrary, they would provide the means of a much higher instruc- tion in both, as well as in everj' other branch of liberal culture, for such as wish it, and will give the time to it. As for what is said about the disciplinaiy eflect of different studies, it applies almost exclusively to boj's. After the mind has attained a certain degree of maturity and independence, we suspect that the amount of intellectual discipline any study aribrds will depend in no small measure on the interest taken in it, or the pref- erence from some cause felt for it; in short, on the student's " working with a will." 56 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. tion, will follow as a matter of course, and the College will become a proper university ; — then, and except in a very imperfect degree, not until then. We have dwelt on Mr. Quincy's efforts to improve the dis- cipline and instruction of the College proper, because this was a care that was always on his mind ; but it did not tempt him to overlook or neglect any other branch or interest of the Universit}^ Witness the new impulse which was almost immediately given to the Law School. Provision had been made, it is true, several years before, for giving legal instruc- tion in the University ; and this had been done with ability and success, but on a comparatively limited scale. The Law School, as at present constituted, may be said to date from the inauguration of Judge Story and Mr. Ashmun as pro- fessors, which took place Aug. 25, 1829, — a few months after President Quincy entered upon office. He had much to do with the change ; and it was also owing, in no small measure, to his activity and perseverance, that funds were found for the erection of Dane Hall, in 1832. Writing, about this time, to the Hon. Nathan Dane, of Beverly, who had founded a new professorship, and after whom the new Hall was named, he says, " The School is flourishing beyond all expectation. It already consists of thirty-five members. Five or six more are known to contemplate joining it, and others are antici- pated. We think ourselves justified in calculating with cer- tainty on forty members, and I have reason to think it will exceed that number." Before Mr. Quincy resigned his office, the number had grown to be one hundred and sixty-three, collected from almost every State in the Union. His attention was soon drawn to another important object. The College Library, which had become considerable, and the loss of which would have been in some respects irre- trievable, was still in the upper story of Harvard Hall, where it was neither conveniently nor safely provided for. He saw that a new building had become necessary ; and his first step MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 57 was to importune the Legislature for aid in erecting'it ; — urging, among other things, that the first library of the Col- lege had been burnt, in 1764, together with the Hall in which it was deposited, while the latter was in temporary occupa- tion by the General Court ; and further, that the benefits of the Library, when increased as it was likely to be, would not accrue to the College alone, but to all scholars, and the public generally. Meeting, however, with no response from that quarter, he reluctantly consented, and induced a majority of the Corporation to consent, that a great part of Mr. Gore's large bequest, which was shackled by no conditions, should be devoted to this purpose. To him, therefore, under these circumstances, the College is indebted for Gore Hall, which was built in the years 1839-42. Another subject on which Mr. Quincy's thoughts were much occupied during the last years of his presidency, and indeed to the end of his life, was the Astronomical Observatory. A movement had been made by the Corporation as early as 1815, probably the earliest in the country, for the establish- ment of such an institution; and another, in 1822; but neither was followed up by the energy necessary to success. Mr. Quincy, in a letter to John Quincy Adams, who had been among the most active in recommending the former attempts, gives the following account of the first steps taken by himself : — " Early in the year 1839, the President of the University being informed that Mr. WiUiam Cranch Bond was engaged, under con- tract Avith the government of the United States, in a series of astro- nomical, meteorological, and magnetic observations at Dorchester, with reference to the Exploring Expedition of the United States then in the Southern Ocean, it occurred to him, that if Mr. Bond could be induced to transfer his residence and apparatus to Cambridge, and pursue his observations there under the auspices of the University, it would have an important influence in clearing the way for an estab- lishment of an efficient Observatory in connection with that seminary, 8 58 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. •by the increase of the apparatus at its command, by the interest which the observations making by Mr. Bond were calculated to ex- cite ; and, by drawing the attention of the citizens of Boston and its vicinity to the great inadequacy of the means possessed by the Uni- versity for efficient astronomical observations, create a desire and a disposition to supply them." Every thing succeeded according to his wishes and expecta- tions. Mr. Bond removed to Cambridge, where a temporary observatory had been fitted tip for him in connection with the Dana House, situated within the college grounds. The neces- sary funds were immediately raised for purchasing additional instruments ; and a much larger sum soon afterwards, for erecting and equipping the present noble Observatory, which, under the direction of the two Bonds,- father and son, has already reflected so much credit on the College and on Ameri- can science. Ground was broken for laying the foundation of the central pier, Aug. 15, 1843. To defray the current ex- penses of the establishment, the College received, in 1848, a bequest of a hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Edward Bromfield Phillips, a kinsman and former ward of Mr. Quin- cy ; and ten thousand dollars were also given by himself to the same object.'