At twenty he was appointed to a Greek professorship in Harvard College, and qualified himself by travel in Europe for four years. During that time he acquired that solid information concerning the history and principles of law, and of the political systems of Europe, which formed the foundation of that broad statesmanship for which he was afterward distinguished. During his residence in Europe his range of study embraced the ancient classics, the modern languages, the history and principles of the civil and public law, and a comprehensive examination of the existing political systems of Europe. He returned home, and from that time until his death he was recognized as one of the greatest orators of his time. In 1825 to 1835 he was a distinguished member of the national congress. He then served three successive terms as governor of Massachusetts. In 1814 he was appointed minister to the English court. It was an important mission, for the relations of his government with that of England, then wore a grave aspect. His official career in London was a marked success. His personal accomplishments made him a friend and favorite with the leading men and families of England. After this he was sent as a commissioner to China, and after his return from abroad, he was at once chosen President of Harvard College.
He entered upon the duties of this new office with his characteristic energy and enthusiasm, but ill-health compelled his resignation at the end of three years. Upon the death of his bosom friend, Daniel Webster, he was appointed to succeed to Webster's position at the head of President Fillmore's cabinet. Before the close of his duties as Secretary of State, he was chosen by the Massachusetts State Legislature to a seat in the National Senate. Once more overwork compelled his withdrawal from active responsibility, and in May, 1854, under the advice of his physician, he resigned his seat. But he was content to remain idle only a few months when he entered with great zeal upon a new enterprise.
The project of purchasing Mount Vernon and beautifying it as a memento of esteem to the 'Nation's father' attracted his attention, and his efforts in behalf of the association to raise money for the above-named object netted over $100,000, besides his valuable time, and paying his own expenses. He afterwards raised many more thousands of dollars for the benefit of numerous charitable societies and objects. Emerging from private life at the opening of the civil war he gave himself incessantly to the defense of the Union. He died on the 14th of January, 1865, and was mourned throughout the whole North. Eulogies innumerable were called forth by the death of this intellectual phenomenon of the nineteenth century.
[Edwin M. Stanton.]
Edwin M. Stanton, whom President Lincoln selected for his Secretary of War, notwithstanding the fact that he had served in the cabinet of Buchanan, was born at Steubenville, Ohio, December 19th, 1814, and died in Washington, D. C., December 24th, 1869.
When fifteen years old he became a clerk in a book-store in his native town, and with money thus accumulated, was enabled to attend Kenyon College, but at the end of two years was obliged to re-enter the book-store as a clerk.
Thus through poverty he was deterred from graduating, but knowledge is just as beneficial, whether acquired in school or out. Thurlow Weed never had the advantages of a college, but stretched prone before the sap-house fire, he laid the foundation upon which he built that splendid reputation as an able editor; Elihu Buritt never saw the inside of a college school-room as a student, but while at the anvil, at work as a blacksmith, with book laying on a desk near, he framed the basis of that classical learning which made him, as master of forty different languages, the esteemed friend of John Bright and others of the most noted people the world has ever known.
As it was with them, so it was with Stanton. He had but little advantages, but he would not 'down.' It is said that if Henry Ward Beecher had gone to sea, as he desired to do, he would not have long remained, for in him was even then a 'slumbering genius,' But he himself once said that had it not been for his great love of work he never could have half succeeded. Ah, that's it; if ability to accomplish hard 'digging' is not genius, it is the best possible substitute for it. A man may have in him a 'slumbering genius,' but unless he put forth the energy, his efforts will be spasmodic, ill-timed and scattered.
"Full many a gem, of purest ray serene
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."