Conclusion. Continued from January issue

The Autobiography of William Mitchell Written in his 77th Year

As one of the outstanding citizens of Nantucket, William Mitchell was a teacher, business man and scientist, who was successful in all three fields. As the father of famous woman astronomer, Maria Mitchell, he was her first teacher, and, upon retirement, he spent his last years in her home. The manuscript was written in his 77th year, and is in the possession of the Maria Mitchell Association. This organization has given permission for its use in the issues of Historic Nantucket.

It is the form of a reminiscence addressed to his daughter, Phebe Mitchell.

(Continued from our January issue)

The Grammar School consisted of 202 scholars and I taught it with reasonable success for two years. But I was not satisfied with serving a committee; besides, the task of governing and instructing so large a school proved too much for me. I then built a school house in Howard Street* and opened a select school for 50 scholars, half of each sex. I have always looked back on this school with satisfaction. Punishment of any kind was almost unknown. We met together as common friends and for mutual improvement. After about three years, a circumstance occurred entirely beyond my control and with which I had nothing to do except as a sufferer, reduced it to about one third of its original number, at a time too when my family was largest and most expensive.

As if designed by a good Providence, the secretariship of the Phenix Insurance company became vacant and I received the appointment. The salary of this position was scarcely sufficient for the maintenance of my large family. Indeed, pecuniarily, my whole life has been a struggle, subjecting thy patient mother to such endurance.

The office of Treasurer of the Savings Bank, instituted about this time, was without salary in its early days. I continued in the position till the 2nd mo. 1837, when I was chosen cashier of the Pacific Bank, with no increase of salary except the use of the dwelling house. This position, as well as that of the Treasurer-ship of the Savings Bank, I held till the 4th of 10 mo. 1861 — 24 years — when I left the island without an unpaid debt outside of my own family.

When learning my trade, the troubles of the country in reference to our relations with England and France became serious, and politics was the theme in all gatherings and every man was a politician. The subject being so frequently discussed ir. our shop, I became infected by it and was recognized by my young friends as a thorough Jeffersonian, a political bias which grew with my growth for some years. • Now the Library of the Maria Mitchell Association.

After the war with England, however, the attention of the country was turned to other objects and the old lines of political demarcation became extinct. In 1820 I was elected a member of the Massachusetts Convention for the revision of the Constitution, on the occasion of the separation of Maine.

This convention consisted of 500 members and probably embraced much more talent than ever before had been gathered in the State. Besides all the judges of the Supreme Court, and nearly all of the Inferior Courts, who are ineligible to the Legislature, a great number of the distinguished clergymen of the commonwealth were elected.

Outside of either of these departments, there were retired members of congress, distinguished barristers from all parts of the state and not a few distinguished merchants. Chief Justice Parker was its President. As my very good friend James Savage, the Antiquarian and myself, of that 500 persons, are the only survivors known to me. As the youngest member but one, thou wilt not marvel if I incline to dwell upon it.

It was a great school, not of politics only but of the highest style of American oratory. With this body I met six weeks, and although its proceedings were in the highest degree instructive and entertaining, (to say nothing of its being my first trip to Boston), I was not contented for a moment. I loathed every part of it. I thought of nothing but my family. I had left them and my business for three weeks only, a period which every one believed would be ample for the accomplishment of the object.

This delay with its discomfort turned me against public life, and the disgust lasted 24 years. The great cause of the delay was the multitude of speech-makers. Among these were Webster, Story, Quincy, Lincoln, Snaw, Austin, Savage, Saltenstall, Blake, Hoar, Dutton, Philips, Dean, Baldwin, Foster, Abbott, and Freeman and great numbers of less eminent debaters. It was an array of talent which no state but Massachusetts could then have summoned together. The greatest evil was the length of the speeches.

The first President Adams was a member of this body, and a seat by the side of the President of the Convention was assigned, and a vote of the Convention was taken that he might sit with his hat on or off as best suited his comfort. The legislative etiquette, and a miserable means of ventilation over his head, rendered this vote of the Convention necessary. He wore the marks of a great man in his expression and manner, impaired by age, and he retained that beautiful personal proportion for which in his vigour he was so much distinguished.

He often sat with little or no mark of fatigue through a meeting of five hours, while walking from his seat to his carriage he was supported on both sides by his colleagues. When he spoke in the assembly he stood unassisted. His speeches, though short, were always pithy, not unfrequently banishing, by a single remark, the lengthened argument

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET of some less experienced politician. He was the only member who had also been a member of the convention of 1780 that first framed the Constitution, and he appeared to have a lively recollection of the reasoning of its members.

