CHAPTER V.

Mr. Mason resigns his Seat in the Senate of the United States.Letters to Mr. Gore and Mr. King, informing them of the Fact, and their Replies. - Letter to Dr. Appleton on the same Subject. Portsmouth in the Early Part of this Century. Mr. Mason's Professional and Domestic Life. The Dartmouth Case. Correspondence to the Close of the Year 1818 with Mr. Gore, Mr. King, Mr. Daggett, and Judge Story.

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N June, 1817, Mr. Mason resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States. He has not left on record any statement of the reasons which led him to take this step, but they may be inferred from the tone of his letters in the two preceding chapters.

In the first place, unlike most Americans, and especially unlike most American lawyers, he had no political ambition. Public office had no charms for him, and professional occupation was far more to his taste than political. Popular applause he neither sought nor cared for, nor had he that cheap accomplishment of popular eloquence by which such applause is most easily won. He spoke wisely, weightily, and logically; he addressed the reason and the conscience of his hearers; but what he said was not commended by any aid of voice, eye, or gesture. He had none of the external graces of oratory; his manner was simple and unimpassioned, and his tone conversational. His powerful mind and masculine taste would have disdained the triumphs secured by an appeal to the passions or prejudices of those whom he addressed. Thus his love of his profession, and his indifference to public life, conspired to make his place in the Senate distasteful to him.

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But more powerful than any other motive was his unwillingness to continue the sacrifice he was obliged to make in being so long

absent from his family. His domestic affections were very strong, and all his hours not given to his profession, were spent at home. For the rest and refreshment which a hard-working lawyer so much needs he was peculiarly dependent upon his family. When absent from them in Washington, he had no resource for his lonely evenings but the solitary pleasure of reading. For the questionable amusements to which members of Congress sometimes resort for pastime he had no taste, even if his strict New England training had allowed him to look upon them as innocent. His letters are full of expressions of the longing he felt to be at home with his wife and children, and of the sacrifice he was making in living away from them.

He felt too that a numerous family of young children had claims upon him paramount to all others, both to secure for them a provision against want in case of his death, and to give his constant care to the training of their minds and characters.

The situation of the country left him at liberty to obey the strong impulse which called him home. Its youthful energies and boundless resources were already beginning to repair the waste of the war. The burden of taxation had been lightened, commerce revived, manufacturers were quickened, and Mr. Crawford, who was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in October, 1816, had been able, in his report at the meeting of the second session of the Fourteenth Congress, to give a hopeful view of the finances of the country.

And now that the war was over, the bitterness of political feeling which had grown out of the war and the measures which had led to it had much abated. The Federalists, a party decreasing in influence and numbers, had acquiesced in the election of Mr. Monroe, a man of moderate talents and moderate temper, who made neither earnest partisans nor vehement opponents. Most men were ready to bury the hatchet of political strife; and a man of Mr. Mason's (156)

political sagacity could not fail to see that the old party lines were in a fair way to be erased, and that new issues would make new divisions of the future.

Mr. Mason, upon resigning his seat in the Senate, wrote to his friends, Mr. Gore, Mr. King, and Dr. Appleton, informing them of

the step he had taken. His letters, and the replies of Mr. Gore and Mr. King, are here given.

JEREMIAH MASON TO CHRISTOPHER GORE.

PORTSMOUTH, June 18, 1817.

MY DEAR SIR,-I have just resigned my seat in the Senate of the United States. For a considerable time past I have contemplated doing this. I have many reasons for staying at home, and very few for going to Washington. Among the circumstances which have lessened my inducements to retain my seat in the Senate, your resignation is not the least. I certainly do not regret having spent so considerable a portion of four years in that station. I am not vain enough to console myself with an idea that my labors have been of any special advantage to the country. But the time has not been spent without advantage to myself. It has afforded me the opportunity, which I should otherwise never have enjoyed, of knowing some of the greatest and best men in our country. And I have the consolation of hoping that in a few instances I have been so fortunate as to attract their kind regards. I have also had an opportunity of seeing the tricks and cunning contrivances by which the nation has been, and I suppose for a long time will continue to be governed. These can never be well understood without the advantage of a situation from which one can see the master jugglers manage their puppets.

