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nations, no guards of soldiers, no hosts of spies, no vexatious regulations of police; but accomplishes its beneficent purposes by a few unarmed judges and civil officers, and operates so silently around us, and comes so seldom in contact with us, that many of us enjoy its blessings with hardly a thought of its existence. This is the perfection of freedom; and to what do we owe this condition? I answer, to the power of those laws which Religion writes on our hearts, which unite and concentrate public opinion against injustice and oppression, which spread a spirit of equity and good will through the community. Thus religion is the soul of freedom, and no nation under heaven has such an interest in it as ourselves.

MEMOIR OF JOHN GALLISON, ESQ.

First published in 1821.

OUR last number contained a brief notice of Mr. Gallison; but his rare excellence, and the singular affection, esteem, and confidence which he enjoyed, have been thought to demand a more particular delineation of his character. And the office is too grateful to be declined. In the present imperfect condition of human nature, when strange and mournful inconsistences so often mix with and shade the virtues of good men; when Truth, that stern monitor, almost continually forbids us to give free scope to admiration, and compels us to dispense our praise with a measured and timid liberality; it is delightful to meet an example of high endowments, undebased by the mixture of unworthy habits and feel

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ings; to meet a character whose blamelessness spares us the pain of making deductions from its virtues. And our satisfaction is greatly increased, when Providence has seen fit to unfold this character in the open light of a conspicuous station, so that many around us have had opportunity to observe it as well as ourselves, and we can give utterance to our affection and respect, with the confidence of finding sympathy and a full response in the hearts of our readers.

But we have a higher motive, than the relief and gratification of personal feelings, for paying this tribute to Mr. Gallison. We consider his character as singularly instructive, particularly to that important class of the His life, whilst it bore strong community, young men.

testimony to those great principles of morality and religion, in which all ranks and ages have an interest, and on which society rests, seems to us peculiarly valuable, as a commentary on the capacities and right application of youth; as demonstrating what a young man may become, what honor, love, and influence he may gather round him, and how attractive are the christian virtues at that age which is generally considered as least amenable to the laws of religion. For young men we chiefly make this record; and we do it with a deep conviction, that society cannot be served more effectually than by spreading through this class a purer morality, and a deeper sense of responsibility than are now enforced by public opinion; for our young men are soon to be the fathers, guides, and defenders of the community; and however examples may now and then occur of early profligacy changed by time into purity and virtue, yet too often the harvest answers to the seed, the building to the foundation; and perhaps it will appear on that great day which is to unfold the consequences of actions, that even

forsaken vice leaves wounds in the mind, which are slowly healed, and which injure the moral powers, and predispose to moral disease, through the whole life.

In this connexion it may be proper, to observe, that there is no country, in which society has such an interest in bringing strong moral and religious influences to bear on young men, as in this; for our country has been distinguished by the premature growth of those to whom it gives birth. Various circumstances here develope the mind and active powers earlier than in Europe. Our young men come forward sooner into life; mix sooner in the stir and conflicts of business and politics; and form sooner the most important domestic relations. It has often been suggested, that the mind suffers under this forcing system, that it is exhausted by excess of action, that a slower growth would give it greater strength and expansion. But be this true or not (and we trust that the suggestion is founded on remote analogies rather than on observation), one thing is plain, that in proportion as the young advance rapidly in intellect and activity, there should be a powerful application of moral and religious truths and sanctions to their consciences and hearts. Their whole nature should grow at once. The moral sense, the sense of God, should not slumber, whilst the intellect and the passions are awake and enlarging themselves with a fearful energy. A conviction of their responsibility to God and society should be deeply wrought into the opening reason, so as to recur through life with the force of instinct. Mr. Gallison was a striking example of the early and harmonious unfolding of the moral and intellectual nature, and in this view his character is particularly fitted to the wants and dangers of our state of society.

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When we know or hear of uncommon excellence, it is natural to inquire, by what propitious circumstances it was formed; and hence the curiosity which has sifted so diligently the early history of eminent men. But such investigations, we believe, generally teach us, that character is more independent on outward circumstances than is usually thought, that the chief causes which form a superior mind are within itself. Whilst the Supreme Being encourages liberally the labors of education by connecting with them many good and almost sure results, still, as if to magnify his own power and to teach men humility and dependence, he often produces, with few or no means, a strength of intellect and principle, a grace and dignity of character, which the most anxious human culture cannot confer. In the early years of Mr. Gallison, we find no striking circumstances or incidents which determined the peculiarities of his future character. The processes, by which he became what he was, were inward; and the only voice, which could disclose them, is now silent in death.

He was born in Marblehead, October, 1788. His mother, a sister of the late Chief Justice Sewall, survived his birth but a few hours; and his life began with one of the heaviest of life's afflictions, the loss of a mother's love. He was so happy however as to be the object of singular and never failing kindness to his surviving parent, whom he requited with no common filial attachment; and he may be cited as a proof of the good effects of that more unrestrained and tender intercourse between parents and children, which distinguishes the present from the past age. He was early placed under the tuition of the Rev. Dr. Harris, now President of Columbia College New York, then preceptor of an

academy, and rector of an Episcopal church, in Marblehead. He is said to have endeared himself to his revered instructer by his docility, industry, modesty, love of truth, and steady improvement. He held a high but unenvied rank at school; and it may be mentioned as an evidence of early judgment and a constant mind, that some of the friendships of that early period went with him to the grave, and were among the best enjoyments of his life.

He entered the University at Cambridge, A. D. 1803, in the fifteenth year of his age; and whilst his unremitting application gave him the full benefit of its various provisions for literary improvement, his consistent character and social virtues won for him universal confidence and esteem. On leaving the University he commenced the study of the law under the Hon. John Quincy Adams, and having completed his preparation under the Hon. Joseph Story, began the practice of his profession at Marblehead, A. D. 1810. By the advice of his friends he soon removed to this metropolis, a more proper, because wider sphere of action. Here he experienced, for a time, those anxieties and depressions, which form the common trial of young men, who enter a crowded profession. But his prospects were brightened by a connexion in business, which he formed with the Hon. William Prescott, and which, as it was unsolicited and attended by other flattering circumstances, gave him a gratifying assurance of the confidence which he had inspired. The progress of his reputation as a lawyer was soon a matter of common remark; and those, who were most capable of understanding the depth and extent of his legal attainments, were confident, that should his life be spared, he would attain the highest honors of his profession.

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