^ Time would fail, were we to undertake a full enumeration of the benefits accruing to Harvard College under President Quincy's administration. He found the whole number of students on his accession to office to be, including all depart- ments of the University, four hundred and one ; when he left, it was six hundred and twenty-one. He found a corps of * Mr. Quincy's donation was in fulfilment of liis father's bequest of £2,000 ster- ling to the College, in case his son should die a minor. He used to say that the College should not be a loser for his unreasonableness in outliving the prescribed term. The donation makes part of the Publishing Fund of the Observatory; and he directed that the following insertion should be made in the titlepage of every volume, the expense of which is defrayed from this source: "Printed from Funds resulting from the Will of Josiah Quincy, Jun., who died in April, 1775, leaving a Name inseparably connected with the History of the American Revolution." The whole transaction was very characteristic of the donor. MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 59 twenty-one professors and teachers ; he left a corps of twenty- nine. He found the College yard a narrow and irregular strip of land, less than two-thirds of what it is at present: he left it not only greatly enlarged, but bounded on all sides by public streets. He found the financial concerns of the College in considerable embarrassment: he left them in perfect order. He found the productive funds of the University amount- ing to 1150,903.90 : he left them amounting to $706,615.24. Here too, without question, much was due to the ability and faithfulness of his colleagues in the government ; still, as was said before, Mr. Quincy was not a man to be nominally the efficient and controlling head of an institution without being really so. In the discharge' of the current duties of his office as President of the University, he was as prompt, as unwearied, and as punctilious, as he had been in every previous public trust. An opinion had long prevailed, which was expressed and dwelt upon in the Report to the Overseers in 1824, that the President should be relieved " from the performance of merely ministerial duties," such as granting leave of absence, and attending to ordinary matters of discipline. But Mr. Quincy was the last man in the world to ask for or accept an exemption from work or care or responsibility, under whatever shape it might come. Even the details, the routine of the office, irksome as they have been thought, had a sort of fascination for his intensely active nature; and he would listen to no suggestions of curtailment or assistance. He was al- ways in his place. For sixteen years he was never absent from the College chapel at morning prayers but once, and then on account of necessary absence from town on College business. Probably it was this entering into, and identifying himself with, every measure and movement of the University that rendered him so sensitive to attacks upon it. If more of these attacks had been left unnoticed, it might, perhaps, have been as well ; especially when^ as was sometimes the case, 60 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. they originated in political or religious jealousies, which it was impossible either to silence or allay. All tliat many of tlie assailants hoped for was to raise a question and call forth an answer, knowing how injurious it is to an individual or an institution to be frequent!}" coming before the public as defendant, no matter how able and successful each particular defence may be. But there was one instance in Avhich his opposition to en- croachments on the settled policy of the College deserves par- ticular mention, as it gave him an opportunity to express his profound sense of the obligations the College has been under to the Congregational clergy from its earliest days, and also to show that he was not one of those who are carried' away by every new cry of " liberality." Until 1834, clergymen, to be eligible to the Board of Overseers, must be Congrega- tionalists ; but an Act was passed by the Legislature of that year, opening the Board to clergymen of all denominations, — the Act to take effect whenever accepted by both branches of the College government. That little or no general inter- est was taken in the proposition is evident from the fact, that it was allowed to slumber in the statute-book for nearly nine years, without inquiry or complaint from any quarter. At length a vote of the Overseers called the attention of the President and Fellows to the existence of this law, with a request that they would take the initiative on the question of its acceptance. Under these circumstances, Mr. Quincy brought up the subject for consideration, declaring, at the same time, his own opinion in a written and elaborate argu- ment against the measure ; in which, as usual, he is not a whit the less decided and confident, though perfectly aware the effort would be of no avail, and that he was likely to stand, as in fact he did, almost alone. As this document has never been printed, an extract or two, illustrative of his views of the external relations of the University, will not be improper. •* MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 61 " The whole history of Massachusetts," as he tells us, " bears wit- ness to the instrumentality of the Congregational clergy in foimdino- and upholding Harvard College. With them originated the first con- ception of the design. By their influence, which was scarcely less than conclusive with the first settlers of the Colony, its statesmen were induced to extend to it the degree