USA > New York > Old New York : or, Reminiscences of the past sixty years > Part 8
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assuming the dangerous complexity which soon after reached a climax in civil war. " Have we still a coun- try ?" he sadly asked. Hc was solicitous that pledges hc had given to furnish aid in several instances, to certain charitable and literary projects, should be seasonably ful- filled. He exhibited the warmest affection to the different members of his family ; desiring the constant presence of his sons, and exclaiming, when his wife re-entered the room after a brief absence, " How delightful it is to see your face, and hear your voice !" To a friend he said, with his familiar smile, in allusion to a biographical underta- king in which he took much interest, " I have a fact that no one but myself is aware of, that the author will be delight- ed with." A volume of medical memoirs was received during his illness, and one day, to the surprise of all, he asked for it, glanced over and commenced upon some of the chapters ; and, for the first time in a month, took up a newspaper, and, to please his attendant, tried a whiff or two of a choice cigar, looking the while more free from pain and more natural than he had for weeks. "What shall I do about my property ?" he asked; and when one of his sons replied, "Dear father, don't trouble yourself about business now ; mother will take care of every thing," he said, " Yes, I leave all to her." At three o'clock, on the morning of the eighth of February, 1861-memorable for the sudden and extremc fall of the temperature-hc was so evidently failing, that those of the family who had retired were called up. He looked around, and said, " It is very solemn to sec you all herc ; it is characteristic of an exit." Soon after, he murmured, "God bless you! God bless you !" Addressing his son, he inquired if he could be turned upon his other side ; and when this was done, he remained quiet a few moments, and then, raising his hand and slightly lifting his head, as if intent upon his own dis- solution, he allowed the former to drop slowly on the pil-
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low, saying, "I am gone!" and so passed away in entire consciousness and without a struggle.
No tribute to the memory, no recognition of the career and character of Dr. Francis, equals in significance and in moral beauty the scene at his funeral ;* resolutions of praiso and condolence-addresses, however eulogistic- obituary notices, however sincere, are but the conventional mediums whereby public usefulness and private worth are attested when death hallows their remembrance. The men and women who prayed and wept over the remains of the physician, the patriot, and the friend, on the memorable Sabbath at St. Thomas's Church that witnessed the obse- quies of Dr. Francis, were so many representatives of his life, and witnesses of his benign activity ; their presence and their sorrow told his story with more eloquence than words, and demonstrated, better than the most philosophi- cal analysis, the universality of his sympathies, the recti- tude of his principles, and the benevolence of his nature. By an instinct of respect, his associates of the Academy of Medicine, instead of entering the church, according to the programme, to await there the funeral cortege, paused in reverent sadness to follow as mourners; and when the sublime words of tho burial-service were heard, and every eye in that vast assembly rested on the mortal relics of a life so varied, prevalent, and humane, in a thousund hearts he lived again as the healer, the teacher, the host, the brother, the citizen, through tearful memories of kindli- ness, wisdom, and honor. For more than an hour, when prayer and hymn were over, that mourning crowd passed round the altar, in slow procession, to look, each in turn, on the face so long known and loved, to be seen no more forever. It was like a revelation of all that he had been to his fellow-creatures, to watch the expression of those mute farewells. Now a venerable member of his own pro-
* Appendix IX.
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fession would gaze with profound thought, as if a life of study and fellowship passed through his eonseiousness ; now a man of letters seemed striving to take in at a glanee the features of a benefactor, to be cherished as the most precious of memories; and then a beautiful woman hung momentarily over the coffin, and, sobbing, kisscd the cold brow to which in her hour of agony she had looked, not in vain, for support ; again, an aged actress stood there, to elasp her withered hands in desolation over him who had gratuitously ministered to her, in days of poverty and pain, and respected her worth, of which the world knew not ; printers, tradesmen, clergymen, lawyers, authors, artists, family servants, men of affairs, and men of genius, me- ehanies,-the old, the young,-every class and kind,- pressed on like pilgrims to a shrine ; but the most touch- ing feature in this voluntary oblation, was the number and grief of the poor, whose wan faces were softened by tears, and whose humble apparel seemed the most appropriate suits of woe ; for not to the man of talent and public spirit, the enterprising savant, and the illustrious citizen, did these bring the homage of their hearts; but to the honest and the kindly man whose charity had relieved, whose skill had restored, and whose sympathy had encouraged them ; thus was the good physician eanonized into the eternal brotherhood of humanity by the tears of the poor.
