they cherish in their hearts a lurking hatred against princes. Loyalty to the house of Hanover had, for sixty years, been another name for the love of civil and religious liberty; the vast majority, till within a few years or months, believed the English constitution the best that had ever existed; neither Franklin, nor Washington, nor John Adams, nor Jefferson, nor Jay, had ever expressed a preference for a republic. The voices that rose for independence, spoke also for alliances with kings. The sovereignty of George the Third was renounced, not because he was a king, but because he was deemed to be "a tyrant." The insurgents, as they took up self-government, manifested no impatience at the recollection of having been ruled by a royal line; no eagerness to blot out memorials of their former state; they sent forth no Hugh Peter to recommend to the mother country the abolition of monarchy, which no one seems to have proposed or to have wished; in the moment of revolution in America, they did not counsel the English to undertake a revolution. The republic was to America a godsend; it came, though unsought, because society contained the elements of no other organization. Here, and, in that century, here only, was a people, which, by its education and large and long experience, was prepared to act as the depository and carrier of all political power. America developed her choice from within herself; and therefore it is, that, conscious of following an inner law, she never made herself a spreader of her system, where the conditions of success were wanting. Finally, the declaration was not only the announcement of the birth of a people, but the establishment of a national government; a most imperfect one, it is true, but still a government, in conformity with the limited constituent powers which each colony had conferred upon its delegates in congress. The war was no longer a civil war; Britain was become to the United States a foreign country. Every former subject of the British king in the thirteen colonies now owed primary allegiance to the dynasty of the people, and became citizens of the new republic; except in this, everything remained as before; every man retained his rights; the colonies did not dissolve into a state of nature; nor did the new people undertake a social revolution. The affairs of internal police and government were carefully retained by each separate state, which could, each for itself, enter upon the career of domestic reforms. But the states which were henceforth independent of Britain were not independent of one another; the United States of America assumed powers over war, peace, foreign alliances, and commerce. ORATION ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. Our grief and horror at the crime which has clothed the continent in mourning, find no adequate expression in words, and no relief in tears. The President of the United States of America has fallen by the hands of an assassin. Neither the office with which he was invested by the approved choice of a mighty people, nor the most simplehearted kindliness of nature, could save him from the fiendish passions of relentless fanaticism. The wailings of the millions attend his remains as they are borne in solemn procession over our great rivers, along the seaside, beyond the mountains, across the prairie, to their resting place in the valley of the Mississippi. His funeral knell vibrates through the world, and the friends of freedom of every tongue and in every clime are his mourners. Too few days have passed away since Abraham Lincoln stood in the flush of vigorous manhood, to permit any attempt at an analysis of his character or an exposition of his career. We find it hard to believe that his large eyes, which in their softness and beauty expressed nothing but benevolence and gentleness, are closed in death; we almost look for the pleasant smile that brought out more vividly the earnest cast of his features, which were serious even to sadness. A few years ago he was a village attorney, engaged in the support of a rising family, unknown to fame, scarcely named beyond his neighborhood; bis administration made him the most conspicuous man in his country, and drew on him first the astonished gaze, and then the respect and admiration of the world. Those who come after us will decide how much of the wonderful results of his public career is due to his own good common sense, his shrewd sagacity, readiness of wit, quick interpretation of the public mind, his rare combination of fixedness and pliancy, his steady tendency of purpose; how much to the American people, who, as he walked with them side by side, inspired him with their own wisdom and energy; and how much to the overruling laws of the moral world, by which the selfishness of evil is made to defeat itself. But after every allowance, it will remain that members of the government which preceded his administration opened the gates to treason, and he closed them; that when he went to Washington the ground on which he trod shook under his