Reminiscences of Lucius Manlius Sargent : with an appendix containing a genealogy of his family, and other matters
Sheppard, J. H. (John Hannibal), 1789-1873
>fc a « **'**•' 1 *c TY< ijHr1 ■ r^ ^MMLffi] "Bi ^ REMINISCENCES ■ LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT: AN APPENDIX CONTAINING A GENEALOGY OE HIS FAMILY, AND OTHER MATTERS.. By JOHN H.iSHEPPAR JSHEPPARD. j I X- dh stcu/:i/M>t~? REMINISCENCES LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT: AN APPENDIX CONTAINING A GENEALOGY OE HIS FAMILY, AND OTHER MATTERS. By JOHN H. SHEPPARD BOSTON: PRINTED BY DAVID CLAPP & SON. 1871. (US 11 UK 4^,osk "Salve oeternum milii; maxime Palla ; iEternumque vale ! " Rest ! noble spirit ! where thy worth they know, Where ministering Angels from their seats above, Oft saw the tear, that fell for others' woe, Exhale like incense to the Throne of love. What, though some frailties dimmed thy buoyant youth, Through a like ordeal Saints of old have passed ; Yet, when they heard the still small voice of Truth, How pure and holy were their lives at last ! Bright was the robe thy manhood bravely wore, To temperance, virtue, classic culture given ; Till the rich fruit, " My Mother's Gold Ring " bore, To many an outcast oped the gates of Heaven. The sunset lingering gilds the Scholar's shrine, And wakes a thousand memories in the breast. The past is past forever !* Be it mine Beneath the shadow of the Cross to rest. * II passato e passato, e per sempre. AZELIO. PREFACE The Reminiscences of the late Lucius Manlius Sargent were prepared at the request of the Publishing Committee of the New-England Historic, Genealogical Society, and appeared in substance in the New-England Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1871. In reprinting them in a pamphlet form, genealogies of four families from wrhich he was descended in the paternal and maternal line have been added, with a list of his classmates at college, and other matters of interest connected with his life. Boston, Mass., July 1. 1871. LUCIUS MAN1IDS SARGENT. "When we reached the Green Room, as it was called, Oldbuck placed the caudle on the toilet-table, before a huge mirror with a black japanned frame, surrounded by dressing-boxes of the same, and looked around him with something of a disturbed expression of countenance. ' I am seldom in this apartment,' he said, ' without }7ielding to a melancholy feeling — not, of course, on account of the childish nonsense that Grizel was telling youj but owing to circumstances of an early and unhappy attach- ment. It is at such moments as these, Mr. Lovel, that we feel the changes of time. The same objects are before us — those inanimate things which we have gazed on in wayward infancy and impetuous youth, in anxious and scheming manhood — they are permanent and the same.' " Such were the reflections of the Laird of Monk-barns in the Antiquary, Vol. I., page 99-. The above passage occurred to the mind when about commencing the reminiscences of a late accomplished scholar and elegant writer. His, cottage in the midst of a grove on Rock Hill in West Roxbury ; his superb library ; his fine face as he pointed to favorite authors or choice specimens of art ; and his peculiar and genial powers of conversation, came over the memory like a dream, as we realized that he was no more ! He has left a melancholy space in that small circle of friends which age every year inevitably contracts. Lucius Manlius Sargent was descended in the fourth generation from one of the early settlers of Cape Ann. William Sargent, 2d — so called to distinguish him from an emigrant of a similar name, but in no way related, came to Gloucester about 1G78, where he had a grant of two acres of land on Eastern Point, on which he built a house. He was born in Exeter, England, 6 LUCIUS MAKLIUS SAEGENT. His father, William Sargent,1 contrary to the wishes of his parents, was married to Mary Epes, "who," it is said, " stole away to become his wife in the habit of a milk maid." They left Exeter and went to Bridgetown, Barbadoes, where their son William2 was educated. William2 was married June 21, 1678, to Mary, daughter of Peter Dun- can, who died Feb. 28, 1725, aged 66. They had fourteen children, 'of whom C,ol. Epes Sargent,3 our progenitor, was born July 12, 1690, and was twice married: 1st, to Esther Macarty, April 1, 1720, who died July 1, 1743. She was the daughter of Florence and Christian Macarty, of Roxbury. Their children were — 1. Epes,4- born Feb. 17, 1721, died Jan., 1779 ; 2. Esther,4 born Sep. 20, 1722 ; 3. Ignatius,4 born July 27, 1724, died in a foreign land; 4. Thomas,4 born April, 1726, died April 24, 1727 ; 5. Winthrop,4 born March 6, 1727, died Dec. 3,1793; 6. Sarah,4 born Aug. 6, 1729, died 1792; 7. Daniel,4 born March 18, 1731, died Feb. 18, 1806, aged 75; 8. William,4 born June, 1733, died 1736; 9. Benjamin,4 born Oct. 18, 1736, died abroad; 10. Mary Ann,4 born Dec. 1, 1740, died in infancy. 