75 



Psalmist's invitation: "Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of 

 his dominion." 



I am, -with deep regret that I can not be with you, 

 Yours very truly, 



DANIEL C. EATON. 



D. B. Hagar, Esq., Member of Committee of Arrangements for the 

 25th Anniversary of Essex Institute. 



BROOKLINE, Feb. 20, 1873. 

 My Dear Sir : 



Yours of the 18th inst., has this moment reached me. It is full of 

 temptation. It would give me real pleasure to be with the Essex In- 

 stitute at their celebration, and to bear witness to their great success 

 in the cause to which their labors are devoted. 



But I am compelled to deny myself, and can only offer them my 

 grateful acknowledgments of their kind invitation, with my cordial 

 wishes for their continued success and prosperity. 



Believe me, dear sir, with great regard, very faithfully yours, 



ROBT. C. WINTHROP. 

 ABNER C. GOODELL, JR., Esq., Vice Pres't. 



BOSTON, Feb. 28, 1873. 

 My Dear Sir : 



Illness will deprive me of the pleasure of accepting your kind in- 

 vitation to the 25th anniversary of the organization of the Essex Insti- 

 tute. I rejoice that Dr. Wheatland will witness it. 



Glorious old Essex is rich in great names some of which yet wait, 

 and can afford to wait, for historical justice. In the day when His- 

 tory shall supplement mere Annals, the portrait of Cutler, the minister 

 of Hamilton, which now adorns the walls of the Institute as a man 

 of local distinction, will, with that of Dane, the Beverly lawyer, be 

 elevated to a chief place among our national portraits, and the names 

 of Manasseh Cutler and Nathan Dane be as household words through- 

 out the land for all time. Their joint work, the Ordinance of 1787, 

 July 13 some mouths prior to the adoption of our present Consti- 

 tution, is hardly second in importance to the Declaration of Indepen- 

 dence. Except the Constitution it is perhaps the most important 

 instrument among the fundamental acts of the country, for it es- 

 tablished the principles of civil and religious liberty as the organic 

 basis of all governments and laws in the northwest. It was "the 

 cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night," warding off slavery and 

 barbarism, and securing the primeval waste of forest and prairie of 

 the northwest for the children of the north Atlantic states, who, like 