feet, and he left the republic on a solid foundation; that traitors had seized public forts and arsenals, and he recovered them for the United States, to whom they belonged; that the capital, which he found the abode of slaves, is now the home only of the free; that the boundless public domain which was grasped at, and, in a great measure, held for the diffusion of slavery, is now irrevocably devoted to freedom; that then men talked a jargon of a balance of power in a republic between slave States and free States, and now the foolish words are blown away forever by the breath of Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee; that a terrible cloud of political heresy rose from the abyss, threatening to hide the light of the sun, and under its darkness a rebellion was growing into indefinable proportions; now the atmosphere is purer than ever before, and the insurrection is vanishing away; the country is cast into another mould, and the gigantic system of wrong, which had been the work of more than two centuries, is dashed down, we hope forever. And as to himself, personally: he was then scoffed at by the proud as unfit for his station, and now against usage of later years and in spite of numerous competitors he was the unbiased and the undoubted choice of the American people for a second term of service. Through all the mad business of treason he retained the sweetness of a most placable disposition; and the slaughter of myriads of the best on the battle-field, and the more terrible destruction of our men in captivity by the slow torture of exposure and starvation, had never been able to provoke him into harboring one vengeful feeling or one purpose of cruelty. How shall the nation most completely show its sorrow at Mr. Lincoln's death? How shall it best honor his memory? There can be but one ROBERT GREENHOW. answer. He was struck down when he was highest, in its service, and in strict conformity with duty was engaged in carrying out principles affecting its life, its good name, and its relations to the cause of freedom and the progress of mankind. Grief must take the character of action, and breathe itself forth in the assertion of the policy to which he fell a victim. The standard which he held in his hand must be uplifted again higher and more firmly than before, and must be carried on to triumph. Above everything else, his proclamation of the first day of January, 1863, declaring throughout the parts of the country in rebellion, the freedom of all persons who had been held as slaves, must be affirmed and maintained. No sentiment of despair may mix with our sorrow. We owe it to the memory of the dead, we owe it to the cause of popular liberty throughout the world, that the sudden crime which has taken the life of the President of the United States shall not produce the least impediment in the smooth course of public affairs. This great city, in the midst of unexampled emblems of deeply-seated grief, has sustained itself with composure and magnanimity. It has nobly done its part in guarding against the derangement of business or the slightest shock to public credit. The enemies of the republic put it to the severest trial; but the voice of faction has not been heard; doubt and despondency have been unknown. In serene majesty the country rises in the beauty and strength and hope of youth, and proves to the world the quiet energy and the durability of institutions growing out of the reason and affections of the people. If Heaven has willed it that the United States shall live. The nations of the earth cannot spare them. All the worn-out aristocracies of Europe saw in the spurious feudalism of slaveholding, their strongest outpost, and banded themselves together with the deadly enemies of our national life. the Old World will discuss the respective advantages of oligarchy or equality; of the union of church and state, or the rightful freedom of religion; of land accessible to the many, or of land monopolized by an ever-decreasing number of the few, the United States must live to control the decision by their quiet and unobtrusive example. It has often and truly been observed, that the trust and affection of the masses gather naturally round an individual; if the inquiry is made, whether the man so trusted and beloved shall elicit from the reason of the people, enduring institutions of their own, or shall sequester political power for a superintending dynasty, the United States must live to solve the problem. If a question is raised on the respective merits of Timoleon or Julius Cæsar, of Washington or Napoleon, the United States must be there to call to mind that there were twelve Cæsars, most of them the opprobrium of the human race, and to contrast with them the line of American Presidents. To that Union Abraham Lincoln has fallen a martyr. His death, which was meant to sever it beyond repair, binds it more closely and more firmly than ever. The blow aimed at him, was aimed not at the native of Kentucky, not at the citizen of Illinois, but at the man, who, as