his speeches, delivered at Dedham, after alluding to the disposition of settlers, in a new country, to destroy trees, when they should protect and propagate them, he remarks: "There are, in the interior of New England, a great many noble trees, planted eighty or one hundred years ago; and most certainly nothing grows out of the earth, and man can put nothing upon it, so beautiful. I hope, my friends, we shall let our children and grandchildren enjoy the great comfort to be derived from this source. Sir Walter Scott represents one of his characters as saying that his father used to tell him to be always putting down a tree. 'It will be growing, Jock, when you are sleeping.' It will be growing, sir, when we are sleeping to wake no more. The acorn which you cover with a couple of inches of earth, the seedling elm which you rescue in your garden from the spade, will outlive half a dozen of our. generations. Cicero speaks of it as a kind of natural foresight of the continued existence of man, that 'men planted trees which were a benefit to a coming generation.' Yes, sir; and if every man, before he goes hence, would but take care to leave one good oak or elm behind him, he would not have lived in vain. His children and grandchildren would bless his memory." The conception of Cicero, that men planted trees that were to be a benefit to coming generations, reminds one of an impressive incident regarding James Otis, the great patriot, which occurred at Andover, a few weeks before his sudden death. One morning, when he gave indications of being strongly agitated, Otis took a hatchet and went to a copse of pines, standing on a rising ground a few yards from the house, and passed all the forenoon in trimming away the lower branches of the wood. When Mr. Osgood, with whom Otis resided, came to invite him to dinner, he said, with great earnestness, "Osgood, if I die while I am in your house, I charge you to have me buried under these trees;" and then added, with a little touch of humor that shone forth like a bright gleam in a tempestuous sky, "you know my grave would overlook all your fields, and I could have an eye upon the boys, and see if they minded their work." May the young students and laborers of Andover be incited to perseverance, when they view the trees around Otis' burial-place, and imagine his eye upon them! Mr. Everett was chosen Governor of Massachusetts in 1835, and for three succeeding terms; and was followed by Judge Morton, in 1840, who was elected by a majority of one vote. He labored assiduously for the moral, commercial and political interests of the State, especially effecting the noble objects of the Board of Education and the Western Railroad. He embarked for Europe in June, 1840, passing the summer in Paris, and the succeeding year in Florence. It is related that, previous to the departure of Mr. Everett from Boston, when present at a public dinner, Hon. Judge Story gave as a sentiment, “Learning, genius and eloquence, are sure to be welcome where Ever-ett goes." On which, Mr. Everett promptly gave, "Law, Equity and Jurisprudence: All their efforts to rise will never be able to get above one Story." On the recall of Andrew Stevenson, the minister to the court of St. James, in 1841, Mr. Everett was appointed his successor, where he remained until the accession of President Polk, when he was succeeded by Louis McLane. As minister to the most important empire in the world, he acquitted himself with an ability and dignity highly honorable to his exalted station. He arrived in London, to enter upon the duties of his mission, at the close of the year 1841. Among the great questions, remarks the Whig Review, "which were at that time open between the two countries, were, the north-eastern boundary, the affair of Mr. McLeod, and the seizure of American vessels on the coast of Africa. In the course of a few months, the affair of the Creole followed, to which were soon added Oregon and Texas. His position must have been rendered more difficult by the frequent changes which took place in the department at home. Between Mr. Webster, who retired in the spring of 1843, and Mr. Buchanan, who came in with Mr. Polk in 1845, it was occupied, successively, by Messrs. Legaré, Upshur, and Calhoun. From all these gentlemen Mr. Everett received marks of approbation and confidence. * * * "The congressional documents are the only sources open to the public from which may be learned the nature of the subjects which Mr. Everett brought to a successful issue. Among these were several claims for the seizure of vessels on the coast of Africa, and large demands of American citizens for duties levied contrary to the commercial treaty between the two countries. In reference to the latter, Mr. Everett obtained an acknowledgment of the justice of the claims, and proposed the principle of offset, on which they were, soon after the close of his mission, liquidated and paid. He obtained for our fishermen the right of taking fish in the Bay of Fundy, which had been a subject of irritation and controversy between them and the provincial authorities for thirty years. He procured, at different times, the release from Van Diemen's Land of fifty or sixty of the misguided Americans who had embarked in the Canadian rebellion of 1838. It will be remembered, however, as we have already observed, that a small part only of his correspondence has been brought before the public." He returned to Boston in the autumn of 1845. President Quincy having previously resigned the care of Harvard University, the friends of that institution united in the request that Mr. Everett would accept the presidency. He was inaugurated to this important station April 30, 1846, when the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop gave this sentiment, at the public dinner: "This occasion, which witnesses the consecration of the highest genius of our country to its noblest service. President Everett continued closely devoted to the best interests of Harvard College, until he was compelled, by the state of his health, to resign the office; and was succeeded by Jared Sparks, June 20, 1849. He has