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JARED SPARKS, whose name will ever be inseparably associated with American History, and who has done more than any other, if not all others, to hand down to posterity the great names and important events of our revolutionary annals, was born in Willington, Connecticut, in 1792. His father was a poor farmer, and he was apprenticed to a carpenter. But his innate love of books was so strong that he would devote all his leisure time to reading and study; hence he was known in the neighborhood as a youth of no small literary acquirements, for his age and opportunities, and when he was applied to, to keep the district school, his master readily gave him his time. He found a number of kind friends ready to aid him in his pursuit of knowledge; and, in 1809, he went to Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, then under the charge of that venerable and accomplished scholar and gentleman, Benjamin Abbot, LL. D. He entered Harvard in 1811, sustained partly by funds of the college and partly by the receipts from the district schools which he kept during the three winter months. For the first year after graduating he was preceptor of Lancaster Academy, and then returned to Cambridge to pursue his theological studies, at the same time discharging the duties of tutor in college, in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.

On the 5th of May, 1819, he was ordained over the first Unitarian Church in Baltimore, on which occasion Dr. Channing delivered his celebrated sermon on Unitarian Christianity. For a number of years Mr. Sparks wrote extensively upon subjects of theological controversy, and published, in 1820, "Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal Church," in reply to a sermon by Rev. Wm. E. Wyatt, of St. Paul's Church. About this time he commenced a monthly periodical, entitled "The Unitarian Miscellany and Christian Monitor." While in Baltimore, he commenced the publication of a "Collection of Essays and Tracts in Theology, from Various Authors, with Biographical and Critical Notices;" completed in Boston, in 1826, in six volumes. In 1823, appeared "An Inquiry into the Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines," in a series of Letters to Samuel Miller, D. D., of Princeton. The latter part of that year he removed to Boston, and purchased the "North American Review," of which he became the sole editor, and continued such till 1830. In 1828, “he commenced that noble series of volumes illustrative of American History, to which he has ever

since devoted himself, and which have forever associated his own name with the names of the most illustrious of our countrymen."

The first of his historical works was the "Life of John Ledyard," the American Navigator and Traveller, one volume, octavo, published in 1828; the second, "The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution," in twelve volumes, 1829 to 1831; the third, "The Life of Gouverneur Morris," in three volumes, 1832; the fourth, "The Life and Writings of Washington," twelve volumes, 1833 to 1840; the fifth, "The Works of Benjamin Franklin, with Notes, and a Life of the Author," ten volumes, 1840; the sixth, "Correspondence of the American Revolution; being letters of eminent men to George Washington, from the time of his taking the command of the army to the end of his Presidency," four volumes, 1853.

In 1835, Mr. Sparks commenced the "Library of American Biography;" and the first series, in 10 volumes, was completed in 1839. The "Second Series," consisting of 15 volumes, was begun in 1843, and finished in 1846. Of the sixty lives in these 25 volumes, Mr. Sparks wrote the biographies of Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, Father Marquette, Robert Cavelier de la Salle, Count Pulaski, John Ribault, Charles Lee, and John Ledyard. It is to Mr. Sparks, also, that we are indebted for one of the most valuable periodical publications, "The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge," the first volume of which was edited by him, in 1830. This is a work of such value, as a book of reference, that no one who has ever taken it feels that he can do without it.

In 1839, Mr. Sparks was appointed to the M'Lean Professorship of Ancient and Modern History, in Harvard University, which chair he held till 1849, when he was elected President of that institution. This high post of honor and responsibility he held till 1852, when he felt obliged to resign it on account of ill health.

Such is a brief outline of the literary labors of this distinguished scholar, who now resides in Cambridge, engaged, it is said, on a "History of the American Revolution."

ANECDOTE OF JOHN LEDYARD.

On the margin of the Connecticut River, which runs near the college,' stood many majestic forest trees, nourished by a rich soil. One of these Ledyard contrived to cut down. He then

'Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.

set himself at work to fashion its trunk into a canoe, and in this labor he was assisted by some of his fellow students. As the canoe was fifty feet long, and three wide, and was to be dug out and constructed by these unskilful workmen, the task was not a trifling one, nor such as could be speedily executed. Operations were carried on with spirit, however, till Ledyard wounded himself with an axe, and was disabled for several days. When recovered, he applied himself anew to his work; the canoe was finished, launched into the stream, and, by the further aid of his companions, equipped and prepared for a voyage. His wishes were now at their consummation, and, bidding adieu to these haunts of the muses, where he had gained a dubious fame, he set off alone, with a light heart, to explore a river, with the navigation of which he had not the slightest acquaintance. The distance to Hartford was not less than one hundred and forty miles; much of the way was through a wilderness, and in several places there were dangerous falls and rapids.

