President Dwight, of Yale College, remarked of Fisher Ames that few men have so much good sense, and none with whom I have conversed, a mind so ready to furnish, at every call, the facts which should be remembered, the truths which should be declared, the arguments which should be urged, language in which they might be clearly and forcibly expressed, and images with which they might be beautifully adorned. His imagination was perhaps too brilliant, and too rich. It could hardly be said that any of the pictures which it drew were illdrawn or out of place; yet it might, I think, be truly said, that the gallery was crowded. The excess was not, however, the consequence of a defective taste, or a solicitude to shine; but the produce of a fancy over creative, always exuberant, and exerting its powers more easily in this manner than in any other. To speak and write as he actually spoke and wrote, was only to permit the thoughts and images which first offered themselves to flow from his lips or his pen. "Mr. Ames was distinguished by a remarkable and very amiable simplicity of character. In circles where any man would have thought it an honor to shine, and where he always shone with superior lustre, he appeared entirely to forget himself, and to direct all his observations to the entertainment of the company, and the elucidation of the subject. Whenever he conversed, it was impossible to fail of receiving both instruction and delight. But the instruction flowed not from the pride of talents, or the ambition of being brilliant. Whatever was the field of thought, he expanded it; whatever was the theme of discussion, he gave it new splendor. But the manner in which he did both showed irresistibly that they were the most obvious and the least laborious employments of such a fancy. His sense of rectitude, both public and personal, was not only exact, but delicate and exquisite. His patriotism was glowing. Eminent as he was among those who were most eminent, I should more strongly covet his private character;" and President Allen says of Ames, he compelled assent more by striking allusions than by regular deductions, and for charms of conversation was unequalled. Ames was opposed to democracy, as it would end in monarchy; and was an ardent advocate of the Federal party, as being the shield of our constitution. Though the professional brethren of Fisher Ames held him in the highest respect, they concurred with President Kirkland, who prepared the biography prefixed to his collected works, that he was more adapted for the senate than the bar. It was easy and delightful to him to illus trate by a picture, but painful and laborious to prove by a diagram. He was a man of purest morals, of most amiable disposition, and most sincerely beloved by his friends, among whom were some of the most eminent men of that day. He was graphically sketched by Sullivan, "as above the middle stature, and well formed. His features were not strongly marked. His forehead was neither high nor expansive. His eyes were blue and of middling size, his mouth handsome, his hair black, and short on the forehead, and in his latter years unpowdered. He was very erect, and when speaking he raised his head, or rather his chin, with the most projected part of his face. His face had a most complacent expression when he was speaking; and when he meant to be severe, it was seen in good-natured sarcasm, rather than in ill-natured words. It was said that the beautiful productions of his pen were the first flowings of his mind, and hardly corrected for the press. His life is supposed to have been shortened by his excessive anxiety about his country. Many of his predictions have been realized, and some of them in his lifetime. His air, manner and countenance, were those of an honest and sincere man. The condition of the country furnishes abundant proof that he was, politically, a wise man. All his mournful prophecies seem to be in the course of fulfilment." Fisher Ames once said: "If every gravestone of a departed republic bore a lesson of wisdom and warning, the democrats would shut their eyes rather than look upon it. They have no idea of any principles, excepting their extremes when they are no longer principles;" and, in his Dangers of American Liberty, he asserts "it never happened in the world, and it never will, that a democracy has been kept out of the control of the fiercest and most turbulent spirits in the society. They breathe into it all their own fury, and make it subservient to the worst designs of the worst men;" and in another paragraph exclaims : "All history lies open for our warning,- open like a church-yard, all whose lessons are solemn, and chiselled for eternity in the hard stone; lessons that whisper,-O! that they could thunder to republics,-Your passions and your vices forbid you to be free!'"' Upon one occasion, Judge Story related the following anecdote in relation to three great men. "Samuel Dexter," said he, "was one of those men whom, as was said of Burke, if you should meet on a rainy day beneath a shed, you would at once distinguish as a great man. A few moments' conversation with Mr. Dexter showed this; and I remember that when I first met him, not knowing who he was, I stared in wonderment, and yet his mind was rather of a brilliant shade than a great one. Mr. Dexter was once in company with Fisher Ames and Chief Justice Marshall. The latter commenced a conversation, or rather an opinion (for he was almost solus in the dialogue), which lasted some three hours. On breaking up, the two former commenced, on their way homeward, praising the depth and learning of their noble host. Said Ames, after a short talk, To confess the truth, Dexter, I have not understood a word of his argument for half an hour.' 