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looked on in helpless agony and despair while their deluded and reckless fellow-citizens were bringing blight and ruin to the good name and the interests of the state, and this not because they cared for the decaying and worthless confederation, for they had disregarded all its most essential obligations, but because they were the votaries of paper money which the Constitution unequivocally condemned and prohibited. It was only when this delusion began to lose its power that the state could be rescued from the humiliating condition to which it was reduced. The only gratifying reminiscences connected with this dismal period in our local history are those of the patient and conciliatory treatment which the state received from the great leaders of the Constitutional party, from many of her sister states, and especially from President Washington and the Congress of the new government. As the conduct of the Rhode Island authorities became more hostile to the Constitution, a deep sympathy sprang up for the crushed and overborne minority of our people. Nothing, however, was done needlessly to offend the rulers of the refractory state. She was allowed to have her way till reason should return and she should again be in her place. The private letters of Washington which have been published show nothing but tenderness and hopefulness towards her. Only once in these letters does he refer to her conduct with severity, and this was just as the North Carolina Convention was about to hold its second session in 1789. "No doubt," he writes, "is entertained of North Carolina. Nor would there be any of Rhode Island, had not the majority of those people bid adieu long since to every principle of honor, common sense and honesty." Two months, however, after the Constitution was adopted here, he took the earliest opportunity, apparently without invitation, to visit the state, and was received with every demonstration of honor and respect. Equally courteous and conciliatory was the action of Congress. It passed acts continuing the freedom of trade with the state, and only when her Convention adjourned without action was the time definitely fixed for her to take the consequences of her false position and to pay her allowance of the public debt. This action undoubtedly helped to hasten the final result. The great exposition of the Constitution, and of the blessings it was designed to secure for the country, were set forth in the series of papers now known as the Federalist, written by Mr. Madison, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Jay, and published in a New York newspaper. In these papers the utmost care was taken to avoid anything that might look like a threat offered to dilatory states. It was rather assumed that there would be no such states. In one of the papers, however, written by Mr. Madison, there is a passing intimation as to what must be the consequences of a final refusal. It points out the essential fact that the Union is indivisible, and that, if the people of a state should finally decide not to accept the Constitution, the state would still be a part of the Republic, and would be governed as a Territory of the United States. This intimation has long ago become an essential principle of constitutional law, and our state came rather too near experiencing the first application ever made of it. It was in full accordance with this idea that the town of

Providence in 1790, as the Convention was about to hold its second session, instructed its delegates, in case the Constitution should be again refused, to unite with such other towns as might desire to do so, in placing themselves under the protection and jurisdiction of the United States, of which their inhabitants were citizens as truly as of Rhode Island. A few days later the Constitution was adopted, and the state was again in her true and normal relations to the Republic of which she was always an inseparable part, even while she was so stoutly refusing to acquiesce in its change of government, and still dreaming that she could be independent and sovereign."

A TOUCHING LETTER BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Contributed by Rev. George G. Hepburn.

[This beautiful letter was printed in some of the local newspapers at the time, but otherwise has never before been published.]

WASHINGTON, May 25, 1867.

To the bereaved father and mother of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth.

"My Dear Sir and Madam :

In the untimely death of your noble son, our affliction here is scarcely less than your own. So much for promised usefulness to one's country, and of bright hopes for one's self and friends, have never been so suddenly dashed as in his fall. In size, in years, and in youthful appearance a boy only, his power to command men was unsurpassingly great. The power, combined with a fine indomitable energy, and a taste altogether military, constituted in him, as seemed to me, the best natural talent in that department I ever knew. And yet he was singularly modest and deferential in social intercourse. My acquaintance with him began less than two years ago; yet through the latter half of the intervening period, it was as intense as the disparity of our ages and my engrossing engagements would permit. To me he appeared to have no indulgences or pastime, and I never heard him utter a profane or an intemperate word. What was conclusive of his good heart, he never forgot his parents. The honors he labored for so laudably, and in the sad end so gallantly gave his life, he meant for them, no less than for himself. In the hope that it may be no intrusion upon the sacredness of your sorrow, I have ventured to address you this tribute to the memory of my young friend, and your brave and early fallen son. May God give you the consolation which is beyond all earthly power! Sincerely your friend in a common affliction, A. LINCOLN."

ness.

NOTES

WASHINGTON'S LEARNING-The accomplished scholar Dr. David Ramsay says, "The learning of Washington was of a particular kind. He overstepped the tedious forms of the schools, and by the force of a correct taste and sound judgment seized on the great ends of learning, without the assistance of those means which have been contrived to prepare less active minds for public busiBy a careful study of the English language, by reading good models of fine writing, and, above all, by the aid of a vigorous mind, he made himself the master of a pure, elegant, and classical style. His composition was all nerve, full of manly ideas, which were expressed in precise and forcible language. His answers to the innumerable addresses which on all public occasions poured in upon him were promptly made, handsomely expressed, and always contained something appropriate. His letters to His letters to Congress, his addresses to that body on the acceptance and resignation of his commission, his general orders as commander-in-chief, his speeches and messages as President, and, above all, his two farewell addresses to the people of the United States, will remain lasting monuments of the goodness of his heart, of the wisdom of his head, and of the eloquence of his pen.'

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The intermediate hours all had their proper business assigned them. In his allotments for the revolving hours, religion was not forgotten. Feeling, what he so often publicly acknowledged, his entire dependence on God, he daily, at stated seasons, retired to his closet to worship at his footstool, and to ask his divine blessing. He was remarkable for his strict observation of the Sabbath, and exemplary in his attendance on public worship."

