INTRODUCTORY. MR. HAMLIN is a true son of New England. All the characteristics of the Yankee, he possesses in the highest degree. Born among the immense forests of Maine, his appearance is that of the genuine Down-easter, a type of character of which much has been said, but had little justice done it either by native or foreign writers. It is a character which combines shrewdness and cunning with intellectual strength; the craftiness of the Jew with the moral heroism of a Luther; and a physical development, so affluent of bone and muscle, so wiry and virile as to be able to carry on its work with credit and power, whether seen in driving logs down the turbulent Penobscot, or sitting in the senatorial chair arranging treaties with the nations of the earth, who come, like the Japanese princes of the East, to link themselves to the triumphal car of the young giants of the West. The physique of Senator Hamlin is very striking. He is about six feet in height, and well proportioned; the features are a little heavy when not animated by conversation, but his coal-black eye, "A glorious one, Bright as a diamond in the sun,” relieves all dulness of face by its piercing eagle-like glance. His complexion is somewhat yellow and bilious, his hair dark, and his head has remarkable phrenological developments, among which the perceptive and reasoning faculties appear with the greatest prominence. He has a slight stoop of the shoulders, and is rather awkward, as a whole, in his carriage and gesticulations; but all this is soon forgot under the magic of his conversation or speech. He is careless, and almost slovenly in his dress, and the plentiful use of tobacco, which he chews incessantly when he is not smoking, stains his bosom with the juice of the weed. He is none of your kid-glove gentry, but is large handed and open palmed to every member of the free, unwashed democracy. A traveller through the town of his residence may see him any summer, |