Richmond. There the extraordinary powers of his intellect began to develope, and at the age of nineteen years he commenced the study of law. Close application and a remarkably retentive memory overcame many difficulties, and ho was admitted to practice at the age of twenty. At that time emigration was pouring steady streams of population over the mountains into the fertile valleys of Kentucky, and thither Henry Clay went, early in 1799, and settled at Lexington. He was admitted to the bar there, in the Autumn of that year, and commenced the practice of law and politics at about the same time, and with equal success. A convention was called to revise the constitution of Kentucky, and young Clay worked manfully in efforts to elect such delegates as would favor the emancipation of the slaves. Thus early that subject assumed great importance in his mind; and throughout his long life he earnestly desired the abolition of the slave system. His course offended many, and he was unpopular for a time; but his noble opposition to the Alien and Sedition laws restored him to favor; and, in 1803, he was elected a member of the Kentucky legislature, by a large majority. With fluent speech, sound logic, and bold assurance, he soon took front rank in that body, as well as in his profession; and, in 1806, he was chosen to fill a seat in the Senate of the United States, for one year, made vacant by the resignation of General Adair. There he left an impression of that

statesmanship, then budding, which afterward gave glory and dignity to that highest legislative council of the Republic.

On his return from the Federal city, Mr. Clay was again elected to a seat in the Kentucky legislature, and was chosen Speaker of the Assembly, by a large majority. That station he held during two consecutive sessions. In 1809, he was again sent to the Senate of the United States, for two years, to fill a vacancy, and there he became distinguished by several brilliant speeches on important occasions. A crisis in the affairs of the nation was then approaching. Men of the highest character for talent and integrity were needed in the national councils. Perceiving this, the Kentuckians wisely elected Henry Clay to a seat in the House of Representatives, at Washington, where he first appeared in 1811. Almost immediately afterward, he was elected Speaker, by a large majority, and he performed the very important duties of that station with great ability until 1814, when he was appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain. In that service he exhibited the skill of a good diplomatist; and when, in 1815, he returned to his constituents, they immediately reëlected him to a seat in Congress. Now commenced his series of important services in the Federal legislature, which have distinguished him as one of the first statesmen of his age. There he triumphantly pleaded the cause of the South American Republics; and, in 1818, he put forth his giant strength in behalf of a national system of internal improvements. A grateful people commemorated his services in that direction, by placing a monument on the margin of the great Cumberland road, inscribed with his name.

In 1819 and 1820, Mr. Clay entered upon the great work, in Congress, of establishing tariffs for the protection of American industry. At the same time, ho rendered signal services in the adjustment of the question known as the Missouri compromise. Then he retired from Congress, to attend to his embarrassed private affairs. Three years of professional services retrieved his pecuniary losses; and in 1823, he returned to Congress, and was elected Speaker, by an immense majority. During that session Daniel Webster presented his famous resolutions in behalf of the suffering Greeks, and Mr. Clay warmly seconded the benevolent movement of the great New England statesman. After the election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency of the United States, Mr. Clay was appointed his Secretary of State, and held the office until the accession of General Jackson to the chief magistracy, in 1829. He remained in retirement a short time; and, in 1831, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, for six years. He was soon afterward nominated for the office of President of the United States, and was the candidate opposed to the successful Jackson, in 1832. At about that time he was instrumental, by the proposition of a compromise measure in Congress, in saving the country from civil war. He was reelected to the Senate, in 1836; and, in 1842, he took, as he supposed, a final leave of that body. He had earnestly labored for his favorite protective policy; and, in 1844, the Whig party nominated him for the office of President of the United States. He was defeated by Mr. Polk, and he remained in retirement until 1849, when he was again elected to the Federal Senate. There he put forth his energies in securing that series of measures known as the Compromise Act of 1850. His health was now greatly impaired; and in the Winter of 1850 and 1851, he sought relief by a visit to Havana and New Orleans. The effort was of no avail. Notwithstanding his feeble health, he repaired to Washington city at the commencement of the session, but was unable to participate in active duties. His system gradually gave way, and he resigned his seat, the act to take effect on the 6th of September, 1852. He did not live to see that day. He died at Washington city, on the 29th of June, 1852, at the age of about seventy-five years.

ROBERT BURNET.

