LIFE OF JAMES SULLIVAN: WITH Selections from his Writings. BY THOMAS C. AMORY. VOLUME I. BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY, 13 WINTER Street. 1859. ་་མ་ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by THOMAS C. AMORY, JR., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Stereotyped by New England Type and Stereotype Foundery, BOSTON. PREFACE. Ir is now fifty years since the subject of the following memoir closed his eyes upon the world. Most of his cotemporaries have disappeared from among the living; and other generations, with new objects of interest, have taken their place. Should any one be disposed to ask, why remove the veil which time had been silently weaving, let him be patient and see if the narrative does not furnish its own justification. The circumstances which led to its preparation were somewhat accidental; and, when the author commenced the collection of his materials, they were designed for a less ambitious purpose than the present publication. It is well known to many persons that there is in New England one who has devoted a large portion of his life to exploring and illustrating its ancient cemeteries. While pursuing his vocation among the tombs of the Granary Burial-ground, in Boston, his attention was attracted to a marble monument bearing two inscriptions; one that of Richard Bellingham, the other of James Sullivan, who, at the interval of a century and a half, had died chief magistrates of Massachusetts. Desirous of learning more of the latter than could be found in biographical dictionaries, he was directed to me as a descendant. The endeavor to meet his wishes involved a more arduous task than was anticipated, but which, if laborious, has had its pleasures. In following the busy footsteps of one whose memory I had been early taught to venerate, and who, at a period unusually eventful, had been incessantly engaged in important public employments, materials rapidly accumulated; and, what was originally intended as a brief sketch for family use, imperceptibly extended itself over these pages. Friends who are acquainted with our early annals as a state, encourage the persuasion that they may find favor with a wider circle of readers, and not be unacceptable to that steadily increasing class among us, who kindly welcome all contributions to American Biography. These contributions, it is true, have of late been numerous. But the history of our country cannot be made too familiar; and its study, from different points of view, serves to fix in the memory its leading incidents, and corrects erroneous impressions. With the development and extension of republican institutions, our revolutionary epoch increases in importance. Ages far removed will derive from its teachings their best lessons of political wisdom, and kindle at its sacred altars a more zealous devotion to the principles of civil liberty, which were hallowed by the exertions and sacrifices of its patriots. The biographies of such as, in field or council, contributed to its successful issue, must ever prove its best illustration; and, fortunately for the country, those whose virtues and services are justly entitled to be thus commemorated were neither few in number nor confined to any particular locality. With the lapse of time, as we become more intimately blended into one people, their fame will be our common inheritance, and their example and precepts, if carefully cherished, strengthen the general attachment of all to that constitutional freedom which they nobly achieved and wisely established. The part which James Sullivan took in the heroic struggle has been mainly developed from official records, and the reader can judge for himself as to the character of his public services. While every caution has been used not to give him credit without good authority, justice to his memory demanded that no unseasonable reserve should withhold expressions of praise where they were honestly due. It was, however, with no view of asserting or vindicating for his memory a place in the · grateful estimation of his countrymen, that this work has been pursued; but from the conviction that his career, connected as it was with momentous events and important enterprises and negotiations, ought to be better known, and that a faithful narrative of its more prominent incidents would preserve, for future historians, many valuable facts which might otherwise escape their attention. Long in the enjoyment of the most extensive practice at the bar of the commonwealth, for six years on its supreme bench, and for seventeen at a later period its attorney-general, his professional life embraced a wide range of experience. The memory of much of this has perished forever; but, from the recollections of members of the legal brotherhood, who were entering upon practice as he was leaving it, some few anecdotes and entertaining particulars have been gleaned, while several more have been transmitted in his own family, or through other channels. It may be regretted that no earlier efforts were made to collect these traditions, as much curious knowledge of the professional habits and customs of former days might thus have been saved. The bar abounded in men of lability, profound learning, and distinguished eloquence. Their names are still familiar as household words; but both their public and forensic achievements are settling fast into oblivion. It is a truth of general recognition that the most transcendent abilities in the practice of the law, however highly they may A* |