2d, he was married, Aug. 10, 1744, to Mrs. Catharine Brown, of Salem, whose maiden name was Winthrop, widow of Samuel Brown. She was descended from Gov. Winthrop and grand-daughter of Gov. Dudley. He then moved to Salem. By this last marriage he had — 1. Paul Dudley,4 born in 1745, died Sep. 15, 1828, aged 83 ; 2. Catherine,4 and 3. Ann,4 who each died in infancy; 4. Mary,4 who died at 11 years of age at a boarding school; 5. John,4 born Dec. 24, 1749, died Jan. 24, 1824. Col. Epes Sargent3 was a man of note in his day ; a flourishing mer- chant, a magistrate, representative in 1744, colonel in the militia, and. above all, a christian. He was highly spoken of in a Salem paper after his decease. He died in Salem, Dec. 6, 1762, and his remains were coin-eyed to the family tomb in Gloucester. Epes,4 his son, born Feb. 17, 1721, died Jan., 1779. He was married to Catherine, daughter of John Osborn, of Boston, 1745 — an elegant and accomplished woman, who died Feb. 7, 1788. In the diary of L. M. Sargent, it is observed, that he visited the old grave- yard, April 2''), 1836, with his two sons, Horace Binney and Lucius Man- lius, and erected a large slab of granite, 8 feet by I, and one foot thick, without any inscription} over Col. Epes Sargent's tomb. But in 1861 he caused an inscription to he cut. LUCIUS MAXLIU3 SARGEXT. 7 Daniel,4 the 7th son, was married Feb. 3, 1763, to Mary Turner, who was the daughter of Hon. John Turner, of Salem, an eminent merchant, who was bom May 20, 1709, and died Dec. 19, 1786. The children of Daniel were: — 1. Daniel,5 born June 15, 1764, and was married to Mary Frazier, of Newburyport, Dec. 4, 1802, and died April 2, 1842; 2. Igna- tius,5 born Nov. 1, 1765, died Jap. 18, 1821, aged 56 ; 3. John Turner,5 born March 27, 1769, died Feb. 10, 1813, aged 44; 4. Henry,5 born — 1770, died Feb. 21, 1845, aged 74; 5. Mary Osborn,5 born Sep. 30, 1780, died Sep. 12, 1781; 6. Winthrop,5 born Jan. 31, 1783, died Jan. 11, 1808, aged 25 ; 7. Lucius Manlius,5 born June 25, 1786. Mr. Sargent,4 a merchant largely concerned in the fishery business in Gloucester, moved to Boston, between 1770 and 1780. He purchased a house in Atkinson (now Congress) Street, near High Street, which was consumed in the great fire of July 30, 1794; then he hired a house on Fort- hill of T. Elliot, and in 1797 removed to a large and splendid mansion at the corner of Essex and Lincoln Streets, at the rent of $1000 a year — a high price in those days. He afterwards bought it, and there lived till his death ; soon after which it was occupied by the Female Asylum. His store was on Long Wharf, first No. 25, then 40. Lucius Manlius,5 the youngest child of Daniel Sargent,4 was born in the house his father purchased in Atkinson Street — a mansion which he describes with much interest in his diary. It stood with its gable end to the street, on the. left hand, going up to High Street. After it was consumed, his father built a block of three brick houses on the spot, numbered»76, 78 and 80. Within a few years a large and lofty range of stores has been erect- ed on the premises, and the very street is changed in name; so fast the waves of time wash away the landmarks of the past ! A large garden, with a high brick wall shaded by luxuriant woodbines, belonged to the old mansion- house. At the head of the garden Avas a handsome summer-house adorned with honeysuckles ; and on the walls of it, Henry, his brother, had painted a landscape, just before he left home to study under Sir Benjamin AVest in England. This painting was a favorite of his mother, and much admired by visitors to whom she pointed it out. In the garden were roses of the. finest kind, and fruit trees, such as plum, pear and ajjricot. After a pictur- esque description of this sweet retreat, we find in his diary a group of the b LUCIUS MANLIUS SAEGENT. family arrangements. There were the negro servant, the cook, the cham- bermaid, the nurse, with Sukey the cow, and Marquis the horse said once to have been in the troop of Lafayette — and a noble Newfoundland dog who loved to be harnessed to his cart or sled — such was the happy home of the childhood of Manlius. And there, too, was Mary Turner, daughter of his brother Ignatius, born in Boston, Feb. 5, 1792, whose mother died in the fall of that year, of the small-pox. She was taken and brought up in his father's family till she married Mr. Samuel Torrey, a merchant of Boston, May 31, 1812. Manlius was exceedingly fond of this lively little orphan. They played together, grew up under the same happy roof, and his fondness for his niece continued unabated during a long life ; and it was but the other day that Mrs. Torrey spoke most affectionately of her lamented uncle. He has given us in his diary an amusing narrative of his infancy and boy- hood, from which we