16 Life mid Character of Nathaniel Boivditch. 



accepting the office he removed to Boston, at the age of fifty^ 

 and there spent the last fifteen years of his Hfe. On his leaving 

 Salem, a public dinner was given him by his fellow citizens, as 

 a testimony of their respect. No man ever left that place more 

 rearetted. 



It scarcely needs to be stated that he discharged the duties of 

 his high trust with the greatest fidelity and skill, and to the en- 

 tire satisfaction of the Company. The capital was five hundred 

 thousand dollars. But, at his suggestion, the Company applied 

 to the Legislature for additional power to hold in trust and loan 

 out the property of individuals. This power was granted ; and 

 upwards of five millions of dollars, nine tenths of which belong 

 to females and orphans, have been thus received and invested. 

 The institution has, in this way, been of incalculable service, it 

 being in fact nothing more nor less than a Savings Bank on a 

 large scale. " Providence" — I use his own language, in his part- 

 ing letter to the Directors — "has seen fit to bless our eiforts to 

 make it an institution deserving of public regard." It deserves 

 to be mentioned, that Dr. Bowditch was never willing to receive 

 and tie up any investment, without himself seeing or hearing in 

 writing from the person in whose behalf the investment was to 

 be made, and ascertaining that it was done with his or her full 

 and free consent, and that the individaal perfectly understood the 

 mode and conditions of the investment, before it was put into 

 the dead hand of the institution. 



I may here also notice the fact, that during the late unexam- 

 pled commercial embarrassments and financial difficulties, when 

 almost all our moneyed institutions have sustained heavy losses 

 from the bankruptcies of their debtors, ''and," to use his own 

 words in the same letter, "by having dealt with corporations, 

 whose affairs have been managed with a recklessness which has 

 never before been witnessed in this country," yet so carefully 

 and skillfully have the affairs of The Life Office been managed, 

 that, although the largest moneyed institution in New England, 

 having a capital equal to ten common banks, and with a loan out 

 of six millions, its loss has not been greater than that sustained 

 by some of the smallest banks. 



It was a hard struggle for Dr. Bowditch to break away from 

 the pleasant scenes and associations of his native place. There 

 were his earliest friends, and there his strongest ties. But he felt 



