distinguished federalists to office, without endangering his popularity. Crawford or Jackson might have appointed Rufus King to England without hazard. Mr. Adams could not. He was already suspected by the republican party, and he had no strength to spare on which to sustain individuals, however eminent, who had become unpopular with the nation.

Considering his advanced age and consequent imbecility, Rufus King had neither popularity at home nor ability to represent our government at London. This appointment caused Mr. Adams to be more than suspected of leaning to his federal friends, some of whom, whatever may be their standing in New England, can never have a general popularity in the country.

Calhoun, though opposed to the election of Mr. Adams, under the circumstances, had come to the resolution of occupying a neutral position, most suitable to the station he occupied in the government. With this determination, which I anxiously endeavored to bring him to, he came to Washington to take his seat in the Senate. On his way, he heard of the project to send ministers to Panama. Believing it would be impolitic to accept of the invitation which was said to have been given, he called on a member of the Cabinet, with whom he was most intimate, gave him his views fully on the subject, and requested that they might be communicated to the Cabinet. He was informed it was too late, as the invitation had been accepted.

This step by Mr. Calhoun showed a friendly solicitude that the Administration should take a course which he believed to be correct and politic.

But shortly after the commencement of the session he was violently assailed, in the newspapers by one of the members of Congress from Kentucky for his appointment of committees, and a determination was shown to drive him from a neutral position. It was not intended that he should be on friendly terms with the supporters of the Administration in the north. This attack was followed up by others, until the Vice President was driven to the alternative of a most active and persevering opposition to the Administration.

Too much importance was given to the Panama mission. Public expectation was raised too high. I entertain now the same opinion that I did of this mission when it was first named. I then stated to Gen. Brown that it would involve a considerable expenditure, end in disappointment, and that I thought it was impolitic to give it so much importance before the people.

It was the interest of Dewit Clinton to cooperate with the Administration and sustain it. This he was disposed to do. By offering him the appointment to London and afterwards. sending Mr. King the Administration had nothing to hope from the Buctail [Bucktail] party

of New York. Clinton, by sustaining the Administration, expected to conciliate New England. But here, it seems, he was about entering on forbidden ground, and a determination was formed either to demolish or at least cripple him. This ground had been taken from the Vice President, and it must now be taken from Dewit Clinton. I foresaw and predicted to Gen. Brown, long before he or any one else so far as I know anticipated it, that by the force of circumstances, and not of choice, Clinton would be found in the same ranks with Van Buren. Knowing, as Gen. Brown well did, the views and wishes of Governor Clinton, he at first believed it was impossible. Very soon, however, he had evidence that a movement would be made in opposition to Clinton's election, such as I predicted, that was likely to produce the above result. Of this movement Mr. Adams knew nothing, and was perfectly innocent. It was, evidently, his interest to conciliate Clinton, and I have no doubt it was his disposition to do so. But Clinton's popularity would be an obstacle to other views, and he was to be prostrated. This was accomplished, not by defeating his election for governor, but by reducing his majority so small as effectually to defeat his hopes for the presidency. My prediction was then realized. Clinton and Van Buren were seen in the same ranks, and this union destroyed the prospects of the Administration in New York.

These are some of the prominent causes which have originated and consolidated by far the most formidable opposition to the Administration, that has ever been witnessed in this country. The change of positions [?] the appointment of the post master at Nashville, &c., &c., have been powerful auxiliaries to give strength and energies to the opposition. To the above, and not the liberality of the Administration in its appointments, may the causes of failure be found, if a failure should take place.

Remarks were made during the meeting by the PRESIDENT, GAMALIEL BRADFORD, and ROGER B. MERRIMAN.

50

MARCH MEETING, 1908.

THE stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 12th instant, at three o'clock, P. M.; the President in the chair.

The record of the February meeting was read and approved; and the Librarian read the list of donors to the Library during the past month.

The Cabinet-Keeper reported the recent additions to the series of portraits of Treasurers of the Society, and gave the list at the present time as follows: William Tudor (1791-1796, and 1799-1803), Josiah Quincy (1803-1820), James Savage (1820-1839), Nahum Mitchell (1839-1845), Peleg W. Chandler (1845-1847), Richard Frothingham (1847-1877), and Charles C. Smith (1877-1907), whose portrait is a charcoal sketch from life drawn in November, 1907, by Miss Mary N. Richardson. He also reported that the Cabinet now contains a large number of ancient coins, which are not of particular value to the Society, and that the Council had voted that they be given to Harvard College.

