the Latin School in 18 graduated at Harvard College in 1811, and was of the Law School; engaged in the study of law under the guidance of Hon. William Sullivan; married Anna Wroe Scollay, March, 1816; and married again, Margaret Stevenson, the widow of Rev. Dr. McKean. Mr. Curtis was the first legal solicitor for the city of Boston, which station he sustained for several years, with great honor to his reputation, and to the benefit of his constituents. He was a member of the city Council four years, from 1822, where his influence in the practical development of the city charter has contributed to its perpetuity. As a representative in the State Legislature, his sagacity and conciliation rendered him one of the most efficient members of that body. He is a counsellor-at-law, and one of the most profound practical pleaders; a whole-souled, courteous man; one of the most talented and most judicious advisers of the Boston bar, remarkable for honest candor. He is one of a very select literary and social party, known as the Friday Night Club, at which Chief Justice Shaw often presides. Mr. Curtis was one of the originators of the Boston Farm School, which grew out of the institution for indigent boys. He is a man of fine literary parts, and has been a frequent contributor to our public journals, especially on political topics. RUSSELL JARVIS. JULY 4, 1833. FOR THE WASHINGTON SOCIETY. WAS a son of Samuel Gardner Jarvis, and born in Boston; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1810; was a counsellor-at-law, and married Caroline, a daughter of Judge Dana, of Chelsea, V. T.; and married a second wife, Sarah Eliza, a daughter of Thomas Cordis, merchant, of Boston, in 1824. His wife and two daughters lost their lives in the burning of the steamer Lexington, Jan. 13, 1840. In 1828 he became an editor of the Washington Telegraph, in connection with Duff Green. Mr. Jarvis is a radiant halo of his eloquent uncle, the bald eagle of the Boston seat. He is one of the readiest political writers amongst us, and has exercised great influence in the circle of Democracy. "In breathing our hopes of European emancipation," says the fervent Jarvis, "let not Greece-lovely, interesting Greece - be neglected or forgotten. O Greece! the cradle of the poet and the philosopher, the home of the hero and the statesman, whose name awakens every sublime recollection, and whose ancient memory is bound to the American heart by every tie that literature, science, or love of liberty can weave, — when the American forgets thee, 'may her right hand forget her cunning!' Where are thy glories now? The feet of barbarians have polluted thy soil, and the siroc of despotism has passed over thee. Thy Acropolis is crumbled in ruins! thy Parthenon lays low in dust! the Muses have fled thy Parnassus! thy Helicon murmurs in vain! the harp of thy Homer is broken! thy Sapphos are mute, and their lyres are unstrung! And could thy sufferings excite no sympathy in the bosoms of thy royal neighbors? Could not one faith, could not the worship of one Lord and one gospel, could not the voice of humanity, call forth the Holy Alliance to protect thee, or restrain them from monstrous combination with thy oppressors? O monarchs of Europe! members of the Holy Alliance! who claim to be Heaven's vicegerents, and to be set over mankind for dispensing that happiness which you profanely say they cannot procure for themselves, - how, in the days of your last account, will the genius of injured Greece stand before you, and point her accusing finger to your crimes! She will say, 'My children sought refuge among you, and you shut your door against them! My daughters were carried into bondage, and your ships transported them! My sons implored your aid, and you gave it to their enemies! My cities were laid in ruins, and you furnished the firebrands! But for you, the barbarian had been long since subdued, and my land the abode of liberty, peace, and happiness! But for you, the fires of Scio had never been kindled, and the blood that now stains every blade of grass in my violated territory would still have warmed hearts more generous than your own!' But, however great the sufferings of this people, however formidable their enemies, or however efficiently aided by Christian kings, yet God will prosper their righteous cause, and scatter confusion among their enemies. The spirit of ancient Greece is waked from the slumber of ages! The tongue of Demosthenes is loosed! the sword of Miltiades is drawn! every strait is a Salamis, and every sailor a Themistocles! a Leonidas starts up in every peasant, and every mountain pass becomes a new Thermopyla! And not only in Greece shall the Moloch of royalty be overturned, but in whatever corner of Europe the idol can find worshippers. The reign of kings is a violation of natural right. The cause of mankind is not their cause. The day of retribution approaches! The clouds are gathering! The tempest will soon burst! And when royalty shall