Most of the distinguished speakers of the Convention were about 40 or 45 years of age. The profoundest orator was Webster, just then in his prime, but the best speaker, by far, was Joseph Story, who had been then eight years judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Story was personally handsome; his complexion was fair and his hair was light sandy. He was slightly below the medium size and his motions were quick. He was full of learning, and started as a poet, and wrote and published the "Power of Solitude" before he had reached his 24th year. His business however was the law and he became an ornament of the bar. He was an accomplished scholar in oratory, and his fluency was unrivalled. His gesticulation was of itself a rare specimen of eloquence.

Unlike Webster, Story was persuasive and on one occasion, at least, drew tears from the whole 500 grown men. The effect ceased however, with the speech, and we remembered only the man. Not so with the mighty Daniel. While he made the hall tremble with the thunder of his voice, his hearers imagined that the pillars of the State were crumbling and inevitable ruin would follow instantly adopted, however, absurd. This was memorably the case, when in an evening setting upon a very exciting theme, when every member was in his seat, and every inch of the galleries occupied by an eager and admiring audience, he compelled the convention to vote by a large majority that Quakers should nave a privilege which should be withheld from all other religious denominations.

The late venerable Josiah Quincy was an active member. He was a politician, and a statesman but not a pleasing speaker. He was at that period a broad shouldered big fisted man of about 45. A fine rhetorical scholar, but peculiarly liable to blunders. Of these, Story, who was his friend, and whose seat was near, often, in an undertone, twitted him while he was speaking. It was a parliamentory rule of the Convention that no gentleman should be alluded to by his name, but spoken of as "the gentleman" from what ever place he belonged to.

Quincy was replying to a speech of Levi Lincoln and in allusion to him called him "Mr. Lincoln" and on perceiving his blunder, called him "the gentleman from Lincoln", and perceiving this was not right recalled and got it right. Seemingly for fear he had not yet got it right, he repeated it twice over amidst a roar of laughter. He was nevertheless one of the most able members of the Convention.

The talent, learning and importance of this assembly would have been of much more value to me if the cares of my family had not so distressed me. Twenty four years afterward I submitted to be nominated as a candidate to the Senate of the State and was elected by a very large majority, and I may say here that I never desired but one political office, and this, my friends, unasked, failed in their attempts

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM MITCHELL

13 to obtain for me. I was subsequently without previous knowledge, elected by the Legislature a member of Governor Briggs' Council, and a second time by a much increased majority. This office I enjoyed. I loved the Governor and he loved me.

I was elected by the Legislature a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College for 6 years, and at the expiration of the term, re-elected by nearly all the votes of the joint body of the Senate and House of Representatives. In this position which I had the vanity to enjoy, I made many very pleasant acquaintances, among whom were the exgovernors Andrew and Washburn and the present governor Bullock.

ExGovernor Everett I had known before, when I was a member of the Senate, and served with him also on the committee for the superintendence of the observatory of Harvard College. This interest and his action, too, in reference to Maria's claim or title to the King of Denmark's medal, was the cause of quite an active correspondence for a while, and I have always esteemed it a favour to have known personally so much of that good, talented and patriotic man.

These are the principal events of my public life. I was not indifferent to the honour of these exalted positions, but I never had the taste nor the qualification for the employment, and at no time to my recollection, did I ever by word or deed suggest or promote these appointments.

I have somehow had a sort of scientific reputation, and while I know I never was entitled to it, I cannot honestly deny that I was ambitious of it.

There was in me an innate love of astronomical inquiries. My father had some taste of this kind and just enough to light the flame in his son. The Aurora Borealis had fastened itself on his mind, and I listened with rapture to his stories concerning it. But it was during one of those fitful periods of its entire absence, and I looked in vain for a glimpse of it, till I had reached my 23rd year when, for the first time, I witnessed the phenomenon. I had early looked for comets also, and that of 1807 was the first I saw.

Not so with the stars. Alone on my father's housetop, I familiarized myself with the configuration of the stars. I recognized the motion of the planets among them before I knew the name of any of them but Saturn, or even the existence of the constellations. It was the seeming vagaries of the moon's motions that roused in me a determination to know something more of these matters. I do not recollect how I came in possession of "Ferguson's Astronomy", but no better book could have fallen into my hands, in spite of the numberless attempts to improve upon it, it is still the best work for one beginning the study.

