CHAPTER XII.

FISHER AMES,

ORATOR OF GENIUS AND ELABORATE BEAUTY.

In the progress of our national growth, there have been emergencies which demanded and received the patriotic support of extraordinary men. Of this character was the Colonial period, signalized by the eloquence and self-sacrifice of Otis, Quincy, Henry, Lee, and Samuel Adams. The era of the Declaration and War of Independence was one which demanded wisdom in council as well as valor in fight. It was then that such heroes as Washington, Warren, Hancock, and John Adams, appeared, and conducted the ship of State through terrific storms.

But of not less importance and difficulty was that portion of our history which dates from the peace of 1783, and immediately succeeds it. The independence of the United States was happily confirmed, but the difficulties which attended this conquest were far from being at an end. The new government went into operation under the pressure of an enormous debt, and without either a revenue, or the power of raising one. A long war had destroyed commerce, and fearfully con

tracted the ordinary sources of national sustenance. The late army was unpaid, conflicts with the Indians still raged, civil dissensions distracted the borders of the country, and foreign politics exerted a threatening influ ence all over the land. It was a crisis which demanded talents unlike, and, in their way, superior to any that had ever before appeared. It was a period for ever memorable as having given employment and fame to those kindred spirits of masterly endowments, Alexander Hamilton and Fisher Ames.

In sketching the personal history of Mr. Ames, we shall rely mainly for facts on President Kirkland, as he has stated them in a biographical notice prefixed to the great orator's collected works.

Fisher Ames was born on the 9th of April, 1758, at Dedham, about nine miles from Boston. His ancestors were distinguished in England, and his family was one of the most respectable in his native State. Fisher was the youngest of five children. His father died when he was but seven years old, leaving widow and orphans in penury to be buffeted by the storms of the world. But the mother, as if "anticipating the future lustre of the jewel committed to her care," early resolved to struggle with her narrow circumstances in order to give this son a literary education; and she lived to see his eminence and prosperity, to receive the expressions of his filial piety, and to weep over his grave.

Precocious talents are not usually the most auspicious of enduring power, but in young Ames they were neither feeble nor transient. He began the study of Latin when but six years old. In 1770, soon after the com

pletion of his twelfth year, he was admitted to Harvard College. With a mind too immature, perhaps, to receive the full benefit to be derived from the collegiate course, his uncommon industry enabled him to outstrip many of his seniors, and he soon obtained a high standing. Even at this early period he was remarkable for the talent which afterwards constituted his principal claim to reputation. In a society formed among the students for mutual improvement in oratory, Ames was a favorite; and his declamation, says Kirkland, “was remarkable for its energy and propriety. His compositions at this time bore the characteristic stamp which always marked his speaking and writing. They were sententious and full of ornament. In 1774, he received his degree as Bachelor of Arts; but owing to the disturbed and excited condition of the country, his own youth, and the narrow circumstances of his mother, he did not enter at once upon the study of a profession. Meanwhile he was not idle; in teaching in one of the district schools of his native State, he at the same time obtained the neans of maintaining himself, while leisure was left him or the prosecution of his favorite studies. All this time, e used afterwards to repeat, he read, with an avidity ordering on enthusiasm, almost every thing within his each. He revised the Latin classics, which he had tudied at College. He read works illustrating Greek nd Roman antiquities and the mythology of the anents; natural and civil history, and some of the best ovels. Poetry was both his food and luxury. He read e principal English poets, and became familiar with [ilton and Shakspeare, dwelt on their beauties, and

fixed passages of peculiar excellence in his memory. He had a high relish for the works of Virgil, and at this time could repeat considerable portions of the Eclogues and Georgics, and most of the touching and splendid passages of the Æneid. This multifarious, though, for want of a guide, indiscriminate, and, probably, in some instances, ill-directed reading, must have contributed to extend and enrich the mind of the young student. It helped to supply that fund of materials for speaking and writing which he possessed in singular abundance; and hence partly he derived his remarkable fertility of allusion, his ability to evolve a train of imagery adapted to every subject of which he treated.”

Mr. Ames, having studied law in the office of William Tudor, Esq., of Boston, commenced the practice of that profession at Dedham, his native place, in 1781. He entered warmly into the struggle for Independence, although quite young, and his talents were soon both recognized and employed by his fellow citizens.

To devise some means for the relief of the general distress, occasioned by the great depreciation of the paper currency of that day, a convention of delegates from every part of the State assembled at Concord. Mr. Ames was chosen to represent his town at that meeting. In a lucid and eloquent speech he demonstrated the futility of the measures at first proposed, and, at that early period, rendered himself a debater of much note.

The fame which followed his early efforts conduced to place him in the Massachusetts Convention for ratifying the Constitution, in 1788. From this sphere, in which he made a deep impression by some of his speeches,