have gleaned some anecdotes and traits of character which may not be uninteresting ; for his little soul from the cradle was full of life, and boiling over with fun and mischief. He began his A B C's under the tuition of Madam Wolcott in High»Street. She kept a parrot, probably as a pitch-pipe for the intonation of the children's voices, and one of his first exploits was to cram a marble down the throat of poor Poll, and then run away home, frightened by the screeching of the dying bird and the outcries of its mistress. Soon after this his mother sent him back under the care of Poll Roulston, a seamstress in the family, who went as peace- maker. They found the school-mistress in bed, and, on seeing them, she called out, " Come, my child, I have got something for you." He saw the end of a rod sticking out from under the bed clothes, and he cried, " I see it," .and took to his heels. His fond nurse, Sally Davis, then undertook to teach him his letters, and succeeded as far as words of throe syllables, the length of her literary tether. He was then sent to Master Lane's school, in West Boston, which he reached by going up Hancock Street and round by the Beacon monument, on the sides of which were four historic tablets, lie says (hat in \~\v.) it was "a lonely spot to travel.1' The master was ••harsh ; " lie did not like him. One mode of his punishment was to make a hoy stand on a very narrow log, with scarcely any foothold, with a large chip in his month, for an example; yet- if any urchin lifted up his eves to look a! him, he was condemned to a similar punishment. LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT. 9 We soon find the little fellow in Dorchester, under the care of the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, since distinguished in the Masonic Fraternity — a Doctor in Divinity, antiquary, and copious writer. He took charge of some children as a teacher, and had in his family three French boarders. Mr. Sargent spoke highly of Dr. Harris, as a mild, forbearing and excellent man ; but he was treated ill by one of the Frenchmen and soon left. While at Dorchester, he had a fit of somnambulism. He got out of his bed one night in his sleep, ascended a kind of ladder to the scuttle and was getting on to the steep roof, when he was arrested from destruction by the gripe of a hired man, who by good luck heard his steps. and followed. This was the only attack of the kind he ever had. In 1798 his brother Winthrop, three years older, and himself were sent by his father to Master Ebenezer Pemberton's school in Billerica. He spoke of Mr. Pemberton as an excellent instructor and an amiable man. Here he seems to have been happy, and he ever recurred with deep interest to this period of his schoolboy days. We hear of no more wild pranks, except one rash experiment in his sports, wherein his life came near being terminated in the most tragic manner. It was this. His brother John, aid to Maj.-Gen. Elliot, was on business in -Billerica, stopping at the same house, and carelessly left a pair of pistols on the mantel-piece in the cham- ber occupied by Winthrop and Manlius. In their fun they took them up ■and agreed to go through a mock duel ; measured their distance, tossed up a copper for first fire, and marched out the paces. Winthrop turned and fired. .A pane of glass was broken ; Manlius smelt a singe of woollen, and found his coat had been perforated. It turned out the pistols were loaded with balls. Winthrop was overcome and wept, and without doubt Manlius turned pale. They kept this enacting of a duel' secret from their family. only letting the good nurse, Sally Davis, know it, who promised not to tell their parents as the tears rolled down her cheeks at the recital. Manlius, in his diary, describes Billerica as- "a very old town, which seems to have acquired the habit of standing still ; yet," he says, "it was and ever will be full of interest." Mr. Sargent in his youth must have been a lover of experimental philosophy. In -such a pursuit lie made two remarkable escapes; one from hanging, one from drowning. He go-1 up on the head of a barrel over which 10 LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT. a noose from a rafter in a barn was suspended for some reason, and lie thrust his neck into the noose to see how hanging would feel. A heedless boy knocked the barrel from under him, and there he hung, struggling, while the boy cried for help. A man released him just as he began to turn black in the face. The next trial was in skating. He fell into an air hole in Concord river, and not being able to extricate himself, was in imminent danger, till two school fellows, who by chance that day had been out shooting, one of whom was Francis Babcock of Boston, ran down to the ice, and by aid of a birch branch bending over the shore, helped him out. Speaking of the risks he ran, another occurs