than a modest and faithful discharge of its ordinary duties. But this was the best possible preparation for success in the future. Accordingly, after having studied for a considerable period the business of a legislator, the laws, and the condition of the people of the State, he brought before the Assembly a subject for legislative action of very great importance. He proposed the repeal of the laws then generally known under the name of the Summary Bank Process. And it was in the speech, by which he advocated his motion for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the expediency of abolishing these laws, that he first gave to the community "assurance of a man." Indeed, it was not without considerable surprise that the Assembly beheld the young country member, who had rarely given out any other sound in their midst than his simple yea or nay, and the loins of whose mind had always seemed no better girded than those of his person, rise to make a motion likely from its great importance to encounter the determined opposition of the ablest speakers of the house. Nor was their surprise diminished as he proceeded-his somewhat sluggish countenance gradually becoming illumined by the fires of eloquence, and his heavily moulded frame set in lively action by the new spirit which had taken possession of it-to support his position by a masterly exposition of the effects of the existing law, and by an accumulation of well considered arguments in favor of a different system.

The laws then standing upon the statute book of Rhode Island gave to the banks peculiar privileges over individuals in the collection of debts, by authorizing either of the clerks of the court of common pleas or of the supreme judicial court to issue, previously to judgment, a writ of execution, attaching the real estate and other property of the delinquent debtor, to the full amount of the debt and the cost of prosecution. This execution was returnable at the next ensuing term of the court, when a trial of the merits of the case might, indeed, be had, though without the right of an appeal, or even the indulgence of a continuance. The ordinary process of law, on the other hand, allowed individuals to bring their actions only in the court of common pleas, and at no time

short of twenty days before its sitting; prohibited them from attaching the property of the defendant, except in case his body could not be found; permitted the continuance of the action from term to term, and an appeal on judgment when at last obtained, so that years might elapse before the plaintiff could take out his execution, not even then to levy it on the real estate of the debtor, but to go with it in quest of his goods and chattels.

The arguments employed by the member from Tiverton, in endeavoring to effect the repeal of this process, were, in substance, that it gave to the demands of the banks in courts of law absolute precedence over all others, and thereby rendered debts due to these privileged institutions more valuable than those due to individuals; that it wrested from private credit its proper security, and undermined the foundations of commercial confidence; that it diminished the value of property, by making it liable to a forced and sudden sale; and that it might be easily used as an instrument of individual oppression for the purposes of speculation.

This speech was followed by the appointment of a committee of inquiry, of which Mr. Durfee was made the chairman; by a report in favor of the repeal of the process; and finally by its actual abrogation. The measure was carried through the Assembly with the approbation of a considerable majority, in the face of the opposition of such influential men and able speakers as were then Elisha R. Potter, Nathan F. Dixon and Nathaniel Searle.

The reputation acquired by Mr. Durfee in his efforts to effect a repeal of the Bank Process, caused him to be selected by the republican party in the autumn of 1820, as their candidate for the office of representative in the lower house of Congress; and his election encountered no opposition. He accordingly entered into the public service at Washington at the commencement of the second administration of President Monroe. This was a period when the affairs of the national government were conducted with a great degree of practical sagacity; with a scrupulous regard for constitutional principles; with strict economy in the expenditure of the public revenues; and a patriotic devotion to the great common interests of the country.

in the apportionment had become necessary; while there existed a general desire for a moderate extension of the numbers of the House, the members were solicitous to have such a ratio adopted as would leave their own particular States as small a fraction in excess as possible.

The new member from Rhode Island brought no incongruous element into the House, though the character of his talents naturally allied him with the members of the highest statesmanship. Then only thirty years of age, he did not assume, by any means, a prominent position. He was, however, a member of the committee on manufactures, and during the course of his Congressional career, twice addressed the House on subjects of great importance. On the first of these occasions he was called up by John Randolph, who, bringing all things and all persons within the compass of his discursive discourse, did not fail, in the debate on the Apportionment Bill, turning round, to point at the member from Rhode Island as sitting there with all the patience of Job of old, while the House was about to decide a question of vital interest to his particular constituents. This bill, providing for a new apportionment of federal representatives for the several States, according to the census taken the preceding year, was certainly one which specially concerned the people of Rhode Island; for on the adoption of any of the high numbers proposed as the ratio of representation, that State, in losing one of her representatives, would have lost the half of her delegation. In the course of the protracted discussion of this measure, a great number of motions were made, some proposing as high a number for the ratio as 75,000, while Mr. Randolph desired to fill the blank in the bill with 30,000, giving it as his opinion that it was expedient" to have as great a number of representatives as would keep on this side of a mob." This last number was the lowest limit fixed by the Constitution, which provided that "the number of representatives should not exceed one for every thirty thousand;" and the actual ratio had never been higher than 35,000. But as the

