ure and inclined to
corpulency; his head was large and round, with an ample forehead; his
eyes were gray and very pleasant in their expression; his mouth was
voluptuous, and upon his lips there usually lurked a smile, humorous in
its threatening, provoking a pleasing dimple upon his cheek. In
society, in his extreme old age, for I only knew him then, he was less
gay than the general expression of his features would have indicated.
He was a man of strong will and most decided character. His
individuality was marked and striking, and his tenacity of purpose made
his character one of remarkable consistency.

Governor Wolcott was one of the old-school Federalists, a thorough
believer in Federal principles. He believed in the capacity of the
people for self-government, if the franchise of suffrage was confined
to the intelligence and freeholds of the country, but reprobated the
idea of universal suffrage as destructive of all that was good in
republican institutions. Succeeding Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of
the Treasury, he found all matters of finance connected with the
Government in so healthy a condition and arranged upon such a basis as
only required that he should be careful to keep them there. During the
four last years of the Administration of Washington, this prevented any
display on his part of any striking financial ability. The
administration of his office was entirely satisfactory to the country,
though it seemed he was only there to superintend the workings of the
genius of Hamilton. Once in my hearing he remarked, he had only to work
up to the scribings of Hamilton to make everything joint up and fit
well.

He held Washington in higher esteem even than Colonel Talmadge; and
differed from him in many particulars relative to his character. It was
my good fortune to sit and listen, more than once, to discussions
between these venerable men. It was always amicable and eminently
instructive. Wolcott was an admirer of Mrs. Washington, Talmadge was
not. Talmadge was a military man, and saw a healthy discipline only in
obedience to superiors, and exacted in his own family what he deemed
was proper in that of every man. Accustomed himself to a strict
obedience to the commands of his superiors, and deeming Washington
almost incapable of error, he thought hardly even of Mrs. Washington
when she manifested a disposition the slightest to independence of her
husband. Wolcott did not see her in the camp, but only as th