XII.
THE most common error, in judging of character, is to eonfound temperament with mental and moral traits ; when the former is prevalent, it is apt to conceal quite as mueh as betray the essential qualities and native disposition ; hence the frequent mistake of identifying shyness with pride, confidence with a hearty address, and gayety with a demonstrative manner. The remark of an old friend of
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Dr. Francis, that only those very intimate with him un- derstood the man, seemed to many of the audience an exaggerated statement; for the volubility, frankness, and a certain excitable naïveté impressed superficial observers with the idea that few individuals could be so easily read at a glance and fathomed in an interview ; whereas, there is an instinctive reticence, induced by constant and free intercourse, which is far removed from hypocrisy, because it is an outward habit, necessitated by the very fact of wide and constant association. Few mere acquaintances of Dr. Francis would imagine that an under-current of profound melancholy coexisted with his hilarity and sustained aspect and utterance, or that he was singularly self-distrustful ; and yet these were the traits exposed to the eye of friendship, and often jealously guarded from the unsympathetic cognizance of the world; he was pensive and despondent when outward excitement was withdrawn, and he had frequent lapses of self-reliance; so that those who knew him best find it difficult to imagine how he might have so bravely fought the battle and retained the zest of life without the encouragement of those near and dear to him.
In the practical details of life, he was a child ; so easily imposed upon through his best sympathies, that whatever money happened to be in his possession was sure to be dispensed in charity or for literary objects. He was im- patient of the mechanical routine and prudential vigilance so requisite in affairs, and many are the amusing instances of his want of shrewdness, and ready faith in others, where pecuniary interests were involved. Accordingly, he was relieved from all such cares, as far as practicable, and taken care of, in the best sense of the word, by those he loved.
He responded to the vicissitudes of Nature,-the impres- sions of the alternate seasons, the influence of temperature,
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of sunshine, and of storms,-with a conscious sensibility he rarely acknowledged. The fragility of pleasure and the mutations of fortune, the lessons of mortality, and the pressure of care, ingratitude and deception, injustice and responsibility, were elements of life no one more keenly felt or more earnestly pondered. Sometimes they wrought him up to vehement protest, and sometimes subdued him to sad and silent contemplation; and yet, when going forth to exercise his vocation, when called upon to faee the spectacle of anguish and misery, or to maintain his part as a cheerful companion and social representative, he was "nobler than his mood," and met the exigeney of the moment with gay humor or wise urbanity, so as to appear jovial and exuberant. This was often but the reaction of an anxious or a baffled spirit. His sueeess in life has been justly aseribed to " eeaseless industry." Love of appro- bation far exceeded in him self-esteem ; strong as he was in body, and well-equipped in mind, he was as dependent in some respects as a child; absorbed as he seemed in life, and genially related thereto, few men thought more of death ; remarkable as was his memory of faets, eharae- ters, and ideas, he eonstantly forgot names, and was abstracted from the immediate ; fond as he was of renown, he was still more enamored of sequestration ; and while inspired by the idea of celebrity, his notion of enjoyment was domestie eomfort and retiraey, with as little of the show and machinery, and as much of the simple and human relish of life as possible : buekwheat-eakes on a winter morning, a eup of fragrant tea, and a choice eigar, enjoyed with those he loved, were more of a feast to him than the elaborate and sumptuous entertainments in which he par- ticipated only beeause of some rare social attraetion. He was more eontent to stretch himself upon his early couch (after a fatiguing day, having made his entries, and left his patients doing well), with a fresh Review and a pile of
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daily journals at hand, than to partake of costly luxuries or mingle in the triumphs of fashion. "Division of the records of the mind" was the choicest boon society eould offer him, and home delights were the only ones that never palled ; his local attachments were indeed too strong to admit discursive tendencies other than intellectual: the accustomed corner of his old sofa, the faces of friends, the presenee and affeetion of kindred, the sense of personal integrity and usefulness, and the pleasures of memory, were the habitual consolations of his toilsome life.