Mr. Durfee advocated a low number for the ratio. But, while he stated the fact that the establishment of the ratio of 42,000, in accordance with the motion then before the House, would operate very unfairly. upon his immediate constituents, leaving them the large fraction of 4,138, and would also render it possible for the representatives of a few large States to destroy, by combination, the proper influence of the very small ones; he nevertheless founded his argument, in opposition to the measure, not on its effects upon particular States, but on its bearing upon the whole country, and upon the several branches of the general government. government. As, under the first census, the ratio had been 33,000, which had remained unchanged under the second, and had been augmented by only 2,000 under the third, he was opposed to so great a departure from the established policy, as, in general, a bad precedent. If, as was urged by the advocates of the measure, the performance of business would be facilitated by having a small house of representatives, he saw no advantage to be gained, in so popular a form of government, by a great increase either in the rapidity or the amount of legislation. Referring to the condition and character of the population of the country at that period, he showed that, as it was becoming less homogeneous, by the addition of the rising commercial and manufacturing classes to the class of the agriculturists, and that, consequently, its leading interests were becoming more and more diversified; this heterogeneous population would need to be

represented by a greater, instead of a relatively smaller number of agents. The population, too, was not only increasing, but it had spread itself over double the extent of territory formerly occupied, and a sparse population could not so well be represented by a few individuals as a dense one. As, finally, it was to be foreseen that, in consequence of the extension of the federal Constitution over a more numer

ous population, and a greatly enlarged territory, the influence of the executive branch of government was destined to go on gradually augmenting, so the relative importance of the popular body ought to be proportionally increased, by a moderate addition to its numbers.

So broad and catholic were the considerations adduced by the member from Rhode Island in a speech, not long in duration, but of great pith and point, and so well did it express the general sense of the House, that the motion then pending was lost, and the lower number of 40,000 was finally adopted as the ratio.

The other occasion on which Mr. Durfee addressed the House in an elaborate speech, was during the discussion of a subject, which elicited more debate than any which had been presented before that body in This was the bill for "the more effectual protection of manufactures,' introduced in the year 1823. During several preceding years, the subject of increasing the protective duties had been brought before the attention of the public by those more directly interested in it, and had given rise to a good deal of discussion in all parts of the country. President Monroe was of the opinion that notwithstanding the prosperous condition of the various branches of domestic industry, a further augmentation of duties, particularly on foreign cotton and woolen goods, would have a favorable effect on the domestic manufacture of those articles, without operating injuriously on any of the other great industrial interests of the country. This opinion, expressed in more than one of his annual messages, was at length followed by legislative action on the subject. The members of Congress from the Southern and a part of the Eastern States, whose constituents were principally employed in agriculture and commerce, zealously opposed the proposed increase of the rates of duty. Rhode Island being then extensively engaged in a prosperous commerce, and also considerably interested in the newly established manufacture of cotton goods, her representatives were left at liberty to take an unbiased and patriotic view of the great questions involved in a change of the tariff laws. Accordingly, Mr. Durfee-in a speech which evinced an understanding of the general systems and the existing

| state of trade, both foreign and domestic —a statesmanlike study of the history of European legislation on subjects kindred to the one under discussion-in short, a clear comprehension not only of the great principles of political economy, but of the degree of their applicability to existing circumstances confined himself entirely to showing in what manner the bill before the House would affect the leading interests of the country, and the permanent policy of the government. He expressed himself as decidedly in favor of protecting the manufacturing interest, whenever it was in need of the aid of legislation; but as this branch of national industry was already in a prosperous condition, he considered the proposed change in the laws uncalled for. It would occasion, in his opinion, a forced and unnatural passage of capital from the pursuits of agriculture and commerce into that of manufactures, when, in fact, owing to the action of permanent causes in the country, this change was then taking place with sufficient rapidity, and in a manner both orderly and healthful.