President, in the executive branch of the government, stood as the representative of every man in the United States. The object of the crime was the life of the whole people; and it wounds the affections of the whole people. From Maine to the southwest boundary on the Pacific, it makes us one. The country may have needed an imperish 109 able grief to touch its inmost feeling. The grave that receives the remains of Lincoln, receives the costly sacrifice to the Union; the monument which will rise over his body will bear witness to the Union; his enduring memory will assist during countless ages to bind the States together, and to incite to the love of our one undivided, indivisible country. Peace to the ashes of our departed friend, the friend of his country and of his race! He was happy in his life, for he was the restorer of the republic; he was happy in his death, for his martyrdom will plead forever for the Union of the States and the freedom of man. ROBERT GREENHOW. ROBERT GREENHOW was born, in the year 1800, at Richmond, Virginia. He was the son of Robert Greenhow, one of the leading citizens of the place, who had at one time filled the office of mayor. Greenhow's mother perished in the conflagration of the Richmond theatre, and he himself narrowly escaped destruction in the same calamity. At the age of fifteen he removed to New York for the purpose of completing his education. He here became a student in the office of Drs. Hosack and Francis, and attended lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he took his degree in 1821, having in the meantime mixed freely in the best society of the city, and gained universal respect by the extent of his acquirements and the activity of his mind. He early developed the powers of an unusually retentive memory, said to have been surpassed in the present generation only by that of the historian Niebuhr, a faculty that proved of the greatest service to him through life. After leaving college he visited Europe, where he became intimately acquainted with Lord Byron, and other distinguished men. After his return he delivered a course of lectures on chemistry before the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York. In consequence of commercial disasters which at this period impaired his father's fortune, Greenhow was forced to rely on his own exertions for support. By the influence of his old friend, General Morgan Lewis, he obtained, in 1828, the appointment of translator to the Department of State at Washington. In 1837 he prepared, by order of Congress, a Report upon the Discovery of the North-West coast of North America. The researches which he had previously made into the early history of Oregon and California were of essential service to himself and the country in this undertaking, as they contributed greatly to establish the claims of the United States secured by the Ashburton negotiations. The report was afterwards enlarged by the author, and published with the title of History of Oregon and California, which at once took the rank it has since maintained of a thoroughly reliable authority on the subject. In December, 1848, Mr. Greenhow read a paper before the New York Historical Society, involving curious speculation and research, on the probabilities of the illustrious Archbishop Fenelon having passed some of the years of his youth as a missionary among the Iroquois or Five Nations in the western part of the state.* In a previous *Supplement to Proceedings of N. Y. Hist. Soc., 1848, pp. 199-2.9. communication to the Society, dated Washington | City, November 16, 1844, he recommends the preparation of a Memoir on the Discovery of the Atlantic Coasts of the United States, calling attention to the absence of popular information on the first discovery of Chesapeake Bay. In 1850 Dr. Greenhow, on his way to California, passed four months in the City of Mexico, engaged in a minute examination of its monuments and archives. After his arrival in California he was appointed, in 1853, Associate Law Agent to the United States Land Commission for the determination of California claims, holding its sessions in San Francisco. His intimate acquaintance with the Spanish language and the technicalities of Mexican law, were of the greatest service in facilitating the public business. On the resignation of the land agent he made an application for the vacant office, which proved unsuccessful. After the appointment of the new incumbent, he resigned his post, to the great regret of all connected with the Commission. He died in the spring of the following year, in consequence of the fracture of his thigh, occasioned by falling, during a dark night, into a deep excavation opened in one of the streets of San Francisco. S. G. GOODRICH. SAMUEL GRISWOLD GOODRICH, under his assumed name of Peter Parley, ranks among the best known of our authors. He was born at Ridgefield, Connecticut, August 19, 1793, and commenced life as a publisher in Hartford. In 1824 he visited Europe, and on his return established himself as a publisher in