I fear the good people of Boston will kill the President with kindness. I am, however, on the whole, glad to see them taking that turn. They have certainly derived no benefit from pursuing

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an opposite course.1 No one can foretell what this will produce; but I do not believe the Federalists, or quasi-Federalists, have anything to expect from Colonel Monroe. When I saw you a few moments in Boston last spring, you told me it was possible that in some excursion in the course of the summer you might take Ports

1President Monroe, who made an extended tour through the country in the summer of 1817, was in Boston at the date of this letter.

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mouth in your way. I wish you would say it was probable.

I am sincerely yours,

J. MASON.

CHRISTOPHER GORE TO JEREMIAH MASON.

WALTHAM, June 22, 1817.

MY DEAR SIR,-I duly received your letter of the 18th mentioning that you had resigned your seat in the Senate of the United States. On public grounds I am concerned. No one more quickly discerns the weakness and wickedness of bad measures, and none more thoroughly exposed them, and in many instances you succeeded in defeating their schemes or in rendering them less obnoxious. I am sorry also for our friend King's sake, who will be altogether alone.

For your own gratification you have, I entertain no doubt, remained as long as was desirable. The inconvenience in going and returning, the comfortlessness of Washington, and the privations of so many enjoyments in being from home were, and must have continued to be, great sacrifices. I rejoice that you were there while I held a seat, and should be extremely delighted, if it were for your interest and happiness to live in my neighborhood, that once in a few weeks I might exchange thoughts with you on the passing events. I despair of ever being able to go so many miles from home; were I able, I would visit you and yours with great satisfaction.

The Boston folks are making great efforts to show their respect for the new President. It has been a question who should evince

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most devotion, the Federalist or Democrat. The former appears to have got the start in the race. The military will escort him; all the citizens are to attend on the way in carriages and on horseback, and finally he is to be shown all the boys of Boston on our Common. If he does not meet us with due respect after all this, and illustrate some of the most distinguished leaders either by knighting them, or sending them to represent the dignity of the United States in China or England, he must be lost to all sense of gratitude as well as of public good. My want of health will prevent me from paying my personal respects to the President. I am confined to my own

fields and my own furrows, which are looking well, but here are neither the weeds of ambition nor avarice. If I had tolerable health and limbs, I could pass the remnant of my days in cheerfulness; as it is, I endeavor to go on tranquilly and without repining. My wife enjoys very passable health, and unites with me in affectionate regards to Mrs. Mason and yourself. Farewell.

Your faithful friend,

JEREMIAH MASON TO RUFUS KING.

C. GORE.

PORTSMOUTH, June 26, 1817.

MY DEAR SIR,-I have resigned my seat in the Senate of the United States. I had contemplated it for some time, as I mentioned to you last winter. It was my intention to have postponed my resignation till next fall, and so retain the power of altering my determination should I see reason. But as that would have carried the appointment of my successor from the Legislature to the Governor, which I did not wish to do, and as I saw no probability of any change of opinion, I thought it best to resign at the present time. For staying at home I have many inducements; but for going to Washington none, except the pleasure and advantage of being with you. I do not see that the public have any manner of concern in this matter. I have not vanity enough to flatter myself with the notion of having done the public any good while I have been in the Senate, nor do I see any probability that I could if I remained there longer.

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I do not regret, however, having spent so considerable a portion of time in that situation. It has been of great advantage to me. It has afforded me the means of seeing, and in some measure understanding, the tricks and cunning management by which the nation has been and probably will for a long time continue to be governed. And what is much better, it has also afforded the opportunity, which I should otherwise never have enjoyed, of cultivating the acquaintance and (I trust I may add) the favorable regards of some of the greatest and best men our country has ever possessed. I shall always consider the having acted with you on some important