This speech of Mr. Durfee, like all his other similar efforts, was premeditated long beforehand, fully written out, and committed to memory; for he possessed no power of extemporaneous debate, or even conversation, on themes not before made the subject of meditation. But when, in the company of a few chosen friends, his favorite topics were called up, he would often converse with great effect; enriching his discourse with the truths of philosophy, and the facts of history; adorning it with choicest quotations from prose and verse; enlivening it with the overflowing of sentiment, or with the merriment of jest and anecdote; and sometimes bringing the conversation to a conclusion by one of those genial bursts of inspiration, which make all further speech impertinent.

In this particular case, however, his endeavors, together with those of the other opponents of the bill, were unsuccessful; and it passed by small majorities through both houses of Congress in the year 1824.

Having failed, owing to the operation of local and personal causes, of being elected to the nineteenth Congress, Mr. Durfee was again called by his fellow townsmen to

These occupations, however, were not followed so assiduously as to leave no time for the cultivation of letters. Indeed, having withdrawn from the political arena, somewhat wearied by its burdens, if not disgusted with its turmoil, he endeavored to recover the genial tone of his mind in the service of those Muses whom he had wooed in his youth. Not only his pursuits, but his situation was favorable to the execution of this purpose. The scene of his retirement was one both pleasing from its natural beauty, and interesting from its romantic traditions of a race of men long since passed away. Located on a small neck of land, called by the Indian name of Nanaquacket, his mansion-house was almost entirely surrounded by the waters of Narragansett Bay. Before him, looking towards the setting sun, rose gently up from the bosom of the sea the fair eminence of the island of Rhode Island; northwards could be seen the royal seat of Philip on the summit of Montaup; in the opposite direction, stretched out for many a mile, the woods of Queen Awoshonks; while on the side of the pleasant south-west, the ocean rolled in its waves fragrant from the fabled shores of Sowanin, the Indian's land of flowers. This, in fact, was not only the home of Mr. Durfee during this interval of retirement, but was the scene of most of his literary labors, and almost all his philosophical meditations through life. But highly favorable as it was to the natural unfolding of poetic sentiment, and to the culture of abstract speculation, which, as we shall presently observe, constitute the favorite occupation of his mind, still this residence by a secluded beach upon which the billows of the distant world of affairs broke in but almost imperceptible ripples, rendered it impossible for his mind to become expanded and polished by the social interchange of thought; produced habits of extreme taciturnity in all companies except

prevented both his manners and his muse from ridding themselves of a certain degree of rusticity, which, however inoffensive from its modesty, still betrayed a deficiency in those elegant accomplishments which are, at the same time, the gift and the ornament of the more cultivated circles of society.

After having composed, during his retirement, a poem of considerable length on a subject connected with Indian history, and burned it, Mr. Durfee published, in 1832, an epic in twelve cantos, entitled "What-cheer, or Roger Williams in Banishment." This work appears to have been written rather with the design of giving a romantic interest to the history of the founder of the State of Rhode Island, than from the constraining necessity of poetic utterance. It is not a work of high poetical art. Deficient in harmony and exactness of versification, abounding in pleonasms and redundancies, having all the freedom of hexameters with little of the point and polish of the pentameter measure, in which it is written, the What-cheer may be considered as an example of an unfortunate application of the principle of "soul-liberty to numbers. Still, though the poet's lyre was so negligently strung, it did not fail to give out many a note of pure melody, expressing the tenderest, the truest, the most manly feelings of the human heart: if the verse be imperfect in its mechanism, it has the merit of being unpretending and natural in its spirit; and if the story, in many of its details, be somewhat prosaic, the interest is often revived by highly vivid descriptions of natural scenery, and striking delineations of character and manners.

The historical notes accompanying the poem are of much value. They contain, in fact, the first satisfactory explanation ever made of the relations of the Narragansett tribe of Indians to the Wampanoags, of the hostility of the former to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and of the causes of the wars which led to their annihilation. This subject, as well as the more general theme of the character and history of the Indians of Rhode Island, was more elaborately treated, a few years afterwards, in two lectures, one on the subjection and extermination of the Narra