been, for several years, president of the American Antiquarian Society, vice-president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Massachusetts Historical, New York Historical, and New England Historical Genealogic Societies, and of the Antiquarian, Geographical, and Agricultural Societies, of Great Britain. It has been well said of this prince of orators, that, as long as clear and logical reasoning wins the assent of the understanding, as long as true eloquence stirs the blood, as long as ease and grace of style approve themselves to the taste, so long will the compositions of Edward Everett be read and admired. He is, essentially, a rhetorician, and, unless France may furnish one or two exceptions, the most accomplished living. Whatever is requisite for rhetorical success, Mr. Everett possesses. To the most varied culture, he adds an immense and various learning, a memory equally retentive and prompt, great facility and felicity of expression, a ready power of association, and a wit and humor which seem always to be ready when the occasion calls for them. No knight rode in the tournament arrayed in more glittering armor, continues a reviewer, or more dexterous in the use of his weapons. He has enough of imagination; he has the quick and kindling sensibilities without which there is no eloquence; and, above all, he shows a wonderfully quick perception of the state of mind in those whom he addresses. He seems to have more than a double share of nerves in his fingers' ends. If there be truth in animal magnetism, he ought to be one of the most impressible. He possesses that greatest of charms, an exquisite voice,-round, swelling, full of melody, particularly emotional; naturally grave, and with a touch almost of melancholy in some of its cadences, but, like all such emotional voices, admirably suited to the expression of humor, and of rising from a touching pathos into the most stirring, thrilling and triumphant tones. There is such harmony between thought and style, manner and voice, that each gives force to the other, and all unite in one effect on the hearer. We know not how so well to compress a view of his services and character, as in the comprehensive language of Daniel Webster, at the Norfolk Agricultural Society's first anniversary meeting: "We all remember him, some of us personally,-myself, certainly, with great interest in his deliberations in the Congress of the United States, to which he brought such a degree of learning, and ability, and eloquence, as few equalled, and none surpassed. He administered, afterwards, satisfactorily to his fellow-citizens, the duties of the chair of the commonwealth. He then, to the great advantage of his country, went abroad. He was deputed to represent his government at the most important court of Europe; and he carried thither many qualities, most of them essential, and all of them ornamental and useful, to fill that high station. He had education and scholarship. He had a reputation at home and abroad. More than all, he had an acquaintance with the politics of the world, with the law of this country and of nations, with the history and policy of the countries of Europe. And how well these qualities enabled him to reflect honor upon the literature and character of his native land, not we only, but all the country and all the world know. He has performed this career, and is yet at such a period of life, that I may venture something upon the character and privilege of my countrymen, when I predict, that those who have known him long and know him now, those who have seen him and see him now, those who have heard him and hear him now, are very likely to think that his country has demands upon him for future efforts in its service." In addition to the speeches contained in the two volumes, Mr. Everett is the author of some publications which have appeared separately such as the Defence of Christianity, before alluded to; an Essay on the Claims of Citizens of the United States on Foreign Governments, which originally appeared in the North American Review: a Life of General Stark, which appears as the first article in Mr. Sparks' Library of American Biography; and a Biographical Memoir of Mr. Webster, forming the introduction to the new edition of his works. The speeches and reports of Mr. Everett in Congress, and his other political speeches and writings, would probably form a collection as large as that of his miscellaneous orations and speeches. Above a hundred articles are stated to have been written by him in the North American Review, and many in other journals. A hope was expressed, by Judge Story, in the letter above cited, that Mr. Everett would devote himself to the preparation of some elaborate work. It would appear, from the following paragraph in the preface to the collection of his orations, that he has contemplated such an undertaking: "It is still my purpose, should my health permit, to offer to the public indulgence a selection from a large number of articles contributed by me to the North American Review, and from the speeches. reports and official correspondence, prepared in the discharge of the duties of the several official stations which I have had the honor to fill, at home and abroad. Nor am I wholly without hope that I shall be able to execute the more arduous project, to which I have devoted a good deal of time for many years, and towards which I have collected ample materials,- that of a systematic treatise on the modern law of nations, more especially in reference to those questions which have been discussed between the governments of the United States and Europe since the peace of 1783." GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD. JULY 4, 1835. FOR THE CITY AUTHORITIES. "IT cannot be denied that we have been, for some time past, growing indifferent to the celebration of this day," says Hillard. "It was once hailed and some who hear me can remember the time — with emotions too deep for words. The full hearts of men overflowed in the copious, gushing tears of childhood, and silently went up to heaven on the wings of praise. With their own sweat and their own blood |