to memory, though at a different time and .place, yet it is sui generis with what has been related. When twelve years old, and while on a visit to his brother Ignatius in Gloucester, he one day took a horse and rode to Sandy Bay, carrying with him a double- barrel gun and two pounds of powder. At the beach he put a light charge into each barrel to squib off the gun. At the second discharge the ■ powder ignited in the large) powder horn. Near him was a well without a curb, full of water to the brim. He saw a woman drawing water, rushed forward and sprang into the well feet first. He was taken to a fisherman's hut and his brother sent for, who remained with him some days. His clothes were spoilt, his hair and eyebrows burnt, and also his hands and the more exposed parts of his body blistered ; so that he suffered great pain, and for several days, as he said, " lay in state," anointed with oil. The whimsical faces of two old women who laid on the oil with a couple of turkey -feathers, he well recollected to the last of his life. In 1801 he was put under the care of Dr. Benjamin Abbot, the celebrated preceptor of Phillips Exeter Academy, and spent three years in Exeter. Several pupils, since men of note, were there at the time. Henry Codman was with him at Exeter, and was in the same class at College — son of a merchant in Boston. They weve, like Euryalus and Nisus, intimate friends at the academy, the university, and during life. Mr. Sargent, in his friend- ships, never followed the doctrine of availability, seeking a selfish end by his intimacies, so very common among ambitious aspirants. At Exeter he wrote a poem, called the Exonia, one hue of which often recurs to our memory: — "To praise thyjudgmenl would degrade my own." lie also scribbled pasquinades; one of which, as lie confessed in his diary, LUCIUS MAKLIUS SARGENT. 11 "upon a worthy man, one of the tutors," caused his suspension for three months, and his sojourn at Hampton, in the care of Rev. Jesse Appleton — afterward, from 1807 till his death in 1819, president of Bowdoin college. This good man was fondly remembered by many of the students for the deep moral and religious influences he exerted. In due time Manlius returned to the academy, was fitted for college, and in 1804 entered Harvard University. It was here the writer of these reminiscences first saw and became acquainted with him. He was then seventeen, tall, handsomely proportioned, very muscular, and with a fine Roman cast of countenance. He seemed to follow the advice of one of Homer's heroes. .4llv uoigevEiv, y.ui tinelQo/ov efiiievut, aXKhtv. — Iliad, vi. 208. " Ever to bear myself like a brave man And labor to excel, and never bring Dishonor on the stock from which I sprung." Bryant's Translation. He was an elegant horseman ; an expert charioteer, worthy of the Olympian plains ; a swift and powerful swimmer ; and, to the best of our recollection, a good fencer with the broad sword. He loved the classics, wrote Latin verse and prose with great facility, and was probably the best Latin scholar in college. He was a lad of keen wit, and his sayings in the class were proverbial. Even against some of the tutors and professors he coidd not keep from cracking jokes ; especially making Dr. Pearson, jirofessor of Hebrew, a subject of his sport, for he hated Hebrew. The class of 1804, to which he belonged, according to the list from an old college diary, contained sixty students. Many of them in future life filled high and honorable stations, and a few became quite distinguished. Owing to some troubles at the University, about the commons, in the days of hard cider and pewter platters, a rebellion broke out, several took up their connection and never graduated. Only forty-two graduates of this class are found in the catalogue. Among those now deceased who attained eminence, or were honored in after life, were the following, as far as can be ascertained: — John Bliss, a colonel in the U. S. army, distinguished himself in the battle of Broad Axe in 1830. Edward F. Campbell — a perfect gentleman, was one of the most elegant and pleasing young men in the class. He inherited a fortune, and therefore never availed himself of his admission 12 . LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT. to the Bar to practise. He married. Maria, daughter of Gen. "William Hull of Newton — a most affectionate wife and daughter. She had just finished the "Revolutionary Services" of her father, prepared from his MSS., when her devoted and noble spirit fell a victim to disease. But her labor of love was left in good hands : the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, D.D., grandson of Gen. Hull, published it with an addition of his own — a history of the cam- paign of 1812 and the surrender of Detroit. Charles Flanders followed the profession of the law with reputation, and wrote a volume