tic what he had to say.
But there was one poem which was written to describe his and
my intimate friend, George L. Stearns, which I think was his
favorite above all the literature with which he was acquainted.
I have often heard him quote its verses. They set forth the
character and quality and life of Adin Thayer himself. If
Thayer had died before Stearns, I believe Whittier would have
written the same thing about him. They are familiar to my
readers, I am sure, but I will close this brief and imperfect
tribute by citing them once more:

He has done the work of a true man,--
Crown him, honor him, love him.
Weep over him, tears of women,
Stoop, manliest brows, above him!

* * * * * *

For the warmest of hearts is frozen,
The freest of hands is still;
And the gap in our picked and chosen
The long years may not fill.

No duty could overtask him,
No need his will outrun;
Or ever our lips could ask him,
His hands the work had done.

He forgot his own soul for others,
Himself to his neighbor lending;
He found the Lord in his suffering brothers,
And not in the clouds descending.

* * * * * *

Ah, well!--The world is discreet;
There are plenty to pause and wait;
But here was a man who set his feet
Sometimes in advance of fate,--

Plucked off the old bark when the inner
Was slow to renew it,
And put to the Lord's work the sinner
When saints failed to do it.

Never rode to the wrong's redressing
A worthier paladin.
Shall we not hear the blessing,
"Good and faithful, enter in!"

CHAPTER XXI
POLITICAL CORRUPTION

John Jay said that the greatest achievements of diplomacy
were often little noted by history and that their authors
got, in general, little credit. He compared it to the work
of levelling uneven ground of which the face of the earth
will show no trace when it is done. The same thing is true
of successful battles with political corruption in high places,
the most formidable peril to any Government and, if it be
not encountered and overcome, fatal to a Republic. A nation
will survive a corrupt minister or monarch, but a corrupt
people must surely and speedily perish. We have had sporadic
examples of corruption in high office at several periods in
our history. The first sixteen years after the inauguration
of the Constitution, including the Administrations of Washington,
John Adams, and the first four years of Jefferson, were b