of favor which they did. For one hundred and fifty years they were intrusted with its chief care and management. When it became necessaiy, in the Convention of 1780, to declare who should be the successors of the Board of Overseers established under the ancient charters of the College, the framers of the Constitution ordained, in conformity with those charters, that the ministers of the Congregational churches therein specified should still constitute the clerical jjart of that Board. Nor did the act of 1810 make any alteration in this respect, but continued the Congregational order in its long-established clerical relations and rights, — enlarging rather than restricting them. . . . " Thus the right in question is granted to the Congregational order by all the charters of the institution. It is a right which the present members of that order and their predecessors have attained, not through any party spirit or favoritism, but from the fact that they were originally the efficient founders of the College, and have, in all times, by their zeal, labors, and influence, been greatly instrumental in pro- moting its growth and prosperity. Now, where do the Overseers and the Corporation obtain the power to deprive the great Congregational Order of Massachusetts of this right, so honorably won and main- tained ? ... " But, it has been said, this change Avill not materially affect the influence of the Congregational clergy ; that it will still depend upon the votes of the Board of Overseers, whether any other and what denominations shall be admitted, and that they will of course restrict the selection to such as will harmonize with them. All this is very smooth and lubricating. But powers which are sought are generally intended to be used. Accretion and extension are inherent in the very nature of power. If ' liberality ' reqiTires that all denominations should be made eligible to the Board of Overseers, it also requires, just as much, that every denomination should be represented in it. And it cannot be doubted, that, on every occurrence of a clerical vacancy in the Board, the friends of every sect will put in its claim ; and, if denied, there will result a great clamor about ' illiberality.' So that they who are for accepting this act will find to their cost, that, instead of attain- 62 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. ing their end, they have perpetuated the very evil they would avoid upon themselves, and entailed -it on their successors." Experience did not verify these apprehensions : the Col- lege continued to flourish under the new order of things. Still, in these days of hankering after change and a more aesthetic worship, it is a satisfaction to know that there was one man who never forgot that his ancestors were Congrega- tionalists, and who had the courage, in the face of all the popular tendencies, to stand up for what he believed to be the rights of the Congregational clergy, — a body of men, to whom, with all their faults. New England is mainly indebted for what is most distinctive in its history, institutions, and character. Amidst his many official cares, little and great, President Quincy found time for no inconsiderable amount of literary work. In 1830 he delivered an " Address to the Citizens of Boston on the Close of the Second Century from the First Settlement of the City," It is one of the most carefully pre- pared, and most discriminating and valuable, of all his public addresses. He was also called, Sept. 8, 1836, at the close of the second century after the foundation of the College, to deliver a discourse in commemoration of that event. The latter, though eloquent and elaborate in itself, was chiefly remarkable for having suggested and prepared the way for his extended History of the institution. After having glanced at the four great periods, under which the events affecting the fortunes of the College may be conveniently arranged and considered, he thus proceeds: — " From this view it is apparent, that the occasion requires, not an oration, but a treatise ; not au address, but a History. " Like the historian, then, of ancient times, when, on Grecian soil and like solemn occasion, were assembled, as now and here, the wise, the learned, the pious, and the great, let us also strive to beguile the passing hour with an appropriate story of former years ; and like him, MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCT. 63 too, leave it half told, when hearers give signs of weariness, or when the herald shall proclaim that the time has come for the feast and the games." His " History of Harvard University " did not appear un- til 1840. It was a labor of love. The records and archives of the College were all open to him ; and no expense was spared in order to make this work the most acceptable and enduring monument of his devotion to his Alma Mater. It fills two large octavo volumes, and, in point of mechanical execution, is still universally regarded as one of the most beautiful and perfect productions of the American press. The first impression of seven hundred and fifty copies, in- cluding the whole charge for the stereotype plates, cost above six thousand dollars. Having no view to pecuniary emolument, Mr. Quincy, at the outset, made over his prop- erty in the work to the College, guaranteeing it in any event against loss, and providing that the profits, if any, should accrue to the funds for assisting indigent students. After the first and principal sales had been effected, the balance against the work, from various unforeseen causes, amounted to between three and four thousand dollars, which was promptly paid by the author, leaving the College in posses- sion of the remaining copies and the stereotype plates, free of all expense. The History was cordially welcomed by the friends of the College, and especially by those most conversant with its interests and traditions. The Hon. Daniel Appleton