190 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



Emerson and Wendell Phillips in person, and in writing by 

 John A. Andrew and John G. Whittier. In February, 

 1861, he was commissioned by Gov. Andrew, with six 

 other distinguished sons of Massachusetts, to represent the 

 Commonwealth in the so-called Peace Conference which sat 

 at Washington on the invitation of the State of Virginia. 



Mr. Waters was for many years a member of the Essex 

 Agricultural Society, being chosen a trustee for 1848 and 

 the nine years succeeding, and was always active on its com- 

 mittees and in promoting the yearly autumnal exhibitions 

 of the Society. 



He was an original member of the Essex Institute at 

 its formation in 1848, having joined the Essex Histor- 

 ical Society in 1846 and the Essex County Natural History 

 Society in 1847. During his residence abroad, he had 

 occasionally forwarded contributions to the cabinets of the 

 society last named, at a time when friends were none too 

 many, and science struggled hard, and no gift was thought 

 so trivial as to be unwelcome. 



An appreciative and discriminating tribute, published 

 in the Salem Gazette on the day following his death, has 

 the added value of having been penned under the eye, if 

 not indeed by the hand of a venerable contemporary and 

 life-long friend, the senior editor, Hon. Caleb Foote. A 

 few passages taken from it will fitly close this notice. 



"The death of Richard Palmer Waters," says the Ga- 

 zette of May 20, "removes from our community and neigh- 

 borhood a person of a very marked and interesting charac- 

 ter, of most generous instincts and habits, of deep religious 

 principles and feelings, and the most thorough devotion 

 to his public and private duties. He was one of the frank- 

 est and most outspoken of men, of great natural impetu- 

 osity and ardor never withholding his sentiments, and 

 urging them with all the fire of his nature, with vehe- 

 mence of voice and action and ready speech. 



