CONTENTS.

ART. I. OLIVER ELLSWORTH,

II. SUNSET IN THE FOREST. BY LILY GRAHAM,

III. CLASSIC VAGARIES, No. 4,

IV. MUSIC OF THE PINES. BY ABRAHAM MESSLER, D. D.,

X. GLEANINGS FROM MY JOURNAL. BY BLUE JOHN,

XI.

A STRAY LEAF FROM THE PAPERS OF A SOLITARY MAN. BY
E. G. B.,

247

J. MUNSELL, PRINTER,

ALBANY.

Oliver Ellsworth, the subject of this sketch, was born in Windsor, Connecticut, April 29, 1745. His ancestors were among the first settlers of that town; having emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1650. His parents, like most of the inhabitants of the colony, were engaged in agricultural pursuits; and were in comfortable, though by no means affluent circumstances.

Young Oliver spent his time alternately in laboring with his father in the management of the farm, and in the elementary studies of a liberal education, until the age of seventeen, when he entered Yale College. He remained in this institution two years; when, from some cause which tradition has not transmitted to us, he left and entered Nassau Hall, where he was graduated in 1776. His father had early destined him for the ministry, and accordingly he now spent a year in the study of theology, under the tuition of the Rev. Dr. Bellamy, at that time one of the most distinguished of the Connecticut divines. But Oliver's inclination for the law triumphed over his father's predilections for theology; and, having been admitted to the bar in Hartford county, two or three years after leaving college, he entered on the practice of his profession in his native town.

However little enthusiasm young Oliver might have felt in the prosecution of theological speculations, he certainly advanced far enough in them to become convinced that it is not good for man to be alone; and he accordingly now led to the Hymeneal altar his first love, Miss Abigail Wolcott, daughter of William Wolcott esq., of East Windsor.

His father presented him with a small farm, situated in the north-western corner of Windsor, and in the management of this and of the few suits with which his acquaintances and friends entrusted him, his ardent and active mind was forced for a time to content itself. As often as the session of the court occurred at Hartford, leaving his farm and revolving his cases in his mind, he

travelled thither on foot, and back again, in the same manner, when the sessions were over. Soon, however, a suit was committed to his management, of trivial importance, indeed, so far as concerned the pecuniary interest at stake, but, at the same time, involving the decision of a legal principle of the deepest moment. Young Oliver proved himself equal to the emergency, and by the ability and skill he exhibited in the conduct of the suit, at once established his reputation on a permanent basis, and he took his stand among the most promising and talented of the younger members of his profession at the Hartford bar.

He was soon after appointed state attorney, and continued in this office during a great part of the revolutionary war. And more than once during that sanguinary contest, when the state was threatened with invasion, did he enlist into the militia of the county, and sally out to assist in repelling the threatening danger. For several sessions about this time he represented the town in which he resided in the General Assembly. About the commencement of the war, too, he presided at the pay table, or office of public accounts of the state. In 1777, he was chosen a delegate to the Congress of the United States, where he continued three years. On the expiration of this term of service, in 1780, he was elected a member of the Council of Connecticut, a body of men not now existing, but very nearly corresponding to the Senate, or upper house, under the present constitution of that state. In 1784 he relinquished this office for that of judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut: and in 1787 he was elected a delegate to the Convention which met at Philadelphia for the purpose of devising a more efficient system of government for these United States. Being called home, probably by sickness in his family, before the business of the Convention was concluded, for this reason his name does not appear among the signers of the instrument reported by the Convention to the states. He was, however, a warm friend and zealous advocate of the constitution as it now exists: indeed, any one at all familiar with the proceedings of that Convention, as detailed in the Madison papers, knows very well that many of the features of this constitution owe their existence in no small degree, to his suggestions and influence.

Immediately on his return he was appointed a delegate to the State Convention called to ratify the constitution. And two of his speeches, urging on the delegates the vast importance of such a ratification, delivered, one at the opening of the session, the other during the progress of the debates, are now extant, though doubtless imperfectly reported, in the third volume of Carey's American Museum.

After the adoption of the Constitution by the states, Mr. Ellsworth was elected a senator from Connecticut to the first Congress, which met at New York in 1789. Happening to be among the members whose terms of service were fixed by lot to expire at the end of two years, he was again, at the close of that period, elected