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allowed to remember that I was myself, for several years, associated with him in Congress, and was thus a daily witness to his devoted labors, his scrupulous integrity, and his great practical ability as a debater and a statesman.

But the official career of Mr. Fillmore, long and distinguished as it was, served only to give public exhibition of the sterling qualities of a just and true man. He may have made mistakes. like other men; he may have disappointed hopes like other men; he may have subjected himself to suspicion or reproach, from partisan opponents, or even from partisan friends. But no one who was ever brought into any degree of personal intimacy with him could fail to recognize and appreciate the strong elements of his character; his amiability, his moderation, his modesty, his firmness, his sturdy common sense, his inflexible principle, the purity of his life, and his many Christian virtues.

"That worthy Mr. Fillmore," - as I well remember, — was the habitual expression of Irving, after a casual residence at the capital, in the prosecution of researches for his Life of Washington, had brought our charming author into familiar acquaintance with the then occupant of the executive mansion. That worthy Mr. Fillmore" has fallen from a thousand lips before and since, and might well be taken as the brief, but just and comprehensive, inscription for his tombstone.

Without the advantages of earlier or later education, a stranger to colleges, and almost a stranger to schools in his youth, he fulfilled, as few other men so remarkably have done, the true idea of a self-made, self-educated man, and became a sound lawyer and an eminent statesman by the mere force of his own native energy and manly perseverance. No vain ambition, no miserable office-seeking, no reckless resolve to lift himself by any and all means into popular notice and notoriety, no degrading design to live and fatten upon the perquisites of public station, ever entered into the processes of his preferment. Always ready to serve his State or his Country, when he was clearly called to do so, he knew how to retire with dignity and self-respect when the voice of the people was no longer in his favor. He knew, too, how to employ his retirement in ways worthy of a good citizen and a Christian gentleman, and worthy of the distinction and influence which attached to him as an ex-President of the United States. He was particularly interested in the local history of Western New York, and was one of the founders and the first president of the Historical Society

of Buffalo.

Mr. Fillmore was born on the 7th of January, 1800, and died on the 8th of March, 1874, having thus entered on the 74th year of his age.

Gentlemen, the ink with which I had penned the brief tribute which I have just paid to my friend, President Fillmore, was hardly dry, when the telegraph wires from Washington were trembling with the tidings of a death which makes a breach in our own immediate little circle of a hundred; but a far wider breach in the larger sphere of the national councils. The death of the Hon. Charles Sumner, which occurred yesterday afternoon, but of which I only heard the certainty this morning, is an event too sudden and too impressive to be the subject of any off-hand utterances. Yet, assembled here as we are to-day, with so striking an event uppermost in all our thoughts, it cannot be passed over in silence, certainly not by me. To us, as a society, Mr. Sumner was, indeed, but little; his name having been added to our resident roll only within a few months past, and it never having been convenient to him to be present at even one of our meetings. We had all sincerely hoped, however, that in some future interval between the sessions of Congress, in some breathing-time from his arduous and assiduous public labors, we might have enjoyed the benefit of his large acquaintance with historical subjects, and of the rich accomplishments by which he was distinguished. That hope is now suddenly brought to an end, and we have only the satisfaction of knowing that his election, as one of our restricted number, afforded him a moment's gratification, in what have so unexpectedly proved to be the last few months of his life.

In the Senate of the United States, of which for more than three terms he has been so prominent and conspicuous a member, the gap created by his death cannot easily be measured. There, for so many years, he has been one of the observed of all observers. There, for so many years, scarce a word or an act of his has failed to be the subject of wide-spread attention and comment. No name has been oftener in the columns of the daily press, or on the lips of the people in all parts of the country, sometimes for criticism, and even for censure, but far more generally for commendation and applause. Such a name, certainly, cannot pass from the rolls of living men, without leaving a large void to many eyes and to many hearts.

One of the pioneers in the cause of anti-slavery, while yet in private life, he breasted the billows of that raging controversy with unsparing energy, until the struggle ceased with the institution which had given rise to it. The same untiring energy was then transferred to what he regarded as the rights of the race which had been emancipated. Indeed, every thing which could be associated with the idea of human rights was made the subject of his ardent advocacy, according to his own judgment and

convictions. Devoting himself early, also, to the cause of Peace, and making the relations of the United States with other nations a matter for special study, his unwearied labors as Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs for several years, and his acknowledged familiarity with international law, can never be undervalued or forgotten.

As a writer, a lecturer, a debater, and an orator, he had acquired the strongest hold on public attention everywhere, both at home and abroad; and few scholars have brought to the illustration of their topics, whether political or literary, the fruits of greater research. His orations and speeches, of which a new edition, revised by his own hand, is understood to be approaching a completion, cannot fail to be a rich store-house of classical and historical lore, and will certainly furnish a most valuable series of pictures, from his own point of view, of the stirring scenes to which they relate.

