quent inquiries repecting them, and inquiring particularly, and with evident solicitude, concerning the apprehended difficulties with France, which constituted at that time the most engrossing national topic.

He was, moreover, a religious man and a Christian. He believed in the divine origin of Christianity with a firm conviction, and after thorough examination of its evidences. Few laymen have spent so much time in the study of theology. During more than fifty years he had been in the habit of passing his Sabbaths, excepting the hours of public worship, which he attended constantly, in theological pursuits, which would make, (as he has himself computed it,) between seven and eight years given expressly to the subject. He preserved his acquaintance with Greek to the last, and commonly read the New Testament in its original language. Of the Hebrew he also had some knowledge, and sometimes referred to it in examining the Old Testament. He was well versed in biblical criticism, and understood well most of the theological controversies of the day. In his unpublished work, he has treated quite at large the subject of religion, so far as it is connected with and recognised in our constitutions of government. But he was not in theory only, a Christian; he was practically devout and religious. There was found among his papers a prayer, which he composed about thirty years since for his own use; and which would be found by all a valuable help to devotion. He was conscientious in his attendance on the public institutions of religion; and to its ministers he proved himself, by his attentions, his counsel, and his substance, peculiarly a friend. The best evidence, however, of his being at heart a Christian, was, his life; that childlike purity, which was free equally from the contamination of gross or more polished vice-that perfect sincerity, which scorned low intrigue and every form of deceit—that untiring diligence, with which he improved his talents, and consecrated them to worthy, useful, and high ends. His death was serene, beautiful, and happy. Three

months previously, he was seized with a paralytic affection. The shock came upon him in the midst of perfect health. But it was received without alarm, and in entire submission to the divine will. From that time his strength gradually decayed, and he gently sunk away to rest. He retained to the last a delightfully composed cheerfulness. He felt-and none could more truly say-his work was done. Rarely has there been one, that had proposed to himself so much, who lived to see his objects so fully accomplished. And if then, and even before, there was, as he reflected on his exertions and the success which had attended them, a complacency bordering on weakness, it was certainly a pardonable self-satisfaction. His reason never for a moment during his illness forsook him. He continued, almost to the closing scene, to converse with his friends on such subjects of a general nature as had usually interested him, as well as on those relating immediately to his expected departure. Only a few hours before his death, he gave directions respecting his burial, and with the same collectedness took leave of the rela tives that surrounded his dying bed. He died February 15, 1835.

For consistency and integrity, a well-spent life, and a peaceful death, it would be difficult to find his superior. Such a life and such a death are the best illustration at once of the reality and the value of virtue and religion. The example they contain may justly be held forth for imitation, not merely to those of the same profession, but to all young men, and to all of whatever age, who would secure the most desirable distinctions for themselves, and be the best benefactors of their country and race.

[We are indebted for the foregoing sketch to a respected fellow-townsman of Mr. Dane. We add a few words more. Mr. Dane read law under the late Judge Wetmore. While in the Senate of Massachusetts he is said to have been distinguished by his ability in debate, knowledge of public business,

and capacity for discharging it, and the uprightness and directness of his views. The Journals of the Old Congress, in which he continued till the adoption of the present Constitution of the United States, show that he was appointed on nearly every committee of any importance. It was in this assembly that he reported the celebrated Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio. The first part of this Ordinance establishes the rules of inheritance and of dower, of wills, and of conveyance both of personal and real property, to remain in force until altered by the legislature of the District. By these rules the estates of persons dying intestate were to be distributed among their children in equal parts—thus repudiating the rule of primogeniture. The distinction between kindred of the whole and half blood was also repudiated. Other provisions follow, regulating the offices of Governor, Secretary, and Judges for the District, also the adoption and publication of laws, the appointment of magistrates, the civil divisions, the right of representation, and the constitution of the legislative power of the District, with some other provisions relating to matters of inferior consequence. Following these are six articles of compact between the original States, and the people, and States in the territory, to remain forever unalterable, unless by common consequence. By the first of these articles, every person in the territory is secured from being molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments. By the second, were established the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature, and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law, the right to full compensation for any person's property taken, in case of public exigency, and that principle-afterwards introduced into the constitution of the United States, and so ably and learnedly expounded by Marshall and Story-that no law ought ever to be made or have force in the territory, that shall in any manner whatever, interfere with or affect private contracts or engagements, bona VOL. XIV.NO. XXVII.

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fide, and without fraud, previously formed. The third article provides for the encouragement forever of schools, and the means of education, and for the observance of good faith towards the Indians. The fourth and fifth articles relate chiefly to the taxes, to which the inhabitants of the territory shall be liable, for the support of the National Government, and to the number and boundaries of the States which may be formed in the territory. The sixth and last article is in the following words: There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from where labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.' It is this article which has drawn the distinguished praise of many of the statesmen of the country, and has excited in the breasts of the vast and increasing people of the Territory, feelings of the strongest gratitude and respect for the individual who gave it a place in this fundamental compact, upon which their future liberties and happiness were based. 'We are accustomed,' said Mr. Webster in the debate on Mr. Foot's resolution in 1830, 'to praise the lawgivers of antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of a more distinct, marked and lasting character than the Ordinance of '87. That instrument was drawn by Nathan Dane, then and now a citizen of Massachusetts. It was adopted, as I think I have understood, without the slightest alteration; and certainly it has happened to few men, to be the authors of a political measure of more large and enduring consequence. It fixed, forever, the character of the population in the vast regions northwest of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. It impressed on the soil itself, while it was yet a wilderness, an incapacity to bear up any other than

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freemen. It laid the interdict against personal servitude, in original compact, not only deeper than all local law, but deeper, also, than all local constitutions. Under the circumstances then existing, I look upon this original and seasonable provision, as a real good attained. We see its consequences at this moment, and we shall never cease to see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall flow.' We should hardly be doing justice to the memory of Mr. Dane, if we did not quote the emphatic language in his honor, used by Mr. Webster on another occasion, during the above debate, in reply to the badly conceived sneers of Mr. Hayne. In the course of my observations the other day,' said Mr. W., 'I paid a passing tribute of respect to a very worthy man, Mr. Dane, of Massachusetts. It so happened that he drew the Ordinance of 1787, for the government of the northwestern territory. A man of so much ability, and so little pretence; of so great capacity to do good, and so unmixed a disposition to do it for its own. sake; a gentleman who had acted an important part, forty years ago, in a measure the influence of which is still deeply felt in the very matter which was the subject of debate, might, I thought, receive from me a commendatory recognition. But the honorable member was inclined to be facetious on the subject. He was rather disposed to make it matter of ridicule, that I had introduced into the debate the name of one Nathan Dane, of whom he assured us he had never before heard. Sir, if the honorable member had never before heard of Mr. Dane, I am sorry for it. It shows him less acquainted with the public men of the country, than I had supposed. Let me tell him, however, that a sneer from him, at the mention of the name of Mr. Dane, is in bad taste. It may well be a mark of ambition either with the honorable gentleman or myself, to accomplish as much, to make our names known to advantage, and remembered with gratitude, as Mr. Dane has accomplished.'

The Ordinance for the government of the northwestern territory—which has been the means of securing unspeakable