appeared to be about as thoroughly soaked as he was, who had not left the line during the storm.''

We add a single remark: From the facts above stated, it is evident that Mr. Wright was fond of military exercises, and of military distinction. We were personally acquainted with him from the time he was elected to the senate in 1823, and while he was comptroller, and of course a resident of Albany, where we also resided, and were in habits of personal intercourse with him until he retired to Canton in the autumn of 1846; and yet we never heard or suspected that he had ever held any office in the militia. We knew him only as a citizen in civil life. We knew him as plain Mr. Wright, and not by the pompous title of General Wright. We mention this circumstance as evidence of the innate and peculiar modesty which in all situations governed the conduct and social intercourse of SILAS WRIGHT during his whole life.

CHAPTER II.

SILAS WRIGHT AT HOME.

FROM the first of January, 1824, to the first of the same month in the year 1847, the greater part of Mr. Wright's time was spent either at Albany or Washington, in the discharge of the high and responsible duties which devolved upon him as a member of the New York state senate, as the comptroller of the state, an office which draws within its vortex nearly all the important operations of the government, as a member of the House of Representatives, as senator of the United States, or as governor of the state. Overwhelmed with official business, and immersed in the wild and tempestuous ocean of politics, little can be seen or known of his domestic qualities and habits during that long period. The short time which during some of these years he was enabled to spend at home, made him rather a visiter than an inmate in his own house. It was only from the autumn of 1819 to that of 1823, that Mr. Wright can be said to have lived at home. But it is there where you see the man as he is. It is there where impatience, envy, irascibility, and all the bad passions to which poor human nature is subject, are too often displayed without restraint; and it is there where the kindly emotions of the heart are exhibited, and where they exist unadulterated with any sinister motive. It is by the domestic fireside-it is in the social intercourse with one's family and neighbors and intimate friends,

where there is no inducement for affectation or disguise, that the beams of "the soul's calm sunshine" are most conspicuous and most sensibly felt. To see Silas Wright as Silas Wright, we must look at him in the family of the old neighbor and friend of his father, Capt. Moody, in the remote and quiet village of Canton. We therefore insert the gleanings we have made from several obliging corre spondents, one of whom is the son of Mr. Moody, and another was the clergyman of the village, whom we have before mentioned as the classmate of the subject of these memoirs.

As respects Mr. Wright's professional efforts, a gentleman who was at one time sheriff of St. Lawrence, and afterwards a member of the assembly and senate from that county,* says:-"His habits were extremely plain, simple, and unambitious. He did not seem to seek business for profit or distinction. He was apparently uncon scious of his own powers.† He had acquired but little practice, and not a very extensive acquaintance in the county when he was nominated, in 1823, to the sen

"Of his early efforts at the bar I can say little. They were of a modest business character, without apparently aspiring to distinction; and yet even then, when he spent much of his time in what seemed to be an indolent manner, he showed that strict attention and punctu ality in what he had to do, which characterized him through life. The smallest call, even with the slightest

* Hon. D. C. Judson.

This we believe to be the peculiar characteristic of great minds. What they see is to their mental vision so obvious, that they think the most common minds cannot avoid perceiving and reasoning as they do

claims upon him, was never neglected. His physical powers, as well as his mental, were always at the service of his friends and neighbor's, and no man could be more beloved among them than he was."

During the several years he was a justice of the peace," says the Rev. H. S. Johnson, " he discharged the duties of the office to the entire satisfaction of all who employed him. As a justice and as a lawyer he made the most active and successful efforts to suppress and do away all unworthy and scurrilous litigation. One specimen of his efforts for this object may be given. He was employed as counsel for the defendant in a suit of this character. He exhibited the doings of his client in the transaction in a true light. Then he took up the character of the plaintiff, and treated it with the same impartiality. He said the whole transaction between the parties was unworthy and base in the extreme. Then in a very summary manner he pointed out that his client, of the two bad men, had been the most injured. The defendant was successful; but after the jury had given their verdict, he expressed great anger at Mr. Wright, and said to him, 'I did not employ you to rake my character, nor do I thank you for doing it.' Mr. Wright replied, My dear sir, your character in this whole transaction has been so bad, and is seen and felt by this court and jury to be so unworthy, that had I palliated it in the least, you would have lost your cause. My abhorrence of such conduct is like that of every reflecting man, and I hope you will profit by the disclosures of this day, so as not again to be subjected to a like embarrassment.'

"The Hon. Benjamin Raymond was for a number of years one of the judges of the Common Pleas in this county, [St. Lawrence.]

He was

one of the most

talented, discerning, and shrewd of men. About the first time Mr. Wright attended the circuit in this county, Judge Raymond had something of an intricate and difficult cause on trial. Unexpectedly his counsel failed to attend. In this emergency he employed Mr. Wright, who conducted the cause with scarcely an hour's time to prepare for it. In relating to me the affair afterwards, Judge Raymond said, 'I dislike the politics of that young man, but he has a most powerful intellect-a far-seeing mind, and he must and will rise to the first ranks of distinction.' He did rise, so that in two years he was second to no one of the able and experienced bar in the country.

"The first particular in which Mr. Wright excited admiration as a lawyer, was his happy talent at examining witnesses. Soon after he commenced the practice of law, it was perceived that in that respect he excelled all others. His questions were perfectly adapted to the ability of the person he was examining; nor could any witness evade his questions. In a short time he would draw out, clearly and fully, all the witness knew about the cause. At the same time he became equally noted for the clear and convincing manner in which he would lay open a difficult cause to a jury. Early it became a common remark, that Mr. Wright had more influence with the jury than any other lawyer who practised in St. Lawrence county." * "In all the offices, whether civil or military, which Mr. Wright held, the duties of which in an especial manner pertained to his own county, he discharged those duties without any apparent effort to please, to the entire satisfaction of all concerned, and so as to render himself the object of universal and affectionate regard. It has been a common remark of those most intimate with him, that he never