abode where Napthali did pretty much. Probably Hatty is finishing her "Sunny Memories." It would have looked better if she had shewn her face to the people in Boston. In the evening, last night, Wendell made a very fine speech. He has done it for himself. He is having greatness thrust upon him, and the time will come for aught I know for him to be Governor of Massachusetts. He deserves it for never a man could have done better. And now I am writing at this present Friday morning 8 o'clock in Wendell's parlour not knowing what is to be. I shall go down at 9 to [John A.] Andrew's office at the corner of Washington and State st. I do not dare to be in the street. I cannot think that when so wide a door is opened before the commissioner, he will not walk out of it, but he may not. The troops are ordered out with ball cartridges, and there has never been such a display of military force to keep the peace since the Revolution. All the friends as a general thing have behaved well. Of course there is the usual amount of floating folly, men coming down to do great things after having made their wills, etc, but there has been great and intense real feeling; I congratulated Deborah that we never should be tried with hearing the brethren say what they would have done had they been here, for they have all been here. Coming right at the end of the Nebraska bill, the claim is justly considered a special insult to Boston. The Mayor, and the Governor [Emory Washburn] have both been like wet rags. The Mayor should have forbade the C[ourt] H[ouse] to be used as a Slave-pen. It was brought up in the Board of Aldermen to turn them out. There are 6 Aldermen, the vote stood 3 to 3. The Mayor's casting vote decided to keep them in. Walking with Jenny Greene we met the Mayor. She, misunderstanding something I said, stopped him. He told me he believed he had met me abroad. I said no, explained about my sisters, apologized for Mrs. Greene's stopping him and explained the mistake, but said as it has occurred, I would bear my testimony about the C[ourt] H[ouse]. He said we must judge him candidly, he was very painfully situated etc. The truth is he is a wavering, kindly, insignificant, scared to death man. A Hasty Pudding, Wendell calls him. But I must leave off. You may imagine what agitation I am in.. If the man is sent back there may be great difficulty. I cannot think he will be. Yrs.

A. W. W.1

1 From the Chapman Mss. The subsequent events are given in Adams, Richard Henry Dana, 1. 277-295, 344-346. On June 6 a pamphlet containing a report of the arrest and trial, with Theodore Parker's "Lesson for the Day," was published by Fetridge & Co.

Mr. LORD submitted an agreement which throws some light upon slavery in Plymouth early in the eighteenth century. The original is in his possession.

These Presents Wittness A Covenant or Agreement made This Twenty Seventh Day of november annoque Domini one Thousand Seven hundred and Twenty Nine, Between Isaac Lothrop Esqr. of the Town and County of plymouth In New: England on the one Part; And Tompson Phillips of the Town and County of Plymouth aforesaid marriner on the other Part Wittnesseth, that the said Isaac Lothrop for and In Consideration of one half a Negro man Sold To him, as below Expressed, By the said Phillips; hath Sold, and Doth hereby Convey and Confirme unto him the said Tompson Phillips, his heirs and Assigns, one half a negro Boy named Euro, aged about foreteen years; and the said Lothrop Doth hereby oblige himself and his heirs To warrant the Sale of the one half of said Boy To the said Tompson Phillips his heirs and assigns against the Lawfull Claimes and Demands of all persons Whatsoever. And the said Tompson Phillips, for and In Consideration of one half a negro Boy Sold To him as above Expressed by the said Lothrop; hath Sold, and Doth hereby Convey and Confirm, unto him the said Isaac Lothrop his heirs and Assigns one half a negro man named Johnno, aged about Twenty five years, and hath but one Legg. And the said Tompson Phillips, Doth hereby oblige himself and his heirs, To warrant the Sale, of the one half of said negro man, To the said Isaac Lothrop his heirs and assigns, against the Lawfull Clames and Demands of all persons whatsoever. And it is also agreed to By the said Party, That the said Phillips Shall Carry said negro boy Euro with him on his present Intended Voyage To Jamaica; one half of said Boy being on the account and Resque of said Lothrop, and upon the Selling said Boy att Jamaica or Else where, Shall Render an account of the one half of the Sale of him, and shall Ship for said Lothrop and on his account and Resque the Value Thereof and To him in Such Commodityies as he may Think may be most To said Lothrops Advantage here.

And also the said Lothrop Shall Take the said negro man Johnno and shall keep and Improve him one half being on the Resque of said Phillips, Shall Do his Endeavours, as well as may be To Teach him the art or Trade of a Cordwainer, from the Day of the Date hereoff, for and Dureing The full Term of one year next following; and att the Expiration Thereoff, said Phillips Shal if he pleases Take the said negro Johnno To himself paying said Lothrop Forty pounds money for his said Lothrops one half of

said negro man. In wittness hereof the said partys have hereunto Interchangerably Set Their hands and Seals the Day and year first above written.

Signed Sealed and D'ld In presents off us

NATHANIEL THOMES Jun'r.

SAM'L BARTLETT.

ISAAC LOTHROP.

Recieved of the within named Isaac Lothrop Twenty pounds money for the one half of the within named nigrew Johnno and for which money I sell the said nigrew man tha is The one half To the above said Isaac Lothrop his Heires Executors administrators and asins as witnes my hand this 5th Day of December 1730.

MELATIAH LOTHROP.
JAMES CUSHMAN.

HANNAH DYRE.

Mr. GREENOUGH read an extract from a note-book of William Whitwell Greenough:

Boston, October 30, 1841. Dined at Mr. Charles P. Curtis's; in company with several gentlemen among whom were Mr. Webster, Mr. [Rufus] Choate, Mr. Mason and Mr. [Benjamin] Gorham.