I dare not attempt, gentlemen, to dwell at greater length on the crowded and eventful public career of Mr. Sumner. The tidings of his death have come upon us all with too painful a surprise to allow of our dealing with the subject as we might desire to do. And for myself, I need hardly say here, that any detailed discussion of his course might involve peculiar elements of delicacy and difficulty; as it has been my fortune, or, as others may think, my misfortune, to differ from him so often and so widely; sometimes as to conclusions and ends, but far more frequently as to the means of reaching those conclusions, and of advancing those ends.

I am glad to remember, however, that every thing of personal alienation and estrangement had long ago ceased between us, and that no one has been more ready than myself, for many years past, to welcome him into this Association. His praises will be abundantly, and far more fitly, spoken elsewhere, if not here, by the countless friends to whom he was so dear; and you will all pardon me, I know, if the suddenness of the announcement has prevented me from paying a more adequate tribute to his culture, his accomplishments, his virtues, and to those commanding qualities by which he impressed himself on the period in which he lived.

Born in Boston on the 6th of January, 1811, he had more than completed his 63d year.

The Honorable CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That, as members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, we learn, with profound regret, the sudden decease of our illustrious

enemy of Puritanism in all its aspects, the prime mover and the actual abettor of the overthrow of the first political and ecclesiastica establishments of New England, should have excited so little interest and be so little known. Measured simply by the results of his own undertakings, Edward Randolph is justly entitled to rank among the most remarkable men of his time. In that dramatic period of our history which embraces the closing scenes of the life of the first charter, he is the central figure and the chief actor, not inaptly called the destroying angel. His public acts are memorable, and they form the chief interest in the history of that time.

His career in New England may be characterized as meteoric in many respects: it certainly is without parallel in our history. He came suddenly into public view from beyond the Atlantic, the unwelcome bearer of a royal message having a menacing aspect, at a time when the colonies were in a death-struggle with the Indian enemy. For a period of thirteen years he was regarded by our fathers as the most baleful and malignant luminary that ever appeared in the political skies of New England. His name was a synonyme for something dreadful; and his fame an ill one it was-extended to all the colonies. On the records of that age no name is branded by writers with so many, so varied, and so strongly denunciative epithets as that of Edward Randolph. It is but just to his memory to say that his excessive zeal for the interests of the Crown and for the Church of England, his undaunted courage and uncompromising spirit, were the chief causes of his great unpopularity.

Whence he came, or whither he went, has hardly been thought worthy of inquiry by our antiquaries, in a period of two centuries. His history, so far as known, begins and ends with his career in New England. Dr. Palfrey, who looked after many neglected worthies of our colonial times, as his History attests, made special search in the archives of England for some new light on the career of Randolph, but without success.

While collecting materials for my projected Life of Captain John Mason, patentee of New Hampshire, I noticed, in letters of Robert Mason, grandson of Captain Mason, and also in letters of Edward Randolph, expressions indicating some degree of relationship between them. Following up this hint, I came to the origin and parentage of Randolph himself, singularly enough in the first Christian city and spiritual metropolis of England. He was the son of Edmund Randolph, Doctor of Physic, of the city of Canterbury. His mother was the daugh

ter of Giles Master, of the same city. Both parents were of gentle lineage, and of high character and standing. Edward Randolph married Jane Gibbon, of West Cliff in the county of Kent. Her brother, Richard Gibbon, Doctor of Physic, married Anne Tufton, the sister of Robert Mason. It is proper to observe that Robert Mason, alias Tufton, assumed the surname Mason to inherit his grandfather Mason's estate in New England. Upon the death of his wife in 1679, Randolph again came to New England, bringing his family, designing, it would seem, to remain here permanently. He had been appointed by the Commissioners of Customs Collector of Customs in New England. Having other public employments, he appointed his brother Gyles deputy in this office. The latter soon after died, and he appointed another brother, Bernard, to this place. Bernard Randolph was an author of considerable note in his time.

In 1691, Edward Randolph was appointed Surveyor-General of Customs in all the English Provinces in North America. This fact shows that he was recognized as an able and faithful officer by the English Government.

Dr. ELLIS spoke of the value of the Pickering Papers recently presented to the Society, and paid an appreciative tribute to the labors of our associate, Mr. Upham, in completing the Memoir of Timothy Pickering.

The Recording Secretary, Mr. DEANE, communicated the following memorandum relating to the death of Mathew Cradock:

In the Proceedings of this Society for November, 1871, I submitted a statement of reasons for believing that Mathew Cradock, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Company, must have died between the 14th and 28th of May, 1641, and intimated that it must have occurred near the last-named date. Since that statement has appeared in print, my attention has been called by an antiquarian friend to the "Obituary of Richard Smith," published by the Camden Society in 1849, "being a catalogue of all such persons as he knew in their life, from A.D. 1627 to A.D. 1674." In this record is given the exact time of Cradock's death. Under date of May 27, 1641, we read," Math. Cradock, merchant, one of the Members of Parliament for yo City of London, died." This happily confirms my conjecture, and it is satisfactory to have the exact date.

John Ward Dean, Esq.

This entry had been already copied into the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for Oct. 1857.-C. D.

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