He also noticed the death of our Corresponding Member, the Hon. William Willis, of Portland, Maine, and paid a fitting tribute to his memory.

Mr. DEANE also spoke of the service rendered by Mr. Willis, to the cause of history, enumerating his various publications. Messrs. Thayer, Mason, and E. B. Bigelow were appointed a Committee to make the annual examination of the accounts of the Treasurer.

Messrs. Lincoln, W. G. Brooks, and Endicott were appointed a Committee to nominate a list of officers for the annual meeting.

The President referred to a recent interview with our senior member, Mr. Savage, who has been spending the winter in Philadelphia. He seemed very feeble in memory, though his bodily health was good.

The President then referred to a very noble full-length portrait of Washington, which he had seen for the first time, within a few days past, in the possession of his friend Henry E. Pierrepont, Esq., at Brooklyn, N.Y., and of which an interesting account is given in the following note:

Hon. R. C. WINTHROP.

BROOKLYN, N. Y., 5 March, 1870.

DEAR SIR, Agreeably to your request, I will give you in a few words the history of my full-length portrait of General Washington.

My grandfather William Constable went to Philadelphia in 1796, to sit for his portrait to Gilbert Stuart. He then saw in his studio a fulllength of Washington, which he was engaged in painting for the Bingham family, to be presented to the Marquis of Lansdowne. Mr. Constable admired the portrait, and prevailed on Mr. Stuart to paint him another at the same time, while Washington was giving sittings; so that my portrait was considered by my mother as a duplicate of that sent to the Marquis of Lansdowne.

I have Stuart's bill for the portrait, receipted by him in July, 1797. Mr. Daniel McCormick, who was a friend of Mr. Constable and of the artist, and who died in New York in 1833, aged 94, mentioned the following anecdote to me in relation to this portrait. He said he met

Stuart with a turkey rug, and asked him what he intended to do with it. Stuart said he wanted it for his studio. As he had the reputation of being rather careless in the expenditure of his money, Mr. McCormick said, "You extravagant dog, why did you not buy a kidderminster, which is cheap, and would have answered as well?" Mr. Stuart replied, "McCormick, you will see some day if I have done right."

Mr. Constable drove Mr. McCormick to Philadelphia to see the portrait, when it was finished. While they were looking at it, Mr. Stuart nudged him with his elbow and said, "Well, McCormick, what do you say to my carpet?"—"You have done right," McCormick replied.

From this jocular passage with his friend, it seems that Stuart had taken pains to copy the turkey rug very accurately in the portrait, and it harmonizes admirably with the other furniture he has introduced. Indeed, many artists have expressed the opinion that Stuart had paid more attention to the finish of the accessories and details of this large picture, than of any that he ever painted.

General Lafayette called on the widow of Mr. Constable, at my father's, in 1824. I was present, and heard him say while looking at the portrait of Washington, "That is really my old friend indeed."

In the year 1853, there was an exhibition of portraits of General Washington, in New York. I happened to be present when the venerable Lewis Marshall, of Kentucky, brother of Chief-Justice Marshall, came to see the portraits. His attention was called to the portrait by Wertmüller, which Mr. Irving has placed as a frontispiece in his Life of Washington. He said it made Washington look like a Frenchman. He was told that a portrait by Pine was reputed to be very like. He said, "It did not look like him when I knew him." He passed the portraits by Trumbull, Peale, Robertson, &c., without observation. He came last to the full-length portrait, which I have since inherited, and said with emphasis, "That is prodigiously like Washington."

I was then introduced to him, and he told me he had lived next neighbor to Washington in Virginia, and "remembered him with great vividness." He was much pleased with this portrait, and afterwards addressed me a note confirming his opinion of the accuracy of the likeness.

The expression of dignity and majesty in this portrait corresponds fully with the character of this great man, as portrayed in history. I am, dear sir, with great respect and esteem, yours,

HENRY E. PIERREPONT.

Mr. DEANE made a few remarks on the volumes just presented to the Society by Mr. Stevens, and spoke of the value of the copies of early maps, in fac-simile, which accompanied them.

The President said that the Standing Committee had accepted for the Society an invitation from our associate, Mr. Richard Frothingham, of Charlestown, to meet at his house on the evening of Friday, the 18th instant.

SPECIAL MEETING.

A special meeting of the Society was held at the house of Mr. R. FROTHINGHAM, in Charlestown, on the evening of Friday, the 18th of March, at half-past seven o'clock, the PresiIdent in the chair.

In some preliminary remarks the President regretted the unpleasant state of the weather, and the bad condition of the roads, which kept many of the members at home that evening.

He read a letter from a gentleman in Bridgeport, Conn., offering to the Society the opportunity of purchasing the medal presented by Congress to David Williams, one of the captors of Major André; the descendants of Mr. Williams proposing to apply the proceeds of its sale towards the erection of a more suitable monument to his memory.

As the Society have no funds for the purchase of such memorials, no action was taken on this application.

66

The President said, that a gentleman in Boston had spoken to him of a copy of Mitchell's map, in possession of a family on the Cape," with the inscriptions upon it as given below. The map, it is said, has upon it the famous "red line," as described on Mitchell's map, which figured so largely in the history of the negotiations between Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton, in 1842.

"A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America, with the Roads, Distances, Limits, and Extent of the Settlements, Humbly Inscribed to the Right Honorable, The Earl of Halifax, And the other Right Honorable, The Lords Commissioners for Trade & Plantations.

"By their Lordships Most Obliged, and very humble Servant, 66 "JNO MITCHEll.

"This Map was Undertaken with the Approbation, and at the request of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations; and is chiefly composed from Draughts, Charts, and Actual Surveys of different parts of His Majesties Colonies and Plantations in America, great part of which have been lately taken by their Lordships Orders, and transmitted to this Office, by the Governors of the said Colonies and others. "JOHN POWNALL, Secretary.

"PLANTATION Office,

Feb. 13th 1755."

The President was assured that the Society, if it was thought desirable, could obtain possession of the map. Upon which, it was voted that the President should endeavor to secure the map for the Society's archives.

Mr. C. C. Smith was added to the Committee on the publication of the Winthrop papers.

Mr. R. FROTHINGHAM read a highly interesting paper on "The Declaration of Independence," which is to constitute a chapter in a volume by him, now in the press.

ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL 14, 1870.

The Annual Meeting was held on Thursday, 14th April, at eleven o'clock, A.M.; the President, the Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, in the chair.

The Recording Secretary read the record of the stated meeting in March, and of the special meeting in the same month.

The Librarian read the list of donors to the Library the past month.

The Corresponding Secretary read a letter of acceptance from Thomas Carlyle.

The President then spoke as follows:

You are aware, gentlemen, that this is our Annual Meeting; but, agreeably to usage, we proceed with our regular monthly business before entering on the more formal routine of Annual Reports and Elections. Before we pass, however, to any thing of a merely business character, it is fit that I should remind you that, since we met last, two names on our rolls have ceased to be the names of living members. One of them is the name of an Honorary Member, who was the contemporary and associate of Irving and Paulding and Sands and Cooper and Bryant of New York. The other is the name of a Resident Member, who was the associate and friend of our own Prescott and Everett and Sparks and Ticknor, and of others whom I see around me.

The name of the Honorable Gulian C. Verplanck, LL.D., has stood, for several years past, first in the order of seniority on our Honorary Roll. He was elected on the 27th of January, 1820, —more than fifty years ago. He died in the city of New York, his native place, on the 18th of March last, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.