liberal education, than was probably the case in any other part of the civilized world. Thus, in addition to the number of men, not, indeed, profoundly learned, but competently instructed for any ordinary purpose of active life, a great mass of general information was diffused, and a universal activity of mind excited, throughout the whole community. The bigotry and fanaticism which occasionally disgraced the elder puritan settlers had died away; much, too, of their rigid virtue and high-toned principle had gradually decayed with them; but enough was left to keep up a very general regard to moral and religious character, and an habitual reference to principle, in the conduct and opinions of the great body of the people. Above all, the peculiar state of the country, which had just emerged from the hardships of a new and half-peopled colony, while it excluded most of the luxuries and many of the refinements of civilized life, had a strong tendency to train up the youth in those habits of simplicity and privation, of personal independence, and of constant activity of mind and body, which— however ill the parallel may accord with the magnificent illusions of classical prejudice-in fact constituted the most essential part of that education which formed the heroes and patriots of republican antiquity. Sanctos illis, horrida, mores-tradidit domus, ac veteres imitata Sabinas.

In this state of society was Mr. Ellsworth's character first formed, and the early impressions of his youth may be traced through the whole uniform tenor of his public and private life. His youth was passed alternately in agricultural labours, and in the elementary studies of a liberal education. At the age of seventeen he entered Yale College, but after some residence there, in consequence of some boyish disgust or irregularity, he removed to Princeton, where he completed his academic course, and received the degree of A. B. in 1766.

His standing as a student was sufficiently respectable; but he is said to have been much more remarkable for his shrewdness and adroit management in all the little politics of the college, than for any uncommon proficiency in science or literature. Within two or three years after his leaving college, he was admitted to the bar in Connecticut, and commenced the practice of his profession in the county of Hartford. The jurisprudence of Connecticut, after a long period of darkness and uncertainty, had, a

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very short time before Mr. Ellsworth's entrance upon professional life, assumed a regular form.

The common law, after overcoming many doubts, and some strenuous opposition,* was fully received; a regular mode of practice, not very formal, but sufficiently accurate for every ordinary purpose, was now settled; and the decisions of Lord Mansfield, and the other great English judges, who had introduced light and order into the scholastic refinements and nice technical distinctions of the ancient law, and gradually adapted it to the necessities of an enlightened age, and a commercial people, were at length familiarly cited at the Connecticut bar. This amelioration of the legal system was accompanied or preceded by a corresponding improvement in literature and taste, and public speakers and advocates found themselves compelled to pay much greater attention to correctness, and even elegance, of language, than the public taste had ever before required. With this era of legal and intellectual light Mr. Ellsworth commenced his professional career. He had not laid a very deep foundation either of general or of professional learning; but the native vigour of his mind supplied every deficiency; the rapidity of his conceptions made up for the want of previous knowledge; the diligent study of the cases which arose in actual business, stored his mind with principles; whatever was thus acquired was firmly rooted in his memory; and thus, as he became eminent, he grew learned. The whole powers of his mind were applied, with unremitted attention to the business of his profession, and those public duties in which he was occasionally engaged. Capable of great application, and constitutionally full of ardour, he pursued every object to which he applied himself with a strong and constant interest which never suffered his mind to flag or grow torpid with listless indolence. But his ardour was always under the guidance of sober reason. His cold and colourless imagination never led him astray from the realities of life to wanton in the gay visions of fancy; and his attention was seldom distracted by that general literary curiosity which so often beguiles the man of genius away from his destined pursuit, to waste his powers in studies of no immediate personal utility. At the same time his un

blemished character, his uniform prudence and regularity of conduct, acquired him the general confidence and respect of his fellow citizens-a people in a remarkable degree attentive to all the decorum and decencies of civilized life. He very soon rose into high reputation and lucrative practice; and before he had been long at the bar received the appointment of state's attorney for the district of Hartford, an office at that time of very considerable emolument. This he continued to hold during the greater part of the revolutionary war. From the very commencement of that contest he declared himself resolutely on the side of his country; and on two or three occasions, when Connecticut was harassed by the incursions of the enemy, went out with the militia of his county into actual service, more, however, for the sake of example, than from any particular inclination to military life. For several sessions in the years immediately preceding the declaration of independence, he represented the town in which he resided in the general assembly of the state, with great reputation, and took a large share, not only in the ordinary business of the house, but also in all those public acts and declarations which were called forth by the peculiar circumstances of the times. About the commencement of the war he presided for a short time at the pay-table, as it was called, or office of public account of the state of Connecticut.

