majority of the popular vote. Was re-elected Governor in January, 1852, in the same way, and in his address to the Legisla ture declined a re-election for Governor. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, with his father, in 1853, and prepared the draft of the new Constitution that was submitted to the people. The proposed constitution was then rejected, but most of the changes proposed have since been adopted. In 1851 and 1852, and after, he was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, and also of the State Board of Education. In 1854 he abandoned the Democratic party, and was of those who organized the Republican party in the State. To his honor it is written that he did not join the KnowNothings. In October, 1855, he was elected secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and administered the publicschool system of the State, and served till January 1, 1861. In 1857 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in January, 1861, was appointed a member of the Peace Congress. In 1858 he published a volume. of essays and lectures upon education, and in 1867 a volume of speeches upon the Rebellion. In 1860 he collated the school laws of Massachusetts, and prepared and published a commentary thereon. In June, 1861, he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, and delivered the annual oration—an invitation never before given to a non-graduate. Hon. G. B. Northrop, in an article in The Independent, says of this effort,

"Political subjects, according to usage and obvious propriety, are avoided on such occasions; but in this great crisis of the nation, officers of the college and of the society called upon the ex-Governor to discuss freely the state of the country. His oration, after showing that slavery was the cause of the war, demonstrated the justice and necessity of emancipation. A cluster of Conservatives, sitting near me on the platform, at once denounced it as a 'firebrand.' It was in advance of the

times, and was severely censured, not only by Democrats, but by many Republican leaders and papers. It was published entire in various journals, and, circulating widely through the country, hastened the great revolution of public sentiment on the subject more, in my judgment, than any address by any American statesman during the first year of the war."

In 1862 he was appointed by Secretary Stanton upon a commission to examine and report upon claims against the War Department in the Western division. The commission met at Cairo in June, and remained till after the middle of July. In July, 1862, President Lincoln appointed him Commissioner of Internal Revenue, which office he resigned March 3, 1863. In November, 1862, he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1864, '66, '68. He drafted and reported the Fifteenth Amendment. He was upon the committee that reported the Fourteenth Amendment, and one of the managers from the House who presented the articles of impeachment against Andrew Johnson to the Senate, and defended them in a powerful speech. In 1863 he published a commentary upon the internal-revenue system.

After the inauguration of President Grant, March 4, 1869, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and held that post until the second inauguration of President Grant. Henry Wilson, Senator in Congress from Massachusetts, having been chosen Vice-President, the Legislature of Massachusetts elected Mr. Boutwell for the unexpired senatorial term of Mr. Wilson, which ended March 3, 1877.

No other native of Massachusetts has held so many varied and responsible offices, and has filled them with a higher degree of conscientious ability.

XV.

MORTON MCMICHAEL, AND MANY OTHER PENNSYLVANIA MEN.

NATIONAL men are like large pictures: they demand notice, to the exclusion of others sometimes far more deserving. They generally fill the eye, without touching the heart. Seeing them in the perspective only, the lines of their defects are lost in the magnitude of their claims. Too generally these claims are the result of accident or of some one special point. But hidden away in the corner of the great gallery which is overshadowed by one or two gigantic works are gems of art which, once enjoyed, are never forgotten. We return to them again and again, and at last forget the huge canvas with its dominant figures and staring scenery, and wonder, in shame, that, as we gloried in the overspreading oak, we should not have paused before the violets that bloomed before its base. Once, after spending several hours in the fine gallery of Marshall O. Roberts, of New York, in special pleasure before his "Niagara," by Church, and his "Crossing of the Delaware," by Leutze, and several other renowned pieces, my eye caught the likeness of Elliott, the artist, painted by himself. It was not larger than a human hand, yet its sweet fidelity thrilled me like a familiar strain of music on some favorite instrument, rising above the rude sound of a brass band. He is dead now, poor fellow !— dead in the midst of his victories; dead before he filled out his fame; and yet his own little picture of himself lives in my memory, and looks at me now, through its sparkling eyes, under the broad sombrero that shades without hiding his eloquent face.

And so, when I sit down to write about Morton McMichael, of Philadelphia, I think of one who has achieved enduring honor without having figured on the broad and stormy theatre of national affairs; of one who will be remembered when intrusive mediocrities and sudden favorites have passed into oblivion.

He is singularly equipped for high responsibilities. His life is one of a thousand lessons taught by relf-reliance and self-restraint. The son of respectable though undistinguished parents, he has founded an honored family, and the name he has made for himself will be preserved in the manly bearing of his intelligent boys, too proud of their father to discredit themselves.

Perhaps I am partial to my dear friend; but, as I said at the Reform Club, some years ago, when he was presiding over a meeting of the Park and Centennial Commissions, "It may be that a prophet has no honor in his own country; but I am accustomed to judge by two standards-the average and the comparison; and by these I tell you, before this gentleman, that he is an honor to our city, State, and country; and, when he is gone, those who are left to speak to their children will not be ashamed to say, 'I knew Morton McMichael,-I was proud of his friendship and of his genius, and I felt, when we lost him, that we should never look upon his like again.'

Dying in his seventy-fourth year, in Philadelphia, January 6, 1879, he never held any office that was not connected with that municipality, or conferred by the people or their agents. He has been respectively Alderman, Sheriff, Mayor, President of the Fairmount Park Commission, President of the Union League, and Delegate-at-large in the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. But no man living has mingled more freely or more equally with eminent characters of every country. His peculiar talents are so fitted for society and for public affairs that he rapidly became the representative man of the community. A frank and easy address, a full command. of the choicest language, pronounced in a voice of rare music and magnetism; a faithful memory, perfect composure at all times, stores of exhaustless humor, and a youthful fondness for jokes; add to these unusual sagacity and good sense, perfect integrity in all his dealings, courage in every emergency, as

proved by his manly bearing in the riots of 1844, when he braved an infuriated Native-American mob, and repeatedly risked his life to maintain the public peace; familiar with every topic of the day, whether of art or politics, finance or religion, and uncommonly gifted to defend his opinions by speech and pen: such was Morton McMichael, the editor and proprietor of the Philadelphia North American, the oldest daily paper in the United States.

I first met him in my native town of Lancaster in 1838, when we were both very young men, he thirty-one and I twenty. Both of us were Democrats, though he became a Whig soon after, and I remained with the old party till 1858, when we were reunited in politics, and have ever since fought side by side under the Republican flag. But we never had a difference of any kind. In the fiercest strifes-when in 1840 he visited Lancaster to speak for Harrison, and in 1844 to speak for Clay-we met like brothers; and it was no uncommon thing for him to make a stormy speech in the old Courthouse, in Centre Square, Lancaster, or in one of the open spaces near the town, and make me a favorite subject for friendly criticism, and be my guest afterwards. In 1844 I stood by him in the Native-American riots against the mob; that was a dark hour, when bigotry and ignorance ruled the town; but he emerged with honor, and we both rejoiced over the end of the tragic frenzy. He was an extreme Whig; I was an ultra-Democrat; and when I came to Philadelphia in 1845, and in 1846 took charge of The Pennsylvanian, and from 1852 to 1855 helped to edit the Washington (D. C.) Union, though we discussed the most exciting subjects, and spoke on opposite sides, our relations were always intimate and social. In 1856, while I was working for Buchanan, and McMichael for Frémont, we dined together more frequently, I think, than any two men in Philadelphia. Those were happy years! How well I remember his candid pleasantry with Mr. Buchanan, at Buchanan's