WZ 100 H859H 1876


55631160R
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE


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MEMOIR
De. SAMUEL  GRIDLEY  HOWE.
                            0 U M-
By JULIA WARD HOWE
WITH OTHER MEMORIAE  TRIBUTES.
PUBLISHED BY THE HOWE MEMOKIAL COMMITTEE.
        BOSTOX :
PRINTED BY ALBERT J. WRIGHT,
  79 Milk Street (corner of Federal).
          1876.
 
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CONTENTS.
                                                       Page
Preface,   ...........      v
Memoir of Dr. Howe,........1-62
The State's Tribute,........63-65
Memorial Services,........66-127
  The Music Hall Meeting,.......66,67
  Hymn by William Ellery Chaxning,  ....     68
  Prayer by Rev. Mr. Hale,.......69, 70
  Remarks by Governor Rice,.......70,71
  Eulogy by A. H. Bullock,.......72-82
  Address by Rev. Dr. Caswell,......82-87
  Remarks by William Gaston,......87, 88
  Poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes,.....89-91
  Remarks by Rev. Dr. Hedge,......92-96
  Remarks by Francis W. Bird,......96-101
  Poem by Rev. Charles T. Brooks,.....101-104
  Address by Rev. Edward Everett Hale, .... 104-110
  Remarks by Dr. E. M. Gallaudet,.....110-116
  Eulogy by Colonel Higginsox,......116-122
  Letter from W. C. Bryant,.......123,124
  Letter from F. B. Sanborn,.......124-126
  Letter from Dr. Henry I. Bowditch,.....120, 127 
 
PREFACE.
  The Howe Memorial Committee, appointed
in January, 1876, to render funeral honors to
the eminent philanthropist, Dr. S. G. Howe,
and to provide some appropriate memorial of
his  life and character, have in part performed
that duty,  and now offer to the public this
little volume as the record thereof.  A volume
with  the  same  contents  is  going through
the press of the  Perkins Institution at South
Boston, for the  use of the Blind,—not  only
the immediate pupils of Dr. Howe, but those
in other parts of America and Europe, who
will value  even  this brief sketch of their
friend and benefactor.  The Memoir has been
prepared by Mrs. Howe, at the request of the
Committee;  and Mr. Anagnos, the son-in-
law and successor of Dr. Howe, has directed
the  printing  of the edition  in raised letters 
vi         MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.
for the Blind.  The heliotype portrait  of
Dr. Howe, facing the title-page,  is from a
photograph by A. Marshall of Boston, and
represents  our  old  friend at the  age  of
seventy-two.   \o earlier portrait is believed
to give so well the characteristic traits  of
Dr. Howe, who preserved, even in age and
illness, the energetic qualities that gave him
distinction.
  The Committee  (whose  names will   be
found  on  page  66)  raised by subscription,
chiefly in Dr. Howe's native city of Boston,
the sum of $1,500 to defray the expenses of
the Memorial  Services, and of the volumes.
Other  contributions have  been added, suffi-
cient to meet  the moderate cost of what we
have undertaken to do.   But  it is desirable
that a  permanent fund should be created, to
be called " The Howe Memorial Fund," from
the income of which  books may hereafter  be
printed for the use of the Blind.   In order
to contribute to such a fund, the Committee
have fixed the price of this volume  somewhat 
PREFACE.
vii
above its cost, in the hope that  those who
purchase  it will  cheerfully give a little for
the good of those to whom our illustrious
friend gave so much.  Any additional con-
tributions may be  sent  to  the  Treasurer of
the Committee, James Sturgis  of Boston.
Boston, October 15, 1876. 
 
MEMOIR OF  DR. SAMUEL GRIDLEY  HOWE,
   The object of the following pages is to present,
for the benefit and instruction of the Blind, a brief
memorial of one of  their  greatest  benefactors.
When any  class of human  beings  sutlers  under
the weight  of  special disadvantage  or disability,
the individuals composing it will rarely attain the
average  benefits  and standard of society without
the intervention  of  some special helpful agency.
Heaven  seems, under such circumstances, to raise
up chivalrous friends and champions, to whom the
specialty of the misfortune affords a point of inter-
est equally special and individual.  The instruction
of the Blind as a class, in any of the higher branches
of intellectual culture, dates  only from the begin-
ning of this century.  Few of those engaged in it
have had in view the possibility of raising  the Blind
to the level of intelligent self-reliance  and self-
support.  In France and  in England, where  the
earliest efforts were made for  their instruction, it
was  scarcely  imagined  that they  could become
self-supporting.   Much of what was done in their
behalf had the air of a charity undertaken for the
relief of a pauper class.
                       m 
2
MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.
  Dr. Howe's view of the Blind, and of their capac-
ities, differed widely from that generally received
in the  days of his  earlier labors.  His  ingenious
mind easily saw that in  a number of pursuits they
might be  trained to compete with  seeing  people.
In judging of his work,  it must always be borne in
mind that he started upon this equal and even plane
of human right and obligation.   He assumed that
the State  owed to the Blind an education as avail-
ing as that provided for  its seeing  citizens.  And
he had faith, at the  same time, that  this education,
if properly  given, would make the  same  return to
the State that  its  common  education makes, by
enabling an important class of its citizens to aspire
to the rewards of industry and the dignity of inde-
pendence.
  This great and good  man was born in Pleasant
Street, Boston, November  10, 1801.  He was  the
third child of Joseph N. Howe  and  Patty Gridley.
His father was a ship-owner and a manufacturer
of ropes and cordage, which he furnished in large
quantities, mostly on credit,  to the United States
Government during the  war of  1812.  The failure
of the Government  to acquit this indebtedness had
much to do with the business reverses which, at  a
later day, deprived Mr. Howe of the greater part of
his property.   Mrs.  Howe was  a  relative of the
engineer intrusted with  the fortification of  Bunker
Hill on the night preceding the memorable battle.
Dr. Howe's recollections of his childhood were full
of the charm of his mother's presence and character.
Mrs. Howe was one of the beautiful women of her 
MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.
3
day, and was much esteemed for her kindness and
benevolence.  To her son she always remained an
angel of goodness  and of protection.
  On one  occasion the little fellow, always bold
and  adventurous, fell from  a floating cake of ice
into the waters of the Back Bay,  and narrowly
escaped drowning.  He was brought  dripping into
his father's place of business.  " Go home, and tell
your mother to whip you,"  was  that  parent's sen-
tence.  "I  ran  home," the  Doctor  used to say,
"but my mother  did not  whip me."  Whenever
he  related this little incident, the tone of  his voice
expressed  a sense of the safety and sweetness  of
that mother's love, which the passage of years and
the scenes  of a life crowded with interest  had been
powerless to efface.
   Samuel Howe was early  a pupil  at the Boston
Latin School, of whose rough manners and  disci-
pline he always retained a vivid recollection.  Of
Mr.  Gould,  the then Principal  of the school, he
used to  relate that,  having once caught him  in
some offence, the master proceeded to correct him
severely with a ferule, saying, at the same  time,
that he would force him to  shed tears.  The little
boy  at  first resisted  by a  simple effort of will.
When the  pain  of the blows became extreme, his
excitement and indignation became  so great, that
the tears refused to flow, and the poor little hand
was beaten almost  to a jelly.
  On another occasion, a great political excitement
prevailing  in the city communicated itself to the
pupils of the school.   The  children, then as now, 
4
MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.
adopted without question the views of their parents.
All but two were Federalists, and these two were
threatened with  summary  violence  unless they
would recant  their profession of faith.   One  of
the children submitted to the pressure of numbers :
but little  Sam Howe manfully stood his ground.
and  was  hurried  to  the  head of the  stairs and
thrown down  headlong, this  time with no inter-
ference on the part of the  Principal.
  Dr. Howe entered  Brown University, at Provi-
dence, in the year 1818, and the seventeenth year
of his age.
  When Dr. Caswell, ex-President of this College,
and a classmate of the Doctor's, essayed to speak
of  his college  life on the  occasion of the Howe
memorial  service,  it will be remembered by those
present that he at first hesitated, then smiled, and
finally was obliged to own that what he had to tell
related in great part  to  deeds of boyish mischief.
He spoke of the Doctor's lithe, active figure, quick
mind, and energetic temperament, but was forced
to say that the young man's exercise  of his facul-
ties was often such as to give great trouble to those
charged with  his  education.  This  statement was
not made without much  suppressed amusement on
the part of the speaker, in whose feelings the audi-
ence fully sympathized.
   The academic curriculum had not, in itself, much
interest for one so brimming over with the vitality
of  youth, and from  the first disposed to take so
active a part in practical life as the subject of this
memoir.   The very  character of his youthful ex- 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
5
travagances shows this tendency.   Practical jokes
were  his passion, and in devising and  executing
them  he displayed much of the spirit and ingenuity
which made his riper years remarkable.   Many of
his feats Avere daring, some  of them difficult.  He
it  was avIio, aided by willing friends, forced the
President's horse to  the upper story of one of the
college  buildings, where  he  was  discovered A\Tith
amazement some days later.  Yet his attainments,
even  in  those days  of  frolic,  were  respectable.
His mind was  keen,  speculative, and  active.  He
was early  a  lover of literature, and especially of
poetry, with which  his memory was well stored.
On one occasion he  officiated as  the  poet of his
class, and produced  a composition of some length,
on a subject taken from  Hebrew history.  Of this
performance he sometimes  spoke  in after life with
humorous recollection.
   Dr. Howe in later years  recalled with pain the
time  and  opportunities  wasted, or appearing to
have been wasted, by him in youth.  Like many in
similar circumstances, he  thought the  faults of his
academic career not wholly his own.  He did not
recognize,  in his remembrance of it, any  direct
personal influence leading him  to  the best use of
his powers, or to that enthusiasm for beautiful and
noble things of which he must surely,  even at  that
thoughtless age, have been capable.  However this
may have  been, the splendor and solidity  of his
manhood make us sure that much  latent good was
conveyed in the education which he considered so
imperfect.   To judge by what he retained of it in 
6
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
later life, the drill of BroAvn  University, though
dry, must have been  thorough.  Dr.  Howe was
particularly well grounded in Latin.  His  use  of
his OAvn language was clear, pure, and forcible, and
his  taste in literature correct and careful.   If Ave
add to these accomplishments that of a systematic
and  industrious habit  of life, which he retained
until  its very end, we shall be led to  conclude
that his  alma  mater was  no careless nurse, even
for  a youth of so  much fire and adventure.
  Dr. Howe graduated in the year 1821, and soon
after returned to his native  city, to devote himself
to the study of medicine,   Dr. Ingalls, Dr.  Park-
man, Dr. Jacob BigeloAv,  and Dr. John C. Warren
were  his principal instructors.  He  seems to have
applied himself to this  pursuit with  ardor, and in
due  course  of time was  qualified to exercise  the
healing art, and admitted to the practice of medi-
cine.   During his years of study, he had undergone
an experience  very common with medical students ;
viz., that of supposing  himself to  be affected in
turn by many of the  diseases with  whose  symp-
toms he became acquainted.  He was not destined,
hoA\rever, to swell the ranks of the practising physi-
cians of Boston.    The  romance of his character
was soon to call him in  another direction, leading
him to delights and dangers congenial to his chiv-
alrous nature.
  The Greek  Revolution was now well begun, and
the light of a national  resurrection streamed across
the Avide continent and wider ocean, and set youno-
America on fire with its blaze.  A strong and o-en- 
MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.
7
erous impulse  moved Dr.  Howe to  forsake the
prospects opening to him  in his own country, and
to throw his youthful energies into the scale of the
oppressed race, struggling single-handed against a
Avide-spread and  powerful barbarism which, up  to
that time,  counted  the  states  of  Europe  as  its
allies.   The example of Lord Byron had given a
high poetic sanction  to the crusade of the philhel-
lenes, and this, no doubt, had its weight with our
young hero, Avho was a passionate admirer of the
English bard.   But the same enthusiasm for  human
freedom, the same zeal for human deliverance, ap-
pearing  in every important act  of  his later life,
attests the  originality and fervor  of his  philan-
thropic inspiration.
   Dr. Howe found in those about him little encour-
agement for an undertaking so new and unaccus-
tomed.   He used to mention Gilbert Stuart, the
distinguished painter, with gratitude, as almost the
only friend of those days who bade  him Godspeed
on his errand  of mercy.   Strong, however, in his
own conviction  and intention,  he  embarked   on
board  a brig  bound for  the  Mediterranean, and,
landing  at  Malta, took  passage in an  Austrian
vessel  to Xapoli de Monembasia, in Peloponnesus.
From this place,  he  succeeded in pushing his way
to the headquarters of the provincial government,
assisted  only   by a  letter of  introduction from
Edward  Everett  to  a Greek  acquaintance  of his,
formerly resident in  Germany.  Of this period,
Dr.  Ho Ave  Avrites :— 
8
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
  " In the winter, the much-dreaded expedition of Ibra-
him Pacha, with  the Egyptian  army, landed at Molon.
Attempts were made by the Greek government to get
up an army to oppose them, and Mavrocordato accepted
my  offer to go with them as surgeon.   The President
and Mavrocordato came to the south  of Peloponnesus
with such forces as they could raise.  At first there was
an attempt to  organize the army, and I attempted to
create  hospitals  and to organize ambulances for  the
wounded.   But after the  capture of Navarino by  the
Turks, everything was thrown  into confusion.  Mavro-
cordato fled to  Napoli.  The dark day  of Greece had
come.  All regular opposition  of the  Greeks Avas over-
come.  The Turks advanced fiercely and  rapidly up the
Peloponnesus.  I  joined one of the small guerilla bands
that hung about  the eneury,  doing all the harm they
could.   I could be of little or no use as surgeon, and
was  expected to  divide nw attention  between  killing
Turks, helping Greeks, and taking care of myself.
  "I was naturally very hand}r, active, and tough, and
soon became equal to any of the mountain soldier}- in
capacity for endurance of fatigue, hunger, and  watchful-
ness.   I could carry nw gun and heavy  belt with yata-
gan  and pistols  all  day  long, clambering among the
mountain passes, could eat sorrel and snails, or go Avith-
out anything, and at night  lie down on the ground with
only my shaggy capote, and sleep like a log."

  Dr. Howe's acquaintance Avith the Greek classics
did not at once  introduce him to  the languao-e of
the modern Greeks.   He lived among them  for
weeks, and even months, without  understanding a
word  of  their  speech.   He used to  confess, with
some  amusement, that  the  first phrase which  he
understood was one referring to himself.  " What a 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAA'E.
y
handsome youth !" said an old chief to  his com-
panion, as they lay stretched  upon the ground in
an interval of repose ; " ti eumorphon paidi! "   His
personal beauty, at this time, is said to have been
remarkable.
  The ranks of the philhellenes of that day exhibited
a motley variety of motive and character.  Enthu-
siasts, adventurers, soldiers,  Bohemians,—men of
high character  and purpose,—and with them some
of those chronic malcontents  of society,  to AAThom
every upturning of established usages promises to
be Avelcome.
  Dr. Hoavc  Avas no  holiday soldier.  When  he
threw his fresh youth  into the wavering  scale of
human freedom, he had counted the cost and fore-
seen the outlay.   As he had  joined the Greeks in
the character of a  true  champion,  so in later life it
never became his office to revile or undervalue them.
Many of those Avho sought to  aid them expected to
find in them a people exceptionally aviso and noble.
But  centuries  of a barbarous rule had depressed
and degraded  them.  They had many of the char-
acteristics of children and  of slaves.  Dr. Howe
considered them a  race endowed Avith  great intelli-
gence, and averse to coarse and sensual indulgence.
Going step by step Avith them through their heroic
struggle, he formed a hero's  estimate of a people
outraged and  oppressed, who had, after  long  en-
forced endurance, at last found means to vindicate
their claim to national existence.
  The experience of those years of unceasing Avar-
fare, as briefly recounted from time to time by Dr. 
10
MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.
Howe, reminded one of Paul's synopsis of his years
of trial.  "In journeyings  often, in perils  of rob-
bers,  in  weariness  and  painfullness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness."
In the beleaguered city, fiery death without the
Avails, famine and fever Avithin.   On the battle-field,
Avith comrades falling around him.   On the  deck of
the war-ship, amid the roar of cannon.   On the
march and  beside  the  camp-fire with  the little
Greek army, hunted from one fastness to another,
poorly armed and worse provisioned, but undaunted
and indomitable.   Like the rest, he fed poorly or
fasted.  Like them,  he  slept  upon the ground.
But their fight Avas his  fight,  only because it was
the fight of humanity.
   In  the neighborhood of  Mycenre,  the  writer
visited with  Dr. Howe, in  1867, a curious Cyclo-
pean cave, in Avhich he told her that he  had often
sought a refuge from inclement weather.   The se-
verity of the  exposure  which he underwent  at
length resulted in a serious attack of malarial fever,
whose poison lingered long in  his robust  system,
and took effect in later years in the form of severe
headaches.
   If  romance  and  adventure  had been the only
attractions of this savage campaign, we may fairly
suppose that its excitements Avould soon have palled
upon  the taste  of the young American, accustomed
to the refined habits and intercourse of civilization.
But in his case, the zeal which prompted  the first
effort ripened into the persistence Avhich alone could
make it availing.   He was to be something  more to 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.           11
the Greeks than a gallant lance or a waving plume,
and his aid and counsel greAv in value with  every
year  Avhich passed  and found him  still  in their
service.
  After six years spent amid the vicissitudes of
war,  it became evident to  Dr.  Howe  that  the
Greeks would  be overcome by starvation, unless
prompt relief could  at once be afforded them.  To
obtain this, he returned to  America, and began, as
he used to say, to preach a crusade in their favor.
Though never especially given to oratory, he must
have  carried into this mission the eloquence of zeal
and conviction.  His fervid pleadings  awoke  a
generous response in the hearts of his countrymen.
The purse-strings of wealthy citizens were unloosed.
Ladies contributed their spare garments, and chil-
dren  their toys, to  swell  the tribute of the new
civilization to the old.  The sum collected on this
occasion amounted to some sixty thousand dollars,
—a sum representing a much greater value in those
days  than  in these.   A great amount  of  clothing
Avas also  contributed.   Dr.  Howe  invested  the
greater part of the money obtained in  provisions,
of which the progress  of  the Avar had made  the
Greeks nearly  destitute.   The  constant  demand
made upon the able-bodied men of the country for
military service had  left but a small remnant to
fulfil the offices  of commerce and agriculture, and
the perpetual wasting of fire and SAVord made even
the labors of these few unavailing.  The aid brought
from  America Avas most carefully distributed by
Dr. Howe.  On one occasion, he was visited by an 
12
MEMOIR OF DR.  1IOAVE.
agent who had applied to his own use some of the
clothing sent for the suffering Greeks.  The Doctor
was filled Avith indignation at the sight of the stolen
apparel, and repixwed the  culprit severely for his
peculation.   Finally,  as the latter became insolent,
Dr. Howe tore the clothing from the body of his
visitor, and  turned him naked  into the street.
  A  great number of  Greek families  having taken
refuge in and near Egina, Dr. HoAve established at
that  place  a main depot  for the  distribution of
clothing and provisions.  As all these people Avere
without work, he commenced the building of a mole
AAhose construction gaA^e occupation to great num-
bers  of men, women, and children.  The stones for
this Avork  Avere taken, ready hewn, from the foun-
dations of a ruined temple in the neighborhood.
The  quay, a beautiful one,  is still standing, and is
called the  American Mole.
  Somewhat later, Dr. Ho Ave applied to the Greek
government for the grant  of a large  tract of land
upon the isthmus of Corinth, where he proposed to
establish a colony of  exiles.  The  land Avas given
him, and  the first  cottages Avere soon  built.   He
says  of this undertaking : "The government granted
ten thousand stremmata  of land,  to  be  free from
taxes for five years ;  but they could  not give me
much practical help.   I Avas obliged  to  do every-
thing, and had  only the supplies sent  out by the
American  committee   to aid  me.  The colonists,
hoAA^ever, cooperated, and everything went on finely.
We got cattle and tools, ploughed and prepared the
earth, got up a school-house and a church.  In one 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
13
 of my journeyings, I  found a sick straggler,—a
 _                                       CO   "
 deserter, probably,  from the French army,—Avho
 Avas by trade a wheehvright.   After curing him, I
 got him  to build a cart, and it Avas such a marvel
 that the  peasantry flocked from all the neighborina-
 districts to  see it,  having never  seen  a wheeled
 vehicle before."
  Dr. Howe published, in 1828,  a work  entitled
 "A History of the Greek Revolution."  This book,
 though rarely met with in these days, was received
 Avith  much interest at that time.  It  is valuable
 to-day as a concise and graphic narrative  of events,
 in some  of which the historian had a part, and of
 all  of which  he  possessed the knowledge  of one
 near  to  the  scene of  action.   Even after  reading
 Mr. Finlay's  finished  pages, one  can take  up Dr.
 Howe's recital with interest.  The force  and spirit
 of the author are felt throughout, and he  adds  to
 the fervor of youth  the rarer merit of a calm and
 dispassionate judgment.
  Dr. Ho Ave  now returned to his native country, to
 find there a new object of interest destined to claim
 the longest and most continuous service of his life.
 A friend of  his, Dr.  John D.  Fisher, of Boston,
 had recently returned from Paris much impressed
 Avith the  education of the Blind as pursued in that
 city  in the  schools  founded by the Abbe  Hatiy.
 He  conferred with Dr. HoAve  upon this subject,
 and his representations had, no doubt, much Aveight
 in the resolution adopted by the latter of visiting
Paris  once more,  Avith a view  of  making  himself
master of the  methods of instruction already adopted 
14
MEMOIR OF DR.  HO AVE.
in that city.  This intention was carried into effect
in 1830, and our hero, already accustomed to bear
a part in the battles of freedom, soon found himself
upon  the  field of  the  revolution  which brought
Louis Philippe of Orleans to the throne of France.
This revolution, known  as that of the Three Days,
needed no help  from  foreign hands.  Lafayette,
seeing the young American about to expose himself
to danger, is said to have admonished him gravely,
saying, "Young man, reserve yourself for the needs
of your own country,—this is  our battle."  But
Lafayette, a little later,  found in his  young friend
an able coadjutor in a task  of some difficulty, and
attended with graver peril.
  The Polish nation were,  at this  time, in revolt
against their Russian masters, and the friends  of
freedom  throughout  the  world  regarded  their
struggle  for independence with  great  interest.
Considerable supplies of money  and clothing were
sent from America  for their benefit.   These  con-
tributions  were  consigned  to Gen. Lafayette,  in
Paris, to be employed as he should see fit.   More
than one fruitless  effort had been  made to send
the needed aid across the Prussian frontier, within
which a large body of the  insurgents, driven over
their own border, had taken refuge, holding at bay
a cordon of Prussian  soldiers by whom  they had
been treacherously  surrounded.
  Dr. HoAve was, at this time, about to visit Berlin,
in order to inspect the school for the Blind founded
in that city by the Abbe Haiiy, some twenty-five
years earlier.  At the request of Gen. Lafayette, 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
15
he became the bearer of the gifts of American sym-
pathy to those who were sorely in need  of  such
assistance.    Having accomplished  this  mission,
which, for a time,  revived the sinking hearts of
the brave patriots, he proceeded to Berlin, where
he was arrested at his  hotel on the very night of
his arrival.   At midnight, a  knock was heard at
the door of his room.  He opened it, and saAv three
emissaries of the police, aaIio, disguised as citizens,
and commanding the stranger  to come with them,
presently answered  his  demands by showing  their
badges of office beneath their  plain attire.   After
some parley,  he  persuaded them to leave  him in
peace until the following morning, giving his Avord
of honor that he would then accompany them with-
out resistance.  The remainder of the night was
employed by him in disposing of the papers Avhich
Avould have implicated others in his perilous under-
taking.   The ingenuity of his college days  here
stood him  in  stead.  Having torn  to shreds  some
unimportant letters and memoranda, he threAv the
fragments into a basin of water. The papers Avhich
it was important  but dangerous  to preserve, he
concealed in the hollow part of a bust of the King
of  Prussia,  where  they  remained  undiscovered
until a  friend of his, visiting Berlin,  found  them
by his direction.
   A hcav experience now added itself to the already
varied fortunes of the  young  philanthropist.  He
Avas subjected to rigorous confinement,  interrupted
only by vexatious  and oft-repeated interrogations.
He spoke in after years, though rarely,  of his dark 
16
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
and dismal dungeon, whose dreariness and discom-
fort were  extreme.   The worst of its features was
to him the daily encounter Avith felons at the period
allotted for breathing  the  outer  air of the prison
inclosure.  The fact of his arrest and confinement
was, nevertheless, a secret,  and might long have
remained  so,  but for a fortunate accident.   Dr.
Hoavc, on the day of his arrival in Berlin, had met
a friend from America.  This was none other than
Albert Brisbane, the Avell-knoAvn disciple of Fou-
rier.  This gentleman, calling the next day at the
hotel named on  Dr.  HoAve's card, could find no
traces  of  him.   It Avas denied that any American
had  been  there,  but  Mr.  Brisbane, learning the
visit of the police on the  previous night, became
suspicious of foul play, and Avrote at once to the
American  Minister  at Berlin,  Hon. William C.
Rives.  The case was immediately investigated,
and a requisition Avas made upon  the Prussian gov-
ernment for the person of  an American citizen,
unjustly detained.   After repeated  denials on the
one  hand,  and  a  creditable  persistence  on the
other, the point was  yielded, and Dr. Hoavc re-
gained his liberty,  but not  until he  had made  a
journey of six hundred miles, in  a carriage Avith
two gendarmes, who released him just outside the
Prussian  frontier,  Avith an  admonition  never  to
cross it again.
   We have already spoken of Dr. John D. Fisher,
of Boston, as the  prime  mover in those  efforts
for the Avelfare  of  the Blind Avhich  resulted  in
the  establishment of  the present Institution.   In 
              MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.           17

