His parents were Samuel Augustus Foote and Eudocia Hull, daughter of General Andrew Hull (militia general), of Cheshire. His father, Samuel Augustus, was Governor of Connecticut in 1834-5, and United States Senator from 1827 to 1833. He was known in the political history of the country as the mover of "Foote's Resolutions," which gave occasion to the famous passage of arms between Webster and Hayne. In his political sentiments Governor Foote was originally a Jeffersonian Democrat, but afterward became a member of the National Republican party, which in 1832 was reorganized as the Whig party under the leadership of Clay and Webster.

In the winter of 1829-30 it was determined by the leaders of the Republican party to provoke the Southern members who held nullification principles to an open discussion which should compel them to show their colors. Senator Foote assumed the task of moving the resolutions, which bore mainly on the question of the final disposal of the public lands and the proceeds of their sales; but he consented to do this on the condition that he should not make a speech upon his own resolutions. This was characteristic of the man. While in Congress, and, in fact, during a long and successful political life, he rarely was known to make a speech, although, whenever he did speak, it was to the point. His success was owing to his stanchness and sagacity of character. He was a man of positive opinions, often standing quite alone, as on the Missouri Compromise question; but he was known to friend and foe as a politician of inflexible honesty, and one who despised intrigue. He led men by his force of will and independence of character. If not an orator, it is an interesting fact that the father of Admiral Foote was a prominent actor in the first great public strife of opinion between the North and the South, and between those principles which go to strengthen and uphold the authority of the national government, and those which tend to its dissolution. The father may thus be

said, in some sense, to have begun the contest which ended in the war of the Rebellion, and the triumph of the principles of republican government—a war in which his son bore so distinguished a part.

The childhood and youth of Admiral Foote were those of a boy brought up in strict Puritan principles, modified perhaps by the gentler influence of his mother, who, by her womanly tact in ordinary matters, was the true executrix of the household, although the father, as in the old Hebrew household, held the supreme authority, which was never relaxed in a real difference of opinion.

Unquestioning obedience was the rule of the family life. This held good not only in respect of domestic authority, but extended also to teachers and all superiors in age and rank. The schoolmaster stood in loco parentis, and the most rigorous discipline administered at school was taken at home as good evidence that it was well deserved, and admitted of no appeal.

It was held that talents were given to be used, and idleness was looked upon as the great sin. The day began with the song of the birds. The son was expected to give his spare hours to the service of his parents at home or in the field, and the most deferential respect was enjoined in their presence. Plain diet, simple apparel, hard work, and, above all, profound reverence for the Sabbath, and unfailing attendance upon public worship and all religious ordinances, characterized this and other sober Puritan households, even down to the beginning of the present century, in Connecticut, "the land of steady habits."

Andrew was a lively boy, indisposed to study or routine of any kind; and though he had no bad traits, he loved freedom. and fun. The family consisted of robust boys, with no sister's softening influence; and many were the pranks of these youngsters, in which Andrew was the leader. One story is

told of him, which, considering the austere setting of circumstances in which it appears, must have been at the time ludicrous enough. His oldest brother John, who shared his funloving temper, had played some successful prank, which, by all principles of boy-law, it was incumbent upon Andrew to return with interest. He armed himself with a no less effectual and no more destructive missile than a rotten apple, and, standing behind a door, patiently awaited his opportunity. At length hearing some one approaching whom he supposed to be his brother, he darted from his concealment, and threw the apple with all his force, when, to his horror, he saw that it had taken effect in the bosom of his father's ruffled shirt, who had just come out of his chamber, having carefully arrayed himself for the occasion of delivering a public address on the return of peace. The indignant sire, supposing that the jest was intended for himself, rushed to seize the offender, but fright lent wings to his feet; and as the church-bell was already tolling for the public service, the pursuit was necessarily abandoned to allow time for a speedy change of dress; so that an opportunity was gained by Andrew to send in an explanation and apology; and, to his infinite satisfaction, the young rogue was released with a severe reprimand.

