ther that judgment shall
stand we may know when the question is settled, which is to
be answered in every generation, whether martyrdom be a failure.

Among the inmates of my grandfather's household in my mother's
childhood and youth was Roger Minott Sherman. He was the
son of the Reverend Josiah Sherman, my grandfather's brother,
a clergyman of Woburn, Massachusetts, where Roger Minott was
born. His father died in 1789. My grandfather took the boy
into his household and educated him and treated him as a son,
and just before his death gave him his watch, which is now
in the possession of a son of General Sherman.

Roger Minott Sherman was unquestionably the ablest lawyer
in New England who never obtained distinction in political
life, and, with the exception of Daniel Webster and Jeremiah
Mason and Rufus Choate, the ablest New England ever produced.*

[Footnote]
* See Appendix.
[End of Footnote]

Roger Minott Sherman's father died in 1789. The widow wrote
to some of her friends to see what assistance could be obtained
to enable her son to continue his studies at Yale. It was
apparently in response to this appeal that Mr. Sherman wrote
the following letter to his nephew.

NEW YORK, April 28, 1790.

_Dear Nephew,_--I would have you continue your studies and
remain at my house as you have done hitherto. I hope you
will be provided for so as to complete your education at College,
and lay a foundation for future usefulness. When I return
home I shall take such further order respecting it as may
be proper. I shall afford you as much assistance as under
my circumstances may be prudent.

I am your affectionate uncle,
ROGER SHERMAN.

Mr. Sherman died a year after his nephew graduated; but before
he died he doubtless saw the promise of that distinguished
career which added new lustre to the Sherman name.

It is a rather remarkable fact that my mother had such close
relations to so many eminent lawyers. Her father, though
his public duties prevented him from practising law very long,
was a very great lawyer and judge. Her brother-in-law, Judge
Baldwin, was an eminent Judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Her cousin, Roger Minott Sherman, as has just been said, was
an inmate of her father's household in her childhood, and
was to her as a brother. She had, after his mother's death,
the care of Senator Roger Sherman Baldwin, her nephew, who
was for many years at the head of the Connecticut Bar. To