containing lives of John Jay, John Rutledge, Judge Marshall and others, " written," says the late Dr. Palmer, " in a beautiful style." James Johnson, twenty-nine years old when he took his degree, after emerging from severe trials in early life, and indomitable struggles to get an education, made his own way to honor and respectability as a worthy and faithful minister. Nathaniel Wright, a sound lawyer, was mayor of Lowell, 1841, 1842, and much respect- ed for his virtues and integrity. Nicholas Lloyd Rogers, a fine, classical scholar, studied law ; was an heir to a large fortune ; but left no literary fruit behind him. Samuel Scollay died an eminent physician in Smithfield, Virginia. Ralph Sanger, who graduated with the first part in his class, for forty-seven years was a faithful minister in Dover, Mass. Few had such amia- ble manners and purity of mind. Samuel E. Smith, the best Euclid scholar in college, except the late Judge Preble of Portland, was an able lawyer, governor of Maine, judge of the C. C. P., and retained his love of learning, especially of algebra, till death found him solving a problem. Enoch Lincoln died while he was governor of Maine. Over one third of this class of sixty reached three score and. ten, and several of them 80 years. On the 18th day of February, 1806, his honored father closed a long life of great industry, energy and enterprise. He had been a prosperous merchant. He was a man who had many noble and popular qualities. Naturally taciturn, he was much occupied by numerous claims of business arising from his navigation and supplies of fishermen. He seldom, if ever, allowed himself to speak ill of any one. He was a man who never in the vicissitudes of life murmured against Divine Providence, for his faith was sure and steadfast. In his temperament he was peculiarly gentle and placid. He delighted to do good in secret, but he was no friend to laziness. A stout, robust fellow, whom he well knew as a lounger, on a certain new LUCIUS MANLIUS SAHGENT. 13 year's day called Mm up very early in the morning. He dressed in haste and hurried to the parlor. The beggar cried, " A happy new year to you, sir." Mr. Sargent went to the closet and got a piece of gingerbread and gave it to him, saying, " Call on me this time next year and I'll give you another piece." An instance of his generosity to a poor fisherman is related in the diary referred to. When he was on a visit to Provincetown, Cape Cod, on business, the bearing of a young man of nineteen, stalwart in form, and ingenuous in look, attracted his notice. He inquired who he was, and found the youth was the son of a fisherman lately lost at sea, and of a mother who since died at home ; that he was left very poor, and that he' had a schooner under his control, but no means to fit her out for a cruise. " Take your schooner to Boston," said Mr. Sargent, " and I will assist you." The schooner arrived at his wharf, and she was immediately furnished with the outfit, and sailed. But her first cruise was attended with bad luck. " Don't be discouraged," said his noble benefactor, and fitted her out again, and this voyage was prosperous. The informant said, speaking of himself in after years, " I had a fortune through life." This anecdote, abridged for want of room, illustrates one of a multitude of the benevolent deeds this good man did. Another anecdote, related to his son by the celebrated William Gray, in substance was as follows : — Not long before Mr. Sargent's decease, in looking over and adjusting his papers, he found a lai'ge number of debts and notes due him by poor men, principally fishermen. He tied them up in a bundle, and on the label wrote this memorandum ; " Notes, due bills and accounts against sundry persons along shore. Some of them may be got by suit or severe dunning : but the people are poor ; most of them have had fishermen's luck. My children will do as they think best. Perhaps they will think with me, that it is best to burn the package entire." About a month after his decease the sons met in the counting room of the elder brother, who administered on the estate. He produced this package, read the inscription and inquired what should be done with it. The next oldest brother, with tears in his eyes, pointed to the fire, and they all agreed to it ; but it was thought best to make a schedule of the names, amounts 2 14 LUCIUS MANLIUS SAEGENT. and dates, so as hereafter to know who were forgiven, if any came to pay. It was done, and the package, labelled at $30,000, was cast into the fire. About four months after this, in the month of June, a hard-faced old man from the Cape came to the store to pay a debt due the deceased. He took a chair, and looking over a time-worn pocket book, drew out a bunch of bank bills to pay the debt. On learning his name, date and amount, viz., $440, the first step was to examine the list of burnt