I was in the House of Representatives when Mr. Ames made his great speech on the British treaty negotiated by Mr. Jay. It was a most masterly display of the highest kind of eloquence. After the House had been fagged and tired almost to death with discussions by the most talented men in the nation, and nauseated with the subject, he revived and excited the highest state of feeling and was heard with the most profound interest. Such was the obvious effect on the feelings of the House, that on his sitting down and nobody rising to answer, and the question being about to be put, one of the opposition (I think Mr. Giles) moved an adjournment, saying that under such feelings, the House was incompetent to act wisely or safely. I afterward had the good fortune of seeing and hearing Mr. Ames converse several times. All who knew him allowed him to be the most delightful man in the world. With much genius, he had the purest moral and critical taste. As is commonly the case with men of high powers of imagination, he dealt little with logical reasoning, but leapt to his conclusions, as it would seem, by intuition.

My agency in Virginia was thought by those interested in it, to have been judiciously executed. It made me acquainted with many of the land jobbers, who were then numerous. I was offered other agencies, and urged to enter extensively into the business. At first I thought favorably of it, and agreed to undertake several (36)

agencies in land sales. But I soon saw enough to satisfy me that it was a fallacious, moonshine business, and withdrew entirely from it.

I had, as I then supposed, acquired considerable profit from it, but in the end it mostly failed. I had a connection with Ephraim Kirby of Connecticut, which involved me in a troublesome and expensive litigation, in settlement of which I became surety for Kirby; he died soon after insolvent, and I was obliged to pay several thousand dollars to get rid of my liability, for which his estate only partially indemnified me. This drawback nearly balanced my account of profits in land agencies.

By this time I had become dissatisfied with my situation on Connecticut river. The inhabitants were comparatively poor. I had business enough, but the most of it was of a small kind. wanted a broader field of action, and to be nearer the great world.

1

I felt a strong liking for Boston, but considering the high reputation and crowded state of the Boston bar, I dared not attempt to intrude myself on them. I thought very seriously of going to New York. Having been introduced to Colonel Burr, then at the height of his reputation, and favorably noticed by him, I explained my intention to him. He, with much apparent sincerity, strongly advised my coming to New York; said he had no doubt of my success, and promised me his patronage. He advised me at all events to quit the State of New Hampshire, which he said could never come to anything; that New York would soon supplant Virginia and govern the Union. I knew that he was in the habit of drawing young men round him, taking them under his patronage, and converting them into political partisans. This greatly lessened the influence of his advice.

I thought favorably of Portsmouth, and went there in the spring of 1797 on a visit of exploration. Edward St. Loe Livermore, who had been at the head of the Rockingham bar, had just accepted a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court. This made a fair opening. The other professional men in that town were not very efficient. Portsmouth was at that time a place of vastly (37) greater comparative importance than at present. It contained many highly respectable families, and good society was an important object with me. I had acquired a little reputation in the courts of New Hampshire, and thought I could take a share of business at Portsmouth, and seriously doubted how that might be at New York. I knew that Judge Smith was about resigning his place in Congress, with the determination of settling himself in the practice at Exeter. I did not consider that any objection to my plan, and after mature consideration I removed to Portsmouth the ensuing summer.

I attended the autumn courts of the two large counties of Rockingham and Stafford in 1797, then containing nearly a hundred thousand inhabitants, and was pretty extensively retained.

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a Mason moved to Portsmouth rather than Boston, in 1797, believing it would eventually be the larger city (see p. 165, this work.) Daniel Webster joined him there, ten years later, in 1807, moving to Boston in 1816, and Mason joined Webster in Boston, in 1832.

CHAPTER II.

Remarks on the Autobiography. Mr. Mason's removal to Portsmouth. His
Marriage. His Professional Success-Appointed Attorney General of New
Hampshire. Friendship with Mr. Webster.-Mr. Lord's Reminiscences.

MR.

R. MASON'S simple and characteristic autobiography, bringing the record of his life down to 1797, leaves little to be said by his biographer, either in addition or illustration. He was correct in his belief that he was descended from Major John Mason, one of the early settlers of Connecticut, distinguished for his gallantry and success in the Pequot War in 1637. His third and youngest son, Daniel, was the grandfather of Mr. Mason's grandfather.1

The town of Lebanon," Mr. Mason's birthplace, has changed but little since he was born. Its inhabitants were and are mostly farmers, neither rich nor poor, and owning the land which they till. It is a good specimen of the agricultural towns in New England. On this point I am able to speak from personal observation, for in my early childhood it was my fortune to pass nearly two years there, in the family, and under the charge of the Rev. Zebulon Ely, of whom Mr. Mason speaks. I well remember the brick school-house there, for I have sat many hours on its benches, attending school by day and religious meetings by night; and I heartily agree with Mr.

a A city of 5,000 in 1900.

1 There was a missing link in the genealogy of the Mason family, arising from the fact that Daniel Mason, son of Major John Mason, in the Indian troubles of 1676, sent his wife, for her expected confinement, to her friends in Roxbury, where her son Daniel was born in February of that year, and baptized by the Indian apostle Eliot. This was discovered by the researches of the Rev. G. E. Ellis, D. D., which service Mr. Mason acknowledged by a handsome copy of an English edition of the Bible in quarto.

The farm on which Mr. Mason was born was given to his ancestor by Uncas, chief of the Mohegan tribe, and remained in the possession of the family till 1851.