Harvard memorial biographies ...

350

Harvard Memorial Biographies.

ation. I did not think that I was a suitable person to perform this
duty, since I was comparatively a new member, having belonged
but nine months, and had never addressed a public assembly. Accordingly I was reluctant to accept the office of orator for that
occasion;,but as it seemed the universal desire that I should attempt
it, I finally consented to do it, and on the evening of February 22,
1856, I delivered the address in Meionaon Hall, Boston. The
subject of the address was, 'The position of the Mechanic in Society, and the Claims presented to Young Men to enter upon a Mechanical Occupation.'.... The address was afterwards printed in
a pamphlet, which is the only composition of mine which has appeared in print, if I except a few short articles in the newspapers,
such as, for instance, a few words upon the nomination of John C.
Fr6mont for the Presidency, in the Boston Daily Chronicle, and a
short reply to a correspondent in the Watchman and Reflector,
who had censured antislavery lectures, and a few others which
are scarcely worth alluding to.
"About the time that I was twenty-one years of age I thought
more seriously of renewing my studies and attempting to get a
better education. I thought a good deal upon the subject, and
finally concluded that I would try, thinking that, if after a few
months I did not succeed as well as I expected, I could give
up the idea and go back to my trade. Accordingly, when my apprenticeship had expired, with this plan in view, I only agreed to
work four months as a journeyman, and in July, 1856, began upon
a course of study with the intention of trying to enter college in
two years. Soon finding that it was almost impossible to get along
alone, and ascertaining that I could enter the High School without
any difficulty, where I should have the advantage of studying with
others, as well as the advantage of having the instruction of a competent teacher, having made the necessary arrangements, I entered
the school in December of the same year.
"..... After leaving college I think I shall study theology, intending to become a minister of the Gospel; and if I carry out the
plan which I have in view, the instruction and discipline acquired
while in college, I have no doubt, will prove of service to me.
" The only society that I have been a member of while in college is the society of 'Christian Brethren,' to which I have belonged during the whole course.
" I hope, with the blessing of God, to be successful in getting an
education, and afterward to accomplish in an humble way some
good in the world."