INTRODUCTION PRELIMINARY NOTE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
I Incidents of my Early Life
II Life as a Store-boy and Clerk
III Changes and Progress
IV Schools and School-keeping
V Groton in 1835
VI Groton in 1835—Continued
VII Beginnings in Business
VIII First Experience in Politics
IX The Election of 1840
X Massachusetts Men in the Forties
XI The Election of 1842, and the Dorr Rebellion
XII The Legislature of 1847
XIII Legislative Session of 1848—Funeral of John Quincy Adams
XIV The Legislature of 1849
XV Massachusetts Politics and Massachusetts Politicians, 1850-51
and 1852
XVI Acton Monument
XVII Sudbury Monument
XVIII Louis Kossuth
XIX The Coalition and the State Constitutional Convention of 1853
XX The Year 1854
XXI Organization of the Republican Party in Massachusetts in 1855,
and the Events Preceding the War
XXII As Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
XXIII Phi Beta Kappa Address at Cambridge
XXIV The Peace Convention of 1861
XXV The Opening of the War
XXVI The Military Commission of 1862 and General Fremont
XXVII Organization of the Internal Revenue System in the United States
INTRODUCTION
At the request of my daughter and my son and by the advice of my friends, the Honorable J. C. Bancroft Davis and the Honorable William A. Richardson, I am venturing upon the task of giving a sketch of my experiences in life during three fourths of a century. The wisdom of such an undertaking is not outside the realm of debate. A large part of my manhood has been spent in the politics of my native state, and in the politics of the country. For many years I have had the fortune to be associated with those in whose hands the chief powers were lodged. I have been a witness of, and in some cases an actor in, events that have changed the character of the institutions and affected the fortunes of the country. Those events and their consequences must in time disturb, if they do not change, the institutions of other countries.
In the course of this long period I have had opportunities to know some of the principal actors in those important events. In a few cases I am in possession of knowledge not now in the possession of any other person living. These considerations may in some degree justify my undertaking.
On the other hand I have not kept a record of events, and I have had occasion often, especially in the practice of my profession, to notice the imperfections of the human memory. Much that I shall write must depend upon the fidelity of that faculty, although in some cases my recollections may be verified or corrected by the public records.
The recollections of actors, when those recollections are reported in good faith, constitute quite as safe a basis for an historical judgment as do the diaries in which are noted present impressions. Usually the writer of a diary has only an imperfect knowledge of the subject to which the entries relate. If he is himself an actor in passing events he makes and leaves a record colored and perhaps tainted by the personal and political passions of the times. The teachings of experience and that more moderate view of events, which we sometimes call philosophy and sometimes the wisdom of age, may warrant the student and the historian in giving credence to mere recollections.
The writer of a diary takes little note of the importance of the events to which the entries relate. Persons and events become important or cease to be important by the progress of time, but the life of an individual is an adequate period usually for the formation of a judgment. I cannot assume that it will be my fortune to make a wise selection in all cases. Important events may be omitted, insignificant circumstances may be recorded.
I assume that my family and friends will take an interest in matters that are purely personal: therefore I shall record many incidents and events that do not concern the public.