George L. Kittredge, of Cambridge, was elected a Resident Member of the Society, and Justice James W. Longley, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a Corresponding Member.

In preparation for the Annual Meeting in April, the following committees were appointed by the President: to nominate officers for the ensuing year, Samuel S. Shaw, James De Normandie, and M. A. De Wolfe Howe; to examine the Treasurer's accounts, S. Lothrop Thorndike and Thomas Minns; to examine the Library and Cabinet, Albert Matthews, William V. Kellen, and William R. Thayer.

The President reported for the Council a revision of the By-Laws, which was referred to a Committee consisting of Edward Stanwood, Winslow Warren, and Barrett Wendell.

The PRESIDENT announced the death of Charles Henry Dalton, a Resident Member, and paid the following tribute to him:

It is with more than usual regret, and indeed with a sense of personal loss, that I have again, as at the last meet

ing, to announce the death of a Resident Member. Born at Chelmsford on September 25, 1826, Charles Henry Dalton died at his residence on Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston, on the morning of February 23. Elected a Resident Member of the Society on June 9, 1904, Mr. Dalton, owing to a somewhat developed and constantly increasing difficulty of hearing, had not been a constant attendant at our meetings. He served, however, on the Committee to examine the Treasurer's Accounts in 1904; and at our January meeting, 1906, he communicated a paper of considerable historical value on United States Postage Stamps,1 a subject interesting in itself, but which had excited peculiar interest in him. Of it he had made a study. Beyond this, I cannot find that Mr. Dalton was ever present at more than two meetings of the Society, those of December, 1904, and January, 1906. Professor R. B. Merriman has been requested to prepare the memoir of Mr. Dalton for our Proceedings; but I know of no one in the Society better qualified on the whole than I to pay such brief, characterizing tribute to him as is customary here when an announcement of this character is made. For not only was Mr. Dalton one of my oldest and most valued friends, but there was also between us a remote relationship as well as a more recent family connection. Our common ancestor was Caleb Call of Charlestown (1718-1765), described in the records as "Esquire, baker," one of whose daughters married (1763) Nathaniel Gorham, an ancestor of mine on the maternal side, while another daughter married (1778) Peter Rowe Dalton, the grandfather of our deceased associate.

My association with the Daltons of our common generation dates back more than fifty years; and with Charles H. Dalton personally, to a time immediately following the close of the War of Secession. There were four brothers; and with all of them my acquaintance, invariably pleasant to recall, has at times been close and almost intimate. Charles was the second of the four; and from his seniority acted, when occa sion arose, almost in the capacity of a father to the younger brothers. John C. Dalton, the oldest, and a Harvard graduate in the Class of 1844, served in the Union army as a surgeon. Subsequently he attained eminence as a physiologist 1 2 Proceedings, xx, 6-12.

in New York. He died there in 1889. Edward Barry Dalton, the college roommate of Phillips Brooks in the Harvard class of 1855, also followed the medical profession; and in the War served with great distinction as head of the Reserve Hospital of the Army of the Potomac. Later, he also practised his profession in New York. He died of tuberculosis in California in 1870. The youngest brother, Henry R., alone of the four, survives.

As a man gets on in life, and is at least supposed to have, like Ulysses,

roaming with a hungry heart

Much to have seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,

of such an one, I say, the question is often asked, who, among those he has met or been associated with, have impressed him as most noticeable, most individually interesting. The answer frequently affords additional illustration of the familiar aphorism that the world knows nothing of its greatest men. In nine cases out of ten, when the question is asked, the person to whom it is put replies by naming some one never before heard of by the questioner, -some professional or business associate, some relative, or some village philosopher of local fame only, whom the person interrogated has met, and had occasion to observe in his immediate circle. In the present case, were the question asked me, I should place Charles Henry Dalton high among the strong and really noticeable characters with whom, in the experience of life, it has been my fortune to come in contact. I do not hesitate to say that, as this world goes, I think Mr. Dalton would have been equal to any position calling for the exercise of masterful executive ability in which he might have found himself placed. Not only was he a man of character in the full sense of that vague but expressive term, but he was also essentially public-spirited; and, when duty or the occasion called, not only was he willing, but he was very capable. A man of large business experience, he understood himself as well as others; and, understanding himself, he impressed his individuality on all with whom he came in contact. I first came in close connection with him when, a man of some forty years of age, he was in the maturity of his powers-shrewd, active,