[CHAPTER XXIV.]
EXPENDITURES.—LETTERS.—DONATION FOR LIBRARY AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE.—VIEWS ON STUDY OF ANATOMY.
"January 1, 1846.—The business of the past year has been very prosperous in our country; and my own duties seem more clearly pointed out than ever before. What am I left here for, and the young branches taken home? Is it not to teach me the danger of being unfaithful to my trusts? Dear R. taken! the delight of my eyes, a treasure secured! which explains better than in any other way what my Father sees me in need of. I hope to be faithful in applying some of my trusts to the uses God manifestly explains to me by his dealings. I repeat, 'Thy will be done.'"
That his trusts, so far as the use of his property was concerned, were faithfully performed, may be inferred from the fact that, in July, or at the termination of the half-year, in making up his estimate of income and expenditures, he remarks that the latter are nearly twenty thousand dollars in advance of the former.
Mr. Lawrence was often much disturbed by the publicity which attended his benevolent operations. There are, perhaps, thousands of the recipients of his favors now living, who alone are cognizant of his bounty towards themselves; but when a public institution became the subject of his liberality, the name of the donor could not so easily be concealed. The following letter will illustrate the mode which he sometimes was obliged to adopt to avoid that publicity; and it was his custom not unfrequently to contribute liberally to objects of charity through some person on whom he wished the credit of the donation to fall.
(TO PRESIDENT HOPKINS.)
"Boston, Jan. 26, 1846.
"My dear Friend: Since Saturday, I have thought much of the best mode of helping your college to a library building without getting into the newspapers, and have concluded that you had better assume the responsibility of building it; and, if anybody objects that you can't afford it, you may say you have friends whom you hope to have aid from; and I will be responsible to you for the cost to an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars; so that you may feel at liberty to prepare such a building as you will be satisfied with, and which will do credit to your taste and judgment fifty years hence. If I am taken before this is finished, which must be this year, my estate will be answerable, as I have made an entry in my book, stating the case. I had written a longer story, after you left me, on Saturday evening, but have laid it aside to hand you this, with best wishes, and that all may be done 'decently and in order.' I will pay a thousand or two dollars whenever it is wanted for the work.
"Your friend,
A. L."
Mr. Lawrence had read in the newspapers the memorial to Congress of Mrs. Martha Gray, widow of Captain Robert Gray, the well-known navigator, who discovered, first entered, and gave its present name to the Columbia River. Captain Gray had been in the naval service of his country; and his widow, who had survived him for forty years, amidst many difficulties and struggles for support, petitioned for a pension, in consideration of the important discovery, and for the services rendered by her husband. Mr. Lawrence sent to Mrs. Gray a memorial of his regard, with the following note:
"As a token of respect to the widow of one whose name and fame make a part of the property of every American who has a true heart, will Mrs. Gray accept the accompanying trifle from one, who, though personally unknown, felt her memorial to Congress through every nerve, and will hope to be allowed the pleasure of paying his respects in person when his health permits."