New-York tribune., 1879-12-21

in Boston / was talking with Mr.. Charles Francis
Adams in Boston bookstore. and recall forcible
parallel which he drew between his grand
father and Franklin. =" Ny grandfather he said
e" never could keep his temper-Franklin always
kept his. The two men never could get along to-
gether; nv grandfather all fire, SAID imprudeut
things and lost his self-c0ntro Franklin took ad-
vantage of this, answered calmly. argued wariy.
and for this reason, usually got the Deter of the
argument" There can be no harm in thus referring
TO the infrmiiy of very great man. especially
when IL is remembered that his vehemence of spirit
of infinite service in Revolutionary times to the
struggling colonies. / have heard old men IN Quincy
talk of him by the hour. He had for some or
other given most of them a scolding. and n scold-
ing from John Adams must have been something OF
Bfction yet never heard any Of bis neighbors
speak of him without reverence. II they laughed at
his fOlblcs it was in areverentia way. One ancient
citizen expressed the opinion that cider, of
which the retired statesman fond, made
him sometimes little cross; but when l an
swered that he had earned the right to be cross, If
me pleased. the assent to my opinion was a hearty
one. | am in perpetual fear of getting garruous. or
] might tell how John Adams's wife cared for HIM
in his age and softened the asperties Of his temper
watched over him till death called her away, and
he was left n lonesome and moribund old man. wit
his passion for public Affairs still undated.
caught in my boyhood if may so, the tail end
of the Federalist and Democratic storm, but we
were enjoying something like era Of good feeling
when the anti-Masonic excitement arose to
peace, and to make those who had been good friends
and neighbors hate each other for time heartily.
II all came of that miserable Morgan matter in
Western New-York and to this day | have never
understood how a party could possibly be founded
upon such transaction. Yet party there was,
and quite an important one 1t put Mr.. Seward into
the State Senate in 1880 II made Joseph Ritner
Governor of Pennsylvania in 1885 (; il secured the
alliance of such men as John Quincy Adams. Will
lam Writ, Francis Granger. Thurl0w Weed. TO men,
tion no Others 1t carried the State of Vermont for
Writ and Ellmaker, its candidates for Presi-
dent and Vce-President; and six years after
ward there not enough of it left anywhere
10 save il from the limbo of L" scattering l be-
lleve the best opinion TO be that Morgan mur-
dered by certain very jealous Freemasons / heard
q peripatetic lecturer say once that he was in
lodge in New-YOrk City when the fact of the mur-
der was officially communicated to the brethren
but am not sure that he told the truth. He gave
kind of exhibition, and went through what he
said were the ceremonies of initiation and though
i was fercely prejudIced against the order, they
struck my boyish fancy somewhat imposing.
MYgrandfatber who "A Master Mason. seeded,
and made me a present of his apron, pretty one,
which kept for long time as trophy. The Ma
SOUS themselves in rather helpless condition.
They could not nominate for office MasOns
as such, for that would have been a sur
render of the very point upon which
they always insisted that they did not
carry their Masonry into politics. So they voted
they could and for whom they could-with the
Jackson men, or. in part Of the State, with the
National Republicans and generally they had
rather a forlorn and friendess time Of it, They
good citizens enough, with no notion OF mur-
dering anybody the lodge meetings had been So
cial and friendly and sometimes convlvial when the
brethren passed from labor to refreshment y; and
it irked them naturally to be spoken of felons
the apoogiss of felons Our election contests were
about as fierce any which have since known.
The majority rule prevailed. and tried six times
in vain to elect n member of Congress in our Dis
trict, until my soul was sick with the still recur-
ring report No Choice The seventh trial brought
good luck to the other side and bad to ours
they elected their man by majority of about q
hundred. Again, l mourned for the Republic
ruined, as have SO many times since; but the feel
ing which now possesses my mind, upon recalling
this teapot tempest of inexpressible astonsh
ment that over seven thousand human beings, all
tolerably well furnished with brains. should have
gone so maliclOusly mad about nothing. The lodge
soon afterward went ndustriously to work again,
and made more entered apprentices than ever;
most of the Massachusetts, ant-Masons drifted into
the Democratic party under the leadership of that
apostle OF political virtue Mr.. Benjamin +. Hallett;
and so faded out, exhaled and vanished the first
political party of my love- leaving behind it moth
ing but quantity of musty old files Of newspapers
and of pamphlets. which the most devoted OF anti
quarians can hardly read without yawning.
have always esteemed it one of the luckiest
features of my lot that from the very beginning
had all the books which cared to read, and more
that was nurtured upon good. solid literature and
was permitted TO devour whatever pleased to de-
vour without any meddlesome or fussy interference.
Surely it was something to have been child be-
fore the present style of juvenile literature came
into such fashion--before this avalanche of Peter
Parleyisms Town to a little embarrassment when
at the tender age of six or seven years l was de-
tected reading "The Friend" of Coleridge-no
doubt with wise expression of countenance. Such
thunderous guffaw did my uncle set up at this
discovery that the small metaphyscian was utterly
contounded and blushed as if be had been caught
differing blackberry jam. Yet even then l
found a pleasure in some OF Coerdges
deliciously musical sentences. though they
might have been written in Arabic for
all understood Of them. Books! Yes, il was some
thing to be trained in home which, however poor
in meaner property, was always full of books either
borrowed from the library, ornherted from reading
ancestors or may be- purchased in prosperous days.
What discussions we had of their merits, and what
critical battles we fought for our favoritesl Was
II not an intellectual fortune in itself 10 escape the
era of the Minerva Press and to be born in the year
in which "Keniworth " and The Pirate" ap-
pearedf Was il not something to have ali these
wholesome books waiting for me. so that when not
many years after Sir Walter threw of his incognito
in 1927 had read him through and through
from .Waverly" 10 Castle Dangerous" and