not withheld; but the time to write their eulogy has not yet arrived.

The year 1824 will be distinguished in our national history as a period of great political excitement. In the early part of the year, a caucus of members of Congress nominated William H. Crawford as the democratic candidate for the office of President. The Legislature of Pennsylvania nominated John C. Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun afterwards withdrew from the contest in favor of General Jackson, who had been nominated in Tennessee, and in some of the Southern States. Henry Clay was the candidate of Kentucky, and received the nomination of public conventions in other sections of the country. A powerful effort in favor of John Quincy Adams operated in many parts, and he was supported, generally, without regard to old party associations. Many of the Federalists opposed the election of Mr. Adams. They had not forgotten, and would not forgive, his desertion from the party and his support of Mr. Jefferson's embargo in 1807. Sympathizing with this class, and believing in the uprightness of their policy, it was natural that the Courier should unite in opposition to Mr. Adams. Sọ far as it became actively involved in the electioneering controversy, it assumed a position of hostility to his election, occasionally with a degree of acrimony, that was deeply regretted in after years. It took no determined stand against either of the other candidates; but a preference was avowed for Mr. Clay, as the advocate and champion of protection to home industry. Just before the choice of electors in November, a con

vention of the friends of that gentleman was held in Boston, attended by nearly all the principal manufacturers of New-England. My allotment in the proceedings was the presentation of a set of resolutions, (which were adopted,) declaring that the elevation of Mr. Clay to the Presidency was desirable, and setting forth in brief detail the advantages that the whole country would derive from such an event. But the voice of Massachusetts was in favor of Mr. Adams, and his election was vehemently advocated in most of the newspapers. The opposition to Mr. Adams, manifested in the Courier, provoked the displeasure of his friends, among which the conductors of the Salem Register and the Boston Patriot were the most prominent. The wrath of the Patriot was poured upon the Courier without stint and without mercy, personal invectives, which were returned with ample interest. Many of these outpourings from the Patriot were written by Dr. Waterhouse, of Cambridge; and those in the Register by Joseph E. Sprague, of Salem. With both of these writers my intercourse, until then, as well as that with the Davis and Warwick W. courteous and friendly nature.

frequently in

respective editors, John B. Palfray, - had been of a It is not my purpose

to exhibit any specimens of these criminations and recriminations. Let them remain undisturbed in the columns where they had their birth. The unpleasant feelings which they produced, subsided after the election was over, and friendly intercourse was renewed. All these opponents have gone, — and I shall soon follow them, to the land where love and hatred are alike forgotten.

In the Courier of October 14, 1824, the name of EDWARD EVERETT was first brought before the public as a candidate for representative in Congress. John Keyes, a distinguished lawyer, had been nominated for that place by a democratic caucus in the county of Middlesex, but the nomination was received with some unexpected coolness. Some of the electors, — the younger portion, especially, declared their preference for some one, who had not been identified with that party, nor pledged to sustain its favorite policy. A communication, proposing another caucus to consider the expediency of a new nomination, was sent to me for publication in the Courier. The thought immediately occurred to me that Mr. Everett, (then the Greek Professor in Harvard college, (would be a suitable person to represent the county, and I recommended his nomination on the ground that "his election would tend very much to the elevation of the character of the Massachusetts delegation in the National Legislature, and give a proud and honorable distinction to his immediate constituents. .... He stands before his fellow-citizens [it was added] as a candidate unpledged, unshackled, of uncommon natural power, improved by education, travel, and study; his moral and political character unimpeachable, his mind too enlightened and capacious to be wrought upon to any purposes of political iniquity by intrigue and corruption, and too elevated and magnanimous to participate in the counsels of low ambition, or to aim at personal exaltation at the expense of public good." If the nomination of Mr. Everett had occurred to any one previous to this suggestion in the Courier, it was

unknown to me.

The proposed convention met at Lexington, the next week; he was unanimously nominated; and was elected by a large majority of the voters of Middlesex.

In the spring of 1827, Boston politics were in a sad state of incoherence, and as the time for choosing senators and representatives approached, there was, as an eminent statesman once said, "a plausible appearance of a probability," that the city might be unrepresented for that political year. The curious arrangement of parties I attempted to describe in the following article:

Our commonwealth and city politics are in a state of most admirable confusion. Every tenth man is the leader of a party; the blind leading the blind. Republicans and Federalists, Jacksonmen, Adamsmen, Lincolnmen, administrationmen, freebridgemen, antifreebridgemen, antitariffmen, and woollen crusaders, are all thrown together into the political pot. The fire burns and the cauldron bubbles; and many are the weird sisters that are practising their incantations over the ingredients. Whether any thing will rise from this solemn sorcery, except scum, we profess not to foresee. Perhaps the managers expect that this process will result in the production of some new substance, in which the various qualities of all the ingredients shall be inseparably and mysteriously compounded, beyond all possibility of decomposition.

We are somewhat impatient to see these affairs settled. Not that we look for any personal advantage from the consummation, whatever the event may be. But there is a satisfaction in knowing when one may put to sea, who are likely to be his associates, whether he is to sail with the fleet under convoy of the admiral, or whether he must push off his frail bark alone, and, — steer whatever course he may,

-still be in danger of shattering his vessel against that of some friend whom he would not willingly jostle. It is impossible to be for ever in port; and, in this uncertain state of the political elements, we dare not venture out with our little gun-boat, lest we come in contact with some of the seventyfours, now fitting for an expedition.

To be less figurative: We understand that the masterspirits were at work last week, and that an arrangement was to be made, by which all political differences were to be reconciled, all were to be brought into one great family, - the names Republican and Federalist to be expunged from the vocabulary, all our garments to be purified of the odors of the embargo, the terrapin system, and the Hartford Convention. It is our fault, perhaps, that we are too impatient, and unwilling that delay should keep pace between a good purpose and its effect.

The old republican party is divided, and all are acquainted with the inspired maxim, A kingdom divided against itself cometh to nought. The old federal party is declared to be defunct, and its odor remaineth only as an offence to a few individuals, who have survived its dissolution. If it be indeed so, we derive some consolation from the hope that, phoenixlike, a new party may arise from its ashes, possessing the wisdom, the magnanimity, the prudence, the disinterestedness, the patriotism, which rendered the original an object of admiration and respect while in its vigor of manhood; but without any of that weakness, meanness, infidelity to friends and benefactors, that disgraced its decline. The dotage of the Sage and the imbecility of the Giant may excite compassion; the affected humility of an aristocrat in fetters, like the morality of a superannuated libertine, produces only disgust.

or

It was in the summer of 1827, that the railroad mania began to manifest itself in Massachusetts. Some symptoms had, indeed, been discovered a year or two sooner, but the fever had not prevailed to any great