"Here," said the Judge, "is the pleasant habitation of 2,000 of our people. This is the centre and key of the position; 1,000 more dwell at the extreme points of the township, in similar but smaller edifices. But on all im portant public occasions 'the gathering of the clans' is here. I welcome you to our new Jeru-Salem-city of Peace." "Peace be within her borders," said Hallet, as he entered the massive portal. SAMUEL LEAVITT. THE LATE VICE-PRESIDENT WILSON. THE death of Vice-President Wil son is felt to be a loss to the nation. Ever foremost in the cause of humanity, he, as a statesman, infused a tone of purity in whatever measures of legislation he participated in, and so his presence in a community where were men inclined to connive at or encourage schemes of chicane or fraud, served to check their development. He belonged to a class of men, politicians, if you are pleased to call them, now alas! very few, who are brave in the assertion of their patriotism, and keep themselves above the crowd of mercenaries by the nobility and integrity of their purposes. During the twenty years Mr. Wilson had been in the Senate of the United States, his course was marked with a profound sense of official duty, and with an earnest fidelity to the highest moral principles. No one ever suspected him of connection with a "job." Perhaps we should except his connection with the Credit Mobilier; but that was doubtless the result of over-confidence in political associates, and not of any improper motive. He was not a statesman because he desired the perquisites or emoluments of office. Far from it. He accumulated no wealth as the result of long public service, but died comparatively poor. As a resolute, progressive champion of Temperance, he long ago won the gratitude of all good citizens, and will be deeply mourned by the zealous advocates of this great social reform. A few years ago Mr. Wilson submitted his head to us for a careful examination, and we wrote out the character. We here give a synopsis of the description then made. He was a man of rather large stature, and doubtless weighed at the time of his death 185 pounds. He had a fine skin, light brown hair, and a light complexion, tending to the florid. He was distinguished for general smoothness of organization, both of head and body, and the portrait we present looks very fair and young for a man sixty-three years of age. He had a predominance of the vital temperament, his chest was broad and deep; he was amply developed in the digestive department, so that his system was well sustained for labor, both of body and mind. But the sign of circulatory power is not very strong, and that really proved to be the point where he broke down. The apoplexy with which he was smitten, and the form of his death indicate a disturbed functional condition of the heart. Aside from this tendency, his prospect for long life was very fair. The base of the brain was amply developed, as indicated by the prominence and breadth of the brows, and by the width of the head from side to side. He was combative, yet so smooth and harmonious in his general temperament, that his force of character did not mani in the graces of diction or the flights studied. Every penny he could save of imagination. He had strong social dispositions, and won friends, and held them firmly. He was ardent in his attachment, zealous in the pursuit of that which he deemed desirable, and was specially endowed. with Firmness to hold him to his course. He was frank, inclined to speak and to act openly. He was not a tricky manager, and was never stronger than when pursuing some honest purpose in a straightforward, open manner. He had the power to criticise subjects and things, plans and purposes, and to read strangers like a book, hence he was rarely at fault in his estimation of men; and with his kindly spirit, with his affectionate disposition, and with that moral earnestness for which he was distinguished, he was able to lead. or very strongly influence men who were really his superiors in talent. People believed in him, trusted to his motives, accepted his word, and thought him honest in the support of his cause, whether they were able to agree with the desirableness of success in that cause or not. The following sketch of Mr. Wilson's career is derived from an appreciative article in a New York newspaper: HENRY WILSON was born at Farmington, N. H., on the 12th of February, 1812. His parents were poor, and while a mere child he was apprenticed to a farmer. What opportunities he had to obtain an elementary education were necessarily few. The short irregular periods he attended school during the time he was engaged upon the farm, did not make in all twelve months. But his thirst for knowledge was not to be balked by the obstacles of poverty. He learned to read, and historical and biographical works were eagerly sought by him, and sedulously was carefully laid aside; every moment of relaxation from toil was profitably employed. Leaving Farmington