THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 879 



and reluctantly ran for Congress on the democratic ticket. Although 

 not elected, he was gratified by the vote. 



His old age in Cambridge and at his charming summer residence 

 at Dublin, New Hampshire, was peaceful, and his days were full of 

 happiness. The various reforms in which he had been interested were 

 either accomplished or in a fair way of being so. He no longer felt 

 estranged among his fellow Unitarians. They had so nearly reached 

 his own position on the question of religious freedom that he could 

 and did join the congregation of the First Parish in Cambridge. He 

 was blessed with offspring, and, indeed, before he died he was glad to 

 welcome in his household a new member of the family, of a generation 

 twice removed from his own. 



With growing years and increasing fame he was accustomed to re- 

 ceive his friends on the recurrence of his birthday, and this custom he 

 kept up to the last whenever his health would permit. These recep- 

 tions were originally inaugurated on his seventieth birthday, and the 

 scores of persons who annually thereafter took advantage of them to 

 pay their respects to the Colonel bore testimony to the extent of his 

 fame and to the great change in the popular estimate of his character 

 since the days of his personal attack on the Suffolk Court House. 

 They were interrupted by a severe illness which kept him in the house 

 for nearly two years. It was during this period of physical suffering 

 that his " Cheerful Yesterdays " was written. Propped up in bed, 

 leaning against the pillows, he dictated the book, the spirit of which 

 shows that even under those circumstances his to-day as well as his 

 yesterday was cheerful. 



He was honored by the Western Reserve and by Harvard Universi- 

 ties with the degree of LL.D. He was Vice-President of the Liberal 

 Congress of Heligion, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Royal Society of Canada, 

 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Member 

 of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 



A chronological list of his publications was prepared and published 

 in 1906 by the Cambridge Public Library, and in this publication there 

 is also an alphabetical list of books and articles pertaining to his life 

 and career. The information contained therein will be found to be 

 very serviceable to the biographer of Colonel Higginson. It needs, 

 however, to be supplemented with the publications made after 1906. 

 His collected works were reprinted in 1900 in seven volumes. In 1906 

 a volume was put forth entitled " Part of a Man's Life." 



Colonel Higginson died May 9, 1911. He was accorded a military 

 funeral by the Loyal Legion, of which he was a member, and was 



