136 



The discussion began to wax warm, when the doctor, who 

 was presiding, rapped on the desk and said, " Gentlemen, 

 while the propriety of the duty is being discussed, the 

 duty itself might have been performed. Let us pray !" 



He received as boarders in his family, young men from 

 out of town to fit for college, mercantile pursuits and 

 navigation. He was well versed in astronomy, and for 

 years kept a minute diary of the weather, the tempera- 

 ture, the winds, the diseases and the seasons, a couple of 

 these manuscripts from 1780 to 1790, being among the 

 archives of the Institute, witnesses of his painstaking 

 accuracy in this department. But he was best known to 

 his contemporaries by his knowledge of botany, both 

 practical and scientific. He contributed to the Memoirs 

 of the American Academy, papers on this and other sci- 

 entific subjects. He was well known abroad, and his 

 society and conversation were sought by many an intel- 

 ligent foreigner. Among others was Count Castiglione, 

 a distinguished Italian, who travelled in this country 

 in 1785-7, and in his book speaks of his visit to Dr. 

 Cutler. Doubtless he roamed with him through these 

 woods, guided by him to rare and beautiful plants. 

 The doctor's garden was full of flowering plants and 

 trees. Among the rest was a grand old tulip tree, that 

 lived to show, spring after spring, by its gorgeous blos- 

 soms, the worth of such a man, not to distant places only, 

 but to his neighborhood as well, long after he had gone 

 to his rest. 



The efforts of Dr. Cutler in securing the passage by 

 Congress of the ordinance of 1787, by which freedom 

 was decreed to the whole northwestern territory, are 

 perhaps not so fully known as in justice to him they 

 should be. Mr. Webster was accustomed on all fit occa- 

 sions to speak of them in terms of highest commenda- 



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