be swept away in its avenging fury, the rainbow of Republicanism shall span the heavens, giving promise of lasting peace and security!" JOSEPH BARTLETT. JULY 4, 1823. A VOLUNTEER ORATION. THIS oration was delivered at the hall in the Exchange Coffee-house, including, also, a poem, an ode, and The New Vicar of Bray,— all written and delivered by himself. He was born at Plymouth, June 10, 1762; graduated at Harvard College in 1782; and married Ann Witherell, of Plymouth. He was a counsellor-at-law in Woburn, Portsmouth, and Boston. Was captain of the Republican Volunteers, in 1788. In 1799 Mr. Bartlett published "Physiognomy," a poem recited before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College. He was a senator of York, Maine, 1804; and editor of the Freeman's Friend, at Saco, in 1805, when he delivered an oration at Biddeford, July 4, 1805. Had not Mr. Bartlett descended to habits of inebriation, his influence might have been of the highest order. He was of highly facetious memory. The passage herewith given is selected from The New Vicar of Bray, recited after the delivery of the oration, at the Exchange Coffee-house: "We now see much upon the earth, Especially in Boston, Which gives to man a vigorous birth, 'Tis best for every class and trade, May he the difference never know "Twixt Federalist and Tory. Quincy, who now rules o'er our land, To rally round the board, sir; In those we place our trust, sir." He was author of a work replete with spicy wit, comprising Aphorisms on Men, Manners, Principles and Things, printed at Boston, 1823. Shortly previous to his decease (Oct. 27, 1827, aged sixtysix years), Mr. Bartlett wrote the following epitaph on himself, which he repeated on his death-bed: "Tis done! the fatal stroke is given, His friends approve it, and his foes applaud,— Yet he will have the verdict of his God." Mr. Bartlett, when attending the funeral of John Hale, an estimable citizen of Portsmouth, recited the following epitaph to his memory: "God takes the good, Too good by far to stay, Too bad to take away." FRANCIS BASSETT. JULY 4, 1824. FOR THE CITY AUTHORITIES. WAS born at Dennis, Mass.; graduated at Harvard College in 1810; is not a married man. He was a counsellor-at-law, and for many years clerk of the United States District Court, of this State. Has been a representative; was of the school committee from 1822 to 1826, at which period he was elected to the city Council. In 1839 Mr. Bassett gave the following sentiment, at the Cape Cod celebration, in Barnstable: "Cape Cod: The first-discovered land of the Pilgrims, -it will be the last to lose sight of their virtues." He is of a truly estimable character, and remarkable for bland and affable manners. JOHN EVERETT. JULY 4, 1824. FOR THE WASHINGTON SOCIETY. JOHN EVERETT was a son of the Hon. Oliver Everett, and was born at Dorchester, February 22, 1801. He received his preliminary education under the tuition of Masters Lyon, Farrar and Clapp, in Boston, where he distinguished himself as the finest declaimer in the school. He graduated at Harvard College in 1818, when he pronounced an oration on the character of Byron; and at a college exhibition, in the year previous, he gave an oration on the Poetry of the Oriental Nations. He delivered another oration, on the Prospects of the Young Men of America, before the senior class, July 14, 1818. Immediately after his graduation, he accompanied President Holley to Lexington, in Kentucky, where he became a tutor in Transylvania University, and delivered an unwritten oration, in the presence of Andrew Jackson, that was eminently successful. After his return to Massachusetts, Mr. Everett entered the Law School, at Cambridge; soon after which, he visited Europe, and was attached, for a short period, to the American legation at Brussels and the Hague, his elder brother, Alexander, being chargé d'affaires. On his return to Boston, he read law under the guidance of the Hon. Daniel Webster, and became an attorney at the Court of Common Pleas, in 1825., He served as one of the aids of Governor Eustis. He was a bud of promise early blighted. He died at Boston, Feb. 12, 1826. Mr. Everett was intensely interested in the politics of the day; and was an active member of the Boston Debating Society, a literary and political institution of elevated character. Having remarkable extemporaneous rhetorical power, and great facility in argument, he shortly became an important leader among these spirited young Bostonians. He had superior poetical genius, as is clearly evinced in an ode to St. Paul's Church; and by another ode, written for the Washington Society (of which he was a member), and sung at Concert Hall, July 4, 1825. The first lines of this patriotic effusion are as follows: "Hail to the day, when, indignant, a nation To the spirit of armies for justice appealed; With pride claimed the right of her glorious station, Hail to thy memory, era of liberty! Dear is thy sun to the hearts of the free!" |