Boston, where he commenced an original annual, The Token, which he edited for a number of years, the contributions and illustrations being the products of American authors and artists; Mr. Goodrich himself furnishing several poems, tales, and sketches to the successive volumes, and rendering a further service to the public by his encouragement of young and unknown authors, among whom is to be mentioned Nathaniel Hawthorne, the finest of whose "Twice-told Tales" were first told in The Token, and, strange to say, without attracting any considerable attention. The famous Peter Parley series was commenced about the same time; Mr. Goodrich turning to good account in his little square volumes his recent travels in Europe, and his tact in book arrangement and illustration. The Geography was an especial favorite, and it is probable that the primary fact of that science is settled in the minds of some millions of schoolboys past and present, in indissoluble connexion with the couplet by which it was first transmitted thereto, The world is round, and like a ball Mr. Goodrich has, however, higher if not broader claims to poetic reputation, than are furnished by the little production we have cited. He has found time, amid his constant labor as a compiler, to assert his claims as an original author by the publication, in 1837, of The Outcast, and Other Poems; in 1841, of a selection from his contributions in prose and poetry to The Token and various magazines, with the title, Sketches from a Student's Window; and in 1851, by an elegantly illustrated edition of his Poems, including The Outcast. In 1838, Mr. Goodrich published Fireside Education, by the author of Peter Parley's Tales, a volume of judicious counsel to parents on that important topic, presented in a popular and attractive manner. Mr. Goodrich in 1855 was United States Consul at Paris, where he made arrangements for the translation translation and introduction of his Peter Parley series into France, under his own supervision. A simple enumeration of the various publications* of this gentleman under his own name, and *We present the titles of these writings as we find them in Mr. Roorbach's carefully prepared Bibliotheca Americana. Ancient History, 12mo."; Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom, 16mo.; Book of Government and Laws; Book of Literature, Ancient and Modern; Enterprise, Industry, and Art of Man, 16mo.; Fireside Education, 12mo.; Glance at Philosophy, Mental, Moral, and Social, 16mo.; History of American Indians, 16mo.; History of All Nations on a New and Improved Plan, 1300 pp. small 4to.; Lights and Shadows of American History; Lights and Shadows of African History; Lights and Shadows of Asiatic History; Lights and Shadows of European History; Lives of Benefactors, including Patriots, Inventors, Discoverers, &c. 16mo.; Lives of Celebrated Women, 16mo.; Lives of Eccentric and Wonderful Persons; Lives of Famous Men of Modern Times; Lives of Famous Men of Ancient Times; Lives of Famous American Indians, 16mo.; Lives of Signers of Declaration of Independence; Manners and Customs of All Nations, 16mo.; Manners, Customs, and Antiquities of American Indians; Modern History, 12mo.; National Geography, 4to.; Pictorial History of England, France, Greece, Rome, and the United States, 12mo.; Pictorial Geography of the World, 8vo.; Pictorial Natural History, 12mo.; Poems, 12mo.; School Reader, First, 18mo.; School Reader, Second, 18mo.; School Reader, Third, 18mo.; School Reader, Fourth, 12mo. : School Reader, Fifth, 12mo.; South America and West Indies; Sow Well, Reap Well; Sketches from a Student's Window; Universal Geography; Wonders of Geology, 16mo.; The World and its Inhabitants. Parley's Arithmetic; Africa; America; Anecdotes; Asia; Alexander Selkirk; Bible Dictionary; Bible Gazetteer; Bible Stories; Book of the United States; Book of Books, a Selection from Parley's Magazine; Consul's Daughter; Captive of Nootka; Columbus Common School History; Dick Boldhero, 18mo.; Europe; Every-Day Book; Fables; Farewell; First Book of History, Western Hemisphere First Book of Reading and Spelling, 18mo.; Fairy Tales; Flower Basket; Franklin; Gift, 16mo.; Geography for Beginners; Gardener; Greece; History of the World; History of North America; IIumorist's Tales; Home in the Sea, 18mo.; Illustrations of Astronomy; Illustrations of Commerce; Illustrations of History and Geography; Illustrations. of the Animal Kingdom; Illustrations of the Vegetable Kingdom; Islands; Mines of Different Countries; Moral Tales; Make the Best of It; Magazine; Miscellanies; New Gev. that of his friend of the knee-breeches and stout cane, is the most significant comment which can be presented on a career of remarkable literary activity. GOOD NIGHT, The sun has sunk behind the hills, The shadows o'er the landscape creep; The rose, so ruddy in the light, A sister shadow, seems to bow : The bat may wheel on silent wing- The boding owl his dirges sing; THE TEACHER'S LESSON. I saw a child some four years old, Alone she went-unchecked-untold- She