notes ; and there was his name, debt and date of very many years ago, which with interest, if preserved, would amount to $800. The administrator told him the fact and made him put back his money ; which he did with eyes brimful of tears, for he said " his old dame had sold the only cow to supply what was wanting in his hands to pay this debt, and what glad news it would be to her when he went home." This story is told anonymously, with great beauty and pathos, by Sigma in the " Dealings with the Dead," to. which we shall shortly refer. He entertained a high opinion of true and sterling integrity in all the transactions of life. He took pains to imbue this principle into the minds of his children, and they followed it. Indeed, honesty in our dealings is too little valued in a community where too often sharpness is called a virtue, and a prosperous cheat admitted into the best society. Mr. Sargent was a very popular man, though he never sought political or military honors. He was a federalist of the Washington school. He was beloved by all who did business with him, for his sincerity, downright openness of mannor and the sacredness of his word. One day in passing a group of men, he found two truckmen quarrelling and coming to blows. He plunged into the crowd, laid his long hurricane, as he called it, on the shoulders of the combatants, who began to curse and swear, till they caught his eye, and then ceased and went off, as the spectators dispersed. The hour of his departure was near. At such a time we look upon a face which seems to be gazing into eternity. There is then something awfully sublime in the expression of the features of a good man, glowing like a departing sunset, as the eye lights up and then closes forever! The circumstances attending the death of Mr. Sargent were of a consoling kind, O O O and were described with tenderness and true filial love in a letter from his eon — probably Manlius, for no name is given — to Winihrop. his brother, then at sea. It was written not long after their lather's decease. It LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT. 15 describes his last moments, as he lay sick on his bed from a dropsy in the chest. Two eminent physicians attended him, Dr. Rand and Dr. Lloyd, and there was some hope of recovery till pneumonia, with a burning fever, set in. Though restless in body, he was calm in mind, retaining his strong powers of intellect to the last. He professed in his conversations his firm faith in our blessed Lord and Redeemer. Being asked by his wife, how he did, he said, " Going and sinking fast." On her saying to him, " I hope you are not afraid to die," " Pray," said he, " what have I to fear in death ? I am mortal ; it is not to be presumed that I have lived to this advanced age without committing some errors ; but I can safely and sincere- ly put my hand to my heart and declare, I have in my transactions endea- vored to do what I thought was honest and upright." His remains were deposited in the tomb of the late Hon. John Osborne, and have since been removed to Mt. Auburn. His pall-holders were George Cabot and other prominent citizens. The stores on Long wharf were closed, and the vessels in the harbor were at half-mast during the obsequies. Mr. Daniel Sargent was stout, but not corpulent ; five feet ten inches in height, erect, with a broad chest, and blessed with a robust constitution. He never used profane or loose language in conversation, though in that day it was rather fashionable. His son beautifully says in his diary: — " On his face was a calmness and air of dignified self-respect." If the pa- rent's countenance was like that of his son Manlius, he must in earlier life have been a very handsome man. As a matter of historic curiosity, a brief notice of his costume may interest the reader. He wore a cue about twelve inches long, and a toupee which was parted in curls about the ears, often powdered in the fashion of the day. His or- dinary dress was a grey broad-cloth coat, grey or black silk vest, grey ker- seymere small clothes and grey silk stockings, with silver shoe and knee- buckles ; or in wet or cold weather, white top boots and a white neck stock, and a cocked hat, until late in life he changed it to a white broad brimmed hat in summer or a black one in winter. On the Sabbath or in company he put on a blue coat with metal buttons, a white vest and white stockings. Such was the fashion of those times. Nor should it be omitted, that lie at- tended divine service in the Congregational First Church, which held its 16 LUCIUS MANLIUS SAEGENT. meetings in the Old Brick Church, erected in 1713, where Joy's building now stands. Manlius having withdrawn from college, studied law with the celebrated Samuel Dexter, who stood at the head of his profession when New England had a constellation of great lawyers. After being in his office three years, he was admitted at the bar, but the inheritance of a fortune precluded the drudgery of practice. He was much attached to his learned master — a man of extraordinary talents, of whom Daniel Webster remarked, "His very statements were arguments," — and in 1847 he published a little volume of " Reminiscences of Samuel Dexter." Mr. Sargent was twice married : first to Mary, daughter of Barnabas and Mary Binney of Philadelphia, April 3, 1816. She was the sister of the eminent Horace Binney, now 91, and remarkable for the vigor of his mind at such an age. Mrs. Sargent died Feb. 4, 1824. They had three children : 1. Mary Turner, born in Quincy, Mass., June 28, 1818, who died in Rox- bury, August 2, 1841. 