to studies purely moral and historical. He said to an intimate friend, who expressed extreme regret that he had retired from his profession: "I believe I mistook, in my selection of a profession, the course most favorable to my happiness; for I have never been conscious of real enjoyment, or of the true bent of my talents, if I have any, until I devoted myself to literature."

At the centennial celebration of Harvard College, Gen. Sullivan, in concluding an eloquent speech, gave the sentiment: "May the educated conscientiously remember that they are the trustees of knowledge, for the use and benefit of those who have been less fortunate than themselves."

An intimate friend of Sullivan remarked of him: "His manners among his friends and intimate associates were very delightful. He was not forgetful of himself, nor unaware of his talents for conversation; but his habitual kindness of heart and the natural nobleness of his character, gave him, in a very unusual measure, the power of calling out from his guests whatever there was in them which was most interesting; and many a person has left his table with the feeling that, although he might elsewhere have seen men who talked more, he had never been himself so agreeable. Mr. Sullivan never forgot a friend, nor failed to requite, with ample interest, any kindness. He accordingly sought out, and was constantly entertaining at his table, or in the charming evening parties which he gathered in his parlors, persons from various parts of the country, whose only claim was some slight attention paid, perhaps many years before, to Mr. Sullivan, or some of his friends." He possessed extreme pride of character, and never deviated from a certain course of conduct and demeanor, which secured to him the esteem of friends, and the respect of all who came in contact with him, both in public and in private life. His style of writing was simple and clear, full of anecdote, and often conversational. author, he shone like a brilliant star. His style was smooth, chaste and classical. His Public Men of the Revolution is almost inimitable for its images of real character. He was a Federalist of the Washington school, and tenaciously opposed to the policy of Jefferson; and his own principles are clearly developed in this work.

As an

THOMAS DANFORTH.

JULY 4, 1804. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES.

THE Monthly Anthology states of this production, that its political sentiments are dignified, and evince that the author glows with a patriotic zeal for the honor and happiness of his country. We take this opportunity to remark that it was pronounced in a superior style of elocution. To the clear and commanding tone of voice, the animated expression, and elegant gesture, of the orator, combined with the justness of the sentiment and its unison with the feelings of the audience, must we attribute the enthusiasm with which it was received. He unfolds the dangers to which our country is exposed from mere faction and party rage, those avenging angels, delighting in the calamity of republics.

"In all governments there must be a preponderating influence,—a sovereign power, doubtless deriving its origin from the people, but guaranteed by fundamental laws, in order that the liberty of all may not be the sport of the licentiousness of any. There never has, and there never will exist a true democracy. If, says the elegant author of the social compact, there were a people of gods, they might be governed democratically; a state so perfect will never belong to man.' In our own government, so happily blended and equipoised the powers of state, that, though sovereignty exists, it may be said never to remain fixed, but, like the vibrations of the pendulum, gives to every part and portion its uniform spring and action. The federal compact is not merely the sketch of liberty; it is the work complete; it is the only government under heaven yet known where every man may be said to exercise his right in the aggregate system of power. Founded in reason and the analogy of nature, like the fair form of the human body, it exhibits the beauty, strength and proportions, of a well-ordered system. The executive is its brain, the judiciary its lungs, and the legislative its whole heart, circulating the very pabulum of its existence, and issuing the powers which warm and invigorate its remotest extremities. As essential to the existence of our bodies as are the brain, lungs or heart, equally as essential are the distinct and independent branches of our government to its life and preservation. Drawn out of the experience of ages, it contains the principles of a republic, sublimely rectified. It is the palladium of your future peace, a bond of union

and obligation, which, when violated, will convulse to its centre the delicate frame of your liberty."

Thomas Danforth, the son of the eminent Dr. Samuel Danforth, was born in Boston, July 31, 1772; entered the Latin School in 1781; graduated at Harvard College in 1792, when he engaged in a conference on the comparative importance of the American, French, and Polish revolutions, upon mankind; married Elizabeth, daughter of Jarathmiel Blowers, of Somerset, Mass., March, 1800; was a physician; and died in Dorchester, July 12, 1817.

