Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute | Page 4

in passing, say that it was excellent
East India Madeira. As for clarets, burgundy, hock and champagne,
they were wines then unknown in America, except on the tables of
some of the principal merchants, and, here and there, on that of some
travelled gentleman of an estate larger than common. When I say that
Governor George Clinton used to stop occasionally, and taste my
father's Madeira, I do not wish to boast of being classed with those who
then composed the gentry of the state. To this, in that day, we could
hardly aspire, though the substantial hereditary property of my family
gave us a local consideration that placed us a good deal above the
station of ordinary yeomen. Had we lived in one of the large towns, our

association would unquestionably have been with those who are
usually considered to be one or two degrees beneath the highest class.
These distinctions were much more marked, immediately after the war
of the revolution, than they are to-day; and they are more marked
to-day, even, than all but the most lucky, or the most meritorious,
whichever fortune dignifies, are willing to allow.
The courtship between my parents occurred while my father was at
home, to be cured of the wounds he had received in the engagement
between the Trumbull and the Watt. I have always supposed this was
the moving cause why my mother fancied that the grim-looking scar on
the left side of my father's face was so particularly becoming. The
battle was fought in June 1780, and my parents were married in the
autumn of the same year. My father did not go to sea again until after
my birth, which took place the very day that Cornwallis capitulated at
Yorktown. These combined events set the young sailor in motion, for
he felt he had a family to provide for, and he wished to make one more
mark on the enemy in return for the beauty-spot his wife so gloried in.
He accordingly got a commission in a privateer, made two or three
fortunate cruises, and was able at the peace to purchase a prize-brig,
which he sailed, as master and owner, until the year 1790, when he was
recalled to the paternal roof by the death of my grandfather. Being an
only son, the captain, as my father was uniformly called, inherited the
land, stock, utensils and crops, as already mentioned; while the six
thousand pounds currency that were "at use," went to my two aunts,
who were thought to be well married, to men in their own class of life,
in adjacent counties.
My father never went to sea after he inherited Clawbonny. From that
time down to the day of his death, he remained on his farm, with the
exception of a single winter passed in Albany as one of the
representatives of the county. In his day, it was a credit to a man to
represent a county, and to hold office under the State; though the abuse
of the elective principle, not to say of the appointing power, has since
brought about so great a change. Then, a member of congress was
_somebody_; now, he is only--a member of congress.

We were but two surviving children, three of the family dying infants,
leaving only my sister Grace and myself to console our mother in her
widowhood. The dire accident which placed her in this, the saddest of
all conditions for a woman who had been a happy wife, occurred in the
year 1794, when I was in my thirteenth year, and Grace was turned of
eleven. It may be well to relate the particulars.
There was a mill, just where the stream that runs through our valley
tumbles down to a level below that on which the farm lies, and empties
itself into a small tributary of the Hudson. This mill was on our
property, and was a source of great convenience and of some profit to
my father. There he ground all the grain that was consumed for
domestic purposes, for several miles around; and the tolls enabled him
to fatten his porkers and beeves, in a way to give both a sort of
established character. In a word, the mill was the concentrating point
for all the products of the farm, there being a little landing on the
margin of the creek that put up from the Hudson, whence a sloop sailed
weekly for town. My father passed half his time about the mill and
landing, superintending his workmen, and particularly giving directions
about the fitting of the sloop, which was his property also, and about
the gear of the mill. He was clever, certainly, and had made several
useful suggestions to the millwright who occasionally came to examine
and repair the works; but