RHODE ISLAND'S NAVY IN THE REVOLUTION-In a paper recently read before the Rhode Island Historical Society, Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D., observed that "he could not say much about Rhode Island's navy, but to make the evening less dry he would read a ballad called The Yankee Privateer which existed only in manuscript. It was about the privateer Providence, of which Abraham Whipple was captain, and the story was that the ship found three frigates convoying ten merchantmen, and, going up in the night, cut out the merchantmen, one each for ten nights, till all ten were captured. Three of the stanzas were as follows:

'For ten nights we followed,
And, e'er a sun rose,
Each night a prize we'd take
Under the lion's nose.

When their captain looked to see

Why their ships should disappear,
They found they had in convoy

A Yankee privateer.
But we sailed and we sailed

And never thought of fear;
Not a coward was on board
Of the bold privateer.

'A flag-ship of the British

Bore round to give us chase,

But though we were the faster [fleeter]
Old Whipple wouldn't race.

He luffed and raked her fore and aft-
The lubbers couldn't steer-
And then he showed the heels

Of the Yankee privateer.

We sailed and we sailed,

And we made good cheer,

For not a British frigate

Could come near the privateer.

'So homeward we sailed

To the town we all know,

And there lay our prizes

All anchored in a row. Right welcome were we

To our homes so dear, And we shared a million dollars As the bold privateer. We'd sailed and we'd sailed,

And we made good cheer; We had all made our fortunes On the bold privateer.'

Dr. Hale said the tale was absolutely true, and that such traditions in Rhode Island history ought to be brought out."

QUERIES

WAS WASHINGTON'S MOTHER A LOYALIST?-Editor of Magazine of American History In Ramsay's "Life of George Washington" (1807), on page 2, that Washington's mother "was, from the was, from the influence of long-established habits, so far from being partial to the American revolution, that she often regretted the side her son had taken in the controversy between her king and her country."

Dr. Ramsay was born in Pennsylvania in 1749 (when George Washington was only 17 years of age), was graduated at Princeton College in 1765, and studied medicine in Philadelphia under Dr. Rush, but soon afterward removed to Charleston and became a member of the legislature of South Carolina, and in 1782 was elected to the Continental Congress. Thus, he was not only contemporary with Washington, but was probably acquainted personally with both him and his mother, and as an earnest Whig (which he must have been, to be elected to the Continental Congress) it is not likely that he was prejudiced against either. His statement, therefore, as to

the loyalty of Washington's mother to the crown is presumably true.

Can you, or can any readers of the Magazine, cite any authority that either corroborates or contradicts what Dr. Ramsay has written on this subject?

T. C. CALLICOT

THE SARATOGA MONUMENT Will the Magazine or some of its readers kindly give notice, in the journal, when

the monument on the battle-field of Sar

atoga is to be unveiled? By so doing you will oblige a subscriber.

A. W. KALDENBERG

MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE OF THE CINCINNATI-Editor Magazine of American History: Can any of your readers give me information of the present whereabouts of the certificate of membership to the Society of the Cincinnati of John Bush, Captain Third Regiment, Pennsylvania Line, Army of the Revolution. LEWIS BUSH JACKSON 3344 WALNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA

REPLIES

66 THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY." Weimar, Grand Duke of Saxe, during Origin of the Epithet [xx. 495]-This his reign of fifty-three years, was called

is one of the most honorable appellations which can possibly be conferred upon any man, especially if worthily bestowed. Washington was not, in the world's history, the first to receive it; but it has been in vogue all along the ages for two thousand years. Before the Christian era, the eloquent Cicero styled Marcus Portius Cato Pater Patria-the father of his country. In Rome, also, Tacitus informs us that Octavius Cæsar, in addition to the surname of Augustus, was, by a decree of the senate, hailed by this same honorable title. Tacitus likewise says that Nero was saluted in like manner, and that on some ancient medals there was inscribed Livia Augusta mater pa tria-the MOTHER of her country. And pater patriæ was likewise bestowed upon Commodus Antoninus.

Such was the general estimation in which Cosmo de Medici was held that the Florentines inscribed on his tomb "Father of his Country." The Genoese senate gave Andrew Doria, a naval commander of great renown, the title, "Father of his Country and the Restorer of its Liberties."

Louis XII. and Henry IV., Kings of France long ago, were each hailed by their subjects le père du peuple, father of the people. William III., King of England, was styled pater patriæ; and Alexander Petion, the mulatto President of the Republic of Hayti, discharged the duties of his office so acceptably that the people bestowed upon him this same honorable epithet. Charles Augustus

not only the father of his people, but the patron of learning and the arts; and finally, Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, likewise received the same appellation.

Many other instances might be adduced, but these are sufficient to show that this epithet is not of modern origin, and was not the product of any English or American brain, as has recently been suggested.

M. M. BALDWIN, A.M., LL.B.

"THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY The origin of the epithet "Father of his Country" seems to be of much more ancient origin than that which is ascribed to it in the last number of your magazine.

In the History of the Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero, by Conyers Middleton, D.D., third edition, 1742, the following lines can be found on p. 236: "Whilst the sense of all these services was fresh, Cicero was repaid for them to the full of his wishes, and in the very way that he desired, by the warm and grateful applauses of all orders of the city. For, besides the honors already mentioned, L. Gellius, who had been consul and censor, said in a speech to the senate that the republic owed him a civic crown for having saved them all from ruin; and Catulus, in a full house, declared him the Father of his Country; as Cato likewise did from the rostra, with the loud acclamations of the whole people whence Pliny, in honor of his memory, cries out, 'Hail thou, who wast

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