White, to make room for one among many, writes thus : — " By combining with your narrative of University concerns a variety of important public topics, and ai*ranging them judiciously, with lively and graphic sketches of character, you have made your work exceed- ingly attractive to all readers of American history and literature. . . . You have presented a striking and most satisfactory view of the ecclesiastical history of Massachusetts, — the most so, indeed, that I recollect to have met with. Some persons may remain who will be 64 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. at first shocked at the picture drawn of the two Mathers and of Han- cock, if not of a few others 4 but in this the author of the History cannot be blamed, as it must be perceived the portraits are of their own drawing. Nothing can be more manifest to the reader of this History than the author's determined spirit of candor, justice, and fidel- ity, as well as of independence." * Now that first impressions have given place to calm and mature judgment, we are in a condition to speak with more confidence and discrimination of the merits of this work. In the first place, every student of history will know hoAV to appreciate the Aj)pendixes to the two volumes, embracing, as they do, a large collection of interesting and important docu- ments, which are thus saved, and in some cases, it might almost be said, redeemed from destruction. Turning, next, to the History itself, all again must agree in according to it the qualities of a permanent and standard work. The author, it is true, wrote too eagerly and too rapidly for one who would become a model of exactness and finish : his mind was taken up by other things ; nevertheless, his diction is always clear, strong, and idiomatic, rising at times into a genuine, because spontaneous, eloquence ; and distinguished through- out by a certain air of independence and nobility, which * We cannot refrain from subjoining the testimony of a foreigner, Mr. James Grahame, the author of" The History of the United States." In a letter to Mr. Quincy, from Nantes, July, 1841, he says: "As you advance, you wound some of my preju- dices. The Mathers are very dear to me; and you attack them with a severity the more painful to me that I am unable to demur to its justice. I would fain think that you do not make sufficient allowance for the spirit of the times. My heart and judg- ment are with them in point of doctrine. From their view of discipline my judgment utterly revolts." Again, writing to Mr. Quincy's daughter in the following Octoder, he observes: "Since my return from my late travels, I have thoroughly read your father's ' History of Harvard University,' often with pleasure, sometimes with pain, — always with final, deep, austere satisfaction and approbation. ... No other country than your own ever produced a seat of learning so honorable to its founders and early supporters as Harvard University; and never did a noble institution obtain a worthier historian. . . . His account of the transition of the social system of Massachusetts from an entire and punctilious intertexture of Church and State to the restriction of mu- nicipal government to civil offices and occupations, is very curious and interesting, and admirably well fills up an important void in New-England history." MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 65 marked his style as well as his thoughts, and indeed his whole character. Then, too, it is quite plain that the records and archives of the University have been thoroughly ex- plored for information respecting its internal history ; by which is meant the changes in its internal constitution, its methods of instruction and discipline, and its standard of scholarship at different periods. It is doubtless to be re- gretted that the result is often so meagre and unsatisfactory ; still we have all, or nearly all, the light on these subjects to be gathered from the books and papers of the College. More might perhaps have been done to fill out the picture from other sources ; and there are those, probably, who would have liked the history better if it had been written on this principle, and in the spirit of an academic and literary anti- quary. But such a work was not, of course, to be expected from Mr. Quincy. All his tastes and habits of thought, as a public man, had led him to be chiefly interested in the exter- nal history of the College ; that is to say, in the history of its governors rather than of its teachers and teaching, and in its relations to public affairs, and to the rivalships and strug- gles of the leading men in Church and State. By thus following his natural bent, he has doubtless given to the work a peculiar interest and importance ; but with the inconvenience, that he often found himself on debatable ground, where, take whatever position he might, he was sure to be met by the stock objections on the other side.* Some- thing must also be pardoned to an ardent mind, which is apt * Two articles containing strictures on the woric appeared in the sixth and seventh vohimes of the " American Biblical Repositorj-," — namely, a " Review of Quincy's His- tory of Harvard University. By One of the Professors of Yale College" (Professor Kingsley); and an "Examination of Certain Points in New-England History, as ex- hibited by President Quincy in his Histoiy of Harvard University, and by other Uni- tarian Writers. By Enoch Pond, D.D." It was favorably noticed by the Rev. Dr. Parkman, in the " Christian Examiner" for March, 1841, and also, thougli with some discriminations, by Dr. Palfrey, in the " North American Review " for April in the same year. 9 66 MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. to see things through an intensifying medium.. Not that he confounded white with black, or black with white ; but his white was sometimes a little whiter, and his black a little blacker, than the