accordance with these  efforts, and greatly in conse-
quence of them,  no doubt,  an  appropriation for
the education of the Blind AATas made in 1829, and
the  year folloAving, a charter,  incorporating the
proposed institution, was  obtained.  The interest
awakened by Dr. Fisher extended itself to several
prominent citizens, and  avc find  a letter addressed
to Dr. Howe by a committee of gentlemen charged
Avith hastening forward the commencement of oper-
ations, bearing the  date of January 18, 1832, and
the signatures of Edward Brooks, John D. Fislier,
and John Homans.  This letter,  which expresses a
desire  for  the Doctor's speedy return,  and the
immediate opening of the Institution, at the  same
time accedes to his request, that  from one to three
months  might be granted  to him for matters of
private interest.
   A letter from Dr. Howe to Mr. Rives, dated at
Metz,  April  6, 1832, gives the neAvs of his resto-
ration  to personal liberty.   Between the  dates of
these two letters,  therefore, the achditurous expe-
dition,  the  imprisonment, and the liberation  must
all have  taken place.   Dr.  Ho Ave  returned to
America soon after this  time, and commenced the
experiment of teaching  the  Blind.   This he  AAras
obliged at first to do on  a small  scale.   He began
Avith three children of one  family, Avliom he found
on one of the  public  roads.  These  he taught at
first at his  father's house, removing subsequently
to a small hired  dAvelling in Hollis Street, Avliere
he Avas visited by Horace Mann,  as Avill be seen by
the folloAving letter from Miss E.  P. Peabody :—
            2 
18
MEMOIR  OF DR. IIOAVE.
   uYVhen Ave first became acquainted with Mr. Mann,
he  took  Mary (afterwards Mrs.  Mann) and  me to  a
small wooden house  in  Hollis Street, where, in the sim-
plest surroundings, we found Dr.  Howe, with the half-
dozen first pupils he  had picked  up in the highways and
bj'-ways.  He had then  been about six months  at work,
and had invented and laboriously executed some books
with raised letters,  to  teach  them to read, some  geo-
graphical maps, and the geometrical diagrams necessary
for instruction in mathematics.   He had gummed twine,
I  think,  upon  cardboard,  an  enormous  labor, to form
the letters of the alphabet.
   >1 shall not, in  all time, forget the impression made
upon me by seeing the  hero of the Greek  Re\-olution.
Avho had narroAvly missed being that of the Polish Revo-
lution also ;  to see this hero, I say, wholly absorbed, and
applying all  the  energies of his genius  to  this  appar-
ently humble work, and  doing it as Christ did, Avithout
money and without  price.  His  own resources at  this
time could not have paid the expenses of his undertak-
ing, with all  the economy  and self-denial he practised.
The fuller purse  of  his friend and brother, Dr. Fisher,
assisted him.   Soon  after our visit to him, he brought
out his class  for exhibition, in order to interest  people
and get mone}- sufficient to carry on the work  upon  a
larger  scale.    The many  exhibitions  given created  a
furor of enthusiasm, and Col.  Perkins's great heart
responded to the moving appeal.  He now offered his
fine  estate in Pearl  Street, a large house and grounds,
for the use and benefit  of the Blind, provided  that  the
city of Boston Avould raise $50,000 for  the  same  pur-
pose. To this appeal the ladies of Boston responded by
planning and holding the  first fancy fair ever known in
Boston.   It was held in Faneuil  Hall, and everybody
contributed, either in money or  in articles for  the sale. 
              MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.            19

 The net result of this fair amounted to something over
 $49,000."

   Those who took part in this fair, and those who
 visited it, were Avont to speak of it long afterwards
 as surpassingly brilliant and delightful.  The beau-
 tiful young ladies and  stately matrons of the Bos-
 ton of that day gave it all  the support Avhich their
 various endoAvments could contribute.  It Avas also
 largely  visited and patronized  by  people from
 the surrounding country and  towns.   Prominent
 among the heads  of tables stood  Mrs. Harrison
 Gray  Otis,  then  in the  prime  of her matronly
 beauty,  and heartily interested in the new enter-
 prise.  Many other Avell-known and honored names
 Avill be  recalled by those  familiar Avith the time
 and event.   Among these, we may mention Mrs.
 Walter Baker  of Dorchester,  then  Miss Eleanor
 Williams,  Mrs. Rice and  Mrs. Bates, sisters  of
 Mrs. Otis, the  beautiful Marshall sisters ; in short,
 the most prominent ladies of the time.
   Now folloAved for Dr. Hoavc years of labor, less
 harassing,  perhaps,  than  the vicissitudes of the
 Greek campaign,  but  making even greater de-
 mands upon his poAvers of work and of endurance.
 In estimating this  part of his career, Ave must not
 suppose that the youth  and  fashion of Boston Avere
 always intent upon the needs  of  his  Institution.
 The romance of charity easily interests the public.
Its laborious details and duties repel and  Aveary
the many, and  find fitting  ministers only in a few
spirits  of  rare and untiring  benevolence.   Dr. 
20
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
Howe, after the laurels and roses  of victory, had
to deal with the thorny ways of a profession, tedi-
ous, difficult, and exceptional.   He was  obliged to
create  his  own working  machinery,  to  drill and
instruct his corps of teachers, himself first learning
the secrets  of the desired instruction.  He AATas also
obliged to  keep the infant Institution fresh in the
interest and good-will of  the public, and to giA'e it
a place among the recognized benefactions of the
Commonwealth.
  All this he accomplished, but not so easily as Ave
relate it.  He superintended, moreoATer, eA*ery de-
tail of the  management and discipline of the Insti-
tution, which in a  feAv years came  to number one
hundred pupils.  He continued for a long time to
be the principal instructor, and did not giAre up the
tuition of certain  classes  until he had long passed
the meridian of life.
  From the first, his rules were simple,  but  strict.
Early hours, cold bathing, careful diet, exercise in
the open air and  gymnasium,—these  constituted
the hygienic repertory of one AAdiose medical studies
had not  inspired him Avith great faith in the com-
monly received materia medica.  Dr. Hoavc's  per-
sonal habits Avere  such as to enable him, in  these
respects, to add  the  force  of example  to that of
precept.  He was alwaj-s  an early riser,  awake and
up at five  in the  morning.  He accompanied his
pupils in the  morning walk which they took in
winter, before  the  sun was up.  His temperament
was averse to luxury and excess, and the constant
sense of difficulties to be  overcome was  to him an 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.           21
exhilarating, not a discouraging, influence.  So he
and  his  Institution Avorked and  Avaxed  apace in
moral Aveight and intellectual  attainment.,
  A change of locality favored  the  growth  and
progress of the Institution.  In  the monetary  re-
action Avhich folloAved the land speculations of the
years 1834-5, a large  and fine hotel Avas about to
change hands, at a great reduction from its original
cost.   Dr.  HoAve  desired to secure this building
for his  blind pupils.  The  purchase Avas  made on
advantageous terms, and Principal and pupils  re-
moved thither in  the year 1839.  Here the writer
first saAv him in the  summer of 1841, but not until
a new and Avonderful achieAement had added itself
to the already remarkable record of his life.
  The name of Laura Bridgman Avill long continue
to suggest to the hearer one of the most brilliant
exploits of philanthropy, modern or ancient.  Much
of the good that good men do soon passes out of
the remembrance  of busy  generations,  each  suc-
ceeding to each, with its own special inheritance of
labor and interest.  But it will be long before the
a\ orld shall forget the courage and patience of the
man avIio, in the Aery  bloom of his manhood, sat
doAvn to besiege this almost  impenetrable fortress of
darkness and isolation, and, after months of labor,
carried within  its Avails the  divine conquest of life
and of thought.
  In his  forty-third and last report of the Massa-
chusetts Asylum for the Blind, Dr. Howe briefly but
explicitly narrates  the  circumstances  immediately
preceding  and following  the  coming  of Laura 
22
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
Bridgman to the Asylum.  He  tells  us that, as
the methods of  instructing the  Blind and  Deaf-
Mutes became familiar to him, his mind dAvelt Avith
peculiar interest upon the  question, AA'hether,  in the
case,  sometimes occurring,  of the conjunction of
these  misfortunes  in one  person, any  combination
of these methods could be made to meet the needs
of the twofold  privation.    He desired an  oppor-
tunity of testing this  question, and, in process of
time,  found one.   As if in answer to this prophetic
forecast, he received intelligence, in the year 1837,
of the existence, in a village of ]STew Hampshire,
of a little  girl  who Avas blind and deaf, and Aery
deficient  even in the sense  of smell.   He imme-
diately resolved  to visit  the  place, and, arriving
there, found Laura, an actiA*e, restless child, six
years  of age, lawing been born with all her senses,
but having been  deprived  of three  of them in
infancy by  an attack of scarlet fever.   Her  father
Avas a respectable farmer, and her mother a woman
of remarkable  energy. Through the  influence of
Dr. Ho Ave, upon the latter chiefly, the tAvo parents
Avere  induced to part Avith their child for a time, in
order that  the momentous experiment of her edu-
cation might begin.
  In the  report to Avhich Ave have already alluded,
Dr. HoAve has given  an  interesting statement of
the steps by which he first sought to reach  this
imprisoned intellect.   Of this Ave can only briefly
recount the outline.   He says,  that,  after some
simple gymnastic  exercises, intended to teach her
the use of her limbs  and muscles, his first effort 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
23
necessarily AA'as to teach her the elements of written
language, those of living speech being beyond her
poAver of attainment.
  To this end, he formed, every day, on the palm of
her hand, some of the letters  of the finger alphabet,
combined in the shortest monosyllabic words.  He
chose especially the Avords "pin" and "pen," giv-
ing her each article as  often as he formed  in her
hand the  letters  of its name.   After  countless
repetitions of these letters, she at length perceived
the difference betAveen the central letters of the two
words, and would take up the pen when the letters
indicating it were  formed for her, making these
letters herself, Avhen  the pen itself Avas presented
to her.   She soon  learned also to make  the signs
for the other article, the pin.  On discovering the
fact of this  tAvofold  representation  of things  by
signs, she  smiled, as  if  suddenly aAvare of a truth
ungucssed before, AAdiile her  instructor exclaimed,
"Eureka! Eureka!"  He had found the  entrance
to her mind,  and she had found the introduction to
the AAThole structure of language.
  Tedious and difficult as the education  of Laura
Bridgman  must have  been,  one may surely emw
Dr.  HoAve the sublime joy of revealing the outer
universe of space and life, and the inner Avorld of
thought, to this child, destined to awaken so keen
an  interest throughout the civilized  world.  We
are told  that  Christ  gave thanks to God because
his truth had been  revealed  to babes.  Dr.  Howe
surely shared this devout thankfulness when he saw
the light  of  thought and  of civilization  enter the 
24           MEMOIR OF  DR.  HOAVE.

mind of one who  had seemed destined to  remain
not only in darkness, but  also in that mental soli-
tude Avhich is worse than the shadoAv of death.
  The first conditions of intercourse being fulfilled.
the mind of the little pupil unfolded rapidly.   She
Avalkcd joyously beside her teacher r' haud paribus
cvquix" and soon showed, with her increasing vocab-
ulary, the natural adaptation of the human mind
to the methods  of thought, which are its  eternal
possession  and inheritance.   "Do  horses  sit  up
late?" she inquires, before she learns the difference
betAveen horse life  and human life.  When she is
apprized of the death  of one of her companions
at the Asylum, she asks,  "What has become  of
Orrin's  think / "   By and by she  desires to knoAv
avIio made  the world, and the living beings in it.
Her instructor then teaches her the faith and  lore
Avhich his oavii life so nobly  exemplifies.
   The history of Laura Bridgman cannot be giA'en
in these  pages.  The steps  of her wonderful prog-
ress are traced by Dr. Howe in the annual reports
of the Blind  Asylum,  Avhich continued for many
years to interest the public,  far and near, in her
fate and personality.   These records made many
friends for her, but her introduction to the acquaint-
ance of the  general public  Avas made through the
instrumentality of one  illustrious in literature, the
late Charles Dickens.    When Mr. Dickens  first
A^isited  America,  in  the  full  bloom  of  his  great
popularity, he passed some  memorable hours at the
Institution for the Blind.  The pathos  of Laura's
case, and the Avonder of her enlightenment, made a 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  HOAVE.
25
deep impression upon him, and he, avIio had two
hemispheres for his  audience, told her story in his
admirable style, and gave her a place in the  sym-
pathy of Christendom.
  In the year 1841, the writer of this Memoir had
her attention called, by Charles Sumner  and  Pro-
fessor Felton, to  the repents already published by
Dr. Howe, recounting the  beginnings of Laura's
education, and the gradual dcAelopment of her intel-
ligence.   The perusal of these documents naturally
resulted in a visit to the Institution at South  Bos-
ton, and a beginning of acquaintance with the  re-
markable man avIio Avas  at  once  its head and  its
living heart.  Laura Avas then  a child of twelve,
and sat at her desk  Avith  a  Ah'acious  countenance,
occupied Avith some  lesson in raised letters.   Near
her sat  Lucy Read, a girl someAvhat older, from a
country toAvn in  Vermont,  afflicted Avith  the  same
total  priA^ation  of  sight  and of  hearing.  Laura
seemed from time to time to assist  Lucy in under-
standing some  lesson like those  she herself had so
recently  learned.   She  talked  rapidly  Avith  her
fingers, and every now and then  a  beautiful smile
Avould light up the countenance  of her companion.
  This young girl had been so Avild and shy in  her
habits  as to cover her head  and  face Avith a bag
made of cotton  cloth.   When Ave saAV  her,  the
delicacy of her complexion  still  showed the effects
of this seclusion from light and air.  Poor Lucy's
education Avas  not,  however, destined to be  com-
pleted.   Her mother,  in  ignorant and selfish  fond-
ness, soon insisted  upon her return  home, where 
26
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
she must have led the life of privation and isolation
from  Avhich Laura became  in so great a degree
emancipated.
  The acquaintance above mentioned ripened into
a good-Avill which led to  a  marriage between Dr.
Hoavc and  the writer of this Memoir, Avhich took
place  on the 27th of April, 1843.   One week later,
the neAvly married pair started on a tour which was
planned to  include the points of greatest interest in
Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe.
  Dr. HoAve's bridal journey was  made under cir-
cumstances  of peculiar interest.   Almost simul-
taneously with  himself, his dear friend, Horace
Mann, had taken a partner for life, and the voyage
to Europe  Avas  made by the Iavo couples in  the
same  steamer.   On arriving in England, they occu-
pied for a time the same lodgings, and many of
their  visits to public institutions Avere  made  in
company.  I remember among these many work-
houses, schools, and prisons.   The establishment
at Pentonville Avas then neAV,  and in great favor.
The Duke of Richmond  and Viscount  Morpeth,
afterwards Lord Carlisle,  were of  our  party  on
the day  of our Arisiting the prison.  On another
occasion,  Mr. Dickens accompanied us  to AVest-
minster BrideavcII, Avliere the treadmill  Avas then
in full operation.  He appeared  much affected at
the sight of the unfortunate  inmates, and exclaimed
in Dr. Howe's hearing, " I  cannot blame a woman   «
for killing her  oavii child, if she  sees that he Avill
become such a  man as one  of  these."   I  lnwe
already said  that the  narrative  of Air.  Dickens 
MEMOIR OF DR. HO AVE.
27
had made the case of Laura Bridgman generally
knoAvn in England and on  the Continent.   As a
consequence of this, on the occasion of this  A'isit,
Dr. Howe became the object of the most gratifying
attentions from  people foremost in standing and
desert.   Thomas  Carlyle  called upon him soon
after his arrival in London, and in the course  of
conversation expressed his  amusement at Laura's
question about the  hours kept by horses.   Sydney
Smith  spoke  of  Dr. Hoavc  as a second  Prome-
theus.    The  Duke  and Duchess of  Sutherland,
Lord Houghton (Monckton  Mimes), the Marquis
of  Lansdowne,  Basil  Alontagu, and  the  poet
Rogers Avere  among  the  pleasant  acquaintances
made at this  epoch.   The Doctor was often  called
upon to recount the steps by Avhich he had led  an
imprisoned soul from darkness into light.
   Dr.  Ho Ave,  as the companion of those days can
testify, kept  in these new surroundings his own
quiet dignity  and modesty.  In the highest com-
pany, one felt his height aboAe that of other men.
And this Avas  sIioavii in his judgment of men and of
tilings, in his true kindness and geniality,  and  in
his transparent  simplicity  and truthfulness.   The
presence and praise  of people of rank neither
uplifted  nor abashed  him.   The humanity  which
he  respected  in himself  he regarded equally  in
others, but the fact itself,  not its adventitious trap-
pings,  claimed his service and homage.
  On leaving London, avc parted for  a time with
Air. and  Airs.  Alann, but  subsequently rejoined
them in Germany, where Ave travelled Avith them 
28
MEMOIR OF  DR.  HOWE.
for some weeks.  Aleantime, hoA\re\rer, we had vis-
ited the  lake  region of England, the picturesque
mountains of Wales, and had taken a hurried but
delightful journey through Scotland and Ireland.
In the latter country, the  Repeal agitation was  at
its height.   Dr. HoAve took much interest in this
question, and in company Avith him I attended a
Repeal meeting held at the Dublin Corn Exchange,
at AA'hich Daniel  O'Connell Avas  present.    The
meeting  Avas  held Avith the  special object  of ac-
knoAvledging the receipt of a sum of money sent
from friends in America.  Dr. HoAve did not make
his presence known, and  of course took no part
in the proceedings.
   In the course  of the summer, Dr. HoAve and Air.
Alann again parted  company, the  latter  returning
to America in the autumn, while the former, Avith
his  party,  traArelled through SAvitzerland, Avliere,
amid all the beauties of natural scenery, the claims
of educational and philanthropic institutions Avere
not  forgotten.   Anting in  Italy  in the autumn,
Ave proceeded, after visiting Alilan and  Florence,
to pass the winter in Rome, AA'here, in the  month
of March folloA\Ting,  a daughter Avas born  to us.  It
would be difficult to exaggerate the joy manifested
by Dr. Ho Ave on this occasion, a new and deep foun-
tain of affection and happiness springing  up in his
heart to  enrich the remaining years of his life.
   The Avinter passed in Rome Avas one of especial
interest to  the neAvly married couple.  Besides the
enchantment of galleries, churches, and antiquities,
the society of Rome Avas at that period Aery brilliant 
MEMOIR OF  DR.  HOWE.
29
and full of interest.   Dr. Howe made acquaintance
Avitli many men of learning and  of merit, among
others, with Monsignore Morechini, the Avell-known
philanthropist, and Avith Monsignore Baggs, bishop
of Pella.   AI ore congenial to him  Avas the company
of George Comix1, the distinguished phrenologist,
whose treatise, entitled "The Constitution of Alan,"
Dr.  HoAve considered  one of the greatest Avorks
of modern times ; and that of Theodore Parker,
already Avell known through his  sermon on "The
Transient  and Permanent in Christianity."   Dr.
Howe had  paid  much  attention  to  the study  of
phrenology, and, like Air. Combe, Avas much inter-
ested in tracing out some confirmation of its theory
in the characteristics of Greek sculpture.   The tAvo
friends hoav visited together the gallery of the Vat-
ican, and studied  its historic heads in the light of
their firvorite  science.   They found  the  head  of
Jupiter  as full of the  ma jest}' of intellect as  are
his features.   In  Pallas,  the  intellectual type  of
Avoman's head pre Availed, Avhile the head of Aphro-
dite Avas small, Avith a predominance of the organs
of  sensation  over those of thought.   The  Avhole
series of the  Ca'sars, too, Avas folloAAred with cor-
responding instruction  and satisfaction.
   Three weeks after the birth of his little daughter,
Dr. Howe made a brief visit to Greece.  The child
had  already  been  baptized  by Theodore Parker,
and had  received the name of Julia Romana.
   This visit to Greece  had something of the  char-
acter of an   ovation.   The most flattering atten-
tions wore paid to the  philhellene of tAventy years' 
30
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
 standing.  AVe  have  already spoken of the colony
 planted  by him in the region called Jlexa Mill, on
 the  Isthmus  of Corinth, soon after the conclusion
 of the Avar of Greek independence.  To  this spot
 his travels brought him, after an interval of many
 years.   As he rode through the principal street of
 the village, the elder people began to take note of
 him, and to  say one to another, "This man looks
 like Howe."   At length they  cried,  "It must be
 HoAve himself!"  His horse was surrounded,  and
 his progress stayed.   A feast was immediately pre-
 pared for him in the principal house of the place,
 and a throng of friends,  old  and neAV,  gathered
 around him,  eager to  express  their joy in seeing
 him.   This is only one of many scenes which fully
 attested  the grateful recollection in which his ser-
 vices were held by the people of Greece.
   Returning  to  Rome, Dr. Howe now turned his
 face homeward,  after a brief visit to Naples.  The
 summer  was  mostly passed in  England, where he
 visited the venerable Dr. Fowler, of Salisbury,  a
 man of a spirit kindred to his own.   There also he
 made the acquaintance of Air. and Airs. Bracebridge.
 and, through  them, of Florence Nightingale.  Miss
 Nightingale was at that time  a young  lady much
 admired,  having already given  evidence of  the
 superiority of character  and  of mind  which  has
 since made her name one of those best known and
most honored in her own time.   The bent of Aliss
Nightingale's  mind  Avas in  the  direction  of what
we may call philosophical philanthropy.   She held
many conversations with Dr. Howe upon matters of 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
31
humanitarian interest.  A warm friendship sprang
up between the tAvo, and a second daughter, born
during the ensuing year, Avas honored by bearing
the name Avhich Avas destined to become so illus-
trious.
  Dr. Hoavc returned to America in the autumn of
this year, and resumed his duties as Superintendent
of the Institution for the Blind, his place having
been filled as  far as possible in his absence by his
friend, Dr.  Fisher.   In the year folloAving, he was
elected a member of the Boston School Committee,
and the zeal and thoroughness Avith Avhich he caused
the public schools of the city to be examined, Avere
such  as  to occasion important  reforms.   Horace
Mann, himself, in those  days the apostle of our
State Education, says, in  a letter of that time, that
the work accomplished in this examination " could
only have been done by an angel—or Sam Hoavc"
In common with  his friend,  Charles Sumner,  he
also took great interest in the discipline of Prisons,
and Avas, like  him, an advocate of the Separate, as
opposed to the Silent, system.   lie Avas one  of the
founders  of the  Society for  Aiding  Discharged
Convicts, and continued  its president until the
time of his  death.   A satirical production of those
days presented Dr.  HoAve and Air. Sumner in the
light  of  tAvo knights-errant of  philanthropy, con-
stantly on the look-out for some human  right to
vindicate, some injury to redress.  Fortunate Avas
it for the community that  it possessed tAvo such
brave and  disinterested  champions  of ideal and
practical justice. 
32
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
  The politics of Massachusetts now gave indications
of approaching changes, and the parties  hitherto
dividing the State  began to suffer  disintegration,
and  to seek  neAv  centres  of inspiration  and  of
action.  Air. Sumner's Oration on the " True Glory
of Nations" gave a warning note Avhich told that
the old military  theory that Alight makes Right
was  soon  to  be put to a  new  and severe test.
Popular feeling  was  divided  upon this  subject,
and Mr. Sumner and his friends came  to be con-
sidered as  persons of extreme  views.  But still
more,   the  slavery  question, uoav squarely put
before the people by AVilliam Lloyd Garrison and
AVendell Phillips, at their great personal risk and
inconvenience, became the shibboleth by which the
ranks  of politicians were diA'ided.   The represent-
atives  of Avealth and fashion in Alassachusetts Avere
largely on the  side of the  slaveholder.  A certain
habit of being cajoled by political leaders, a certain
easy  good-felloAvship Avhich  disliked change and
contest, led most of that  class of citizens usually
characterized  as  " wealthy  and   influential,"  in a
direction  quite opposed to the sad  and thankless
service of denouncing the sins of the nation.  Dr.
Ho Ave, uoav in middle life, and fully occupied with
his professional duties, was not eager to enter upon
a neAv conflict for conflict's sake.   Yet between the
tAvo parties, of which one espoused and the other
opposed the cause  of universal freedom, there was
no doubt as  to Avhich must claim  his  adherence.
He soon saAv that a neAv classification of the convic-
tions  of  the  Commonwealth Avas ineAritable, and 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
33
lent his  ready aid  in  the task  of guiding and
shaping this classification.   He was warmly inter-
ested  in the  election,  first  of Dr.  Palfrey, and
then of Horace Mann,  to  the  National  Congress,
as  well as in the Avhole series  of events which
preceded and folloAved the election of Charles Sum-
ner to the Senate  of  the United States.
   From this more public and stirring theme I must
turn back, to take a  retrospective view of the pro-
fessional  labors which occupied Dr. Howe  during
the period betAvcen his return from Europe in DS44
and the election  of  Air. Sumner  in 1851.  First
among these, in addition to those already spoken
of, Ave may mention the  multiplication of books for
the Blind, and the improvement of the characters
used in these books.  Dr. Howe  was not the in-
ventor of  the raised  letters,  which  have  made
reading by the sense of touch possible  to blind
persons.  He found  these letters already invented
by the Abbe Haiiy.   But he improved  so  much
upon the type already in use, as greatly to facilitate
the printing of books for the Blind.  He devoted
much stud}' to this object, and after various experi-
ments, succeeded  in  devising the  angular type  at
present in use  in the press of the  Alassachusetts
Institution.   To  reduce the  size  of the  books
printed in raised  type, was an important desider-
atum.   He so far succeeded in effecting this reduc-
tion, that in the year  1835 he was able to present to
the American Bible Society a specimen of printing
in Avhich the bulk heretofore required Avas dimin-
ished one-half.
               3 
34
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
  Dr. HoAve considered the multiplication of Avorks
specially printed for the Blind  an object  of great
importance, as increasing their resources and their
opportunities for independent stud}'  and  culture.
He  spared no effort to this end, keeping it always
before the eyes of the community in his  reports,
Avhile he at the  same time neglected no opportunity
of bringing so  pressing a Avant to  the notice  of
Avealthy  and  benevolent individuals.   The  annals
of his Institution Avill shoAv that  his efforts, though
not entirely attaining the  desired result, Ave re yet
in a great measure successful.
  In the year 1835, he Avrote an eloquent  letter to
the  Directors of the American Bible Society, ask-
ing for such an appropriation from their  funds as
would enable him to print the Avhole Bible  in raised
type.  Tavo hundred dollars had  already been ob-
tained toAvards this end, in answer to an appeal
made by Dr.  Howe before  the congregation  of
Park Street  Church.  The  Alassachusetts  Bible
Society added to this sum  another contribution of
one  thousand  dollars.   The NeAv York Female
Bible Society gave eight hundred dollars, and the
American Bible Society one thousand.  This sum
of money  enabled Dr. HoAA^e  to print the NeAv
Testament in raised letters,—a service  which Avas
hailed Avith joy by the many blind persons  desirous
of possessing and  reading the book.   Six  vears
later, the Managers of the American Bible Societv
took the necessary  steps for completing the print-
ing of the entire Bible in the same type, the plates
for the whole work costing some thirteen thousand 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
35
 dollars.   The catalogue of  books printed at the
 Massachusetts Asylum attests the labor bestowed
 upon this object by its lamented Principal.   It in-
 cludes  Milton's "Paradise  Lost" and "Regained,"
 an encyclopedia of his oavh compiling, Shakespeare's
 " Hamlet" and "Julius Cesar,"  Histories of Eng-
 land and the United  States,  "Pilgrim's Progress,"
 and selections from  the Avritings of Pope, Baxter,
 Swedenborg, and Byron.   In the last report written
 by his hand, he mentions the  noble donation of Air.
 Dickens of a sum of  money which enabled the In-
 stitution to print a small edition  of the "Old Curi-
 osity  Shop" for the use of the  Blind.   Laura
 Bridgman once spoke to  me with vivacity of the
 pleasure with which she had perused this work.
   In Dr. HoAve's management of the Blind Asylum,
 two points  especially deserve notice.  The  first of
 these is his earnest desire, already spoken of, that
 the  Blind, as a class, should become self-support-
 ing.  His  belief in  the value of labor to the indi-
 vidual Avas such that he considered a useless life the
 greatest of calamities  for a human being.   In order
 that the Blind should  reach the full human standard
 of efficiency and of service, despite  the draAvback
 of  the  wanting sense, he felt it to bo necessary
 that they should live, not  by charity, but  by avcII-
 earned Avages.  In vieAV of this object, a department
 of manual  labor Avas  created at  the Institution, in
 Avhich the  Blind avc re taught such trades as they
can pursue Avith profit.  Cane-work, the manufact-
ure of mats and brooms, the making and cleansing
of beds and  other articles of upholstery, Avere the 
36
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
most important of these, and in all of them those
instructed  attained sufficient  facility to ensure  a
comfortable support.   The workshop of the Insti-
tution  soon grew  into an establishment of recog-
nized character and importance, giving instruction
and  employment  not  only  to the pupils  of  the
school, but also to adult blind persons obliged to
provide for their  oaatii support.
  The  second point to which we would call atten-
tion, is the tact which Dr. Howe displayed in  dis-
covering both the  tendencies and capacities of the
Blind,  and the gifts and  deficiencies of individuals
among them.  In studying these, he soon perceived
that, of all intellectual and  artistic pursuits, music
Avas that which would afford to the Blind the great-
est opportunities of labor and remuneration.  He
saAV  that their  privation of  the resources  of sight
intensified for them the pleasure and significance of
sound, and that the nicety of hearing and of touch,
by which Nature  compensates the missing  sense,
Avould  make their help valuable in  the  care of
musical instruments.    In  view  of this  twofold
interest, he  Avas  careful to give  his  blind pupils
every  advantage in musical instruction, including
the tuning of piano-fortes and the hearing of music.
He was ably seconded in these endeavors by good
teachers and by the zeal of  the pupils themselves.
A great number of blind persons have  earned  and
continued to earn  a comfortable livelihood  by the
aid of  the musical instruction thus supplied.  Some
of these are employed  as  organists of  churches,
many  are  teachers of music,  many  are  tuners  of 
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
37
 piano-fortes, while  others still  are  agents for the
 sale and hire of these.*
   It is not too  much to say that the energy and
 force  of  Avill which  Dr. Hoavc displayed in  this
 matter have made an epoch  of progress in the con-
 dition  and character  of  the Blind.   Long treated
 with neglect, or  as  the objects  rather of pity than
 of discipline, he  found them naturally prone to dis-
 couragement, and averse  to  effort.   The thrill of
 this  strong heart,  that   feared no  difficulty  and
 shrank from no encounter, communicated itself first
 to teachers and  then to pupils.   The Institution
 became a happy home of diligent spirits,  preparing
 for a life of  use  and  service.   A neAv fountain of
 hope and of cheerfulness sprang up among  these
 so-called  unfortunates, and  this good  power will
 live among the  Blind  as  all high  and precious
 influences, once  communicated, do live and  groAv
 on earth.
   On  the occasion  of the European tour already
 chronicled, Dr.  Howe  and  Air.  Alann became
 greatly  interested  in  the method,  then already
 established on the  Continent,  of teaching  deaf-
 mutes  the use  of  articulate  speech.    The  two
 friends visited together   all the  schools  of  this
 description Avhich lay Avithin their line of travel.
 If I remember rightly, they found only one of these
 in England, and that a small one.  But in Switzer-