Mr. Webster observed that he looked to the consequences of the Bankrupt Bill as very important to the country in one respect: that it would relieve thousands of discontented people on the frontiers from embarrassment, who heretofore had counted only upon a war with England.1 We had no idea, generally speaking, how extensive were the ramifications of the conspiracy, beginning at Burlington, Vermont, and extending to Cleveland, Ohio, near which were

1 On June 30, 1841, President Tyler sent to the House of Representatives a memorial signed by nearly three thousand of the inhabitants of the city of New York, praying for the passage of a bankrupt law. He accompanied it with a brief message cautiously recommending such a law. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, IV. 54. "This process of petitioning Congress through the President is a novelty," was the comment of John Quincy Adams. Memoirs, x. 493. After some discussion a bill became a law August 19, 1841, and after a short and unfortunate experience was repealed in 1843. McMaster, History of the People of the United States, VII. 48. Adams made a true forecast of the effect some ten days before the passage of the act: "I believe no Bankrupt law can, in this country, be of much benefit to the class of creditors. The Bankrupt law of 1800 operated as a receipt in full for some hundreds of men who had large debts and nothing to pay. This bill will pass some thousands through the same process. There has been for forty years since that law expired an overpowering prejudice against any Bankrupt law; and now, by a sudden and unaccountable revulsion, there comes a whirlwind to carry it through." Memoirs, x. 529. It was the one Whig measure carried under Tyler.

hid in ditches and under haystacks more than five thousand stand of arms. The patriot feeling was so strong in the Western part of the State of New York, that members of Congress made speeches in opposition to their real sentiments for the sake of producing effect. Many of the first men in the State of New York were implicated by their contributions to the patriot fund. Among others Governor Seward and Judge Cowen were known to have given money. The Patriots did not expect to lynch McLeod, although such at one time was the plan, but were momentarily waiting for the event which should break the peace of the two countries. The Lodges, as they are called, extend along the frontier on both sides the line which there are three degrees each with oaths more thrilling than the other, of which he (Mr. W.) had copies and which he had thought of publishing. Mr. Gorham remarked upon the singularity of the facts that all these extra-judicial oaths should be taken and these secret combinations exist in the counties of New York where the first Anti-Masonic demonstrations took place.1

of

Mr. Webster related an anecdote of his first introduction to Lord Brougham by Sydney Smith, which shewed that wits had some weaknesses. Two or three days after Mr. W's arrival in London in the winter of '39, Sydney Smith sent for him to breakfast. After sitting about two hours the reverend gentleman proposed a walk for the purpose of shewing the distinguished stranger some of the lions in his vicinity. On passing Lord Brougham's, Smith proposed to take Mr. Webster in to see Brougham, stating that they were on the most intimate terms together, had established the Edinburg Review together, etc. At this solicitation Mr. Webster went in, and was presented to Lord B. as Mr. Clay, without any further particulars. Mr. Webster sat down, and the two friends fell into a conversation immediately upon their own affairs, without taking the slightest notice of Mr. W. Shortly Mr. W. rose, and bowing to Lord B. passed out with his introducer. After walking some distance Mr. Smith suddenly recollected that he had made some mistake, and finding by inquiry that such was the case, he immediately

1 See McMaster, History of the People of the United States, VI. 621. The Hunters Lodges were formed five years earlier, and McMaster, in the same volume (p. 446), gives the following account of them: "Another secret oath-bound association, with a network of lodges all along the border from Vermont to Michigan, was that of the Hunters. Their oath pledged each member to defend and cherish republican institutions and ideas, combat and help to destroy every power of royal origin on our continent, and never to rest till all British tyrants ceased to have any dominion in North America. The members were divided into degrees, had signs, grips, and passwords, and were believed by government spies to number many thousands."

rushed back to Lord B's, who called upon Mr. W. before his return to his house. Mr. Webster stated that a few days since he received a letter from S. S. to contradict a report which disturbed him greatly, viz., that he had made the mis-introduction by design for the purpose of playing off a practical joke upon Lord B. and Mr. W.

An interesting conversation was had upon the corn laws of England, Mr. Sumner 1 against, and Mr. Gorham for, who thought that on them hung the salvation of the English constitution. Mr. Webster said that he rather thought that the preservation of the present order of things consisted in the law of primogeniture, which kept the lands in the hands of the few. The last election in England was a proof of this great power. It was observed by some gentleman that the present election in England had cost more than any other.

The great problems of political economy, said Mr. Webster, after all reduce themselves to two heads. First, how shall a State attain to great power and riches; secondly, how shall this power and wealth be distributed among the people. The policy of Europe at the present moment should be to disarm - each soldier on average costing for his support $500 per annum and reckoning the standing armies of France, Austria and Russia at one million, they cost yearly five hundred millions of dollars, which were certainly worth saving.

Among other mots, it was observed that Mr. Fox,2 the British ambassador at Washington, seldom rose before four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and Mr. Webster said that if it was necessary to transact any business with him, three or four days' warning was required, when he would rise at 2 P. M. Mr. Webster told him that there was little danger of the peace of the two countries being broken while Clay kept watch, and watched Mr. W. by day, and Mr. Fox by night.

There are now two subjects on which very important negotiations were now pending between this country and Great Britain: the North Eastern Boundary question, made more embarrassing by the conduct of Mr. Stevenson, who had merely entered his protest against the conduct of the British government; and the seizure of vessels on the coast of Africa. Mr. Sumner mentioned that General Cass had told him that Louis Philippe had told him that England was in the wrong. It was suggested that the whole matter should be referred to his arbitration.

Remember Mr. Gorham's answer to Mr. Gallatin on the Louisiana question, and to Gov. Barber [Barbour?] on the law of Massachusetts forbidding the intermarriage of the whites and blacks.

1 Probably Charles Sumner.

2 Henry Stephen Fox.