at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Wilson went to Natick, Mass., and there he learned the trade of shoemaking. With the money he saved he expected to obtain an academical education, but his little capital. had been entrusted to a person who became bankrupt, and the young man, sad enough, no doubt, at thus being compelled to forego the enjoyment of a privilege which had cheered many a year of hard work, went back to shoemaking, and with even greater ardor than before, continued his course of selfculture. In 1840, during the Harrison campaign, Mr. Wilson delivered a great number of speeches, and his abilities were promptly recognized. He was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature, in the lower branch of which he remained for four years; then he was elected to the State Senate, of which body he was President for two sessions. It was while he was in the Legislature that he began to rise as a leader in the anti-slavery ranks. He strenuously exerted himself against the annexation of Texas. With John G. Whittier he went to Washington, bearing the anti-slavery protest. The cause of his withdrawal from the National Convention which nominated General Taylor was the rejection of the antislavery resolution, which had been proposed as a plank of the platform. In the formation of the Free-Soil Party he took an active share; from 1849 to 1853 he was Chairman of the Bay State Free-Soil Committee, and in 1852, when the party met in National Convention at Pittsburg, Penn., he was chosen President. The Massachusetts Legislature sent him, in 1855, to fill the place vacated by Edward Everett in the United States Senate, to which he was reelected in 1859. He was not long in the Senate before he aroused the anger of the slave-holding representatives by efforts to procure the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, and by his endeavors to procure the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. When the late war broke out he raised a regiment of volunteers in Massachusetts, and joining the army of the Potomac, served as a member of Gen. McClellan's staff until Congress met. In 1861 he was made Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Few, except himself, recognized the magnitude of the struggle which was actively inaugurated by the firing upon Fort Sumter, and the measures he introduced with the view to preserving the Union at the outset, were fully justified by after events. In the legislation necessary to meet the changed condition of national affairs at the close of war, the services rendered by Mr. Wilson were most valuable. His achievements in the cause of liberty and civilization have won for him a fame far beyond the bounds of this continent. During his absence in Europe, in 1871, men of eminence as scholars and statesmen delighted to do honor to the man who had raised himself from a cobbler's bench in the town of Natick to be a leader in one of the greatest events of the century. Several of the literary works which have been produced by Mr. Wilson of late years will long be useful and instructive manuals to the student and the statesman; notably "The Military Measures of the United States Congress,' "Testimonials of American Statesmen to the Truths of Christianity," " ," "The History of the Reconstruc 99 tion Measures," and "A History of the Rise and Fall of Slavery in the United States"-the last being left by his sudden decease unfinished. On the 6th of June, 1872, Mr. Wilson was nominated to the second place on the Presidential ticket of the Republican Party, and he delivered numerous speeches in the campaign which preceded his election. It may not be out of place here to quote some words spoken by him at Natick, to a number of his fellow-townsmen, who came to congratulate him on his nomination as VicePresident. They give an insight to the single-hearted, unselfish patriotism which inspired his career. "If defeat comes," he said, "I shall endeavor to bear it as I should do; if victory comes I will simply say, I shall strive in the future as I have in the past, to serve my country with clean hands and a pure heart, to be true to the interests of my fellow-men, and always to side with the weakest and poorest of my countrymen who need sympathy." His intense Americanism is shown in one of his latest utterances: “A man born in America to-day has more power and higher responsibility than he has in any other age or in any other land that the sun ever shone upon." Latterly, the arduous labor of an intensely active life told upon the robust frame of the Vice-President, and he was not, as formerly, able to accomplish so much of the work in which he delighted. On the 10th of November he was affected with apoplexy in the Capitol, and although there was a strong belief -up to almost the time he expiredthat he would recover, the attack proved fatal. His remains were taken to his old home at Natick, and interred with the honor befitting his national position and the esteem in which he was held by the American people. |