HON. MARSHALL P. WILDER. 55 



city: in all this we found an element of character 

 which we desired in the future President of our 

 Society. 



Our attention was also attracted by his military 

 career, not in war, but in peace. Happily, no war 

 occurred during the strength of his manhood to call 

 him into the public service. In his native State he 

 was enrolled in the militia at sixteen, was quarter- 

 master-sergeant at eighteen, adjutant of a regiment 

 at twenty-one, captain of a company at twenty-two, 

 lieutenant-colonel at twenty-four, and colonel of a 

 regiment at twenty-six years of age : thus early ob- 

 taining the military title which is so familiar to us in 

 connection with his nam^e, and which he has now 

 borne through a period of more than sixty years. 

 In Boston he was commander of the Ancient and 

 Honorable Artillery Company, chartered in 1638, 

 the oldest military organization in the United States. 

 His splendid physique, his natural dignity, and his 

 graceful bearing were in fine accord with all these 

 positions, which he successively filled, and to which, 

 by his presence and influence, he gave a new value 

 and importance. His military tastes and services 

 were to us, Mr. President, no objection in the man 

 whom we desired as President of our Society. 



But again we found that the proclivity of his mind, 

 as clearly evinced in his boyhood when he tried his 

 hand at the plough and the hoe on his father's farm, 