  * The Royal Normal  College for the Blind at Sydenham, near Lon-
 don, England, is an offshoot of the Massachusetts Institution. Its orig-
inator and present Principal is the former Musical Director of this
Institution, and its most valued teachers have been  supplied from the
same source. 
38
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
land and in Germany, the system had already been
fully tried and established,  and in  these countries
Ave  found opportunities  of  observing  pupils  in
every stage  of vocal discipline, from that of the
simultaneous utterance  of unintelligible  sounds to
the very politeness and  perfection of speech.
  On his return to America,  Dr. HoAve  warmly
seconded Air. Mann's  efforts for the introduction
of the teaching of articulate speech as  a part of
deaf-mute education.  The innovation was strongly
resisted, at the time and long after, by those com-
mitted to the old method of instruction, in which
the language of arbitrary signs predominated eAen
oA'er the use of the finger alphabet.  Unable to
convince the heads  of  the  American Asylum for
Deaf-AIutes  at Hartford of the propriety  of at least
giAring the new method a fair trial, Dr. Howe began
upon two little deaf-mute pupils a series  of experi-
ments which finally had some  share in  leading to
the establishment, in the neighborhood of Boston,
of a small school deA'oted to the articulate method
of education, whose teacher has since become the
Principal of the  Clarke School for Deaf-AIutes in
Northampton.  In the interim  (one of many years)
between his first efforts to this end and their final
success, Dr.  Howe Avas instrumental in leading
many  mothers of deaf-mute children to  conduct
their education upon this principle.   In these in-
stances, the children receiA'ed  the greater part of
their education at  home.  I have  seen  several of
these, grown men  and women, able to mino-le in
 society, and to take part freely in conversation. 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
39
These  young persons, as Avell as  their parents,
expressed  great  gratitude  to  Dr. HoAve  for the
good  advice  given at that  time,  in  opposition to
popular opinion and prejudice.
  A uoav class of unfortunates Avas  soon to claim
the helpful attention of  our philanthropist.  The
condition of  the  Insane had long been  to him an
object of interest.   As a friend of Air.  Alann and
of Aliss Dorothea L. Dix, he had  borne  his part in
the labors and studies Avhich have  so greatly modi-
fied the treatment of lunatics.   In the year 1847,
he became much interested in the experiments of
Dr. (iiiggenbuhl, Avhich had already  resulted in so
much  benefit to  the  Cretins  of  SAvitzerland.  It
seemed to him very important that  inquiry should
be made into the  number and condition of idiots in
Massachusetts, and he lost  no  time in bringing the
matter to the notice of the State Legislature.  A
Commission  Avas  appointed by this  body, charged
Avith  the  delicate and difficult investigation.  Dr.
Howe Avas Chairman of this Commission, and its
valuable Avork Avas chiefly planned and executed by
him.   The report Avhich bears his name, the first
CAcr  presented  in  Alassachusctts concerning the
facts and causes  of Idiocy,  Avas published in 184H.
Its appearance made a profound sensation  in the
community.  The report not only brought to light
the fact that  in Massachusetts alone the  number of
idiots  amounted to fifteen hundred, but it also gave
much  information  concerning  the parentage from
which such unfortunates  are Avont to spring.   The
frankness of the  disclosures made in its pages was 
40
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
disapproved by  those avIio consider it mischieA'Ous
to lay bare the secret sins of society.  Yet all avIio
kneAv Dr. Hoavc, knew that he would have been the
last person to  collect and publish facts so revolting
as were  some of  those  iioav  brought into  notice,
unless impelled  to do  so  by high considerations
of duty  and  public service.   The  existence of a
large  number  of these defectives in Massachusetts
Avas  already  a  mortifying  and  unwelcome  fact.
Still more unwelcome were  the  statements  which
showed this condition  in  the offspring to  be in
great  measure the result of violations on the part
of the parents  of the  great laAvs of health  and
morality.
  The experiments already made on the other side of
the ocean had  shown, beyond a doubt, that persons
of this most pitiable class arc capable of instruction,
and even  of a certain  degree of personal  culture.
The efforts of  Dr. Howe, and the evidences of need
brought forward in his report, induced the Legis-
lature of  Massachusetts  to make an appropriation
of $2,500 per annum for three years, to be expended
in what it Avas pleased to term  the  experiment of
teaching and training ten idiotic children.   A school
for this purpose  was organized in South Boston in
October, 1848, under the supervision of Dr. HoAATe.
Air. James B.  Richards was its first teacher.
  This new undertaking Avas at  first  somewhat
derided by that  class of persons AA'ho are disposed
to greet with ridicule anything that seems new and
strange.   "They are going to educate idiots next,"
was a saying received with laughter and incredulitv. 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
41
 ()ne good friend at this time  told Mrs. HoAve that
 the Doctor's report Avas, in his opinion,  a  report
for idiots, as Avell as concerning them.   It is need-
 less to  say that the  folly  of these vieAvs soon
 became  apparent even to the careless people who
 expressed  them.   The  school soon  enlisted the
 sympathy of all humane persons ;  and its  Avork,
 Avhich has  now  been  carried  on for  twenty-eight
 years, has  been  croAvned Avith a  noble  success.
 It has  alleviated great  miser}' among the  poorer
 classes, to Avhom  a  helpless, mischievous  creature,
 to be fed and looked after, is a burden difficult  to
 be  borne.  But the  misfortune  of idiocy  is not
 confined to the poor.   Many a family in easy  or
 affluent circumstances  has rejoiced to sec its feeblest
 member trained in this  school to decent  behavior,
 to harmless amusement,  and to useful Avork,  attain-
 ing thus, despite the  most cruel of defects, some-
 thing of the dignity Avhich is the  birthright of a
 human being.  And in this manner the Idiot  School
 at South Boston, commonly called  the School for
 Idiotic  and Fecblc-AIinded Youth, has come to be
 one of the most  solid  and respected institutions  of
 the CommoiiAvealth.   AYhen I tread its sunny cor-
 ridors,  and  linger  in its pleasant school-rooms,
 looking  into  the faces   of  the  young  creatures
 redeemed from a life  of degrading criminality  or
 forlorn  blankness, I cannot  help  exulting  in the
 thought  that one who  Avas a Avelconie guest  among
 the rich and great,  himself honored, brilliant, and
 distinguished, had heart  and  poAver to help these
 poor Avrecks of humanity, and to bring them  within 
42
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAA'E.
the sphere of all the pure  and ennobling agencies
which  constitute the greatest treasure  of civiliza-
tion.   AVhen, a few weeks  since, the Massachusetts
Legislature  convened  to  render  homage  to the
merits of the departed  hero  and philanthropist.
AA'hen press  and pulpit rang Avith his praises, the
pupils at the  Idiot  School gave  their  sorrowing
tribute to the memory of their great  benefactor.
Grieving for him after  their fashion, they said, "He
will take  care of the Blind in heaven.  AYon't he
take care of us,  too?"
  AYe must  again  go back in our record, in order
to notice  briefly Dr. Hoavc's relations to the Anti-
Slavery movement.  Nor can we do this Avithout a
hurried retrospect of events Avhich, if familiar to
all  at  the time  of their  occurrence, pass rapidly
from sight,  and  are  liable to remain  unknoAvn to
the  young generation  whose education is of later
elate.  The  early  utterances of the opponents of
Slavery in  America  seemed to the public at  large
somcAvhat harsh  and  vindictiAe.  It was difficult to
persuade the people  of the North that they had any
part to take in  the  question betAvcen  master and
slave.   It Avas  scarcely less difficult to persuade
them that the domain of  enforced  servitude was
one characterized by passive barbarism on the part
of the servile class, and by active barbarity on that
of the ruling  class.   The  courage and  conscience
of a few eminent  men kept the cause of the  slaA'e
ahvays before the eyes of the National Congress,
to the great majority of whose members  it lono-
remained the most  unwelcome of  themes.   The 
MEMOIR OF  DR. HOAVE.
43
passage  of  the Fugitive Slave Bill by  this body
in 1«;")(), and the efforts made to carry its clauses
into  execution upon the  soil of  Massachusetts,
aroused  a  general  feeling  of indignation,  and
gave  rise to a series of events which resulted in
uniting  the intelligence  and  the  sympathies of
Alassnchusetts  against the encroachments  of the
shiAre power.
   In  the struggle  which folloAved,  it soon became
evident that the public mind  needed instruction as
to the facts, antecedents, and  tendencies of slavery.
Tavo  journals,  the "Liberator" and the "Anti-
Slaver}' Standard," ably and uiiAveariedly advocated
the immediate and unconditional abolition of the
detested institution.   But this step was  seen to be
surrounded by so  many practical difficulties, as to
render necessary some mediatory Avork, some  dis-
cussion  of  the plans and  methods essential to a
reform of such difficult}' and magnitude.   It  Avas
felt that  there  Avas room for  still another  news-
paper, which should take up this ultimate question
within the  limits of  the political action possible at
that time.  Such a paper Avas started in the year
l<sol, under the title of the " Commonwealth."  Dr.
Ho avc Avas one of the originators of this enterprise.
He contributed to the fund raised for its first neces-
sities, and himself  performed for more than  a year
the duties  of  literal-}'  editor, in Avhich  I had the
happiness of assisting him.   This organ did excel-
lent service, and its  issue Avas continued  several
years.  But, in the meantime, eA'ents had happened
which compelled the citizens of Alassachusetts either 
44
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAArE.
 to condemn and resist the extradition of fugitives
 from slavery, or to become, by inaction, the accom-
 plices of acts Avhich avc re most repugnant to their
 feelings and principles.   In  1851, a slave AA'ho had
 concealed  himself  on  board of a ship bound  for
 Boston, and who had already reached that  port,
 Avas delivered  up to the part}' claiming him, and
 carried back into slaA-ery.  This first result  of  the
 passage of the Fugitive  Slave Bill was too impor-
 tant to be passed  over.    A meeting Avas  called,
 and  held  at Faneuil  Hall,  to consider  the best
 means of opposing so iicav and great an evil.  In
 this  meeting,  Dr.  HoAve took a  prominent  part,
 and  his eloquent Avords  arc  probably still remem-
 bered by  some of those Avhom  the neAv outrage
 called together on that occasion.  The rendition of
 Thomas Sinims and of  Anthony  Burns followed,
 each act of encroachment and coAvardice adding to
 the strength of the popular indignation.   In 1858,
 Dr. Howe  Avas  instrumental,  Avith others, in organ-
 izing a course  of lectures  upon slavery, in  which
 not its opponents only, but its advocates also, were
 permitted  to plead their cause, in order that the
 public might feel sure of having heard both sides of
 the question argued.  Among the  latter, General
 Houston of Texas alone accepted  the  invitation
given;  while  the  cause  of  human  freedom Avas
 advocated  by  Charles   Sumner,  Henry  Wilson,
Aloncure D. Conway, E. W. Emerson, E. P. Whip-
ple, Frederick Douglass, and Samuel J. Ma v.
  It Avas  in these days of  trial that  Dr.  Howe
became acquainted with John Brown, Avhose re- 
t
             MEMOIR OF  DR. HOWE.           45