gazed around on earth and sky- And now gay groups of roses bright, Yet on she went with footsteps light, And now she paused, and now she stooped, The child did kiss the little gem, And there she placed the fragile stem, I love to read a lesson true, From nature's open book- graphy for Beginners; New York; Picture Book; Picture Books, twelve kinds; Present: Rose Bud; Rome; Right is Might, 18mo.; Second Book of History, Eastern Hemisphere; Story of Captain Riley; Story of La Perouse; Ship; Sea; Sun, Moon, and Stars; Short Stories; Short Stories for Long Nights; Tales of Adventure; Tales for the Times; Tales of Sea and Land, 18mo.; Tale of the Revolution; Third Book of History, Ancient History; Three Months on the Sea; Truth Finder, or Inquisitive Jack, 18mo.; Universal History: Wit Bought; What to Do, and How to Do It; Winter Evening Tales: Washington; Wonders of South America; Young America, or Book of Government. And would you teach them-be so too-- And children know His A, B, C, As bees where flowers are set : From leaf to leaf, from page to page, And when he says, with aspect sage, May lead thy pupil there. Having returned to America from France, and having made New York his residence, Mr. Goodrich, in 1856, published a book, which, probably more than any of his numerous writings, will preserve his name in remembrance. It is a species of autobiography, entitled, Recollections of a Lifetime, or Men and Things I have Seen: in a series of familiar letters to a friend, historical, biographical, anecdotical, and descriptive. In an easy colloquial narrative the author narrates the experiences of his boyhood in his New England home, a simple, at times quaint and humorous story, which as a picture of manners possesses much of that kind of interest which Mrs. Grant of Laggan threw over an earlier period of history at Albany. Still, though removed from the present day by only half a century, the manners of Connecticut, in the youth of the writer, present many curious details of a simplicity which has almost passed away. As he proceeds, various New England personages of consequence are brought upon the scene, and we have some valuable notices of the war with England of 1812. literary men of that time, the Hartford wits, the poets, Percival and Brainard, are introduced. Then comes the author's first journey to England, and his acquaintance with various celebrities among men of letters. His active literary career at home succeeds, followed by his consulship at Paris, which included the period of the revolution of 1848. The "I In the appendix to this work, Mr. Goodrich enumerated the books of which he was the editor or author. The bare recital of the titles occupies six closely printed pages. They are chiefly school-books, and the various series of the Peter Parley Tales and Miscellanies. stand before the public," wrote Mr. Goodrich, as the author and editor of about one hundred and seventy volumes-one hundred and sixteen bearing the name of Peter Parley. Of all these about seven millions of volumes have been sold about three hundred thousand volumes are now sold annually." Mr. Goodrich's latest production was an Illustrated Natural History, completed in 1859. , larly vigorous and youthful for one of his years, The appearance of Mr. Goodrich was singuand his friends were surprised to hear of his sudden death. He was in the midst of his ar rangements for removal from the city to a residence which he had provided for his family in Connecticut, when he was seized with an acute attack of heart disease, which almost immediately proved fatal. He died at New York, in his sixty-seventh year, May 9, 1860. DOMESTIC LIFE A HALF CENTURY AGO FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF A LIFETIME. MY DEAR C****** You will gather from my preceding letter some ideas of the household industry and occupations of country people in Connecticut at the beginning of the present century. Their manners, in other respects, had a corresponding stamp of homeliness and simplicity. In most families, the first exercise of the morning was reading the Bible, followed by a prayer, at which all were assembled, including the servants and helpers of the kitchen and the farm. Then came the breakfast, which was a substantial meal, always including hot viands, with vegetables, apple-sauce, pickles, mustard, horseradish, and various other condiments. Cider was the common drink for laboring people; even children drank it at will. Tea was common, but not so general as Coffee was almost unknown. Dinner was a still more hearty and varied repast characterized by abundance of garden vegetables; tea was a light supper. now. The day began early: breakfast was had at six in summer and seven in winter; dinner at noonthe workpeople in the fields being called to their meals by a conch-shell, usually winded by some kitchen Triton. The echoing of this noon-tide horn, from farm to farm, and over hill and dale, was a species of music which even rivaled the popular melody of drum and fife. Tea-the evening meal-usually