Other anecdotes are told, quite as trivial in themselves, which, however, are characteristic of the spirit of the boy, and show that his resolute nature manifested itself early. While but a wee bit of a lad, he was one day leading his younger brother Augustus, who was dressed in a red frock, across a meadow where there was a large merino ram. The buck, excited by the red dress, charged furiously upon the little fellow. Andrew bravely threw himself in the way, and received the shock; and this he did several times, until they had reached the fence in safety. His brother (Hon. John A. Foote, of Cleveland, Ohio, who tells this story) says of the occurrence, that it was undoubtedly the admiral's first ram fight. B

Another story of Andrew's youthful days might have been told of hundreds and thousands of plucky boys, but which, at all events, shows that the spirit of fight was born in him, and was ready to manifest itself on any real provocation of insult or injustice. When he had grown to be a bigger lad, he went one winter's day into a shoemaker's shop, and left the shop door open behind him. One of the workmen thereupon ordered him in a peremptory way to shut the door. Andrew thought the tone was too authoritative, and refused to shut the door unless asked civilly. The workman, thereupon growing wrathful, told him that if he did not close the door he would thrash him; and at once the ire of our young hero was kindled, and Crispin was laid helpless across his own bench, while the old master, who had watched the affair over his spectacles, instead of interfering, cried out, "Bravo! bravo! well done, lad!"

His brother John says of his early years: "He was a stuttering, stammering, left-handed little boy. A cot was fitted tightly over his left hand, and he was required to use only his right. When he commenced speaking, he was admonished to speak slowly, and to beat time with his right hand.

"When we were boys together, it was a rule in our family to commence the Sabbath early on Saturday evening, and play was to be suspended until we could see three stars on Sunday evening. Herschel and other distinguished men have had great credit for discovering new stars, but I have sometimes queried whether the future admiral did not in those days discover some stars never seen by any of them. Very certain I am that the play sometimes commenced before I could see any stars; and I am equally certain that he never, in after-life, watched for them in a storm at sea, or on a lee shore, more anxiously than when a boy, on a Sunday evening, he watched for them as a license to begin his sports.

"As a boy, he was full of fun and frolic—a real boy-but

Influences that drew Him to the Sea. 19

he was genial, kind, and popular, and I do not remember of his ever being quarrelsome.”

Such incidents of his youthful days might be multiplied; it would, however, be interesting to inquire what it was that gave the first turn to his life, and led him to seek the sea. It is said Hugh Miller remembered that when a child not three years old he went into the garden one day, and saw there "a minute duckling, covered with soft, yellow hair, growing out of the soil by its feet, and beside it a plant that bore as its flowers a crop of little mussel-shells of a deep red color." This really belonged to the vegetable kingdom; and the discriminating observation of a new fact in nature by one so young seemed prophetic of the future man of science.

Nothing remarkable of this kind is recorded of Admiral Foote's childhood. The sea is a magnet that draws its own to it wherever they may be. The plowboy on the hill-side or on the prairie far away hears in his mind's inner sense the perpetual undertone of ocean, and drops the plow, and makes his way to the coast to embark upon the adventurous life of the sailor. The love of the sea is one of those instincts that are original in the nature of some. This only is to be said of our hero's youth, that his earliest recollections were of ships. His father, when he lived in New Haven, was engaged in the West India trade, and his place of business was upon the well-known quay called "Long Wharf." For the first ten years of his married life his father was, as he himself supposed, subject to an affection of the lungs, and occasionally made a voyage to the West Indies, in the capacity of supercargo of one of his own vessels. As these absences were infrequent, the going and coming produced a strong impression upon the imagination of his children, as they watched the departing or returning sail, and probably awoke in one of them at least the vague and wild desires after a sailor's life.

It is also not altogether improbable that the war of 1812,