the election being indecisive, they found the decision of the case referred to the House of Representatives, under the then provisions of the constitution. The three months of uncertainty and excitement which followed, closed with the declaration of Mr. Jefferson's election, Feb. 17, 1801. A letter written by Senator Foster at almost the very time of declaring the vote bears witness to the "high political fever" which prevailed.

The support of Aaron Burr by the New England Federalists is one of the least creditable acts in the early political history of the country. The time which has elapsed since its occurrence has by no means served to diminish the regret with which it must be viewed. "The Federalists," says Mr. Charles Francis Adams, "being mostly from the Northern States, sympathized the more with Burr for that very reason. Parties rarely spend the time in refining." "Thus it happened that the Federal members took a course, success in which would have proved a misfortune, and wherein failure sunk them forever in the public esteem.

In November, 1800, Senator Foster's younger brother, Dwight, who from 1793 to 1799 had been a member of the national House of Representatives, entered the upper house as one of the senators from Massachusetts. For nearly three years, the two brothers sat together in the senate. Dwight resigned his seat before the expiration of his term, and retired at the same time with his brother, in March, 1803. An examination of the record of debates and votes shows an interesting divergence of action on the part of the two brothers, who seem oftener to have divided than to have acted together, on questions of minor importance. Dwight's retirement from national politics. was but the beginning of a long and useful career in his own state of Massachusetts.2 With Theodore, however, his

(1) C. F. Adams's "Life of John Adams," (ed. 1856), p. 595, (published as v. 1 of Adams's "Works"). Compare also some interesting contemporary letters, printed in G. C. Mason's "Reminiscences of Newport," p. 108-15. (2) He was a judge of the Worcester county court of common pleas, (1801-11); a member of Governor Brooks's council, 1818; and from 1811 until the

return to Providence was the beginning of an almost total withdrawal from public life.

Senator Foster, in closing his thirteen years' term of senatorial service,-one of the longest on record,-appears to have done so not merely with willingness, but with a feeling, as indicated by his letters, which amounted almost to eagerness. The language of these letters strikingly recalls, in fact, the similar feeling of Rufus Choate, already mentioned,' who like him, many years later, sat as a senator in this very body, and like him, retired with intense satisfaction to resume his studies and home occupations.

Mr. Choate "had been," says one of his biographers," "a senator in congress, but as he grew old he disliked everything

end of his life, (1823), one of the most eminent members of the Massachusetts bar.

His grandson, Dwight Foster, was in 1866 appointed one of the judges of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He served in 1877 as the agent of the United States in the proceedings of the Halifax fishery commission. ("Documents and proceedings of the Halifax commission, 1877," Washington, 1878, I. 6-10, 12).

He died at his home in Boston, April 18 of the present year, (1884). Judge Foster was from 1856 to 1863, and again from 1880 to his death, a member of the executive council of the American Antiquarian Society. At the semi-annual meeting of that society, April 21, 1884, a minute in relation to his death was adopted. In his character as a Supreme Court judge, remarks this minute, "he was eminent among distinguished associates;" and it farther says: "In the attention now devoted to heredity, it will be noticed the great-grandfather and the grandfather of our associate, Hon. Jedediah Foster and Hon. Dwight Foster, were judges and respected legal authorities in their time, and his father, Hon. Alfred Dwight Foster, was a well-read lawyer, though he did not practice." (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 21, 1884, p. 94-95). Judge Foster was also an accomplished historical investigator, and the report of the council, ("Proceedings," above cited, p. 111), dwells with exceptional emphasis on the loss to the society sustained by his death.

(1) See page 111.

(2) Edwin P. Whipple, in "Some recollections of Rufus Choate," p. 30. Compare Senator Foster's letters to Dr. Drowne. Compare also quotations from some of them, in a "History of Rhode Island," (published 1878), p. 133-34. His "literary tastes," as quoted in Dwight's genealogy, "personal friendships, and love of nature, were far dearer to him

in politics which drew him away from his library during the brief hours of leisure which his professional engagements enabled him to enjoy."

Together with his life-long friend, Dr. Drowne, Senator Foster withdrew at once from public life to his estate at Foster, R. I., the town which had been named in honor of him in 1781. The two friends found here abundant scope for the gratification of their literary and classical predilections. Both of them had passed the age of fifty; both had been in college together; both had been companions in delightful studies and in youthful recreations; both had been most assiduous correspondents through the years which had since elapsed, during which Dr. Drowne had served as a surgeon in the war of the revolution, studied medicine at London, Paris and Amsterdam, and aided in planting the infant settlement on the Ohio. At this sightly and healthful location, to which they gave the name of Mount Hygeia, they took up their abode with their families, "surrounded," says a recent writer, by such comforts as the time and their means afforded. They communed together, as in their boyhood they had planned, writing verses full of classical allusions, as was the fashion of the age, and engaging in their favorite studies." Yet, "while enjoying their 'learned leisure,' they found time to advance the interests of the town." Senator Foster was chiefly instrumental in the establishment of a post-office, a bank, and a library,-the latter being contrib

2

than pecuniary gain." It is probable that he was somewhat too indifferent to the accumulation of property.