Dr. Danforth delivered a discourse for the Massachusetts Humane Society, in 1808, which was published.

WARREN DUTTON.

JULY 4, 1805. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES.

WHILE Russell's Centinel remarks of Dutton's oration that it was a spirited and well-adapted production, the Independent Chronicle says, that, had Pitt deputed missionaries to this rescued nation, to debauch the public mind from the fair knowledge of political truth, they could not, in our feeble judgment, have used language more fitted for such purposes. But, as the governor (Strong) sat and heard these declamatory arts without evincing displeasure at their apparent disloyalty, we must resign our opinion to the more correct authority of the public. Mr. Dutton was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, and married Eliza, daughter of Judge Lowell; was a counsellor-at-law, and the first editor of the New England Palladium; a delegate to the State convention for revising the constitution, in 1820; a representative in the State Legislature, and of the State Senate. In 1800 Mr. Dutton gave the poem at the commencement at Yale College, on the Present State of Literature; and an address to the Suffolk Bar, in 1819.

EBENEZER FRENCH.

JULY 4, 1805. FOR THE YOUNG DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS, AT THE CHURCH OF REV. JOHN MURRAY.

EBENEZER FRENCH was born in Boston, and was a practical printer. The oration at the head of this article, and another, delivered at Portland, in 1806, on our national independence, were published, and are in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Mr. French was in early life married to Mrs. Hannah Grice, the widow of Samuel Bangs, of Boston, after having been previously engaged to her beautiful daughter. A rare incident here in romance, the mother stole from the daughter the heart of her young lover! After the delivery of the oration in Boston, the young Republicans proceeded to Faneuil Hall, where, on partaking a rich repast, the following sentiment was advanced by Benjamin Austin, the great apostle of democracy, who was elected president of the Society of Republican Young Men at this time: "The young Republican orator of the day: May our young men never lose, by the subtlety of their enemies, those blessings transmitted to them by their Republican ancestors." Mr. Austin viewed the people and the constitution of the United States as the real sentinels and palladiums of American independence.

Mr. French was an inspector of the customs in 1810, and in the next year he became a publisher of the Boston Patriot, in company with Isaac Munroe; where they continued until 1814, when they sold the paper to Mr. Ballard, and both removed to Baltimore, where they established a new journal, under the name of the Baltimore Patriot, a paper of wide political influence.

FRANCIS DANA CHANNING.

JULY 4, 1806. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES.

THIS oration was not printed. Mr. Channing was born at Newport, B. I., and brother of Rev. William Ellery Channing. He graduated

JOSEPH GLEASON.

PETER OXENBRIDGE THACHER.

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at Harvard College in 1794, on which occasion he gave the salutatory oration in Latin. In 1801 he pronounced the Phi Beta Kappa oration, and married Susan Higginson, of Boston, November, 1806. He was a counsellor-at-law, a State representative, and Secretary of the Boston Social Law Library in 1810. He died at sea, when on his passage to Rio Janeiro, November 5, 1810.

JOSEPH GLEASON.

JULY 4, 1806. FOR THE DEMOCRATIC YOUNG MEN.

JOSEPH GLEASON was born at Boston, and the son of a truckman, who was a ready speaker at Faneuil Hall caucuses. He married Mary Le Baron, daughter of Gov. Hunt, of Detroit; and was a compositor in the office of the Independent Chronicle, and only eighteen years of age, on the delivery of this oration, which was printed a second time. In the last war with Great Britain he was a captain in Col. Miller's regiment, and in 1816 an army commissary, and major of a brigade. He died at Mackinaw, in 1820.

PETER OXENBRIDGE THACHER.

JULY 4, 1807. FOR THE TOWN AUTHORITIES.

WAS born at Malden, Dec. 22, 1776, and son of Rev. Peter, who pronounced an oration on the Boston Massacre in that year. He entered the Latin School in 1785, and graduated at Harvard College in 1796, on which occasion Mr. Thacher engaged in a forensic disputation- Whether reason unassisted by revelation would have led mankind to just notions even of the first principles of natural religion?