There is no more remarkable peculiarity in that curious system of political customs and unwritten law which constitutes what has been quaintly termed the steady habits of Connecticut, than the regular probation through which the public men of that state are invariably obliged to pass before they can rise to the more important offices of the government. The political history of Connecticut is probably without a single instance of those sudden elevations, so frequent in several of the larger states of the union, of persons raised at once from obscurity, and, without being known, even by reputation, to the great body of the people, carried on by the mere force of party, to the highest honours of the state. In Connecticut, no superiority of talents or combination of fortunate circumstances, still less the arrangements of political dexterity, can ever procure for the aspiring young politician a full dispensation from these preliminary services. He must always, for a certain time, be held up to public examination, and is then

suffered to pass step by step, through the different gradations of office. It is true, that when he has once fairly ascended to a certain height on this ladder of promotion, it must be owing to some deficiency of character or of mind, if he does not continue to mount. As soon as a vacancy occurs above him, the crowd of active and aspiring men below, pushes him on almost without his own agency to make room in his turn for another. The progress may be indeed more or less rapid according to the character and popularity of the individual; but whatever is gained is certain, and the ascent, though sometimes slow, is sure.

Mr. Ellsworth was now fairly entered upon this career, and with a character and talents so admirably adapted to the state of society around him, he was enabled, without trick or artifice, or the sacrifice of principle, to take at the flood that tide which leads. to fortune.

In 1777 he was chosen a delegate to the congress of the United States, in which body he continued to hold his seat for nearly three years, during the most dubious and eventful period of our revolutionary contest. Here he was particularly distinguished for his unyielding firmness and political courage, as well as for his powers in debate, and unwearied application in the discharge of public business. This last quality, although one of the most important in the character of the statesman, as it possesses none of the glare and show by which popular opinion is dazzled, is very ordinarily altogether neglected in forming our estimate of the talents of public men. Those who look merely upon the exterior of public affairs, are seldom aware that there is in every legislative body a constant demand and employment of a kind of talents, always more useful, and oftentimes of a higher order, than those by which the columns of our gazettes are filled with wordy debate and florid declamation.

Our countrymen have always been remarkable for these business talents, and they were at this period largely called forth, as well by the situation of public affairs, full of doubt, of difficulty, and of peril, as by the peculiar constitution of our continental congress. This body, while it united in itself the most important legislative, executive, and even, in some instances, judicial functions, and apparently wielded without check or control the sovereignty of

the nation, was yet so limited in its powers, and from its very constitution so inefficient, that it was constantly obliged to have recourse to all the influence of personal character, and of address, and dexterous management of popular feeling, in order to carry into effect the most urgent and necessary measures. During the greater part of the time which Mr. Ellsworth sat in congress he was a member of the Marine committee, which acted as a board of admiralty, and had the general superintendence of the naval affairs of the United States, and also of the committee of appeals, which, until the erection of a court for that purpose, in 1780, examined and reported to congress upon all appeals made from the decisions of the several admiralty courts established in the different states. Upon the expiration of his term of service, in 1780, he was elected by his native state a member of their council, a body nearly corresponding with the senate or upper house of our other state constitutions; this place he held by annual re-elections until 1784, when he was appointed a judge of the superior court of the state. He continued in the regular discharge of his judicial duties, with much ability and reputation for several years, until the adoption of the new constitution.

In 1787, Judge Ellsworth was chosen by the legislature one of the delegates to represent the state of Connecticut in the convention which was held in the ensuing summer at Philadelphia for the purpose of framing a more efficient system of government for the confederation.

As the general political principles and habits of the people were now fully formed, there could be little diversity of opinion as to the great and leading principles which were to be the basis of the new form of government. But with regard to the particular mode of republicanism best calculated to preserve and secure the enjoyment of our civil liberty, very different opinions appear to have been entertained by some of the most enlightened members of the convention, even among those who afterwards cordially united in the support of our present constitution.

As the convention sat with closed doors, it is not precisely known what were Judge Ellsworth's favourite plans of government, or what part he bore in forming the constitution into its actual shape, further than that the present organization and mode of appoint