BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
"I am no herald, to inquire of men's pedigrees; it sufficeth me if I
know their virtues."--_Sidney._
There being no herald's college in this free and happy country, where
equality was declared by the revolutionary congress to be as
self-evident as our right to independence, I have no means of tracing
the pedigree of my friend for many generations back. Indeed, as it was
long ago remarked by Lord Camden, alterations of sirnames were in
former ages so very common, as to have obscured the truth of our
pedigrees, so that it is no little labor to deduce many of them. But,
although no crest marks the career of his ancestors, or shield
emblazons their escutcheon with mementoes of achievements in arts or in
arms; and although I claim not in his behalf, as of the heroes in olden
times, "a pedigree that reached to heaven," yet no doubt exists of the
antiquity of his family. The name was duly inscribed in the Doomsday
book of the Norman Conqueror, and had not the limbs of the genealogical
tree been broken, it is believed that their ancestry might,
nevertheless, have been traced back to a gentleman by the name of
Japheth, "who was the son of Noah." Still, as I have already intimated,
this inquiry can be of little consequence. In this land of freedom,
where every tub stands on its own bottom--where men are the architects
of their own fame and fortunes--where he that hath neither coat nor
shoes is at liberty to go without them,--it is of little moment whether
a man knows who he happens to be, or not, provided always that he
behaves well. Nay, if he cannot tell whence he sprung, he escapes the
censure of being the son of his father, and may arrive at the highest
honors of the republic without either borrowing merit from the dead, or
having any too much of his own. Avoiding genealogies, therefore, I will
come directly to the point, and assume it as granted, that, inasmuch as
Mr. Daniel Wheelwright is known to have had a father and mother, so
likewise he must have had grand-parents. And these were, doubtless,
sensible and judicious people, more desirous of being industrious and
useful, than what the world calls great. Borrowing, therefore, a hint
from their own honest name, in selecting an occupation for their son,
they chose that of coachmaking--an art, which, in the progress of
civilization, he carried from New-Jersey into the beautiful valley of
the Mohawk--not many years after the original proprietors of that
section of the republic had been finally driven away by those who
understood tilling their land better than they. It was in this
picturesque and delightful valley, on the banks of the river, and in a
town alike celebrated for the taste of its people in architecture, and
distinguished as a seat of learning, that my friend and hero, Daniel,
first saw the light. I have cast no figure to ascertain which of the
divinities presided at his birth, or what particular star first
pencilled his pale blue eyes with its silver rays. But no angry planet
was culminating in that particular chamber of the heavens at the time,
for he grew up the best-natured being in those parts; and if the genius
of Dulness was not actually present on the occasion, his court must
have been held on that evening at no great distance therefrom. Not to
be too particular, however, it is enough for the present to say, that
he waxed towards the stature of manhood much as other boys do--save
that he was never engaged in a quarrel--from the circumstance,
probably, that he had neither sufficient energy, nor decision of
character, to commence or to end one. To do him justice, if honesty be
a fault, it was surely his; and I can truly say that in all the passing
vicissitudes of his life, it has never been taken out of him to this
day. His father was industrious and economical, never losing an hour in
which he could make any thing, or parting with a dollar so long as he
could keep it. In his domestic arrangements he was exceedingly careful
that nothing should be lost. If he had eels for breakfast, he would
always contrive, by preserving and drying the skins, to save more than
the original cost of these somewhat questionable members of the
piscatory family. He early instructed his son in the elementary
principles of his trade; and it is believed that before he was
seventeen he not only knew the number of spokes in a wheel, but had
actually adjusted them to the felloes, and driven them up to the hub.
He was also taught in some branches of household carpentry work, which
proved of no disadvantage to him in the end. Full of good nature, he
was always popular with the boys; was never so industrious as when
manufacturing to their order little writing desks, fancy boxes, and
other trifling articles not beyond the scope of his mechanical
ingenuity--for which he exacted such compensation as he could obtain.
In sober truth, like his parent, he was fond of money. The world, he
was wont to say, owed him a living, and he prided himself not a little
on his skill in procuring the wherewithal. And yet he was rarely known
to realize one shilling that did not cost him two; or in other words,
in all his multifarious transactions of barter and otherwise, he was
almost uniformly overreached. There was one way, moreover, in which his
little earnings could always be taken from him. He was fond of good
living, albeit not his father's fault, since his family board was
seldom spread with other than the plainest and least expensive fare.
Certain was it, therefore, that the palate had never received any
epicurean lessons at home; but it was equally certain that he had
acquired a _taste_ for the good things of this world. Hence those of
his associates who had a design upon whatever of small change they
supposed him from time to time to have accumulated, had only to tempt
him with some trifling luxury, and the work was done. A plate of
oysters was irresistible!