markable  qualities  at  once commanded his  admi-
ration.  I  remember a conversation in Avhich, in
the strictest confidence, Dr. Howe told me of a
wonderful  man, an  apostle, a Puritan of the old
type, Avho had devoted himself to an elaborate plan
for the  emancipation of the  Southern  blacks, Avith
the zeal and courage which ever characterize the
saviors  of mankind.  The name of this person Avas
confided to me at a much later date,  but so A'ivid
had the Doctor's portraiture of him been, that AA'hen,
a year or tAvo after  this time, he came to my door,
I said to  him, "You are Captain John BroAvn?"
to Avhich he replied, "I am."   Dr.  Howe did not
agree AA'ith the general opinion,  then prevalent,
Avhich characterized John BroAvn's  scheme of negro
emancipation as  incapable  of  execution.  He in-
sisted in after years that the plan had  been a v^ery
able one, and that its failure could  not have  been
a foregone conclusion.
  When the Avar of the Southern Eebellion actually
broke out,  Dr. HoAve had already passed the age of
military service.  His uncertain health, moreoArcr,
made it impossible for him to  bear the risks and
exposures of camp life.  His energy and experience
Avere  immediately placed  at the  disposal  of the
Government.  As a member of the  Sanitary Com-
mission, he did good service, and his good counsels
and generous cooperation Avill  be  remembered to-
day by those Avho then labored AArith him to alleviate
the horrors  of  Avar.  As ma}' be  supposed, Dr.
Howe followed the  course  of  the Avar Avith  close
and intense interest.  From its beginning to  its 
46
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
end, he was a true  prophet  of the progress of
events.   No sham victory, no false  reputation,
imposed  upon him.   I remember that I learned
to listen  to  his sentence upon the  matters current
at that time with entire faith,  because  through all
the changes and illusions of those years he alone
AA-as never mistaken,  never  deceived.   Nor did I
dare to believe  fully in  any  reported advantage
gained by  our  troops until  I had learned  his
opinion regarding it.
  In  1863,  a commission was  appointed by the
United States Government, to inquire into the con-
dition of the freedmen of the South.   It consisted
of Dr. Howe, Hon.  Robert  Dale OAAren,  and  Air.
James McKay of NeAv York.   The  labors of this
commission occupied something more than a year.
It became. the medium of much valuable  informa-
tion to the Government, and prepared  the Avay for
the later establishment of the  Freedmen's Bureau.
AVhile absent from home  on the Avork of this com-
mission.  Dr. Ho Ave Avas  suddenly  recalled by the
illness, terminating in death, of his youngest child,
a fine boy  three  years  of age, bearing his  name.
His anguish at this loss was so great  as to  brino- on
a severe  fit of sickness.   A letter written by him
to Air. F. AY. Bird, in 1874, on the  occasion of a
similar family  affliction  sustained by the  latter,
attests the depth and persistence of  his sorroAvino-
remembrance.
  In 1865, Dr. Howe was elected Chairman of the
Alassachusetts Board of State Charities, established
upon  the recommendation of Governor AndreAv in 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
47
1863.   In  a recent  Report, Mr. Sanborn, the
present Chairman of this Board, says: "AVith the
election of Dr. Hoavc as Chairman, in 1865, a neAv
period commenced,—the statement and dissemina-
tion of principles, the shaping of legislation, and
the  general  reconstruction of a state  policy Avell
befitting the  turn of  Dr. Howe's  mind."   In his
first report, published in  1-S66, he  laid doAvn the
general principles of public charity for Alassachu-
setts in eight rules or clauses, Avhose Avisdom and
conciseness should make them a permanent docu-
ment of reference in these matters.    Dr. Howe
continued  to occupy  this important  post  until
October, 1874, avIich failing health compelled him
to Avithdraw from its  arduous duties.   It  Avas  he
Avho first suggested the establishment of a Alsiting
Agency, which should be charged Avith keeping in
vieAV the fortunes  and condition of the poor children
educated at the state schools, and afterAvards inden-
tured  or  placed  in  families.   In  Air. Sanborn's
Report, aboAc referred to, much is said of the use
and  value of this  Agency, Avhose duties haAre been
systematized and greatly enlarged.
  AYhcn the  echoes of our oavii civil Avar had died
away,  a  Avild and sudden cry arose from  the re-
gions  of the  Levant.   The  Christians  of Crete
had  risen in revolution against their  liloody and
barbarous masters.  Dr.  HoAve remembered Avell
the injustice done  by the Allied Powers, in separat-
ing Crete from the Hellenic domain, as established
1)}' them at the close of the Avar of Greek independ-
ence.  This  partition  Avas urged  upon  the plea 
48
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
that  the  new  kingdom  of Greece  might  be too
powerful for European control if allowed to retain
this  magnificent  island, and  the old  maxim of
tyranny,  divide et impera, was alloAA'ed to prevail.
AVith all the  valor of his youth, confirmed by the
wise experience of a lifetime, Dr. HoAve now rose
up as the champion of  a race long and fearfully
oppressed,  committed to a death-struggle  for its
freedom.   Alany Avill remember  a most interesting
meeting held at Bumstead Hall  in January, 1867,
in whose proceedings Governor  Andreav, AVendell
Phillips, Bishop Huntington, and others  took part.
AVhen, on this occasion, Dr. Howe rose and said,
" Some forty-five years ago I became greatly inter-
ested in the war of Greek  independence,"  a mur-
mur of astonishment ran through the hall.   Dr.
Howe at that time looked  like a man still in the
vigor of life, and those who saw him had forgotten
the already remote date of his apostleship.
  With the aid of this meeting, and by great per-
sonal exertions, Dr. HoAAre  succeeded in organizing
a strong committee for  raising funds in aid of the
Cretans.   The  sum  of  $37,000 was  obtained for
this object, mostly in Boston and its neighborhood,
and  in Alarch,  1867,  Dr. Ho Ave once more sailed
for Europe, designing to visit the scene  of the war
in person, and to  use  his own judgment in the
disbursement of  the  money  contributed.   I had
already twice accompanied Dr.  HoAve to Europe,
with great pleasure and profit.   But I must speak
of this, our third joint  expedition, as an occasion
characterized by  a new  charm and interest.   Two 
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
4<)
dear daughters went with us, and heightened our
enjoyment by their fresh delight in scenes new and
strange.
  To be the  bearer  of aid and  comfort  to  those
who contend  for the right, must ever be a happy
boon.  The Doctor's heart was full  of this happi-
ness, and something of its peace and serenity was
shared by those about him.  Once arrived on the
other side of the ocean,  the Avelconie and God-
speed  of the friends  of  Greece and  of freedom
gladdened  him at every  step.  In Liverpool, the
heads of the Greek Committee  Avaited upon him
on  the  evening of  his arrival.   In London, the
doors of the brilliant and  genial Greek society flew
open to  receive  him, and a glimpse of Eastern
warmth and brightness shone through the  foggy
atmosphere of London.   In Geneva, I remember
that the  Cretan Committee seemed  to have been
particularly active, and that this bond of sympathy
brought us into contact with some very intelligent
and  excellent people.  Among these I may men-
tion Mme.  Marcel,  daughter-in-hiAv  of  the  avoII-
knoAvn Airs. B., whose Coirversations on Chemistry
figured largely in the education given to American
girls forty-five years ago, and her daughter, Aline.
de Canclollc, married to the son of the famous bot-
anist.
  Delightful as were all the stages of this journey,
Dr.  Ho Ave  hurried  through them, in his haste to
reach the scene of his mission.   Ho paused, as he
passed, only long enough  to take needful rest, and
reached Athens by the beginning of June.  Lin-
qz nn% 
50
AIEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
gering a little by the way, 1 joined  him in that
historic city some Aveeks later, and found him sur-
rounded by his committee, and busily at Avork.   In
the formation of his  plans  and  the choice  of his
assistants,  Dr. Howe, as usual, followed his oavii
good judgment, sometimes giving offence to those
aa-Iio thought  their  oavii better, but  retaining
throughout the confidence and approbation of those
most nearly concerned in the ministrations confided
to him.  At the risk of his life, he  visited the
island of Crete, and conferred Avith parties engaged
or interested in the conflict, maintaining, hoAvever,
to all others a strict incognito.   After  his return, a
Avar frigate Avas placed at his disposal by the  Greek
government,  and in company with him we A'isitcd
Nauplia, and took carriages from thence to  Argos
and Mycena?.  At Argos, I AA'as present at the dis-
tribution of a part of the clothing sent from Amer-
ica for the Cretan women and children.   These poor
creatures, wan and sad-eyed, thronged outside the
door of the large room in Avhich the garments Avere
arranged.  They were  allowed  to  enter only  in
small companies, as  their names,  duly registered
beforehand, Avere read from a  list.   Some carried
small infants in their arms, some were surrounded
by groups of children.  A papa, or secular priest,
of their OAvn country had  them in charge.  Dr.
HoAve AA'as aided in these and other distributions bv
a young Greek gentleman, Air.  Michael  Anao-nos,
aa'Iio afterAvards accompanied him to America and
became his son-in-law  and assistant at the  Blind 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
51
Asylum, where he has been elected Principal since
the death of his beloved Chief.
  In  Athens, and in many other places, distribu-
tions  of clothing Avere made.   These garments were
the gift  of various  sewing-circles in Boston and
New  York,  and  constituted  the greater part of
their  winter's work.   The money  brought  from
America Avas mostly invested in biscuit, baked in
Athens, and packed for transportation in the loose,
baggy trousers worn by the Greek peasants.   Sup-
plies  of  food and clothing Avere thus ingeniously
combined, and tAvo  of the blockade-runners Avhich
did so much mischief to American commerce dur-
ing our  civil  Avar iioav earned a better reputation
by  carrying these  helpful gifts to the suffering
inhabitants of the desolated island.
  Dr. HoAve and  his party returned to America in
the autumn of this  year, after an absence of eight
months.   He  and his Avere still intent upon  aiding
the Cretans.   To this end  the ladies of his family,
Avith  the  aid  of  many others, devoted much time
and effort to the organization  of a fancy fair, which
Avas held in the Boston  Music Hall in Easter Aveek
of the following year, with the net result of -some
twenty thousand  dollars.   Dr.  HoAve  meanwhile
commenced the publication of a small neAvspaper,
entitled " The Cretan," of Avhich the object Avas to
enlighten the American public upon  the merits and
antecedents of the Cretan question.   This publica-
tion Avas  continued during  six months, and is here
mentioned in  order  to  shoAV the thoroughness and 
52
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
devotion Avith which Dr. Hoavc was wont to  serve
any cause to which he felt called upon  to devote
himself.  The glimmer of hope died out from the
hearts of the brave Cretans, and the darkness of a
barbarous despotism settled and sealed itself over
their horizon.   But  in  distant America  one true
heart beat ever for them to the end.  Their cham-
pion cherished  hope  for them as long  as it was
possible  to  do  so,  and at last  committed  their
cause,  sorrowfully but trustingly, to the justice of
the future.
   It now becomes my duty to speak of the closing
years of Dr. Howe's  life, and, in this connection,
to make  some mention of a new subject of interest
Avhich enlisted and commanded his active sympathy
to the very end of his career.   This was the  prog-
ress and welfare of the young Republic of  Santo
Domingo, whose cause he Avas led to  espouse by a
series of events, of which  the briefest outline only
can be given here.
   The history of Santo Domingo is so unfamiliar to
the American public, that a feAv Avords of retrospect
Avill not seem superfluous  to the  present introduc-
tion of the subject.   The rich territory  iioav occu-
pied by  the Republic of Santo Domingo belonged
formerly to the dominion of Hayti.  The Haytians
and Dominicans, however, early showed opposite
and irreconcilable tendencies.  Of these tAvo peo-
ples, the first claims a nearly pure African descent,
Avhich in the second is modified by a large admixt-
ure of Spanish blood.  The  Haytians incline to a
military  and despotic rule, and carry their hatred of 
MEMOIR OF  DR. HOAVE.
53
race so far as  to dcpriAre all AAmite persons in their
domain of the rights of citizenship, and even of the
power of possessing real estate.  The Dominicans
soon  felt the need of liberal institutions.   By  a
successful military effort, they achieved their inde-
pendence, and Avere able to  organize  a separate
state, to whose  interests the Haytian government
has always  sIioavii itself inimical.   The young re-
public,  which could only attain its groAvth through
the  development  of  its  natural resources,  Avas
always  liable  to be harassed by  Haytian invasion.
The sparseness of the population, in a territory of
such vast extent,  rendered the Avork of defending
the frontier incompatible Avith the necessary tasks
of agriculture and internal improvement.
  After  much injury  suffered from these causes,
the leading statesmen of Santo Domingo  began seri-
ously to desire the protection of a foreign poAver.
This protection  Avas first granted them by Spain,
but Avith conditions of despotic rule, involving  the
loss of  civil and religious libertA', and  intolerable
to the Dominicans.  The Spanish occupation once
at an end, the Dominicans determined to seek  the
protection of a poAver  pledged to the maintenance
of free institutions.  In accordance Avith this deter-
mination, a proposal Avas made by President Baez,
in 1869, for the annexation of the Republic of Santo
Domingo to the  United States.   The project was
commended to the Congress of the United  States
by President Grant, and in January, 1870, a com-
mission was appointed by the latter charged Avith
the duty  of visiting the  island,  and of reporting 
54
MEMOIR  OF DR.  HOAVE.
upon the natural features of the country, and upon
the disposition of  the inhabitants with regard  to
the question of annexation.
   The circumstances  under Avhich this project was
brought forward  were not, on the Avhole, favorable
to  its mature  consideration.   The  time  was  the
period  of agitation preceding  a presidential elec-
tion, a  period in which all neAv measures naturally
receive  or  lose popularity  from the  personal and
party relations of those concerned in bringing them
forward.  The project Avas, of course, unacceptable
to the  Haytian government, and encountered  the
active opposition of its representative at Washing-
ton.  The  persons appointed  on  the commission
above referred to, were Hon. B. F. AVade  of Ohio,
Dr. Hoavc,  and  President AVhite  of Cornell Uni-
versity.  A government steamer, the " Tennessee,"
Avas  placed at their  disposal, and every facility
given for as thorough an exploration of the  island
as the  necessary limitations of time Avould alloAV.*
   The  personal and general features of this expe-
 dition  were sufficiently published to the world by
the host of reporters who accompanied the com-
 mission.  Its graver  results Avere communicated to
the United States government in a report presented
   * Concerning the sea-worthiness of this steamer, many injurious
 reports were set on foot, causing great unhappiness to  those whose
 friends were among her passengers. The infrequency of mail com-
 munication between Santo Domingo and the United States made it
 impossible to hear from the  steamer within a month from the time of
 her departure.  The writer cannot forget the distress suffered by her-
 self and others during this interval, through those unfounded rumors
 of disaster to the vessel and  all on board of her.  Nor can she  forget
 the warm overflow of sympathy with which the news of Dr. Howe's
 t^afe arrival in Santo Domingo was received in Boston. 
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
D.)
 by the  three  commissioners on their  return, which
 took  place early in April of  the same year.   Dur-
 ing their stay  on  the  island, they  had  not  only
 obtained a satisfactory acquaintance Avith  its social
 and  agricultural capabilities, and with the  dispo-
 sition of the majority of the inhabitants concerning
 annexation to the United States, but  had  also  seen
 enough  of Hayti to enable  them to  compare  the
 elements of Haytian with those of Dominican civil-
 ization.    The  result of these  investigations Avas
 favorable to the project of annexation.*
   I can only mention here, as a link in the historic
 narration intrusted  to  me, the  fact, that, in  the
 face  of  the report made by the  commission,  the
 tempest  of a  great  political  excitement SAvept the
 project of annexation out of  the  current of events,
 and left  it to be cherished as a  fair  dream by the
 few who have knoAvn and  loved the  island.   The

  * The commissioners were persuaded of the great richness and value
 of the territory owned and administered by the Dominican Republic.
 They received, also, a favorable  impression of  the  intelligence of the
 inhabitants, and of their capacity for moral and intellectual culture.
 They were persuaded that the proposed  annexation would be  product-
 ive of benefit to both parties involved in the transaction, by affording
 to the United States  a wide range of tropical  productions now pur-
 chased  from other powers at great cost, and by guaranteeing to the
 Dominicans the improvements  and institutions indispensable to the
 growth  of  their country.   They found the best intelligence of the
 country united in favor of annexation.
  All that they had seen of Haytian society, on the  contrary, led them
 to look in its future for that intensification of barbarism which develops
 itself in semi-civilized races from whose career the elements of intellect-
 ual progress are excluded.  These views were  fully shared by Fred-
 erick Douglass, who accompanied the expedition.   Himself of mixed
blood, and familiar with the colored people of the South,  he now saw
for the first time a negro society from which the help and influence of
the white race were as far as possible excluded. 
56
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
sources of this opposition cannot be characterized
within the limits of this Memoir Avithout involving
matters of  controversy  foreign  to its  purpose.
Suffice it to  say that Dr. Howe never saw  occasion
to modify the views to which he  had lent the
authority of his able judgment, and that his happy
faith in immutable principles  shoAved him for the
Dominicans, as formerly for the Cretans,  a future
of peace and  progress in the good time  sure to
come.
  The proposed annexation having failed, a plan
Avas set on foot for forming a  company to obtain a
lease of the  Peninsula of Samana, under favorable
conditions, and Avith A'aluable rights and privileges.
Dr. HoAve anticipated great benefits for the island
from the realization of this project, and embraced
it so Avarmly as to become one of the directors of
the new enterprise, which Avas organized in the
autumn of 1871, under  the name of the  Samana
Bay Company.  Charged Avith the  completion of
preliminary  arrangements between  the  company
and the government of Santo  Domingo, Dr. Ho Ave
revisited the island in the spring of 1872, taking
with him a  part of his  family.   He was accom-
panied by the  late Colonel J. AV. Fabens,  who had
also a  part  in the pending negotiation.
  Dr.  HoAve  Avas received  Avith  great marks of
esteem  by the officers of the Dominican  govern-
ment,  and  by the  foremost citizens of the  com-
munity.   His  arriAal at the  capital  was hailed
Avith joy,  and the Palacio  Xacional was  assigned
for his  residence.   The  business of the  compaiiA' 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
57
received prompt attention,  and was soon brought
to a satisfactory issue.   After a stay of two months
on the island, Dr. Howe returned to Boston, A\'ith
improved health, and Avith great hopes of the good
to be accomplished by the Samana Bay Company.
These hopes, alas ! Avere  destined to sad, but not
unnatural, disappointment.  The design of the uoav
undertaking  Avas  chivalrous  and grandiose.   Its
execution necessarily involved the  complex  con-
ditions  of capital, and the differing vieAvs of those
Avho control it.
  Dr.  Ho Ave,  and  those of  the   directors  avIio
thought Avith him,  recommended  the  immediate
iiiAcstment of all moneys  subscribed in roads  and
other improvements much needed in the new terri-
tory.  But the greater number Avere bent upon the
negotiation  of an extensive loan in the English
money market, and much expense Avas incurred in
the pursuit  of this object.   At the Arery moment
Avhen  those  interested  wore  most confident of
obtaining this loan, neAvs Avas receiA^ed of a politi-
cal revolution in Santo  Domingo, by which Presi-
dent  Baez and his  friends  were throAvn  out of
office.  This event impaired the public confidence
in the stability of Dominican institutions, and had
much to do with the failure of the loan negotiation.
  In  January,  1874,  Dr. Hoavc suffered  from  a
sudden  attack of pleurisy, Avhich soon gave place
to other troubles, scarcely less severe.  These in
turn gave Avay  to treatment, but were followed by
a long  period  of prostration.  His friends  now
became  seriously alarmed, and the  change to  a 
58
MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
milder climate  Avas thought indispensable to  his
recoA'eiw.  Yielding  to urgent solicitation, he cm-
barked on the  Oth of March on board the steamer
"Tybee," in a  feeble and  suffering condition.  At
sea, he soon revived, and before the end of the voy-
age appeared to be in his usual health.   He landed
at the capital, and Avas  soon in  communication Avith
the iicav  President,  Avhose  attitude  towards  the
Samana Bay Company Avas a matter of some anxiety.
Dr.  Ho Ave  Avas  accompanied  on this A'oyage by
Colonel Fabens and Captain Samuels of New York,
the three being charged Avith negotiations betAveen
the Samana  Bay Company and  the iicav govern-
ment.   These  negotiations did  not  produce  the
result desired.*
   The conclusion  of  the Avhole may  be briefly
summed  up  as  folloAvs :  the revolution prevented
the loan; the failure  of the loan rendered the com-
pany unable  to fulfil its  engagements.   The neAv
government  took advantage of this failure, which
itself had caused, to  annul all  concessions  made
by its predecessor  in  favor of  the Samana Bay
Company.  The matter being  thus  at an end, the
AAdiole party, much chagrined, reembarkcd on  board
of the "Tybee."  Dr. Howe  and I were left at
Samana, Avhere Ave took up our abode in a  pretty

  * The change in the government was found, upon a nearer view to
have been the work, not of a political party, but of a financial interest.
The merchants of Puerta Plata, an important town on the sea-coast
jealous of the anticipated growth of Samana, had subscribed lar^e sums'
of money in order to place at the  head of the government a person
devoted to their interest.  Such a man they had found in President
Gonsales. 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.
59
cottage formerly belonging to Colonel Fabens. The
remainder of the part}- returned to Xew York.
   Here we arranged our plans and occupations to
suit  with a stay of some  weeks, in a position of
much isolation, but in a region of surpassing beauty
and grandeur.   I remember this  time as delightful
to both  of  us.   The  Doctor  had  been  greatly
troubled at the  untoward termination of the com-
pany's affairs, but his energetic nature never yielded
long to any discouragement.   He applied  himself
diligently  to  the settlement  of  such claims  and
questions as lay within his reach  and power.  The
beauty of the surrounding country tempted him
to frequent rides.  He was early  and late in the
saddle, and dashed up and  down the steep hill-
sides  of  Samana Avith all his old fearlessness.  A
row on the beautiful bay sometimes took the place
of the excursions on horseback, in Avhich I Avas not
easily  able to keep up Avith the  sAvift pace of my
companion.  In the quiet of  noonday he amused
himself with the adventures of Don Quixote, Avhich
he read easily in the  Spanish  language.   He often
called  me from my Avork to read me some favorite
scene,  Avhich  he esteemed too entertaining to  be
read alone.  The cloudless skies and transparent
Avatcrs, the gloom and grandeur  of the tropical
forest, the quaint and primitiAre Avays of the people
avIio  surrounded  us,—all  this  we enjoyed  Avith a
freshness of delight not unsurpassed by the enthu-
siasms of youth.  The  time fleAV swiftly by, and
Avhen at its end Ave turned our faces homeward, our
satisfaction Avas not unmingled with regret. 
60
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAA'E.
  The mild climate and life in the open air had
done  all that  could have been  expected  for Dr.
Howe, and  he returned home  much improved in
health and spirits.   The seeds of disease, liOAvevcr,
were still lurking in his  system, and the period of
his  return unfortunately exposed  him to  some of
the  Avorst Aveather of our ahvays uncertain spring.
He  suffered, in consequence,  a seA'cre attack of
rheumatism, by Avhich  his strength became greatly
reduced.  He  rallied somewhat in the autumn, and
\vas able to pass the Avinter in comfort and  activity.
He  Avent to his office  in town in all Aveather, at-
tended the business meetings of the Blind Asylum
and Idiot School, and performed his duties as  a
Trustee of  the  Massachusetts  General Hospital,
and of  the  Insane Asylum at  Somerville.   The
first of  May, 1875, found him  at his country seat
in Portsmouth,  R.  I.,  where the planting  of his
garden and the supervision of his animals and poul-
try  afforded him much amusement and occupation.
In the early summer, he Avas still able  to  ride the
beautiful St. Domingo pony AA'hich President Baez
had sent him two  years before.   This resource,
hoAA'CAer, soon failed him, and  his  exercise grad-
ually  became limited to a short Avalk in the neigh-
borhood of his house.  His strength constantly but
gradually diminished during the  summer, yet he re-
tained his habits of early rising and  of occupation,
as well as his constant interest in all that was o-oino"
on around him.  His step was still heard about the
house, but  it had lost its elasticity, and a  moan of
suppressed suffering accompanied the familiar sound. 
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.
61
He returned to Boston before  the first of October,
and  seemed  at  first  to haA'e  benefited by  the
change.  He  walked  as  usual  between his oavii
house and the Blind Asylum, and, with  the  aid of
his carriage, visited the Idiot School.  But he felt,
and avc felt, that a change Avas draAving nigh.
   On Christmas Day, he Avas able to dine Avith his
family, and to comeerse Avith one  or tAvo invited
guests.  But, on the first of January, he remarked
that he should not live through the month.   This
presentiment, though not at the time regarded by
those to AArhom he  mentioned it,  did not deceive
him.
   On January 4, AA'hile up  and about as usual, he
Avas  attacked by sudden and severe  convulsions,
IblloAved by  insensibility;  and  on January  9,  he
breathed his last, surrounded by his family, and
Avithout pain or apparent consciousness.
   Thus ended one of  the noblest lives of our day
and  generation.   All that is  most  sterling  in
American  character may  be said to have  found
its embodiment in  Dr.  Hoavc   To the  gift of  a
special and peculiar genius he added great industry
and untiring perseverance, animated by a deep and
comprehensive benevolence..  Although  ardent in
temperament, he was  not hasty in judgment, and
was  rarely deceived  by the  superficial  aspect of
things Avhen this was at variance Avith  their real
character.  Although  long  and  thoroughly  a ser-
vant of the public, he disliked  publicity, and did
not seek reputation,  being best  satisfied Avith the
approbation of his oavii  conscience and  the regard 
ir2           MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.

of his friends.   In the  relations of private life he
was  faithful and affectionate, and his public ser-
vices Averc matched by the constant acts of kindness
and  helpfulness which  marked  his  familiar inter-
course Avith his felloAV-creattires.
  In what is said, to-day, concerning  the mother-
hood of the  human race, the social and spiritual
aspects  of this  great office  are not wholly  over-
looked.  It must be remembered that there is also
a fatherhood  of human  society,  a vigilance and
forethought of benevolence  recognized in indiA'id-
uals AA7ho devote their best energies to the interests
of mankind.   The man, to A\diose memory the pre-
ceding  pages  are dedicated, is one of those Avho
have best filled this relation to their race.   Watch-
ful of its necessities, merciful to  its shortcomings,
careful  of its dignity, and cognizant of its capacity,
may the results of his labor be handed down to
future generations, and may his name and example
be held in loving and lasting remembrance. 
FUNERAL HONORS, EULOGIES, AND OTHER TRIBUTES
                  TO THE MEMORY OF

     Dr.  SAMUfeL GRIDLEY  HOWE.
            THE  STATE'S  TRIBUTE.
   The death of Dr. HoAve took place on the 9th of
January,  1S76.  On  the  ensuing day, His Excel-
lency the  Governor  sent  the folloAving  Special
Message to the Legislature, then in session:—

   I  have the mournful duty of communicating to  the
General  Court tidings of the  death  of a distinguished
citizen of Massachusetts, Dr. Samuel G. Howe of Bos-
ton,  for  nearly half a  century connected most  promi-
nently with the charitable and educational institutions
of the Commonwealth.
   The services rendered by Dr. Howe to Massachusetts,
to the United States, and to  the Avhole world,  by  his
early, energetic, and long-continued labors to educate the
blind and the deaf, to reform the discipline of prisons, to
instruct the idiotic, and to ameliorate  the condition of
the insane, and of the unfortunate of all classes, merit
the recognition Avhich they have received in years past,
and call for some public tribute to his memory, now that
his long and noble career of philanthropy has closed.
  At the time of his death he was  still at the head of the
Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, of Avhich he Avas  the
founder, and for more than forty years the Director.  I
am informed that his funeral rites will be performed
there, in  presence of the pupils whom  his skill has  in-
structed,  and of Avhom, at his suggestion, this Common-
wealth has long been the beneficent patron. 
(54
MEMOIR OF DR.  HOA\rE.
  I leave to the wisdom of the General Court the adop-
tion of such measures as may testify the sorrow which
the people of Massachusetts feel  at the death of a phi-
lanthropist so illustrious, and a public servant so faithful
in his high Avocation.

  The  funeral  services Avere  attended  by  many
members of the  Legislature,  and a  committee  of
the two Houses was appointed  to report resolutions
in  honor  of Dr. Ho Ave.   During  the  folloAving
Aveek,  the  committee  reported  the  resolutions
printed below,  which  were passed at first by the
Senate,—after eulogies by Hon. George B. Loring,
President of the Senate, and others,—and then by
the House of  Representatives, after eulogies by
Hon. E. H. Kellogg of Pittsfield,  and others.

