HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

MEMOIR OF JAMES GRAHAME., LL. D.

BY JOSIAH QUINCY.

To the Members of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

GENTLEMEN :

In conformity with the request expressed by your vote, in December, 1842, I have prepared the subjoined Memoir of James Grahame, LL. D,, author of the History of the United States of North America. Having never enjoyed the advantage of a personal acquaintance with Mr. Grahame, the sole means I then possessed of complying with your request were derived from his writings, and a short correspondence, originally official in its nature, and extended subsequently by an interchange of only a few letters. I should, therefore, have wholly declined the undertaking, had not these slight and transient opportunities deeply impressed my mind with the moral purity and intellectual elevation of his character. It seemed to me, moreover, incumbent upon some American to attempt to do justice to the memory of a foreigner who had devoted the chief and choicest years of his life to writing the history of our country, with a labor, fidelity, and affectionate zeal for the American people and their institutions, which any native citizen may be proud to equal, and will find it very difficult to surpass.

Under these circumstances, my purpose to attempt the task having been formed, I immediately communicated with Mr. Grahame's family and European friends, and received from his highly accomplished widow, from John Stewart, Esq., his son-in-law, and from Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., who had maintained with him from early youth an uninterrupted intimacy and friendly correspondence, extracts from his diary, and from letters written by him to themselves or others, accompanied with interesting notices illustrative of his sentiments and views. Robert Walsh, Esq., the present American consul at Paris,

well known and appreciated in this country and in Europe for his moral worth and literary eminence, who had enjoyed the privilege of an intimate personal acquaintance with Mr. Grahame, also transmitted to me many of his letters to himself. William H. Prescott, Esq., and the Rev. George E. Ellis, with others of his correspondents, have extended to me like favors.

From these sources I have been enabled to sketch the subjoined outline of Mr. Grahame's life and character; in doing which, I have studied, as far as possible, to make his own language the expositor of his mind and motives.

Cambridge, 28 July, 1845.

JOSIAH QUINCY.

JAMES GRAHAME, the subject of this Memoir, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 21st of December, 1790, of a family distinguished, in its successive generations, by intellectual vigor and attainments, united with a zeal for civil liberty, chastened and directed by elevated religious sentiment.

His paternal grandfather, Thomas Grahame, was eminent for piety, generosity, and talent. Presiding in the Admiralty Court, at Glasgow, he is stated to have been the first British judge who decreed the liberation of a negro slave brought into Great Britain, on the ground, that "a guiltless human being, in that country, must be free"; a judgment preceding by some years the celebrated decision of Lord Mansfield on the same point. In the war for the independence of the United States, he was an early and uniform opponent of the pretensions and policy of Great Britain; declaring, in the very commencement of the contest, that "it was like the controversy of Athens with Syracuse, and he was persuaded it would end in the same way."

He died in 1791, at the age of sixty, leaving two sons, Robert and James. Of these, the youngest, James, was esteemed for his moral worth, and admired for his genius; delighting his friends and companions by the readiness and playfulness of his wit, and commanding the reverence of all who knew him, by the purity of a life under the guidance of an ever active religious principle. He was the author of a poem entitled "The Sabbath," which, admired on its first publication, still retains its celebrity among the minor effusions of the poetic genius of Britain.

Robert, the elder of the sons of Thomas Grahame, and father of the subject of this Memoir, inheriting the virtues of his ancestors, and imbued with their spirit, has sustained, through a long life, not yet terminated, the character of a uniform friend of liberty. His zeal in its cause rendered him, at different periods, obnoxious to the suspicions of the British government. When the ministry attempted to control the expression of public opinion by the prosecution of Horne Tooke, a secretary of state's warrant was issued against him; from the consequences of which he was saved through the acquittal of Tooke by a London jury. When Castlereagh's ascendant policy had excited the people of Scotland to a state of revolt, and several persons were prosecuted for high-treason, whose poverty prevented them from engaging the best counsel, he brought down, at his own charge, for their defence, distinguished English lawyers from London, they being deemed better acquainted than those of Scotland with the law of hightreason; and the result was the acquittal of the persons indicted. He sympathized with the Americans in their struggle for independence, and rejoiced in their success. Regarding the French Revolution as a shoot from the American stock, he hailed its progress in its early stages with satisfaction and hope. So long as its leaders restricted themselves to argument and persuasion, he was their adherent and advocate; but withdrew his countenance when they resorted to terror and violence.

By his profession as writer to the signet* he acquired fortune and eminence. Though distinguished for public and private worth and well directed talent, his political course excluded him from official power and distinction, until 1833, when, after the passing of the Reform Bill, he was unanimously chosen, at the age of seventy-four, without any canvass or solicitation on his part, at the first election under the reformed constituency, Lord Provost of Glasgow. His character is not without interest to the American people; for his son, whose respect for his talents and virtues fell little short of admiration, acknowledges that it was his father's suggestion and encourage

ment which first turned his thoughts to writing the history of the United States.

Under such paternal influences, James Grahame, our historian, was early imbued with the spirit of liberty. His mind became familiarized with its principles and their limitations. Even in boyhood, his thoughts were directed towards that transatlantic people whose national existence was the work of that spirit, and whose institutions were framed with an express view to maintain and perpetuate it.

His early education was domestic. A French emigrant priest taught him the first elements of learning. He then passed through the regular course of instruction at the Grammar School of Glasgow, and afterwards attended the classes at the University in that city. In both he was distinguished by his proficiency. After pursuing a preparatory course in geometry and algebra, hearing the lectures of Professor Playfair, and reviewing his former studies under private tuition, he entered, about his twentieth year, St. John's College, Cambridge. But his connection with the University was short. In an excursion during one of the vacations, he formed an attachment to the lady whom he afterwards married; becoming, in consequence, desirous of an early establishment in life, he terminated abruptly his academical connections, and commenced a course of professional study preparatory to his admission to the Scottish bar.

At Cambridge he had the happiness to form an acquaintance, which ripened into friendship, with Mr. Herschel, now known to the world as Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., and by the high rank he sustains among the astronomers of Europe. Concerning this friendship Mr. Grahame thus writes in his diary:-"It has always been an ennobling tie. We have been the friends of each other's souls and of each other's virtue, as well as of each other's person and success. He was of St. John's College, as well as I. Many a day we passed in walking together, and many a night in studying together." Their intimacy continued unbroken through Mr. Grahame's life.

In June, 1812, Mr. Grahame was admitted to the Scottish bar as an advocate, and immediately entered on