'And I,' good-humoredly rejoined Dexter, 'have been out of my depth for an hour and a half." " In Felt's Memorials of William S. Shaw, we find it stated by Hannah Adams, in a letter to Mr. Shaw, that in the year 1790 she sent a petition to Congress, which Mr. Ames presented at her request, for a general law to be passed which would secure to authors the exclusive right of their publications. We find, on turning to the laws of Congress, that this act, which is entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, etc., was established on the 31st of May, 1790. The following incident regarding Fisher Ames is worthy of record. There lived in Dedham a farmer of great natural wit and smartness of repartee, one Joseph Kingsbury, who had a great partiality for Mr. Ames, yet would never let pass an opportunity of showing his tact, even at the expense of his friend. A town-meeting was held, at which Mr. Ames made an eloquent speech. Kingsbury, in his dirty frock and trousers, had taken a seat in the adjoining pew; and no sooner had our orator finished, than he rose and said, "Mr. Moderator, my brother Ames' eloquence reminds me of nothing but the shining of a fire-fly, which gives just light enough to show its own insignificance;" and down he sat, having thus, at a blow, by exciting the risibles of the audience, defeated the effect of Mr. Ames' eloquence. In public speaking, Fisher Ames trusted much to excitement, and did little more in his closet than draw the outlines of his speech and reflect on it, till he had received deeply the impressions he intended to make; depending for the turns and figures, says Kirkland, of language, illustrations, and modes of appeal to the passions, on his imagination and feelings at the time. This excitement continued, when the cause had ceased to operate. After debate, his mind was agitated like the ocean after a storm, and his nerves were like the shrouds of a ship torn by the tempest. When Washington died, he pronounced his eulogy before the State Legislature. This performance, though it contains touches of real pathos, is less impassioned than might at first be expected. The numerous funeral honors paid to the memory of this beloved man had already made a great demand on the public sensibility. Mr. Ames chose rather to dwell on the political events and acts which illustrated his character, than merely to draw tears for his loss; and it abounds in accurate discrimination and sententious wisdom. From his knowledge of affairs, says Kirkland, and his confidential standing with those who were principals in effecting a measure regarding the public credit, he might have made himself a gainer, along with the public, by the funding system. But he consulted his lively sense of reputation by a scrupulous abstinence from participating in this advantage. He observed upon a calumny, which was uttered not because it was deserved, but because it might be believed, "I have too good proofs of the want of property for surmise to the contrary to haye weight; I have much more occasion to justify myself to my family for being poor, than to repel the charge by being rich." His delicate mind and amiable temper made the contests of his public station often irksome. Though he did not allow himself to complain, yet he sometimes felt these irritations with much sensibility. "The value of friends," he observes, "is the most apparent and highest rated to those who mingle in the conflicts of political life. The sharp contests for little points wound the mind, and the ceaseless jargon of hypocrisy overpowers the faculties. I turn from scenes which provoke and disgust me, to the contemplation of the interest I have in private life, and to the pleasures of society with those friends whom I have so much reason to esteem." Fisher Ames was a devoted member of the Episcopal church in Dedham, and ever entered with spirit and devotion into the service, by audibly responding in the litany and gloria patri. He observed to a friend, one day, after reading "Nelson on the Fasts and Feasts," that he admired the church, though he would wish to be understood that he did not consider all those holy days to be essential. It was observed to him that the Episcopal church differed very widely from the Congregational platform, in her ordination, government, and mode of worship. He replied: "The difference is what I like, and for which I give the church the preference." He directed his parish taxes to be paid to the rector of the Episcopal church, whom he requested, during his last illness, to come to his house and have the church service, and make it familiar to his family. On the Christmas eve of 1807, he had his house decorated with green boughs, and made some beautiful observations on that ancient custom, which has become as venerable by age as the church catechism. Some time after he was a member of the church, one Madam Sprague proposed to dispose of her pew in the Congregational church at a very low rate, and which was the best pew in the house. He replied to her that he did not desire it. She then said, "If they build a new, splendid meeting-house, Mr. Ames, I presume you will return to the old society." On which he gravely replied: "No, madam; if they erect a meeting-house of silver, and line it with gold, and give me the best pew in it, I shall go to the Episcopal church." In the poem by John Pierpont, recited at the celebration of the Newburyport Washington Benevolent Society, Oct. 27, 1812, appears this glowing tribute to Fisher Ames: "Then a bright spirit, free from every vice As was the rose that bloomed in Paradise, — TIMOTHY BIGELOW. FEB. 11, 1800. EULOGY ON WASHINGTON. FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS GRAND LODGE. "HIS administration was a satire on those who are born to rule,' says Mr. Bigelow. "Making the general good the sole object of his pursuit, and carefully distinguishing the attention which was due from |