APPENDIX A.

A brief summary of Colonel Pickering's long and noble career, will, I think, interest many, who have only a vague idea of his character and services, and certainly deserves a place on the records of our Society. The following account is but little more than a chronological index.

Born, 1745, in Salem; graduated at Harvard, 1763; took an active and prominent part in all the pre-revolutionary contest with Great Britain; commanded the intrepid little squad of Salem men, who stopped Col. Leslie and his troops, at the North Bridge; led his regiment to Medford, on the day of Lexington fight; was Register of Deeds for this county, Judge of the Common Pleas, and of Admiralty; volunteered with his regiment in 1776, and served under Washington in New Jersey; was by him, soon after, made Adjutant General; fought on the Brandywine; suffered at Valley Forge; sat with Gates and Mifflin on the Continental Board of War; succeeded Gen. Greene as Quarter Master General, and performed all the duties of that responsible and laborious post, until the close of the war. On the return of peace, he settled as a farmer at Wyoming, in Pennsylvania. There, his neighbors were Connecticut men, who had planted themselves on 'the Susquehanna, without leave from Pennsylvania. Falsely assuming, in their resistance to the State Government, that Col. Pickering, who held the county offices, was hostile to

them, they invaded his home, and, on one occasion, took him from his bed,-carried him, manacled, far into the forest, and kept him for weeks, vainly endeavoring to compel him, through fear or weariness, to comply with their demands. His own account of this abduction is highly interesting and characteristic. In 1790 he was a member of the Pennsylvania Convention for revising the State Constitution. Then, for four years, he was employed, under a commission from George. Washington, in negotiating treaties with the great Indian tribes. From the same hand he received, in 1791, the appointment of Post Master General. Two years later he was made Secretary of War, and from 1795 to 1800, he was Secretary of State. Removed from office by John Adams, and finding himself in debt, with only a scanty income, this 'greatly independent man took with him one of his sons, and retiring to the back-woods of Pennsylvania, where he owned some wild land, built there a log-cabin, and made a small clearing around it. But generous friends in Massachusetts soon relieved him from his embarrassments, and called him back to his native State. His debts were paid-the Wenham farm was bought—and there the warrior and statesman went to work in good earnest. Yet after all this, he represented Massachusetts for eight years in the United States Senate, and Essex County for two years in the House of Representatives. At his death in January, 1829, Col. Pickering was in his 84th year.

APPENDIX B.

The following is a complete list of the annual orators, showing also the years of omission:

1818, Timothy Pickering.

1819, No address.

1865, Nehemiah Cleaveland.

Of the above, Messrs. Colman, Gage, Putnam, Stone, and Russell, were, or had been clergymen. Messrs. Payson, Dodge and Poore had been members of the Bar. Messrs. Fay and Gregory had been in mercantile life. Mr. Nichols is a scientific and practical chemist.

At the anniversary of the Society in 1836, EDWARD EVERETT, then Governor of Massachusetts, was present, and his remarks at the dinner-table are preserved in the pamphlet of that year. Twenty-two years afterward he was again present-an invited guest-and his pleasant little speech may be found in the number for 1858.

Among the early and most efficient members of the Society, its second President, Mr. Frederick Howes, deserves a kind remembrance. Colonel Moseley was his successor, and served ably for four years. The name of Mr. James H. Duncan, fourth President, may be seen on many pages of the Society's Transactions; nor has he ceased to attend the meetings, or to speak words of encouragement and wisdom. His successor, Joseph Kittredge, was a successful farmer as well as doctor. Then came Leverett Saltonstall. No one, I am sure, who ever saw and heard him, can have forgotten how pleasant it was to look on his face, and listen to his voice. Mr. Proctor presided seven years, and then, for four years, the practical and sagacious Newell. Mr. Richard S. Fay, whose recent decease this Society has such reason to lament, was its President in 1856 and 1857. Of Colonel Adams (President in 1858 and 1859) I have spoken elsewhere. Mr. Allen W. Dodge presided, 1860 to 1862, but will be best remembered by seventeen previous years of faithful service as Sec

retary of the Society. If any one doubts that Mr. How, the late President, is a working man, let him look over the records of the Society, or go and see him on his farm. Gen. William Sutton, who has managed, for a quarter of a century, the finances of the Association, is now, very properly, placed at its head.

APPENDIX C.

STIRRING THE GROUND.

I have seen somewhere, and recently, a statement to this effect-Two individuals had small patches of ground under similar cultivation and not far apart. Both believed in the efficacy of frequent stirring, and practised accordingly. One of them, who hoed twice a week and with excellent results, was yet surprised to find, after a while, that his neighbor, whose labors in that line he supposed to be less constant than his own, was decidedly ahead of him in the growth and vigor of his plantation. On stating to that person his disappointment, he was informed that the more productive soil which excited his wonder, had received three hoeings for every hoeing which he had bestowed.

THE UNIVERSAL NEED AND EFFICACY OF FAITH.

I think the following statement contains sound doctrine :"True faith is faith in the truth; and as there is truth in all the other pursuits of life as well as religion-blessings to be foreseen before they are gained, and appreciated before they are sought-hence it comes to pass that faith is the source of practice in all the pursuits of life. in war; in peace; in arts in sciences; in taking a journey, or crossing the ocean; in coloring a picture, or shaping a statue; in tilling a field, or in