Rev. Timothy Alden, Honorary Members. Rev. William Allen, D. D. Hon. Francis Baylies, James Bowdoin, Esq. *Nathaniel H. Carter, Esq.(2) Hon. Lewis Cass, Hon. John Davis, LL. D. Hon. Edward Everett, P. D. Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D., LL. D. C. C. Rafn, P. D., F. S. A. Joseph E. Worcester, A. A. S. (1) Died 29 March, 1830. (2) Died at Marseilles in France, 2 Jan. 1830, aged 43. (3) Died 8 Oct. 1829, aged 41. COLLECTIONS. Memoir of the Life of the HON. SAMUEL DANA, late of Amherst, in the County of Hillsborough, State of New-Hampshire.-By HON. CHARLES H. ATHERTON, of Amherst. SAMUEL DANA was first admitted an attorney in the courts of this State in the county of Hillsborough. He came to the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in the autumn of 1781, when he was 42 years of age. He was admitted an attorney of the Superior Court of Judicature, September Term, in 1783, and continued in the practice of law at Amherst, until the time of his death, the second day of April, 1798, when he had passed, but a few months, his fifty-ninth year. The circumstances which led him to enter the profession of law, at such an advanced age, will appear in the following sketch of his life. His father was a respectable mechanic in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a numerous family. Samuel, his second son, was born January 14, 1739, Ó. S., in that part of Cambridge, now Brighton, and was the favorite selected by his parents for a liberal education and for the ministry. He was placed under the tuition of the famous master Minot, of Concord, and in 1751, was admitted a member of the freshman class in Harvard University, at the age of twelve years; a convincing proof of the aptitude of his mind to acquire instruction; for with all the modern improvements in education, it is difficult to fit a boy for college at that early period. In the year 1755, he was regularly graduated in that celebrated class, of which John Adams, late President of the United States, was a member. In pursuance of his original destination, Mr. Dana qualified himself for the ministry in the desultory manner, then but too common, by availing himself of the books and advice of the neighboring clergymen. He began to preach early, and the popularity of the young clergyman, soon secured him a call. He was settled in the ministry at Groton, Massachusetts, June 3, 1761, the successor of the Rev. Caleb Trowbridge. Having now, as he supposed, secured to himself a permanent establishment, and consulting alike his own happiness and his ministerial usefulness, he in the succeeding year (1762) united himself in wedlock with Miss Anna Kenrick. Years of sincere and zealous devotion to his sacred trust, on his part, and of confidence and affection on the part of his parish followed. Respected by his brethren of the clergy and caressed by his people, his prospects in life seemed settled, clear, serene. How little could it then have been apprehended, that he was to terminate his life a member of the profession of the law in a neighboring State? The respect and esteem of the clergy he never lost; but the affection and confidence of his people were soon to fail him. Even then a storm was gathering which was to darken his prospects and blast his hopes. The encroachments of the mother country and the rights of the colonies soon became the topics, which occupied all minds, and overpowered and absorbed all other considerations. Such was the jeopardy in which the country was placed, and such the excited state of the popular feeling, that all other ties yielded to the more intense grasp of political ties. The language of the people was, "he who is not for us is against us," and Mr. Dana, if not a royalist, was at least lukewarm in the cause of the revolution. The determined and zealous principles of the Whigs early developed themselves in the town of Groton. It scarcely need be added that the caresses and confidence of his parochial flock were converted into coldness and then into distrust, irritation, and bitterness. His usefulness was at an end; he perceived it; he felt it, and faithful to his principles, on the 15th day of May, A. D. 1775, without the intervention of a regular ecclesiastical council, he relinquished his charge, and was released by the town from his duties as their minister, after having served. them in that capacity fourteen years. There was nothing peculiar in the state of feelings at Groton. Almost every clergyman in New-England whose sympathies were anti-revolutionary shared a similar fate. For the crisis was so replete with awful consequences on one hand, and magnificent results on the other, that the majority thought it unsafe to tolerate freedom of opinion, especially in those whose opinions had influence, or to regard neutrality in any other light than treasonable. The period has however now arrived, when we can think dispassionately, and may speak with impartiality of such of the anti-revolutionists as were non-combatants. Was Mr. Dana really an enemy to his country? Was he unfriendly to its liberties? To answer these questions in the affirmative, would be harsh and unjust. The truth is, he only reasoned differently from the majority of the compatriots of his day. Ardently attached to the principles of civil liberty, and deeply sensible of the wrongs inflicted upon the colonies by Great Britain, he believed that he saw, in all the movements around him, a tendency to bring the question to the decision of force. And such were his views of the power and resources of Great Britain, he was fully persuaded that this |