154 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



the aggregate, even more bountiful than was demanded by his position. But he 

 chose to be governed by his own views of the useful to the bodies as well as the 

 souls of his tenants and poorer neighbors, and was in consequence more disposed 

 to be liberal to schools than to churches. He, in fact, was occasionally heard to 

 complain that the clergy of his neighborhood were more solicitous to enhance 

 their own importance in the assemblies or convocations of their sects, than to ad- 

 vance the intelligence, whether of spiritual or temporal matters, in their flocks ; 

 and, in no little sorrow, pointed out to his guests, as an illustration, four spires 

 surmounting as many comfortable churches, at the four corners of a cross-road 

 in view from his house, which overhung a school edifice that a good farmer 

 would not have considered an adequate shelter for his swine. 



Educated in the strict tenets of Connecticut Calvinism, the duty of aiding his 

 tenantry in building and supporting places of worship brought him into contact 

 with clergy of all denominations, and he became entirely free from any sectarian 

 bias. Those who cannot conceive religion to exist without bigotry, and heard 

 his remarks on the apathy and even the opposition exhibited by some of his cler- 

 ical neighbors to his efforts to improve the schools, have not failed to cast as- 

 persions on his faith. No aspersion can possibly be founded on less tenable 

 grounds. It was rarely that he entered upon religious topics. He felt them to 

 be too sacred for the discussion of mixed companies; and, while he neither in- 

 vited nor repressed it among his guests, seldom took a share himself. But there 

 are those who, in more close relations of intimacy, have become aware that the 

 orthodox impressions of his youth were not obliterated, but only rendered more 

 catholic in their tendency. Religious forms and observances were treated by 

 him with marked respect, and he was punctual in his attendance upon the stated 

 Sunday service of the Presbyterian Church during the early years of his residence 

 at Geneseo, and toward the close of his life upon those of the Episcopal Church. 



In his efforts for the promotion of education and the dissemination of know- 

 ledge among the people of the State, Mr. Wadsworth studiously avoided publi- 

 city. He appears to have shrunk Avith instinctive modesty from any mention of 

 his name as a public benefactor. Many of the facts which have just been stated 

 have been reached with difficulty, and it may be inferred that they are far from 

 being a complete list of the benefits he conferred upon his fellow-men. 



The same sensitiveness seems to have prevented him from seeking political 

 distinction, or taking an active share in party struggles. So long as the Federal 

 party continued to have an existence, he gave it his vote ; and his example, unat- 

 tended by any attenapt to exert a direct influence, had, no doubt, its due influence 

 on his neighbors. In the frequent divisions and nice shades of distinction that 

 arose in the triumphant Republican party, he took no part, with the exception 

 that all his views were strictly conservative. He gave, to the last, the best pos- 

 sible proof of his reliance upon the suHiciency of our democratic institutions to 

 insure the enjoyment of life, personal liberty, and the security of property, by con- 

 tinuing the investment of his estate in land, although there were times at which 

 he might have realized vast sums by its sale. 



Thus exempt from the bitterness that occasionally grows out of party feeling, 

 he enjoyed the esteem and personal intimacy of those of all parties who, by the 

 extent of their views, rose from the character of mere partisan leaders to that of 

 statesmen. 



The correspondence of Mr. Wadsworth was necessarily voluminous, from the 

 amount of the interests which he either possessed or represented. But, in the 