(1) His second marriage (to Miss Esther Bowen Millard), occurred a few months after his return from Philadelphia, (June 18, 1803). She died December 29, 1815, aged thirty; and the last thirteen years of his life were passed chiefly at Providence with his daughter, Mrs. Tillinghast, whose husband, Stephen Tillinghast, was a grandson of his old friend, Stephen Hopkins, and was named for him. It is of interest to notice that while Senator Theodore Foster's daughter thus married a descendant of one signer of the Declaration of Independence, (Stephen Hopkins), Senator Dwight Foster's grandson, (the late Judge Dwight Foster, of Boston), married a descendant of another of the signers, (Roger Sherman). (Dwight Genealogy, II. 636, 656).

(2) Mr. Robert Grieve, in "Picturesque Rhode Island," p. 165.

uted almost wholly by him, and presented to the town.' He also interested himself in the very marked reconstruction and improvement of the main road from Providence to Woodstock and Hartford. That "portion of the road," says the writer just quoted, which passed through Senator Foster's farm "was made of great width, and was named by him the 'Appian Way.'

The closing years of Senator Foster's life, from 1803 to 1828, were also devoted very largely to a continuation of those historical studies and researches, begun early in life under the influence of Governor Hopkins's suggestions and coöperation, and interrupted by his long term of public service. He became, in fact, the most assiduous antiquarian within the limits of the state. Not only at his own home did he prosecute these researches into the early history of the colony, but to him is due the credit of the preservation of much that would inevitably, but for his exertions, have perished. It was his practice, on hearing of an historical document of interest and value, at Newport, at Boston, at Cambridge, or at New Haven, to visit the place where it could be seen, and either secure it for his collection, or else preserve a copy of it. It will probably never be known how largely subsequent investigators are under obligations to him in this regard. In his long contemplated project of a history of the state, he was by no means so successful. He did something towards grouping his material, and made a beginning in the construction of a part of the history, but left it uncompleted. His essential service, however, was that of a collector of material. He died Jan. 13, 1828.2 (1) A list of some of the books presented by him to that library, neatly printed on one side of a sheet, is in the possession of Rev. Dr. Thomas Stafford Drowne, of Garden City, Long Island.

(2) It is somewhat singular that there is not at present a single one of his descendants, bearing the name of the family, in Providence. Of the descendants of Senator Foster through his daughter, Mrs. Tillinghast, (descendants of Governor Hopkins as well), no less than six have been graduated at Brown University,-one of them, Theodore Foster Tillinghast, being a member of the class of 1884.

Senator Foster, while by no means distinguished among the public men of his time, was in many respects a most useful man. His early life was perhaps the most interesting and striking, from a political point of view, offering as it did, admirable opportunities for the signal services which he rendered, during the revolution; in connection with the protests of the town of Providence against the paper money measures; and in the adoption of the United States constitution. His congressional life, though comprising not a few instances of valuable and thoughtful service, was not what would be looked for in a man of a decided bent for public life,' and he apparently never showed any indications of pronounced statesmanship. His closing years were among the most useful of his life, and his labors in the collection and preservation of historical material and his agency in the organization of the Rhode Island Historical Society, will cause his name to be long remembered by his grateful successors in the same field of research."

(1)Indeed it would appear that his father, Judge Foster, dying at the age of fifty-four, gave promise of attaining greater eminence in public life, had his life been spared, than either of his two sons, Theodore and Dwight. (2) He was one of its earliest members and first officers. In October, 1800, while still in the senate, Senator Foster was elected a corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, on the nomination of Rev. Dr. James Freeman, the minister of King's Chapel. ("Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society," I. 134-35). With Thomas Wallcut, the first recording secretary of that society, he carried on a correspondence in relation to the writings of Roger Williams. There is an extract from a letter of Senator Foster to Rev. Dr. John Eliot, December 29, 1800, printed in the "Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society," I. 133, in which he speaks of his undertaking the preparation of the history of Rhode Island, earlier begun by Governor Hopkins.

(3) The foregoing brief memoir has been appended to these original papers on early Rhode Island history, with a view to furnishing some opportunity to judge of their writer's facilities for making these collections.

A similar sketch of Governor Hopkins might with equal propriety have been added, were it not that this ground has been traversed by the present editor, in the publication (1884) of "Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island statesman." By William E. Foster. (R. I. Historical Tracts, No. 19).