If the class of politicians alluded to in the following extract could have foreseen the course of events with the same sagacity, it might have saved them from much uncertainty, and have been of service in their career:
"We are in a poor way, politically, in this country. This practice of taking up demagogues for high office is no way to perpetuate liberty. The new party of Native Americans is likely to go forward, and will break up the Whig party, and where it will stop is to be learned."
"_March 1._--Spring opens upon us this morning with a frowning face; the whole heaven is veiled, and the horizon dark and lowering."
"_May 7._--My venerated mother finished her earthly course last Friday, with the setting sun, which was emblematic of her end. She was such a woman as I am thankful to have descended from. Many interesting circumstances connected with her life, before and after her marriage (in July, 1777), are worth recording. She was in her ninetieth year."
"I began a record yesterday morning, referring to my position and duties thirty-eight years ago, when I left my father's house (one week after I was free), with less than twenty dollars in my possession. I came an unknown and unfriended young man, but feeling richer the morning after I came than I have ever felt since; so that I gave the man who came with me, in my father's chaise, a couple of dollars to save him from any expense, and insure him against loss, by his spending two days on the journey, for which he was glad of an excuse. Had he been as industrious and temperate and frugal, he would have left his wife and children independent, instead of leaving them poor and dependent. These contrasts, and the duties they impose, have pressed heavily upon my strength for a few days past; and, in endeavoring to place in a clear view my hopes and wishes, I became pressed down, and, since yesterday, have been upon my abstinence remedy. My wish has been to do a good work for our Athenæum and our Institution for Savings, by making it the interest of the Savings Institution to sell their building to the Athenæum, so that a handsome and convenient building may be erected while we are about it. To this end, I have offered to supply the beautiful temple built for the Washington Bank, rent free, for one year, or a longer period to the end of time, while used as a Savings Bank; intending, by this, to express to those who deposit their money there that I feel deeply interested in their welfare, and would earnestly impress upon them the importance of saving, and, when they become rich, of spending for the good of their fellow-mortals the surplus which a bountiful Father in heaven allows them to acquire. This surplus with me, at the present time, will be sufficient to allow me to speak with earnestness, sincerity, and power, to the tens of thousands of industrious _Thomases_ and _Marthas_,[8] as well as to the young mechanics, or the youngsters who have had little sums deposited for their education. All these characters appreciate a kind act as fully as those who move in a different sphere in the world.