E340 P8 P8 1861 V.I ENTERED According to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by CHARLES SCRIBNER, be the Clerk's Office of the U. S. District Court, for the Southern District of New Ywa . H TINS N, STEREOTY 58. GIFT OF PREFACE. It was hoped that THE first plan of this Memoir contemplated no larger audience than the little circle of Mr. Prentiss' own family and kiudred. the sharpness of their grief, caused by his death, might be soothed by a few simple memorials of his life. But the materials were soon found to be ample for a biography; and, encouraged by many friendly voices, I resolved to attempt it. The task has proved far more serious than was anticipated. But it has been a most grateful labor; and were the result quite worthy of the theme, I should be well satisfied. The fact that the work has been written in odd moments, stolen from an exacting profession, may serve to explain, and perhaps to palliate, some of its imperfections. In arranging the materials, my aim has been, as much as possible, to shape them into an autobiography. This has led to the insertion of the speeches 861356 into the body of the narrative. It has also led to what, I fear, may be regarded as an excessive use of the domestic correspondence. If any one should think that some of the letters, whether on the score of taste or value, might better have been omitted, I beg him to consider this point; and, also, how hard it is in such a choice, not to be biased by mere personal feeling. During the first ten years of Mr. Prentiss' residence in the South West, this correspondence is almost the only record of him that remains. As it is, not a few of his most beautiful and characteristic letters are left out. It is proper to say, that in describing his electioneering campaigns in 1837-8, as also his speech at Portland in 1840, and that at Natchez in 1844, several distinct accounts-oral, written and printed— have been condensed into one. This seemed better than to publish three or four separate notices of the same address. My best thanks are due, and are hereby most heartily tendered, to all who, in any way, have aided me in my fraternal task. Nothing could exceed the kindness with which my brother's old friends, in the North and South, have answered my inquiries, and given me the benefit of their reminiscences. To my brother-in-law, the Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns, D.D., I am under special obligations. Without his constant encouragement it is doubtful if the work would ever have been completed; that its imperfections are not far more numerous, is chiefly owing to his critical taste. Should these unpretending volumes render the name of S. S. Prentiss dearer to his old friends, or make it honored amongst those who never knew him, I shall be rewarded a hundred fold for all the pains they have cost me. New York, Aug. 2, 1855. |