        RESOLUTIONS OF  THE  GENERAL COURT.
  Resolved, That the Commonwealth  of Massachusetts,
ever mindful of the welfare of the poor and the claims
of the unfortunate  among its  people, recalls with grati-
tude the constant and efficacious service devoted by the
late Dr. Samuel  G. Howe to the education of the blind,
the deaf, and the  feeble-minded  children of this Com-
monwealth,  to  the improvement of the discipline  of
prisons  and reform schools, to  the  better care of the
insane, the prevention of  pauperism, and, in general, to
the public charities of Massachusetts, with which he has
been for a whole  generation officially  connected.
  Resolved, That especial mention ought to  be made
of that grand achievement of science and patient benefi-
cence, the  education  by Dr. Howe of deaf, dumb, and
blind  children in such a  manner as to restore them to
that communication  with their  friends  and  with  the 
      RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL COURT.    65

world which others enjo}', but from which they seemed
Avholly debarred until his  genius  and benevolence found
for them the key of language,  accustomed  it to their
hands, and thus gave them freedom, instead of bondage,
and light for darkness.
   Resolved, That the people of Massachusetts, always
desirous of liberty for themselves and for others, proudly
cherish the  recollection of that  gallant spirit Avhich led
Dr. Howe, in youth, in  mature manhood and in advanc-
ing age, to rank himself, with many or with few, among
the champions  of oppressed races  and  emancipated
nationalities, emulating in this the deeds of his country-
men in the American revolution, and the noble  career of
his friend  and  the  friend of mankind—the illustrious
Lafayette.
   Resolved, That Ave tender our sympathy to the family
of the deceased, and that a copy of these resolutions be
forwarded  to them.
5 
66           MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
JHcmaml  j&rbtws.
  The funeral of Dr. Howe took place on the 13th
of January, 1876; appropriate  seiwiccs being per-
formed at the Massachusetts Blind Asylum and at
the Church of  the Disciples, where  his life-long
friend,  Rcw. James Freeman  Clarke, officiated.
The  remains avc re buried at Mount Auburn; the
pall-bearers being Messrs. Charles  Francis Adams,
Emory  Washburn,  Francis  W.   Bird,   Samuel
Downer, John  S.  DAvight, Henry Ingersoll Bow-
ditch, Estes Howe,  and F. B.  Sanborn.  It  Avas
felt,  however, that the  usual funeral honors Avere
insufficient to testify the respect and affection with
Avhich Dr. HoAve was regarded by all classes of the
people  in  his native  city, and  a  Committee  was
therefore appointed to provide for  a Memorial Ser-
vice  at the  Boston Music Hall, in which the Avhole
public could take part.   As  finally  constituted,
the members of this Committee Avere the folloAvino-
gentlemen: F.  W. Bird,  of Walpole, Chairman;
William Claflin,  of Boston;  John G.  Palfrey, of
Cambridge ;  Samuel Downer, Francis Brooks, and
William Endicott, Jr., of Boston;   Willard  P.
Phillips, of Salem; William S. Robinson, of Mai-
den; Estes  Howe, of  Cambridge:  Edward  X. 
THE  MEMORIAL SERVICES.
67
Perkins, John  M. Forbes,  Samuel  Eliot, James
Sturgis,  Edward W. Kinsley, George  W. Bond,
John  E.  Fitzgerald, W. W.  Clapp,  Robert  E.
Apthorp,  George W. Wales, and John S. Dwight,
of Boston;  F.  B. Sanborn, of Concord, Secretary.
  Under their  direction,  the  proposed  Memorial
Service Avas held at the Music Hall on Tuesday, the
8th of February, 1876, His Excellency the Governor
of Alassachusetts presiding, and the spacious Hall
being filled in every  part by an attentive audience.
Brief eulogies,  in prose and verse, avc re delivered
b}'  friends  of   Dr.  Howe,  and  appropriate  and
pathetic music  Avas performed by the blind pupils
whom "he had educated.  The platform Avas reseiwed
for the speakers and  personal friends of Dr. Ho Ave,
the band of the Perkins  Institution for the Blind
occupying  scats on the left, the choir of the Insti-
tution in front of the organ, and other friends hav-
ing scats proA'ided for them  on the right.  Among
those present were  Laura Bridgman,  one of her
former  teachers  (Aliss Eliza  Rogers),  Ex-Gov-
ernors Emory Washburn,  Claflin,  and Talbot, Hon.
Josiah Quincy, Hon. Richard  H. Dana, Jr., Hon.
Charles G.  Davis, of Plymouth;  Hon. Samuel C.
Cobb, the A lay or of Boston;   Thomas  C. Amory,
Dr. Samuel A. Green, and  many of the  clergy of
Boston  and its  vicinity.  The services proceeded
according to the folioAving programme : — 
68
MEMOIR OF  DR.  HOAVE.
MEMORIAL SERVICES IN HONOR  OF  SAMUEL G. HOWE,
        Boston Music Hall, Tuesday, February 8, 1876,
                  From 2.30 p. m. to 5.30 p. m.
  I.  Organ Voluntary.   (Prelude aud Fugue by Bacli.)   By
        Miss Freda Black.
 II.  Prayer.  By Rev. Edward Everett Hale.
III.  Remarks.  By His Excellency the Governor.
IV.  Original Hymn. By  W. E. Channing.
  (Sung by the Choir, under the  direction of Mr. Thomas Reeves, Musical
              Director of the Institution for the Blind.)
       O'er the pall of a Hero the laurel should fall,
       'Tis the love of a Father our voices recall;
       With hope, like the sunshine, it paints  the dark air;
       0 God, with thy mercy, interpret our prayer!

       From isles of the Muse, over  Hellas' blue wave,
       From homes of the North, for the hearts of the slave,
       Let swift-flashing memory his requiem be,—
       Unfaltering, unfettered, unselfish as he.

       Our fond hearts reecho his cry for the race,
       For himself not a wish,—speed, speed to the place
       Where anguish lies wailing, there always his home,—
       0 God, with thy mercy, illumine his tomb.

       Unseal the veiled orb,  for his  eye, that ne'er slept,
       Unfetter the mind from the darkness he wept;
       The light of the soul is the star of life's sea,—
       As loving, as hoping, as constant was He.

    V.  Address.  By Hon. A. H.  Bullock.
   VI.  Address.  By Ex-President  Caswell,  of Brown  Uni-
          versity.
  VII.  Address.  By Hon. AArilliam Gaston.
 VIII.  Poem.  By Oliver Wendell Holmes.
   IX.  Address.  By Rev.  F.  H. Hedge, D. D.
    X.  Music by the Band of the Institution.   (Duet for two
           cornets, and inarch.)
   XI.  Address.  By Hon. Francis W. Bird.
  XII.  Poem.  By Rev. Charles T. Brooks.
 XIII.  Quartette for Female Voices, in four  parts.  By Dr-
           S. P. Tuckerman. 
THE MEMORIAL  SERVICES.
69
  Their sun shall no more go down, the Lord shall be their light, their
everlasting light, and the days of their mourning are ended. For the
Lamb shall feed them, and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes.

  XIV. Address.  By Rev. Edward E. Hale.
  XV. Address.  By Dr. E. M. Gallaudet.
  XVI. Music by the Baud.  (Prayer and Allegro from " Der
         Freyschutz.")
 XArII. Address.  By Colonel T. W. Higginson.
XVIII. " Gloria in Excelsis," from Mozart's Twelfth Mass.  By
         the Choir.

  The assembly was called to order by Hon. Fran-
cis  W. Bird, Avho introduced His  Excellency, Gov-
ernor Rice.   After  the  Organ Voluntary,  prayer
Avas offered by Rev. Mr. Hale in these Avords :—

                     THE PRAYER.
  Almighty God,  thou also art  in the midst of us.
Father of mercies,  of infinite mercies, be pleased to fill
each heart here with the certainty of a Father's presence,
and quicken us ; make us alive even in the fullness of our
Father's  love.  Consecrate to us all the memories of the
life  of him Avhom this day we assemble to commemorate ;
speak to us again even by his silent lips, and teach us
yet  again his lesson of truth, of  hope, and of love.   And
be Avith all  those, Father,  from whom thou hast called
away a near and dear friend,  one  very near and  very
dear.   Come to them, thou who art comfort for the com-
fortless, strength for  the weak, and light for the blind,
and to all of us.  Help us to look upward, forward, and
in each change of this life to come nearer and nearer to
thyself, that we may see beyond the veil;  that we may
mount even on  angel wings,  and hold always  a closer
and closer communion with our God.  So may our ser-
vice of this  day be  blessed  indeed, if from this house we 
70
MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
go to our homes more ready to enter into the work which
he has laid down ; more willing to consecrate our lives, as
he consecrated his, to the  coming of thy kingdom, to the
lifting up of those who have fallen down, to giving light
to those avIio are blind, to  giving hearing to the deaf and
strength to the  faint, to giving thy blessings to all thy
children.  Be Avith us, Father ; hear us and answer us as
the disciples of  thine own Son.  Amen.

   Hon. Alexander H. Rice, Governor of Massachu-
setts, then spoke in these words : —

  The fall of a distinguished citizen in the race of life
has arrested the flow of business and  of worldly cares,
and  convened this  great  assembly, Avhile  the clay yet
lingers, to  pay the tributes of respect and gratitude  to
a noble philanthropist and a tireless benefactor.
  The occasions have been neither few  nor wide apart,
in these later years, when Massachusetts has put on her
mourning drapery for departed citizens who have achieved
usefulness and honor among men.   She has a Ions; cat a-
logue of heroic dead upon her  battle-rolls  ; and, within
the past few months, has  receiA'ed  to  her  kindred  dust
all that was mortal of two great Senators,—who, for  a
score of years, uttered her voice and defended her princi-
ples in the Senate  of the United  States,—besides the
remains of other  dignitaries  of  State and   National
renown.
  To-day she stands by the grave of her greatest philan-
thropisti and divides her sorrow  with mankind.   For
more than two  generations  Dr. Howe  was connected
with  some  of  the  leading educational, charitable, and
reformatory institutions  of Massachusetts, and in  so
close a degree, that the school, the asylum, the hospital
and  the prison  seemed the sphere of  his  constant and 
           ADDRESS  OF GOVERNOR RICE.         71

loving labors ; while his efforts and  methods for giving
sight  to the  blind, for breaking the silence of the deaf,
and for kindling intelligence  in the idiotic and feeble-
minded were  limited in their beneficence  to no  State  or
country or race,  but  are  recognized and Avill  be com-
memorated in the lasting gratitude of mankind.
  Death  found him no idler, but  busy at his work.   He
was  still  the responsible  head  of the  Blind  Asylum,
Avhich he  founded nearly fifty }-ears ago, and where his
marvellous skill, interpreting the  scenes  and harmonies
of nature to  those who dwell otherwise in a dark and
voiceless  Avorld,  left us  always  doubting whether  to
admire more  the  benefaction  of his  labors, or  the tran-
scendent  genius  by  Avhich they  were  originated and
administered.  Nor  did  he yield his  place  on Boards
of Direction  of various other  institutions and organiza-
tions, public and private, either  at  the  solicitations of
leisure or at the admonitions of physical  decline.
  A  student of  social  science in all its  departments,
he  sought the  amelioration  of  every form of human
suffering, and  the elevation  of society, by means  at
once  comprehensive,  philosophical,  and humane.   In
his peculiar  province he leaves  no successor,  and his
fame  Avill have no rival.  So  firm of purpose, so gentle
in manners,  so pure  in life,  so  guileless in character,
so complete  in goodness, death can  bring  to him  no
change but from the toils of earth to  the fruitions of
hope, and to the  gratification of his aspiring soul in
the higher intelligence and the  ever  unfolding glories
of immortality.

   After the singing of Mr. Channing's hymn, above
printed,  Governor Rice introduced one of his pred-
ecessors  in  office,  Hon. Alexander H.  Bullock of
Worcester,  who spoke as folloAvs :— 
72
MEMOIR OF DR. HOWE.
             GOVERNOR BULLOCK'S EULOGY.
   Accustomed as  we have been  to pay  these public
 honors to the dead, if  I  am  not  altogether mistaken,
 friends and fellow-citizens, this occasion is unlike others
 which have preceded it.  I do not recall another resem-
 bling it in the quality of its personal reminiscences.  It
 is an occasion for a rare kind of personal homage.  It is
 for no  eminent Senator  or Vice-President, falling with
 the robes  of  office  still  about him, and  affecting the
 emotions  of a  nation that  had been his auditory, but
 it is for a man fallen in the daily work of half a century
 in paths of life Avhich are shunned by most  of mankind,
 who was unknown  in the field and the forum, yet was
 distinguished  in  all Christian  lands as a  master self-
 consecrated to humanity.  His  title stands apart, and is
 of his own unconscious  winning,—the  title of Philan-
 thropist.   In  the last hundred j^ears only  one man in
 Great Britain  has been selected to wear that honor  as
 exclusively his own.   Other  Englishmen  of perhaps
 greater celebrity have  left a  splendid  fame for  their
 generous devotion:  Fox for his devotion  to the  very
 sound of  liberty ; Wilberforce  to  negro emancipation;
 Romilly and Mackintosh to civil and social reform.  But
 their  life was so largely a forensic  tournament, in Avhich
 they  won  crowns for themselves, their distinction  in
 philosophy and eloquence Avas so large  a share of  their
 renown, that their names have usually been remitted to
 the roll of  statesmen and orators.
  But there Avas one—another Englishman—whose labors
of mercy, sustained by none of the ordinary stimulants
 of ambition, were  so obviously and solely for the  good
of the race, followed by  no earthly reward  to  him, but
followed by a  rich harvest to  his fellow-men, that the
encyclopedias  will  perpetuate  for ages the name  of 
          EULOGY  BY  GOA'ERXOR BULLOCK.        73

 Howard as synonymous  Avith  philanthropist.  We our-
 selves have had more than one man Avho has been desig-
 nated in  his day as the  Massachusetts Senator,—more
 than  one who has been called  her orator, her historian,
 her poet,—yet I am persuaded that beyond the time of
 this generation the name of Samuel Gridle}^ Howe Avill
 be pronounced, as we now pronounce it, by special emi-
 nence, the Massachusetts Philanthropist.  And surely the
 Commonwealth could not rejoice  in  a  higher or nobler
 title for one of her sons.  It is the highest of all earthly
 distinctions, for it is the word the mention of which gives
 him his place  in the hearts of all men,—a word Avhich
 represents character and  deeds that are not subject to
 the taste or culture of an age, but  are  unchangeable for
 example and contemplation.   Nor can  we better dis-
 charge the duty of  this  hour, than by fastening upon his
 memory the title which  shall carry to the schools of the
 State, to all the walks of life, whether  of study or busi-
 ness  or leisure,—to all the ambitions  and activities of
 this wonderful people,  suggestions and inspirations for
 consecration to the Avelfare of the race,—the title of the
 Massachusetts Philanthropist.
  The future career of the philanthropist was prefigured
 in the young man of twenty-three.   At this distance of
 fifty A/ears from that remarkable outburst of sympathy
 which directed  so many minds toward the Greek Revolu-
 tion, the glare  and romance which then surrounded the
 scene and the actors have given place to  the cool judg-
 ment  of history.  Military adventurers thronged from
 all parts of the Continent to the theatre of the war, with
the usual result;  and before Lord Byron set out from
Genoa,  he saw enough of disappointed  and  returned
officers  to check the enthusiasm of a  less resolute spirit
than his own.  There were two persons, however, who
did go  to  remain.   Byron was the illustrious over  all 
74
MKMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
whom  the societies in England  contributed to that ser-
vice.   Superannuated with pleasure and sorrow at thirty-
six, his hair already turned graAT, and his heart withered,
he enlisted for a new life and new glory with a resolution
and zeal which led  the pathway of the poet to his mar-
tyrdom.  There was no sham  or illusion about his pur-
pose.   But to  all of that zeal  Dr. Howe brought the
added  freshness and  purity of youth,  with  the  calcula-
tion and firmness of manhood.  In his  going, I do not so
much observe the knight-errantry.  I behold  him rather
then first developing  a heaAren-born  genius for serving
his fellow-man ;  I see him at that  early day overcoming
the law of nature which makes us cold  to the relations of
distant misery.
  He remained to  the end;  and it was one of the brief
and happily completed periods of history Avhich  found
the combined  fleets of the Christian powers  of Europe
engaging in the battle of  Navarino to enforce the same
rules which the illustrious representative of Massachu-
setts in Congress had  so eloquently demanded  four years
before,  and  which  also  found,  at  the  same moment,
among the military forces on the land, another young
brave soul of Massachusetts  cooperating in  arms.  It
was the period of test and trial to our departed friend;
and the  record  of his six years in  Greece has signifi-
cance and value, because it is the record of a youno- man
struggling in earnest  for the cause of  the oppressed. I
conceive that fancy had little to do Avith his enlistment.
No doubt, as  he approached the land  of his service, its
ancient and heroic  annals rose in his imagination ; its
story and song; its waters, on  which  he Avas soon to
battle as the great had battled before ;  its temples, Avhich
he had  read of and was so soon to behold ; its mountains
under crown of snow and flush of sunset; but these were
only the accessories in the picture.   His mind  rested on 
         EULOGY BY GOVERNOR  BULLOCK.       75

the darker and sterner  background, of  privation and
hunger and sickness and personal peril; but over them
all, of duty to dare and endure for the rescue of a down-
trodden portion of his kind.  Nothing short of this high
conception  and purpose  could have borne him through
those lengthened years  of trial  and exposure ; in  the
cock-pit, the ambulance, and the hospital; in guerilla
bands on land, and through every gradation on deck ;
in soliciting  and  distributing charity ; in the labors of
colonizing a  disorganized people; through all the min-
gled functions, from  a constable to a commander-in-chief
of a colony,—until  at length, after six years,  disease
drove him from the  country, and sent him  back to his
profession.   Now, if there  be any  school of experience
in Avhich a  man's bent is confirmed and fixed, certainly
he was returned to us from such a  field strengthened in
his high motiA'e and  purpose, trained and inured for the
work Avhich his destiny had assigned to him.
  His Excellency, who now presides over our expanded
plan of  State Charities, was a mere lad forty-five years
ago, when as yet in the beaut}' of his 3'outh our lamented
citizen gave to the unorganized s}'stem the first quicken-
ing of a visible life.  Within the space  of three years,
from 1829 to 1833, an organization  of the humane  senti-
ments of this community sprang into existence, and was
followed by results which have not been surpassed in the
history of benevolence.   It was  known that there were
twenty-five thousand blind persons in Great  Britain ;
that there was a large but  unascertained number in this
Christian Commonwealth,  and  a  desire to methodize
some measures of relief began to  stir  in many hearts.
We were about to take the lead on  a broad scale in this
country in bearing the light into the abodes of shadow,
and  the  leaders were found who  were worthy of the en-
terprise.  Fisher  and Brooks had opened the books for 
76
MEMOIR  OF DR.  HOAVE.
subscription.   Prescott, then  groping his way in partial
blindness to works of imperishable fame, by  writing up
the theme in the '• North American RevieAV," had awa-
kened a generous concern in  the circles of affluence and
culture.  But the work was still languishing  for a great
giver, the chances Avere at a balance, when the more than
princely merchant, Thomas Handasyd Perkins,  put  his
munificent hand into the scale.   And still  the master-
genius was wanting who could and who would  execute
the sublime work, when Howe offered his  life-service to
the education and the elevation of the Blind.
  I need not  ask you, who  take  pride in Boston, you
Avho take pride in Massachusetts,—I  need not  ask you
whether in  all  New  England,  whether  in  any State,
humanity ever gathered to its assistance a nobler group
or a more  brilliant staff.  Some of us remember both
of those two  central  figures, Perkins and  HoAve;  so
unlike  in their education and avocations,  yet linked in
our annals by an enduring tie of beneficence,  themselves
having joined  in  a union that can never  be broken the
practical and  the  ideal Boston.  When  I first  saw
Colonel Perkins, then  an old  man, his face  seemed
itself an institution of benevolence, or at least  I  could
say of him, as the great Spanish romancer said of one
of his  characters, that his countenance Avas  a  benedic-
tion.   He has been dead more  than  twenty years, and
only a small part of this generation have known any-
thing  about him.  But you  and  I,  Your  Excellency,
having  some occasion  for being  acquainted with  the
magnificent bod}' of humanities with Avhich his  name is
connected, could not stand by the grave of his associate
in benevolence and not recall  Mm to our fellow-citizens.
  It is not  for me, Avithin these limitations, to expatiate
at length upon the service rendered by Dr. Howe in  his
chosen department of life-work.  He accepted it as  his 
          EULOGY BY GOA'ERXOR  BULLOCK.       77

 mission with the same alacrity with Avhich the average
 graduate of  the school reaches out  for fame or fortune.
 He made his venture, Avith what special genius or fitness
 no one  then could  say,  though the world now knows,
 into the field of darkness, to which  he was soon to add
 the  field of  science.   In  that field, comprising at once
 the  Avide range of philosophical analysis  and practical
 development, he became the authority on this side of the
 water; and  he has  giA-en to  the  Massachusetts school
 the  foremost rank among the twenty other institutions
 of the same kind, more or less,—Mr. Sanborn can tell us
 how many there are,—which  have  sprung up on  these
 shores  under his leading.
   This great success in establishing Avhat may be  called
 a structure  of national humanity, has been  his  Avork.
 But great as it appears in its present proportions, it was
 greatest in  the  beginning.  Now, when the whole sub-
 ject has become  familiar to the common apprehension,
 men little understand  the patience  and devotion  which
 was necessary at the commencement. How many would
 have turned away  from the first  experiment!  But he
 took for his encouragement the truth expressed by Pres-
 cott in  such  words  of pathos, that " the glimmering of
 the taper which  is  lost in the blaze  of  day may  be
 sufficient to  guide  the steps of  him whose  path  lies
 through  darkness."  There  is nothing  in  the  recorded
 manifestations of sympathy or of poetry which surpasses
 in interest the character  of his  early  experiments, in
 almost  creating  a  new sense  for  an  immortal mind.
 The great modern delineator  of the  miseries of the
 unfortunate, and  the glories of charit}*, Mr. Dickens, in
 his reminiscences of the South Boston Institution, has
depicted those solemn efforts of Dr. Howe in the colors
of truth laid by his art.  He Avas original and without an
equal in raising deafness, dumbness,  and blindness com- 
7.s
MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
bined to a perfect use of human language.  He invented
an alphabet, and  advanced step by step through all the
ingenuities of  tangible typography.  He  imparted  a
vision of the  Divine Being, and gave a New Testament
which the sightless may read.  He took up the concep-
tion  of Milton,  who  knew  both sight  and blindness,
that  the Almighty appears to cast gloom  over the Blind,
not so much by deprivation of sight,  as by the shadow of
the Divine wings,—nee tarn  oculorum hebetudine quam
ccelestium alarum umbra has nobis fecisse tenebras videtur,
—and even that shadow he sought to irradiate!  I ought
rather to say, that he turned  away from the sad spirit of
Milton, expressed in his Latin, and that by new methods
of printing and  new methods of  instruction, he made
attainable to his blind constituents  the more  cheering
invocation of the same great poet, expressed in  his oavii
English,—

     " 80 much the rather thou, Celestial Light,
      Shine inward, and the  mind through all her powers
      Irradiate."

   By his example and  instructions through all these
years, Dr. Howe taught the  State to reverence human
nature  in  every individual  being.   I  haAre  sometimes
thought that it is one of the defects which ought to be
expected under our large freedom, that  the government
might be in danger of overlooking  the  individual ;  all
persons being  free, and supposed  to take care of them-
selves,  government being restricted in  its duties, and
parting Avith somewhat of its parental character.  This
teacher, who has been  so long at the head of the eleemos-
ynary departments of the  Commonwealth, has  done a
great deal to correct  this defect.   He began and ended
with the individual.  A hundred years hence, he Avill be
 cited—Massachusetts  will  be  cited—in all  Christian 
          EULOGY  BY GOVERNOR BULLOCK.       79

countries,  for  his  exertions in  a single  case upon a
single individual.
  Reverence for human  nature, as represented in eA^ery
child of God, lay at the foundation of his work ; and he,
more than anybody else, has made it the  foundation of
the noblest structure of charities  which any American
State has organized.  He began forty years  ago by tak-
ing up  as Avorthy  of his daily care, and worthy of  the
care and aid of the Commonwealth, " a silent, helpless,
hopeless unit of mortality" ; he followed  up  the  case,
and  induced the State  to follow it  to the  day of  his
death ; and the seal of  his last will  bids her live under
that same protection after he is  dead and gone.   That
is the principle upon which our charities rest.
  The life and well-being of all  are inseparably connected
with the welfare of the individual.  The bloom and vigor
of the whole people can  only be real and lasting as they
are shared by every class.  You can infuse freshness and
strength into the State only as you infuse freshness and
strength into the tie which connects the  State with every
individual.  That has become the doctrine of Massachu-
setts.  That is the  doctrine which upholds our system of
reliefs and reforms, of education and charities, Avhich has
grown up under the tuition and practice I have described,
until it now attracts inquiry from foreign lands.
  In  a single 3'ear, I remember to have received at the
Executive Chamber of the State House, letters of this
character from two governments  of Europe, and  from
one in South America.   But Ave have not come  to this
without the study and efforts of men Avhose hearts were
heroic, and whose lives were dedicated to the race.  The
first State lunatic hospital, the creation of Horace Mann,
was opened about  the same  time that the institution at
South Boston opened its doors to his friend of  college
days, Avhose name  we honor this evening.   They  have 
80
MEMOIR OF  DR. HOAVE.
both gone away from us ; but let  us  devoutly trust that
their works may not follow them.  Wherever you may
trench, still spare  the  temple  of our charities,  erected,
enlarged, and  embellished over this  half-century by the
open-hearted and open-handed of this munificent city,—
by the culture, the grace, and the virtue of the best sons
of Massachusetts.   If  there are those whose hearts  and
hands are cold for  want of destructive occupation, I  still
pray they may not gain friction and warmth by hacking
at the monuments of Perkins and of  Lyman, of Dwight
and of Clarke, of Mann and of Howe.
  But it is impossible that we should here pass in review
so long  and varied a life.  That life  is not a paragraph
nor a chapter ; it is a history, of constantly added scenes
of philanthropic  adventure and  of constantly  added
phases  of  character.   It takes us to Greece,  and  the
College  of France, and  the prisons of Prussia ; over more
than twoscore years in daily walks to the Institution at
South Boston; through courses of  investigation which
led to the establishment of schools for the feeble-minded ;
through inquiries  and   efforts,  never given over, to im-
prove the administration of prisons, and to give a  fair
chance  before God and man  to the released prisoner;
over a  constantly manifested care for neglected children
and youthful offenders  ; into long counselling and coop-
eration for the cause of general education ; to his humane
assistance, known to his Maker, but  kept a secret from
his Government, for the escape of the fugitive slave ; to
his interest in the war of freedom, and his service on the
sanitaiy board in smoothing  the pillow of the soldier;
to his mission after the war to inspect  the  condition of
the redeemed; and at length, a few years before his
death, back again across the Atlantic to bear food  to  a
starving people;  and,  whereA'er  this histoiy takes us,
and wherever  we find  him,  we see a  free and true man, 
         EULOGY BY  GOVERNOR BULLOCK.       81

without fear or favor of his kind, saying, not in words,
of which he was chary, but in deeds, with which he
abounded, " Behold, I am here, Lord ! "
  It would be an omission in my memory of an official
connection with him, extended over three years, if I were
not  to  bear  my testimony to  his  almost ubiquitous
attendance on  his  work; he was at South Boston, he
was  at  his office in town, he was at the rooms of the
Board of Charities, he  was  at the Executive Chamber,
he was sometimes at his own house, he was always where
duty called.   He seemed capable to drive all the reforms
and charities abreast; and yet he was seldom on a strain ;
always having an air we all  liked of a man of business,
of a man of the world, what Carlyle would call " a good,
broad, buffeting way of procedure " ; of dauntless  force
of character, of firmness that was impassive, of  modesty
that was unfeigned ; a  little mutinous whenever govern-
ors attempted to interfere with his methods, but that was
of no consequence since he was mutinous to revolt when-
ever he  saw the image of God oppressed, or wronged, or
neglected.  Nor Avill I  leave him without an allusion to
his last great work. I refer to his association with  a
few other  gentlemen, more active in this than he was,
Avhose  names  I might  call  if some of them were not
present, in organizing,  I ma}7 say in establishing under
the endowment of Clarke  that noble institution on the
banks  of the Connecticut,  Avhere the deaf and dumb
learn to discern a voice  from a mute breath,  to catch
human language at  sight from human lips.  I look to
that institution with perfect assurance of the  greatest
results,  and  I recur not without sensibility to the  clays
when we thought him essential to us in laying its  foun-
dations.
   Over  the tomb of the philanthropist I would not  hang
out his  insignia of  the Greek Legion of Honor, nor his
             6 
82
MEMOIR  OF DR.  HOAVE.
cross  of Malta, nor his medal  of Prussia.   I would in-
stead  record there the words of Edmund Burke, applied
by him to John Howard and  his mission :  " He pene-
trated into the depths of dungeons ; he plunged into the
infections of  hospitals;  he  surveyed  the  mansions of
sorrow and pain ; he took the  gauge and dimensions of
misery, depression, and contempt; he  remembered the
forgotten, he  attended to the  neglected, he visited the
forsaken, and he compared and  collated  the distresses of
all men in all countries."

