Its society had the special attraction which belonged to the
seat of a famous college. Her mother's house was visited
by the survivors of the great period of the Revolution and
the framing of the Constitution, whom her father had known
during an eminent public service of nearly forty years.
My mother was the most perfect democrat, in the best sense
of the word, that I ever knew. It was a democracy which was
the logical result of the doctrines of the Old Testament and
of the New. It recognized the dignity of the individual soul,
without regard to the accident of birth or wealth or power
or color of the skin. If she were in the company of a Queen,
it would never have occurred to her that they did not meet
as equals. And if the Queen were a woman of sense, and knew
her, it would never occur to the Queen. The poorest people
in the town, the paupers in the poorhouse, thought of her
as a personal friend to whom they could turn for sympathy
and help. No long before her death, an old black woman died
in the poorhouse. She died in the night. An old man who
had been a town pauper a good part of his life sat up with
her and ministered to her wants as well as he could.
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