I very soon found the necessity of a sufficient knowledge of mathematics, which the incessant cares of life never permitted me to

T HE A U T OBIOG RA PH Y O F W ILL IAM M ITC H E L L

1 5 obtain, and for this want, the gratification of my astronomical taste has at all times been a struggle. Nevertheless, in middle life, as I can now see, though then unconscious of it, I held by comparison quite a position among astronomers of that day. Now the number of good astronomers is so great, I am so low on the scale, that I lay no claim to credit, except that of an ardent lover of the valuable and sublime inquiry.

The scientific men of the country however have not been wanting in their acknowledgment of my attainments. Having occasionally lectured on Astronomy in my native town, I unexpectedly received an invitation to deliver an entire course on that subject before the "Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge" of which Daniel Webster was President and Nathaniel Frothingham secretary. The invitation was accompanied with a wish that I might prepare a lecture on the subject generally to be given as their Introductory of the season's course.

Although I had never lectured out of my native town, I ventured to accept this flattering invitation, more especially as the emolument was large. The lectures were delivered in the Hall of the Masonic Temple. During the delivery of the first, as well as at its close, I considered it a failure, and resolved to relieve the society from its unfortunate engagement. While in this moody condition, walking on the Common, I met Dr. Storer, an officer of the society. He voluntarily assured me that my lecture had given the highest satisfaction, and three Boston newspapers having spoken in the same flattering manner, I ventured to finish the course. At subsequent periods, I delivered many courses, in Boston, Roxbury, Charlestown, Salem, New Bedford and Hudson, N.Y.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences early elected me, voluntarily, a member of their body. Brown University and Harvard College have both conferred upon me the degree of Master of Arts. As a business man I had no gifts. I had a large family to maintain and educate, and with my appreciation of the latter, my life was rendered a continuous struggle. Never looking beyond that, nor having any desire to be wealthy, I was often much straitened: but no bill failed to be paid on presentation. Yet I doubt whether I ever was solvent in case all my bills had been presented at once.

At two periods I was brought to extreme poverty — once during the war with England, and once at a later and much more important period of my life, by the perfidy of a pretended friend.

When I have called to mind the number and variety of occupations by which I have earned my bread, I have been amused. A cooper, a soap boiler, an oil and candle manufacturer, a farmer, a schoolmaster, an Insurance Broker, a Surveyer, a Chronometer rater, an astronomical observer for the Coast Survey, Justice of the Peace, Executor Wills and Administrator of estates. Also a writer of Wills, deeds & other instruments, Cashier of a bank, Treasurer of a Savings Bank. And, without emolument, a member and for some years President of the board of Trustees of the Nantucket Atheneum — a member and for

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET many years Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Admiral Coffin's School. For many years I was the Chairman of the Committee for the Superintendence of the Observatory of Harvard College. At two different periods, I was the clerk of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends, once for 10 and once for 5 years.

I think it proper to say something of my religious profession and beliefs, though I esteem the latter of little consequence. I was born a member of the Society of Friends, and I do not regret it. Morally it is a wise and, religiously, a good system. I do not mean to say that everything about it is exactly conformable to my own views. I have always made sacrifices to the commonweal as in duty bound. I never was a religionist. Few persons who have been recognized as religious professors have talked less on the subject than I have.

The character of Quakerism as well as that of Truth itself has suffered much by the divisions which in recent times have been manifested in the Society. To the causes of these ruptures, I attach no importance. In two of them I was active, being in each case Clerk of the meeting; but — regret every word and every action, though at the time honestly done.

It is a satisfaction to me, that in the education of my children I gave them no sectarian bias. "To fear God and keep his commandments" was all that I desired of them.

To attend religious meetings I always considered at least a reasonable duty, and few men probably have been more faithful in the performance of that duty; ana few persons have better enjoyed the silent meetings of Friends. Without disparagement to those humble, sincere and pious men and women who have honestly believed themselves called upon to preach, I better enjoy a silent meeting.

Maria had been for years desirous of living near Boston, and Katy being settled in Lynn, she gave this city a preference and purchased a cottage in Essex Street, and thither I went with her. It was only three months after thy mother's death; and although there was much to divert and interest me in my new abode, I spent many periods of inexpressible gloom.

After a residence in Lynn of nearly four years, I followed Maria to Vassar College, where now for nearly three years I have enjoyed almost exclusively the society of intelligent young ladies from 15 to 30 years of age with scarcely a circumstance to throw a shade on my declining days. They have, without a known exception, respected my age and honoured my grey hairs. Among the teachers and professors, I have made acquaintances that a prince might covet.

I close my narrative, but it would be quite incomplete if I did not acknowledge my gratitude to that Great and Good Being, who through