There

and while arts were practised to give direction to popular sentiment, Mr. Jefferson would affect to be directed. by the will of the nation. would be no national energy. Our character would sink, and our weakness invite contempt and insult. Though Mr. Jefferson would have. no thoughts of war, his zeal in the French cause and enmity to Great Britain would render him liable to secret influence that would tend to the adoption of measures calculated to produce war with England, though it was not intended, and the nation might be plunged into a war wholly unprepared."

This acute estimate of the founder of the Democracy did not prevent Ellsworth from accepting his future election without complaint. According to the election returns published in the "Litchfield Monitor" for December 21, 1796, Ellsworth himself had nine of the Electoral votes in the Presidential campaign of Adams vs. Jefferson.

Ellsworth's friendship for the two Oliver Wolcotts, father and son, was both deep and strong. In 1783 the senior Wolcott had written to his son from Philadelphia, referring in these terms to the value of Ellsworth's good opinion:

"SIR:

Mr. Ellsworth says that you will succeed in the Business which you propose. I am very glad that he has a good Opinion of you, as there is no one whose Friendship will be more serviceable to you. And as he is a Gentleman of great Candor and Integrity, as well as in high Reputation in his Profession, you will, I doubt not, merit that Regard from him which I believe he is inclined to bestow.

Yours with the kindest Regard,
OLIVER WOLCOTT.

Mr. Oliver Wolcott, Jr."

Whatever the particular business referred to in this letter, we know that young Wolcott's subsequent career fully carried out Mr. Ells

worth's prophecy of success in its regard, and was closely and firmly knit with his own by the bonds of friendship and common labors. Wolcott was associated with Ellsworth as a commissioner to settle the monetary claims of Connecticut against the United States, was a member with him of the "Pay Table," and afterwards became, in rapid succession, Auditor, Comptroller, and finally Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, as successor to Hamilton. While residing in Philadelphia during his Senatorial services, Ellsworth frequented Wolcott's house, which was the resort of the shining lights of the Federal party, the centre of a social circle of such distinction as has seldom been surpassed. Mr. Ellsworth's social qualities were the delight of these gatherings. The closeness of his intimacy with Wolcott is seen in the following playful letters from the latter to his wife "Betsey":

"PHILADELPHIA, June 18th, 1795. Miss M. has visited me but once; I presume she is afraid Mr. Ellsworth will inform you if she comes while he is here."

On June 25th, when Ellsworth was going to Hartford, he writes. again, referring to the Jay Treaty and its ratification:

"Mr. Ellsworth, however, has so far experienced your faculty of keeping StateSecrets, that I doubt not he will tell you everything that you wish to know, and you have my consent to tell others anything that he tells you... I am in perfect health, and Mr. Ellsworth will tell you how I behave."

He was not less intimate with Washington, who visited the Ellsworth mansion in 1789 when making his tour of New England, early in his first administration. After the fatal blow dealt to his family tradiworth on his knee, and reciting to

tions by Mr. William Webster Ellsworth in his address at the recent dedication of the Homestead by the Connecticut D. A. R., I have not the heart to recount the tale of the twins and the "Darby Ram!" I would far rather forget the cherry tree and bury the hatchet forever, than not believe that Washington at this time sang the "Darby Ram" to those Ellsworth twins, sitting on his knee! Even if the birth records state that the twins were not born until two years after he sang to them, the nursery was full of little Ellsworths and the great Chief's diary certainly testifies to his visit on October 21st, 1789:

"By promise," he writes, "I was to have breakfasted with Mr. Ellsworth at Windsor on my way to Springfield, but the morning proved very wet, and the rain not ceasing until ten o'clock, I did not set out till half after that hour. I called, however, and stayed an hour."

He stayed an hour, and did not sing the "Darby Ram" to those children? It is past belief! Let birth records preach as they may, there is nothing mythical about Washington. Senator Hoar, at least, believes

in the twins, for in his "Autobiography of Seventy Years" he states that from his mother, who was Roger Sherman's daughter, he had the story of Washington taking one of the twin children of Justice Ellsworth on his knee and reciting to him the ballad of the Derbyshire Ram. Senator Hoar is not one to be lightly contradicted; but if Washington, in spite of this testimony, did not sing to the twins, he certainly sang to Frances, and possibly Delia, who no doubt enjoyed it just as much. Therefore let us always believe that he sang this song! Tradition is the life blood of history. Spill it not forth over the deserts of unbelief!

Eight years later, when his second Presidential term had just expired, Washington wrote Ellsworth, when Chief Justice, the following letter full of unwonted expressions of feeling: "DEAR SIR:

Before I leave this city, which will be within less than twenty-four hours, permit me, in acknowledging the receipt of your kind and affectionate note of the 6th, to offer you the thanks of a grateful heart for the sentiments you have expressed in my favor and for those attentions with which you have always honored me. In return I pray you to accept all my good wishes for the perfect restoration of your health and for all the happiness this life can afford. As your official duty will necessarily call you to the southward, I will take the liberty of adding that it will always give me pleasure to see you at Mount Vernon as you pass and repass.

With unfeigned esteem and regard, in which Mrs. Washington joins me, I am always and affectionately yours,

GEORGE WASHINGTON."

It was not everyone to whom Washington signed himself "affectionately yours." The following petulant remark of Aaron Burr, a political opponent and an embittered and disappointed man, speaks volumes as to Ellsworth's power over the Senate: "If he should chance to spell the name of the Deity with two D's," growled Burr, "it would take the Senate three weeks to expunge the superfluous letter."

