The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-28
John G. Palfrey.
Sketch of the Historian and Publicist

The Boston Advertiser has a long and appre-
ciative sketch of the late John Gorham Pal
| frey, the historian of New England, who died
| IL Cambridge Tuesday. We make the follow
ing extracts:
In special sense Mr.. Palfrey belongs 10
Boston, to Massachusetts and to New En-
gland. And he has served his more particu-
lar home in the pulpit OF old Brattle square
church, as the immediate successor of Edward
Everett; at Harvard University as the success
sor in more senses than one of the conservative
/ Andrew Norton; in the State House and the
National Capitol as a representative and an
executive officer; in literature as editor of the
North American Review in its great days, and
as the chief historian Of New England-oftsn
and on many occasions, with his pen
his eloquence and his zeal; always with his
conscience, his honor and his marked cor,-
victirns. To SOME extent his virtues were
inherited and due to early training
his grandfather having been pay
master-general in the army of the Revolution.
and aid-de-camD to Washington on the occu-
patton OF Dorchester, while his father was a
merchant at Demarara and Boston, aud Lou
iSiana planter.
Mr.. Palfrey received his first instruction il,
learning from William Payne, the father of the
actor. He was prepared for college at the re-
nowned Exeter Academy, and he graduated at
Harvard in the class of 1915. That class in
cludes among its survivors the venerable
Iheophilus Parsons. among its dead Jared
Sparks. Harvard created Mr.. Pafrey doctor
OF divinity in 1884, doctor Of laws in 1869, the
latter title having been previously conferred
by Saint Andrews in 1888. Mr.. Palfrey studied
theology and was ordained pastor of the Brat
tie square church in 1918, retaining that posi-
tlon 9ntli 1851, when he accepted the profess
sorship OF sacred literature at Harvard, and
retained it until his resignation in 1899 The
literary fruits of this life are mostly addresses
and discourses, all of which show Mr.. Pafrey
to have leaned toward the conservative wing of
Boston Unitarianism; to Norton rather than
to Channing; to history rather than individu-
alism; to high scholarship rather than to per-
Sonal preferences. But within his chosen
field and principles, Mr. Palfrey was man of
marked strength, a stout defender. and bold
asssilant.
Among DIR. Palfrey's historical works
the earliest is the Barnstable discourse of
1889, commemorating the bi-centenary of
the Cape Cod settlement. October 81,
1874, he pronounced the "Seni-centci,,
nial Discourse before the Massachusetts
Historical Society" which is almost full aud
final authority. This was followed in 18l5 bv
life OF w. Palfrey, his grandfather, in
Sparks series. and in 1916 by a volume of news
paper articles ON the slave power, reprinted
from the Boston Whlg then edited by Charles
Francis Adams. For four years, beginning
early in 1874, he was Secretary of the Com
monwealth; then he served two years in Con-
gress. Mr.. Palfrey was political abolitionist,
a iree-soiler, and man of pronounced views.
Early i'll life he had liberated the
Louisiana slaves whom he inherited;
he resisted Nh. Webster in his decline:
and his course in Congress brought upon him
much ostracism. This was partly due to his
political ideas, which have stood the test of
time' parity TO his temper, which is now indie
pendent OF all time. He was assailed very
bitterly, and he defended himself in his LET
ter to Friend" published in 1850 He helped
in founding the free-soil party side by side
DO A hT
Charles Sumner and Charles Allen But he
Jailed OF a reelection in a most remarkable
contest, and 1t was then necessary to form the
coalition which sent Charles Sumner to the
United States senate. During that period Mr..
Palfrey decided to write the history of New
England. But he reentered public life once
more, when he served as postmaster of Boston
from 1861 to 1866.
Mr.. Palfreys History of New England as
originally planned is not complete, the preriod
Just preceding the Revolution being bu
sketched. The larger edition Boston, 1883
1861 is in three Svo volumes, and ends with
l689; the compendious history, New York,
io66-I0 is done in four 16mo volumes, the
iourth ending with the year 1765. The first
two volumes of this edition are the larger work
condensed, while the "compendious history
covers the period from 1858 to 1765 The work
is a history of the New England people as iii-
Huenced by their origin, and the physical, So
cial and political traditions under which they
have fiourished. Mr.. Palfrey discovered that
the cycle OF New England is eighty-six
years, each cycle ending with betrayai-by
a Stuart by Guelph, and by the stakeholder.
But from each betrayal the country rose free
and true. The first cycle is the subject OF the
authors n,agnun opus; the second cycle has
been traced in the compendium history He
rsrsea par from his work with little apprehension
ana with some substantial satisfaction Tor
nsxins ns xis contributed something to the welfare
OF ms country by reviving the image of the an
clent eass virtue Of New England" and with the
nope tnat In honest undertaking he might
ho' appear to have altogether failed''