  Gov. Rice then said :   " It is most  appropriate
that the Alma Mater of  Dr. Howe  should  send a
message  to this  great assembly, and she has done
so by the lips of Dr. Caswell, ex-president of BroAvn
University, whom I have  now the honor  of present-
ing to you."

         REMARKS OP EX-PRESIDENT CASWELL.
  We are here to-day to  do honor to the memonT  of a
deceased friend whom the nation and the world honor;
to recognize the singular benevolence  and  skill of one
who, if not literally, yet in effect, gave sight to the blind,
hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute.
  I have been requested  to take part in these memorial
services, and  speak of the college life of Dr. Howe.   So
far back does this carry us, that I suppose I  am the  only
person in this very large assembly who personally knows
anything  of that  college  life.  There are also now but
few living who could be summoned as witnesses.  It  may
be thought, perhaps, that recollections  going back more
than fifty years would be shadowy and  unreliable.  But
there  are some  things too deeply fixed in the mind  ever
to be  forgotten.  Such are the  scenes of student-life.   I 
REMARKS OF DR.  CASWELL.
83
proceed, therefore, to perform  the  task  assigned  me. in
some respects with reluctance, in other respects gladly.
   Dr. Howe received his collegiate education in Brown
University.  He was graduated in the class of 1821.
Though  a  younger man than myself, he graduated one
year  before me.  We were three years  together  in  the
university.  I knew him well, and  esteemed him highly
for many marked traits of character.  He entered college
young.  He was a mere stripling,  but nature had been
generous in giving him an attractive physique.  He was
of middling height, slender in form, erect,  agile, and elastic
in his movements.  With fine features, a  fresh, pink com-
plexion,  a  keen  blue eye, full of purpose and meaning,
and  of mirth as well, with open, frank, and genial man-
ners, he  could not fail to win  the  kind regards  of his
youthful companions.   He showed mental  capabilities
which would naturally fit him for fine scholarship.   His
mind was quick, A'ersatile, and inventive.   I do not think
he Avas deficient  in logical power, but the severer studies
did not seem  to be congenial to him.   In  all practical
matters he  saAV intuitiATely and at a glance what was the
best thing to be  done.  In any strait or difficulty, or any
sudden emergency of danger,  if there was any possible
way of escape,  nobody need  inform him Avhat it was.
Before anj'body else  had  time  to  think, his plan  was
formed.
  And here I may as well state  that his  college life was
not altogether a  happA/ one, and  was not as productive in
the line of good learning as it might have been.  He had
a full share of general knowledge, without exact scholar-
ship.   It was for this reason that I felt  some reluctance
in speaking upon this subject.   But in any fair and com-
prehensive  view  of his character, how could this period
of his life be omitted ?   It  formed an essential part and
parcel of the whole.   Without this  the picture would be 
84
MEMOIR  OF DR.  HOAVE.
incomplete.  Besides, it strikingly developed some of the
mental characteristics Avhich ultimately made him what
he was.
  In judging  of  men, we  must take  into account  the
original propensities,—the natural tone and temperament
of their minds.  There is many a punster Avho could  not
refrain from a  good pun, if he knew he Avould be indicted
for it.  In some men wit is spontaneous and irrepressible.
It would be as impossible to suppress a good joke, or a
keen repartee,  as to suppress the law of gravitation.  On
the contrary,  there are many  sensible men  who  never
laugh at a joke or a witticism, however brilliant, for the
reason that, innocently enough, they see nothing to  laugh
at.   Their perceptions are  shut up to plain  matters of
fact.
  Dr. Howe, with a heart as good and generous, as free
from malice and  evil as any  man's,—unless we except
those feAV rare characters who are  too good to live in
such a Avorld  as this,—had, nevertheless, an insatiable
fondness for fun  and frolic, and a  good practical joke.
Tricks are proverbial in colleges.   And in almost every
college there will be some one whose natural endowments,
with a little practice, make  him an acknowledged leader.
Dr. Howe rather belonged to this class.   With singular
sagacity, he saw every opportunity of producing a sensa-
tion, and breaking up the dull routine of college life,  and
it was no sooner seen than embraced, no matter upon
whom  the laugh turned, whether  upon a  classmate or a
tutor, or upon the venerable head of the university him-
self.  On such occasions, his  invention and  expedients
and adroitness Avere matters for study  and surprise.  He
was himself very modest and taciturn with regard to  any
merit  or  cleverness of these   incidental  performances.
There was not a particle of brag or  swagger about them.
His own impression seemed to be that they were merely 
REMARKS OF DR.  CASWELL.
85
common-place affairs, and that anybody else would suc-
ceed as well as he.
  For some misdemeanors attributed to him, he was once
or twice sent into the country,—"rusticated" was the
term,—to study a few weeks with some staid minister,
who retained some  knowledge of the curriculum  of col-
lege studies.   But this temporary exile did  not sensibly
diminish his  resources in this line  of amusement.   In
fact, it rather  increased  them.  The  pent-up energies,
which it were unseemly to expend  upon a plain country
minister and  his family, found a ready outlet in college.
It is certain that the pulsations of college life were quick-
ened by his return from exile.
  It will,  perhaps, be excusable, even on this occasion,
if I  give the  outline of a single anecdote, Avhich  I  have
more than once heard Dr. Howe relate with graphic effect.
It shows the impression which he left behind him.  It
was  some years after Howe had left college,  and after he
had  become widely  and favorably  known to the  public,
that he was  in  Providence  attending the annual com-
mencement.  He thought he would call on his old presi-
dent, Dr. Messer, then living in retirement,—otium cum
dignitate,—and apologize  to him for the trouble he had
given him Avhile in college, and the  many interruptions to
his  nightly repose,—for, in truth, he bore no malice, and
always  had a kindly feeling towards  the good Doctor.
He  called, and the venerable instructor of his youth  re-
ceived  him with evident marks of distrust, and requested
him to be seated, and took a seat himself at a respectful
distance.  Howe commenced his apology, when the good
Doctor, moving his chair a  little  further  back, said,
"Howe, I'm  afraid  of you  now.   I'm afraid there will
be a torpedo  under my chair before I know it."
  I have several times coiwersed with Dr. Howe respect-
ing his college life after we had both  grown up to  mature 
86
MEMOIR OF  DR. HOWE.
 manhood.   He regretted, of course, the waste of time,
 and the loss of precious  opportunities ;  but he said, in
 explanation of his course, that before he had been many
 months in college, he found that he Avas suspected of all
 the mischief there, when, in  fact,  but a small part of
 it was his.   His honest and truthful statements Avere set
 aside and disregarded, and he Avas made a sort of college
 scape-goat to bear off  the sins of others.  Under that
 state  of things, he felt  a  greater freedom in displaying
 his skill, and keeping up his reputation, than he could
 otherwise have justified.  He followed the impulse of a
 fretted man, and not the reasoning of a calm philosopher.
 In looking at it as a  practical case, Ave cannot help think-
ing that a little parental advice, a little kindly treatment,
 and, more than all, a little confidence  in his honor  and
 honesty, would have done more to correct his foibles,
 than all the  college censures that could be imposed upon
 him.
   Dr.  Howe was  highly esteemed by his college asso-
 ciates.  His presence was always welcome among them.
 He had a certain  undefinable magnet-power that drew
them round  him.   They were proud of his singular suc-
 cess in  an original and untrodden path of beneA'olence.
No one doubted that his extraordinary mental activity,
and his large executive capacity, would  lead to distinction
in some  way.  But in what way, none could conjecture.
Few, probably, anticipated  that he would become an
eminent philanthropist,  and that  his life would be nobly
given  to the relief and  comfort of the unfortunate,—of
those  who, in  the providence of God,  were  deprived
of some  of the faculties Avhich  bless  our common  hu-
manity.
  I may add, that,  I believe Dr. Howe  was  sincerely
attached to his Alma Mater.   It is only a few years ago
that he  rendered valuable  sendee on an important com- 
        REMARKS  OF  HON. WILLIAM GASTON.     87

mittee of the alumni, appointed to devise some plan by
which the great body of the alumni could be brought into
closer relation  to  the university.  He believed such a
result could not fail to be productive  of much benefit to
the university.  Her success and good name were dear
to him.   And his  own name will stand upon her cata-
logue as one of her most illustrious sons.
  I have already, Mr. Chairman, occupied too much of
your  time.  I close  with a single  suggestion.  I hope
that no student of  the  present day, who reads  these
remarks, will conclude that college tricks, even though
harmless,  are the natural stepping-stones  to eminent
success  in life.

   Dr. Caswell Avas folloAved by  ex-Governor Gas-
ton, avIio said:—

          REMARKS OF HON. WILLIAM  GASTON.
  A long life has  ended.   The funeral honors have been
paid, and the body has been laid to its rest in the grave.
A citizen, holding no high official rank, has finished his
labor.   No pageantry surrounded  the funeral service,
and no pomp  or  exciting circumstance has  drawn us
together to-day ; and yet weeks after  the event, without
the strong emotion which belongs to  the early stages of
grief, but Avith quiet affection, and Avith deliberate judg-
ment and speech, Ave have come here to express our pro-
found respect  and veneration  for the  character  and
memory of one whose  ambition was  to lead an honest,
earnest, and useful life.  Such  an event,  under such cir-
cumstances, is a rare  one, and  is, I think, an honor to
the dead and to  the  living.  Such an event is in itself
a eulogy.
  Men's evil manners may "live in brass,"  but their
virtues we  do not always " write in Avater."  Good deeds 
88
MEMOIR  OF  DR. HOAVE.
may, like the stars set in the firmament, shed forth their
tranquil light fore\Ter.
  It is Avell for us for a while to leave the struggles and
the conflicts in Avhich Ave daily engage, and  to  contem-
plate  the  simple grandeur of a life spent in Avorks of
benevolence of charity and  of love; and  while  we may
not add to the greatness  of  an assured fame, Ave may be
able to go forth from our service with increased strength
and Avith large charity in ourselves.
  But the purpose of this meeting needs  no commenda-
tion.  It carries with it its OAvn justification and even
praise.  I  have been requested to speak  of  Dr. Howe's
labors in  connection Avith the  splendid charities  of the
great Commonwealth Avhich you,  Mr. President,  repre-
sent.   The}' Avere  great and  varied,  but I shall not
attempt to describe them,  for the time  allotted  me is
insufficient for their recital.  The witnesses  to them are
a thousand, and they need  not the aid of speech or of
praise.
  Of the  ability and culture which accomplished such
splendid results, I need not speak.   Besides great ability,
there are two things Avhich make men strong.  Dr. Howe
had them both.  An intelligent conscience, and the quiet
courage to obey it.   True courage is not noisy.  It does
not  find  its expression  in defiant manner or vapory
speech, but it does  consist  in a quiet  determination to
do right because it is right, and in travelling in a straight,
though unpopular, pathway.
  With such a conscience and with such a courage, Dr.
Howe entered the field Avhich lay before him.  He sowed
the seed, and we all rejoice to know that he lived to see
the harvest.  His life Avas not  without its conflicts, but
the battle has been fought and the victory won.
      " This is the happy warrior: this is he
       Whom every man in arms should wish to he." 
                 DR.  HOLMES'S POEM.               89

   Dr. Oliver "Wendell Holmes  then recited a poem
in memory of Dr. Howe :—


              DR.  HOLMES'S  POEM.

                   A Memorial Tribute.
Leader of armies, Israel's God,
  Thy soldier's fight is won!
Master, whose  lowly path he trod,
  Thy servant's work is done !


No voice is heard from Sinai's steep
  Our wandering feet to guide;
From Horeh's rock no waters leap,
  No Jordan's waves divide;


No prophet cleaves our western sky
  On wheels of whirling fire;
No shepherds hear the song on high
  Of heaven's  angelic choir.


Yet here as to the patriarch's tent
  God's angel conies a guest;
He comes on Heaven's high errand sent,
  In earth's poor raiment drest.


We see no halo round his hrow
  Till love its own recalls,
And like  a leaf that quits the hough,
  The mortal vesture falls.


In autumn's chill declining day,
  Ere winter's killing frost,
The message came ; so passed away
  The friend our earth has lost. 
90              MEMOIR  OF  DR.  HOAVE.
Still, Father, in thy love we trust;
  Forgive us if we mourn
The saddening hour that laid in dust
  His rohe of flesh outworn.

                     n.

How long the wreck-strewn journey seems
  To reach the far-oft' past
That woke his youth from peaceful dreams
  AA'ith Freedom's trumpet-hlast!

Along her classic hillsides rung
  The Paynim's battle-cry,
And like a red-cross knight he sprung
  For her to live or die.

No trustier service claimed the wreath
  For Sparta's bravest sou ;
No truer soldier sleeps beneath
  The mound of Marathon ;

Yet not for him the warrior's grave
  In front of angry foes;
To lift, to shield, to help, to save,
  The holier task he chose.

He touched the eyelids of the blind,
  And lo! the veil withdrawn,
As o'er the midnight of the mind
  He led the light of dawn.

He asked not whence the fountains roll
  No traveller's foot has found.
But mapped the desert of the soul
  Untracked by sight or sound.

AA'hat prayers have reached the sapphire throne,
  By silent fingers spelt,
For him who first through depths unknown
  nis doubtful pathway felt. 
DR.  HOLMES'S POEM.
91
Who sought the slumbering sense that lay
  Close shut with bolt and bar,
And showed awakening thought the ray
  Of reason's morning star!

Where'er he moved, his shadowy form
  The sightless orbs would seek,
And smiles of welcome light and warm
  The lips that could not speak.

No labored line, no sculptor's art,
  Such hallowed memory needs ;
His tablet is the human heart,
  His record loving deeds.


                  ill.

The rest that earth denied is thine,—
  Ah, is it rest ? we ask,
Or, traced by knowledge more divine,
  Some larger, nobler task ?

Had but those boundless fields of blue
  One darkened sphere like this;
But what has heaven for thee to do
  In realms of perfect bliss ?

No cloud to lift, no mind to clear,
  No rugged path to smooth,
No struggling soul to help and cheer,
  No mortal grief to soothe!

Enough ; is there a world of love,
  No more we ask to know ;
The hand will guide thy ways above
  That shaped thy task below. 
92
MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
          ADDRESS BY REV. F. II. HEDGE, D. D.
  I am happy to add my individual tribute to the public
commemoration of a great and good man.  I say, ad-
visedly, a great man, for moral greatness, in my estima-
tion, is immeasurably more than any form of intellectual
superiority.   Intellectual greatness is an accident of the
brain which some counter-accident ma}r at any time  neu-
tralize, and which the accident of death  must  finally
explode.   But moral greatness belongs to that which is
most interior and indestructible,—the man of the man,
the will;  the one thing in us which survives when genius
has gone to the worms, and learning and eloquence have
turned to dust.
  I have been anticipated in saying that my idea of Dr.
Howe  is best expressed by the word  chivalry.  There
are certain accidental  romantic associations connected
Avith that Avord which have nothing to do with the essence
of the  thing it stands for.  When Burke pronounced his
famous dictum, that " the age of chivalry has passed,"
he mistook, it seems to me, the form for the substance,
and  did  great  injustice to his own time.  There was  as
much chivalry in the eighteenth century as in the twelfth
or thirteenth.  John Howard, whom Burke himself eulo-
gized in his speech to the electors at Bristol as the man
who traversed  Europe, " not  to survey the sumptuous-
ness of  palaces or the  stateliness of  temples,  but  to
dive into the  depths of dungeons,  to  plunge  into the
infections of hospitals,  to take the gauge of misery,
depression, and contempt," — Howard  was as true  a
knight as Tancred or Louis IX.  The essence of chivalry
consists  in devotion to the cause of the weak  and op-
pressed ; and  of that devotion Dr. Howe was  our  most
illustrious example. 
ADDRESS  OF  REV.  F.  H. HEDGE.       93
  In 1821, the year in which he took his collegiate degree,
the Christian world was electrified with the intelligence
that Greece, the birth-land of the humanities, long pros-
trate  beneath the rod of the  Scythian  usurper;  that
Greece, which for four centuries had ceased to be any-
thing more than what Prince Metternich called Italy, " a
geographical expression," had turned on  her oppressor,
and Avas struggling to regain her independence.  Greek
youths had  been studying  in German  universities, and
had there learned of the  glories of their ancestry,  and
caught from Gothic lips the old  Hellenic  fire.  A Greek
scholar and bishop had raised the  standard of reA'olt in
the Morea,  and all  along the  glorious Peninsula, from
Corinth  to  Athens, and from Athens to Olympus, the
whisper ran " that Greece might still be free," and the
resolution was formed that free she should be, if resist-
ance  unto death could make her so.   In Western  and
Middle Europe, and especially  in  Germany, the event
awakened  among  scholars and lovers  of liberty  an
intense  sympathy   with  the  struggling  patriots.   A
Leipzig  professor published a pamphlet, entitled  " The
Cause of Greece the Cause of  Europe," and many were
ready for a new crusade  against the Mussulman.   But
Austria, traditionally bound  to side  with despotism,
frowned ominously on every movement  in  favor of the
insurgents, and " Christendom's chivalrous lances" were
not " stretched in their aid."  On the contrary, the ves-
sels from Christian  ports,  one  of  them from  this city,
were  freighted with supplies for their enemies.   Still, as
the struggle proceeded, and occasional success had shown
their  cause  to be not utterly desperate, individuals of
other nations took arms in their behalf.   Notably, Lord
Byron, chief of English philhellenes, threw his sword into
the scale of their doubtful fortunes,  and on the soil which
his grandest strains had celebrated sought, as he said,— 
94
MEMOIR  OF  DR. HOAVE.
             "Less often sought than found,
                A soldier's grave."
   In the year when that grave Avas found, when Grecian
 earth had received what  was mortal of the mighty poet,
 in 1824, Dr.  Howe, having  finished  his preparatory
 medical studies,  offered  his  services  to the  patriot
 army.
   It  is  characteristic of the man, that he did not offer
 them before, that  he  waited three years before undertak-
 ing the perilous mission.  Had his chivalry been merely
 a flash  of  romantic  sentiment, such as  often fires the
 heart of youth, he might have rushed to the scene of the
 conflict as soon as the tidings reached him that such a
 nation Avas  in arms for such a cause.   Had he  done so,
 his going would have been of comparatively little use.
 A single sword, a  boy's life, worth  something, no doubt,
 but hardly sufficient to justify so great a sacrifice.
   Dr. Howe's  philanthropy  was of  a  more deliberate,
 practical kind.   He waited till he had something more to
 offer than muscle  and blood; to wit, his knowledge, his
 science, his professional skill.  He then gave his services
 as army surgeon to the  Greeks, thus contributing what
 was most needful, and rendering in that capacity more
 effective aid with the lancet than he could have done
 with the sword.
   This deliberation, this practical  wisdom, was charac-
 teristic of  the man.   His enthusiasm was  no blazino-
fiasco, soon  kindled, soon spent, but  that interior heat,
 that steady, enduring force  that bides its time;  that
 knows when to refrain and  when  to strike, and never
 strikes in vain.
   My first  impression of Dr. Howe, whom I had known
 only by report, and never met  until the greatest of his
 works had  been accomplished, was that of a man who
 was singularly devoid of all  appearance of enthusiasm. 
ADDRESS  OF  REV.  F. H.  HEDGE.       95
I was struck with the absence of superficial fervor  and
gushing demonstration.  He was never the hero of his
own tale.   I have talked with him, often and long, and
should never have guessed from anything that fell from
his lips that he had ever seen Greece, or lain in a Prus-
sian prison cell, or penetrated the three-barred  gate of
Laura Bridgman's soul.
  Another peculiarity of his enthusiasm was the liberal-
it}',  the tolerance, that accompanied it.   And this  I
believe to be one of the  rarest of moral  phenomena, the
combination  of philanthropic  enthusiasm and a tolerant
spirit.  Excepting him only, I have never known  a
philanthropist,—I mean an active, reforming philanthro-
pist,—who was also a fair-minded, tolerant man.   Man}r
excellent, devoted, self-sacrificing men I have known of
that vocation, men to rejoice in and thank God for; but
they all had this taint of intolerance.  Not  content with
strenuous advocacy of their own  pet charity, not content
with active service in that  cause, they insisted that  }'ou
should tread their narrow path, should merge yourself in
their one idea, and reviled all who differed from them as
to time and method, when eA^en agreed as to ends.   Ad-
ATocates of temperance I haAre known AArho reeled  and
staggered  and wanted to intoxicate you Avith their heady
politics;  champions  of abolition I  have  known  who
wanted to fasten the yoke of their method on your neck ;
and even  apostles of non-resistance who handled their
olive-branch  as if it  were a war-club.   Dr. Howe  was
not of that line.  He  was  that exceptional  character,  a
tolerant  enthusiast,  a  fair  advocate of  a righteous
cause.
  Of his efforts in behalf of the Poles, of later  services
rendered to the people of Crete, I shall  not undertake,
within the limits  allowed me, to speak; nor yet of his
last public work, the mission to San Domingo, in which, 
96
MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
whatever may be thought of the proposition  to  annex
that island, the motive of such proposition on his  part
was a humane sentiment, in perfect keeping with  all his
course.  In all these enterprises, the  chivalrous nature,
the knight without fear  and Avithout reproach, are shin-
ingly manifest.
  We commemorate in this  centennial year the illustri-
ous memories of the fathers of the American Revolution.
There were  giants  in those  days, giants  of patriotic
devotion.  But, Heaven be thanked, the race  of  giants
is never extinct.   They are reproduced from age to age,
and I venture to say that in all that glorious calendar of
Revolutionary heroes,  you shall find  no purer or more
heroic soul than him  Avhom we  here  commemorate ;  in
all  the annals of Boston, there  has lived no  citizen  of
whom Boston has greater reason to be proud.

  Governor Rice  then said :   rf The  Hon. Francis
W. Bird, a life-long friend and intimate  associate
of Dr. Howe, will now speak  upon his private and
personal qualities."

            REMARKS  OF HON'. F. W.  BIRD.
  At this hour, and in this presence, I shall not attempt
what has been so well  done by others, the sketch  of Dr.
Howe's services to humanity and human rights.   I have
known him well  for over thirty years; very intimately,
I may be allowed to say, for the  last twenty years ; and
while I join in every expression of admiration  and grati-
tude for his heroic life, and for his  untiring devotion  to
all good causes, I find  myself loving rather to dwell upon
his  private character, especially as illustrated  in his do-
mestic life.  I love to remember him as a  loyal  friend,
a devoted  husband, a  tender father.   The public, which
such men serve,  sees only one  side of their characters, 
          REMARKS  OF HON. F.  W. BIRD.        07

and often it must be that the exigencies of an unyielding
fidelity to convictions of duty present to the public only
the stern  phases of their nature.   It may be, too, that
men engrossed  with  questions of  great public concern
cultivate  the  sterner qualities to  the neglect of social
amenities and the gentler virtues  of domestic life.  This
was not true of Dr. Howe.  Whittier sketched him per-
fectly in the couplet,—

             " The lion-heart in battle,
              The woman's heart in  love."