reality. Add to this, that, misled by ap- proved authorities, he has fallen into some errors of fact ; for instance, as to the influence of Sewell and Addington in fram- ing the Charter of Yale College, and perhaps in some of his statements respecting the Mathers. But none of these things affect, in any manner or degree, his great argument ; which shows, that, for tlje last century and a half. Harvard College has been under the constant patronage and control of what may be called the liberal party of Massachusetts, using the term " liberal " to denote, not the opinions held, but the spirit in which they were held, Down to a comparatively recent date, the governors and teachers of the College were Orthodox Congregationalists. If it has since passed, to a cer- tain extent, under other influences, we have no right to say that it has passed into other hands. The change in the Col- lege was preceded or attended by a like change in the surrounding community. The very same class of men who have had ascendency in the College for many generations, and who have made it what it is, have ascendency still ; the only difference being, that the minds of this class have gradu- ally become more and more liberal in spirit, and many of them also in doctrine. At one time Mr. Quincy had it in view to reply to the exceptions taken to his History. But he soon perceived that these exceptions related, for the most part, to inferences re- specting character and motives, the justice or injustice of which his readers were already in a condition to determine for themselves. Or if, in a few cases, they extended to facts, it was, as a general rule, simply because these facts w^ere re- garded from a different point of view and with different pre- possessions. Under these circumstances, the continuance of the discussion was not likely to be of any avail ; and, besides, MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 67 it would require that almost every question involved in the study of the early history of New England should be re- opened, — a useless and thankless task, to which he did not feel himself to be called. He begins a manuscript containing some brief and unfinished notices of his reviewers with these solemn asseverations: — " If ever a work was written with an entire independence of any design to shape the course of the narrative to favor or disparage any religious sect or opinion, it was that work. For, so far as any human being is conscious, or has a right to speak, concerning his own state of mind or motive, I was utterly indifferent to the whole controversy. ... I have no intention to enter into a controversy, in the results of which I have no interest, and concerning which, owing to the length and number of the discussions on the subject, almost any thing may be asserted, and almost any thing denied. All differ- ences about the character and conduct of individuals ai"e fair subjects of criticism and contradiction. On re-examining them, so far as my History is concerned, I see nothing to retract." Again, in answering a letter from a friend some years after- wards, he writes as follows : — " You have several times intimated to me a wish, that, previously to publishing a second edition of my ' History of Harvard College,' I Avould I'eview and consider the objections which have been made to some of my conclusions and inferences concerning the history of the period to which it relates, affecting sometimes the character of men and sometimes of parties, varying from, if not offending, the preju- dices or the sentiments of one or both the sectarian divisions which exist in our Commonwealth. Ahiiost all these objections, as far as in the course of their publication they have come to my knowledge, I have ah'eady considered, and they are generally of a nature which I cannot hope to overcome ; being, for the most part, the result of theological opinions, or connected with sectarian interests, which nothing can satisfy but victory." Mr. Quincy resigned the presidency of the College, Aug. 27, 1845, at the age of seventy-three, — his bodily faculties but little affected by his years, and his mind not at all. He 68 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. DOW returned to his former mode of life, passing his winters in Boston, and his summers on his estate in Quincy ; but with this difference, that, being relieved from all public cares, he could bestow his time as he pleased. Not a day, however, was lost. As soon as he found himself on his farm again, his old fondness for agricultural pursuits came back in all its freshness; and the more so, as he believed these pursuits to< afford the fittest occupation for an old man, — interesting without being exciting, and deriving their interest from causes which have nothing to do with the strifes and ambi- tions of the world. What makes it more remarkable is, that he was able, at his advanced age, not only to take the entire management of the farm into his own hands, but to retain it for more than ten years ; during which he was as intent as ever on new improvements, and as eager as ever to recom- mend them in conversation and by his pen. Nor was this all. It was at this period, and under these circumstances, that he added largely to his fortune by a bold and successful specu- lation, from which younger men shrunk, and the details of which are equally creditable to his foresight and to his public spirit. In the words of his son, — " When Mayor, he had built a wharf, called the City Wharf, which belonged to the City, and which from its position he thousht should always be held by it ; and this opinion he had left on record at the time. When he was more than eighty, the City Government proposed selling this property. Mr. Quincy remonstrated against it in the papers and by memorial, setting forth the reasons why it was impor- tant that the control of that particular piece of property should be retained by the