ON by

a cold, frosty, but clear and brilliant morning in November, 1783, the rempanied by civil officers of the State, crossed King's bridge, at the upper end of Manhattan Island, and marched triumphantly into the city of New York, just as the British troops, who had occupied that city for seven long years, embarked in the harbor, to return no more. Great rejoicings and feastings were had in the emancipated city; and nine days afterward, the principal officers of the army, yet remaining in the service, assembled at the public-house of Samuel Fraunce, on the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, to take a final leave of their beloved commander-in-chief. When Washington entered the room where they were waiting, he took a glass of wine in his hand, and said, "With a full heart of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." After the usual salutation, by drinking, he continued, "I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each will come and take me by the hand." Knox stood by the side of the Great Leader, and as he turned, with eyes brimming with tears, to grasp his hand, Washington affectionately kissed him. This he did to all of his officers in turn, and then, without uttering a word, he left the room, passed through a flanking corps of infantry to a barge at Whitehall, and proceeded on his journey to Annapolis, to surrender his commission into the hands of Congress.

Of all the officers who participated in that tender scene, Major Robert Burnet, of Little Britain, Orange county, was, for many years, the sole survivor. His father was a Scotchman, and his mother was a native of Ireland. She was one of those who accompanied the first members of the Clinton family, who settled in the vicinity of Newburgh. Major Burnet was born in Little Britain, on the 22d of February, 1762, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits until about 1779, when he entered the revolutionary army, in the artillery branch of the service, under Captain Ebenezer Stevens. He was a lieutenant in Stevens' company, and commanded Redoubt No. 3, at West Point, at the time of Arnold's defection, in September, 1780. He was afterward promoted to the rank of major, and was one of the delegates who attended a meeting of the officers, convened by Washington, on account of the seditious tendency of the anonymous Address put forth by Major Armstrong, at Newburgh, in the Spring of 1783.3 He continued in the army, under the immediate command of the chief, until it was disbanded. In the march into the city of New York, on the day when the British evacuated it, Major Burnet commanded the rear-guard. When I visited the veteran, in the Summer of 1850, and he was then in his nintieth year, he gave me a very interesting account of the scenes of that memorable Autumn morning. Major Burnet was the last to grasp the hand of Washington at that solemn parting at Fraunce's; and then he returned to his rural pursuits in the town of his nativity. There he lived in the enjoyment of great domestic happiness, until called to his final home. He lived to see, what few men in modern times have beheld-the living representatives of seven generations of his kin

1. See sketch of Ebenezer Stevens.

2. Washington, in a letter to Greene, dated "Newburgh, 6th February, 1782," refers to Major Burnet as follows: "I intended to write you a long letter on sundry matters; but Major Burnet came unexpectedly, at a time when I was preparing for the celebration of the day, and was just going to a review of the troops previous to the feu de joie. As he is impatient, from an apprehension that the sleighing may fail, and as he can give you the occurrences of this quarter more in detail, than I have time to do, I will refer you to him." The celebration spoken of was that of the anniversary of the signing of the treaty of alliance between the United States and France, four years before.

3. See sketch of John Armstrong.

402

HARRISON GRAY OTIS.

dred. These were his great-grandfather of the ancestral part of the connection, and the great-grandchildren of his own posterity. Major Burnet died at his residence, in Little Britain, on the 1st of December, 1854, when almost ninetythree years of age. His funeral was attended by his neighbor, Usual Knapp, who was almost three years his senior. He is yet [1855] living, the last survivor of Washington's Life Guard.1

OF

HARRISON GRAY OTIS.

the New England "gentlemen of the old school," who have graced our generation, and illustrated by their deportment the dignified simplicity of the earlier years of our Republic, the late Harrison Gray Otis was one of the finest examples in person, intellectual acquirements, and amenity of manners. He was a son of Samuel A. Otis, who, for about twenty-five years, was clerk of the Senate of the United States. Harrison was born in 1765, the memorable year when patriots of his name were manfully battling the odious Stamp Act. And the same year when, by definitive treaty, the independence of the United States was acknowledged by Great Britain, he was graduated at Harvard University, at the age of eighteen years. He had been a successful student, and he then entered upon the study of law with a preparation possessed by few young men. Before he was twenty-one years of age he had commenced his successful career as a practitioner, with promises which were all redeemed in his maturity. He soon stood foremost at the bar with such men as Parsons, Lowell, Gore, Cushing, Paine, Ames, Cabot, and other distinguished lawyers of New England, and was excelled by none of them in acuteness as an attorney, and in impressive and graceful oratory as an advocate. His political and literary acquirements were as extensive as his legal knowledge, and he often employed them with great success before the bench, or an intelligent jury.

