record of our dealings with the wronged, hunted, and down-trodden Indian.

JOHN THORNTON KIRKLAND, the second son of Samuel Kirkland, was born at Little Falls, New York, August 17, 1770, and died in Boston, April 26, 1840. He inherited a large share of the selfdevoted patriotism of his father. Although but five years old when the Revolutionary War began, he must have been stirred to take an interest in what he saw and heard about it, especially as his father, so early as July 18, 1775, was recommended by the Continental Congress as adapted to labor among the Indians and preserve their neutrality during the war, and at once engaged in that arduous and responsible work.

From a mother of distinguished public spirit, energy, wisdom, and devotedness, he received the rudiments of a high intellectual and moral excellence. At the age of thirteen he was sent to Phillips Academy at Andover, where he acquitted himself creditably as a student, and by his exemplary deportment. Entering Harvard College in 1785, his course there was commendable both in scholarship and character. His patriotic spirit showed itself in 1787, when, at the early age of sixteen, suspending his studies, he joined a military corps for the suppression of the Shays Rebellion. We see here the germ of that interest in military tactics, and desire to encourage the formation of military companies, which he felt in his subsequent life. He evidently regarded this form of

service as important to the welfare of the republic. In my college life during his presidency, there existed the Harvard Washington Corps, to which I belonged; and I recollect the pleasure with which he welcomed the West Point Cadets, when they visited the University, and invited them to dine with us in our Commons Hall.

After his graduation in 1789, he assisted in Andover Academy for a year, and purposed to take up the law as his profession. He thought it

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good for exerting," as he said, "the virtues of integrity and patriotism." He expresses his regrets that "public spirit is decaying," and "that hardihood of character which becomes republicans." But he finally decided to enter the ministry, and studied for some time, in his preparation for that office, under Rev. Dr. West of Stockbridge, and afterward completed his professional studies with Professor Tappan, in Cambridge. The influence of Dr. West, a prominent and devoted patriot of that period, must have done much to strengthen his naturally patriotic spirit.

Dr. Kirkland had a strong historic taste, exhibited in many ways. He was elected in his early ministry a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, was for some years one of its officers, and continued his membership for thirty-two years. He took a deep interest in the political condition of the country, and was an earnest member of the old Federal party. Some of his letters show the strength of his political convictions and feelings.

February 10, 1809, he wrote to one who had said he thought the Democrats must be soon led into better courses by "the bright lamps of truth and honor shining all around them." "What good," he replied, "will they, [the lamps] do those who choose false lights, or who are moles that sunshine cannot make see?" Writing again, April 12, 1810, to Josiah Quincy, then a Representative in Congress, he says: "The administration will not dare to repeat their outrageous measures; we are not to be made the quiet and harmless victims of their party passions, French politics, and Democratic feelings."

During his ministry in the Summer Street Church in Boston, he preached many sermons imbued with his decided views as a warm friend of his country, especially on occasions when the public mind was agitated by the political measures and the great national questions of the day.

Both by inheritance and early education Dr. Kirkland felt a deep interest in the character and prospects of the Indians. His views on that subject are especially noteworthy, amid the controversies of the present day in regard to that hapless race. In a volume of the Massachusetts Historical Collections, we have his answer to questions respecting the Indians, dated February, 1795, in which he discusses, with brevity and force, their situation, capacities and deserts. Three years previously he had resided in their neighborhood several months, and