City. The authoi'ities, however, proceeded with their scheme; and at the sale he appeared, and bid it off. Having thus the control of it, he wrote to the Mayor, offering to re-convey it to the City if it would bind itself not to sell it again for twenty years. The City refused, and he retained the property." Still, it was among his books, pen in hand, that most of his hours were passed. Long after he had attained to an age in MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 69 which most persons find a reason or an excuse for leaving off work altogether, he was wont to regard it as a broken day if he were not busily engaged in his library from nine o'clock in the morning to nine in the evening. Nor were his studies without object, or without fruit. In 1847, when he was seventy-five, appeared his '^ Life and Journals of Major Samuel Shaw." This was followed, four years afterwards, by his " History of the Boston Athengeum, with Biographical Notices of its Deceased Founders." In 1852, at the close of his eightieth year, he published his " Municipal History of the Town and City of Boston." Finally, in 1858, in his eighty-seventh year, appeared his " Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams." Each of these works fills an octavo volume, and must have required a large amount of literary labor; j^et they betray, to the last, but little if any decay of intellectual vigor. The last work especially, if we consider the difiiculty and delicacy of the task, and the success with which it is executed, in connection with the extreme age of the author, is almost without a parallel. To these must also be added a "Memoir of James Grahame," the historian, and a " Memoir of John Bromfield," published during the same period ; together with several political and controversial pamphlets, called forth by the exigency of the times, — all of which are full of life, and often as effective and trenchant as the productions of his best days.* There was a time, as before intimated, when Mr. Quincy * Among these are found the following : " Considerations submitted to the Citizens of Boston and Charlestown on the proposed Annexation of these two Cities," 1854; "Speech delivered before the Whig State Convention, Boston, August 16, 1854;" "Ad- dress illustrative of the Nature and Power of the Slave States, and the Duties of the Free States; delivered at the request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Quincy, Mass., on Thursday'-, June 5, 1856, — Altered and Enlarged since Delivery ; " " Remarks on the Letter of the Hon. Rufus Choate to the Whig State Committee of Maine, written in answer to a Letter of the Hon. John Z. Goodrich," 1856; " Whig Policy Analyzed and Illustrated," 1856. The Memoir of Grahame was prepared at the request of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society, and published in their Collections, Third Series, vol. ix. His "Memoir of John Quincy Adams" was also written at the instance of this Society. 70 MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. did not hesitate to express his want of confidence in the sta- bility of our government ; but he would say, on turning the conversation to other topics, " It will probably stand as long as I do." As, however, the political prospects of the coun- try continued to grow darker and darker, even this hope, if hope it might be called, began to fade away : he became convinced that the catastrophe might come at any moment. Amidst these gloomy forebodings, the first glimmer of light which he saw, or thought he saw, was in the Presidential canvass for Fremont in 1856; for, though unsuccessful, it showed that both the East and the West were beginning to awake to the Great Issue.* Accordingly, he threw himself into the contest with all the unabated ardor of his soul, as he afterwards did into that for Lincoln in 1860. When at length the Rebellion broke out, it gave a new life to all his old antipathies to the slave-power, heightened by a keener sense of the social and moral evil of slavery itself But what most impressed him, and this too with a kind of religious awe, was the madness of the South, forcing upon the country that very state of things which alone would make the final and utter extinction of slavery both possible and necessary. For this reason, even in the darkest hour of the struggle, neither his faith nor his courage ever faltered, as did that of many. This abundantly appears in his " Address to the Members of the Union Club," February 27, 1863, and in his " Letter to President Lincoln," on the 7tli of the following September, — remarkable in themselves, and still more so * The following extract from his Diary shows that he was not among those who counselled or favored extreme measures at tliis time: "January 23, 1857. — Received a letter inviting me to attend an Antislavery meeting, tiie avowed object of which is the dissolution of the National Union, — an object which I consider neither wise nor at present practicable. To all human appearance, the event is not far distant; but I have no sense of duty calling upon me to expedite it. I am not among those who believe that the separation of the Free from the Slave States would inevitabh' lead to the emancipation of the negroes, were it possible to unite all tiie Free States in such a separation. On the contrary, I believe the only hope, and that very shadowy, of emancipation, is from a continuance of the Union." MEMOIR OP JOSIAH QUINCY. 