Those mansions, pure and holy, Alike await above The lofty and the lowly, Who always live in love. With light divine surrounded, LINES WRITTEN ON THE BIRTH OF HIS SON ROBERT. A world of cares, and fears, and doubt, and strife, Welcome, young stranger, to this changing state, And ere thy days of trial shall be nigh, God's universe was paradise to me; With thrilling ecstasy creation teemed; One living emerald glowed the outspread sea; And heaven's blue arch one vaulted sapphire beamed. In the bright sunshine of those cloudless days, My young heart basked, while balmy zephyrs breathed; But stern reality at last draws near, Those empty visions all have taken wing; Life's winter comes, 't is cheerless, cold, and drear,- June 2, 1832. CHAPTER II. MR. RANTOUL'S CHOICE OF A PROFESSION, AND HIS IF his natural character, and the circumstances of his early education, were prophetic of his future eminence, not less so were the advantages which Mr. Rantoul enjoyed in the study of Law. This direct preparation for professional duty he commenced in 1826, in the office of Mr. John Pickering, of Salem, whose varied scholarship and literary accomplishments, united with his profound learning as a lawyer, well qualified him to guide the studies of a young and ardent inquirer after truth. Mr. Rantoul's habits of industry and his love of intellectual improvement, which with him was a passion, joined with a memory retentive of every fact, or principle of which he had once gained a clear conception, made his advancement rapid, and his knowledge various and liberal. He had the benefit of wise guidance to the sources of information, and a rare facility of acquiring it. Such was his peculiar constitution of mind that his acquisitions were at the same time, easy conquests and permanent possessions. Once put in charge of his memory, they were never surrendered. In every emergency they were at the command of a judgment sound and discriminating. This unusual combination of faculties gave him rank in mental endowments among the most gifted men of genius. Mr. Pickering's select and voluminous library opened to Mr. Rantoul's active mind a wide field of congenial labor, of which the fruits, in his after life, proved the diligence of his cultivation. Here was pursued, if not commenced, his indefatigable study of mediæval history, in the knowledge of which, especially that of France, he had few equals among American scholars. His mastery of this branch of learning contributed to his fitness for political life, as well as to his usefulness and celebrity at the bar. By principle and habit an economist of time, he suffered no opportunity of intellectual improvement to be lost. His tastes, indeed, inclined him to literary rather than juridical pursuits. But by patient delving in the dry technicalities of the law, for the sake of a knowledge of its essential principles, he gained, at least, that discipline of the understanding, which genius most needs for its correction and guidance. On Mr. Pickering's removal to Boston, Mr. Rantoul became a student in the office of Mr. Leverett Saltonstall, a lawyer of high reputation, a representative, for several years, to congress from Essex South District, a gentleman of generous and attractive social qualities, whose friendship, freely given to Mr. Rantoul, notwithstanding differences of political opinion, was, by the latter, highly appreciated and uninterruptedly enjoyed. While in the office of Mr. Saltonstall, as in that of Mr. Pickering, the aptitude of Mr. Rantoul's mind, and his preference for the investigation of political subjects, were decidedly manifested. The important facts of history and biography, especially as connected with European and American legislation, he traced to their sources, treasured in his memory, and arranged in philosophical order. In these studies he found compensation for irksome and distasteful toil in the more barren field of mere professional inquiry. In the year 1829, he was admitted to practice at the bar; and in a few months afterwards, 1830, occurred in Salem the trial of the Knapps for the murder of Mr. White. In this case Mr. Rantoul was employed as one of the junior counsel for the defence. Objection was made to his acting in that capacity arising from rules adopted by the profession, whether reasonable, or otherwise, which required a longer practice, in the inferior court, than his age as a lawyer had yet afforded him. To that objection, the choice of his clients, and his ability to serve them, were a sufficient answer. The office, however, to which he was called, and which he honored by his fidelity and skill, was one extremely unpopular and considerably hazardous. Such was the state of public feeling in Salem against the accused, that their young counsel suffered, undeservedly, the disheartening influence of the averted eyes, and the broken friendship, of many who knew, and ought to have justified, the purity of his motives. In this usually staid and sober community, not undistinguished by its Christian culture and intellectual advantages, the ferocity of the cries for the blood of these men, bore too much resemblance to that of the crime of which they were accused. Mr. Rantoul felt in every way the unjust and sickening effects of this excited state of feeling in the public; an excitement which he regarded not only as hostile to the accused, but to the calmness and the fairness of judicial proceedings, in a case of life and death; and he never could divest himself of the belief, in which he has since been sustained by more than one eminent jurist who has examined the case, that one of the defendants suffered unjustly. It is certain, however, that neither the remonstrances of friends, nor their averted looks, nor the general excitement, had power to relax his efforts in behalf of his clients; for he was as independent and resolute in duty, as he was kind and humane in his feelings. How much the circumstances of this trial confirmed opinions which he had early imbibed, in relation to the law of capital punishment, can be better imagined than ascertained. It is well known, that from this time forward, he cherished an unalterable determination to spare no exertions, justified by reason, to expunge from our statute book this blood-stain handed down from ages of barbarism. Of his legislative labors to this end, an account will be given in the sequel. In this important trial, Mr. Rantoul's participation, so humane, so conscientious, so obedient to his convictions of duty both as a man and as a lawyer, was at the cost of grievous sacrifices. Besides those already referred to was his long cherished purpose of making Salem the place of his permanent residence, as it was of his professional studies. From this town, it is but a short distance, a pleasant walk, to the scenes of his earliest recollections and dearest joys; the home of his childhood and youth; the residence of his parents, to him, therefore, the most sacred spot on earth, and of a numerous circle of his most beloved, as they were his most loving and admiring friends. Salem, too, besides its social advantages, offered many attractions to a young man of learning and genius, and among them the prospect of enjoying the rewards of a useful and eminent professional career. It may well be confessed that the abandonment of prospects like these, required great moral courage, a stern and inflexible virtue. At the time Mr. Rantoul became one of the counsel for the defendants, he must have foreseen the undeserved hostility to him of the most influential, as it was the richest class of the people of Salem. Their passions were roused to the highest degree, and not without cause. Mr. White was a rich man, and atrociously murdered for his property. Whatever may have been the cause, and certainly it was one altogether independent of his character as a man of strict integrity, of ability as an advocate, and of learning as a lawyer, Mr. Rantoul never received in Salem, or anywhere else, the patronage of wealth. He would not receive it as the price of his moral and intellectual independence. The emoluments of his profession were no adequate compensation for the time and the labor he bestowed upon it. This remark applies without qualification to his earlier life as a lawyer, and is true of the whole of it. Whatever even of applause he received from those who ought to have been the first to recompense his services, was extorted only by surprising displays of genius. It was often, in appearance at least, an unwilling homage to his intellectual power. In 1831, Mr. Rantoul married Miss Jane Elizabeth Woodbury, a young lady qualified to be, to him, so distinguished for purity of character and affluence of intellect, his chosen companion in life. She is a relative of the late Judge Levi Woodbury, whose eminence, as a jurist and a truly American statesman, will long be revered and honored by his countrymen. In the quiet enjoyments of home, which he most heartily loved, Mr. Rantoul found a needed solace for the cares and vexations of professional and political life; a solace required as much by his tender and ingenuous nature, as by the rough trials of his condition and circumstances. On leaving Salem, Mr. Rantoul resided for two years in the |