2. Horace Binney, born in Quincy, June 30, 1821. 3. Manlius, born in Philadelphia, Jan. 23^ 1824, and died in Dorchester, July 3, 1825. His second wife was Sarah Cutter, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Dunn of Boston, born June 29, 1797. They were married July 14, 1825, and she died August 7, 1868. They had one child, Lucius Manlius. He speaks of his daughter Mary in his diary, as " very affectionate and very intelligent." After the death of her mother, which occurred in Phila- delphia, while he was on business in Natchez, Mississippi, he removed to that city ; but afterwards returned with his children to Boston. In the " Dealings with the Dead," Vol. II., chap, cv., he mentions the winter of 1840-41 spent with his invalid daughter in the island of St. Croix; and in concluding the chapter, Sigma describes an excursion on horseback, by a party of some six or eight, among the Sugar-Loaf mountains. It was by moonlight, and ascending near the Annelly plantation, the moon at the full, "the Caribbean sea far and wide shining like burnished silver," they heard sounds of music, which rose from the slave cabins and arrested their atten- tion. . Slowly they drew near, and female voices were distinguished. - They were the wild and simple notes of " the children of bondage." It was melody. But the moment they were seen, it stopped. Thej asked -thej LUCIUS MANLIUS SAKGENT. 17 urged — they offered money to have it renewed ; but without avail. " No massa — b'lieve no sing any more." Neither Irving nor Hawthorne ever surpassed Mr. Sargent's beautiful description of the touching scene here referred to. As the party rode on, his daughter asked her father why they would not sing again ; he could not tell. " Perhaps," said she," they felt like those who sat and wept by the waters of Babylon : they could not sing a song of Zion in a strange land." This beloved daughter only returned home to die. She took her flight to that blessed country where no sorrowful captives hang their harps on the willows. The life of a scholar seldom affords incidents and events for biography, like the statesman or warrior, to create a sensation ; yet if we can only get access to the interior of a literary man — the world of mind — the ideal is often the most fascinating of all narratives. As no two scholars are alike, there would be a perpetual variety. Mr. Sargent was a man of fortune and of leisure — a deep thinker and observer of men. Few men had such rich powers of conversation, seasoned with humorous anecdotes, quick repar- tees and frequent reminiscences of other days. He was never idle : reading and writing were his labor and his pastime : and he often gave to the press the fruits of his lucubrations, from his beautiful cottage on Rock Hill, in Roxbury — a spot in the summer sequestered in the woods, and frequented by birds of music. He had a large and exceedingly valuable library ; many choice old authors were gathered there, in handsome, uniform binding. He had collected some fine statuary and paintings ; and on his table lay succes- sively the best periodicals of the day. When wearied with too much study he laid aside his books and his pen, and sought his carriage or mounted his horse ; for he was a most accomplished rider, and strangers often stopped to gaze at his majestic figure on its way to the city. The style of his compositions was pure, classical and elegant. He held a vigorous pen, and was exact in dates and localities. When he curbed his fertile imagination and touched on realities, he was exceedingly particular in adhering to facts; for -the treasures of a great memory were always at command. He studiously avoided new coined words and vulgar idioms, following in his taste the jus et norma loquendi of Horace, the great arbiter elegantiarum. As early as 1807 he published a new edition of a Latin work. C'adii Symposii .Knigmatiea— a copy of which he gave me — then a 18 LUCIUS MANLIUS SARGENT. translation of the Culex of Virgil. In 1813 Hubert and Ellen was issued from the press, with some shorter effusions of his muse. His " Wreaths for the Chieftain," was a magnificent ode ; it touched the heart of the nation, and will