opportunities of a last illness. He had embraced the religion of the Gospel at an early period of his life, upon studious examination and serious conviction. If his philosophic mind ever entertained doubts, he strove, and strove successfully, to remove them. He has left it upon record, that "Butler's Analogy" was of the greatest service to him in satisfying his mind as to the truths of Christianity. "From the time of my reading that book, (said he,) I have been an humble follower of the blessed Jesus;" and, as the moment of his dissolution drew nigh, he expressed his perfect satisfaction and confidence that he was "going to the full enjoyment of God and his Redeemer." Rarely has the end of a public man in New England been marked by evidences of a deeper or more general regret. "Great and respectable (we are told) was the concourse which attended his funeral; every species of occupation was suspended; all ranks and orders of men, the clergy and the laity, the magistrate and the citizen, men of leisure and men of business, testified their affection and respect by joining in the solemn procession; and crowds of spectators lined the streets through which it passed, whilst an uncommon silence and order everywhere marked the deepness of their sorrow."

Such were the becoming tokens of public respect for the memory of one who had devoted no less than thirty-six years of his life to the service of his Commonwealth and his Country; who had sustained himself in the highest offices of trust and responsibility, and in the greatest emergencies of difficulty and danger, without fear and without reproach; and of whom it is not too much to say, that he had exhibited himself always the very personification of that just and resolute man of the Roman poet, whom neither the mandates of a foreign tyrant, nor the menaces of domestic rebels, could shake from his established principles.

"Justum, et tenacem propositi virum

Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni,

Mente quatit solidâ.”

I can find no other words for summing up his character, than

the admirable sentence of Judge Lowell:

"It may be said that our country has produced many men of as much genius; many men of as much learning and knowledge; many of as much zeal for the liberties of their country; and many of as great piety and virtue; but is it not rare indeed, to find those in whom they have all combined, and been adorned, with his other accomplishments?"

Governor Bowdoin was early married to Elizabeth Erving, a lady of most respectable family and of most estimable qualities, who, with their two children, survived him.

Of his only son, James Bowdoin, I need say nothing in this presence and on this spot. He was known elsewhere as a gentleman of liberal education and large fortune, repeatedly a member of both branches of the Legislature of Massachusetts, and who received from Mr. Jefferson the appointments successively of Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain, and Associate Special Minister with General Armstrong to the Court of France. He is known here by other and more enduring memorials. He died without children; but it was only to give new attestation to that quaint conceit of Lord Bacon's, -"Surely a man shall see the noblest works and foundations have proceeded from childless men; who have sought to express the images of their minds, where those of their bodies have failed: so the care of posterity is most in them that have no posterity."

With him the name of Bowdoin, by direct descent in the male line, passed away from the annals of New England; but, even had there been no collaterals and kinsfolk worthy to wear, and proud to adopt and perpetuate it, the day, the place, the circumstances of this occasion, afford ample evidence that it has been inscribed where it will not be forgotten. When Anaxagoras of Clazomene was asked by the Senate of Lampsacus how they should commemorate his services, he replied, "By ordaining that the day of my death be annually kept as a holiday in all the schools of Lampsacus.' And, certainly, if any man may be said to have taken a bond against oblivion, it is he whose name is worthily associated with a great institution of education. Who shall undertake to assign limits to the duration of the memories of Harvard, and Yale, and Bowdoin, and the rest, as long as another, and still another generation of young men shall

continue to come up to the seats of learning which they have founded, and to go forth again into the world with a grateful sense of their inestimable advantages? The hero, the statesman, the martyr, may be forgotten; but the name of the Founder of a College is written where it shall be remembered and repeated to the last syllable of recorded time. Semper-semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt!

And may I not add, Mr. President and Gentlemen, in conclusion, that the name of Bowdoin is intrinsically worthy to be held in such perpetual remembrance? Do not the facts which I have thus imperfectly set before you, justify me in saying, without the fear of being reproached even with a not unnatural partiality, that there are few names in our country's history, which will better bear being held up before the young men of New England, as the distinguishing designation of their Alma Mater?

The mere money which endows a school or a college, is not the only or the highest contribution to the cause of education or improvement. It may have been acquired by dishonorable trade or accursed traffic. It may have been amassed by sordid hoardings, or wrung from oppressed dependents. It may carry with it to the minds of those for whom it provides, the pernicious idea, that a pecuniary bequest may purchase oblivion for a life of injustice and avarice, or secure for the vile and the infamous that ever fresh and fragrant renown, which belongs to the memory of the just.

The noblest contribution which any man can make for the benefit of posterity is that of a good character. The richest bequest which any man can leave to the youth of his native land, is that of a shining, spotless example.

Let not, then, the ingenuous and pure-hearted young men, who are gathered within these walls, imagine that it is only on account of the munificence of the younger Bowdoin, that I would claim for the name their respect and reverence. Let them examine the history of that name through four successive generations; let them follow it from the landing at Casco to the endowment of the College; let them consider the religious constancy of the humble Huguenot, who sought freedom of conscience on the shores of yonder bay; let them remember the

diligence, enterprise, and honesty of the Boston Merchant; let them recall the zeal for science, the devotion to liberty, the love for his country, its constitution and its union, the firmness, the purity, the piety of the Massachusetts Patriot; and let them add to these the many estimable and eminent qualities which adorned the character of their more immediate benefactor; and they will agree with me, and you, Gentlemen, will agree with them, that it would be difficult to find a name in our history, which, within the same period of time, has furnished a nobler succession of examples for their admiration and imitation. And neither of you, I am sure, will regret the hour which has now been spent, in once more brushing off the dust and mould which had begun to gather and thicken upon memories, which, in these Halls at least, will never be permitted to perish.

12

NOTE.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS,

IN FAVOR OF A CONVENTION TO REVISE THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.

[See page 43.]

Resolve, recommending a Convention of Delegates from all the States, for the purpose mentioned, July 1, 1785.

As the prosperity and happiness of a nation cannot be secured without a due proportion of power lodged in the hands of the Supreme Rulers of the State, the present embarrassed situation of our public affairs must lead the mind of the most inattentive observer to realize the necessity of a revision of the powers vested in the Congress of the United States, by the articles of confederation.

And as we conceive it to be equally the duty and the privilege of every State in the Union, freely to communicate their sentiments to the rest on every subject relating to their common interest, and to solicit their concurrence in such measures as the exigency of their public affairs may require :—

Therefore, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Court, that the present powers of the Congress of the United States, as contained in the Articles of Confederation, are not fully adequate to the great purposes they were originally designed to effect.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Court, that it is highly expedient, if not indispensably necessary, that there should be a convention of delegates from all the States in the Union, at some convenient place, as soon as may be, for the sole purpose of revising the Confederation, and reporting to Congress how far it may be necessary to alter or enlarge the same.

Resolved, That Congress be, and they are hereby requested to recommend a Convention of Delegates from all the States, at such time and place as they may think convenient, to revise the Confederation, and to report to Congress how far it may be necessary, in their opinion, to alter or enlarge the same, in order to secure and perpetuate the primary objects of the Union.