EXPENDITURES.--LETTERS.--DONATION FOR LIBRARY AT WILLIAMS
COLLEGE.--VIEWS ON STUDY OF ANATOMY.
"_January 1, 1846._--The business of the past year has been very
prosperous in our country; and my own duties seem more clearly
pointed out than ever before. What am I left here for, and the
young branches taken home? Is it not to teach me the danger of
being unfaithful to my trusts? Dear R. taken! the delight of my
eyes, a treasure secured! which explains better than in any other
way what my Father sees me in need of. I hope to be faithful in
applying some of my trusts to the uses God manifestly explains to
me by his dealings. I repeat, 'Thy will be done.'"
That his trusts, so far as the use of his property was concerned, were
faithfully performed, may be inferred from the fact that, in July, or
at the termination of the half-year, in making up his estimate of
income and expenditures, he remarks that the latter are nearly twenty
thousand dollars in advance of the former.
Mr. Lawrence was often much disturbed by the publicity which attended
his benevolent operations. There are, perhaps, thousands of the
recipients of his favors now living, who alone are cognizant of his
bounty towards themselves; but when a public institution became the
subject of his liberality, the name of the donor could not so easily
be concealed. The following letter will illustrate the mode which he
sometimes was obliged to adopt to avoid that publicity; and it was his
custom not unfrequently to contribute liberally to objects of charity
through some person on whom he wished the credit of the donation to
fall.
(TO PRESIDENT HOPKINS.)
"BOSTON, Jan. 26, 1846.
"MY DEAR FRIEND: Since Saturday, I have thought much of the best
mode of helping your college to a library building without
getting into the newspapers, and have concluded that you had
better assume the responsibility of building it; and, if anybody
objects that you can't afford it, you may say you have friends
whom you hope to have aid from; and I will be responsible to you
for the cost to an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars; so
that you may feel at liberty to prepare such a building as you
will be satisfied with, and which will do credit to your taste
and judgment fifty years hence. If I am taken before this is
finished, which must be this year, my estate will be answerable,
as I have made an entry in my book, stating the case. I had
written a longer story, after you left me, on Saturday evening,
but have laid it aside to hand you this, with best wishes, and
that all may be done 'decently and in order.' I will pay a
thousand or two dollars whenever it is wanted for the work.
"Your friend,
A. L."
Mr. Lawrence had read in the newspapers the memorial to Congress of
Mrs. Martha Gray, widow of Captain Robert Gray, the well-known
navigator, who discovered, first entered, and gave its present name to
the Columbia River. Captain Gray had been in the naval service of his
country; and his widow, who had survived him for forty years, amidst
many difficulties and struggles for support, petitioned for a pension,
in consideration of the important discovery, and for the services
rendered by her husband. Mr. Lawrence sent to Mrs. Gray a memorial of
his regard, with the following note:
"As a token of respect to the widow of one whose name and fame
make a part of the property of every American who has a true
heart, will Mrs. Gray accept the accompanying trifle from one,
who, though personally unknown, felt her memorial to Congress
through every nerve, and will hope to be allowed the pleasure of
paying his respects in person when his health permits."
About the same date, he says to President Hopkins:
"I am happily employed, these days, in administering upon my own
earnings, and have hope of hearing soon from you and your good
work. I am still on my good behavior, but have been able to chat
a little with Mr. D., and administer to His Excellency Governor
Briggs, who has had a severe trial of fever and ague. On Saturday
he rode an hour with me, and returned with his face shortened
considerably. I can only say to you that I believe I am left here
to do something more to improve and help on the brethren and
sons who have more mind and less money than I have; but the
precise way to do it is not so clear to me as it may be by and
by."
After receiving the proposed plan of the library which he had
authorized to be built at Williams College, Mr. Lawrence writes to the
same, on May 15:
"I left off, after a brief note to you, three hours since,
furnishing you a text on epicureanism to preach from, which I
trust will find favor and use.
"What think you? Why, that I am interfering in your business.
When I awoke this morning, thinks I to myself, My friend won't
have elbow-room in the centre of his octagon; and, as there is
plenty of land to build upon, he may as well make his outside to
outside fifty feet as forty-four feet, and thus give himself more
space in the centre. The alcoves appear to me to be very nice;
and, in the matter of expense, my young friend A. L. H. will see
to that, to the tune of one or two thousand dollars. So you may
feel yourself his representative in acting in this matter."
* * * * *
"_April 22._--My birth-day! Three-score years old! My life,
hanging by a thread for years, and apparently, at times, within a
few hours of its close, still continued, while so many around in
the prime of life and vigor have been called away!"
(TO A FRIEND.)
"Tremont-street, April, 1846.
"MY FRIEND ----: I have arisen after my siesta, and, as the
Quakers say, am moved by the spirit to speak. So you will give
what I have to say the value you consider it worth. And, in the
first place, I will say, that this period of the year is so full
of deeply-interesting memories of the past, that I hardly know
where to begin. From my earliest days, the story of the
intelligence reaching Groton at ten o'clock on the 19th April,
1775, that the British were coming, was a most interesting one.