71 when considered as the last solemn and public utterances of their author in his ninety-second year. He writes to the President : — " Negro slavery and the possibility of emancipation have been sub- jects of my thoughts for more than seventy years, being first intro- duced to it by the debates in the Convention of Massachusetts for adopting the Constitution, in 1788, which I attended. I had subse- quently opportunities of knowing the views on that subject, not only of such men as Hamilton, King, Jay, and Pickering, but also of distin- guished slaveholders, — of both the Pinckneys, of William Smith of South Carolina, and of many others. With the first of these I had per- sonal intercourse and acquaintance. I can truly say that I never knew the individual, slaveholder or non-slaveholder, who did not express a detestation of it, and the desire and disposition to get rid of it. The only difficulty in case of emancipation was. What shall we do for the master, and what .shall we do with the slave ? A satisfactory answer to both these questions has been, until now, beyond the reach and the grasp of human wisdom and power. " Through the direct influence of a good and gracious God, the people of the United States have been invested with the power of answering satisfactorily both these questions, and also of providing for the difficulties incident to both. . . . The madness of secession, and its inevitable consequence, civil war, will in their result give the right and the power of universal emancipation sooner or later. If the United States do not understand and fully appreciate the boon thus bestowed upon them, and fail to improve it to the extent of the power granted, they will prove recreant to themselves and posterity. I write under the impression that the victory of the United States in this war is inevitable." He did not live to see the Union restored ; hut his assur- ance of the event was entire. He even found in the delay itself a new reason for gratitude, as it could hardly fail to save the country from half-way measures, from a conclusion in which nothing was concluded, — the only thing he really feared. Old age, as we generally find it, is a dubious blessing; in Mr. Quincy it was singularly honored and hapjiy. A 72 MEMOIR OP JOSIAH QUINCY. fall, when he was on the verge of ninety, injured his hip, so that afterwards he could not walk without assistance. Except- ing this, he seems hardlj to have known, from early child- hood, Avhat is meant by sickness or physical disability. To the very last, his bodily and mental faculties, his sight and hearing, his animal spirits, his interest in public affairs, in his family and friends, and even in the courtesies and ameni- ties of social life, were wonderfully preserved. His heart was as young and as brave at ninety as at thirty. And these facts are the more worthy of record, as they were manifestly the result of a strict observance of the laws of health. They show, moreover, that where these laws are properly attended to in other respects, nothing needs be ap- prehended from intense and long-continued activity of body and of mind. The respect felt and manifested for Mr. Quincy in his last years by the whole community was alike honorable to both. Party triumphs and party defeats, with the passions awak- ened thereby, were forgotten: all that the people knew, or cared to know, was, that they had among them a venerable man, who had passed through a long public life without hav- ing the uprightness of his intentions questioned in a single instance, and without a stain on his private character. Who that was present will ever forget the spontaneous enthusiasm with which the whole audience arose to welcome him on occasion of his last two public appearances at Cambridge? But the evening, however tranquil and beautiful, must have its lengthening shadows, its setting sun, its gathering gloom. During the summer the ancestral home in Quincy, and during the winter his house in Boston (first in Bowdoin Place, and afterwards in Park Street), continued to be resorted to by distinguished strangers and devoted friends, more and more eager to testify their regard ; but the companions of his youth and of his early manhood were not there. From the time of his leaving Cambridge until he was MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 73 ninety, he amused himself by keeping a full journal of events, and of his own reading, both of which led to abun- dant and characteristic reflections on the present and the past.* As might be expected, the entries are often like the following : — " January 18, 1847. — Attended the funeral of the Hon. John Davis, aged eighty-six years. Mild, amiable, affectionate, possessed of every virtue. His life useful; his death easy and timely. Farewell, my friend of many years : our separation vv^ill be short. I shall soon be with you, and I doubt not we shall meet amidst locos Icetos sedesque beatas." " February 25, 1848. — I have to record the loss of the friend of my youth, of my manhood, and of my old age, John Quincy Adams, who died at the Capitol, in Washington, on the 23d instant, — on the spot where his eloquence had often triumphed, and where his worth and powers were known, and are now acknowledged. Death, which shuts the gate of envy and opens that of fame, has at length introduced him to the rewards of a life of purity, labor, and usefulness, spent in the service of his country. The language of sorrow and lamentation is universal. No tongue but speaks his praise, — well deserved, but hardly earned by a life of unceasing labor and untiring industry. Friend of my life, farewell. I owe you for many marks of favor and kindness ; many instances of your affection and interest for me are recorded in my memory, which death alone can obliterate. ' Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit, Nulli flebilior quam 7«i7«'.' " This death was soon followed by another which touched him more nearly. His wife, who for more than half a cen- tury had shared all his thoughts and cares, and from whom, since his constrained absence in Washington, he had scarcely been separated a single day, closed on the 1st of September, 1850, a long, useful, and happy life of seventy-seven years. * Almost everj' page bears witness to the pleasure Mr. Quincy continued to take in his classical studies. The Diary begins, indeed, with a free translation of " Cicero de