   Soon after  the  invasion of Virginia by John  Brown,
sixteen years ago, Dr. Howe, to escape arrest, went to
Canada.   He used to say that he thought he could calmly
face a soldier's death; but to be dragged to Virginia to
be tried b}r a jury which in the then existing state of
feeling could show neither mercy nor justice to a Northern
man, and hung upon  a gallows, or worse, to be lynched
by an infuriated mob,—before such a death, he confessed
he was a  coward.   The friend who accompanied him to
Canada told me  that Howe never  retired at night  without
placing on a table within his  sight  the photographs of
his fanril}',—the  last objects his closing eyes rested upon,
and the first to greet him in the morning, with memories
of the clear ones at home.
  I can hardly do justice to the  impressions which our
whole intercourse, and especially for the last few j'ears of
unusual intimacy with his domestic life, have given me
of the Avarmth, the tenderness, the affectionateness of his
nature.   It was  very beautiful to see the  man who had
braved the clangers of Turkish warfare and the terrors of
a Prussian dungeon pouring out at home in the warmest
terms his  love for wife, children, and grand-children, and
his appreciation of their devotion  to him.  In a note from
him last summer, in which he describes recent suffering
                7 
98
MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
" as terribly painful and depressing to my moral nature,"
he adds, " Mrs. Howe proved a devoted nurse and tender
wife, and  displayed  more  patience, Avatchfulness, and
kindness than I supposed she  could do."  It may  seem
an  invasion  of  the  sacred  precincts of private  life  to
speak thus of one—
       " AVho like a jewel hung for thirty years
         About his neck, yet never lost her lustre;
         Of one who loved him with that excellence
         AVhich angels love good men with."
  In a letter from him in, 1874, he said : " Greater sorrow
is not  given man to suffer, than that for the untimely
death of a child, and the  death of a son is probably more
keenly felt by us fathers than any other.  Up to this cla}',
the  death of my youngest boy comes over me like a fresh
pang, and I go away and weep  alone."
  At my last visit to him, two days before he was struck
down, I found him in extreme suffering. Soon after I
went in, he said with great  gravity and emphasis, " I
shall not live to the end of this month."  I laughed it
away ; but yet, may  it not have been one of those mys-
terious shadows which coming events sometimes  surety
cast before?  During the interview, he charged me  with
most affectionate messages to my family, repeating them
as though  under the same premonition.  As  I  rose  to
leave, he followed me into the hall, threw his arm around
my  neck, and Avith a  beautiful smile said, " My dear old
fellow, let  me kiss you," and gave  me a  warm kiss.
Within two days the  thick curtain fell.
  I should fail to do justice to this phase of Dr.  Howe's
character, if I did not make some reference to his religious
opinions.  I should say generally what is true of most of
the  noble men I have known, that he had no religion  to
speak of.  For all dogmas and cant and mere profession,
he felt and  expressed supreme contempt.  But  for all 
           REMARKS OF HON.  F. AV.  BIRD.        99

earnest convictions, however differing from his own, the
largest charity ; and for practical life in the steps  of the
Divine Master,  unbounded reverence.  Upon  the great
problems of life, death, and immortality, he looked with
anxiety and awe, but with humble hope and trust.   In a
letter of his, before quoted, he says : "O for the soothing
and blessed hope of reunion beyond the grave.   Why
cannot we two mourning fathers enjoy this full faith and
assurance without  the damning doubt?   I vainly hope
against hope,  and cling desperately to the best reason in
favor of immortality,—the existence within us all  of—

           ' This pleasing hope, this fond desire,
            This longing after immortality.'

  Can God have created it within our  hearts merely to
cheat and disappoint us?  No!  Let us, then, hope for
reunion of the loved and lost ones."
  If impressions  unfavorable to  Dr. Howe's religious
nature should be formed from these unreserved expres-
sions of his in regard to the questions which more  or less
disturb all thoughtful minds, I appeal to a life  full of
heroic Christian virtues.  I appeal also to his daily life
among the unfortunate objects of his care.  During his
whole connection with the Institution for  the  Blind, he
conducted  personally  every morning, when his  health
permitted,  the religious exercises  in the chapel  of the
Institution.   He, if ever  man, deserved the blessing of
our Great Exemplar, " Inasmuch as ye haA'e done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren  ye have clone  it
unto me."  Surely he could confidently commit the keep-
ing of his soul to his Heavenly Father in Avell-doing as
unto a faithful Creator.
  Dr.  Howe's circle  of acquaintances  was very  large.
For more than a quarter of a century his quiet back office
in Bromfield  Street was the  resort not  only of sufferers 
100
MEMOIR OF  DR. HOAVE.
 and the friends of sufferers from " ever}' ill that flesh is
 heir to," but of the noble men and women of Massachu-
 setts  and the world.   There were originated, discussed,
 and put into  the way of execution most of the philan-
 thropic enterprises that had for their object  the ameliora-
 tion of the woes  or redress of the wrongs  of humanity,
 and Avhich in their operation have been  an honor to
 Massachusetts and a  blessing to the world.  Of friends
 in the true sense  of the Avord to whom he  gave his full
 trust  and confidence, he had, I think, but few.

       " But those lie had, and their adoption tried,
         He grappled to his soul with hoops of steel."

 And all such, the longer they knew him, were more and
 more  impressed with his  ficlelity  to  his  convictions of
 truth   and  duty, his  single-hearted consecration to the
 welfare of others, and his  rare self-forgetfulness,—I do
 not mean  unselfishness  merely, but an entire  uncon-
 sciousness  of any special  services  he  had rendered or
 could  render to the world.
  I never knew him hardly to refer to, certainly never
 voluntarily to relate,  any  of the heroic or benevolent
 deeds of his life.   When with him during his periods of
 suffering, I sometimes tried to divert him, by referring to
 some  of the stirring incidents of the past; and only last
 summer I thus induced him to describe his expedition in
 aid of the Polish refugees in the presence of one of his
 daughters, who, I think, heard it then for the  first time
from his  own lips.   Of all the great and good men Avhom
 1 have known, John A. Andrew was the only one  who
 seemed so  unconscious that his own agency was of the
 slightest importance to the work in which he was engaged  ;
 and yet both devoted themselves to their work Avith as
much  earnestness and zeal  as  if they felt that the result 
MR.  BROOKS'S POEM.
101
depended entirely upon their own personal efforts.  Duty
was theirs ;  results were with God.

           "Lives of great men all remind us
            We may make our lives sublime."

  Mann, Parker, Andrew,  Sumner, Howe!   When has
been granted  to one generation the inspiration  of five
such men?  To the age  which they lighted  up and led,
each has left  an imperishable record " of noble ends by
noble means  attained."   To  us  who  knew and loved
them, the}'  have left  precious  memories and immortal
hopes.


   Rev.  Charles T. Brooks, of Newport,  R. I., next
recited  his poem.

              MR. BROOKS'S  POEM.

       At evening, in an Alpine vale,
         I watched the mountain summits' white
       Flame rosy red, then slowly pale
         Before the deepening shades of night.

       AATien,  from the waning face of day
         The last faint shadow of a flush
       Behind the mountains died away,
         There fell a momentary hush.

       Then suddenly a thrill of awe
         Rang through the silent vale—for lo!
       That spectral mountain-chain I saw
         Lit with a preternatural glow ;

       As if, behind that wall of snow,
         The sunken sun were shining through,
       And  smiling to the world below
         One more last heavenly adieu! 
102           MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
Who that has seen those evening shows
  Their look and voice can e'er forget ?
Can the pure world that then arose
  On the soul's vision ever set I

Though death's pale mountains hide the sun
  Of noble lives from mortal eves,
Oh, deem not then their day is done!
  They sank in higher heavens to rise!

As through life's twilight vale we go,
  Time's pilgrims in this earthly land,
Transpierced by that undying glow,
  How bright those shadowy mountains stand !

The boundary-hills are they that  rise
  And, looking on our earthly night,
Veil and reveal to mortal eyes
  The land of everlasting light.

Nay, guardian shades of mighty dead,
  A cloud of witnesses for God
Are they that watch the road we  tread
  Which their ascending spirits trod.

A cloud of shining ones—a band
  Arrayed in raiment white as snow,
Transfiguring all this evening land
  With a prophetic morning-glow.

Such bright and blessed visions cheer
  Our hearts, wTho here love's tribute pay;
Through memory's sunset clouds shine clear,
  Red omens of a heavenly day !

Peace from the soul's bright track comes down
  Like evening starlight on the vale;
We see the victor's starry crown,
  And say, Farewell!  Farewell and Hail!

We feel a void which none can fill
  But He who filled that soul with light;
In Him we know it lives, and still
  Shall work e'en  here with kindling might. 
MR. BROOKSS  POEM.
103
"The spirit of the Lord"—so spake
  His genius—"hath anointed me
AA'ith power the prison-doors to break,
  And set the' darkened captives free."

So speaks the record of a life
  AA'hose breath was freedom, love, and truth;
That kept in manhood's toil and strife
  The freshness and the fire of youth.

True follower of the Son  of Man,
  The Captain of Salvation,—he
Fought ever foremost in the van,
  Battling for light and liberty.

But  chiefly in the field,—how blest!
  AMiere Genius works with Goodness,—where
Peace hath her victories,—with zest
  Of tireless love, he labored there.

He gave—with what a  keen delight!—
  Eyes to the fingers of the blind,
To feel their way with  inner light
  Along the sunny hills of mind.

And as a pilgrim of the night,
  Groping his darksome way forlorn,
Shows on his kindling cheeks the light
  Reflected from the breaking morn,—

So, as along the raised highway
  Their eager fingers hurried on,
How o'er each sightless face the ray
  Of joy—an inner sunrise—shone!

Nay, Avas there one who seemed by fate
  Cut off from converse with her kind,
Death's liberating hand to wait
  In threefold walls—deaf, dumb, and blind,—

E'en there his patient love could find,
  By the fine thread of touch, a way
To guide the groping, struggling mind
  From its dark labyrinth into day. 
104
MEAIOIR OF  DR. HOAVE.
       All these now mourn for him, as they
        That sorrow when a father dies;
       A deeper shadow clouds their day,
        A sun has vanished from their skies!
       For now his eyes are sealed!—but when
        They meet him in the home on high,
       The shepherd and his flock shall then
        See face to face aud eye to eye.

  Mr.  Brooks Avas folloAved  by  Mr.  Hale, who
spoke of  Dr. Howe in his relations to Boston,  the
city of his birth, affection, and life-long residence.

       REMARKS  OF REV.  EDWARD EVERETT HALE.
  It is such music as that, Mr. Chairman (referring to
music Avhich had just been sung  by pupils in the Perkins
Institution for the Blind), it is such harmonies and melo-
dies as these, that are the true offering on this occasion ;
that make this an age that one is grateful that he  was
born in, and makes this a town  that he is proud that he
lives in.
  We are here coming and  going, and looking back  into
the  histories  and celebrating  these  centennial  events,
as  we have  noticed the  19th  of  April and  the 17th
of June, and  as we  are  going  to celebrate the 17th  of
March. But what was the good of these victories  one
hundred }'ears ago, if there had  come after them no Bos-
ton  of which  Ave were proud, and no century which Ave
should look back upon gratefully?  Do you remember,
ladies  and gentlemen,—does it occur to you to think,
while we are celebrating these events, while we are going
back to memories of the Port Act, while we are recalling
the Declaration of Independence,—does it occur to  3*011
to  think  that there  are large  circles  in the  civilized
world, that there are large bodies of men and women, as
cultivated as you are, who  never heard of the destruction 
          REMARKS OF REV.  E. E.  HALE.       105

of the tea, who know nothing of the name of Bunker Hill,
who are perfectly careless of these local events  in }'our
history ;  to  whom the distinction of Boston  is that Bos-
ton is, for instance, the place that Agassiz chose for his
home, that it is the place whose hospitals first tested
the invention of ether, and,  most of  all, that it is  the
place where the great secrets of mind and  heart and soul
Avere made clear, when light  was giA'en to the eyes of
Laura Bridgman, and, shall I not say, a voice to  her
tongue?   She sits here the silent orator of this occasion.
Can I not say that it is he who first gave to her the poAver
to look out upon this fitly cheerful audience, to see these
beautiful lilies,—that it is he Avho first  taught  those ears
to listen to  these stumbling words  of our  gratitude,—
that it is he who speaks through her  to-day ?
  I hope there  is  some young  man,—I  hope  there is
some young Avoman, Avho hears me, Avho may be tempted
by  the sight of  that  face, who may be tempted by the
sound of this music, to ask whether there is  not better
ambition and better success before men and women than
the success of fashion or the  ambition of wealth and of
power.   And, boys and girls, and men and  women, that
is the lesson that he is teaching you from  these still  lips
of his to-day, and  that he will  be  teaching  you, year
after  year and century after century,  Avheu other repu-
tations  have died away, and  only such  reputations as
his remain,—the reputations of faith and  hope and love,
which abide and continue forever.
  This is the man who, through the course of his life,
which has been so well described to  you,—this is  the
man, let me say it  seriously, who  redeemed  that word
"philanthropist" from the scorn Avhich was falling upon
it, and which I have half a right to say  it deserved.  The
impression that the word philanthropist gives  even now,
in half the civilized world, is of a person with  long hair, 
106
MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
who talks of something about which he knows nothing.
And this man, Avith his practical ability, with his knowl-
edge of men, with this  catholicity of which Dr. Hedge
has spoken  so well, able to use everybody just as far as
his purpose Avent, perfectly unmindful of reputation,—he
made himself of no reputation,—he took upon himself
the form of a servant,—this man has redeemed that Avord
of Avords from such base  sneers,  and placed it where it
belongs.  If he  led every man and woman,  sooner or
later, to take his view of  any  one of our charitable
systems, it was because  he did not speak and act Avith-
out studying to the bottom the Avhole subject he  dealt
with.   He Avould study both sides, and make himself its
master.  Men had to lead  Avhere such a man directed.
  I am old enough to remember, and I see many persons
who are old enough to  remember, the stimulus which he
gave to this whole community in  that first great move-
ment  which  has  been  so  well described by  Governor
Bullock, which was, I say,  the first, and, because the first,
I may well  say the noblest, of our great  public institu-
tions of charit}-—the Perkins Institution  for the Blind.
It is worth remembering  and  going back to, the droll
Avay in which,  as if by magic,  all the classes in  the
community were called up together to  act together, all
of them  shoulder to shoulder,  all of them side bj" side,
touching elbows, as the soldiers  say, determined that
this thing should be done,—people Avho had never moved
together before, who did  not  know each other, and who
did not know they could unite till he united them.
  And that was an illustration of the manner in  Avhich
he  was used to work,—always afterward so identified
with the fair fame of this city of ours, starting into action
people who did not know thej' could do anything in this
cause,  but who  at his side found they were also poets
and enthusiasts  and leaders.  His  entire indifference to 
          REMARKS OF REV. E. E.  HALE.      107

his own  personal reputation was so great, as has been
suggested here, and the simple  Avay  in which  he per-
formed the work that he had to do was such, that I really
believe half of this audience,—loving  him   as you  do,
and  S3'mpathizing Avith him as you  do,—I believe that
half the people here have no adequate idea of what was
the daily Avork  and the daily duty  of this  great man.
Let me speak for a single moment only of  his work, at
the head (as he Avas for so many years) of the Board of
State Charities.
  There are not half the people to Avhom I am speaking
who know what the Board of State Charities is, and Avhat
it  does.   When Governor Andrew  called him to that
Board, almost  immediately  he  took  his place  as  the
leader, the Chairman,  and  many  of its valuable reports
came to us from his pen.  In  the first  of these he Avrote
down the eight principles  for public  charities,—eight
simple rules which  should  be Avritten  in letters of gold
over eveiy bureau of relief, over every  board  of charities
and  eleemosynary institution.  There  was in them that
which met the  demands of a great  organization ; there
was  in  them that  Avhich turned  men  from  what would
lead them to run in ruts ; there  was in them that Avhich
met  the dangers Avhich tend to make us build up institu-
tions  and forget why we built them  up, Avhich make us
build great  hospitals,  forgetful of the sick, and make
great organizations for the relief of the poor, forgetful
of the poor Avho are to be relieved.
  These eight great rules of his will be perhaps inscribed
upon  his monument; if not inscribed there, they will be
handed  down from generation to generation by active
and practical men as an illustration of the way in Avhich
it has happened that in ten A/ears of the regime of that
Board, led as he knew how to lead it, the pauperism of
Massachusetts has  steadily decreased, while  the popula- 
108
MEMOIR  OF DR.  HOAVE.
tion of Massachusetts has  steadily enlarged.  A victory
which has been won, I think, nowhere else in this Avorld
of God.
  They say of an agriculturist Avho  made  two blades of
grass grow where one grew before, that he  called another
England out  of the deep, so many happy homes and so
many cheerful lives.   But think how much greater a vic-
tory to have called from the very depths of the unknown,
to have called from the desert of mind,—from the desert
of the impossible,—as all  but men  of  genius  would
say,—so man}' self-supporting men, so many  who would
else have been  exiled  or  sunk  back in the mere  com-
panionship of their homes,—to have called from the vil-
lage poor-houses those whose names Avere legion, they
were so many, so that to-day they sit  clothed and happy
in possession of their own right minds ; for nearly fifty
years of such work to have been calling up from the ATery
depths of misery those who sit before you to-day so
cheerful  and  happy and strong  in  their ability to meet
life, with all the rights of promotion before them, as are
these Avhom you are  so fortunate as to look upon and to
hear to-da}'.
  Well, people wonder how one man brings so  much to
pass.   Of course we  do not mean  this man stepped out
alone, and was unattended,—a Hercules who had so many
labors  to go through.  We know perfectly Avell that he
acted, and knew he acted, in the course of that infinite
and blessed  Providence which  means that  this world
shall always be better to-day than it was yesterday.  In
the providence  of that God, to whom modern  criticism
has giAren the name of the  "Power that always works for
righteousness,"—in the providence of that power which
always works for righteousness, he entered in and deter-
mined  that he  would  work  with God, and not against
him ; he  would  work with all those children of God Avho 
REMARKS OF REV.  E. E. HALE.       109
consecrated themselves in such endeavor.   And may I
not say here, he had that great alliance of that noble
woman  among women,  who, in  all the study  of the
rights of  woman, knew  that the first  right  of  woman
is  to share  in  every quiver  of her husband's  work,
and  enjoy through life,  without dividing,  every  leaf of
his laurels.
   I  think we have all been glad, I think nobody that
kneAv him could  but have been glad, that this afternoon
has  been  so cheerful; that the  sun  has  shone in above
us, and that Ave have been not disinclined even to laugh-
ter as we sat here.  He smiles Avith  us  as we  meet
together here ; he enjoys this cheerfulness  as he always
enjoyed it.   The victory he looked  for was not  one to
be clothed in mourning.   He would be as grateful as we
are, that  there are  no  artificial signs of  manufactured
sorrow  in or upon  these Avails.  Let us  hope that we
have seen them  there for the last time.  He knew, as
well as Ave know, that this Christian civilization of Mas-
sachusetts is always on  trial;  he knew, as well as we
know, that it is to be tried, as everything else is  to be
tried, by its fruits.   " By their fruits  shall  men know
them."   Yes, and there are coming up to us to-day from
this desert,—from that dark place,—there are coming up
to us this messenger and that messenger  to inquire about
this Christian civilization of ours here, whether it is what
was promised, whether it is Avhat Avas expected.  Is this
that Avhich should come, or are we to look for another?
Yes, and  the answer is  the  same answer that it always
is : " Go  tell your master the  things that you have seen
and heard; the blind receive their sight, the deaf receive
their ears, the lepers are clothed, yea, even the dead are
Avaked to life, and to the poor the gospel of good  tidings,
of hope, and joy, is everywhere proclaimed."
   You ask for his epitaph.   It  is a very simple epitaph. 
110           MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.
 He  found  idiots chattering,  taunted, and ridiculed by
 each village fool, and he left them cheerful and happy.
 He found  the insane shut up in their  wretched  cells,
 miserable,  starving,  cold, and dying, and he left them
 happy, hopeful, and brave.  He found the blind sitting
 in darkness, and he left them glad in the sunshine of the
 love of God.

   Dr. Edward  M. Gallaudet, President of the Col-
 lege for Dcaf-Mutes at Washington, and  a son of
 Dr. T. H. Gallaudet, who founded  the  American
 Asylum for  Deaf-Mutes  at  Hartford,  had  been
 requested  to speak concerning Dr. Howe's educa-
 tion of Laura Bridgman.   He did so as follows :—

             REMARKS OF  DR. GALLAUDET.
  When  we  attempt to  estimate with  precision the
 Avork accomplished in the education of Laura Bridgman,
 we  encounter  an insurmountable obstacle at the very
 threshold  of our  investigations.  We cannot lw any
 mental effort divest ourselves, even for a  moment, of the
 accumulated  life-time  impressions  Ave  haATe  received
 through the avenues which are closed to the blind  deaf-
 mute.  We cannot put ourselves in her place ; and hence
 it is as impossible for us who see  and hear to form any
just conception of even her present psychical condition, as
 it is for her to understand  the phenomena of hearing or
 of vision.  And  if we go back to the time when she was
 untaught, " built up, as it were, in a marble cell, imper-
 vious to any ray  of light or particle of sound ;  with her
 poor, white hand peeping through a chink in the  wall,
 beckoning to some good man for  help that an immortal
 soul might  be awakened," we find the difficulty of com-
 prehending her intellectual  and spiritual condition  in-
 creased.  We  are forced to acknowledge that we can 
           REMARKS  OF DR. GALLAUDET.        Ill

