Chapter XXXV

LETTERS--REV. DR. SCORESBY.--WABASH COLLEGE.

After receiving a note from a relative of Lady Colebrooke, announcing her death, at Dunscombe, in the island of Barbadoes, Mr. Lawrence wrote the following note of sympathy to her husband, Sir William Colebrooke, then Governor of that island. She will be remembered as the lady who had formerly visited Boston, and who was alluded to in one of his letters, as a niece of Major André:

"DEAR SIR WILLIAM: I lose no time in expressing to you the
feelings of my heart, on reading the brief notice of the last
hours of dear Lady Colebrooke. All my recollections and
associations of her are of the most interesting character; and
for yourself I feel more than a common regard. We may never meet
again in this world; but it matters little, if, when we are
called off, we are found 'in line,' and ready to receive the
cheering 'Well done' when we reach that better world we hope for.
I trust that you, and all your dear ones, have been in the hollow
of our Father's hand, through the shadings of his face from you;
and that, in his own good time, all will be cleared away.

"Faithfully and respectfully yours,

AMOS LAWRENCE.
"BOSTON, Aug. 8, 1851."

(TO THE HON. CHARLES B. HADDOCK, MINISTER OF THE UNITED STATES
TO PORTUGAL.)

"BOSTON, Aug. 19, 1851.

"DEAR AND KIND-HEARTED FRIEND: Your letters to me before leaving
the country, and after reaching England, awakened many tender
remembrances of times past, and agreeable hopes of times to come.
In that, I felt as though I had you by the hand, with that
encouraging 'Go forward' in the fear of God, and confidence in
his fatherly care and guidance. I know your views have always put
this trust at the head of practical duties, and that you will go
forward in your present duties, and do better service to the
country than any man who could be sent. Portugal is a sealed
book, in a great degree, to us. Who so able to unlock and lay
open its history as yourself? Now, then, what leisure you have
may be most profitably applied to the spreading out the treasures
before us; and, my word for it, your reputation as a writer and a
thinker will make whatever you may publish of this sort desirable
to be read by the great mass of our reading population.

* * * * *

"I hold that God has given us our highest enjoyments, in every
period, from childhood to old age, in the exercise of our talents
and our feelings with reference to his presence and oversight;
and that, at any moment, he may call us off, and that we may thus
be left to be among the children of light or of darkness,
according to his word and our preparation. These enjoyments of
childhood, of middle age, of mature life, and of old age, are all
greatly increased by a constant reference to the source from
whence they come; and the danger of great success in life is more
to be feared, in our closing account, than anything else. A brief
space will find us in the earth, and of no further consequence
than as we shall have marked for good the generation of men
growing up to take our places. The title of an honest man, who
feared God, is worth more than all the honors and distinction of
the world. Pray, let me hear from you, and the dear lady, whom I
hope to escort once more over the sides of our Mount Zion, and
introduce to some of my children and grandchildren settled upon
the borders; and, if any stranger coming this way from you will
accept such facilities as I can give to our institutions, I shall
gladly render them. It is now many years since I have sat at
table with my family, and I am now better than I have been at any
time during that period; in short, I am light-hearted as a child,
and enjoy the children's society with all the zest of early days.
I must say, 'God speed you, my friend,' and have you constantly
in the hollow of his hand! In all kind remembrances, Mrs. L.
joins me, to your lady and yourself.

"Faithfully and respectfully your friend,

"AMOS LAWRENCE."

On the same day that the preceding letter was penned, Mr. Lawrence, in acknowledgment of some work sent to him by the Rev. Dr. Scoresby, of Bradford, England, wrote the following letter. That gentleman had visited this country twice, and had made many friends in Boston. Once an Arctic traveller, and a man of great scientific acquirement, he has now become an eminent and active clergyman in the Church of England, and has devoted all his energies to the task of elevating the lower orders of the population where his field of labor has been cast.

"BOSTON, Aug. 19, 1851.