With a bearskin for a covering, and his canoe well stocked with provisions, he yielded himself to the current, and floated leisurely down the stream, seldom using his paddle, and stopping only in the night for sleep. He told Mr. Jefferson in Paris, fourteen years afterwards, that he took only two books with him, a Greek Testament and Ovid, one of which he was deeply engaged in reading, when his canoe approached Bellows' Falls, where he was suddenly roused by the noise of the waters rushing among the rocks through the narrow passage. The danger was imminent, as no boat could go down that fall without being instantly dashed in pieces. With difficulty he gained the shore in time to escape such a catastrophe, and, through the kind assistance of the people in the neighborhood, who were astonished at the novelty of such a voyage down the Connecticut, his canoe was drawn by oxen around the fall, and committed again to the water below, From that time, till he arrived at his place of destination, we hear of no accident, although he was carried through several dangerous passes in the river. On a bright spring morning, just as the sun was rising, some of Mr. Seymour's family were standing near his house on the high bank of the small river that runs through the city of Hartford, and empties itself into the Connecticut River, when they espied at some distance an object of unusual appearance, moving slowly up the stream. Others were attracted by the singularity of the sight, and all were conjecturing what it could be, till its questionable shape

assumed the true and obvious form of a canoe; but by what impulse was it moved forward, none could determine. Something was seen in the stern, but apparently without life or motion. At length the canoe touched the shore directly in front of the house; a person sprang from the stern to a rock in the edge of the water, threw off a bearskin in which he had been enveloped, and behold John Ledyard, in the presence of his uncle and connections, who were filled with wonder at this sudden apparition; for they had received no intelligence of his intention to leave Dartmouth, but supposed him still there, diligently pursuing his studies, and fitting himself to be a missionary among the Indians.

We cannot look back to Ledyard, thus launching himself alone in so frail a bark, upon the waters of a river wholly unknown to him, without being reminded of the only similar occurrence which has been recorded the voyage down the river Niger, by Mungo Park, a name standing at the very head of those most renowned for romantic and lofty enterprise. The melancholy fate, it is true, by which he was soon arrested in his noble career, adds greatly to the interest of his situation, when pushing from the shore his little boat Joliba, and causes us to read his last affecting letter to his wife with emotions of sympathy more intense, if possible, than would be felt if the tragical issue were not already known. In many points of character, there was a strong resemblance between these two distinguished travellers, and they both perished, martyrs in the same cause, attempting to explore the hidden regions of Africa.

CHARACTER OF ETHAN ALLEN.

There is much to admire in the character of Ethan Allen. He was brave, generous, and frank, true to his friends, true to his country, consistent and unyielding in his purposes, seeking at all times to promote the best interests of mankind, a lover of social harmony, and a determined foe to the artifices of injustice and the encroachments of power. Few have suffered more in the cause of freedom, few have borne their sufferings with a firmer constancy or a loftier spirit. His courage, even when apparently approaching to rashness, was calm and delibeNo man probably ever possessed this attribute in a more remarkable degree. He was eccentric and ambitious, but these weaknesses, if such they were, never betrayed him into acts dishonorable, unworthy, or selfish. His enemies never had cause

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to question his magnanimity, nor his friends to regret confidence misplaced or expectations disappointed. He was kind and benevolent, humane and placable. In short, whatever may have been his peculiarities, or however these may have diminished the weight of his influence and the value of his public services, it must be allowed that he was a man of very considerable importance in the sphere of his activity, and that to no individual among her patriot founders is the State of Vermont more indebted for the basis of her free institutions, and the achievement of her independence, than to ETHAN ALLEN.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

The acts of the Revolution derive dignity and interest from the character of the actors, and the nature and magnitude of the events. It has been remarked, that in all great political revolutions, men have arisen, possessed of extraordinary endowments, adequate to the exigency of the time. It is true enough that such revolutions, or any remarkable and continued exertions of human power, must be brought to pass by corresponding qualities in the agents; but whether the occasion makes the men, or men the occasion, may not always be ascertained with exactness. In either case, however, no period has been adorned with examples more illustrious, or more perfectly adapted to the high destiny awaiting them, than that of the American Revolution.

Statesmen were at hand, who, if not skilled in the art of governing empires, were thoroughly imbued with the principles of just government, intimately acquainted with the history of former ages, and, above all, with the condition, sentiments, feelings of their countrymen. If there were no Richelieus nor Mazarines, no Cecils nor Chathams, in America, there were men who, like Themistocles, knew how to raise a small state to glory and greatness.

The eloquence and the internal counsels of the Old Congress were never recorded; we know them only in their results; but that assembly, with no other power than that conferred by the suffrage of the people, with no other influence than that of their public virtue and talents, and without precedent to guide their deliberations-unsupported even by the arm of law or of ancient usages-that assembly levied troops, imposed taxes, and for years not only retained the confidence and upheld the civil existence of a distracted country, but carried through a

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