too little. To that world she is gone, and thither my affections have followed her. This was heaven's design. I see and feel it as distinctly as if an angel had revealed it. I often imagine that I can see her beckoning me to the happy world to which she has gone. She was my companion, my office companion, my librarian, my clerk. My papers now bear her endorsement. She pursued her studies in my office, by my side-sat with me, walked with me, was my inexpressibly sweet and inseparable companionnever left me but to go and sit with her mother. We knew all her intelligence, all her pure and delicate sensibility, the quickness and power of her perceptions, her seraphic love. She was all love, and loved all God's creation, even the animals, trees and plants. She loved her God and Saviour with an angel's love and died like a saint."

CHAPTER XVIII.

1831.

POLITICAL LIFE.-MR. WIRT APPOINTED A DELEGATE TO THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION.-MEETING of the antI-MASONIC CONVENTION.-MR. WIRT NOMINATED BY THEM AS A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.-HE ACCEPTS THE NOMINATION. HIS VIEWS OF THE CANVASS.-THE NOMINATION OF MR. CLAY.-LETTERS FROM MR. WIRT TO S. P. CHASE AND JUDGE CARR.

In this period of his deepest distress,-it occurs, singularly enough, in the history of Mr. Wirt, he was invited to become an active champion in the political field. Now just verging upon sixty, his ambition lulled into rest by the fruition of high public honors, his distaste to political life rather increased by long and toilsome service, his heart turned away from worldly things by domestic affliction, his mind turned to heavenly thoughts by the inspiration of the most religious influences-singularly enough it occurs, that, in such a time and in such a mood, he was forced by circumstances into a position which, all along throughout life, when the motives were a thousand fold more cogent to compel his consent, he had pertinaciously avoided. Preparations were now on foot for the Presidential canvass of 1832. A National Convention of the opponents of the Administration was to be held in Baltimore, in December 1831. They were to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. A general expectation, amongst those who were to be represented in this Convention, was already directed to Mr. Clay as the opponent of General Jackson, who, it was now understood, in spite of the pledge given by him to the contrary, was to be a candidate for a second term. The Whigs of the congressional district in which the city of Baltimore was, in part, embraced, had expressed their wish that Mr. Wirt would represent them in the Convention. In a letter of the 22d of May, to Judge Carr, we have his own account of the application to him.

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"We are, you know," he writes" to have a great National Convention here in December, and I have been asked to represent this district in it. Now, I hate politics, and can never be a party man-much less a party leader-for 'I trust I have a good conscience; and, in these times I doubt the practicability of a politician possessing such a blessing. Besides, I have not the nerve to bear the vulgar abuse which is the politician's standing dish. I have kept myself in comparative peace, by avoiding politics; and in my old age I feel a most vehement repugnance to the turmoil to which I am invited. But they ask me if I have no concern for my country.

I have

said, that if the people wish me to go to the Convention in December, I will go and utter their sentiments—that is, as at present advised, reserving to myself further time for consideration. At present, I think Clay the soundest amongst the candidates, and that he will make a good President.

"What do you say to it all?-first, as to the policy of such a Convention; and second, of my going into it? My friends here talk of making it a stepping stone to the Senate of the United States. But what do I care for the Senate? I am rather too old to start now, for the first time, on such a course, and have neither speed nor bottom for the race. Yet, if I could see that

public good would come of it, I do not think I could properly refuse. Do you suspect that there is any lurking ambition under If there be, it is too deeply concealed for my own

this?

discovery."

In due time he was chosen to be a member of the Convention, and accepted the trust.

A very unexpected incident soon afterwards followed this; and, as it threw him into a position of great notoriety throughout the whole Union and involved him in a very heavy political responsibility, it is proper that I should speak of it somewhat at large.

The approaching contest for the Presidency greatly interested the Whigs,—or, as they were called at that period, the National Republicans. General Jackson, it was announced, was already understood to be the candidate of his own party. The opposition, in different sections of the Union, had variously directed their views to Mr. Clay of Kentucky, Mr. McLean of Ohio, and Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina. Amongst these, Mr. Clay

was the most prominent. His nomination was, therefore, looked to as almost certain.

During the few years immediately before this date, the AntiMasonic party had grown into considerable strength. The abduction of Morgan, and the extraordinary proceedings which followed it, had produced a remarkable excitement, especially in the Northern and Western States. It is a curious history which will ever occupy a notable page in the annals of the time, and is too well known to need repetition here. Like other exciting topics which have taken hold of the public mind in this country, it led to the organization of a distinct political party. The zeal to destroy Masonry rose above all other subjects of public concern; and a large body of respectable and judicious men were found, in several States, who were willing to forego all the ordinary inducements to the old political organization and to embody themselves into a party to accomplish this one object. The most intractable of all men are those whose minds are engrossed with one idea. An idea just in itself, useful to be promulgated and finally to be incorporated in the policy of the nation, may easily be magnified into proportions altogether incongruous with the place it should hold in a system of either public or private morals. If the greatest abuse is only to be corrected by the surrender or neglect of all other useful and essential principles of policy or conduct, wise men will always reflect and determine, before hand, whether the good to be achieved is worth the sacrifice. An enthusiast will not halt for this consideration. The topic that is nearest to his contemplation will sometimes obscure the greatest subjects that stand behind it, as the disc of a button, near the eye, will shut out the view of half the firmament.

The day of political agitation upon Anti-Masonry has now gone by. The excitement naturally soon wore out itself and its subject. We may wonder, after this lapse of time, that intelligent and acute men could have ever persuaded themselves that it had a base broad enough upon which to build up a party :-that the manifold interests of a great country, its trade, commerce and general industry, its finance, its development through the thousand channels of public administration, its party alliances, its ambitious strifes and its multiform pursuits could all be reduced into subordination to the purpose of extirpating Masonry by political

action. There were, nevertheless, able, virtuous and gravelythinking men who entertained such an opinion, and devoted themselves to the duty of accomplishing this labor. We cannot say they were statesmen. It has been customary, amongst many wellintentioned people, to decry the practised and experienced public men of the nation, as hackneyed politicians; and to teach the country to believe, that a long conversancy in the knowledge of state affairs is rather a disqualification to him who possesses it, rendering him unfit to counsel and unworthy of trust. There are too many who suppose that political experience is a vice, that familiarity with the conduct of government is but the nurse of selfishness, and that patriotism cannot consist with the best accomplishments of a statesman, earned in a life of service and study. No hackneyed politician, no practised statesman conversant in the nature of a people and government, would have ever conceived the purpose of superseding all other parties by a new one formed upon the single basis of opposition to Masonry ;—none, certainly, but such as might hope to promote some personal end for themselves in the achievement. The lecture room, the pulpit, the theatre and the press, might effectively take cognizance of such a subject; but not a Government, which does its work by Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, by Navies and Armies, by Judges and Marshals, and by Committees of Ways and Means and Committees of Commerce,

This Anti-Masonic party, it was said, at the period to which we refer, supposed themselves able to command a vote of half a million in the country. Sincere and zealous in their purpose, unquestionably honest and patriotic in all that they contrived and intended to do, and, as I have already said, intelligent, thoughtful, and able in the general complexion of the men at their head, they had arranged a Convention of delegates to be chosen from the several States, who were to meet, by appointment, in Baltimore in September, more than two months before the meeting of the other Convention,—to select a candidate for the Presidency.

In pursuance of this arrangement, a large body of delegates assembled in Baltimore, about the 25th of the month. It was distinguished for its talent, and for the weight of character which it presented. It was looked upon with a curious and deep interest throughout the whole country-with approbation by many; but