A vein of eeeentricity is as desirable to individualize character in real life as in fiction; the tendeney of Ameri- can civilization is to uniformity. Philosophical writers on the social results of our institutions agree in the opinion that Democracy not only favors cquality of condition, but monotony of manners; the extreme deference to public opinion in communities where rank creates no line of de- marcation, and where originality, in a great measure, iso- lates, reduees society, in its general aspect, to routine and imitation, so that it is quite refreshing to encounter even oddity, provided it is neither unamiable nor encroaching. Dr. Francis wore the onee universal but long-disearded white eravat to the last, and he ehanged so little in the eyes of his oldest acquaintances partly because his coat and hat were always of the same fashion. No man was more alive to the charm of salient points and representative traits in others, and he intuitively recognized the special phases and forms of human nature under the most diverse quali- ties of raee, oeeupation, and culture ; he was as cosmopol- itan in his sympathies as the eity where he dwelt,-made so in part by this loeal peculiarity, but eonfirmed therein by a native facility of adaptation. Thus he associated as readily with merchants like John Pintard and Philip Honc as with curious characters like Walking Stewart and Christopher Colles ; and was as truly interested in a
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fine aboriginal specimen, such as Red Jacket, as in a his- trionic prodigy like Howard Payne; and he cqually relished the stories of Jarvis the painter, Webster's agricultural talk, Kent's legal and Steuben's military reminiscences. His knowledge of Knickerbocker families,-like those of Jay, Livingston, Bleecker, or Bayard,-was full and ac- curate ; but none the less did he remember noteworthy facts of lineage and language in regard to foreign and his- torical personages. Voluble, racy, and piquant, he sought for and celebrated these qualities in others; and was im- patient at that apathetic decorum which omitted from biography the whims and ways of famous men, their familiar modes of expression, and those little touches of a natural language which make a portrait so real. When the life of an eminent New York divine appeared, he pro- tested against its conventional limits, declaring that it was not a description of the man, but the theologian; and immediately related half a dozen anecdotes which brought the subject before the mind, a living human character, of which no hint was conveyed by the formal memoir in question.
" One beautiful feature in the character of Dr. Francis," observes a discriminating journalist, " was, that, although always capable of teaching, he was never above being taught. He afforded one of those rare but brilliant exam- ples of wise humility that is not afraid to adopt new truths, nor too proud to discard old errors. Hence, he never grew old in feeling or practice, notwithstanding his hairs were whitened and his brow a little furrowed, He was a fine specimen of an old 'Young America.' At seventy he could tell a story, relate an anecdote, and make a jocund speech, as well as any youngster in the country. Meet him where you would,-in the street, in the library, at a public dinner, or in his own house,-hc always had a smile on his face, strength in his grasp, and warmth in his heart.
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All these social and winning qualities he carried into his practice, and he made every patient feel that a friend as well as a physician was in attendance."*
" As a sound American patriot, and public-spirited cit- izen," remarks one who knew and loved him well, " he has left few equals-fow whose sympathics take so wide a range, and who are so painstaking and minute in the man- ifestation of them. Independent in his views, and always a lover of the right, he had no preferences but for worth and honor; in every good man he saw a fellow-citizen. At his house, eminent men from every part of the country were accustomed to meet, and we may say from every nation of the world; and the claims of all were more than allowed. His cordial sympathy and unaffected livelincss drew forth what was best and most earnest in cach. All reserve and formality melted in the glow of that genial temperament. There may have been, sometimes, a shock to stilted prejudices, in the extravagance of his enthusiasm, and persons unaceustomed to his peculiar humor may have been startled for the moment; but every man of sense soon saw the obvious intent, which was to break up stag- nant opinions, and get at the living reality of things beneath them. For, if Dr. Francis was a foc to any thing, it was to pretence, conventionality, and dulness, which he would invade in his familiar conversation with some rous- ing assertion, following it up by a deluge of amplification, which effectually cleared the atmosphere of error and stu- pidity."t
For genius and worth he reserved his best sympathy- caring nothing for luxury, show, or riches. He believed a life of letters, or the pursuit of art or science, the most beautiful and desirable career. The society of an intel- lectual friend, the comfort of domestic love, the acquisition
* Appendix X.
t Evert A. Duyckinck, in the " Historical Magazine."