took place about sundown. In families where all were laborers, all sat at table, servants as well as masters the food being served before sitting down. In families where the masters and mistresses did not share the labors of the household or the farm, the meals of the domestics were had separate. There was, however, in those days a perfectly good understanding and good feeling between the masters and servants. The latter were not Irish; they had not as yet imbibed the plebeian envy of those above them, which has since so generally embittered and embarrassed American domestic life. The terms democrat and aristocrat had not got into use: these distinctions, and the feelings now implied by them, had indeed no existence in the hearts of the people. Our servants, during all my early life, were of the neighborhood, generally the daughters of respectable farmers and mechanics, and respecting others, were themselves respected and cherished. They were devoted to the interests of the family, and were always relied upon and treated as friends. In health, they had the same food; in sickness, the same care as the masters and mistresses, or their children. This servitude implied no degradation, because it did not degrade the heart or manners of those subjected to it. It was never thought of as a reproach to a man or woman in the stations they afterwards filled that he or she had been out to service. If servitude has since become associated with debasement, it is only because servants themselves, under the bad guidance of demagogues, have lowered their calling by low feelings and low man ners. At the period of my earliest recollections, men of all classes were dressed in long, broad-tailed coats, with huge pockets, long waistcoats, and breeches. Hats had low crowns, with broad brims- some so wide as to be supported at the sides with cords. The stockings of the parson, and a few others, were of silk in summer and worsted in winter; those of the people were generally of wool, and blue and gray mixed. Women dressed in wide bonnets--sometimes of straw and sometimes of silk: the gowns were of silk, muslin, gingham, etc. muslin, gingham, etc. -- generally close and shortwaisted, the breast and shoulders being covered by a full muslin kerchief. Girls ornamented themselves with a large white Vandyke. On the whole, the dress of both men and women has greatly changed. As to the former, short, snug, close-fitting garments have succeeded to the loose latitudinarian coats of former times: stove-pipe hats have followed broad-brims, and pantaloons have taken the place of breeches. With the other sex-little French bonnets, set round with glowing flowers, flourish in the place of the plain, yawning hats of yore; then it was as much an effort to make the waists short, as it is now to make them long. As to the hips, which now make so formidable a display it seems to me that in the days I allude to, ladies had none to speak of. The amusements were then much the same as at present though some striking differences may be noted. Books and newspapers which are now diffused even among the country towns, so as to be in the hands of all, young and old - were then scarce, and were read respectfully, and as if they were grave matters, demanding thought and attention. They were not toys and pastimes, taken up every day, and by everybody, in the short intervals of labor, and then hastily dismissed, like waste paper. The aged sat down when they read, and drew forth their spectacles, and put them deliberately and reverently upon the nose. These instruments were not, as now, little tortoise-shell hooks, attached to a ribbon, and put off and on with a jerk; but they were of silver or steel, substantially made, and calculated to hold on with a firm and steady grasp, showing the gravity of the uses to which they were devoted. Even the young approached a book with reverence, and a newspaper with awe. How the world has changed! The two great festivals were Thanksgiving and "training-day" the latter deriving, from the still lingering spirit of the revolutionary war, a decidedly martial character. The marching of the troops, and the discharge of gunpowder, which invariably closed the exercises, were glorious and inspiring mementoes of heroic achievements upon many a bloody field. The music of the drum and fife resounded on every side. A match between two rival drummers always drew an admiring crowd, and was in fact one of the chief excitements of the great day. Tavern haunting —especially in winter, when there was little to do for manufactures had not then sprung up to give profitable occupation during this inclement season -was common, even with respectable farmers. Marriages were celebrated in the evening, at the house of the bride, with a general gathering of the neighborhood, and usually wound off by dancing. Everybody went, as to a public exhibition, without invitation. Funerals generally drew large processions, which proceeded to the grave. Here the minister always made an address suited to the occasion. If there |