but no literary work could add to the fame won by him as author of the "Declaration of Independence."

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was Washington's most confidential aide-de-camp. His published reports as Secretary of the Treasury have given him the reputation of being the best financier of the New World. His essays, published in a volume under the title of "The Federalist," constitute one of the most profound and lucid. treatises on politics that have ever been written. His life was terminated by a wound received in a duel with Vice-President Aaron Burr.

James Madison (1751-1836), the fourth President of the United States, was celebrated for his papers in “The Federalist." To him and to Hamilton," says Judge Story, "I think we are mainly indebted for the Constitution of the United States."

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John Adams (1735-1826), the second President of the United States, wrote several important political works, among which are A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law," A Defense of the Constitution of the United States and "Discourses on Davila; a series of Papers on American History." Two volumes of "Letters," addressed to his wife, have a permanent place in literature.

John Marshall (1755-1835) was for thirty-five years Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, an office with which his name is inseparably connected by reason of his learning, intelligence and integrity. Of the public and private worth of this illustrious man it is impossible to speak too highly. His "Life of Washington," in five volumes, is a faithful and interesting narrative.

CHAPTER VIII.

NATIONAL PERIOD (1830-1895).

This period is called national, because at this time our literature begins to assume a national importance and to show signs of a distinct national life, challenging the attention of the world and showing the results of American thought and culture. In the early years of the centure Sydney Smith asked in the Edinburgh Review: "Who reads an American book?" The change which time has made in this condition of affairs is best shown by the remark of the London Athenaeum in 1880: "An American book has nearly always something fresh and striking about it to English readers." It is true that American writers can now compare favorably with the great ones of English literature, but it is to be regretted that much of American literature is disfigured by an antiCatholic or materialistic spirit.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

"His chief qualities are a gentle soothing power to hearts in trouble or not hopeful, a real Catholic spirit with a hold on the unseen but real world, as real as the world that we see, a spirit that is the basis of true art, and a deep soulmoving pathos."— O'Connor.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born February 27, 1807, at Portland, Maine. His mother was a descendant of the John Alden he celebrates in his "Courtship of Miles Standish; " his father was the Hon. Stephen Longfellow. At the age of fourteen years he entered Bowdoin

College, and with Hawthorne and others was graduated in the celebrated class of 1825. The success of his college career may be inferred from the fact that on graduating he was invited to the chair of modern languages and literature in his alma mater. In order the better to prepare for this appointment he spent some years in traveling through France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland and England, and the effects of this visit were manifold. It broadened his views, strengthened his self-confidence, and supplied him with poetical themes. Imbibing the spirit of the countries in which he dwelt, he blended the tenderness of the Germans, the passion of the Spanish and the vivacity of the French with the coldness and deliberation of the English; but over all predominated the rich and tender feeling, the sympathy and charity of the sweet poet's soul.

On his return from a second visit to Europe he bought the old Craigie House in Cambridge, Mass., and in this quaint, old wooden house, which had been occupied by Washington when he took command of the army in 1776, the poet dwelt for nearly a quarter of a century, and here he died. His highest ambition was to be a worthy man, and, through sympathy and love, to help others to live, and life to him meant more than mere existence. His beautiful character was mirrored in all he wrote, and the attentive reader knew him well. In the whole range of his writings there is nothing that, dying, he could wish to recall; few authors have left a more honorable record.

Critics differ in their estimate of his rank as a poet. The exalted treasure of celestial thought, the dramatic power of intense passion, the mystic subtlety of refined ideals, he did not claim; nor did he deem himself the peer of the "grand old masters." He did not aim at