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of a memorial of genius, the advancement of a patriotic or charitable, a scientific or a literary cause, were to him the great privileges and charms of life. He, indeed, as has been often said, was a representative man-whose rectitude and public spirit, whose kindliness and respect for talent and knowledge, vindicate the superior tone of mind and principles of action which belonged to our community, before luxury, pretension, and audacious self-assertion, had encroached upon the old-school ideas of honor, reverence, and heartiness.
Although he had reached an age and wore an aspect which fully justified the term venerable, so varied and sympathetic were his relations to life, so vivacious was his temperament and ready his mind, that it was difficult to associate the idea of age with his presence. Many men, comparatively young in years, were vastly older in feel- ing ; and on this account he inspired the youthful with personal attachment quite as much as his contemporaries. The secret of his freshness of heart is to be found in a certain disinterested sympathy with life and literature, with the past and the present, whereby the incrustations of selfishness were avoided. He had a genuine public spirit, such as distinguished our early race of statesmen ; he loved his country, he loved knowledge, he loved eminent men,-his native city, institutions, characters, and places, -- with the ardent feelings of an enthusiast, and the loyalty of a faithful citizen. It was this going out of a limited personal sphere, this identification of himself with what he admired and loved, that kept him morally alive to the last, and endeared him to so many friends of widely different stations and pursuits. While men of letters sought en- couragement in their lonely and often profitless toils from his active beneficence and warm praise, the ignorant and the poor blessed him as a kind healer of their infirmities. In our age of material prosperity and self-absorption,
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this generous and genial type of character has become rare.
"On thee the loyal-hearted hung. The proud was half disarmed of pride, Nor cared the serpent at thy side, To flieker with his treble tongue.
"Nor ever narrowness or spite, Or villain fancy fleeting by, Drew in the expression of an eye Where God and Nature met in light.
"I would the great would grow like thee, Who grewest not alone in power And knowledge, but from hour to hour In reverence and in charity."*
* Tennyson's "In Memoriam."
APPENDIX.
I.
OBITUARY NOTICE, BY GENERAL WILLIAM SULLIVAN, OF MRS. SARAH CUTLER.
[From the Boston Daily Atlas, Thursday, November 2, 1836.]
" THE life of Mrs. Sarah Cutler, lately deceased in New York, demands some memorial of her worth. She was a native of South Carolina, where she passed the first half of her days. A marriage with Benjamin Clark Cutler, Esq., transferred her to Boston, where she lived many years ; and, having become a widow, the residue of her life was passed among her children at Savannah and New York.
"This lady was a niece of the distinguished citizen-general, Ma- rion, and had in common with him a fervent patriotism. She en- tered deeply into the measures which tended to the weal or woe of her country. She ofteu spoke, with a just discrimination, of foreign influence in the current of political events ; and deeply regretted the mischievous philanthropy which tends, more than all things else, to sever the Union. Nor was she unmindful of the move- ments of the disciples of Loyola to obtain dominion here, under a form of religion which the Christian community is rapidly out- growing. Though her life was prolonged to threeseore and fifteen years, and though her earthly form had feebly resisted the inevitable law of Nature, her clear and bright mind remained unimpaired to the last. She was born and educated at a time when a dignified and courteous complaisance elaimed the rank of a virtue, since it polished and adorned social intercourse. She might be considered eminent as a conversationist; and, though not peculiarly gifted with what the world calls beauty, she had that lustre of mind, that mellifluous (or melodious) tone of voice, and that charming gen- tleness, which are worth far more than any personal beauty, since they are far less perishable, and may, perhaps, like the mind itself, be immortal. She knew her proper place in the scale of being,
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that women are destined to preserve the morals, the order, and the refinement of society ; that it is for woman to give the earliest impressions to those who are to become the lawgivers and sages of the land; that as wives, mothers, sisters, friends, women are designed to make of the other sex whatsoever they eau be made of, -- virtuous, honorable, polished, or Christian. But their sphere she considered to be home, and not in associations to do the work of men, in attempting which, women are very sure to lose their rank and usefulness. Though, like other mortals, no stranger to sorrows, she had the best reward that a mother ean ever have, in seeing around her numerous descendants, who well understood her value to them; and at whose hands she received the kindest consolations in deelining years, and in the closing scene."
