Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-08-21
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

With an EuIogy pronounced before the Connecticut H $
to1cal Society, at New Haven, May 81, 1916. BY the
Rev. WILLIAM w. ASDREws. New York Harper
Brothers, ls47." limo, PIP. 32s.
In this well-executed volume we have the memo
rails and the selected remains, epstolary and Others
of one who may be considered the last of the linz Of
the Puritan Governors of New England; man
little too late to have shared in the Revolutionary
struggle, the agonia, las the emanclpaed Greeks
happily but scarcely more appropriately call their
own bloody and unequal contest,) but filled with It's
best spirits and preserving il, in its decay, against
those civil corruptons, that false freedom,.to which
demagogues led the way, who had but little part in
vindicating liberty by arms in giving it, by wise
laws and administration, the permanency Of or
ganized Government The common descendant
through the female line, of John Cotton and OF
Richard Mather, Chose early ornaments OF the
Church in Massachusetts,, and, directly, of Henry
Smith, pastor of Wethersfed, lin Connecticut,
1887 before yet that separate province was char
tered, 1897 he was, through Jerusha the daughter
of Cotton Mather, the greatgrSndson of that other
early magnate of the faith in New England. His
father the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, for some fifty
years the minister of Sharon, (Connecticut,) bore
in his patronymcs the signs OF his high eccleslastl-
cal lineage. His mother, the daughter OF the Rev
William Worthington, of Saybrook, was OF like
ancestors no less than seven of the great clerical
and learned names of early New Eng land The
domestic influences of such descent, the spirit OF
such line seldom fails to affect advantageously the
offspring which must, indeed, be, through some
sinister cause, most unworthy, if, with the blood OF
the wise, the godly, the gentle, the brave, large
part of their ideas and feelings not transmitted
to it, Accordingly, such influences did not fail in
this last of the Puritan Governors. His biographer
says, (p. 1888
Hs ancestral attachments very strong; he glored
in his descent from these worthless and much any
of his time, he controlled by their principles and actuaed
by their spirit 1t the great blessing of his childhood to
receive his training of the best of the old New England
households where law stood embodied patarcha authority
and dignity and where Christian faith gave the to
the domestic harmones and much Of the beauty and eeva
ton of his character doubtless owing to the pure and
quickeng atmosphere of his fathers house. There he form
ed those habits of subordnaton and acquired that lofty self
control which distinguished his future life No had more
of al than he his intercourse with his parents
marked BY the most respectful and their
memory cherished by him with the aectonate
Grafton He of the many proofs how much the
ceence of the New England character has had its ground
work laid in the religious constitution of her families"
With these hereditary advantages, and that APP
parenty, of something like wealth, Mr. Smith saw
the light on the 18th February, 1865, destined to
preserve its gifts for above four-score years. and at
last to resign them, after many important trusts,
amidst wide and Just public esteem and love, not
a duty ill done, to the end and his very health, to
the seeming, almost unwasted by previous disease:
man certainly most happy in his actions and his
faith one who, 10 the last held on the primitive
love of his duties lofty in his politics, ausere in
his religion, rigid in his morals, though not his
manners and with only this to deplore-that
amidst his own immediate happiness, he lived to
see his country suffer grievous decline of its gov
eminent and fall, for many years, under the do
minion of The bad and Ignorant banded together into
faction the most'formidable
Taught, first of all, las it is happy when chill
dren are taught,) by mother, he afterwards passed
under the care of private teachers then entering
Tale College at fifteen, he graduated there in
1888, the year of peace with England. He imme-
dately began the study of the law, but not upon
that method so commonly seen in this country,
where young gentlemen seem to think that the HUI
manities can be of no use to one at the Bar and
that to get up the hill of the Law, you must slide
down that of Classical Learning. Mr.. Smith, on
the contrary, only doubled his studies, pushed on
his college course to maturer results, and qualified
himself TO take the degree of Master Of Arts. In
1856 he admitted to the Bar, where he soon
rose to reputation and lucrative practice. Such
success leads almost always into politics. Pos
sessed of hereditary station in the public conf
dence, and meriting it not only by his talents and
worth, but by manners which more than all others
command personal ascendency-manners which
are at once elevated and urbane-the manners of a
superior but not proud mamie seems quite early
to have been called into, what he was so fitted for,
public life. In 1893 he became member Of his
State Legislature, and continued TO serve in this
until 500, when he was transferred to the National
Councils, as member of the House OF Represen-
tatives here. What the of his public opinions
and action, the following extract from the Life pp.
d, %, 3D. "a, 25) will show:
"Mr Smith, as might have been anticipated, early espous-
ed the cause the Federal Union, and supported the Admin
aon 10 which the Government first committed under
the constitution The Revolution while it freed the Go.
lones from the rule of the mother-counuy, left them
enieebed perpexed, and almost chaotic state They
Keeling under the burden of debts incurred the prosecution
OF the Icenous nsubordnate split every where
rife instructions breaking out the central government
III, by msnomer, may call it government) uter,
poweress the collection OF revenue, the maintenance
Of authority the ced, of the Conederacy gone HON
and abroad and the faces of began gather backnes
as they thought Of the future Ii felt that
thing than liberty, freedom from foreign domination
was wanted that some organize principle be introduce
to stay the process which fast dssoyng chaos
that govenment-not sham, hut verlty-mus be esab
hed, to be the central heart and the vigorous Of h
whole Coniederacy, and without mparing the rcasonab
liberties OF the States be the strong and majestic
taive Of the national unity and the organ Of the national
We in imminent danger Of falling apart
being Irecyaby broken, through the inordnate power