In 1797, Mr. Otis represented the Suffolk (Boston) district in the Federal Congress, as the successor of Fisher Ames; and he held that station until 1801, when the Republicans came into power under the leadership of Mr. Jefferson. For many years he was a member, alternately, of both branches of the Massachusetts legislature, and, at different times he was the presiding officer of both Houses. Although firm and unflinching in his political faith, and exceedingly strict as a disciplinarian in official station, his urbanity and rare consistency commanded the respect of his opponents and the warmest affections of his adherents. He was eminently reliable, heartily disliked concealment, and despised stratagem. His constituents always felt their interests perfectly safe in his hands. Mr. Otis was chosen United States Senator, in 1817, and his course in that body during the exciting scenes preceding the admission of Missouri into the Union as a sovereign State, won for him the highest applause of his constituents. After five years' service there he retired, and contemplated repose in private life; but his fellow-citizens of the Federal faith, for which he had contended manfully against the growing Democratic party, in his State, begged him to continue his leadership. They nominated him for governor, in 1823, but the Federal party, as an efficient organization, was then just expiring, and he was defeated. After filling several local offices (judge of the Court of Common Pleas, mayor of Boston, and others of less note), Mr. Otis withdrew from public life, in the full enjoyment of his intellectual vigor and his rare capacities for social pleasures. That vigor he retained until his death, which occurred in the city of Boston, on the 28th of October, 1848, at the age of about eighty-three years.

1. Portraits of Major Burnet and Mr. Knapp are published in Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revoltion.

DAVID KINNISON.

403

DAVID KINNISON.

THE latest survivor of the notable band of patriots, in 1773, known as The of more than one hundred and fifteen years. The facts of this brief memoir were obtained from his own lips, by the writer, in August, 1848, together with a daguerreotype likeness. He was then one hundred and eleven years of age. He was born in Old Kingston, Maine, on the 17th of November, 1736, and was employed in farming until the tempest of the Revolution began to lower. He was a member of a secret club, who were pledged to destroy the obnoxious article of TEA, wheresoever it might be found; and when the East India Company's ships had arrived at Boston, Kinnison and others hastened thither, were among the "Mohawks " in the gallery of the Old South Church, and assisted in casting the two cargoes of tea into the waters of Boston harbor, on the evening of the 16th of December, 1773. Kinnison remained in the vicinity of the New England capital, working on a farm, until the Spring of 1775, when, as a minuteman, he participated in the events at Lexington and Concord. With his father and two brothers, he fought in the battle of Bunker's Hill; and after the British were driven from Boston, he accompanied the American army to New York. From that time until the Autumn of 1781, he led the life of a Continental soldier, under the immediate command of Washington most of the time. Then, while engaged as a scout in Saratoga, he was captured by some Mohawk Indians, and did not regain his liberty until peace came, after a captivity of more than eighteen months.

At the close of the Revolution, Mr. Kinnison resumed the labors of agriculture, at Danville, Vermont, where he resided about eight years, and then removed to Wells, in Maine. There he lived until the commencement of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, when he again went to the field as a private soldier. He was under General Brown at Sackett's harbor; and in the battle at Williamsburg, on the St. Lawrence, he was badly wounded in the hand by a grape-shot. That was the first and only injury he had ever received in battle, but by accidents afterward, his skull had been fractured; his collar bone and both legs, below the knees, had been broken; the heel of a horse had left a deep scar on his forehead, and rheumatism had dislocated one of his hip joints. As he forcibly expressed it, he had been "completely bunged up and stove in."

Mr. Kinnison was an illiterate man, and possessed none of the elements of greatness. He was eminent because of the peculiar associations of his life, his long experience, and his remarkable longevity. He learned to write his name when in the revolutionary camp; and he was sixty-two years of age when his granddaughter taught him to read. He had married and buried four wives, who had borne him twenty-two children. When he related this narrative, he had lost all trace of his relatives, and supposed himself childless.3 His pension of eight dollars a month was insufficient for his wants, and until his one hundred and tenth year, he added sufficient for a livelihood, by the labor of his hands. Then a benevolent stranger, in Chicago, gave him a home. He was little less than six feet in height, with powerful arms, shoulders, and chest; and at the

1. See note 3, page 148.

2. Many of those who cast the tea into Boston harbor were disguised as Mohawk Indians, After a harangue in the Old South Church, Boston, just at twilight, some of them gave a war-whoop in the gallery, and all started for Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay.

3. About a year before his death, his daughter, living in Oswego, New York, saw the portrait and biographical sketch of her long-lost father, in Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution. She at once hastened to Chicago to see him. Until then, she had no idea that he was among the living. She remained with him, and smoothed the pillow of his death-bed.