Mrs. Francis's two sisters married, the one the well-known banker, Samuel Ward, and was the mother of Mrs. S. G. Howe, of Boston, and of Mrs. Terry, the widow of the eminent sculptor Crawford; and the other Judge McAllister, of California, whose recent decision in the great " Almaden Quicksilver Claim" has set- tled a matter involving many millions per annum.
Dr. Francis lost his eldest son, John W. Franeis, Jr., a most gifted and promising young physician, in 1850. His surviving sons are Valentine Mott and Samuel W. Francis. A brother of the Doctor, Henry M. Francis, who was accidentally killed some years since in this city, was distinguished for medical and legal learning, and was one of the best theological and Hebrew scholars in the country.
II. NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
SELDOM have more feeling tributes been paid to the dead by the New York Historical Society. Formal eulogy gave place to heart- felt utterance. President King, of Columbia College, spoke of the life-long friendship between Dr. Francis and himself, of his great disinterestedness, of his moral heroism, of his cheerful devotion at the sick-bed. Rev. Dr. Bethune said, with tears in his eyes, that he owed a debt of filial gratitude to Dr. Francis for his kindness to
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his parents-for his long and affectionate friendship for his vener- able mother; he spoke of the patriotie sympathies of Dr. Franeis -so fervid, practical, and patient ; he sympathized in the strong local attachments of his departed friend; he thanked God he was born in New York, whereby his mind and heart had been eularged by cosmopolitan associations ; and no eitizen of this metropolis so understood her growth, and knew her Past, as his friend now no more-whose humanity, so wide and prompt, endeared his mem- ory as it had made useful his life.
Rev. Dr. Hawks said his emotions were too personal on this occasion for him to make a studied address. There were saered associations connected with the subject of diseussiou. Only those who had enjoyed a long intimaey with, aud had loved and been loved by Dr. Franeis, could understand his real character. To mere acquaintances he must have often appeared eecentrie-per- haps affected-his manner was often so excited, his phraseology so eurious and extravagaut; but his intimate friends knew that these external traits were allied to some of the most earnest, kind- liest, noblest, and best feelings that ever warmed a humau bosom. He should not presume to speak of Dr. Franeis's professional eharaeter, but he eould bear testimony to his integrity, his be- nevolenee, his deep and loyal friendship. "Perhaps the greatest weakuess of our friend," continued the reverend gentlemau, "was a desire for posthumous fame-a wish to be identified in the mem- ories of men with the great aud good; but in his last illness this feeling died out. he became indifferent to human glory, he became in spirit like unto a little ehild."
There was read, as a substitute for the regular paper of the eveu- ing, a most interesting posthumous sketeli, by the late Dr. Fraueis, of the life aud character of Gouverneur Morris, which, it was stated, was one of the latest produetions of that distinguished man, and was selected as being eminently eharaeteristie of lim.
Augustus Sehell, Esq., Chairman of the Executive Committee, then presented the following resolutions, prepared by the Com- mittee to whom the subject had been referred :-
" Whereas, It has pleased God to call from this world John Wakefield Franeis, we, the members of the New York Historieal Society, record upon our aunals our sense of his service and our respeet for his memory ; therefore-
" Resolved, That this Society is indebted to Dr. Franeis for iu- valuable aid almost from the very beginning of its existence to the
-
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elose of his life; that he has bestowed upon it his time, thought, and means; cheered and sustained it through its early struggles; and by his pen, voice, and influence, joined most effectively in the efforts to place it upon its present prosperous foundation.
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