64 



not speak of Patterson as we knew him there, the gladsome, appre- 

 ciative, cordial man, whom all of us loved. But we were not alone 

 in this. I never heard him, says Doctor Bethune, speak one harsh 

 word of a fellow-being: and I may venture to add, I never heard 

 one fellow-being speak a harsh word against him. He was indeed 

 full of charity. He had seen a good deal of the world, and moved 

 freely in its circles of thought and action, and was not perhaps with- 

 out some experience of its ingratitude; — Who can hope to be? — Yet 

 it would have tasked him to remember an injury, and he was as sen- 

 sitive to kindness as a child. 



I have said nothing of his official life. It was full of large re- 

 sponsibilities, admirably sustained. He went into it, not without 

 some reluctance, for it was alien to many of his habits, — yet with 

 pride, because it invited him to deepen the footprints of his father. 

 He resigned it, after passing unscathed through the purgatory of 

 several political conflicts, and their alternating denunciations of tri- 

 umph, with the honest regrets of every ingenuous and gallant adver- 

 sary. 



In conclusion, let it be permitted me to say, that though 1 kne^v 

 Dr. Patterson better than I knew any man else, and better probably 

 than any body else can have known him, I ought not to have ven- 

 tured upon the office of preparing this sketch. He was too closely 

 my friend : I loved him too much : his death has made too painful a 

 severance of the ties that bound me to the world of men. I have 

 felt in every line I have traced, that I had to guard against the 

 promptings of my heart. No one that knew him at all will think 

 that I have praised him. 



"His saltern accumulem donis, et fungar inani 

 Munere." 



Mr. Fraley announced the decease of Mr. Thomas P. Cope, 

 a member of this Society, who died on the 22d of last month, 

 in the 87th year of his age: — And, on motion of Mr. Fraley, 

 Job R. Tyson, Esq., was requested to prepare an obituary 

 notice of Mr. Cope. 



The Treasurer read his annual report, which was referred to 

 the Committee of Finance. 



The Committee of Publication made their annual report. 



The Committee appointed at last meeting on the subject of 

 the American Arctic Expedition, presented a draft of a memo- 

 rial to Congress on that subject, which, on motion, was adopted 



