after the conclusion of the great struggle in which they had both participated, is such a strong and characteristic testimonial to the character of the writer, as well as to that of him who inspired it, that I must quote a striking passage:-—

"WASHINGTON, September 27, 1850.

"MY DEAR SIR:-Our companionship in the Senate is dissolved. After this long and most important session, you are about to return to your home, and I shall try to find leisure to visit mine. I hope we may meet each other again, two months hence, for the discharge of our duties in our respective stations in the Government. But life is uncertain, and I have not felt willing to take leave of you without placing in your hands a note containing a few words which I wish to say to you.

"In the earlier part of our acquaintance, my dear sir, occurrences took place which I remember with constantly increasing regret and pain; because the more I have known of you, the greater became my esteem for your character and my respect for your talents. But it is your noble, able, manly, and patriotic conduct in support of the measures of this session which has entirely won my heart and secured my highest regard. I hope you may live long to serve your country; but I do not think you are ever likely to see a crisis in which you may be able to do so much, either for your own distinction or for the public good. You have stood where others have fallen; you have advanced with firm and manly step where others have wavered, faltered, and fallen back; and, for one, I desire to thank you and to commend your conduct out of the fulness of an honest heart.

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"Hon. DANL. S. DICKINSON, U.S. Senate."

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"DANIEL WEBSTER.

In this connection, a passage from a letter of Senator Dickinson's will be quite appropriate. It was written to the committee of the banquet to commemorate the seventy-seventh anniversary of Daniel Webster's birthday. After regretting that an important trial in which he was counsel would deprive him of being present, he writes, having in his "mind's eye" the cherished letter just given :

"It is one of the proudest recollections of a life familiar with interestng incidents that I was permitted to be long associated with one so eminent in the public councils, and more especially that I was honored by his confidence and cheered by his distinguished friendship. I cherish with idolatrous devotion the evidences of deep regard which his noble heart furnished, and, in harmony with his own suggestion, shall 'leave it where it will be seen by those who shall come after me.'

"Great as was Daniel Webster in his life, he was greater in his death.

Great as he was in noble deeds, his memory is greater still; and when time shall have obliterated all traces of petty rivalries and disturbing jealousies which disfigure the surface of society, and have silenced the clamor of partisan jargon, he will still live,' with increasing admiration, as pure among patriots, eminent among statesmen, and eloquent among orators."

Mr. Dickinson was the last Democratic Senator from New York. His term expired March 4, 1851. Since that period he has lived chiefly in retirement, devoting himself to rural and professional pursuits at Binghamton.

In 1852, he was brought forward for the Presidency at the Democratic Convention in Baltimore. The influential vote of Virginia was cast for him, and his nomination might have been the result but for his own chivalrous and delicate sense of honor. Senator Dickinson withdrew his name, because, being a delegate to the Convention and pledged to his friend General Cass, whose name was still before it, he thought it inconsistent with a manly friendship, not less than with a high sentiment of honor, to permit himself to be placed in competition with a man whom he had pledged himself to support.

On the election of Mr. Pierce to the Presidency, Mr. Dickinson was pressed for the office of Secretary of State. Mr. Marcy, however, received that place, and the former declined the Collectorship of New York, to which the new President appointed him. Though his retirement is only occasionally broken by a letter or speech of public interest, Mr. Dickinson is still regarded as the head of the conservative New York Democracy. As an evidence of the vitality of his intellect, it is enough to state that his professional services are now in greater demand than at any previous time. At the Democratic State Convention, held at Syracuse on September 1, 1859, Mr. Dickinson made a speech which created immense enthusiasm and produced a healthy effect on the distracted party.

In May, 1857, he visited Washington with his family. His hotel was crowded with the leading people; and, on the evening of the 25th, a serenade was given to him, at which he made a brief and touching speech, alluding to the memories and friendships called up by the occasion. The earnestness of his words, and the picturesque whiteness of his long hair, surrounded the theme" as with a halo." At the commencement of Hamilton

College, July, 1858, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him. On that occasion he delivered an address to the graduating class of the Law department.

Such is an outline of the career of one who is equally beloved by the Democracy as a statesman as by his neighbors he is esteemed as a friend, "and whose reward (yet, we trust, to be fully accorded to him) can never be," says a New York journal, “let it take what shape it may, too great for the desert of his inestimable public services."

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS,

OF ILLINOIS.

THE name of no American statesman has been more familiar to the public ear for several years past than that which heads this sketch. The opinions of none have been more eagerly listened to, more violently attacked, or more gallantly defended than those of "the Little Giant" of the West. The anxiety to hear him in the Halls of Congress has been equalled only by the impatient desire of far-distant places to read what he had said. Newspapers of all shades of political opinion have found it to their advantage not only to state his views, but to chronicle them in his own words: consequently, none of those who may be called his contemporaries, of whatever party, have had such wide-spread publication. In the Democratic party, no one has attracted so much attention in his day; and in the Republican party, Senator Seward alone approaches him in commanding the public eye and ear. His career has been exceedingly brilliant,-the romantic details of his youthful struggles very fitly prefacing the chivalric boldness of his manhood. It is a splendid illustration of the developing influences of American institutions; and the memoirs of Stephen A. Douglas in some future day will nerve many an orphaned youth for the battle of life, and give him strength to combat and to conquer when engaged in it.

Stephen Arnold Douglas was born at Brandon, Rutland County, Vermont, on the 23d of April, 1813. His father, a native of New York and a physician of prominence, died suddenly of apoplexy when his son Stephen was little more than two months old. The widow, Mrs. Douglas, who still survives to witness the greatness of her boy, took her infant and a daughter some eighteen months older to a farm which she had inherited conjointly with her unmarried brother. Stephen received such an education as a common school could bestow, and, arriving at

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the age of fifteen, looked anxiously toward a college course. His family were unable to afford the requisite expense; in which event he, thinking it time to earn his own living, left the farm and apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker,-at which trade he worked, partly at Middlebury and partly at Brandon, for eighteen months. The now solid-bodied and sturdy Senator, who, buoyed . up by the force of his intellect, can undergo any amount of fatigue in travel and public speaking, was then a stripling, and not over-hardy. The severity of eighteen months' application at the cabinet-maker's bench so impaired his health that he abandoned the occupation, though not without some regret; for he has often since said that the happiest days of his life were spent in the workshop. Entering the academy at Brandon, he studied for a year, when, his mother, after a widowhood of sixteen years, having married Mr. Granger, of Ontario County, New York,— whose son had previously wedded her daughter,—he removed to Canandaigua with his mother and entered the academy at that place. Here he remained until 1833, studying law with the Messrs. Hubbell.

The activity of his nature, which, no doubt, was the secret of his ill health under the trammels of the workshop, would not let him rest in Canandaigua. Young, and with the instincts which latent power creates, he desired a fresh field; and so, in the spring of 1833, he started West in search of an eligible place in which to woo and win fortune as a lawyer. The way to fortune, like the course of true love, does not always run smooth. Young Douglas was prostrated by a severe illness, and had to remain the whole summer at Cleveland. After his recovery, he continued his search for an "eligible place," visiting Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis in vain. At Jacksonville, Illinois, he was no better pleased, though the state of his funds-now reduced to thirtyseven and a half cents-offered some reason why he might not proceed. If his pockets were empty, however, his heart was full and gave him strength; and applying this strength to the best use, he walked to Winchester, a little town sixteen miles distant, where he hoped to obtain employment as a school-teacher.

At Winchester, a large crowd had collected around the stock of a deceased trader, which was about to be sold by auction. Instinctively, young Douglas was soon in the front rank of the