LETTERS TO MISS QUINCY. 291 



TO MISS QUINCY. 



NEW HAVEN, July 8, 1864. 



IN consideration of the reverence and admiration which 

 I have, during many years, cherished for your late beloved 

 and honored father, I doubt not, my dear Miss Quincy, that 

 you will pardon this early expression of my sincere sym- 

 pathy in your great loss, and the deep regret which I feel 

 that our country can no longer reckon among the living 

 her most venerable and venerated patriot. Should we not, 

 however, be deeply grateful that a kind Providence gave 

 him to us and to his country, until he was well advanced 

 in the tenth decade of his century of years ? Nay, he is 

 not now dead, but has left behind him the living influence 

 of his long and noble life, and his name is enrolled with 

 that of Washington, and the band of patriots who acted with 

 him ^n the cause of their country and mankind. To that 

 cause he was faithful to the death. I have just reperused 

 his noble response to the young men of the Union Club, 

 of February 27, 1863, the last production of his pen which 

 I have seen. I trust that his faith and hope sustained him 

 in his transit to immortality 



TO -MISS QUINCY. 



NEW HAVEN, August 13, 1864. 



I CANNOT sufficiently thank you, my good friend, 



for the faithful record which you have given me of your 

 father's closing weeks and days and hours. 



How tranquil and chastened was the scene of death, 

 quiet, calm, and resigned, with only his devoted daughters 

 and faithful attendant, while we know that God and the 

 Saviour were nigh. You have given me a particular pleas- 

 ure by the assurance that " there was no friend whom your 

 father, more highly estimated and valued than myself, and 

 that for many years I have held that place in his affection, 

 heightened by a mutual sympathy regarding the great 