only approximate to an understanding of the  beginning.
progress, and end of her education.
  This does  not, however,  hinder our perceiving  that
a near approach to the  miraculous was  made  by Dr.
Howe  Avhen he caused  the deeply hidden germ of Laura
Bridgman's  mind to grow  into  conscious intelligence,
to  put  forth  the  leaf of expression, the  blossom of
original thought, and to yield the rich  fruitage of moral
accountability.
  Dr.  Carpenter, in  treating of the dependence of men-
tal  activity on the senses,  saj-s :  " If it  were possible
for  a human  being  to  come  into the world with a brain
perfectly prepared to  be  the instrument of psychical
operations, but with all the inlets of sense-impressions
closed, we have every reason to believe that the mind
would remain  dormant, like a seed buried deep in the
earth."  In  such  a case as  this, nothing less  than a
miracle,  which might  open one, at least, of the closed
avenues,  or  an act  of creation which  should impart a
sense other than those  given to mankind, could  avail to
set  free  the  imprisoned mind.  And when but a single
sense  remains,  through which the facultj' of language
may by  an}' possibilit}' be  brought into exercise, the
results attained surely fall little short of the miraculous.
  Dr.  HoAve's  success in this  achievement, the most
widely heralded,  and undoubtedly the  most  brilliant of
his  life, Avas the result  of a happ}' combination of genius
and ingenuity.   It was  genius that convinced  him of the
feasibility of the undertaking; it was through ingenuity
in the application of methods, and in resorting to  various
devices, that the inspiration of his  genius was realized.
  Time does not suffer us, on this occasion, to detail the
manner of Laura Bridgman's education.   It will be inter-
esting, however, to hear in Dr. Howe's own words how
the  first step Avas taken. 
112
MEMOIR  OF DR.  HOAVE.
   " I  selected short  monosyllables,  so that the  sign
which  she was to learn might be as simple as possible.
I placed before her, on the table, a pen and  a  pin, and
then making her take  notice of the fingers of one of my
hands, I placed them in the three positions used as signs
of  the  manual  alphabet  of deaf-mutes  for  the  letters
p-e-n, and made her feel  of them over  and over again
many times, so that the}' might be associated together in
her mind.  I did the same Avith the pin, and repeated  it
scores  of times.  She  at  last perceived  that the  signs
Avere complex, and that the middle sign of the one, that
is, the  e, differed from the middle sign of the  other, that
is, i.   This was the first step gained.  This process was
repeated over  and over hundreds of times, until  finally
the association was established in her  mind between the
sign composed of three  signs  and  expressed by three
positions of  my fingers  and the article itself, so  that
Avhen I held up the pen to her she would make the com-
plex sign ;  and when I made the complex sign on my
fingers, she Avould triumphantly pick up the pen and hold
it up before me, as  much  as to say, ' This is what you
want.'
  " Then the  same process was gone  over with the pin,
until the association in her mind was intimate and com-
plete between the two articles and the  complex positions
of the fingers.  She had thus learned two arbitrary signs,
or the names of two different things.   She seemed con-
scious of having understood and done what I wanted, for
she smiled, while I exclaimed inwardly  and triumphantly,
'Eureka! Eureka!'   I now felt that the first step had
been taken  successfully, and that this was the only really
difficult one, because by continuing the same process by
which she had  become enabled to distinguish two arti-
cles  by two  arbitrary signs,  she  could  go  on  and
learn to express in signs two  thousand, and  finally, 
REMARKS OF DR. GALLAUDET.        113
the forty and odd  thousand signs or words in the Eng-
lish language."
  The case of Oliver Caswell, the second blind deaf-mute
who came under Dr. Howe's instruction, proved nothing
that had not been elicited in the training of his sister in
misfortune, beyond  the fact that the success  in her case
did not depend  on  the unusual intellectual activity she
seemed to possess.   Caswell's mind was sluggish and his
progress less rapid  than that of Miss Bridgman, but he
reached  a level of intellectual and  moral development
which fully compensated for the labor bestowed,  and
which was sufficiently high to encourage the teaching of
other blind deaf-mutes in our own country as well as in
Europe.
  And  here we  are reminded of the indirect results of
Dr. Howe's work in the education of Laura Bridgman,
these being of much greater importance and  benefit to
the world at large  than the mere clisenthralment of a
single imprisoned mind.  Who  can measure the effect of
the recital of Laura's  thrilling story as an example of
success in the face  of giant difficulties?  Told in all  the
languages of Christendom, it cannot fail to  have stimu-
lated the flagging energies of hundreds of those Avho must
ever strive against obstacles and opposition, the inA-entors
and reformers of the world.  And to those  who neither
invent nor reform, but in whose hands is placed the most
important and honorable work society can devolve upon
an}7 of its members, that of educating the young,—to  the
teachers of our  day and generation, patient and often-
times Aveary sowers of seed and toilers in virgin soil,—the
story of the blind deaf-mute comes like a breeze from  the
mountain-top.   As  they read of barriers broken down,
obstacles surmounted, difficulties overcome by the energy,
patience, and ingenuity  of him in Avhose honor we are here
assembled, their  own discouragements sink into insignifi-
            8 
114
MEMOIR  OF DR. HOAVE.
canoe, their hearts and hands are  cheered and nerved by
that subtle but mighty influence of example, than which
no power more potent for good or for evil has ever moved
mankind.
  And if we may thus speak of the encouraging effect of
Laura Bridgman's story on instructors  in general, Avhat
shall we say  of its force Avith those who essay Avhat is,
perhaps, the most difficult of all  educational tasks, that
of imparting  to the congenitally deaf the power of vocal
utterance ?
  And this brings us to speak of an important feature of
Dr. Howe's life-work, which would probably have  never
engaged his  attention but for the  interest  excited  in
deaf-mutes by what he  did for those whose misfortunes
included more than deaf-mutism.  We refer to his labors
to  secure the establishment  of schools  for the deaf and
dumb,  where articulation might be taught.   Whatever
difference of opinion  may exist as  to the  proportion of
deaf-mutes capable of success in articulation, it is now
universally admitted by teachers of the deaf  and dumb
in  this  country,  that a percentage sufficiently large to
warrant the maintenance  of special  classes and schools
can be  taught to speak well.  And this  view is  enter-
tained by many who once held the contrary.
   In Dr. Howe, the cause of articulation in America had
one of its earliest and warmest supporters.   It is probably
not surpassing the truth to say that, in the  absence of his
efforts in this direction, the happy results now witnessed
at Northampton  and  in this city would have  been post-
poned,  perhaps for many years.   Through the medium of
official  reports as Chairman of the Board of State Chari-
ties,  through the public press,  in private circles, and
before  legislative committees, Dr. Howe's advocacy  of
 articulation schools in Massachusetts Avas long continued
 and earnest.  The success attending  these  endeavors 
           REMARKS OF DR.  GALLAUDET.        115

Avas hastened by a very interesting circumstance growing
out of the instruction of Laura Bridgman, which deserves
to be  mentioned in this connection.
  In  the  long  and  sometimes tedious labor of Miss
Bridgman's  education, extending  through a  period  of
twenty  years, Dr. Howe had the assistance  of several
ladies, among whom  was Miss  Eliza A. Rogers ;  and it
followed as almost a natural consequence, when a younger
sister of this lady turned her attention to teaching, that
she should  be interested in those who needed special
training.  And so it came about  that  Miss  Harriet  B.
Rogers, the accomplished Principal of the Clarke  Insti-
tution for Deaf-Mutes  at Northampton,  was led  to  a
work  the  success of which has inscribed  her name  on
the rolls of history as a  pioneer in a  great and philan-
thropic cause.
  In reviewing that  portion of Dr. Howe's life-work, the
discussion of Avhich has been allotted to the  present
speaker, we cannot fail to recognize the existence of that
combative disposition Avhich marks other  phases of his
career.  He rejoiced  in the presence of difficulties.  His
spirit rose in the face of opposition.   While he was not
unwilling  to  discharge in the line of duty the common-
place, straightforward tasks of life, he  was more  in his
element when antagonistic forces were marshalled against
him.   Then his soldierly nature manifested itself, and he
was not long in becoming master of the  situation.   In
his work for Laura Bridgman,  it Avas the single, hand-to-
hand  conflict, with the odds greatly against  him.   And
how truly the effort for the establishment  of articulating
schools for the deaf  and dumb in this State was a harcl-
fought  campaign,  many  who  are here present well
remember.
  Native  bards have fitly sung the praises of him who is
the subject of our homage.  But their Avords  are hardly 
116           MEMOIR OF  DR.  HOAVE.

more appropriate  than are those of one of our  mother
land, when he asked and answered  a  question that is in
many minds to-day.

    " AA'ho is the happy warrior ?  Wlio is he
      AA'hom every man in arms should wish to he ?
      It is the generous spirit, who, when brought
      Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
      Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought;
      Whose high endeavors are an inward light
      That makes the path before him always bright;
      And who, if he be called upon to face
      Some awfnl moment to which Heaven has joined
      Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
      Is happy as a lover; and attired
      AA'ith sudden brightness like a man inspired.
      Tis, finally, the man, who, lifted high,
      Conspicuous object in a nation's eye;
      Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
      Looks forward persevering to the  last:
      Finds comfort in himself and in his cause ;
      And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
      His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause."

   The closing address was by Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, who  had been long associated  with Dr.
Ho Ave in labors for the anti-slavery cause.

            REMARKS  OF COLONEL HIGGINSON.

   In rising to speak, at this late  hour of the  afternoon,
on the anti-slaATery career  of our friend, I own myself to
be profoundly impressed  by the fact  that I have to por-
tray  Dr. Howe  in an aspect  quite  different from  any
described  by the previous  speakers.  In  all the  great
services  of which others have spoken, he was either sus-
tained by the public sentiment immediately around him,
or else was but a little in advance of it.  I haAre to speak
of him  as he appeared when diametrically opposed to 
         REMARKS  OF  COLONEL HIGGIXSON.     117

it, and when he was compelled to become for the time
a violator of law even in his own city, that he might be
true to liberty.  I might hesitate to dwell upon such an
attitude of defiance, especially when speaking on a plat-
form occupied by so many governors, but that the time
described seems very far aAvay.  It was before our Red
Sea had been crossed.  The war has banished the memo-
ries of that period into an inconceivable remoteness ; but
there were times when truth was called treason, and when
a man who spoke it might find a rope round his neck,
even in Boston.  We must remember that men with ropes
round their necks do not always find  it easy to  be tol-
erant.
  An eminent  abolitionist  has lately told me that  on
visiting Dr. Howe soon  after his marriage,—which took
place in 1843,—Dr. Howe said that in his opinion some
movement of actual force  would yet  have to be made
against slavery, and that but  for the  new duties he had
assumed by his marriage, he  should  very likely under-
take some such  enterprise himself.  His  whole  anti-
slavery career  was predicted  in those  words.    They
showed him  as he was, a perfectly chivalrous  spirit,
working under the limitations of many duties and cares.
  This  remark must have  been made about 1844.  It
does not appear  that he then enrolled himself  in any
public  way among  abolitionists.  I do not even find  his
name in the list of  the Massachusetts State Texas Com-
mittee, formed in October, 1845 ; but at the first fugitive-
slave case, he stepped at once to the very front.   Many
here may  remember  the magnificent meeting held at
Faneuil Hall, Sept. 24,1846, " to consider the recent case
of kidnapping on our soil,"—the returning of a nameless
slave by a  Boston merchant who shall also be nameless
here.  John Quincy Adams presided at that  meeting, he
being then in his 80th  year, and saying that if he had 
 118           MEMOIR OF DR.  HOAVE.

 but one day to live he would use it to be there.   Dr. Howe
 called the meeting to order, and organized the whole, the
 letters of invited guests being addressed to him.  He also
 made  the opening  speech, a speech of which every sen-
 tence was a sword-thrust.  John A. AndreAV, then a young
 lawyer, read the resolutions ;  Sumner, Charles Francis
 Adams, and the two  Phillipses, spoke ;  and a  Vigilance
 Committee of  forty  was  finally chosen, with Dr. Howe
 for Chairman.  That Vigilance Committee,  aftenvard
 enlarged, continued in existence through all the fugitive-
 slave  period ;  and  the history of  Boston will be incom-
 plete until the records of that committee are published.
   Dr.  Howe Avas nominated for Congress that same year
 against Mr. Winthrop ; but he Avas defeated, and his
 main services  lay  out of politics.   The  fugitive-slave
 period in Massachusetts differed from any revolutionary
 period before  or since in this, that it fell in a time of
 awkward transition from  physical to spiritual weapons ;
 and while the  air  was full  of revolution, almost all the
 revolutionists  were hampered by reverence for laAv, or
 else by  non-resistance.   Almost  all the  Garrisonian
 abolitionists were non-combatants on principle ; and the
 voting  abolitionists had  a controlling desire  to keep
 Avithin the laAv. Even Theodore Parker, who stood be-
 tween  these two classes, wished people to rescue  slaves
 "with only  the arms their mother gave them."   The
result was, that among all the anti-slavery  men in Bos-
ton, there were hardly a dozen who had quite made up
their minds  to fight.   Of that small number, it is need-
less to say that Dr.  Howe  was one.   Six weeks in a
Prussian prison were  as good as a liberal  education in
the way of bearing  arms.
  One of the most remarkable meetings held  in Boston
in those days,  was one which  occurred at the  Tremont
Temple during the  Sims case,  April 9,  1851.  Horace 
         REMARKS OF  COLONEL  HIGGINSON.      119

Mann consented to preside on condition  that the meet-
ing should be pledged  to  strictly legal  measures; but
Dr. HoAve, who regretted this scrupulousness, planned to
have the evening  meeting  unrestricted.  Unluckily  the
material of the  afternoon meeting was by  far the more
fiery.   After one  speech in especial, as Dr. Howe after-
ward said, " the country was  at the verge of a revolu-
tion," for Avhich, I think, he himself was  ready ;  but the
next speaker  threw cold water on  it,  the excitement
passed, the evening meeting was tame, and nothing was
clone.   A plan of rescue Avas  aftenvard formed, but Avas
defeated by putting up a grating at the window of Sims's
cell.
   Three years later came  the Burns affair.  During the
interval, or  part of it,  Dr.  Howe  had been editing the
"Commonwealth";  the coalition party had been suc-
cessful  in the State, and the public mind  had been a good
deal educated.   Still, when a meeting of the Vigilance
Committee was held, on the  day of the riot, May 26,
1854, it was  found impossible  to collect  even  tAventy
names  pledged  to physical resistance under any single
leader,  and  eAren  after  a stirring  speech by Dr. Howe,
it ended  in appointing only an Executive  Committee of
six men, afterward increased to seven.  Napoleon said
that there was  but one thing worse for an army than
a bad general, and that was, two good generals.   We
had seven!   It was  worse, in  that  respect, than Bull
Run.
   The time  has hardly yet come to tell the story of the
attempted rescue of  Anthony Burns, of which  all the
printed accounts are  thus  far incomplete or inaccurate.
All that need be said of it, is, that it was one of the best
plots that  ever failed;  and was  somewhat  carefully
planned, considering the shortness of the  time and the
admitted hopelessness  of all  other projects.  Dr. Howe 
120
MEMOIR  OF DR.  HOAVE.
was understood to assent  to it, but probably  misinter-
preted it.  At any rate, he was on the platform at the
farther end of Faneuil Hall,—not provided, as now, with
a private entrance;  the hall was so crowded,  that it
was  almost impossible  to get  in or out;  the signal
agreed upon was not recognized ;  and though Dr. Howe
made the best of his way through the crowd to Court
Square, all was over when he  arrived.   Had  he but
reached there  in time,  and got  a  fair hold  upon the
beam that broke in the  court-house door,  it is quite
possible  that the  attack  might  have succeeded.  The
United States Marshal said that his force was so taken
by surprise, that thirty men could have rescued Burns ;
and Dr. Howe's personal presence and magnetism ought
to have been good for twenty.
  After the fugitive-slave cases, the seat of anti-slavery
excitement was transferred for a time to Kansas.  Before
the civil Avar began, Dr. Howe was (in 1854) one of the
original corporators  in  the Emigrant Aid Society, by
which it Avas hoped to secure that territory peaceably to
freedom.  Then came a time, in 1856, Avhen that  proved
impossible, and as you may read in  Theodore Parker's
letters, "Dr. Howe and others raised $5,000 one day last
Aveek to buy Sharpe's rifles."  Parties were then organized
—still emigrant parties, but armed by the organizing com-
mittees—in Boston and Worcester.  When the Missouri
River was blocked  up by the "border ruffians," as  they
were called, and one of the first parties was turned back
Dr. Howe went to St. Louis to meet them, and to  reor-
ganize the scattered forces. Through  all that  struggle,
no Eastern man, save George Stearns,—God  bless his
memory !—did more to save Kansas to freedom than he.
I think the State Kansas Committee was organized at the
Blind Asylum office on Bromfield Street.  Almost every
one who came in  or out  of that office was blind ■ but 
         REMARKS OF  COLONEL HIGGINSON.     121

Dr. Howe's keen sight restored the balance, for he could
see beyond the Missouri.
  The next anti-slavery milestone  was when, in 1858,
John  Brown  came eastward.  A keen thinker has said,
that every path on earth may lead to the  dwelling  of a
hero ; and of course the track was plain enough between
John  Brown's door and  that of Dr. Howe.  Few, if any,
knew Capt. Brown's plans in full detail; but the project
of a  slave  stampede  on a large scale was quite in Dr.
Howe's line, and he, with others, entered into it cordially.
Then came the betrayal by Hugh Forbes, which so dis-
turbed John Brown's Eastern friends, that his " marching
on " Avas delayed for more than a year ; a delay approved
neither by Brown himself nor Dr. Howe, but accepted as
inevitable by both.   After the  failure  of the Harper's
Ferry attempt, Dr. Howe  left the  United States for a
short time,—needlessly, as he afterward thought,—and
was afterward examined at Washington before a Con-
gressional  Committee,  but with no result.   There was
some difference of opinion  among John Brown's friends
as  to their  duty  after  his death;  but Dr.  Howe  was
never much   troubled  by the  necessity  of  satisfying
the consciences of others, if  he could only  satisfy his
own.
  A year or more later, I remember him  as aiding, in
this very hall, and in the neighboring streets,  to ward
off danger from Wendell Phillips, during a series of riot-
ous days.  Again, on the  very  day after the  attack on
our troops in Baltimore, he threAv himself with his old
heartiness into a  project formed among us, of taking a
hint from John BroAvn and  putting  a guerilla party
instantly into  Virginia, thus  saving  Washington by
kindling a back  fire.   The steps promptly taken in
recruiting troops prevented this project from being car-
ried farther, but it was precisely the scheme to suit Dr. 
 122           MEMOIR OF DR.  HOWE.

 Howe.  His services  during the  civil war itself, I leave
 to others.
   His anti-slavery life was, in  short, that  of a man of
 chivalrous nature, with a constitutional love for freedom
 and for daring enterprises, taking more interest in action
 than in mere agitation, and having, moreover, other fields
 of usefulness which divided his zeal.  With a peculiarly
 direct and thrilling sort of eloquence, and a style of sin-
 gular condensation and power, abrupt, almost impetuous,
 —like a sword with no ornament but the dents upon the
 blade,—he yet knew that the chief end of life is action,
 and  not thought.   With all his intellectual accomplish-
 ments, he would, as Thoreau said of John BroAvn, "have
 left a Greek accent slanting the wrong way, and righted
 up a fallen man."
   And a greater than Thoreau  has  said, in words that
 have been  thrilling through my heart all the  afternoon,
 as illustrative of Dr. Howe,  " What forests of laurel  Ave
 bring,  and the tears of mankind, to those who  stood firm
 against the opinion of their contemporaries ! "  The tears
of mankind are his, at any rate.  While Laura Bridg-
man's name is remembered, they will  never cease to flow.
But his noblest laurels spring from this,—and his most
heroic  example is  given in  this,—that he was  able,  in
time of need, to stand  firm against the opinions of the
society by which he was surrounded. 
         LETTER  FROM WILLIAM C. BRYANT.     123


    CORRESPONDENCE  OF THE  COMMITTEE.
   The following letters were sent to the Committee,
in response to invitations to take part in the Memo-
rial Services :—

           LETTER FROM WILLIAM C.  BRYANT.
                                New York, Jan. 29, 1876.
   Dear Sir :—I cannot attend the meeting to be held in
Boston to honor the memory of the late Samuel Gridley
Howe ; but I gladly avail myself of  the opportunity, in
ansAvering the invitation of the Committee, to testify the
high estimation in Avhich I  hold his  character and ser-
vices.  If our grief for the departure  of an eminent  man
is to be measured by the good which he was doing Avhile
he lived, the death of Dr. Howe should call forth expres-
sions of the deepest sorrow.  He was one whose whole
life Avas dedicated to the  service of his felloAv-men.   His
detestation  of wrong was shown in  the part which he
took in the successful  struggle  of the Greeks to throw
off the yoke of their barbarian masters.   His labors in
the education of the blind, which only ceased with his
life, will give him an eminent place in the  history of
what has been done to make  amends to that unfortunate
class for the deprivation of that sense which brings us
the swiftest and most comprehensive notices of the outer
world.   His place is in  that class with which Virgil, by
a noble climax, closes his enumeration of the great and
good who possess' the Elysian fields,—a passage which
has been thus translated :—

    " Patriots were there in freedom's battle slain,
     Priests, whose long lives were closed without a stain,
     Bards worthy him who breathed the poet's mind,
     Founders of arts that dignify mankind, 
124
MEMOIR OF  DR. HOAVE.
     And lovers of our race, whose labors gave
     Their names a memory that defies the grave."

           I am, sir, faithfully yours,
                                    W. C. Bryant.
Hon. F. W. Bird, Chairman of Committee, etc.


             LETTER FROM F. B.  SANBORN.
               Office of the Board of State Charities, )
                    State House, Boston, Feb. 7, 1876.  )
Hon. F. W. Bird, Chairman of the Howe Memorial Committee.
  Dear Sir :—You have desired me to say something at
the public services to-morrow in memory of our dear and
noble old friend, with particular reference to his  later
connection with the public charities of Massachusetts as
Chairman of this Board, under whose general oversight
they are.  I cannot and ought not to undertake this, yet
I may add my word by letter to  the many that will  be
spoken in Dr. Howe's honor.  No man esteemed or loved
him more, and I was  for many  years  admitted to his
confidence and intimacy, and specially so in regard to
the public charities.
  It may well be considered that his work as Chairman
of the Board of .State Charities—a place which he held
for nine years—was the crowning labor of his public life.
He came  to it after the civil war Avas ended, the slaves
emancipated, and the institutions for whose upbuilding
he had toiled so long, were  firmly established, and were
instructing the blind and the feeble-minded by the meth-
ods which he originated or  adopted.  He was therefore
set free from the absorbing occupations of his youth and
manhood, and had  something like  leisure on his hands.
But to  him leisure meant only the  opportunity for new
undertakings, and he therefore accepted readily the posi- 
           LETTER FROM F. B. SANBORN.        125

tion for  which his friend Governor Andrew  designated
him late in 1864.   In October, 1865,  he became, by the
choice of his colleagues, Chairman of the Board, and so
continued  until he  declined a reelection in  1874.   He
did not  finally withdraw from the  Board as a  member
until last June, when he began to give up all his public
employments.
  The genius of Dr. Howe- soon found means  to turn the
theory and practice of public charity  in Massachusetts
in new directions,  and to convert by gradual changes the
existing  policy of congregating the poor and the defect-
ive in large establishments, into the better and Aviser
policy of separation.  In its full development, the system
advocated  by him requires the thorough  classification
and the  diffusion  among  the  people, so far as possible,
of the exceptional classes Avith which  public charity is
compelled  to deal.  In practice much  yet remains to be
done, but it would seem that his theory has become the
prevailing one, not only in Massachusetts, but elsewhere,
and it will  no doubt find its complete deArelopment here-
after.
  Of what was done by Dr. Howe, while Chairman of
the Board,  to secure the better education of  the deaf, I
need  not speak, for others will do justice to that.  In
Avhatever he undertook, and in all  the  detailed  work of
the Board,  his courage, his enthusiasm, his faith in  the
future good of mankind, enabled him to  overcome
obstacles which other men  had found insurmountable.
Indeed, he used  to define obstacles  as " things to be
overcome," and generally the  result justified his defini-
tion.  Happily combining theory and  practice,  insight
and experience, the seeing eye and the helping hand, he
was better fitted than any man of our time to perceive
and apply the laws—spiritual no less than economic— 
126          MEMOIR OF DR. HOAVE.

which  govern and  must  amend  the  administration of
public  charity in Massachusetts.
                   Truly your friend,
                                   F. B. Sanborn.

        LETTER FROM DR. HENRY I. BOWDITCH.
                                  Boston, Jan. 27, 1876.
Messrs. F. W. Bird and F. B. Sanborn.
  Gentlemen :—It  would be a real pleasure  to  me to
speak  of  the  qualities of our  clear friend, Howe,  if I
could do so extemporaneously, adequately, and in appro-
priate terms.   But that kind of public speech is not easy
or natural to me.  It is certain that I should mar  any
meeting I should attend  for such a purpose.  Heaven
forbid  that I  should  do  aught that would offend  the
sensibilities  of any one  on an  occasion like that which
you propose to me.
  With the  exception of Garibaldi, I have always  con-
sidered Samuel G. Howe as the  manliest man it has been
my  fortune to meet in this world.   The two  are  in my
regard  equal, and very similar in their traits of character.
Both have been fearless of any personal danger  in the
fight;  both  have been  intensely  loyal  to  what they
deemed the right; both have been always ready to throw
themselves into the front  ranks in defence of the weak
and down-trodden ;  both at times impulsive in word and
action, often  to a fault,  yet  always commanding the
respect even of opponents, because self seemed always
subordinated to their ideas of justice and of truth.
  Such men redeem our  race and lift us all to a  higher
faith as  to  what  human  nature  can do  and become.
When such men die, even comparative strangers have a
sense of personal loss. 
      LETTER FROM  DR. HENRY I.  BOWDITCH.  127

  I know nothing  more beautiful in history than the
long,  constant life of Dr. Howe.   So fitted to shine  in
other  spheres, and with tendencies so strong for the
battle of life, yet he deliberately turns  aside from all
those  paths which  men of his calibre and character  of
mind  most readily choose, and devotes himself for  nearly
half a century to the unfortunate  and outcast.   How
much  he' has done  for the blind, the deaf, and the poor
idiot,  we all know and now gladly acknowledge.  More
than  any one else in  this century, he has  brought these
classes of our fellow-men within reach of our  sympathy
and cooperative action.  We acknowledge Avith gratitude
our debt clue to him  for thus bringing within our reach
those  who,  without his  introduction,  would  have  yet
remained comparatively unknown and suffering.
  Indeed, gentlemen,  I wish  I could aid  you in  doing
honor to the memory  of such a man ; but though I shall
endeavor to be present at your meeting, I must decline
to be  there save as a listener.
               I remain, very truly yours,
                              Henry I.  Boavditch. 
 
Oj=
---e*Bg
itlje Jflassntljusette ^Ijilantljropist,
MEMOIR  A^^l
De.  SAMUEL GRIDLEY HOWE.

      By JULIA WARD HOAVE:
WITH  OTHER MEMOKIAL TRIBUTES.
PUBLISHED BY THE HOWE MEMOKIAL COMMITTEE.

        BOSTON:
PRINTED BY  ALBERT J. WRIGHT,
   79 Milk Street (corner of Federal).
           1S76.
&& 
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