always be a favorite. Many a waif and estray under many a nom de plume, were the offspring of his pen ; and he was a frequent writer in the Anthology, published in 1804 to 1811, by a club of literati, of which the late celebrated classic .scholar, Rev. John S. J. Gardiner, D.D., was president. x "When the " Dealings with the Dead " first made their appearance in the Transcript, on successive Saturdays, these essays attracted much attention. The brave and daring independence of remark — the variety of topics — the accuracy of description about olden times in Boston — and the peculiar puri- ty of style, charmed every reader of this popular paper. The character of the " Old Sexton," which Sigma assumed, was well supported, though in some instances making charnel houses and tenebrious sepulchres, full of dead men's bones, almost too repulsive and gloomy. Many a heart must have thrilled when he raised up and described some friend or relative long forgotten, except in the abstraction of a name. They were weekly articles, stretching from 184\ to 1856," when they were neatly published in two volumes, making 160 chapters. The edition is exhausted; but there is so much beauty of style, instruction from the past, and recollections of Boston when a patriotic town, and before she had became a large city with horse rail-roads and modern improvements, that a new edition of the " Dealings with the Dead " would be an accession to our local history. Our space will only allow a brief reference to the " Temperance Tales," which were commenced in 1835, and have passed through several editions. In 1863 they were stereotyped and issued in six handsome volumes, to which is prefixed a history of the work by the author. The tales in number are twenty- one, written in successive years. The first, " My Mother's Gold Ring" — a gem of the first water— published at the suggestion of the late philanthropic Moses Grant and Father Taylor, had an extraordinary run ; everybody read it; Gov. Lincoln thought it would do much good; and Professors Leonard Woods and Moses Stuart of Andovcr, Bishop Potter of Philadelphia, and many other o-ood and eminent men, were delighted with it. There were 100,000 copies published by Mr. Delevan, of the New-York Temperance Society. The LUCIUS MAXLIUS SAKGENT. 19 author was urged to write more, and he did. The late learned civilian, Prof. Simon Greenleaf, of Cambridge, laid aside his learned lectures for a time, to write to Mr. Sargent the material for another story, " Kitty Graf- ton ; " and John Marsh suggested that of " Margaret's Bridal." In his tale of the " Life Preserver," he interwove his old schoolmate, Captain John Slater, into the drama as Jack Slater. The good which they have done in the cause of temperance can neither be weighed nor measured. They have been republished in England, and translated into German and several- other languages, even Hindostanee. These tales, so simple and natural, like the Vicar of Wakefield in their taste and beauty, will have an enduring reign. If the author was somewhat gay and wild in his youth, like one of England's noblest kings, Henry V., when he was prince and kept company with FalstafT, surely he has redeemed his character by writings which have had so much influence ; showing us that his genius, though veiled in clouds and vapors during the gaiety and wantonness of youth, has since shone out with meri- dian splendor in a moral and intellectual atmosphere. He gave thirty years of his life and thousands of dollars to aid the cause, of temperance. But these summary reminiscences must draw to a close. Our friend had become a very old man, yet with all the energy of his corporeal and men- tal faculties — saving a deafness which was troublesome. And now sorrow and darkness are coming upon him, and the joy of his mansion is clouded. "When the late terrible rebellion broke out, the patriotic heart of his two brave sons was kindled to rush forward in defence of the Union. In 1862, they entered the army, and one was taken and the other left, so awfully were" the Scriptures fulfilled. Horace Binney Sargent was distinguished by his bravery as Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry, and having been dangerously wounded in battle, was honorably discharged on account of his wounds, and was promoted for his good conduct and gallant- ry by brevet to Brigadier General, the appointment to date from March 21, 1864. Gen. Sargent graduated with the highest honors of his class in 1843, at Harvard University, His father about that time received a letter — which must have thrilled a parent's soul with delight — touching his son's exemplary conduct and excellent scholarship. It was from President Quinry'. He resumed his profession of the law, after his recovery from his wounds. Within two years after his return from the war, he was doomed to mourn 20 LUCIUS MANLIUS SAHGENT. 