"MY DEAR FRIEND: Your letter from Torquay, of ninth July, reached
me on the sixth of this month. It brought to memory our agreeable
intercourse of former years, and cheered me with the hope that I
might again see you in this world, and again shake your hand in
that cordial, social way that goes direct to the heart. I had
been much interested in the account brought by ----, and in your
kind messages by him. Your memorials of your father interest me
exceedingly, and I thank you most sincerely for the volume and
the sermon you sent. This sermon I sent to a friend of mine, and
also a friend of yours, who became such after hearing you preach
in Liverpool. Professor ----, of ---- College, is a most
talented, efficient, and popular teacher; and his present
position he has attained by his industry and his merit. He was a
poor youth, in Liverpool, who followed you in your preaching;
came here, and went as an apprentice to a mechanical business;
was noticed as a bright fellow; was educated by persons assisting
him, and graduated at ---- College. He became a tutor, and is now
a professor, and is an honor to the college and his nation. We
are all at work in New England, and now feel a twinge from too
fast driving in some branches of business; but, in the aggregate,
our country is rapidly advancing in wealth, power, and strength,
notwithstanding the discontent of our Southern brethren. We have
allowed the 'black spot' to be too far spread over our land; it
should have been restrained more than thirty years ago, and then
our old Slave States would have had no just cause of complaint. I
am called off, and must bid you farewell, with kind regards of
Mrs. L., and my own most faithful and affectionate remembrance.

AMOS LAWRENCE.
"REV. WILLIAM SCORESBY, D.D., Torquay, Devonshire, Eng."

(TO PRESIDENT HOPKINS.)

"BOSTON, Nov. 15, 1851.

"MY DEAR FRIEND: This is a rainy day, which keeps me housed; and,
to improve it in 'pursuit,' I have a bundle made up, of the size
of a small 'haycock,' and directed to you by railroad, with a few
lines enclosed for the amusement of the children. I have told A.
and L. that they couldn't jump over it; but H. could, by having a
clear course of two rods. Louis Dwight has spent a half-hour with
me this morning, exhibiting and explaining his plan for the new
Lunatic Asylum of the State, which I think is the best model I
have ever seen, and is a decided improvement on all our old ones.
The committee, of which Governor Briggs is chairman, will give it
a careful consideration and comparison with Dr. Bell's, and
perhaps Dr. Butler's and others; and, with such an amount of
talent and experience, the new asylum will be the best, I trust,
that there is on this side of the Atlantic. Louis Dwight is in
fine spirits, and in full employ in his peculiar line. The new
institution in New York for vagrant children will very likely be
built on his plan. He is really doing his work most successfully,
in classing and separating these young sinners, so that they may
be reclaimed, and trained to become useful citizens; in that
light, he is a public benefactor. * * *

"Faithfully and affectionately yours,

"AMOS LAWRENCE."

In a letter to a friend, written on Sunday, and within a few days of the preceding, Mr. Lawrence says, after describing one of his severe attacks:

"I am not doing wrong, I think, in consecrating a part of the day
to you, being kept within doors by one of those kindly
admonitions which speaks through the body, and tells me that my
home here is no shelter from the storm. I had been unusually well
for some weeks past, and it seemed to me that my days passed with
a rapidity and joyousness that nothing short of the intercourse
with the loved ones around me could have caused. What can be more
emphatic, until my final summons? If my work is done, and well
done, I should not dread the summons; pray that it may be, and
that we may meet again after a brief separation. I am hoping to
be safely housed by and by where cold and heat, splendid
furniture, luxurious living, and handsome houses, and attendants,
will all be thought of as they really merit."

Mr. Lawrence had, for a considerable time, been interested in the Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, Indiana; and, on the 24th of November, announced to the Trustees a donation from Mrs. L. of twelve hundred dollars, to found four free scholarships for the use of the academy at Groton. He adds:

"I would recommend that candidates for the scholarships who
abstain from the use of intoxicating drinks and tobacco always
have a preference. This is not to be taken as a prohibition, but
only as a condition to give a preference."

Mr. Lawrence speaks of his interest in Wabash College, growing out of his affection and respect for its President, the Rev. Charles White, D.D., who went from New England, and with whom he had become acquainted during a visit which that gentleman had made to his native State. Eight days after this donation to Wabash College, Mr. Lawrence enclosed to Rev. Dr. Pond, of the Theological School at Bangor, Maine, the sum of five hundred dollars; which he says, with other sums already subscribed by others for new professorships, would "prove a great blessing to all who resort to the institution through all time."