This power was now to be directed to another field. Ellsworth thus writes to the senior Wolcott, then Governor of Connecticut:

"It is my duty, sir, to acquaint you that I have with some hesitation accepted an appointment in the Judiciary of the United States, which, of course, vacates my seat in the Senate. This step, I hope, will not be regarded as disrespectful to a State which I have so long had the honor to serve, and whose interests must forever remain precious to my heart."

The place so modestly spoken of as "an appointment in the Judiciary" was the Chief Justiceship of the United States. Ellsworth was sworn

and held the office until he resigned it in 1800.

"The brilliancy of his Senatorial service," says Lodge, "and the great part he played in the formative period of our national government could not be equaled even by his service as Chief Justice. He came to his great office well qualified both by professional training and by experience as a statesman and law-maker. He served both well and efficiently and maintained and strengthened the character of the court. Yet it was not as Chief Justice that his best work was done."

He was not confronted by the great constitutional questions which. the unequalled Marshall was called. upon to meet; yet on the Supreme Bench of his country he served honorably and well, and had he been. able to remain there would no doubt have made a distinguished reputation. But after four years of service as Chief Justice he was called to still more important work. This was his mission as Envoy Extraordinary to France.

Our relations with France had become more and more strained, owing to that country's increasing aggression, developing finally into intolerable insolence and open insult. We were engaged in actual hostilities, though war was not yet declared. Adams was for peace at any price. Against the wishes of his party, who felt our dignity lowered by further advances in negotiation, he appointed a special commission to treat with France. The Chief Justice was the guiding star of this Commission. At first opposed to it on political grounds and disinclined to it for every personal reason, Ellsworth reluctantly consented to his appointment, and obeyed the President's call as one bound to the highest sense of duty, though it involved him in his first difference of opinion with all his life-long friends.

..

"HARTFORD, Oct. 31st.

The Hon. Oliver Ellsworth and Gov. Davie, two of the Commissioners appointed by our Government to treat with France, left this place on Tuesday last, for Newport, where they are immediately to embark in the Frigate United States, Commander Barry."

It was March 2nd, 1800, before they reached Paris. The Directory had fallen, and Napoleon was First Consul and master of France. In the audience he gave to the Americans, this remarkable man, whose acute instincts never failed him in the reading of character, exclaimed when his glance first fell on Ellsworth: "I must make a treaty with that man." that man." The treaty was made, but not as Ellsworth's countrymen had expected. Unable to wring from France the least satisfaction on the matters in dispute, Ellsworth, with true statesmanship, abandoned the old ground of controversy and made a new treaty covering like points in the future. France agreed to pay her debts to us, our commercial relations were satisfactorily arranged, and, more important than all, war was averted and an honorable peace assured. For the second time Ellsworth had saved his country from disastrous war. Yet he was misunderstood and villified at home. Even Wolcott thought him crazed by the inroads of disease, thus to have abandoned our original demands with seeming weakness. But the event proved him wise beyond his generation. He thus writes to the younger Wolcott, then Secretary of the Treasury, in a letter dated Havre, October 16, 1800:

when called and, with the solitary remark, "Who eats? Who eats?" he would often remain in profound thought throughout the meal, unspeaking and unspoken to. Once a young teacher, invited to call upon him, arrived, and being ushered in, remained in conversation with other members of the family, entirely unnoticed by the Judge. Suddenly Mr. Ellsworth saw him, and forthwith greeting him cordially, introduced him to those with whom he had been talking for some time past. Yet no one could be more sprightly or animated than he in the family circle or social gathering, where his conversation and bright charm of manner made him the life of every occasion. Let the historian Hollister's lines give us our final view of him:

"Ellsworth was logical and argumentative in his mode of illustration, and possessed a peculiar style of condensed statement through which there ran, like a magnetic current, the most delicate train of analytical reasoning. His eloquence was wonderfully persuasive, too, and his manner solemn and impressive. His style was decidedly of the patrician school, and yet so simple that a child could follow without difficulty the steps by which he arrived at his conclusions. Add to these quali

ties, an eye that seemed to look an adversary through, a forehead and features so bold and marked as to promise all that his rich, deep voice, expressive gestures and moral fearlessness made good; add, above all, that reserved force of scornful satire, so seldom employed but so like the destructive movements of a corps of flying artillery, and the reader has an outline of the strength and majesty of Ellsworth."

To this man, patriot and Constitution-maker, Senator and Chief Justice of the United States and Envoy Extraordinary to France, Connecticut owes more than she has ever yet paid, more than a simple family monument and a family portrait in her Historical Society. Upon the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution has devolved a sacred heritage. To them has been given the unique privilege of guarding forever his dearly loved home, the "pleasantest place in Windsor," and maintaining it as a perpetual memorial to him beneath the elms which he planted. May they never be faithless to this trust-to this sacred and honorable duty to keep in remembrance throughout all generations the name and deeds of Oliver Ellsworth.

S

INCE the formation of the Govment, there have been, in round numbers, twenty million immigrants admitted to the United States, of which eighteen million. have come from Europe. Germany heads the list of nations which have sent immigrants to our shores with a record of five million, and Ireland follows hard on her heels with four

million; then England with two and three quarter million, while Norway, Sweden, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia, including Poland, can each claim one and a half million. A greater portion of these twenty million immigrants come from English speaking or Germanic stock and the blending of the races has formed the American of today.