Josiah Quincy, "old Quin" as we loved to call him, was a very
simple and a very high character. He was born in Boston,
February 4, 1772, just before the Revolutionary War. It was
said, I have no doubt truly, that the nurse who attended his
mother at his birth went from that house to the wife of Copley,
the painter, when her son, Lord Lyndhurst, was born. Copley
was a Tory, though a patriot and an ardent lover of his country.
His departure from Boston made Lord Lyndhurst an Englishman.
Quincy entered early into politics. He was a candidate for
Congress in the last century before he was twenty-five years
old. I heard him say once that the Democrats called for a
cradle to rock the Federal candidate. He was a good type
of the old Massachusetts Federalist,--brave, manly, sincere,
of a broad and courageous statesmanship, but distrustful of
the people and not understanding their temper. He made some
very powerful speeches in the House of Representatives, attacking
the greed and office-seeking of that time. His eloquence
was something of the style of the famous Irish orators.
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