My father mounted Gen. Prescott's horse, and rode, at a speed
which young men even of the present day would think rapid, to the
south end of the town, by Sandy Pond, and notified the minute-men
to assemble at the centre of the town forthwith. He made a range
of seven miles, calling on all the men, and was back at his
father's house in forty minutes. At one o'clock, P. M., the
company was in readiness to march, and under way to Concord to
meet the British. They kept on until they reached Cambridge; but,
before that, they had seen and heard all that had been done by
the troops sent out to Concord. The plough was left in the field;
and my grandfather, with his horse and wagon, brought provisions
to his neighbors and his son shortly after. My grandmother on my
mother's side, then living in Concord, has described to me over
and over again the appearance of the British, as she first saw
them coming over the bill from Lincoln, about two miles from the
centre of Concord; the sun just rising; and the red coats,
glittering muskets, and fearful array, so captivating to us in
peace-times, appearing to her as the angel of destruction, to be
loathed and hated. She therefore left her house with her children
(the house was standing within the last thirty years, and may be
now, near the turn to go through Bedford, half a mile or more
this side of Concord meeting-house), and went through the fields,
and over the hills, to a safe place of retreat. The British, you
are aware, on their retreat, had a hard time of it. They were
shot down like wild game, and left by the wayside to die or be
taken up as it might happen. Three thus left within gun-shot of
my grandmother's house were taken up, and died in the course of a
very few hours. But what I am coming to is this: Lord Percy, you
know, was sent out from Boston with a strong body of troops to
protect those first sent out; and, but for this, the whole would
have been destroyed or made prisoners. About three years ago,
Lord Prudhoe, second son of Lord Percy, was here; and I had
considerable delightful intercourse with him. He, as you may well
suppose, was deeply interested in all that related to his father;
and I met him in the library at Cambridge, where he was very
observant of the order and arrangement, and especially of the
curious old documents and books, so nicely arranged, touching the
early history of the province. After leaving Cambridge, he went
to Mr. Cushing's and Mr. Pratt's, at Watertown, and was much
interested in all that we in this city are proud of. I had not
strength to be devoted to him more than an hour or two at a time,
having then some other strangers under my care, belonging to Gov.
Colebrooke's family, Lady Colebrooke being a niece of Major
André; so that I had only some half-dozen interviews with him,
all of which were instructive and interesting."
The dissection of human bodies by medical students has always been a
subject of deep-rooted prejudice in New England; and, even to this
day, it exists in so great a degree that the facilities for this
important and absolutely essential branch of instruction are not
nearly as great as they should be, nor such as are afforded in the
schools of other countries. When these difficulties shall be removed,
and the prejudice allayed against the acquisition of a kind of
knowledge which it is of the utmost interest to every one that the
surgeon and physician shall receive, many young men will remain at
home, and acquire that education which, with few exceptions, might be
attained here as well as by a resort to foreign schools. In this
prejudice Mr. Lawrence could not sympathize, as will be seen in the
following extract of a letter to a friend
* * * * *
"Many years ago, there was a great stir, on account of graves
being robbed for subjects for dissection, and some laws were
passed: the want became so pressing, that subjects were brought
from a long distance, and in a very bad state. Dr. Warren was
attending me, and said he had invited the Legislature, then in
session, to attend a lecture in the Medical College. He told me
he intended to explain the necessity of having fit subjects, he
having been poisoned in his lecture to his students a few days
before, and was then suffering from it. He invited me also to
attend, which I did, and took with me my precious boy R. While
lecturing, the doctor had a man's hand, which he had just taken
off at the hospital, brought in, nicely wrapped up in a wet
cloth, by his son J. M. W., then a youngster. There were present
about two hundred representatives; and, as soon as they saw the
real hand, two or three fainted nearly away, and a half-dozen or
more made their escape from the room. The scene was so striking,
that I told Dr. Warren it was a pity that such a prejudice should
exist; and, as I was desirous to be of use as far as in my power,
and probably should be a good subject for him, I would gladly
have him use me in the way to instruct the young men; but to take
care of my remains, and have them consumed or buried, unless my
bones were kept. I also told him that I desired very much to have
this false feeling corrected, and perhaps my example might do
something toward it. Some time afterwards, I spoke to ---- upon
the subject; but I found it gave pain, and the plan was given up.
* * *
A. L."
"Outward gains are ordinarily attended with inward losses. He
indeed is rich in grace whose graces are not hindered by his
riches."
In a letter, dated June 3, Mr. Lawrence bears testimony to the
character and services of the late Louis Dwight, so long and favorably
known as the zealous Secretary of the Massachusetts Prison Discipline
Society:
"I have this moment had an interview with Louis Dwight, who
leaves for Europe in two days. My labors and experience with him
for nearly a quarter of a century enable me to testify to his
ability, and unceasing efforts in the cause."
"_May 27, 1846._--The following commentary[9] on the Lectures of
the Rev. Dr. ---- accompanied their return to me from one to whom
I had loaned the volume. I have now no recollection who the
person is; but the words are full, and to the point:
"'This sucking the marrow all out of our Bible, and leaving it as
dry as a husk, pray what good to man, or honor to God, does that
do? If we are going to fling away the old book from which ten
thousand thousand men have drawn and are still drawing the life
of their souls, then let us stand boldly up, and fling it away,
cover and all; unless, indeed, a better way would be to save the
boards and gilding, and make a family checker-board of it.'"
[9] Supposed to be by Hon. Jeremiah Mason.