Senectute;" and Cicero, Horace, and Tacitus appear to have been his constant com- panions to the end. His mind was evidently of the Roman cast. 10 74 MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. All his children, two sons and five daughters, survived, — three continuing to live with him, and relieving him from all domestic cares ; the others being settled in the neighborhood, and in a condition to render him the most delicate and grate- ful attentions. But he could not forget those who had gone before, and often spoke of the long-expected, long-deferred summons to join them, with a cheerfulness and naturalness which showed that his thoughts were equally at home in both worlds. At length the summons came. He died, peacefully and without sufiering, at his house in Quincy, on Friday after- noon, Jul}'^ 1, 1864, aged ninety-two years and five months. The funeral took place on the following Wednesday, at Ar- lington-street Church in Boston, his place of worship in the city. In looking back on this brief and imperfect memoir, what strikes us most of all is the degree of efiiciency and success attained by the subject of it in the widely different and ap- parently incongruous spheres of activity to which his life was devoted at successive periods, — first as a statesman and par- liamentary orator, then as a civil magistrate, and finally as the head of a college. The elder President Adams, who was his neighbor and kinsman, and had known him intimately from childhood, used to say, that he " was the most fortunate man he had ever known in his long life, — fortunate in his ances- tors, in his position in society, in his wife and children, in every thing ; indeed, the most remarkable instance of good fortune he had ever met with in his wide experience." These words, uttered nearly fifty years ago, continued equally true of him to the last, — most fortunate of all in a cheerful and active old age, in a peaceful death, and an unspotted name. After what has been said, a formal analysis of Mr. Quincy's character is unnecessary. He threw a vast amount of per- sonality into his outward life : so that to know his history is to know the man, — his excellences and his defects. To this MEMOIR OF JOSIAH QUINCY. 75 statement there is, however, one exception, on which it will be proper to say a word. His religious character was entirely misconceived by those who were willing to regard him as a partisan for a particular creed or sect. In the division which took place among the Congregationalists of Massachusetts, in the early part of the present century, he sided with the Unitarians ; but he was not a man to lay much stress on theological speculations, or on ecclesiastical differences of any kind, or even on religious emotions or sympathy. With him religion consisted in bring- ing the desires, intentions, and thoughts into harmony with the Divine will. A man was a Christian, no matter what might be his denomination, just so far as, at home and abroad, in public and private life, he acted out Christian principles ; and no farther. " Religion," so he writes in his Diary, " is an act of the mind, and has no reference to place. It consists in studying our daily relations to God, and in endeavoring to discern and be obedient to his will ; and in cultivating in our minds a constant sense of his goodness and protection, and of the gratitude due to him for the infinite mercies of ■which he is the source." ... " No years of my life have been more unqualifiedly joyful, than those since my seventieth year. I have lost many friends and com- rades. They have indeed gone a little before me ; but what of that ? I shall soon be up with them. And I doubt not I shall join them, and that we shall travel on together in a future life ; and this tempo- rary separation will be but an incident, and not a cause of serious regret. This assured expectation is a never-failing source of comfort and happiness to the well-balanced mind of an old man." . . . " Whatever is conformable to nature ought to be regarded as good ; and what is more conformable than that old men should die ? When death happens to the young, they seem to yield to an external force ; but the old pass voluntarily away, as if by their own will. To me the approach of death is rather pleasant than otherwise. I seem to see land after a long navigation." Who would not have the evening of his days made tranquil 76 MEMOIE OF JOSIAH QUINCY. and bright by like memories and prospects, by a like calm, natural, and sincere trust? The wonder is, that, while his faith had almost become vision, he continued as indifferent as ever to the doctrinal and ritualistic controversies which have done so much to vex and divide the Church, and indeed to all outward tests of piety except obedience and character. One who knew him well has said, " While his moral constitution kept him from all false display, the structure of his mind, as it seems to me, compelled him to bestow his attention on the logical and practical, rather than on the sentimental, aspects of religion. He went as far as he saw reason to go, and there paused, in submission to an ignorance inseparable from the present conditions of our being."* What he thought of the use and necessity of the Christian revelation, to society and government, is best expressed in his own memorable words: ''Human happiness has no perfect security but free- dom ; freedom, none but virtue ; virtue, none but knowledge ; and neither freedom nor virtue nor knowledge has any vigor or immortal hope, except in the principles of the Christian faith, and in the sanctions of the Christian religion." * Dr. Gannett's " Discourse, occasioned bj^ the Death of the Hon. Josiah Quincy," p. 15. LE fylv '09 MEMOIR (IF JOSIAH QUINCY. 1 nv J JAMES WALKER, D.D. 4tfrom tbr " IJrorcrbtngs of tijt ||Tassutl)uscttsi jlistorical ^Socictn " For 1866-1867. CAMBRIDGE: rRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. 1867.